Category: Monday Morning Movie Reviewer

One of the very few films where the 3D ticket price was worth it. What Works: People going to a movie like this are really only looking for one thing: cool shots of snow-covered mountains, and suspenseful sequences. “Everest” delivers both with skill, and some solid performances from a cast that includes Jake Gyllenhaal, John Hawkes,…

Per usual, most of the other critics are wrong in their assessment of this film as they think the problem with it is that the lead character is unlikable. In fact, the movie’s attempts to sporadically soft peddle him actually diminish the film’s main theme of the pursuit of greatness. This could have been this year’s “Whiplash,”…

The headline pretty much sums it up. If you were seeking political entertainment, then you could spend two hours of your life in worse ways—there are always Republican Primary debates—but the documentary this film is based on (which I saw nearly a decade ago and never once thought “boy, I hope they remake this with…

I’ve been dormant for too long, but today brings three new reviews of movies that all center around the theme of perfection whether that’s achieved through winning a campaign, achieving a Michelin star, or revolutionizing computers. I’ll start off with the best of the bunch… What Works: “Steve Jobs” will leave people with wildly different reactions,…

Sometimes a movie slips throught the cracks on theaterical release, and sometimes they deserve to… The Seventh Son…Odds are strong that if you clicked on this article, it wasn’t to read about this film, which most people refer to as “What movie again? Haven’t heard of it.” It’s the one with Jeff Bridges teaching a…

There’s nothing scarier than creepy kid movies, except for perhaps movies where it’s a whole town of creepy kids. It seems like the natural progression to make a movie about a pandemic of creepy (zombie) kids, and it’s resulted in one of the best horror comedies in a  long while. “Cooties” is about a zombie-creating virus that…

This film has been a bit unfairly dismissed by most critics, and–if you read most of the reviews–they seem caught up more in the fact that the portrayals of rioting Southeast Asians is racist than anything actually presented on camera. As an excuse to engage in identity politics, most of the reviews work, but as…

My reviews are getting so late in the game, that getting a new one is practically the same thing as a “Gift” but I’ll try to soldier on even as most people have already seen this movie… What Works: Written, directed, and starring Joel Edgerton “The Gift” is a a very well-crafted, sharper-than-you-think creepy “friend” thriller….

A month after this film’s release, and pretty much everyone who was going to see it already has, but I can’t shake the feeling all the positive reactions it’s been getting aren’t entirely earned. After all, I saw it a month ago and haven’t felt compelled to really write a review… What Works: Rebecca Ferguson is…

Both a rebuke to the romantic comedy and an embrace of it, the film manages to take chances that people have been begging the stale genre to take for a long time. What Works: “Trainwreck” may look like it’s just coasting on the recent trend of “women who are a fucking mess but great guys love…

Not a good movie, but there’s a great performance at the center of it. What Works: This largely forgettable boxing movie will be known mostly for Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance, which is a 180 from last year’s excellent (and underseen) “Nightcrawler.” In that film, he was a rail-thin and articulate sociopath who hid his amoralism behind upbeat,…

Turns out a little bit of these guys goes a long way. What Works: Kids may like this film better than “Inside Out”… What Doesn’t: But you sure won’t. This is a movie made to entertain kids at home when parents don’t know what to do with them for 90 minutes. The actual Minions characters are cute…

Pixar’s latest has earned rave reviews, and it’s easy to see why. Not much more can be said about this movie that hasn’t already been said, but I’ll try anyway… What Works: Special kudos to the writer who came up with the idea to set a movie mostly inside the mind of a kid growing up,…