The Goods: Film ReviewsThe martial arts in it is world-class, especially the great finale mirror scene. The plot is a wonky spy thriller that I don’t have much interest in. Thankfully, Bruce Lee’s tremendous grace and physicality overrides any other deficiencies.
An outstanding teen drama about a big-hearted alcoholic and his repressed girlfriend who want to save each other. Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley are terrific, and the movie is incredibly romantic, sad, and funny in the right places. There’s a single-shot walk through the woods that is the most I’ve felt like a teen falling in love since I was a teen falling in love. Aimee (Woodley) ends up more a plot tool to develop Sutter (Teller) than a character with depth, but that’s basically my only complaint. Even the loser-daddy-issues thread, which should be a trainwreck, packs a big punch.
The Great Escape remains entertaining and rousing, but it has serious tonal issues that ultimately make it more shallow fun than anything profound. But it’s great fun indeed.
The older I get, the more shrill and manipulative Annie seems. But this TV production by a pre-Chicago Rob Marshall is well-cast and a sturdy enough rendition.
Most genre parodies only work if they truly love the genre they’re mocking. Luckily, DodgeBall is a goofy, enthusiastic execution of a sports movie even outside the relentless conveyor belt of gags and cameos. Terrifically funny film.
I am totally amped about the increased stylization and experimentation of all mainstream American animated films, especially Dreamworks movies, but this is the first one where it feels like the obsession with visual energy and innovation completely outstrips any consideration for the narrative. (Trolls 2 is also bananas, but determinedly so.) Anyways, I felt like I’d eaten a bowl of candy after I watched it, but I am still encouraged by it (if this is what the oddball stinker looks like for Dreamworks in the 2020s, how far they’ve come). That’s not the same as saying it’s good, but it’s close.
Probably even better than the first one, though for largely the same reasons the first one was good, so the thrill of the surprise is gone. The tension between Elina and Nori is out of control — I love the bizarre chemistry of the characters in this and the barely-veiled queer vibes.
What makes Blues Brothers work is that its mantra “we’re on a mission from God” is not an ironic eye-roll but a genuine mission statement. John Landis and Dan Aykroyd understand that this material only works if the film can communicate the deep awe and worship of the music that inspired it. That’s what makes this, in spite of its draggy runtime and shaggy comedy, a Great Film.
Thoroughly entertaining family sports flick that holds up well. Good flavor, fun script, nice execution of the tropes.
More like Clifford the Big Red Dud, amirite? If you’ve read the books, you know Clifford is supposed to be a ungodly force of nature, not a big cuddly CGI fella. There are some weird themes in this movie, like a biotech CEO who wants to use Clifford’s genetic mutations on humans (or something), and the author, Norman Bridwell, as a possibly-immortal in-universe character, that add a fun sense of strangeness to keep it from being too dull.