Freeze Frame

Jordan Peele’s ambitious and inventive sci-fi horror entry “Nope” is one part brilliant and three parts frustrating. It’s as if M. Knight Shyamalan had decided to remake Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” with the goal of creeping us out. Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer play proprietors of a horse training ranch who attempt […]

The troubled life of former Kansas City Royals first baseman Willie Aikens gets the inspirational biopic treatment with “The Royal.” It’s currently showing theatrically at the Screenland Armour and is available on multiple streaming platforms. Amin Joseph plays Aikens who clung to his dignity after serving years in prison on drug charges. “The Royal” is an instructive […]

When comedian Taika Waititi wrote and directed the 2017 Marvel epic “Thor: Ragnarok,” he injected the Avengers series with a playful, irreverent twist, emphasizing humor as well as action. He made Thor a bit of a goof. Still heroic, but also flawed and fearful. Watiti employs that same template with its follow-up, “Thor: Love and […]

“Minions: The Rise of Gru” is the fifth movie in the hit animated “Despicable Me” franchise. The kids are already tuned in, but the makers of this origin story cleverly place the action in the 1970s to give adults a cagey nostalgia hit. We learn how Gru met the yellow fellows and how he fulfilled his aspirations […]

The life of rock n’ roll legend Elvis Presley gets an over-the-top, almost operatic treatment with Baz Luhrmann’s phantasmagorical two-hour and forty-five-minute biopic, “Elvis,” Tom Hanks plays his Svengali-like manager, Col. Tom Parker, narrating the story from his selfish, opportunistic perspective. Austin Butler is excellent as the naive but extraordinarily talented Presley, seen here as […]

Buzz Lightyear, the Space Ranger who inspired the fabled action figure from “Toy Story,” gets an origin story with “Lightyear.” Chis Evans provides the voice of our hero who battles the evil Emperor Zurg and his robot army while attempting to protect fellow space travelers on a remote planet millions of miles from Earth. The animation […]

The “Jurassic Park” films have raked in over $5 billion at the worldwide box office. Naturally, Hollywood is as interested in resurrecting the franchise as the evil corporations are in resurrecting those aggressive dinosaurs. “Jurassic World Dominion” is the sixth film in the series, and it offers more of the same, an abundance of action, […]

Lenexa, Kansas native and “America’s Got Talent” winner Grace VanderWaal stars in the Disney+ musical, “Hollywood Stargirl,” a sequel to the 2020 film “Stargirl.” When Stargirl and her mom leave Arizona for the West Coast, the young singer gets involved with neighbors trying to make their own movie. While it’s totally predictable and filled with […]

It’s been 36 years since Tom Cruise first scrambled his jets in the action blockbuster “Top Gun.” The long-gestating sequel “Top Gun: Maverick” has finally arrived and, happily, these Navy pilots nearly reach mach 10. But, as Maverick says, “You don’t have time to think up there. You think, you’re dead.” Good advice for the audience, […]

The second “Downton Abbey” feature film, “Downton Abbey: A New Era,” provides fans with just what they expect from their favorite British period soap opera; High-toned escapism. Multiple plot threads unfold as the dowager countess, played with her patented aristocratic spunk by Dame Maggie Smith, discovers that she has inherited a villa in the south of […]

Is it possible to find comfort in mutual desperation? The extremely edgy comic drama “On the Count of Three” dares to explore that thorny question in a story about two friends who make a mutual suicide pact. Jerrod Carmichael and Christopher Abbott are excellent, full stop, as lifelong friends who decide that life’s challenges aren’t […]

Remember Charles Bronson, the actor who in the 1970s and 80s, made a slew of bloody revenge dramas during his golden years? The career of Liam Neeson has taken a similar trajectory. The latest example is “Memory,” the story of an aging hit man who gains a conscience but loses his memory. When he’s assigned to […]

