Category: Monday Morning Movie Reviewer

Two movies that have absolutely nothing in common with each other, but I didn’t think either was buzzed about right now to get its own review. I semi-reviewed them in the “Every Movie I’ve Seen in 2015” list, and gave both of them grades, but this is a few words on why… The Hateful Eight…Reviews…

Is it wrong to lump three heavy-hitter Oscar-courting films into the same review? Maybe so, and especially since “Big Short” and “Carol” could easily be nominated for Best Picture come Thursday, but the truth of the matter is that I just didn’t love them as much as I wanted to, and I couldn’t get excited…

Three films I just didn’t have time to formally review before my end of the year movie list. Selfless…The movie should be better than it is—it’s about an aging billionaire (Ben Kingsley) who undergoes a surgery to take the body of a young man (Ryan Reynolds) with a company that is shadier than they first appear—but, then…

Better than you’d think given the so-so reviews. I think critics wanted to make a point of saying it’s not as good as “Inside Out” and that’s technically true, but it’s closer than they think it is. What Works: Last year, there were no Pixar movies at all, and the three before that were “Monsters University,”…

Three very different but critically acclaimed quasi-indies… The End of the Tour…A finely-observed film that received near-universal critical acclaim, but is a somewhat disappointing experience. It’s based on an interview-profile a Rolling Stone reporter (Jesse Eisenberg) did on writer David Foster Wallace (Jason Segel) around the time “Infinite Jest” was coming out and catapulting him…

Two different documentaries that will surely make you glad to be in America or at least a country not going through violent power-grabs… Winter on Fire…By far the more dramatically propulsive of the two, but–strangely–the less interesting one to me personally only because I’m not as interested in the Ukraine as I am Afghanistan. This…

Sure, all of these are relatively recent movies still in theaters that probably deserve their own reviews, but we’re at the end-of-the-year crunch, so… In the Heart of the Sea…I’m a little bit biased since I love this type of movie. You’ve got the ocean; you’ve got an old-timey setting; you’ve got a man vs….

Two cynical political dramas that center on aspiring senators trying not to be undone by sex scandals… Zipper…Patrick Wilson plays a state prosecutor running for senator who develops a love for prostitutes. The movie wants to have something interesting to say about why we judge politicians for their sex lives–and that would have been an interesting movie–but…

Sometimes a film falls through the cracks, and so I lump them into the most unlikely film grouping in recent memory… Cinderella…A conventional take on “Cinderella” that people call “fresh” because it resists the urge to make Cinderella into some kind of vampire slayer or something. And I’ll admit that I’m tired of the trend…

Spike Lee is back. This film–based on the classic Greek story of Lysistrata–is about a group of Chicago women who become fed-up with the violence and organize a sex strike to force their men into peace. It’s a provocative idea clearly designed to raise questions, and Lee proves yet again that he’s a master of…

Three dumb 2015 comedies that need perfunctory “reviews.” Although I have to say, some aren’t entirely unenjoyable… The Ridiculous Six…Adam Sandler finally realizes his movies are more “straight to Netflix” than “get me to a theater” and this is the first of several movies he’ll release straight-to-Netflix. Out of the three comedies, this is the…

A movie I was looking forward to more than I enjoyed once I finally saw it… What Works: All the elements for a great Bond movie are there: beautiful women (Monica Bellucci made headlines for being the oldest “Bond Girl” and Stephanie Sigman is the first Mexican one), an actor that’s born to play a Bond…