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.
The newest “fairy tale epic” production, Jack the Giant Slayer, when compared to others of its genre, fits neatly beneath “The Brothers Grimm,” above “Snow White and the Huntsman (thanks to the presence of British actors and the absence of Kristin Stewart) and FAR above last month’s travesty, “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters.” It is…
There are mass murderers and former dictators rotting away in prison cells who have done better for the human condition than author, Nicholas Sparks. If Nicholas Sparks was a conflict he would be the Hundred Years War; if he were a baseball team he would be the 1962 New York Mets; if he were a…
It seems the dearth of Hollywood comedies has reached epidemic proportions, and with the newest release, Identity Thief, that record continues unabated. If any laughs are garnered from this Seth Gordon directed production, they are cheaply achieved indeed, and come through a few grotesque moments dealing with voyeurism or people getting shot and stuffed into…
Arnold is back — and he’s bitter. And so is the script for The Last Stand. After two terms as governor of “Cally-fornia,” as well as bit parts in a few movies here and there, Arnold Schwarzenegger has finally returned to his above-title billing as the action hero we’ve come to expect: The lone wolf…
Well, it is nice to see Billy Crystal back on the screen again (the last time being an uncredited role in 2009’s “Tooth Fairy“), but the pretention and lack of very many funny moments in the newest “family comedy” from 20th Century Fox swamps whatever humor is created from Crystal’s fish-out-of-water grandfather character in Parental…
Take some of his more familiar action vehicles (“Minority Report,” “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol,” etc.) and add a dash of Bourne, “The Shooter” and even “JFK,” and you have a Tom Cruise film that, while certainly not his best, is quite effective, entertaining and keeps the suspense simmering until the last bullet has been…
Directed by Anne Fletcher (“The Proposal“), the newest Paramount release The Guilt Trip is a mixed bag — or hodgepodge, if you will — of productions such as “Tommy Boy,” “Broken Flowers” and any number of road pictures made over the last 60 years. That’s not to say it is a bad movie, indeed it…
