I have been a movie fan for most of my life and a film critic since 1986 (my first published review was for "Platoon"). Since that time I have written for several news and entertainment publications in California, Utah and Idaho. Big fan of the Academy Awards - but wish it would go back to the five-minute dinner it was in May, 1929. A former member of the San Diego Film Critics Society and current co-host of "The Movie Guys," each Sunday afternoon on KOGO AM 600 in San Diego with Kevin Finnerty.
At one time, DC ruled the super hero genre uncontested, from the creation of “Superman” in 1938, to the Caped Crusader’s debut a year later. Both ruled short film and TV kingdoms from “Adventures of Superman” (with George Reeves) in the 1950s to the campy, but entertaining “Batman” (starring Adam West, which ran from 1966-68)….
I wasn’t there of course when the concept for this movie, The Brothers Grimsby, was bandied about by writers (including Sacha Baron Cohen), but I can only imagine it went kind of like this: “Hey, I’ve got an idea about two brothers who were separated by adoption as children. One goes on to become a…
Forgive me if I have a “The Ten Commandments” flashback for a moment. The 1956 film (the last directed by the legendary Cecil B. DeMille) was one the the ultimate Biblical treatments to take place in Egypt. With Academy Award winners Charlton Heston (“Ben-Hur”) and Yul Brynner (“The King and I”), plus actors who should…
If there was ever a multi-level headline, this new release, Race, from director Stephen Hopkins (“Predator 2,” “The Reaping”) sure has it. In fact, the story of Jesse Owens, a track athlete at Ohio State University who goes on to shock the world (and especially Adolf Hitler) during the 1936 Olympics, is something that has…
I, for one, never thought there could ever be a more sarcastic super hero than Spider-Man, but boy, was I mistaken. Tim Miller, in his directorial debut (although he was creative supervisor on “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”) finally finishes up, Deadpool, a concept nearly eight years in the can. Deadpool, a character created by…
Few films actually have an opportunity to affect presidential politics (the last one was probably Phillip Kaufman’s “The Right Stuff” in 1983, which featured a glowing characterization of John Glenn — played by Ed Harris — who was then running for the Democratic nomination), but 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, directed by Michael…
One certainly has to hand it to Quentin Tarantino — as a film-maker, he has taken violence, hatred and perversity to the next level and has made quite a living from the results. He has also created quite a few amazing two-hour films — unfortunately, most of his movies run more than two and a…
