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Few will argue that The Man with the Golden Gun is the silliest of all the James Bond motion pictures (Casino Royale excepted). From the return appearance of Sheriff J.W. Pepper (Clifton Davis) to the ridiculous martial arts fight where two s...

Have you ever seen a tabloid headline like this: "Woman gives birth to son of six-headed alien"? Men in Black, the new science fiction comedy from cinematographer-turned-director Barry Sonnenfeld (Get Shorty), postulates that such stories are not...

Men in Black II would be a thoroughly entertaining affair if it wasn't for one thing: the plot. The annoying and pointless storyline is a constant irritant because it diverts our attention from the real reason to see this movie - the easygoing ch...

The problem with some franchises is that the studios don't know when it's time to quit. The lackluster nature of Men in Black II should have been a hint to Sony that the Men in Black series had run its course. Now, at least ten years beyond the "s...

(Spoilers, as one might expect from a retrospective of a 50-year old movie.)Midnight Cowboy, the only X-rated film to win a Best Picture Oscar, is less shocking than its reputation might indicate. Essentially a two-character buddy film, the ma...

Miller’s Crossing, the Coen Brothers’ third film (following Blood Simple and Raising Arizona) introduced the kind of comedically-tinged approach they would employ for some of their darkest and most compelling films, including the criticall...

On the surface, Moonlight presents three formative episodes in the life of a gay black man, but taking such a bird’s eye view of the film misses all the details and nuances. Although Barry Jenkins’ film is indeed about the struggles and d...

Moonraker is a sort of James Bond meets Star Wars. Released in 1979, the year that saw the arrival of Star Trek on the big screen, Moonraker was the latest film to latch onto the science fiction revival started by George Lucas' 1977 picture. ...

Mufasa, a prequel to both 1994’s original and 2019’s remake of The Lion King, is an example of commercialism at its most obvious. Although there are praiseworthy elements to Barry Jenkins’ venture into the series and children will almost cert...

My concept of a "family film" is a movie that can be enjoyed by viewers of all ages: undiscriminating young children, teenagers with short attention spans, and adults with somewhat more refined standards. Unfortunately, too often Hollywood eq...