Knives Out
Director Rian Johnson returns to the mystery genre in the delightful Knives Out from Lionsgate. Crime novelist Harlan Thormbey is hosting his own eighty fifth birthday with all of his family in attendance. His relatives include his grandson Hugh (Chris Evans), daughter Linda (Jamie Lee Curtis), son Walter (Michael Shannon) as well as Linda’s husband […]
Welcome Back Angels
Elizabeth Banks directs a crowd-pleasing girl power flick in Columbia Pictures Charlie’s Angels. The second big-screen adaptation of Aaron Spelling’s iconic crime drama television series, Charlie’s Angels, serves as both a sequel to the original seventies television series as well as the McG directed films from the early 2000s. The new version opens up with loose cannon angel […]
Waves is aesthetically beautiful
Award-winning director Trey Edward Shults once again explores family dynamics in Waves from A24. The Williams’ are an affluent black family residing in South Florida who appear to have it all. Son Tyler (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) is a popular senior on his school’s wrestling team on his way to college. His parents, dad Ronald (Sterling K. Brown) […]
Eddie Murphy gives Rudy Ray Moore his flowers in “Dolemite Is My Name”
Director Crag Brewer and comedy icon Eddie Murphy bring the story of multi-talented entertainment pioneer Rudy Ray Moore to life in Netflix’s Dolemite Is My Name. The time is 1970’s Los Angles and struggling singer Rudy Ray Moore (Eddie Murphy) is doing his best to have his music played on the radio. Moore spends his […]
Ad Astra gets lost in its own brilliance
Director James Gray and actor Brad Pitt collaborate in the slow-burning space drama Ad Astra from 20th Century Fox. It’s set in the near future, and Major Roy McBride almost loses his life when an unknown power source strikes the solar system. Sixteen years earlier, Roy’s father, famed astronaut H. Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones), led a […]
Angel Has Fall an action-packed threequel
The third entry in the “Fallen” series finds Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) on the run, in director Ric Roman Waugh’s Angel Has Fallen from Lionsgate. After saving the former President’s life twice before, Mike is now the primary Secret Service agent for current President Allan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman). While Mike is flirting […]
Kendrick Brothers score again with Overcomer
Christian filmmaker Alex Kendrick brings his latest faith-based film to the big screen in Overcomer from Affirm Films. John Harrison (Alex Kendrick) is a basketball coach at a Christian high school in Georgia, coming off a state championship loss. Things take a turn for the worse when the town’s factory, which provides jobs to the […]
A twisted and fun take on a classic game
The fear of in-laws come alive In Fox Searchlight Pictures, Ready or Not from co-directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. Grace (Samara Weaving) has just wed Alex (Mark O’Brien), one of the heirs to the Le Domas fortune. The other members of the Le Domas family include Alex’s parents Tony (Henry Czerny) and Becky (Andie […]
Good Boys is inappropriate & hilarious fun
The dark side of the sixth grade comes to the big screen in Universal Picture’s Good Boys from director Gene Stupnitsky. Max (Jacob Tremblay), Lucas (Keith L. Williams), and Thor (Brady Noon) are lifelong friends who just have gotten the invite to a kissing party. Having no experience in the art of affection, the boys decide to […]
Aldis Hodge’s superior performance doesn’t elevate Brian Banks’s story
Every so often on Facebook, I’ll come across a meme that highlights a particular injustice that never made national news. The story of Brian Banks, a promising football prodigy whose life was ruined by a false rape, is one of those stories. Bleecker Street Pictures and director Tom Shadyac bring the story to life in Brian […]
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is spooky fun
Director André Øvredal teams with producer Guillermo del Toro to bring Alvin Schwartz’s terrifying book series to the big screen in CBS Film’s, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Opening in Pennsylvania in 1968, a trio of friends, Stella (Zoe Nicholls), Auggie (Gabriel Rush), and Chuck (Austin Zajur) are enjoying some Halloween hijinks. The friends […]
Eighties Style Action Returns in “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw”
Fan-favorite characters Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), receive their own spin-off in Universal Picture’s Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw. The film opens up with an exciting sequence involving Deckard’s sister MI6 agent Hattie (Vanessa Kirby), who is on a mission to retrieve a super virus. Unfortunately, terrorist Brixton Lore […]