HIT MAN. In my inscrutable-to-some fervor to defend Bad Boys: Ride or Die and the deliciously trashy legacy of that franchise, I failed to reserve enough column-inches and enthusiasm for another, quieter but no-less satisfying contribution to the amorphous agglomeration of late-stage American mainstream movies. In the same weekend that saw Will Smith as Mike […]
Broadway Cinema
Posted inArts + Scene
The Importance of Bad Boys: Ride or Die
BAD BOYS: RIDE OR DIE. I was prepared to blame prevailing global conditions as much as my own skepticism for sleeping on Bad Boys for Life (2020) as long as I did. In sitting to revisit the franchise and attempt to organize my thoughts about it, though, I discovered that I could not, in fact, […]
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Trouble with the Kids
BABES. Despite the inescapable fact that pregnancy, birth and its alternatives have touched literally all of us, the subject has been largely shunted to the margins of contemporary cinema. As recently as the first decade of this strange, lamentable century, a “will they or won’t they” dramedy about a birth control mishap would not be […]
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Apocalypse at the Movie-plex
FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA. A friend — and greater cineaste than I — having very recently watched and enjoyed Furiosa, conveyed to me his abiding concerns for the future of cinema. And, if we are to trust the recent, ubiquitous reports of box office “failure,” his fears could be justified. But, as likewise pertains […]
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Youthful Escapades
Attentive readers will note the conspicuous omission of this weekend’s new releases from this column; fair enough and an explanation may be in order. First and most importantly, Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black looks pretty bad. I hope I’m wrong and it is actually a delicately crafted, insightful examination of a troubled, […]
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Rocky Evolutions
KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. It’s been a while since the most recent installment in this, the ongoing pre-history of the Apes saga. That movie, War for the Planet of the Apes (2017), took us on a self-aware journey into the heart of darkness, complete with Woody Harrelson doing his best Colonel Kurtz. […]
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The Fall Guy Takes it on the Chin
THE FALL GUY. At the risk of speaking more reboots into existence, the storeroom of old media is not always the refuge of the unimaginative. For it to work, some part of its original DNA that still resonates must be preserved, while others are tweaked to make it new. Listen, Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida was […]
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Challengers Rises to the Challenge
CHALLENGERS. Although never a proper tennis fan, I would, in my younger, dumber years, have considered myself something of a casual appreciator. As country kids, old tennis rackets were useful indeed for seeing how high into the air one could drive small rocks. And a case of tennis balls might as well have been a […]
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Team Efforts
THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE. When they’re really cooking, Guy Ritchie movies can deliver a thrilling, funny, well-appointed (if slightly vapid) pastiche of Brit-crime in a heightened, mid-century American vein. That he has produced more (artistic) misses than hits is perhaps a function of over-productivity or the demands of a myopic market place. Fortunately, it’s […]
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Civil War‘s Victory
CIVIL WAR. I would never call myself a science fiction head, as much for fear of reprisals from within the community as for the sake of accuracy. When the genre works, though, it can deliver vivid, exciting, not-so-thinly veiled commentary on the triumphs and tragedies of humanity as we have known it. Properly executed, it […]
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The First Omen and Monkey Man Fight Dirty
THE FIRST OMEN. With the recent spate of horror movies centered around nuns — from the Conjuring universe’s spinoff and 2023 sequel, Immaculate’s robes only lately sweeping out of the theater and now The First Omen opening — one wonders how recruitment is going. The Omen (1976), stars a fully gray Gregory Peck as a […]
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Hash of the Titans
GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE. For a giant lizard, Godzilla has evolved. At this point, his multiverse timelines are overlapping, with reboots from Japan and the U.S. passing each other at the box office, Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One finishing its acceptance speeches just as Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire hits theaters. The 1954 […]