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Holmes & Watson Review: Elementary Silliness

Jason Gorber — Thu, 27 Dec 2018 17:00:54 +0000

Holmes & Watson isn’t very good. Neither, almost more surprisingly, is it completely terrible. The majority of its success derives from the clear fun that Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly are having with Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous creation. Written and directed by Etan Cohen (one of the masterminds behind the glorious Tropic Thunder),...

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Off the Shelf: Quiz Show

Shannon Nutt — Tue, 18 Jul 2017 16:00:46 +0000

Fourteen years after winning a Best Director Oscar for ‘Ordinary People’, Robert Redford almost struck gold once again (four Oscar nominations but no wins) with ‘Quiz Show’. The movie is arguably the most audience-friendly of Redford’s directorial career, with great performances and a splashy, briskly-paced presentation that is one of Redford’s most visually appealing films....

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‘The Lego Batman Movie’ Review: Same Bat-Brick, Same Bat-Fun

Philip Brown — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 20:00:32 +0000

‘The Lego Movie’ shouldn’t have been nearly as good as it was. The product placement pop culture extravaganza could have been a wearily commercial enterprise designed to sell expensive pieces of plastic, but turned out to be a wonderful explosion of creativity and comedy instead. Now the scene-stealing Bat-star of that film has his own...

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‘Kubo and the Two Strings’ Review: Psychedelic Family Entertainment

Philip Brown — Wed, 17 Aug 2016 19:00:15 +0000

Ever since launching with the masterful ‘Coraline’, Laika has been one of the most consistent animation factories on the planet. Though essentially trafficking in kiddie entertainment, the stop-motion studio always executes its visions with remarkable artistry and offers stories just outside of the mainstream to please youngsters who aren’t easily seduced by simple Disney magic....

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‘A Bigger Splash’ Review: Not the Mermaid Sequel You May Be Expecting

Philip Brown — Thu, 12 May 2016 16:00:52 +0000

A few years ago, who would have ever guessed that Ralph Fiennes could be considered a brilliant comedic performer? Yet here we are after ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ and Fiennes has delivered his second hilarious performance of the year following his scene-stealing work in the Coen brothers’ ‘Hail, Caesar!’. Not that ‘A Bigger Splash’ should...

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‘Hail, Caesar!’ Review: A Very Coen Goof

Philip Brown — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 20:00:38 +0000

The thing about the Coen brothers is that no matter strange, dark and personal their movies get, they also still enjoy a good laugh. Their latest film. ‘Hail, Caesar!’, comes after three fairly ambitious pictures that wrestled with some hefty themes. This time, the brothers merely hint at intellectual ambitions. This movie is a goof,...

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‘Spectre’ Review: A Bond-Sized Victory Lap

Philip Brown — Wed, 04 Nov 2015 20:00:40 +0000

At its best, the Daniel Craig era of James Bond has been all about reinvention. ‘Casino Royale’ kicked things off with an origin story that allowed the Bond conventions to be twisted through the character’s inexperience. In ‘Skyfall’, Sam Mendes reverently deconstructed and toyed with the iconic images and elements of the series. (‘Quantum of...

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Weekend Roundtable: 2015 Oscar Snubs

Josh Zyber — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 20:00:27 +0000

This time ever year, voters in the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences make their nominations for what they believe were the best movies of the prior year. And this time every year, viewers like us gripe about all the movies or acting performances the Academy failed to acknowledge. Well, let’s get griping. What...

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Now Playing: Grand ‘Hotel’

Philip Brown — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 20:00:58 +0000

In his latest movie, ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’, Wes Anderson has created a murder mystery wrapped in a caper, hidden in action movie, that’s ultimately another of his broken family fables. Somehow it all works. In fact, it’s rather wonderful and just might be his finest film since ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’. Like all Anderson movies,...

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Blu-ray Highlights for May 29th, 2012 – Not Much to Talk About

Josh Zyber — Tue, 29 May 2012 13:00:36 +0000

Criterion collectors, indie movie fans, Shakespeare buffs and classic foreign film aficionados might all find new Blu-ray titles to peak their interest today. For anyone looking for something a little more mainstream… Well, there’s always next week. Don’t get me wrong; I fall into most of the above categories. Even so, there’s no denying that...

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Now Playing: Another Defeatable ‘Titan’

Luke Hickman — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:00:42 +0000

For the record, I hated the ‘Clash of the Titans‘ remake. The only thing worse than its acting was its awful screenplay. To this day, it also remains the worst example of post-conversion 3D. In fact, the 3D was so bad that some folks in the industry predicted that it would kill the future of...

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Weekend Movies: An Action-Packed Weekend

Luke Hickman — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:00:30 +0000

I don’t know if it’s the fact that the Sundance Film Festival is underway locally or if it’s just because January movies are typically bad, but most movies that open during the two weekends of Sundance aren’t screened for press. Unfortunately, the one that was shown for press this week feels like it shouldn’t have...

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