Search for Peter

Few would debate that the story of Edward Snowden’s life is as compelling as it is controversial. Based on Oliver Stone’s biopic, Snowden, it would also seem to be inherently non-cinematic. By opting to go with a straightforward account o...

Apparently, someone turned up the heat because The Snowman is a sloppy mess.One of the most shockingly awful wastes of talent imaginable, this adaptation of Jo Nesbo’s thriller is mostly incoherent and, just when it starts to make sense, it i...

A Sound of Thunder takes a thought-provoking science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury and turns it into a noisy, messy Hollywood action/adventure extravaganza. This approach isn't unique or inherently bad (it worked, for example, with Blade Run...

The Space between Us is what it looks like when a promising premise is betrayed by a dumbed-down, hackneyed screenplay. Instead of developing this movie as a coming-of-age story of the first Earth-conceived child born on another planet, the narrative...

Spenser Confidential is a perfect Netflix movie – a mid-budget action/thriller featuring a recognizable star and not requiring much in the way of attention or dedication from a viewer. It’s the kind of film people might not feel compelled ...

If you want something shaken up, who better to turn to than (Phil) Lord & (Chris) Miller? Apparently, their brand of concussive trembling was a little too much for the Star Wars universe but not so for the “Spider-Verse,” a strange and won...

The biggest crime committed by The Spy Who Dumped Me isn’t its dearth of humor or reliance on an unimaginative espionage plot but the way it wastes the talents of its leads, Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon. Their easy rapport, a staple of any wo...

It's so easy -- too easy, in fact -- for a war movie to turn into a celebration of blood, death, and mayhem. Exploitation of wars and their dehumanizing affects has become a staple of American action films (First Blood, Missing in Action). Occasi...

I remember the first time someone told me about the premise for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home -- that the crew of the former Enterprise would travel back in time to retrieve a pair of humpback whales. Described thus, it sounds abysmally bad, s...

Indulge me for a moment as I time travel back to 1980. Historically, it was a signficant year -- the Iran hostage crisis raged, Ronald Reagan won the Presidential election, and the United States boycotted the Moscow Summer Olympics in response...