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.
Loud, confusing, pointless and plotless are not exactly words one likes to use in a film review, but in this case, these terms are more than an apt description of G.I. Joe: Retaliation, the second G.I. Joe movie (the Hasbro Studio generation, not the classic 1945 picture starring Robert Mitchum). And like the company’s last…
DreamWorks Animation, often the poor stepbrother to Pixar, has had a pretty good run over the past two years with “Kung Fu Panda 2,” “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted” and “Rise of the Guardians.” That trend continues with The Croods, a wild, colorful tale about the end of the Neanderthals, continental drift, plate tectonics and…
U.S. Presidents have not always fared so well in Hollywood over the years. After all, Franchot Tone died of cancer in “Advise and Consent” (1962), Henry Fonda had to deal with the Reds blowing up everything in “Fail-Safe” (1964) and Fredric March was weakened and almost overthrown that same year in “Seven Days in May.”…
Jaded as I am regarding cinema of this sort, I have to admit that this newest release had me for about 75 percent of its short 95-minute running time. The conclusion, however, taken right from “The Silence of the Lambs,” left a bitter taste. Not enough to pan the entire enterprise, but well, there’s that…
I am happy to announce that The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is the best comedy of 2013. Of course, that’s not saying very much considering that comedies released this year have included “Identity Thief,” “Parental Guidance,” “The Guilt Trip” and “21 and Over,” among others, and that JFK’s memorial service would have been funnier by comparison….
With more than a passing nod to revenge action films like “The Driver” and “Shooter,” director Niels Arden Oplev (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” original 2009 Swedish-language version) has certainly crafted a gloomy, gritty, violent crime thriller, with some spot-on acting performances, but with a confusing, convoluted plot and a filmed at a deliberate…
After enduring a series of movies over the past two months so bad that the word “bad” is woefully inadequate, I thought I might have reached the nadir with such titles as “Playing For Keeps,” “The Last Stand,” “A Good Day to Die Hard,” “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters,” “Parental Guidance,” and other works of…
