Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Review
RATING: (1.5 STARS) Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park stands the test of time. It’s a remarkable action-horror hybrid that knows its greatest strength is the sense of awe. When Sam Neill turns Laura Dern’s head toward the real, live dinosaurs for the first time, it’s transcendent. The series only ever reached that point again once—in the […]
Jurassic World Review
RATING: (3 STARS) For the third straight Jurassic film, no one has a good answer to the obvious question: Why are we doing this to ourselves? Why is Isla Nublar a place human beings want to visit? Why are parents putting their kids on planes in order to be in the immediate vicinity of giant, […]
50/50 Review
RATING: (3.5 STARS) Cancer, sadly, is something most people need to deal with sometime in their lives, whether it’s their own diagnosis or that of a family member or friend. That’s what makes 50/50 so believable and relatable. It looks at one young man’s diagnosis of a rare form of the disease, the way he […]
The Help Review
RATING: (3 STARS) Though relatively lightweight and somewhat manipulative, The Help is nonetheless affecting. It’s the acting that sets it apart from most films of its kind, and with no less than four excellent performances, it’s easy to forgive a film its missteps. I thought some of the characters were frustratingly one-dimensional, but the performances […]
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse Review
RATING: (2 STARS) I’m no fan of The Twilight Saga. The films are awkward, forced, poorly written, and feature worse acting than many soap operas. But I’ve seen the first two, so I feel obligated to finish the series out. For better or worse, I will find out how Bella, Edward, and Jacob resolve this […]
Hereafter Review
RATING: (2 STARS) Director, actor, and all-around bad-ass Clint Eastwood has rattled of an unprecedented number of hits in the last few years. Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Letters from Iwo Jima, Gran Torino, and Invictus were all, on one level or another, successful. His latest, Hereafter, is a major bust on almost every level. […]
