[6] Rutger Hauer and Jennifer Jason Leigh star in medieval tale of a young noble girl (Leigh) who is kidnapped by a band of traveling mercenaries. While her betrothed (Tom Burlinson) searches for her with a rescue team, she begins to feel at home among the bandits — and even in love with their leader (Hauer). Under the direction of Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall, Spetters), …
[7] New York teenager Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is bitten by a radioactive spider and begins developing powers just like Spider-Man. He meets the real Spider-Man (Chris Pine) during an encounter with a villain named Kingpin (Liev Schreiber), who is using a giant machine to mess with the space-time continuum. Spider-Man gives Miles an order to destroy the machine just before he’s killed by Kingpin. …
[3] Ishtar is one of the most notorious box office failures of all time. And after having seen it, it’s easy to see why. It sucks. And that’s baffling considering the immense talent of the creatives involved. Actors Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty were at the height of their careers, and writer/director Elaine May was responsible for writing on such films as Heaven Can Wait …
[6] In 18th century Italy, an orphan boy comes of age with the help of nuns and a kindly mentor, falls in love, gets embroiled in the slave trade, and fights for his inheritance in this adaptation of Hervey Allen’s sprawling novel. Anthony Adverse looks and sounds great, with immense sets, period costumes, and a rich score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Some of the supporting …
[6] Writer/director Dean DeBlois wraps up the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy with a mostly satisfying finale. In this third film, young Viking Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) and his comrades discover a second, rare Night Fury dragon — and it’s a female. Hiccup’s dragon Toothless naturally falls in love with the new Fury, but when a nasty dragon-napper sets his targets on the two lovers, …
[3] Bo Derek plays Jane to Miles O’Keefe’s mute Tarzan in Tarzan the Ape Man, a cheesy, wannabe-erotic adventure that suffers from poor craftsmanship and a confused tone. The film is directed by Bo’s husband John Derek, who is clearly determined to deliver soft-core porn with this movie. That intention is muddled by the more serious involvement of Richard Harris as Jane’s explorer father. Harris …
[1] When I heard Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, screenwriter behind Lethal Weapon) was directing and Fred Dekker (The Monster Squad) was cowriting, I thought The Predator would have the right ingredients for a successful relaunch. I don’t know to what extent studio interference played a part, but if I were Black or Dekker I would have had my name removed from this film …
[5] Gregory Peck is Captain Ahab in John Huston’s adaptation of Melville’s classic novel. Peck is reliably charismatic in the role, and the movie is at its best when it stays with him. Huston’s style is not an overly romantic one — which I think would have suited the movie better. I enjoyed the first thirty minutes the most, up through Ahab’s introduction and his …
[6] After the surprisingly fun Jurassic World, Universal was quick to crank out this passable sequel. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard return, shoe-horned into a plot that doesn’t really need them. The island that hosts the now-closed theme park is on the verge of volcanic destruction and a wealthy company is determined to rescue as many creatures from the island as possible. Or at …
[7] After the polarizing (and frankly great) The Last Jedi, and the almost insufferable Rogue One, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from another Star Wars movie. But I was excited about the casting of Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo, because his performance in the Coen Brothers’ Hail, Caesar is one the most charismatic turns I’ve seen at the movies in many years. And …
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