Category: Mindless Mondays

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…

Finally, the long-awaited sequel you’ve been waiting for…a new Rocky movie! Oh wait, you thought I would review Star Wars huh? Anyway, this is the definition of a movie that turned out to be a lot better than I thought it would be, and I can see why critics were so surprised. What Works: The performances…

An appealingly old-fashioned movie that is unrushed, well-observed, and a little bit boring. What Works: It’s about an Irish girl in the 1950s (Saorise Ronan) who emigrates to Brooklyn, and really the immigrant experience in general as she experiences home-sickness, the joys of first love, and what it’s like to visit home again. [She believes she’ll…

“Room” is almost as good as you’ve been hearing and is an easy contender for any “Best” lists. The plot may turn people off, but I believe if they give it a chance, they’ll have one of the most moving experiences of any film this year. If you don’t know what it’s about, I would…

A bunch of junk movies you might have skipped in theaters… The Loft…A movie about five male friends who share a literal bachelor pad so they can cheat on their wives in secret. That is, until one of the women dies and they have to figure out which one killed here. It’s a cast full…

Welllllll, this movie—-detailing the 60 Minutes story about George W. Bush’s sketchy Vietnam War record and Dan Rather’s subsequent ousting from CBS News over it—-may be preaching to the liberal converted, but it sure is effective. Too few people will watch this movie, and too few reviewers are grading it properly, so it’s a natural…

A solid film that I only wish I’d had a chance to see in theaters, but it wasn’t released in most of the major chains since Netflix (the film’s distributor and major place to watch it) released it on the site and in theaters on the same day. Naturally, theaters aren’t excited for that, and…

Movies about gamblers are essentially movies about losers–or should be if they want to be accurate–and so this film about two down-and-outers who make a gambling tour of the Mississippi River on their way to a fabled card game in New Orleans at least begins realistically enough. What Works: Ryan Reynolds plays the “winner” of the…

Although not as bad as you might think, I still can’t say there were more positives than negatives. What Works: There are some truly eye-catching sequences like a bit of exposition told through animated wood sculptures and an all-out pirate-on-fairy battle that looks like a Hindu celebration as fairies explode into clouds of brightly colored dust….

This is a review where I have to part ways with most critics as they praised Johnny Depp’s performance and the movie’s clear-headed handling of Whitey Bulger’s case. Well, the former isn’t the way I see it and the latter isn’t accurate since the much more informative documentary “Whitey: The People Vs. James J. Bulger”…

Everybody’s already seen this movie by now, but a review is still in order… What Works: The movie has been described (over and over) as “an unapologetic crowd-pleaser” which I guess means it has a happy ending and a likable lead character…as most movies do. I’m not sure what “The Martian” delivers that most movies don’t…

Although the set design threatens to walk away with the whole movie, there’s a nicely tense duel between two women at the center that makes it rare for both horror films and period pieces. What Works: Most Merchant-Ivory-era movies may have female protagonists, but not conflicts between a female hero and an antagonist. “Crimson Peak” is…