Certain films are remembered by their opening sequences. Three “classics” that come to mind are “Saving Private Ryan,” “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” and of course “Citizen Kane.” Rebuilding Paradise, the 95-minute documentary produced and directed by Ron Howard (distributed by National Geographic Films) that chronicles the destruction of Paradise, a town in…
Ron Howard’s Solo: A Star Wars Story has all the right intentions — meteoric pacing, a clear narrative arc, an extension of the space opera genre, a talented ensemble and a robust visual effects budget. What’s more, it boasts one of the most likable characters in modern cinematic history: Han Solo (now played by Alden…
The restless nights for “Star Wars” fans are over because the first full trailer for Solo: A Star Wars Story is here, arriving from a galaxy far far away. In it, Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) is, at least initially, just your basic ship pilot, looking for intergalactic adventure and to put some coin in his…
It is not often that one has reservations about a movie adaptation of an epic Stephen King novel series. Sure, there have been a few misses along the way (bound to happen considering how large King’s bibliography is), but it has been quite some time that a movie-going mishap has registered so profoundly as it…
Planes, running and Tom Cruise — three ingredients for a possible a box-office hit converge one more time in American Made, an action-comedy-thriller based on the life of Barry Seal, former pilot for TWA and drug smuggler for Pablo Escobar. It does not take long into this first trailer for chaos to brew with Seal,…
A confusing, convoluted plot, Ron Howard’s uninspired direction and less than stellar acting mar Inferno, the third installment of the popular (at least as far as book sales go) “Da Vinci Code” franchise, but then again, we all know about some of the third-film duds in cinematic history (“Superman 3,” “Rocky 3,” “The Hangover Part…
With In the Heart of the Sea, director Ron Howard, despite his Midwest Oklahoma roots, decided to be the umpteenth moviemaker to take on the epic (and almost unconquerable) tale of “Moby Dick,” Herman Melville’s world famous novel about a 100-foot white bull sperm whale that simply will not be captured. He follows such other…
