FANTASTIC BEASTS Review — J.K. Rowling Goes All Marvel on Us
Fantastic Beasts Review by Lisa Johnson Mandell Harry Potter fans are going to curse me for my bah-humbug attitude about this film, but frankly, I was bored. The story was predictable, the palette was mostly a dull gray, Eddie Redmayne as Fantastic Beast expert Newt Scamander mostly mumbled, and an excessive amount of screen time…
ARRIVAL Review – Hauntingly Cerebal, It Will Make You Think and Think Again
ARRIVAL Review by James Mandell @cerealatomic I’m a sci-fi lover, and discovered author Ted Chiang about two years ago. He wrote “Story of Your Life” in his book of the same title, a collection of short stories that were the most quietly riveting and creative I’d ever read. The movie is an account of an…
HACKSAW RIDGE Review– A Good Old Fashioned WWII Movie
Hacksaw Ridge Review by Lisa Johnson Mandell — C’mon, Mel! Why the R rating? Hacksaw Ridge is based on the true story of Desmond Doss, a Seventh Day Adventist and conscientious objector who felt it was his moral obligation to serve in WWII. He became a medic, and while he refused to carry a gun,…
INFERNO Review — More Luke Warm Than Blazing
Inferno Review — Not a Circle of Hell, But… by Lisa Johnson Mandell Apparently, all the other movie studios were intimidated by the prospect of opening the same weekend as Inferno, a Tom Hanks movie based on a blockbuster Dan Brown novel, directed by Ron Howard. Not one other major film studio chose to open a…
JACK REACHER Review — Occasionally Go Back
Jack Reacher Review — Second verse, better than the first I will say this for it: It’s not as bad as the first Jack Reacher film, which came out four years ago and didn’t do too well at the box office, opening with a mere $15 million. But it was a big hit with those who wanted…
THE ACCOUNTANT Review — It All Adds Up in the End
THE ACCOUNTANT Review — Hoping for high numbers by Lisa Johnson Mandell A thoughtful potboiler with plenty of twists. Who would have thought a thriller in this day and age could stand on story and character, rather than CGI and crazy camera work? Sure, The Accountant is slow at times–after all, we all know that’s it’s tough…
What I Learned About KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES at 'Spy-ce' Camp
Here’s my quickie Keeping Up With Joneses review: I don’t understand why everyone is dog piling on this film, which only garnered a 16% fresh Rotten Tomatoes rating. It’s a perfectly harmless comedy, ideal for date night, and while you may not be ROFL, you’ll be well enough amused by the story of a nebbish couple (Isla Fisher and Zach Galifianakis) trying…
THE BIRTH OF A NATION Review — Not Enough
Viewers are free to chose whether or not to see a film based on much publicized occurrences in a filmmaker’s past. But because I’m a critic, I believe my The Birth of a Nation review should address the virtues and weaknesses of the film and the film alone. That being said, producer/writer/director/star Nate Parker gives us plenty of reasons…
MISS PEREGRINE Review – Tim Burton Works Dark Magic
MISS PEREGRINE Review — Even better than the amazing book Thank you, Tim Burton, for taking the novel I loved so well and bringing it to the big screen with such dark creativity and brilliance. No other filmmaker could have adapted Miss Peregrine’s Home for Unusual Children so well, and even improved on it, to be perfectly…
Emmys 2016 Red Carpet — Hollywood’s Guru of Hue Weighs In
Color Expert Jill Kirsh Dishes on the Good, the Bad, and the Better at Emmys 2016 The Emmys 2016 show was fabulously produced and full of big surprises for me — Rami Malek winning Best Actor in a Drama Series over heavyweights like Bob Odenkirk, Liev Schreiber and Kevin Spacey; Tatiana Mislay winning for Best Actress in a…
