A tale of two movies. Sitting next to each other, in the same theater on the same night, my wife and I saw two entirely different movies. I saw a heartwarming movie with adorable, courageous kids, a solid story, and a tight running time that kept the film from meandering. My wife saw a jumbled, […]

So this is what death throes look like. When I was a sophomore in high school, I was a little too talkative one day during math class. My teacher told me stay after the bell rung, and, once everyone else had left the room, told me I could not leave until I acted like a […]

Do you smell something? It seems almost unfair to write about Dolittle. Why on Earth would a movie with a $175 million budget and starring Robert Downey Jr. be opening in the armpit of the Hollywood calendar known as January? All the kids are back in school, almost everyone blew all of their spending money […]

Seven miles shallow. As I crawl out from underneath a mountain of award-hopeful movies, a look forward at upcoming releases in January reminds me that twenty-five indie/documentary/foreign films in a row isn’t as long as it seems. Bad Boys 3? Gretel & Hansel? Like a Boss? Dolittle? DOLITTLE? Why is Dolittle, a $175 million movie […]

One is the loneliest number. The previous two years, I have repeated the same opening paragraph in my year-end review – ending the paragraph wondering how aliens hadn’t yet put us out of our misery – and I thought about doing it again. It still applies. Horrible things continue to happen, too many people are […]

Can you handle the truth? If you are into war movies, there are two major ones from which to get your fix. By now, you probably already saw Midway and, depending on what city you live in, might have seen 1917 as well. If not, you are waiting with bated breath for January 10 to […]

Starting right meow. What is the musical Cats about? Apparently, no one knows. Prior to the screening, I asked several people if they had seen it or knew what it was about. The answers I got were, “No” and “I-ah-uh.” Based on my informal survey, most people have never seen Cats and those that have […]

And just a dash of Foghorn Leghorn. We’re finally to the last – arguably the best – big movie season of the year. Unlike the summer, it is not just filled with big, loud blockbusters plus even bigger, louder, dumb blockbusters. The end-of-year season includes prestige movies, smart dramas, Star Wars (usually), and, yes, big, […]

Hot wheels. There are many reasons to choose from when deciding whether or not to go see Ford v Ferrari. Casting is the obvious reason. Despite Matt Damon and Christian Bale occasionally putting their feet in their respective mouths and a lot of people treating Damon like Hollywood’s version of Nickelback (whom are hated for […]