Freeze Frame

Turning a theme park ride into a movie worked box office wonders for Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean.” The Mouse House employs the same template with “Jungle Cruise.” Duane Johnson and Emily Blunt bring plenty of personal charisma to their roles of a charming Amazon boat captain and a spunky English explorer. It’s too bad […]

Have you ever felt like you’ve aged while watching a movie? That’s the feeling you’ll get if you decide to endure the latest eerie experiment from M. Knight Shyamalan, “Old.” A family goes on a vacation to an island resort only to realize that a strange beach causes them to age a lifetime in a […]

The unconventional career of Oscar-winner Nicholas Cage just got a bit more offbeat.. He gives a brilliant, nuanced performance in his latest film, the eccentric comic drama “Pig.” Cage plays a hermit living in the Oregon woods who goes on a bizarre adventure in an attempt to retrieve his stolen truffle-sniffing pig. Writer/director Michael Sarnoski […]

“Black Widow,” The latest extravaganza from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, plays more like an over-the-top spy movie along the lines of James Bond than a superhero adventure. Scarlett Johansson stars in this action-packed movie that takes place sometime between the events of “Captain America: Civil War” and “Avengers: Infinity War.” If you don’t follow the […]

Take one part “Terminator” and two parts “Alien,” shake with big budget vigor and you might come up with something like “The Tomorrow War.” Chris Pratt stars in this action-packed sci-fi extravaganza about people transported into the future to save humanity from an extraterrestrial invasion. The trappings are familiar, but “The Tomorrow War” is a […]

In a scene from the latest in the “Fast and Furious” franchise, “F9,” a character played by Ludacris aptly says, “Nobody’s gonna believe this!” Exactly. Entries in the 20-year-old 10-film franchise have morphed into preposterous over-the-top action fantasies that make “Transformers” movies seem credible by comparison. The script is awful, but you can still enjoy […]

Even lesser Pixar offerings are better than most of their competitors’ work. Such is the case with “Luca,” a sweet and beautifully animated fantasy about the adventures of some nice sea monsters. Two young ocean dwellers near the Italian Riviera venture onto land and discover they turn human whenever they’re out of the water. It’s […]

The new Netflix offering “Awake” is yet another apocalyptic sci-fi thriller with a gimmick. After the radiation from solar flares bombards the earth, people lose their ability to sleep. After a few days of universal insomnia, chaos reigns and civilization begins to crumble. A young mother, played by Gina Rodriguez, attempts to protect her children, […]

Pre-teen girls comprise the target audience for “Spirit Untamed,” a big-screen adaptation of the animated Netflix TV series “Spirit Riding Free.” Set in the 19th century American west, it tells the story of a young girl who befriends a wild Mustang stallion after she relocates to a small frontier town. They team up to thwart […]

The long-delayed sequel to filmmaker John Krasinski’s wildly original sci-fi horror thriller has finally arrived in theaters. “A Quiet Place: Part II” is a worthy follow-up that seems even more timely as we emerge from quarantine. The blind aliens with acute hearing continue to wreak havoc on humanity as one family tries desperately to remain […]

You can always expect dynamic visuals and plenty of breakneck action from filmmaker Zach Snyder. You can also expect his movies to be overblown, self-indulgent and overlong. “Army of the Dead” is no exception. Dave Bautista stars in this grisly and bloody hybrid movie that plays like “Ocean’s 11” meets “World War Z.” After an […]

Amy Adams (“Hillbilly Elegy”) stars in a new Netflix suspense thriller from director Joe Wright (“Darkest Hour”). The supporting cast includes Gary Oldman (“Mank”) and Julianne Moore (“Gloria Bell”).

Alfred Hitchcock is long gone, but filmmakers continue to try to recapture the signature style of the master of suspense. “The Woman in the Window,” based on A.J. Finn’s novel, is one of the best and most involving of the many Hitchcock imitations. Amy Adams is excellent as an emotionally disturbed agoraphobic psychologist who may […]

The teaming of Billy Crystal and Tiffany Haddish promised to be a combo of comic gold. Instead, “Here Today” is a sweetly sentimental drama written and directed by Crystal about an aging comedy writer who relies on a newfound friend when his struggles with dementia become increasingly difficult to hide. The stars are appealing, and […]

Michael B. Jordan steps into the role of Navy Seal and CIA operative John Clark in the involving action drama, “Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse.” The plot has been updated from the Viet Nam era to contemporary times to provide an origin story for Clark, who attempts to thwart a plot to instigate war between the […]

Ben Franklin famously said, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Today, he could add, “and movies adapted from video games will be bad.” That’s certainly true of the reboot of the franchise “Mortal Kombat.” They tried to make something cinematic out of the game’s plot and themes in […]

The action thriller “Vanquish” represents the nadir in the distinguished career of Morgan Freeman. The Oscar-winning actor can’t save this ridiculous, over-directed mess about a corrupt police commissioner who blackmails a skilled assassin, played by Ruby Rose, into conducting a series of bloody revenge crimes. Writer/director George Gallo uses every filmmaking technique in the handbook […]

Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer are forces of nature. It’s their personal appeal that propels “Thunder Force,” a silly superhero spoof written and directed by McCarthy’s husband, Ben Falcone. McCarthy and Spencer play two friends who become a dynamic duo when Spencer develops a method to imbue them with superpowers. In many ways, the force […]

Thanks to its childlike enthusiasm and spectacular special effects, “Godzilla Vs. Kong” is a fun popcorn movie adventure even though its storyline and dialogue are below par. “Kong: Skull Island” is still the best of the Legendary Studios MonsterVerse series that has successfully revived the giant monster genre. Ultimately, ”Godzilla vs. Kong” is like watching […]

Director Zach Snyder’s superpower is that there’s no ‘quit’ in him…even when there should be. His bloated superhero movie “Zach Snyder’s Justice League” drones on and on for over four hours of spectacular but mind-numbing action featuring Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash and Cyborg. Is it better than the original 2017 version that was […]

“The Courier” is an understated, workmanlike spy thriller, based on a true story. In the run-up to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the British spy agency MI6 recruited a reluctant businessman named Greville Wynne, solidly played by Benedict Cumberbatch, to travel to Moscow and secretly work with a mole in the Russian government. The […]

Oscar winners Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Coleman add significant gravitas to the heartbreaking drama, “The Father.” Hopkins plays an elderly gent tortured by dementia and Coleman is his long-suffering daughter who does her best to help him. Writer-director Florian Zeller uses some clever dramatic tricks to give us a sense of the mental confusion and […]

It’s been 33 years since Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall teamed up for the memorable comedy, “Coming to America.” They join forces once again in “Coming 2 America.” Newly crowned King Akeem of Zamunda, played by Murphy, returns to America when he learns he’s got an illegitimate son living in Queens who is the rightful […]

Andra Day makes an auspicious and striking feature film debut in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.” It isn’t so much a biopic about the iconic jazz vocalist as it is about Holiday’s contentious relationship with the FBI which used her drug abuse as an excuse to censor her performance of the classic protest song, […]

Expect multiple Oscar nominations for “Nomadland,” a drama based on a non-fiction book about indigent senior citizens who travel around the U.S. in trailers in search of employment. Frances McDormand is solid, as always, and director Chloé Zhao uses a number of non-actors to play versions of themselves. It’s slow-moving, but “Nomandland” is elegantly understated […]