Category: Movie Review

During the double-digit inflation of the 1970s, every supermarket began offering generic food items. They were cheaper than brandnames and helped family budgets make it from one payday to the next. They were packaged in pure white containers with large black letters telling the shoppers what’s contained inside. A can of peas would read...

One weakness I have as a movie review is that I often find I have two opinions of a movie. There is the opinion I have as I’m watching the movie, and there’s the opinion I have after seeing the movie, as it sinks in, and as I form my critical analyze of it. These...

When I first heard about a movie based on the premise that future cities will be giant, mobile war machines, my first reaction was indifference. The concept sounded like a challenge to my willing suspension of disbelief, that psychological trick we play in order to enjoy novels, short stories, movies, and other works of...

As the title suggests, The Possession of Hannah Grace is about demonic possession, but its plot is better described as a ghost story. Yet it includes vampiric elements. The hybrid nature of the monster suggests to me that it started life as three screenplays that were merged into one. Though such things happen in...

I don’t watch the Oscars. Since I’m a movie buff, that might surprise you, but I realized decades ago that the Oscars’ taste in entertainment varies from mine. Sometimes we agree, but mostly we disagree. That’s fine. It’s the way it should be. It’s all subjective. Instead of watching the Oscars, I make my...

Not counting Mission: Impossible: Fallout, released last week, there had been five Mission: Impossible movies. In case you haven’t already guessed, I’m watching and reviewing them in anticipation to seeing Fallout. My reviews, so far, have been mixed. I enjoyed the first movie, but the second movie had the wrong tone. It mistook itself as...

I cried. It’s not just that I cried that’s worth noting but the reason I cried. I cried because Mission: Impossible III (2006) is so much better than Mission: Impossible II (2000). I paused the movie and cried. This is so much better than the last movie, I said, through my sobs. Why couldn’t...

Before rewatching Mission: Impossible II (2000), I remembered it was my least favorite Mission: Impossible movie, but I hoped that with a fresh viewing, I would find more to like about it. Sad to say, I’m disappointed in the results. Instead of reversing my judgement, rewatching it reaffirmed my sour judgement. It’s not a...

In the 1960s, Cold War anxiety, angst over the escalating Vietnam War, and popularity of James Bond movies inspired a slew of spy television shows. I Spy, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and the comic Get Smart both entertained us and reassured us that the good guys–read the United States–would prevail. In this trend, Mission:...