Adventure

[7] Lucille Ball and John Carradine are among the 12-passenger crew of a small passenger plane that crashes in South America. The motley crew, which includes a child, a socialite, and a prisoner sentenced to death, must work together to repair the plane’s engines before deadly natives attack. Five Came Back is a well-paced ensemble that packs a couple of memorable shocks and surprises, including …

[3] I went into Jaws: The Revenge (the fourth movie in the series) thinking, ‘Hey, it can’t be worse than the third one.’ And I was right. It’s exactly as bad as the third one. Though for slightly different reasons. Part four brings back not only the shark, but the Brody family. Lorraine Gary reprises her role as Mrs. Brody, now widowed, and her two …

[8] Just when I thought good old fashioned escapist adventure storytelling was dead, along comes The Lost City of Z. This movie renewed my faith in movies. I was beginning to think I’d seen the end of grand, romantic films like those directed by Peter Weir or David Lean, but James Gray (The Yards, We Own the Night) picks up the mantle and delivers a film …

[3] Hello, it’s the 1990s. We want our big, stupid action movie back. I really, really disliked this movie. It’s so devoid of emotion and tediously boring, I thought about leaving before it was over. It’s like Con-Air for the 2010s or something. So maybe if you liked that big stupid Con-Air movie, you’ll also like this big stupid King Kong movie. But I guess I …

[7] Everyone in front of and behind the camera is back for another go-round in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, a fun time at the movies, even if it falls a tad short of the first film‘s humor and character engagement. This installment focuses around the sudden appearance and identification of Peter Quill’s (Chris Pratt) father, played by the always-welcome Kurt Russell. Dad reveals …

[4] Rogue One is the first of what is sure to be many stand-alone or spin-off Star Wars movies over the next few decades. This maiden venture focuses on the events leading directly into Episode IV: A New Hope, with a young woman trying to redeem her father’s coerced invention of the Death Star by leading a rag-tag team of freedom fighters into hostile Imperial …

[3] Remember the Robert Altman movie The Player? At the end of that movie, they mock the typical Hollywood movie by showing the end of a cheesy movie in which Julia Roberts is sentenced to death in the gas chamber, only to be rescued by Bruce Willis at the very last possible second. Bruce shoots his way into the gas chamber and carries Julia out in his …

[4] Based on a story by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot is about the crew of a German submarine and the survivors of a ship they torpedoed banding together on a mysterious island full of dinosaurs and cave people. The British production takes a long while to get to the island, so much so that it feels like an entirely different movie …

[3] James Marsden, Thomas Jane, and Piper Perabo star in this wannabe animal attack movie that’s really just an overwrought drama about estranged brothers burying the hatchet. The squabbling between the two men (all the men in the movie, actually) gets pretty tedious, and you have to be prepared to get some cheese sprayed on you as well — Perabo’s character is deaf, and she …

[7] Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland reteam after their initial pairing in Captain Blood. This time, they’re in a love triangle that plays out during an Indian massacre of British women and children, later spurring into action the contents of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s vengeful Charge. For a film from the ’30s, Charge has balls. You see women and children die on screen during some …

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