How awful that Meryl Streep can even act like she can sing like Florence Foster Jenkins

Back in the high society days when newspapers ran popular opinion, soldiers fought and relaxed en masses and something called records were played on a gadget by the name of the radio, there was a woman by the name of Florence Foster Jenkins who lived for music. But the circumstances of her life conspired against…

There’s a lot to like about the rotten heroes of Suicide Squad

What happens when you go to the tightest jail to collect a handful of the baddest people — that last word used loosely, for this is the comic book world, after all — to save the world? A divide between critics who pan the movie and diehard fans who rally behind Suicide Squad, it turns…

Matt Damon is Jason Bourne again, so people must die

To say that things get heavy when old connection Nicky hunts down former operative Jason Bourne on the streets of Greece to let him know that she’s hacked into the agency’s files to find the secrets about his past he’s been longing to discover doesn’t quite put the reunion of main man Matt Damon and…

Latest Star Trek feels a lot like TV days, and that’s OK

Would Justin Lin make my favorite Star Trek crew members faster or more furious? Yes, but it may take a while. And, well, maybe a little. And in the case of Star Trek Beyond, the work of the director of the Fast and Furiousfranchise turned out to be a pretty nice touch for James T.…

New Ghostbusters won’t let you forget the original

Will this new Ghostbusters stand on its own? With the small-print tag line Answer the Call added to the famous sequel to the 1984 comedy blockbuster, that’s even more of a natural question. Could it? Some originals become so ingrained on a culture’s psyche over time that a sequel stands little chance. And No. 1,…

New version of Tarzan doesn’t want to swing through his Legend

In this version of Tarzan, we meet the man of the jungle as an aristocrat in jolly old England, happily married to Jane under the given name of the parents from which he was orphaned before those sympathetic apes raised him. And when a U.S. politico played by Samuel L. Jackson comes with the proposal…

The Rock shows Hart and smarts in Central Intelligence

The main guys in Central Intelligence sure were different 20 years ago, we see in the flashback that sets up the action comedy starring Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart. The Rock as Robbie Weirdicht was the picked-upon high school doughboy dancing in the locker room shower until the Mean Boys pulled him out and slid…

Couple-up or it’s a mighty curious or-else in the wonderful The Lobster

Remember all that talk about your spirit animal a bit back? Well, Yorgos Lanthimos beats that animal kingdom by then-some in The Lobster, the writer and director’s first English-speaking film of his Film-Fest darling career. It’s a thoughtful satire on our society’s rush to pick somebody — anybody, really — to declare as The One.…

Me Before You Carries Much More than Romance to the Table

Love stories should come in all shapes and sizes. I’m glad when we get one that dares to stray from the oh-so-popular, inspired-by Nicholas Sparks and The Notebook formula, trickling down for 20 years now. Me Before You brings its share of stereotypes, yes. Scripted by Jojo Moyes from her own novel of the same name…

The Nice Guys are and they aren’t, but they’re always interesting

It’s 1977 in Los Angeles, and folks are having a fine time dancing their way through the smog, sort of, until a car carrying porno star Misty Mountains crashes down from the hills through the living room of a wide-eyed but somehow still respectful young teen. Thus start the mysteries of The Nice Guys, a…