Three very different series premiered this week, and the only returning show of the bunch (“UnReal”) may have waited a little too long to come back after a weak season 2… UnReal, Season 3…The show had a terrible second season, but–to me–it doesn’t look like they fully understand what the problem is: stagnant, obnoxious characters…
Category: Mindless Mondays
Review: “The Polka King” is the Best Film of Early 2018
We live in a world of unbelievable things. In an unusually strong January/February period stacked with Natalie Portman mindblowers like “Annihilation,” charming family films like “Early Man” or “Paddington 2,” and Marvel’s best film in a decade, “Black Panther,” the film I found myself most drawn to is an obscure Netflix original starring Jack Black…
Quick “Netflix Original” Reviews: Mute, The Ritual, When We First Met
If you had told me a week ago, I’d wind up preferring a light Adam Devine-starring rom-com to a new sci-fi drama from “Moon” visionary Duncan Jones, I might not have believed you… The Ritual…A group of British friends go to Northern Sweden to hike an isolated trail. All is well until they take a…
“The Walking Dead” is TV’s First Unisex Soap Opera
Cables two biggest soap operas are back this week with premieres for “The Walking Dead” and “UnReal.” Now before you scoff at the definition of TWD as a soap opera remember that zombie Godfather George A. Romero dissed “Dead” as a “soap opera with zombies.” And I might have to agree after watching the mid-season…
Movie Review: Annihilation
Is there a more deceptively shallow writer/director working today than Alex Garland? After receiving a lot of acclaim for the scripts of “28 Days Later,” “Sunshine,” “Never Let Me Go,” and “Dredd” (all of them over-praised sci-fi that attached larger significance to themselves than they deserved), he royally gamed critics with “Ex Machina.” That was a…
Movie Review: A Lover of the Book “Every Day” Reviews the Movie
I doubt people unfamiliar with the novel have even heard of this movie. It was dumped in theaters with few trailers, TV spots, or billboards (it supposedly used “targeted marketing” and I guess I’m not the target) and that may be kind-of a problem for a movie with no-name stars, a low-key energy and sense…
Movie Review: “Irreplaceable You” Once Again Sets Interracial Couples in Movies Back
At this point, I almost feel like Hollywood is in a hilariously-lopsided battle against me. How else to explain the relentless drubbing of black/white couples in TV and Film? At a time when “Get Out” is receiving a ridiculous amount of over-praise and Oscar buzz, you might scoff at me putting a movie like Irreplaceable You in…
The 10 Movies I’m Most (and Least) Looking Forward to in 2018
Sure, there will be lots of movies coming out in the last few months of the year that aren’t even on a release calendar right now. So I apologize if this list is heavily-weighted for movies in the first half of 2018, but with that in mind this will be a pretty good starting place…
Review: “Black Panther” is Marvel’s Best Since the 1st “Iron Man”
Note: That headline may be a bit less euphoric than it first sounds since long-time readers may remember that I actually dislike most Marvel films, finding them machine-made and largely flavorless. The “Doctor Strange,” “Ant-Man,” “Thor,” and “Avengers” franchises do nothing for me, and even if I enjoyed “Captain America,” “Iron Man,” and “Guardians of the…
Movie Review: What Other Critics Are Missing About “15:17 to Paris”
You might be surprised to see “15:17 to Paris” get such scathing reviews (a 23% on Rotten Tomatoes? really? when any Marvel bullshit-fest can easily top 90%), and I couldn’t help but wonder if this exact same film—less a terrorism docuthriller than a red state cinema verite piece—were made about a culture literally anywhere else than Christian…
TV Reviews: “Homeland,” “Here and Now,” and “Another Period”
Three shows that really have nothing in common except they premiered new seasons around the same time… Homeland, Season 7…It’s a cruel irony that the better “Homeland” gets, the less other critics pay attention to it. For me, the series has only gotten better with age, starting with the amazing, Afghanistan-set season 4 that fully…
Review: Is “Fifty Shades Freed” the Female “Fast and Furious?”
Yes, I know, there are lots of women who like “Fast and Furious” movies—and notably less men that like “Fifty Shades” movies, as evidenced by how “Furious” movies are rubber-stamped by critics and “Fifty” movies are ridiculed. But when you really get into the heart of the “Fast” audience, there’s a certain type of gear…
Ranking and Grading ALL 8 “Harry Potter” Films
HBOGo did something pretty clever in the last month, by putting all eight “Harry Potter” films in one place for the first time, it generated an awful lot of interest in a movie series that concluded nearly a decade ago. Beat that, Marvel!–with your too many Superheroes crammed in one place like a merchandising machine. Anyway, it’s…