The opening of this film set me up for disappointment with an extended battle in dim light in which the characters are not recognizable. Suddenly, there looms a glorious, colorful view of the island of Berk, and things began to look up. What follows, however, is the least interesting story of the three Dragon movies. Here, the challenge for […]
What is this mysterious foreign film nominated for the best cinematography Oscar? This German entry has landed many of the early foreign film awards alongside the more popular entries “Roma” and “Cold War.” “Never Look Away” is directed by Oscar winner Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who took home the foreign film prize back in 2006
There are many films that Americans would never see or even hear about with the Oscar race I call the “Awards Game.” I call it a game because just like the World Series, the World Cup, and the Super Bowl, there are those who are excited to see who is the best of the year
This is a charming (and sometimes tense) story about an eccentric old man with regrets. It’s striking, because many would call him a hero. He eschews that appellation, saying that there were real heroes in WWII, and he was only doing what he was told to do. This is a role made for Sam Elliott (playing Calvin Barr,
The foreign film category has more buzz this year than usual. With Netflix pushing Roma all the way into the main categories including best picture, and becoming the presumed foreign language winner, there is a heightened awareness in non-English language movies. Cold War made a big splash at Cannes, resulting in it’s purchase by Amazon
I can appreciate what Paramount did here, going back to the drawing board to fix what wasn’t working with the Transformers franchise. The original “Transformers,” directed by Michael Bay starring Shia LeBeouf worked because it was new, fresh, full of room to offer something different to the silver screen. That quickly wore off after mindless
Andy Serkis, actor, visual effects stunt genius and the vocal mastermind behind Gollum in “The Lord of the Rings,” has decided to add director to his list of credits. “Mowgli” was his first film, but it has taken years after filming principal photography, for the visual effects to be complete. His second film “Breathe,” came out
Netflix’s latest original film (they are killing it this year) is one of those feel-good films that is aimed to inspire. That notion single-handedly trips “Dumplin’” up for most of this movie that is trying to spin a message more than it’s trying to simply be a great film. The filmmakers are trying to nudge
A lot has been said and written about the film Burning, South Korea’s submission to the Academy Award foreign film race this year. It began rolling out for the world to see back at the Cannes film festival. Whether critical word of mouth or it’s perplexing nature, Burning has become the second most talked about
The Fantastic Beasts sequel is not as good as the first one (imagine that) and this prequel, which occurs 70 or so years before Harry Potter, is just not as captivating overall. Director David Yates returns to the wizarding world yet again with Rowling on screenwriting. The Crimes of Grindelwald suffers from a variety of