While “Ant-Man” succeeded as a very charming, superhero-sized heist movie, “Ant-Man and the Wasp” works its magic more as a buddy comedy. The scope is a bit bigger this time around as well, but it’s the heroes, villains and laughs that have grown the most in the sequel to the 2015 film. Director/co-writer Peyton Reed has basically made a large-scale summer comedy that just so happens to star superheroes, and once again, they bring some normalcy, grounding and plenty more humor to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) isn’t out saving the day at the start of his new…
Author: Jack Giroux
Back in 2001, Steven Soderbergh remade “Ocean’s 11” into something of his own, launching a terrific trilogy bursting with charisma and escapism. Seventeen years later, director and co-writer Gary Ross (“The Hunger Games”) pulls off a similar feat. While keeping the movie set in the world that Soderbergh established, Ross has produced a spinoff that completely stands on its own thanks to its dynamic, knockout cast. The movie begins with Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock), like her brother Danny, sitting before a parole board and making her case for freedom. Debbie claims that she wants the simple life, but what she…
After the ambitious and polarizing “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” Lucasfilm gets back to basics with “Solo: A Star Wars Story.” Sadly, the Ron Howard-directed origin story lacks the thrills expected from watching a young Han Solo scraping by in the galaxy. The action and scale of the latest Star Wars film are impressive, and there are a few charismatic supporting performances, but Howard’s movie is more often than not an unemotional journey. Solo’s story is hindered from the start with an introduction that features more fan service than character and personality. Solo (now played by Alden Ehrenreich) gets by…
Director Kenneth Branagh’s star-studded adaptation of the Agatha Christie thriller, “Murder on the Orient Express,” is lavish to a fault. It lacks the drama and thrills found in Sydney Lumet’s 1974 adaptation, which starred Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot, the great detective at the center of the murder mystery and a role played in the new movie by Branagh himself. Though the filmmaker has crafted thrillers with equal tension and emotion in the past, such as “Dead Again” and his fine remake of “Sleuth,” Branagh’s latest film doesn’t make you feel much at all throughout the fairly cold and routine…
Thirty-five years after the release of Ridley Scott’s sci-fi classic, “Blade Runner,” filmmaker Denis Villeneuve (“Arrival,” “Sicario”) has made a dense and hypnotic sequel that’s a feast for the senses. “Blade Runner 2049” gracefully takes the futuristic world that Scott created to new places, raising new ideas while also exploring old ones. It’s a massive, epic piece of science fiction that keeps the audience engaged, entertained and stunned. Set 30 years after the events of the original film, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is nowhere to be found. He’s in hiding just like the other old, outdated replicants that Officer K…
Actor Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman is a partnership the film world should hope never ceases. After making the wildly entertaining sci-fi film, “Edge of Tomorrow,” the duo has followed it up with a drama that’s just about as thrilling. With “American Made,” Cruise and Liman once again bring out some of the best work in one another by delivering an old-school studio film with plenty of laughs to go along with the high personal stakes. Barry Seal (Cruise) isn’t seeking fame and fortune in this rise-and-fall tale about a pilot trafficking drugs, guns and soldiers for the CIA…
Steven Soderbergh directed one of the most consistently entertaining trilogies with the “Ocean’s” movies. They were perfectly cast, didn’t take themselves too seriously and there was always an earned sense of cool to them. A lot of the strengths found in Soderbergh’s trilogy are also present in his newest film, “Logan Lucky,” his triumphant return to the big screen. The glitz and glamour of the “Ocean’s” trilogy is in a completely different area code than “Logan Lucky,” but Soderbergh’s latest has the same terrific camaraderie and joy as those movies. There are some who believe that a curse has followed…
Luc Besson’s “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” is almost precisely what a fan of the filmmaker would want to see from him if given $175 million to do with what he wants. His personality is in every frame of this sci-fi space adventure, which has no shortage of visually wondrous environments and aliens that somehow never overshadow the two leads. It’s a highly entertaining and imaginative piece of work. In Besson’s adaptation of Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières’ cult comic, agents Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) have to beat a racing clock to uncover a…
With “The Beguiled,” writer/director Sofia Coppola adapts Thomas Cullinan’s novel and makes a movie that feels more human than the 1971 Don Siegel film starring Clint Eastwood. While the original had incest, more cruelty and some darkly lit hallways that scream horror, Coppola takes a more restrained, empathetic approach to the story. In her version, Coppola’s first adaptation and remake, she gracefully explores some new and bleak territory. Martha Farnsworth (Nicole Kidman) is the head of an all-female, southern boarding school in Virginia. During the Civil War, they’re isolated; there’s always a sense of danger lurking outside in the fog.…
“The Book of Henry” doesn’t falter because of a lack of originality or ambition. Colin Trevorrow’s drama is probably unlike most movies we’ll see this year in that it can’t be easily put into a box. However, it’s also a movie that’s surprisingly cold, despite the heavy and emotional places that screenwriter Gregg Hurwitz’s original story goes. Henry Carpenter (Jaden Lieberher) is a brilliant 11-year-old who takes care of his mom Susan (Naomi Watts) almost as much as she takes care of him. He makes smart investments, always watches out for his younger brother Peter (Jacob Tremblay) and clearly cares…