Search for Ista

Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver seeks to inject a dose of high octane into a heist film while illustrating how it’s possible to make a car chase exciting in an era when few action staples have become more boring and predictable. The film also s...

In my original, unpublished review of Basic Instinct (dated March 21, 1992), I wrote the following: "There's a fine line between eroticism and exploitation, and Basic Instinct treads it, using nudity, sex, and violence to cover up the limitations o...

The Beat that My Heart Skipped is director Jacques Audiard's re-imagination of James Toback's Fingers. Although Audiard and his co-writer, Tonino Benacquista, have retained the premise and some of the ideas of the original, this is, for the most par...

A case could be made that everything is made better with Mr. Rogers added to the mix. Take A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. A standard-order redemption/salvation drama about healing a poisoned father/son relationship, this story is leavene...

When I think of a “Jason Statham movie,” I think of The Transporter. Or Crank. Or The Mechanic – all relatively mindless (but enjoyable) thrillers that understood the appeal of their deadpan leading man: his ability to give and take physical ...

If timing is everything then Black Widow has suffered from a buzzard’s luck in that regard. Starring a character who is already dead in the MCU, the movie is forced to pick through her past life in search of a viable story and, in terms of b...

Those regarding Blade II as a travelogue will not be planning their next vacation to Prague, where the bulk of the motion picture takes place. (Economic considerations caused it to be filmed there.) The Eastern European city is portrayed as a shad...

If you're going to make a vampire movie, here's a piece of advice: leave Dracula out of it. The character is so iconic that virtually no cinematic interpretation will do him justice. Unfortunately, that's not something that writer/director David ...

If not for the high-energy performance of lead actress Geraldine Viswanathan, The Broken Hearts Gallery would feel like a lesser ‘90s-style rom-com where following a preordained path is more important than taking the time to show two people ...

Cadillac Records, while not a "musical" in the traditional sense, is close to 50% musical content and 50% drama. Accordingly, it's about 50% good and 50% bad. The re-creations of some of the most noteworthy blues and early rock tunes from the '50...