ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS Review – Fab or Flub?
Absolutely Fabulous Review by Lisa Johnson Mandell @HomeInHollywood Sweetie Darlings, if you don’t mind being called by that unique term of endearment, and if, in fact, it elicits fits of giggles and sends you running to the fridge for some bolly (champagne), you’re going to love this film. If you’ve spent any time in Great Britain during…
GHOSTBUSTERS Review — Busting Makes Me Feel Good
Ghostbusters Review by Lisa Johnson Mandell @HomeInHollywood I so don’t get the controversy over this film. The 1984 original did indeed become iconic, but it’s certainly ripe for a reboot after 32 years. Don’t Batman, Superman and Spiderman get a little work done and then come back to plague us three or four times a decade?…
PETE'S DRAGON Review — Same Old, Same Old
Pete’s Dragon Review, by Lisa Johnson Mandell I think the number of sequels and remakes we’ve seen lately is rivaled only by the number of Disney movies that begin with the parents dying and the child being left alone. That’s not a spoiler, it happens in the first five minutes of the film, and I think…
THE INFILTRATOR Review — Best Film of the Year So Far
The Infiltrator review by Lisa Johnson Mandell I love a film that is so intense I have to remind myself throughout, “it’s only a movie, it’s only a movie–these are actors, and their lives are not really at stake.” I also found it necessary to remember that the movie is based on a published memoir, so at…
THE BFG Review — Beautiful for Generations
The BFG Review by Lisa Johnson Mandell with help from Julian Dans I can tell you that The BFG, Steven Spielberg’s first big screen collaboration with Disney, is magical and wondrous and a total delight, but not being a member of the film’s intended demo, I think the words of my nine-year-old friend Julian Dans,…
MIKE AND DAVE NEED WEDDING DATES Review — Book It
I know what you’re thinking when you start to read my Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates review: This is going to be another raunchy Neighbors-type film, seeing that it stars Zac Efron, and is written by the same screenwriters, Andrew Jay Cohen and Brendan O’Brien. “How could it not be the same ole, same ole?” I was wondering…
THE LEGEND OF TARZAN REVIEW — He Swings, He Misses
The Legend of Tarzan review, by Lisa Johnson Mandell I was prepared to give The Legend of Tarzan the benefit of the doubt, because, hello? Alexander Skarsgard swinging through the wet and wild jungle, shirtless and with pants so perilously low-slung they’re they’re constantly threatening to fall off. And for the guys there’s the plucky…
FREE STATE OF JONES Review plus 3 More Big Indies
FREE STATE OF JONES REVIEW — THE NEON DEMONS REVIEW — INTO THE FOREST REVIEW — WEINER DOG REVIEW So many independent films were released this week I can’t begin to review, or even see, them all, but I thought I’d give you a rundown of the films you’ve probably heard the most about. FREE…
FINDING DORY Review — Absolutely Adoryble!
I always like to take a precocious child or two with me when I review animated films, because no matter how much I love or loathe the script, animation, music, etc., in the end, all that matters is whether it can capture the heart of a child. And my Finding Dory review will assure you that Pixar’s…
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE Review — Little Hart, Big Johnson
Slap my face and call me puerile, the new buddy comedy from Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson had me giggling and guffawing throughout. And no, it had nothing to do with “The Rock’s” perky pecks, although I’m with Melissa McCarthy in her response to them. Her Central Intelligence review would probably be the same as…
