THE ORVILLE Review: You Can't Have it Both Ways…Or Can You?
THE ORVILLE Review by James Mandell, arbiter of all things sci-fi Cool CGI, big derivative music scoring, shiny interiors and costumes that look like everyone is about to get in formation and march down the football field playing an arrangement of the latest Taylor Swift tune. What could go wrong? The Orville (Fox, Sundays) made…
HOME AGAIN Review — Reese Witherspoon and Candice Bergen – What's Not to Like?
HOME AGAIN Review — You can go… On a very personal note, when you put Reese Witherspoon and Candice Bergen together (as they were in Sweet Home Alabama), set them in absolutely gorgeous L.A. homes, throw in handsome and charming male eye candy, and wrap them in a plot about Hollywood, you’ve served up all…
Why You Must See Close Encounters of the Third Kind This Week
Editor’s Note: Just when I was thinking there wasn’t much new for you at the cineplex over Labor Day Weekend, my husband comes running into my office waving a newspaper add for the 40th Anniversary Director’s Cut edition of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, playing for one week only. “Must. See. This!” he cried. Here’s…
Best Comedies of All Time — Do You Agree with the BBC?
What would you add or delete from this list of Best Comedies of All Time? The BBC recently came out with this list of Best Comedies of All Time. To come up with the list, “asked 253 film critics – 118 women and 135 men – from 52 countries and six continents a simple: “What…
The HITMAN'S BODYGUARD Review — LOGAN LUCKY Review — Surprisingly Fun Fare for August
The Hitman’s Bodyguard Review — A raucous anti-buddy pic The Hitman’s Bodyguard takes a threadbare genre: the cop and robber buddy movie, and somehow weaves it into something fun and fresh, mostly thanks to the clever pairing of Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson, doing a few of the many things they do best. Reynolds…
GLASS CASTLE Review – ONLY LIVING BOY IN NEW YORK Review
THE GLASS CASTLE Review – A Tough Challenge THE ONLY LIVING BOY IN NEW YORK Review — A Mushy Bite of the Big Apple The Glass Castle Review — An almost impossible adaptation If you’ve read the bestseller by Jeannette Walls (and almost every woman I know has) you’re probably wondering how they could make such…
Celebrate NATIONAL SPOIL YOUR DOG DAY Like a Baller
Hundreds of Ways to Celebrate National Spoil Your Dog Day Who even knew there was a National Spoil Your Dog Day? But, as all my pet-loving friends agree, we’ll use any excuse to shamelessly pamper our pooches, right? As if they need more lavish attention A survey done by NationalToday.com in celebration of National Spoil Your Dog…
DUNKIRK Review — VALERIAN Review – 2 Astounding Movies in Very Different Ways
DUNKIRK Review — VALERIAN Review — Two Great Directors, One Masterpiece by Lisa Johnson Mandell DUNKIRK Review — The Most Significant and Original War Movie in Years Beautiful and intense from start to finish, Christopher Nolan‘s Dunkirk is not what you’re expecting. It’s more lyrical than linear, try to hold on too hard and analyze…
WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES Review SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING Review
WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES Review SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING Review by Lisa Johnson Mandell War for the Planet of the Apes Review — Let My People Go (to see it) I wasn’t excited to see War for the Planet of the Apes, expecting it to be just another unnecessary, gratuitous sequel in a summer…
SWIM TEAM Review — The Most Touching Piece I've Ever Posted
SWIM TEAM Review by Allie Foutz Turley Allie Foutz Turley is one of my six beautiful nieces. She’s not a professional critic, although she did a bang up job when I took her to a junket and asked her to interview Shia LaBeouf and John Voight for the movie Holes. She is, however, a former…
