This prequel to The Wizard of Oz often references the 1939 movie, but not closely enough to run afoul of MGM’s copyright. It begins in a black and white Kansas where James Franco (not the best casting choice) is working … Continue reading
The original Ted (2012, reviewed here) was a Seth MacFarlane comedy about a teddy bear that came to life when a little boy wished upon a star. A living, talking teddy bear became an instant worldwide sensation, but decades later … Continue reading
Riley is a pre-teen girl who lives a happy life in Minnesota playing hockey and spending time with her friends and loving parents. All that abruptly comes to an end when they move to San Francisco for her father’s career … Continue reading
CBS broadcast eight Jesse Stone TV movies from 2005 until 2012 that starred Tom Selleck as a former Los Angeles cop turned chief of police of Paradise, a fictional town in Massachusetts. The movies were based on a series of … Continue reading
The most impressive special effect in the whole movie is in the first scene. Michael Douglas, who plays Hank Pym, the original Ant-Man, turned 70 during filming, and he looks it. But the first scene is set in 1989, and … Continue reading
The future was better in the 1960s, at least in the popular imagination. We were going to get jetpacks and flying cars and robots and interplanetary travel. We’re too cynical for that now, though we do have a nice variety … Continue reading
Nathan (Oscar Isaac) is the ultra-rich, eccentric, and reclusive founder and CEO of a Google-like corporation. He lives on a vast, isolated estate, accompanied only by a solitary servant who speaks no English. Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), one of his many … Continue reading
Emily Blunt’s character is amoral and manipulative but also rather naïve, so much so that when she sells bad guy Rupert Everett a fake Rembrandt for £900,000, she doesn’t anticipate his getting upset with her. Billy Nighy is an elite … Continue reading
I’m told this is a take-off on the first two Twilight films, which I haven’t seen. As I have admitted more than once, one of my character flaws is a tolerance for dumb parodies, and this one has one or … Continue reading
Rob Reiner’s romantic comedy, about an aging and disagreeable real estate agent (Michael Douglas) and a depressed widow and nightclub singer (Diane Keaton), is watchable but formulaic. It begins when Douglas’s estranged son drops off his daughter (Douglas’s granddaughter, who … Continue reading