Movies starring Jeremy Renner

Minimal spoilers. There are some references to things that happen and the usual discussion about plot elements available via trailers and pre-release clips, but I have tried to remain as “spoiler-lite” as possible. As always, however, if y...

Does the fact that Tag is loosely based on a real story make it more enjoyable? Not really, although it illustrates the absurdity of some human endeavors. It’s a red herring designed to distract from an underlying truth about this movie: it ...

Anyone who has seen either Sicario or Hell or High Water, the two previous scripts credited to writer/director Taylor Sheridan, should have a good idea what to expect tonally from Wind River. Sheridan doesn’t write happy, escapist fantasies...

The scenario presented in Arrival isn’t new - motion pictures have been dramatizing an event of this sort almost since moving images first flickered on a big screen. We wonder about it, dream about it, imagine it, and write about it. Popular te...

Spoiler Alert! Nothing overt but I hint at some plot developments that some readers may not want to know about until after they’ve seen the movie. Depends on your concerns about a “virgin movie-going experience.” Despite the name...

2015 has been a banner year for action-oriented spy movies. One early entry, Kingsman: The Secret Service, was a Valentine to '60s British titles. A similar claim could be made about the upcoming The Man from U.N.C.L.E. In November, James Bond wi...

It is the 800-pound gorilla in the room, the behemoth before which every other would-be blockbuster during the summer of 2015 must bow. Yet, perhaps because the filmmakers subconsciously recognized this and didn't feel the pressure to excel, the ...

The pen may be mightier than the sword but, as related in Michael Cuesta's Kill the Messenger, whispered innuendo is more deadly than both. Imagine, if you will, All the President's Men with Robert Redford's Bob Woodward brought down by attacks on ...

By cannibalizing the casts of his previous two movies, director David O. Russell has come up with his third consecutive winner. American Hustle, very loosely based on late 1970s "ABSCAM" sting, takes its cues from Boogie Nights both in terms of how...

The total worldwide box office gross for the first three Jason Bourne movies (The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum) is nearly one billion dollars (more if adjusted for inflation). With that kind of money in play, was ther...