This is such a well-crafted movie. The direction shows real experience at creating tension and building interest; the acting brings out the inner live of the characters; the cinematography crosses eras and continents with images […]
Category: In Theaters
review – black mass
This is a vicious, violent story that is less an engrossing tale than it is a character study of two guys from the old South Boston neighborhood who ended up on opposite sides of the […]
review – we are your friends
This is a terrible title for the thinnest of stories set to music at 128 beats per minute. And that, according to DJ Cole (Zac Efron), is the optimum rate to get an audience fully […]
review – the man from u.n.c.l.e.
When was the last time you left the theater fully refreshed? When was the last movie where you were thoroughly entertained? When was the last ticket where you bought where you got more than your […]
review – mistress america
As a writer-director, Noah Baumbach is not much concerned with plot. He just brings together a small group of oddball characters, provides things for them to do and to talk about, and lets us watch […]
review – the gift
You would think that, with a title like “The Gift,” this would be an uplifting, cheerful movie. Absolutely not so. Don’t see this movie if you live alone. But if you feel safe at night, […]
review – me and earl and the dying girl
A late review perhaps, but summers need more movies like this. This is a movie without special effects, big stars, and loud noises. Often, the camera just sits patiently, waiting for scenes to unfold. Actors […]
review – mission impossible: rogue nation
“This may well be our last mission,” William (Renner) tells Ethan (Cruise). “Make it count.” In this, the fifth installment in the M:I series, audience expectations may not be as high as the production budget, […]
review – ant man
This is somewhat smaller, much less-ambitious successor to the “Guardians of the Galaxy” – a super-hero movie that never takes itself seriously, a film that seems to believe it’s not worth saving the world unless […]
review – trainwreck
Judd Apatow makes very funny movies in a very crude sort of way. If you’re not easily offended by rampant sex and four letter words included casually in every sentence — and multiple examples of […]
review – minions
Think of them as yellow pint-sized capsules of humor that head straight to funny bone of the very young. There, they must tickle; how else to explain the uncontrolled laughter at the utter nonsense taking […]
review – ted 2
The original was an unexpected delight. This one is an unfunny disaster. It’s also unfocused and desperate; like Seth MacFarlane’s last outing, “A Million Ways to Die in The West,” this movie heads in a […]
review – inside out
“Do you ever look at someone and wonder what is going on in their head?” With that question, Pixar begins this, their fifteenth animated film. They take us into the mind of Riley, an 11-year-old […]
review – spy
Writer-Director Paul Feig knows how to make Melissa McCarthy much funnier in his movies (see “Bridesmaids” and “The Heat”) than in the movies she finds on her own (don’t see either “Tammy” or “Identity Thief”). […]
review – love & mercy
Brian Wilson gave The Beach Boys their sound, their early hits, and their direction. This is an introspective look at his music — and his madness. With the number of Beach Boy biographies and made-for-TV […]
review – aloha
What could Cameron Crowe possibly have been thinking? As a writer and director, he is at least idiosyncratic (his last movie was “We Bought A Zoo”) and sometimes incomprehensible (consider “Vanilla Sky”), but then he’s […]
review – tomorrowland
It’s named after a section of Disneyland, but it really embodies the purpose of EPCOT and the spirit of the Kodak-sponsored adventure, the original “Journey Into Imagination.” One indication: in the first fifteen minutes, the […]
review – max max: fury road
Here’s to those with real talent! Here’s to those foolish enough to think they can make a movie about nothing but non-stop action – and figure out a way to make it work in a […]
review – hot pursuit
At one point, Agent Cooper (Reese Witherspoon) is being searched at a party. As she’s being “patted down,” she echoes what the searcher is not finding. “No,” she repeats, “nothing there.” She could be describing […]
review – avengers: age of ultron
Holy Crapola, Batman! This is over-stuffed stuff. Batman is not in here, of course, but it’s chock full of other superheroes – Iron-Man, Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye, Black Widow, the Hulk, and others including Quicksilver […]
review – far from the madding crowd
This is a very pretty movie, but with plot holes large enough to drive a flock of Dorset sheep through. It’s a film where the main character, Bathsheba (Carey Mulligan), promises to “astonish you all,” […]
review – age of adaline
You’ve seen this basic plot before. It’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” maybe even “Winter’s Tale.” It’s the kind of picture the studios release around Valentine’s Day, a soft […]
review – woman in gold
This is a movie that will restore your faith in the power of movies. The story is true, the dialog is often witty, the plot moves effortlessly between the past and present. The staging is […]
review – danny collins
“It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” English Victorian novelist Mary Ann Evans, who used the pen name George Eliot, wrote that more than 150 years ago, but she could have […]
review – furious 7
If you believe that too much of a “good thing” is a “great thing,” have I got a movie for you. Although it’s released in April, this is a fitting introduction for a “summer of […]
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 