Maybe one day we’ll be so wealthy that no one will ever tell us we’re bad at anything. Writing? You’re the next Hemingway! Painting? A modern day Michelangelo! Brain surgery? A genius! Such was the life of the real Florence Foster Jenkins, an early 20th century Manhattan heiress and “opera singer” with a laughable singing …
A president of the United States maneuvered into office by the Russians? A brash, uncouth bully poised to assume the highest office in the land thanks to a gigantic communist conspiracy to take over our government? You can’t make this stuff up. Actually, you can. Someone did — 55 years ago. “The Manchurian Candidate” (1962), …
Observing Matt Damon’s character once again tearing the lid off CIA black ops’ skullduggery, we wondered if, after all the sequels, can there possibly be a single ugly secret left in Langley? Our hero, Jason, the humorless amnesiac and government-groomed assassin, is once again bringing down the temple. This would be the same top secret …
Clint Eastwood’s versatility as a movie director is brilliantly in evidence with “Sully,” the true story of Capt. Chesley Sullenberger.
It says something about “Imperium” that we spent the entire hour and 45 minute film thinking up alternate titles. Some contenders: “Harry Potter and the Crosses of Fire”; “Harry Potter and the Half-wit Klansmen”; or “Harry Potter and The Order.” To be fair to Daniel Radcliffe, the erstwhile ’Arry Pottah, the actor has done a …
“London Has Fallen” is a long, bombastic wallow in anti-Muslim hysterics. We thought it would be a diverting shoot-em-up, what with it being the sequel to 2013’s noisy, mildly preposterous “Olympus Has Fallen,” in which the White House is taken over by terrorists. But we got our trumpupence. Here’s the story: England’s prime minister dies …
This is the fifth and, hands-down, the worst of the “Terminator” sequels. Which is quite an accomplishment as “Terminator 3” and “Terminator Salvation” also were the spawn of a talentless, avaricious crew of screenwriters striving to squeeze a few more mill from the franchise. Come to think of it, the original “Terminator” (1984) wasn’t much. …
Love it or hate it (either response is defensible), “Ex Machina” is an exceptionally intelligent movie and that rare effort at science fiction that never degenerates into a) horror, b) action-adventure or c) futuristic fantasy. It is about science and hardly puts more than one toe in the pool of fiction. The subject is artificial …
There’s a funny movie somewhere in “Hail, Caesar!” Joel and Ethan Coen’s latest is a darkish comedy/satire, but that movie is hidden beneath esoteric callbacks to old Hollywood that even this movie history lover couldn’t quite place. Josh Brolin plays Eddie Mannix, a fictional take on the real-life “fixer” whose job it is to ensure …
Season 3 of “Peaky Blinders” brings to mind Episode 2 of “The Godfather.” In the original “Godfather,” the Corleone family is looking for power. In the sequel, what they’re after is respect — which was the more deadly pursuit. Much the same can be said of the ambitious Shelby clan. In seasons 1 and 2, …
