Search for 2017

Just call it Grumpy Old Crooks. This quasi-remake of a 1979 caper film (which starred George Burns, Art Carney, and Lee Strasberg) makes wholesale changes to the structure of its forebear – unfortunately few of them are for the better. An in...

When considering the meaning of the title Good Time, I was reminded of Dickens: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” In the case of these characters, the former doesn’t apply. Good Time is an atmosphere-driven thrille...

When reading the Winnie the Pooh books as a child, I remember being amazed by the revelation that Christopher Robin was a “real” boy. That caused me to wonder whether all the animals were real, too. Goodbye Christopher Robin tells the sto...

Since its 2011 release, the film Goon has become something of a cult phenomenon, especially among Canadian hockey fans. (Is that term redundant?) This status likely explains the existence of a sequel. Called Goon: Last of the Enforcers, it con...

In style, if not substance, The Greatest Showman is reminiscent of the Disney film, Newsies. Like the 1992 live-action musical, The Greatest Showman comes to life when the characters are singing or dancing but struggles through the sequences i...

In August 2014, Marvel Studios released Guardians of the Galaxy. At the time, it was considered to be a gamble: a sci-fi/superhero mashup featuring characters no one other than comic book die-hards would recognize. To raise awareness and genera...

Applying the Groundhog Day premise to a horror movie is so obvious a conceit that I’m surprised it hasn’t been previously attempted. It’s a no-brainer. Unfortunately, director Christopher Landon and screenwriter Scott Lobdell have taken t...

I don’t know whether co-writer/director Brett Haley developed The Hero with Sam Elliott in mind but, regardless, the fit is perfect. A character actor best known for appearing in Westerns, Elliott made himself a recognizable fixture on TV an...

The Hitman’s Bodyguard is a throwback to the mixed-race buddy films of the 1990s. Think Bruce Willis/Damon Wayans in The Last Boyscout or Willis (again)/Samuel L. Jackson in Die Hard with a Vengeance. Those movies, and others like them, emph...