Captain America: Civil War Review
RATING: (2.5 STARS) During the much-hyped battle between the Avengers and Friends in Captain America: Civil War, one combatant, with tongue firmly in cheek, remarks, “Everyone’s got a gimmick.” Indeed, every one does, and Civil War is “The One with Black Panther and the New Spider-Man”. Marvel movies are hardly identifiable anymore — assuming they […]
Avengers: Age of Ultron Review
RATING: (3 STARS) Because it begins, ends, and is about something, Avengers: Age of Ultron already has a leg up on most other Marvel movies. And boy, it needs that leg up because there are times when this feels like one of the laziest studio movies in years. At other times, however, it reaches the […]
Iron Man 3 Review
RATING: (3 STARS) Whatever Marvel movie followed The Avengers was going to struggle to overcome the scaling back that, in this franchise’s very particular case, was unavoidable. Marvel movies, for better or worse, never take place in a vacuum, and for four years and five films, this studio was building toward something massive and unprecedented. […]
Margin Call Review
RATING: (3 STARS) Margin Call does for business what The Ides of March did for politics. It tells a familiar, high-stakes story about people making difficult and morally-questionable decisions. And like George Clooney’s film from earlier this month, rookie writer/director J.C. Chandor’s film isn’t afraid to get very technical on its viewers. If you’re unfamiliar […]
The Young Victoria Review
RATING: (3 STARS) European royalty dramas are a dime a dozen. The last decade has seen films about Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth II, Marie Antoinette, among many others. The close of the decade brought another such film—Jean-Marc Vallée’s “The Young Victoria†about the early years of the reign of Britain’s longest serving monarch. The […]
