Damien Chazelle’s interpretation of the Apollo 11 moon landing is a visceral, emotive and carefully executed film, and a drastically different follow up to his Oscar-winning 2016 musical, “La La Land.” Based on strong source material from James R. Hansen, with a poignant score from frequent collaborator Justin Hurwitz and Chazelle’s celestial vision and tight…
Apparently, Superman is not the only one that can leap a tall building in a single bound. Ubiquitous action star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has his own grand-style leaping to do with towering buildings in the boisterous, but disjointed, summertime blockbuster Skyscraper. Monotonously recycled, formulaic and exhausting, Skyscraper is a nosebleed of a thrill-ride that…
When I reviewed the first “Unfriended” film in 2015, I described it as a time capsule; an inside joke between its creators and anyone familiar with the technology it uniquely and realistically integrated that would only fully pay off if/when, years later, its original audience watched younger, uninitiated viewers try to understand it outside of…
“Are you an angry person?” “Who are you angry at?” “Are you ever inclined to hurt someone?” The First Purge begins on Staten Island, where evaluation teams interview prospective participants in a new experiment organized by the New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA), a political party organized as an alternative to the existing system. On…
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is, for lack of a kinder way of saying it, a prehistoric mess. Nestled between a passable 2015 sequel and a bookend to the trilogy coming in 2021, it is sloppy staging for what’s sure to be an underwhelming and anticlimactic third effort. Chris Pratt (“Avengers: Infinity War”) and Bryce Dallas…
Experiencing cabin fever in the generic home invasion thriller Breaking In is the least of the problems that overcome star/co-producer Gabrielle Union’s project as a periled, butt-kicking mother up against brutish home invaders. Although the premise of a bad-ass caretaker defending her children as desperate criminals look to infiltrate the safety of the home presents…
While the teen sex comedy Blockers brings on the typical roller-coaster of raunchiness, it somehow registers devilishly with an offbeat, uproarious take on the trials and tribulations of stress-induced parenting and safeguarding the so-called virtues of impressionable daughters from predatory prom dates. With a deft hand, director Kay Cannon (screenwriter for the “Pitch Perfect” trilogy…
