Tag Archives: film review

In the grand scope of films to be inspired by best-selling literary adaptations, I clearly fall short knowing I’m simply not much of a novel reader. For better or worse, it may stay that way unless it were a book firmly recommended to me without end. Ready Player One was the last real example of that, and even then, I …

[NOTE: An official selection of the 2019 Seattle International Film Festival] Intensely dramatic, journalistic dramas are really nothing considerably new, especially in a decade where DC and Boston’s heritage newspapers were highlighted in Oscar-bait films; one of them did win Best Picture, though one is still lost as to why it had earned that honor. The latest to join that …

Stephen King’s works will speak to one moviegoer differently than another. One’s level of enjoyment toward the exceedingly inevitable IT: Chapter Two, opening the same weekend as its prior A-side two years ago, may vary solely based on how committed one could be to the famed writer’s passion in storytelling. Per the usual King hallmarks, directorial approach often surpasses literary …

[NOTE: Film previously viewed as part of the 2019 Seattle International Film Festival] Queen. Elton John. The Beatles. Even Motley Crüe. And now Bruce Springsteen. You probably know where I’m going with this. Classic Rock is becoming a precise cinematic trend where either the biographical or the experimental sorts of filmmaking are reaching a mild fever. And in Gurinder Chadra’s …

If there’s a studio that knows how to strategically mine valuable IP to the best advantage, clearly Sony’s tracking the most productive pulse, and there’s certainly no disputing their track record. However, determining just what product people want is equally important. Men in Black International, the fourth in a sci-fi franchise built at the mammoth strength of Barry Sonnenfeld, Will …

[AN OFFICIAL SELECTION FROM THE 2019 SEATTLE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL]   Late night television isn’t so much cutthroat nowadays as it would’ve been during the Leno/Letterman wars of the mid-90s. Yet, if you’re venerable English comedienne Katherine Newbury (Emma Thompson), her own war has just begun. The host of Tonight with Katherine Newbury has been in the chair a long …

The efficient creative forces at Illumination are nothing short of wizardly outliers in the animation game. Their films have a true legion of fans, and the profits to prove their work; not all of them could be considered masterpieces or legendary classics of this decade. They settle well as rainy day matinee viewings with youngsters in tow, while still keeping …

It’s occurred to me that the jukebox musical hasn’t earned the best reputation, particularly with the examples we’ve seen this century (mostly Mamma Mia 1 and 2). Of course, for the next most anticipated film to fit in this category to arrive into theaters mere months after Bohemian Rhapsody left critics, regular audiences, and Queen fanatics separated and polarized, the …

Five years ago, the second American imagining of Japanese cinema icon Godzilla was met with a mixed consensus. British auteur Gareth Edwards put in every best effort to raise the radiation-fueled, formerly rubber-costumed, now 100% CGI, reptilian creature into the 21st century for the stateside crowd. Where Roland Emmerich failed to fully capture the spirit of the more original films, …