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Sundance Journal: Late Night

Jason Gorber — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 18:00:45 +0000

From her writing and acting roles on The Office through her self-titled sitcom, Mindy Kaling has emerged as one of the great talents of her generation. Her self-critical comedy confronts major social issues while never forgetting to be entertaining. Kaling’s script for Late Night pointedly looks at changing cultural mores in a post #MeToo moment....

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Johnny English Strikes Again Review: Strike? More Like a Spare

Deirdre Crimmins — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 17:00:05 +0000

Full disclosure: I have not seen the previous two Johnny English films. Something tells me that I haven’t missed much in terms of plot or character depth, but I wanted to be honest with you, dear reader. The first in the series was released in 2003, the second in 2011, which means that even the...

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TIFF Journal: ‘The Children Act’

Philip Brown — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 17:00:07 +0000

If there were an award issued by the BFI for “Stuffiest and Britishest Film of the Year,” then ‘The Children Act’ would be a frontrunner destined to win by a landslide. The movie is about closed-off emotions in a distressingly English way that’ll either prove frustrating or enlightening depending on how closed-off and repressed the...

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‘Beauty and the Beast’ (2017) Review: Pretty but Superfluous

Philip Brown — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 12:00:18 +0000

While Jon Favreau’s high-tech take on ‘The Jungle Book’ may have reinvented enough elements of the Disney animated classic to justify its existence, the live-action reboot of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ feels like little more than a restaging of the 1991 cartoon triumph. It’s nice enough and pretty enough, but why does this need to...

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‘The Legend of Barney Thomson’ Review: Bleakly Funny

Philip Brown — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 17:00:33 +0000

Generally speaking, when you hear that a movie marks the directorial debut of a successful actor, that usually means it’s time to run out of the cinema. However, there are exceptions to every rule. Thankfully for fans of Scottish character actor Robert Carlyle, ‘The Legend of Barney Thomson’ is one of them. The success of...

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‘Men, Women & Children’ Review: Internet Perverts of All Ages Unite!

Philip Brown — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 16:00:07 +0000

Jason Reitman can be faulted for many things as a filmmaker, but ambition isn’t one of them. He wants to make grand, sweeping social statements wrapped in comedy that cause viewers to leap out of their seats and proclaim him a genius. Unfortunately, when you openly aim for greatness it’s harder to get there, and...

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‘The Love Punch’ Review: Worse Than a Punch to the Face

Philip Brown — Thu, 22 May 2014 19:00:37 +0000

Some movies aren’t just bad, they’re embarrassing. ‘The Love Punch’ is so horribly ill-conceived that it’s actually painful to watch. You feel humiliated for all of the actors involved like concerned parents watching their children stumble miserably through a school play. It’s hard to say why Pierce Brosnan and Emma Thompson agreed to be in...

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Now Playing: Poppins’ Proud Parents

Philip Brown — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 16:00:09 +0000

[Editor’s Note: Today, we welcome our newest contributor to The Bonus View. Phil Brown has joined us to cover some theatrical releases and other topics, starting with a review of ‘Saving Mr. Banks’. Please give him a warm welcome. –JZ] No industry enjoys patting itself on the back more than Hollywood, and no studio enjoys...

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Weekend Movies: Sleep with the Fishes

Drew Taylor — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:00:45 +0000

So this is what the dog days of summer look like – a pool of water filled with razor-toothed piranhas. Also: mediocre studio run-off. There are only a couple of weekends left in the summer, and it seems like the studios have more or less given up. We’re trapped in that twilight zone limbo of...

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