The medieval Viking legend of Amleth, the inspiration for Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” becomes a dark big screen extravaganza in “The Northman.” Alexander Skarsgård takes the title role of a prince who spends years seeking revenge on his uncle who killed his father, married his mother, and stole his kingdom. Director Robert Eggers lacks Shakespeare’s depth and poetry but […]

The Harry Potter prequels have all the superior production values that fans have come to expect from this popular franchise. And while better than the previous episode, “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” is still saddled with a somewhat clunky, meandering storyline. Jude Law returns as Hogwarts professor Albus Dumbledore, but Mads Mikkelsen replaces Johnny […]

The HBO Max cloak-and-dagger drama “All the Old Knives” is a well-acted espionage thriller with a plot that twists like a mobius strip. Chris Pine and Thandiwe Newton add steamy eroticism as former lovers who reunite years after their CIA field intelligence office mishandled a hijacking case that left over 100 people dead. Are they […]

Like the recent “Venom” movies, the Marvel entry “Morbius” is a Spider-Man villain origin story. It’s a full-blown horror flick about a brilliant doctor, played by Jared Leto, who attempts to cure his own blood disease, only to unintentionally turn himself into a super vampire. It’s watchable, but the by-the-numbers execution leaves “Morbius” just a bit […]

Anyone who has seen the classic 1984 romantic action comedy “Romancing the Stone” may feel a bit of deja vu watching the slapstick adventure movie “The Lost City.” Sandra Bullock plays Loretta, a romance novelist kidnapped by a wealthy bad guy, played by Daniel “Harry Potter” Radcliffe. He needs her understanding of hieroglyphics to decipher […]

The Hulu movie “Deep Water” desperately wants to be an erotic thriller like some of director Adrian Lyne’s earlier films like “Fatal Attraction.” Sadly, this poorly paced adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel is fatal, but there’s little attraction. Ben Affleck portrays a wealthy snob who may or may not be killing off his promiscuous wife’s […]

As time travel movies go, they don’t get much sunnier than the Netflix action thriller, “The Adam Project.” Ryan Reynolds plays Adam, a pilot from the future who crash lands in 2022 and winds up having to recruit his 12-year-old self to thwart some baddies who are using time travel for nefarious ends.   Reynolds […]

The Dark Knight continues to get darker and darker. In his first appearance as “The Batman” Robert Pattinson takes the brooding caped crusader to a new level of bleakness.   “The Batman” is an extremely well-made movie that plays more like a gangster film noir than a superhero flick. In addition to giving us a […]

There have been at least eleven film adaptations of Edmond Rostand’s classic romantic play “Cyrano de Bergerac” and at least eleven others that were inspired by the story. The latest cinematic version is different in a couple of major ways. “Cyrano,” starring Peter Dinklage, is a full-blown musical and the lovestruck main character is self-conscious because he’s […]

Someday, someone will make a really good movie adaptation of a video game. It has to happen, eventually, right? “Uncharted,” based on the PlayStation title, is the latest attempt. It’s an adventure yarn in the mold of Indiana Jones that has a likable cast, spectacular production values and plenty of over-the-top action. If it only […]

If you’re in the mood for an old-fashioned Turner Classic Movies-style whodunit, look no further than “Death on the Nile.” Director/star Kenneth Branagh is back as Agatha Christie’s erudite detective Hercule Poirot, whom we last saw in 2017’s “Murder on the Orient Express.” Now, we see Poirot working on a murder case among the wealthy […]

KC based filmmaker Trevor Hawkins delivers an impressive feature film debut with “Lotawana,” a movie that he wrote, produced, and directed, shot at Lake Lotawana, Missouri. Now available on video on demand, it’s a skillfully made character study about an aimless man, played by Tom Blubaugh, who lives off grid on a boat at the […]

Oscar-winning Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar continues to show why he’s at the top of his game. Another Oscar winner, actress Penelope Cruz stars in Almodovar’s “Parallel Mothers.” It’s the tale of two women whose newborns may have been accidentally switched at birth. Cruz plays a successful single photographer who finds herself in the family way. […]