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.
I don’t mind telling you, when I hear the words, “spin-off,” regarding film or television, I don’t get the best of feelings. The history of the term (which I will not go into here) conjures up as many negative thoughts as does the phrase, “third movie in a film franchise series.” Still, being the profession…
The secret sexual lives of several suburban couples living in Sydney, Australia highlight this interesting, though not very compelling script by first-time director Josh Lawson (who appeared in “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues”). Lawson was also the writer and he stars in this production, putting him the same category as Orson Welles, although few will…
Like so many sequels, especially of comedy films, a serious drought of what made the first funny and charming takes place in Ted 2, forcing writers to substitute true laughs with obscenities (saying the “F” word over and over does not make it any more clever), crude jokes and, in this case, far too many…
Not since 2009’s “Up” has Pixar Animation Studios/Walt Disney Pictures fashioned a clever, emotional, family-friendly film that could be embraced by children and adults alike; one that has not only a heart and brain, but a conscience, as well. After commercially-successful and Oscar-winning — but bland and unfulfilling — features such as “Brave” and “Big…
After such critical bombs and/or not very good comedies as “The Hangover Part III,” “Tammy” and “Identity Theft,” there’s finally a Melissa McCarthy vehicle we can smile and laugh at — intentionally. Unfortunately, her latest turn in the new Paul Feig (“Bridesmaids,” “The Heat”) directed film, Spy, as an unprepared, mousy analyst/secret agent, loses those…
Brad Bird, the Academy Award-winning director of such animated classics as “Ratatouille” and “The Incredibles,” has fashioned with Tomorrowland, a clever, but muddled story of a scrappy teen, Casey Newton (Britt Robertson, “The Longest Ride”) and a cockeyed former boy genius, Frank Walker (George Clooney, “The Monuments Men”) who join forces in an attempt to…
Probably one of the more eagerly awaited sequels in recent memory, Avengers: Age Of Ultron crafted by Marvel Studios/Disney and directed by Joss Whedon, makes a decent entry into the second-film-of-the-franchise market, but does not supersede the original in acting, writing or humor (so one can forget the “The Empire Strikes Back,” “Superman II” and…
