While this J.A. Bayona (“The Impossible”) directed effort (based on a best-selling book by Patrick Ness), A Monster Calls, is a wonderful visual and visceral experience (and currently has critics fawning all over themselves), I, for one, can only wonder for whom this film was made. It’s certainly too dark and foreboding for children —…
A fairly long time ago, in a land not very far away (Hollywood, to be exact), the creator of a billion dollar movie and merchandising empire parceled off this gold mine to another group of moguls (Walt Disney Studios), yet still holds an almost mythic-like control over much of the material. In other words, the…
A confusing, convoluted plot, Ron Howard’s uninspired direction and less than stellar acting mar Inferno, the third installment of the popular (at least as far as book sales go) “Da Vinci Code” franchise, but then again, we all know about some of the third-film duds in cinematic history (“Superman 3,” “Rocky 3,” “The Hangover Part…
As interesting as the Star Wars franchise has been (and continues to be), it can’t seem to shake old tropes. Take for instance the Death Star. It appears in all but the first two films (someone fact check me, please) and, although under a new name, even appears as in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”…
The Theory of Everything is a powerful, sincere film about one of the twentieth century’s greatest minds. That it never becomes mired in maudlin sentiment is astounding, given the standard succeeding-despite-the-odds story of its legendary subject, the esteemed physicist Stephen Hawking. The leads are more than adequate; they own the roles of Hawking and his…
No theme in drama touches the heart more than the separation of lovers. In classic dramas from Romeo and Juliet to Wuthering Heights, we empathize with the feelings of sadness and loss that estrangement brings and can relate them to our own experience. Some stories of separation, however, lack deeply-drawn characters and do not have…
