Hugh Jackman shows he’s quite the great showman, indeed

Everything about The Greatest Showman comes off quite grand. And when we’re looking at the life of the guy who was grand enough to all he had and some things he didn’t on the line to bring the world its first circus, it shouldn’t be any other way. The story of the world of P.T.…

The Big Sick makes me feel good about romantic comedy

Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani really lived The Big Sick. And the writer and stand-up comic/actor had enough smarts – and guts – to take their how’d-we-meet story to paper together and allow producer Judd Apatow and director Michael Showalter put the touches on it for the big screen. Lucky us. This is an…

Amy Schumer, Goldie Hawn grab my guilty laughs in Snatched

You couldn’t help but root for Amy Schumer in her movie premiere from 2015, Trainwreck. Now that was a romantic comedy that showed off every bid of her wit and wisdom, as she wrote and starred as a woman who learned from life and about herself to grow into something special. The direction of prolific…

The Fate of the Furious is to keep our eyes popping, still

When a movie franchise reaches installment eight, fans are going to the theater either out of habit, fierce loyalty or morbid curiosity. Maybe even some fearful combination of all of the above. Have no fear, lovers of the whiz-bang that started way back in 2001 with The Fast and the Furious. Vin Diesel as the…

Who’s the real outcast in Table 19, you’ll wonder

Oh, Eloise seems so put together as she makes her entrance way back there to sit with the other (very) strangers sitting around table in the way back in the reception of her best friend, whose brother is the best man. And also is the guy who dumped her two months ago. By text. Which…

The boy from Mars and a girl from Earth make their own space

Director Peter Chelsom has delivered to this world with The Space Between Us two movies in one. The first is a space story, a tale of a frantically motivated businessman driven to bring humankind to a colony on Mars. Gary Oldman plays organization patriarch Nathaniel Shepherd as a complex dude who won’t take no for…