In an era where digital imaging allows anything from polymorphic robots to elongated super-limbs to be seamlessly integrated into live footage, animation could seem redundant. The old adage that “anything is possible in a cartoon” is no longer restricted to animation as anything is possible in any film. Yet we appear to be experiencing a…
Set in present-day New York, Five Star blends documentary and dramatic fiction as it tells the stories of Primo (James “Primo” Grant, a non-professional actor and former member of the Bloods street gang), a man fighting the tug-of-war battle between the needs of his family and duty to his gang, and John (John Diaz), a…
With film franchises rebooting every few years, it’s surprising that this series took so long to take the plunge. The first version, “Fantastic Four,” was released by 20th Century Fox in the summer of 2005, when critics called it, “’Spider-Man’ times four,” although at the time, I described it as “Spider-Man” *divided* by four, since…
Although the makers of Vacation are saying the film is a sequel and not a remake of its 1983 predecessor, “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” it’s difficult to see it as anything but. The plotlines are so similar it could be sued for identity theft: A goofy, but loving and cheery father (in this case, Ed Helms,…
Sometimes blood ties are strong enough to reunite estranged relatives living at opposite sides of the world. ‘Blood calls’, we often hear from close and distant kin. And we can easily attribute such call to the fact that we all have a past and, behind such past, there is almost always a family. However, sometimes…
Has the tap finally run dry on boxing movies? It goes without saying that there have been a number of great and enduring contenders in this category with genre clichés modern audiences are instinctively ingrained with, but is there anything else to be expressed within this set-up? If Antoine Fuqua’s Southpaw is any indicator, we…
Trainwreck. Rarely has there been a more appropriately named film than this one, except like an actual train wreck, I COULD look away from this picture, I just wish I had more often. There are few things even remotely redeemable — or humorous — about this picture, written by Amy Schumer (also the star of…
