In a new subset of movie reviews on my main website, I am circling back to see and review reasonably recent films that I either missed during their main theatrical runs or saw later then their window of mainstream prominence. As a guy with a traveling day job and a new father of "two-under-two," I can't see everything every week and I have to choose my spots to head out to the theater. These are my educational-themed "OVERDUE REVIEWS" and the life lessons are still in full effect.
Read More"San Andreas" is one of those terrible-to-OK movies that Dwayne Johnson makes either passable or good solely through his presence, heroics, and charisma alone. We're a long way from great here, but "San Andreas" counts as mind-numbing fun that's fit for the summer season. The errors, implausibilities, and eye rolls are as high as the city-leveling casualty rate, but Warner Bros. and company weren't aiming very high.
Read MoreThinly veiled beneath the powerhouse studio running the show, Disney's "Tomorrowland" is your new lightning rod between poignant and preachy. It is, with absolute certainty, an enormous message movie hiding behind a summer blockbuster. Brad Bird's film is a platform for big ideas that knows it's on a platform to also sell tickets and merchandise, putting it in that very divisive place between intention, tone, and how people are going to interpret it. If that surprises you, get in line. Everyone that was likely expecting a whimsical family-friendly film with gadgets and adventure are instead getting what stands to be the most polarizing film of the season, if not the year. That might not be a bad thing.
Read MoreFor this writer, "Mad Max: Fury Road" is a daunting challenge for this website's definition of mindless action as a movie genre. Mindless action has its range from the trash of Michael Bay to the treasure of the "Fast and Furious" franchise. However, what separates the trash from the treasure is quality and impact. The quality speaks to the action and the impact speaks to the story being sewn along the way, even if it's secondary. The really good mindless action movies offer just enough heft of a compelling story to make the action matter and resonate beyond just superficial coolness. As incredible in stunt work and thrills as "Mad Max: Fury Road" is, it is missing too much of that heft to matter beyond being really cool to watch.
Read More"The Water Diviner" arrives as the directorial debut of Oscar-winning Australian actor Russell Crowe. Released last year in his home country, Crowe's film was the highest grossing film in Australia for 2014 and netted three Australian Academy Awards last year including Best Film. In an industry where everyone is constantly being compared and measured against their peers, most will to prognosticate Crowe already. Does he have it in him to be the next Robert De Niro behind the director's chair, the next Kevin Costner, or the next Clint Eastwood? Let's vote for "none of the above" and give him some time. Fashioned better than most directorial debuts, "The Water Diviner" isn't perfect, but it's a solid start from Russell Crowe climbing into a new chair.
Read More"The Theory of Everything" elected for the safe side of risk as a biographical film. Adapted from "Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen," the memoirs of Jane Wilde Hawking, the first wife of renowned theoretical physicist Dr. Stephen Hawking, by New Zealand playwright Anthony McCarten, the film is the second feature effort from Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker James Marsh ("Man on Wire"). To its credit, "The Theory of Everything" takes decidedly different route than one would expect from a documentarian telling the life story of a world-famous scientist.
Read More"Foxcatcher" was a passion project for Bennett Miller that he immersed himself into for over two years since 2012. He spent the better part of 2013 and 2014 solely editing this very meticulous film. What results, in my opinion, is a flawed sculpture where the artist spent so much time whittling over the immensity of the project and its details that he lost sight what the piece represented. Without a doubt, the effort and the talent is there in front of and behind the camera, but, somewhere, this film drowned itself out and lost the core of what really mattered.
Read MoreWe men can’t resist a good western. On paper, the new film opening in Chicago this week, “The Homesman,” starring and directed by Tommy Lee Jones could sell tickets to us men just by his presence alone. His gruff persona is perfect for the genre in every way. The “guy film” potential and exterior stops there at Tommy Lee Jones. “The Homesman,” adapted from the novel of the same name from notable western writer Glendon Swarthout dives deeper, darker, and fervently towards a different perspective.
Read MoreIn 1977, a single woman named Robyn Davidson, along with her dog and four camels, decided to trek on foot across that barren desert landscape from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean. The route was over 1,700 miles and would be about the equivalent of walking from Omaha, Nebraska to the Pacific Ocean. In this country, that's a matter of following a few highways and crossing all sorts of populated areas. In Australia, that journey is unmarked, dangerous, isolated, and devoid of almost any human help or settlement.
Read MoreTwo-time Academy Award-nominee Liv Ullmann brought her new film, “Miss Julie,” to serve as the opening night film of the 50th Chicago International Film Festival on Thursday, October 9th. “Miss Julie” is based on the 1888 August Strindberg play of the same name and stars two-time Oscar nominee and rising star Jessica Chastain (“Zero Dark Thirty”), Golden Globe winner Colin Farrell (“In Bruges”), and fellow two-time Oscar nominee Samantha Morton (“Minority Report”). Both Ullmann and Farrell attended the Opening Night Gala in Chicago.
Read MoreThanks to their outstanding careers on "Saturday Night Live," Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig are completely recognized, celebrated, and even typecast as total comedic performers. We've never seen them do real drama until "The Skeleton Twins." The success of your like or dislike of the film will come from your desire to either want more comedy or not believe the drama.
Read MoreHUMOROUS DISCLAIMER: I had pretty overwhelming feeling going in that The Expendables 2 was going to be a carbon copy of the first movie from 2010, only bigger, louder, busier, and very few minor differences of note. Well, I was right. While redundant enough to come across as Xerox as The Hangover Part II was to The Hangover with just a change of setting, this doesn't make The Expendables 2 any less awesome. To have a little fun and prove this point, I have copied my EXACT 2010 review of The Expendables word-for-word below (follow the link and see) and added strike-through edits and red text additions of those very minor differences. Enjoy!
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