Josh Brolin

[5] Director Denis Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049, Arrival) takes a stab at delivering Frank Herbert’s dense, complicated science-fiction novel to the big screen. Dune centers around a teenaged royal named Paul Atreides (Call Me By Your Name‘s Timothée Chalamet) whose family is chosen by the galactic emperor to oversee production of the universe’s most valuable substance, the spice melange, on the desert planet Arrakis, nicknamed …

[6] Elisabeth Shue (Adventures in Babysitting) stars as a scientist working on an invisibility experiment for the U.S. military in this thriller from director Paul Verhoeven (Spetters, RoboCop). Things are looking good until her brilliant cohort and ex-boyfriend, played by Kevin Bacon, decides to be the first human subject. He successfully becomes invisible, but the transformation also weakens his state of mind and moral grounding. …

[8] Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige and writer/directors Joe and Anthony Russo hit a home run that should satisfy all Marvel fans with Avengers: Endgame, the climactic finale to what is essentially an 11-year story arc. It begins with the Avengers — Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) — all …

[7] Alessandro Nivola (Junebug, Jurassic Park III) stars with Reese Witherspoon and Josh Brolin in this ever-unfolding mystery/drama about a plan to steal money that goes horribly awry. Nivola plays a minimum wage worker desperate to escape his life, but when he gets in over his head and needs money to repay someone he stole from, his girlfriend (Witherspoon) puts her life on the line, …

[7] SPOILERS. I think. If you care, don’t read! I’m so glad we have a superhero who flirts with both men and women. In Deadpool 2, Ryan Reynold’s wisecracking vigilante is seen grabbing the iron ass of Colossus, going tip to tip with Cable, and still pining for Wolverine. Maybe he’s done as much for gay rights as Will & Grace or Ellen. Plus, what other …

[8] I’ve been hard on Marvel movies for being cookie-cutter and devoid of surprises, but Avengers: Infinity War stops that trend dead in its tracks. Directors Anthony and Joe Russo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Civil War) are downright masterful at keeping Infinity War going strong from beginning to end, with never a dull moment, all the action you’d expect, far more laughs than …

[6] Everest is the true story of a deadly 1996 expedition up Mount Everest in which two climbing parties suffered casualties after a fierce blizzard engulfed the mountain with little warning. The film is more of a dramatic biopic than a sensational survival flick, and while that’s normally a good thing, I do wish Everest were a little more suspenseful or exciting. The ensemble cast …

[2] Thrashin’ is the quintessential bad ’80s movie. There’s an anemic plot involving two warring skateboarding gangs and a boy who falls in love with the sister of a rival gang member. It’s a goofy Romeo and Juliet on tiny wheels, where none of the kids have parents and most of life’s mysteries are answered with a good musical montage. Thrashin’ is really just a …

[8] A teenaged girl ropes an aging, alcoholic U.S. Marshall into helping her find justice for her father’s murder. In this age of sequels and remakes, it’s hard to believe one of them could actually be this good. The Coen Brothers take the John Wayne original (based on a book by Charles Portis), roll it in mud, fray the edges, and weave a telling that’s …

[6] Ridley Scott directs from a script by Steven Zaillian this true story about a New York detective (Russell Crowe) and a drug lord (Denzel Washington) whose paths cross in the 1970s to expose deep-rooted corruption in the police force. The film balances the screen time between Washington and Crowe’s characters, so we get both the plight of the humble man and the rise & fall …

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