Game, set, and match: Battle of the Sexes is an amiable crowd-pleaser, and a heartfelt dramatization of the famed 1973 tennis match from Little Miss Sunshine directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. Emma Stone glimmers as the inspirational Billie Jean King in a role that contrasts her previous work, while Steve Carell similarly delights as... Continue Reading →
2017 has finally found its Cruise factor. Following up his involvement in June’s awkward mega-flop The Mummy, the trademark Tom Cruise swagger returns to fine form in the slick crime comedy American Made. This semi-factual account of a drug-smuggling pilot and White House informant is another rousing course in Southern lawbreaking following August’s droll delight... Continue Reading →
The sequel to 2015's Kingsman: The Secret Service is hardly more than a ritualistic exercise in the law of diminishing returns. Matthew Vaughn returns to direct, delivering a second entry guilty of nearly every violation for which subpar sequels are known. Formula is favored over invention, gags are recycled, and characterization is ignored. With a star-studded... Continue Reading →
The second sequel to 2013’s inventive and exhilarating The Lego Movie offers much of the same colorful exuberance of its predecessors, though it’s clear that much of the novelty that made the original such a surprise is beginning to stretch itself thin. If you’re game for some dazzling animation and a chuckle here and there,... Continue Reading →
If you haven’t heard, last weekend theaters received the worst box office returns they've seen in 16 years. That means audiences haven’t been this disinterested in movies since 9/11. That’s saying something. Studios are blaming the Mayweather-McGregor fight and the expected late-summer slump, but it’s pretty obvious the real culprit here is a shortage of acceptable... Continue Reading →
By the time you hit the dregs of summer, it’s not surprising to see a generic shoot-‘em-up top the box office. With no major openings to speak of this August, you could say September came early this year. Last weekend’s offbeat actioner Logan Lucky represents a bright spot, but unfortunately the public largely ignored it... Continue Reading →
Welcome back, Mr. Soderbergh. Like Daniel Craig’s squirrelly convicted safecracker Joe Bang, the lure of a big score has lured the elusive artisan out of the shadows and back to mainstream filmmaking. The director has ended his hiatus with another satisfying round of his fine-tuned recipe for heist flicks, and his method shows no signs... Continue Reading →
Welcome to the most atrocious money grab of 2017. Sony Pictures Animation’s newest offering scrapes the absolute bottom of the barrel with a shameless exploitation of pop culture. Devoid of imagination, wit, laughs, originality, dignity, or any resemblance of inspiration at all, The Emoji Movie is a formidable contender for worst movie of the year.... Continue Reading →
Don’t sleep on this one: without hesitation, The Big Sick is among the master class of 2017. This quirky romance effortlessly glides over nearly everything we’ve seen this year with grace and class. It’s a masterful execution within a genre typically characterized by cliché, and it’s an easy contender for sweeping the floor come awards... Continue Reading →
