Finally, a Transformers film that I wanted to rewatch for myself, and to show to my sons. With Bumblebee, out of the heavy-handed, robot-smacking control of Michael Bay [seriously, Bad Boys, The Rock, etc. are awesome, but his Transformers films not so much], Travis Knight (Kubo and the Two Strings) takes our favorite yellow robot and makes him… amazing. While the… [Read More]
The Mule: It’s Never Too Late
The sad reality is that every new Clint Eastwood film could be his last. After more than six decades on the Silver Screen, Eastwood—now eighty-eight—is fighting the one opponent he can’t beat—Father Time. There’s an obvious hitch in his step, a veritable roadmap of years and miles on his face. The gritty growl of Josie… [Read More]
If Beale Street Could Talk: Smooth Jazz and Social Commentary
“Every black person born in America was born on Beale Street, born in the black neighborhood of some American city, whether in Jackson, Mississippi, or in Harlem, New York. Beale Street is our legacy.” – James Baldwin, If Beale Street Could Talk Set in early 1970s Harlem, If Beale Street Could Talk tells the story of Tish… [Read More]
Mary Poppins Returns: Updating a Classic
How do you build on a classic? That was the charge given to screenwriter David Magee (Finding Neverland, Life of Pi) and director Rob Marshall (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Into the Woods, upcoming The Little Mermaid). Set twenty-five years after the Julie Christie and Dick Van Dyke original, the film finds Poppins returning to… [Read More]
Second Act: Take the Chance
Director Peter Segal had been quiet for the five years after a series of Adam Sandler hits (50 First Dates, Anger Management) and the boxing dud Grudge Match. Now, he’s resurfaced with the Jennifer Lopez-led Second Act and The Pacifier/Spy Next Door-like Dave Bautista film, My Spy, due this year. With Lopez, Vanessa Hudgens, Leah Remini, Dan Bucatinsky, Milo Ventimiglia, and Treat… [Read More]
Green Book: Navigating the Space Between Races
The tension was palpable. In the moments (and days?) following Julia Roberts’ announcement that Green Book had won Best Picture at the 91stAcademy Awards, there were almost as many cheers and celebrations as there were anxious and angry responses. While some denounced it for simplifying racial arguments and a ‘White Savior’ complex, others proclaimed that it… [Read More]
The Year of the Dragon (1985): Bringing the War Home #TBT
Michael Cimino, of The Deer Hunter fame and Heaven’s Gate notoriety, shoots the gap between his Oscar wins for the first and the derision of his work for the second in Mickey Rourke’s The Year of the Dragon. While Rourke had collaborations with Steven Spielberg (1941), Lawrence Kasdan (Body Heat), Barry Levinson (Diner), and Francis Ford Coppola (Rumble Fish) under… [Read More]
Starsky & Hutch (2004): The Remake Revolution #TBT
Before SWAT, Hawaii Five-O, MacGuyver, Lethal Weapon, and Magnum P.I. were remade as television dramas, studios seemed fascinated with remaking old television shows into slightly more offbeat films. In between films like I, Spy, and later films like The A-Team and 21 Jump Street, Starsky & Hutch took the old 1970s buddy cop show and twisted it, hard. Thanks to Warner Archive Collection, the Blu-ray… [Read More]
Instant Family: Fostering Kids Takes Guts
Sean Anders and his wife adopted children cross-culturally, undertaking a more difficult task than making audiences laugh with We are the Millers, She’s Out of My League, and the Daddy’s Home films. Thanks to the success he had writing and directing those other films, Paramount Pictures’ greenlit Anders’ more intimate project, Instant Family. Here, Anders told his story, and the… [Read More]
Creed II: Let Adonis Creed Be His Own Man
In the second installment of the Creed saga or the seventh chapter in the Rocky series, depending on your perspective, Sylvester Stallone’s script finds Michael B. Jordan’s Adonis Creed wrestling with fatherhood, marriage, and the ghosts of the past, namely Florian “Big Nasty” Munteanu’s Viktor Drago. Drago is of course the son of Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), the fighter who… [Read More]
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 59
- Next Page »
