Evidently filmmaker Garry Marshall cannot seem to get away from his tediously formulaic playbook of themed movie-making and certainly the tepid and toothless Mother’s Day reinforces this cinematic sentiment. Marshall is determined to exploit these cornball conveyor belt holiday-based movies that shamelessly boast an all-star cast, shallow sentimentality, heavy-handed and forced nuttiness and the gimmickry of…
So the cinematic imagination is put to the ticklish test when two of the most iconic figureheads from the 70’s meet on an impromptu spur of the moment. The Oval Office handshake involving the beleaguered minds of rock-n-roll legend Elvis Aaron Presley and presidential enigma Richard Milhouse Nixon is the off-kilter subject matter of director…
While it’s hard enough to make a successful comedy when more than half of the country does not understand the premise; it’s just as difficult to do so when the much of that film’s subjects concern gangs, drive-by shootings and murder. Yes, getting killed can sure put the kibosh on one’s funny bone. Still, the…
The lyrical lad of film-making, in the form of Irish writer-director John Carney (who gave us the wonderfully musical drama in 2007’s “Once”), is at it again as he brings the continued inspiration of music and motivation in the engagingly festive coming-of-age musical melodrama Sing Street. Carney, the former member of the Irish rock group…
There is something satisfying about five thirty-something men going into an afternoon screening of an animated “children’s” film that features talking animals, and noting other audience members of a similar age. That was my experience of Zootopia (re-named “Zootropolis” in the UK), as myself and four friends of a similar age found ourselves in a…
You’ve probably been through it: You’ve just managed to make your way through your pockets and reached six to seven quarters in the midst of keys and keychains and used gum wrappers, get them into the coin slot of the vending machine, anticipating with your wet tongue the promised relief of your favorite snack when…
Nostalgically, the baby-boomer generation that had grown up with two-time Oscar winning actress Sally Field (“Norma Rae,” “Places in the Heart”) will identify and sympathize with her quirky turn as the sixty-something working stiff Doris Miller trying to fit into a youth-oriented world while pursuing love and companionship in co-writer/co-producer/director Michael Showalter’s ambitious but uneven…
