It’s award consideration season, so here’s my consideration. Synopsis A history lesson behind the famous “scourged back” photo (circa 1863) of Peter Gordon, a slave who escaped bondage in 1863. Now with more action. Writing I’ve done a bit of research to find out how much is truly known of Peter Gordon’s escape from slavery. […]
Emancipation
December 10, 2022 by
Film Title
EmancipationSynopsis
A runaway slave attempts to escape his former masters
Director
Antoine FuquaCast
Will Smith
Ben Foster
Charmaine Bingwa
Ronnie Gene Blevins
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
June 4, 2023 by
Film Title
Spider-Man: Across The Spider VerseSynopsis
Miles Morales catapults across the Multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence
Director
Joquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. ThompsonCast
Shameik Moore
Hailee Steinfield
Daniel Kaluuya
Pavitr Prabhakar
Jake Johnson
Oscar Issac
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” – Great expectations. Five years ago, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse surprised us in theaters, then surprised us again by winning the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Like all great films, it did something new, namely an animation style that looked like it leapt from the pages of a comic book. It […]
The Boogeyman (2023)
June 2, 2023 by
Film Title
The BoogeymanSynopsis
Reliving childhood fears
Director
Rob SavageCast
Sophie Thatcher
David Dastmalchian
Chris Massina
LisaGay Hamilton
Madison Hu
Vivien Lyra Blair
“The Boogeyman” – Reliving childhood fears. My first scary movie was the original Poltergeist. I was around eight years old at the time and my dad thought it would be a good idea to let me watch it. He was wrong. I distinctly remember being terrified by the scene where Robbie is dragged under the […]
The Little Mermaid (2023)
May 30, 2023 by
Film Title
The Little MermaidSynopsis
A young mermaid trades her voice for legs
Director
Rob MarshallCast
Halle Bailey
John Hauer-King
Melissa McCarthy
Javier Bardem
Awkwafina
“The Little Mermaid (2023)” – The Voice. With the release of the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, Disney will almost assuredly see its last billion-dollar box office remake of a beloved classic. Like The Lion King, Aladdin, and Beauty and the Beast before it, The Little Mermaid will benefit from my generation reminiscing about […]
Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3
May 6, 2023 by
Film Title
Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3Synopsis
Come and get your love
Director
James GunnCast
Chris Pratt
Zoe Saldana
Bradley Cooper
Chukwudi Iwuji
Dave Bautista
Vin Diesel
Karen Gillan
Will Poulter
Audiences seem genuinely confused by the current slate of MCU offerings and what to expect going forward. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever were both quite good. But Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was only okay, Ms. Marvel was a waste of time, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law did not […]
Assassin’s Creed (2016)
May 2, 2023 by
Film Title
Assassin's CreedSynopsis
A bad review of a really lousy movie
Director
Justin KurzelCast
Michael Fassbender
Marion Cottilard
Jeremy Irons
Brendan Gleeson
Michael K. Williams
Time travel really messes with… Wait. Didn’t I do this all ready? I probably did. But because we are, all of us, inside The Singularity right now, that really doesn’t matter anymore, because out here, things like ‘didn’t’ and ‘here’ are just these outdated concepts from some ancient, brutal, ape-like species, living on some tiny […]
Sisu (2022)
April 28, 2023 by
Film Title
SisuSynopsis
Silence is Golden
Director
Jalmari HelanderCast
Jorma Tommila
Mimosa Willamo
Askel Hennie
Jack Doolan
Tatu Sinisalo
“Sisu” – Silence is golden. Aatami (Jorma Tommila), the main character in Sisu, has two lines of dialogue in the film’s entire ninety-minute runtime. Both of them occur at the film’s end and neither of them define the word sisu. According to another character, Aino (Mimosa Willamo), sisu is a Finnish concept that cannot be […]
80’s Action Is No Laughing Matter: Part 2
April 20, 2023 by
Chuck Norris in Firewalker Loathed by the critics, Chuck’s first shot at comedy in 1986 was a box-office dud that helped finish off his benefactor Cannon Films. Good work, son. Plusses: I couldn’t really follow the premise, but we end up with two adventurers and a pretty bird trying to find buried treasure in Central […]
80’s Action Is No Laughing Matter: Part One
April 19, 2023 by
You’ve heard the sayings. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Variety is the spice of life. A change is as good as a rest. And so on. Well, for most actors it’s straightforward to enjoy a wide range of roles, but action stars do have a tendency to plough the same bullet-ridden furrow. […]
Quasi
April 19, 2023 by
Film Title
QuasiSynopsis
Who wants a hunchback ride?
Director
Kevin HeffernanCast
Steve Lemme
Kevin Heffernan
Erik Stolhanske
Jay Chandrasekhar
Paul Soter
Adrianne Palicki
Comedy troupe Broken Lizard has been trying to recapture the magic of their one legitimate hit – Super Troopers – for twenty-two years and five movies. Hoping the sixth time is a charm, they bring us Quasi. As in Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre Dame. And they bring it to us via Hulu. That’s just […]
The Last Hurrah #3: Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler (2008)
April 14, 2023 by
Oh Mickey, you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind, hey Mickey! Was the elfin Toni Basil singing about Mickey Rourke, handsome, talented bastard that he was? Probably not, but after his terrifically understated performance in the 1981 classic Body Heat as a reluctant advice-giving arsonist I guess it’s possible. At that point […]
