Category: Monday Morning Movie Reviewer

A likable enough movie that really stands out with its focus on characters and real human emotions. I’m already a bit Marveled-out this Summer, so to watch a huge Summer success that actually deals with a believable human situation is really refreshing. What Works: Nobody is just a simple stock character, and the movie keeps…

I’ll write a longer review for this film on Monday (the proper day with other reviews for indies like “Only Lovers Left Alive” and blockbusters like “Godzillas”), but for now I’ll just implore you to go see the best food documentary since Food Inc. and the one even more likely than that film to change…

Every Earth Day, Disney puts a nature documentary into theaters that few people see, but more people really should. I’ll admit to being something of a sucker for these films, although some are a bit sleepier than others. [If you go in half-tired you might not be able to resist some zzzz.] However, Bears is…

Another circle jerk from Marvel. Honestly, I’d rather you read any other review I’ve done today since this movie has already been given too much press. What Works: Well, Andrew Garfield has good chemistry with Emma Stone, and uhhhh, well…ummm…Stone is certainly a livelier presence than Kristen Dunst was in the first films (but not…

A forgotten gem from roughly two months ago. The true story of legendary labor pioneer Cesar Chavez (for those unfamiliar, please look him up) who championed fair wages for field workers. American fruit pickers were/are largely illegal and the largely-Mexican/Central American or Filipino workforce was paid a ridiculously low wage by large agricultural titans who…

A very, very popular movie that maybe doesn’t deserve all the praise it’s gotten, but isn’t half bad either, especially for a Marvel movie. What Works: I’m not a big Captain America fan and the first film was only so-so for me while suffering from the typical Marvel-pacing problems. However, the smartest thing this movie…

It’s only the middle of May, but “The Other Woman” is poised to be a strong contender for Worst Movie of the Year come December 31st when I post my rankings of all the year’s movies. Sure, there will probably be worse stuff between now and then, but it’s a bottom five-r for sure. If Nancy Meyers…

A solid, above-average movie that you’ll want to catch at home since most people haven’t watched it at the theater, although it’s not an outright flop either. What Works: This is a nice middle-ground sports movie that deals with the deal-making instead of the play-making. It can’t touch Moneyball (the great baseball management movie) but…

Skip it. Of all the movies I’ve thought don’t deserve or need a sequel, it’s hard to come up with a better example than the first Rio movie. What Works: Things mostly run in place for all the characters from the first movie, so there’s really nothing new going on for them (that matters by the end…

“Why get into this film now?”—You might ask. Well, good question, but I just never felt particularly motivated to throw up a review for it (or any of the movies I’ve seen over the last six weeks) until now. What Works: Reactions seem to be pretty negative for this movie, and I can’t say that…

The Palestinian film “Omar” was nominated for Best Foreign Language film, but I can’t help but feel that “Bethlehem” might be a little bit better. Both films deal with remarkably similar territory—-A Palestinian youth caught up in terror has to choose between betraying his “friends” and helping Israeli agents, and the endings are basically the same—-and both…

A very small indie film that most people probably will never hear of even though it’s got Annette Bening and Ed Harris in it. It stars Bening as a woman whose husband (Harris) dies, but she meets an exact physical double of him a few years later (Harris, again). What Works: It wants to be…

I loved this movie—-nah, just kidding. It’s mildly diverting (get it? hyuk yuk yuk) but ultimately generic. It’s a merely okay film that will be inevitably stacked up against The Hunger Games and probably found lacking. What Works: The entire time all I could really think about was how this film compared to The Hunger…