Search for 2016

Let me begin this review of the 2016 Ghostbusters remake by pretending there was no 1984 iteration. How enjoyable would the film be if it didn’t have such enormous baggage, if it didn’t emerge under the long shadow of a beloved predecesso...

Spoilers follow, although those who have read the book won’t be bothered by them. Although The Girl on the Train is a serviceable thriller, it’s hard not to see it as something of a disappointment. As a B-movie whodunnit designed for f...

The concept of a movie being “so bad it’s entertaining” is often employed as a way of disparaging a film that doesn’t work in the way the director planned. It’s a valid description but the word to focus on is entertainin...

Rags to riches stories are a Hollywood staple. They’ve been around for as long as movies have been around because viewers love a yarn about how a ne’er-do-well, propelled by a combination of luck and hard work, makes good. It’s a dr...

If this is the future for motion pictures, god help us all. A major collaboration between the Chinese film industry and Hollywood, The Great Wall features a primarily Asian cast with a few big-name American actors sprinkled in. The brainless story is...

Over the course of a long and distinguished career, actor Patrick Stewart has worked diligently to create a reputation as a serious professional - a man who approaches his craft with commitment and class. He is best known for two genre-specific roles...

Hacksaw Ridge embraces many of the clichés of the war movie but, instead of laying them out in a rote fashion, the film synthesizes them into a visceral, ultimately inspirational result. This is about heroism, patriotism, and an adherence to c...

Hail, Caesar! won’t be remembered as one of the Coen Brothers’ masterpieces. An homage to Hollywood of the 1950s, this is more of a niche film than a mainstream offering. It’s an opportunity for Joel & Ethan Coen to use the era as a cinematic p...

Chan-wook Park’s The Handmaiden is deliciously perverse, delightfully twisty, and unapologetically erotic. Delivered with a dash of black humor and a fair amount of bare flesh, Park (using Sarah Walters’ novel Fingersmith as a template) d...

There are two kinds of boxing movies: those that are content to follow a traditional narrative chronicling the rise (and sometimes fall) of an athlete and those that try to look a little deeper. It’s the difference between Cinderella Man and Ra...