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Grand Illusion looks back on the 20th century’s first global conflict from the perspective of a world on the brink of an even greater war. This film, which was cited by Joseph Goebbels as “Cinematic Public Enemy No. 1” when he sought to ...

In style, if not substance, The Greatest Showman is reminiscent of the Disney film, Newsies. Like the 1992 live-action musical, The Greatest Showman comes to life when the characters are singing or dancing but struggles through the sequences i...

Hokum is a claustrophobic horror movie that mixes supernatural elements with human immorality. Although not technically a murder mystery, aspects of that genre can be found in the bare bones of the narrative. The film's main driver is a sense of i...

Robert Downey, Sr. is an original American independent film maker. He has been at his craft for more than 30 years now -- his debut, Chafed Elbows, came out in 1965. His best known work, the trilogy of Putney Swope, Pound, and Greaser's Palace, w...

If there's a complaint to be made about Insidious, it's that the film's second half is unable to live up to the impossibly high standards set by the first half. This isn't unusual when it comes to films that include a "reveal"; even Jaws lost a sha...

Insidious: Chapter 2 illustrates that, regardless of his past success in the horror movie field, James Wan is not infallible when it comes to the genre. The second installment of what is likely to become a franchise is disappointing precisely becau...

They say the third time's the charm.  Not with the Insidious series, it isn't.  Admittedly, installment #3 is an improvement over #2, but it fails to reach the highs of the chilling-but-uneven original. Instead of using the stinger ...

This is what horror has become in 2018: a jump-scare fest where things like suspense and slowly-building dread have been pushed to the side. Darkness passes for atmosphere and intensity is bypassed because it’s too strong for the all-importa...

In my review of Divergent, the opening installment of the four-movie series of which Insurgent is the second part, I wrote the following: "As an entry point into a new world, Divergent provides a worthwhile portal. This is the kind of reality an...

Frank Capra's It Happened One Night represents one of the great romantic comedy "templates." Although the film has officially been remade a handful of times (most not in English), its opposites-attract melding of screwball comedy and the road trip...