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Zorro, the swashbuckling hero of the undertrodden, was introduced to the world in 1919 when he debuted in the pages of Johnston McCulley's serialized novel, The Curse of Capistrano. Within a year, the masked man had appeared in a film, the silent ...

Despite a strong opening and riveting first 45 minutes, The Maze Runner devolves into one of the weakest post-apocalyptic Young Adult movies to reach theaters in recent years. The film's inability to sustain the energy it starts with results in a d...

If I knew definitively what the plural was for the term deus ex machina, I’d apply it here. Rarely can I remember a movie filled with so many miraculous rescues and associated contrivances. The Death Cure represents the final chapter in a mo...

In the pantheon of YA ("Young Adult") dystopian book-turned-movie series, if The Hunger Games occupies the pinnacle then The Maze Runner sits in the basement. After an encouraging and engaging first half of the first film, The Maze Runner h...

What has happened to Robert De Niro's career? Once referred to as one of the top working American actors, De Niro has seen his talents wasted countless times in recent years as he has chosen one bad project after another. The list of titles reads...

When it comes to motion pictures, there are essentially two kinds of thrillers: visceral thrillers, which rely on action to generate tension and excitement, and intellectual thrillers, which burn more slowly but are often more satisfying in the end...

(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...

When Mighty Joe Young first reached screens in 1949, nearly everyone recognized it as an attempt to re-create the magic and mystique of King Kong. Many of the same people were involved -- Ernest B. Schoedsack in the director's chair, Robert Armstr...

Going into A Minecraft Movie, I was hoping for something that might emulate the cheeky fun of The LEGO Movie or the re-imagined Jumanji. Those at least seemed to be reasonable comps. Alas, Jared Hess’ translation of the popular computer game pro...