We all won because these Hidden Figures reached for the stars

The nation was full of hope and fears in so many ways back in 1961 when these folks at NASA were busting butt to keep up with the Russians, a President on small screens seen by huge groups voicing dreams and concerns as fragmented groups wondered if they could come together to accomplish this greater…

Woody Allen’s Cafe Society lets us love his characters but not his whole story

Woody Allen did a lot right in his direction of Cafe Society, the Hollywood legend’s period piece about a New York City kid coming of age in the 1930s. Bobby Dorfman moves to Tinseltown and takes up under the tutelage of his bigwig agent uncle Phil Stern, hoping to learn about the life and maybe…

They didn’t get any better than The Nice Guys in 2016

I sat and pondered with the list of first-run and Blu-Ray/DVDs I’d watched these past 12 months, thinking about the effect they’d had on me in the theater or on the flat screen. Yes, there was good work in front of my eyes once a week, drama, comedy, all sorts of genres in the nooks…

They didn’t get any worse than The Brothers Grimsby in 2016

There were some stinkers on my list this year. I try to pick good ones on my weekly trip to the theater of a first-run show or selection from the Blu-Ray/DVD collection at work at the Liverpool Public library for my Monday movie reviews here. Sometimes it doesn’t work out. And so I give you…

Gosling, Stone sing, dance their way into a faraway La La Land

Director and writer Damien Chazelle wastes not one moment to let everybody know La La Land is going to bring everybody back to the days when Hollywood musicals were big, bold and bright. The first five or so of his 128 minutes of this beautifully shot and choreographed picture are spent on an L.A. Freeway,…

Mike and Dave find the dates they deserve

Zac Efron has not been on what you’d call a winning streak with me. I hated Neighbors. If humanly possible, I despised Dirty Grandpa even more. Too despicable. Too deplorable. Too demeaning. D-minus. And yet I checked out Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates from my place of work having seen the trailer and doing…

The type of Office Christmas Party you either run to or from is back on the big screen

Directors Josh Gordon and Will Speck bank on the well-worn reputation of the office Christmas party to drive home the romp and camp in this holiday comedy they’ve fashioned from a story and script turned out by six (!) writers. You know. There are those who will go overboard when the usual restrictions of the…

Now You See Me 2 keeps you guessing again and again and again

The Four Horseman are back, sort of, to tease the world with their powers and make things right as rain. Of course, as audiences discovered, mostly to their delight in the 2013 illusion-meets-magic-turns-into-caper eyebrow-lifter Now You See Me, don’t be so certain that what you believe one moment will be remotely close to what you…

The elusive Warren Beatty applies his rules to recluse Howard Hughes

No doubt he’s an odd duck, but wildly intelligent. That much I was certain of even before my dear wife Karen and I took in the Black Friday 6:50 p.m. showing of Rules Don’t Apply in the Regal Cinemas’ theater at Syracuse mega shopping, dining and entertainment complex Destiny USA. When I left after the…

There’s a lot to run from and toward with Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk

Do not expect to feel all warm and fuzzy about Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. Yes, director Ang Lee’s latest big screen spectacle is about a homecoming tour of triumph. Yes, the screenplay of Jean-Christophe Castelli based on the novel of the same name by Ben Fountain tackles the theme of hero soldiers returning from…