Bobby Fischer, an American Grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion, was a polarizing political figure as well as a very sharp mind. His rise coincided with the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, adding a complexity to his life – and decisions – that elevated him to global recognition. In?Pawn…
After attending a funeral, sixty-year-old Bill Bryson (Robert Redford) decides he should walk the 2,190 miles of the Appalachian Trail. When his wife (Emma Thompson) refuses to let him go alone, he places ‘want ads’ out to his friends – who all turn him down. But then there’s the long lost friend, Katz (the real-life…
Denis Villeneuve is a bad man. His work (Prisoners) keeps me up at night, directing well-known actors in ways that we don’t expect or haven’t prepared our minds for. In?Sicario, he shows us the world of the drug cartels through the eyes of ‘good guy’ Kate Macer (Emily Blunt), an FBI agent assigned to a…
In 2012,?Prapas Cholsaranont directed a 3D animation movie called Yak the Giant King?based on the Thai animation film?Ramayana about two robots on opposite sides of a conflict which lacks any purpose that they can remember. Now, American audiences can enjoy the film’s lush animation with English dialogue thanks to Lionsgate ‘repurposing’ the film with English-speaking…
Peter Pan (Levi Miller) is the kid who wants to find his mother before he’s the boy who never grew up. That is, before he never grew up, he was just an orphaned, little boy missing his mother. Imprisoned in an orphanage with the ominously hoarding Mother Barnabas (Kathy Burke), Peter leads a mini-rebellion and…
Robert De Niro. Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Kate Bosworth. Morris Chestnut. Gina Carano. Dave Bautista. The cast list reads like a who’s who of good-but-not-great films that have littered the landscape of early spring and late summer. All of them have been in?something?spectacular, but bringing them all together echoes with the late-breaking career of Morgan Freeman…
I don’t want to disappoint anyone so please note that “SPOILER” is clearly in the title. I not-so-fondly remember the Friday morning when the first Avengers film came out. I was minding my own business – wearing a Captain America shirt – in Target, when I was approached… and BAM! “Man, isn’t it crazy that…
I remember seeing The Return of the Jedi?as a seven year old. Sure, I’d seen?A New Hope?and?The Empire Strikes Back. I couldn’t wait for the good guys to bust in and reclaim?Han (remember, we didn’t know for sure he could be rescued but we?hoped), and for the evil Empire to be destroyed. In those days…
Charles Dickens was a genius. His evaluation of the nature of humankind mixed with an astute understanding of what conversion, repentance, and redemption look like still stands tall as a classic representation of the Christian faith?and?Christmas itself. But when it comes to the cinematic adaptation of his fine morality play, there is none quite like…
Longmire: Season Four?is one of the?best shows I’ve watched this year. While?Quantico?and?Blindspot?have the splashiest ad spots, Netflix’s latest pickup quietly dominates with action, team dynamics, and socially-conscious issues about what it means to be human in today’s ever-changing landscape. Robert Taylor stars as Sheriff Longmire, the taciturn leader of the Absaroka County, Wyoming, sheriff’s department,…
