“Peppermint” Bungles Jennifer Garner’s Return as Action Star
Did the new Jennifer Garner film “Peppermint” suffer from some disastrous test screenings? Is that the reason that the actioner feels truncated and compromised in its edit? As presented, the movie about a vengeful mom taking down the drug cartel who murdered her husband and child feels rushed, discombobulated, and incomplete. There seem to be […]
“Operation Finale” Nobly but Tepidly Tells of Adolf Eichmann’s Capture
The story of the capture of famed Nazi Adolf Eichmann is an inherently dramatic one. The architect of “The Final Solution,” the Third Reich plan to exterminate all the Jews during WWII, managed to escape an American prison camp after the war and secretly migrate to Argentina. There, the fugitive thrived under the name “Ricardo […]
The Scares are Pretty Thin in “Slender Man”
There is one sublime moment in the new horror movie “Slender Man” that suggests the subtler and more disturbing film this one could have been. A couple of teen girls are searching online for information regarding a supernatural creature the web has dubbed “Slender Man.” Amongst the video clips they discover is one occurring in […]
Spike Lee’s Brilliant “BlacKkKlansman” Indicts Our Nation’s Past and Present
All period pieces comment on the present. Spike Lee’s new film “BlacKkKlansman”, about a couple of undercover cops infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado Springs in 1972, not only indicts bigotry in America 40 years ago, but the continued presence of white nationalism on our national stage. For good measure, Lee also tosses in some […]
Disney’s “Christopher Robin” is a Charmer for All Ages
Walt Disney Pictures has done an agile job turning their vault of animated films into live-action updates. “Cinderella”, “The Jungle Book” and “Beauty and the Beast” are just three of the cartoon classics that made the transition successfully over the past decade. And while some may have assumed they were done merely for commerce or […]
