Author Archive
Film Review – The Great Wall
Arrows flying, 4 legged CGI monsters, gleaming well-polished primary colored armor, more arrows, horses, more CGI, still more arrows, beards, intense staring, Taiko drums, yet still more slow-motion arrows… Perhaps China’s most famous structure was built and used for various purposes over hundreds of years.…
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Film Review – The LEGO Batman Movie
Good News! Everything is still Awesome! Back in 2014, The LEGO Movie was a shot of pure joy. It was the best kind of surprise, a property that was likely to only be a 90 minute commercial for a toy line was in actuality a…
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Film Review – In A Valley of Violence
Silent lone gunman wandering the plains with only his horse and dog as company. An encounter with a drunken priest. Running afoul of the Marshall in a small frontier town. Gunfights and revenge. All of the cliches are present in the new Western In A Valley…
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Film Review – Queen of Katwe
Moving, uplifting, important. All of these words can be used describe Disney’s new feel good family film Queen of Katwe. What’s wonderful here however is that this movie is all of those things, due both to the retelling of a compelling true story and some…
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Film Review – The Light Between Oceans
Great acting can carry a story. And you can’t get a better cast of contemporary actors than those featured in the new drama The Light Between Oceans. While the basics of the plot may at first blush seem overdone, a top notch troupe of performers…
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Film Review – The Secret Life of Pets
Man, Pixar makes great movies. No, the new film The Secret Life of Pets isn’t a Pixar movie. In fact, if you were to write a compare and contrast thesis on what makes their films great, this new movie would work as your example of…
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Film Review – The Purge: Election Year
Man I wish these movies were better. This series is a repeating exercise in frustration. There is potential here for making a trenchant, biting, incisive commentary on American society. And there are germs of good ideas in The Purge series. But they are so underutilized…
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Film Review – 45 Years
If you are into quiet, subtle, brilliant film acting, you will be into the new film 45 Years. Thoughtful adult cinema about characters over a certain age is increasingly rare anymore. And especially allowing actors in their advanced years star in a film while giving…
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