Reviews

Director Roland Emmerich’s (Independence Day) film depicts the 1942 attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, followed by the air/sea battle of Midway. A notable cast makes up the real life heroes.  Dennis Quaid is Admiral William “Bull” Halsey, Aaron Eckhart is Jimmy Doolittle, who led a subsequent raid on Tokyo. Woody Harrelson is Fleet […]

As the director, Edward Norton brings us back to the time when film noir was in vogue.  The setting is in the middle fifties but feels more like the 40s.  Norton’s Lionel Essrog has been motherless since he was six years old, and his friend Frank Minna (Bruce Willis) also an orphan always refers to […]

At times this sincere look at an important historical figure (who hasn’t been emblazoned on $20 bills yet) can be prosaic and platitudinous but knows how to hit the emotional beats while checking all the boxes, though hardly with an austere, unflinching, and penetrating realism of Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave. Harriet stars Cynthia […]

Maleficent, Mistress of Evil, delivered exactly what you thought it should — good vs. evil with lots of action and an ending that was satisfying.  It was fun and colorful, tense and exciting with lots of action and a ton of close ups!  Zoom in on Angelina’s face, and yes her makeup is perfect, dialogue […]

An action-thriller about a near-retiring hitman bathes in digital novelty to diminishing returns which exposing its hackneyed, anachronistic nature.  Alas, Gemini Man strs Will Smith in two roles in Ang Lee’s latest foray into 3D immersion of employing increased frame rates (like what was seen in The Hobbit).   For some Smith brought energy and freshness […]