By John H. Foote Skyscraper is like a piece of cotton candy, tasty, even exciting, but it melts fast and you forget about it until the next time. Kind of a merging of Die Hard (1988) with The Towering Inferno (1975) it is, surprise an action thriller loaded with huge action sequences, great visual effects,…
By John H. Foote (****) Released in March, this exceptionally original horror film did very well at the box office and with film critics who praised the taut, tight direction of actor John Krasinski, and the performances of the entire cast. The opening moments invite us into this world, earth, but something has happened. The…
By Nick Maylor While Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) was released after Avengers: Infinity War (2018), the film’s plot largely deals with the fallout of Captain America: Civil War (2016) as it pertains to Scott Lang’s situation. Lang (Paul Rudd) is under house arrest due to his involvement in the Avengers battle in Germany (as…
Rumble Fish (1983) Criterion Special Edition Blu Ray (****) By John H. Foote Smarting from the critical bashing he took on One from the Heart (1982), Francis Ford Coppola took the advice of a teenaged fan and read The Outsiders, then immediately bought the rights to it for a film. On the heels of The…
By John H. Foote This might be the biggest surprise of the summer, that this sequel to the superb Sicario (2015) is as good as it is. The previous film, directed by Denis Villeneuve was a superb study of drug trafficking across the Mexican border, where US agents routinely encounter major Mexican cartels and their…
By John H. Foote The Incredibles (2004) now fourteen years old, remains among the greatest films of the decade, easily among the top three Pixar films ever made. In addition, it stands among the finest of the super hero genre, which in 2004 had yet to explode to the extent it has in 2018. Neither…
By John H. Foote A couple of years ago Alex Garland gave us his excellent science fiction thriller Ex Machina (2014), a thriller that was far better than perhaps it had any right to be. Confident, even brash behind the camera Garland has done it again, even more so, with his new film Annihilation, which…
By John H. Foote Like a well oiled roller coaster ride, by now the narrative for the Jurassic Park franchise is an entertainment machine Universal has down pat. Memories of the terrible The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) have faded, helped by the fact Jurassic World (2015) was a tight, taut film that worked on…
Let me be clear…I hated this movie. Hated it. With the exception of a couple of fine performances it is an insane mess of a film from beginning to end. I hated it. Harrison Ford IS Han Solo. It is ridiculous to suggest anyone else could do the role, and do justice to what he…
A few years ago Robert Redford gave a great, near silent performance in All is Lost (2013) as a man left near dead in the middle of the ocean after a violent storm destroys his vessel. The New York Film Critics awarded their actor Best Actor for his superb physical performance in what was one…