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.
If it’s any consolation to fans of this franchise, The Hangover Part III, is a better motion picture than “The Hangover Part II. But, then again, a filmed embalming would fall into that category, so try not to get too excited. A perfect example (as if there are not enough of these) of a movie…
If Terrence Malick is the master of the unnecessary voiceover, and Ang Lee is the master of the unnecessary split screen, then surely Baz Luhrmann is the unequaled master of the unnecessary — and over-the-top — mix of garish glitz, flash and explosive cinematechnics. His latest, The Great Gatsby, an ambitious tackling of the 1925…
Pain & Gain, the true life story of three bumbling bodybuilding losers in Miami, may just be director Michael Bay’s best film. However, considering that he brought movies like “Pearl Harbor,” “Bad Boys II” and “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” (the worse of all the poor Transformers flicks) to the big screen, that’s not saying…
A character in the fifth installment of the “Scary Movie” franchise utters the line, “Wow, there are so many pans.” He doesn’t know the half of it, since almost every critic worth his or her salt has seemingly panned this film with wild abandon. Plotless, pointless and with little redeeming value, Scary Movie 5 will…
Making a film based upon an iconic figure, such as Lincoln or Gandhi, forces one to walk a thin line between legend and humanization. How do we show the warts (no pun intended in Honest Abe’s case) and foibles and yet still uphold the impeccable character of the subject. Such was the task of writer/director…
Despite many critics profusely praising Evil Dead on some well-known websites, do not believe any of it. This remake removes any aspect of its 1981 predecessor’s gleefully stupid and frightening exuberance and instead substitutes any real scares for stomach-churning over-the-top violence making this a dull blood-soaked gorefest that bears absolutely no resemblance to the famed…
It’s been done, this whole alien taking over a human’s body thing in movies. It’s been done and done better. The concept goes back at least to the 1950s with “The Thing from Another World” and the original “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” Now, for the umpteenth time, we get the same premise — only…
