“Get On Up” is director Tate Taylor’s follow-up to the 2011 sleeper hit “The Help”, which got a Best Picture Oscar nomination and Best Supporting Actress win for Octavia Spencer. Both she and Viola Davis re-team with Taylor for the James Brown biopic, but this time in very small roles, as two of the women […]
“Edge of Tomorrow” is the Movie Mashup of the Year: A combination of “Groundhog Day” and “Independence Day”. In a near-future world in which aliens are about to wipe-out the human race, Major William Cage, an Army PR expert, is forced to become a soldier. He is killed almost immediately in his first battle, but […]
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has raised the bar yet again with the return of The Star Spangled Man with a Plan. “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” is the sequel to 2011’s highly entertaining “The First Avenger”. In that film we were introduced to a scrawny Steve Rogers (played by Chris Evans) who was asked to […]
“The LEGO Movie” is an animated marvel. Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”) assembled a dream-team voice cast, paired-up with a smart, fresh script, and some of the most incredible CGI wizardry ever put on screen for what might be the best animated film we’ll see all year. Emmet […]
One year after director David O. Russell was able to earn all four of his “Silver Linings Playbook” stars Oscar nominations in their respective categories (the first time that had been done in 30 years), he did it again with the extraordinary ensemble of “American Hustle”, which is a smart, chic, sophisticated con-caper that’s hugely entertaining. A movie about […]
When I was younger, I used to go through my grandmother’s mail with her. Every once in a while we would come across one of those contest entries claiming that she could win a large cash prize, when all they really wanted was to sell magazines or get her personal, private information. Sometimes we’d play […]
“12 Years a Slave” earned strong critical praise at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award. It’s no surprise director Steve McQueen’s latest drama won 3 Oscars, including Best Picture of the Year, and deservedly so. This is a heartbreaking, moving and inspiring film that needs to be seen. Based […]
The late James Gandolfini shines in the romantic comedy “Enough Said”, which is the next-to-last film of his outstanding career and one that belongs near the top of his acting credits. Gandolfini stars as Albert opposite Julia-Louis Dreyfus’s Eva. They are both divorced, middle-aged parents of daughters who will soon be heading off to college. […]
“Lee Daniels’ The Butler” is an impressive and effective film, inspired by a true story. As a young boy in the 1920’s Cecil Gaines grew up on a cotton plantation, the son of a slave, who is shot to death by his owner. Cecil is then taken in by the elder, female owner (Vanessa Redgrave), […]
No recent film can better be defined as “short, sweet, and to the point” than the animated sequel “Despicable Me 2”. The 2010 original was a pleasant surprise, as we were introduced to supervillain Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) whose evil ways were changed forever by three orphan girls, Margo, Edith and Agnes. And the […]