After the forced histrionics of Part 1, it’s nice to see star Jennifer Lawrence being allowed to quiet down and act again. But the story still feels stretched, a countdown that slows as it approaches zero hour. The various Districts, long divided and conquered by the Capitol, have united behind …
Oh, so that’s what the Star Wars prequels were trying to do: trace the downward trajectory of a man from a good guy in a bad situation to a bad guy in a good situation — thanks in part to a healthy dose of heartbreaking loss. And director Francis Lawrence …
Young Coriolanus (Tom Blyth) is the last hope for his failing lineage, the once-proud Snow family that has fallen from grace in a post-war Capitol. With his livelihood threatened, Snow is reluctantly assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), a tribute from the impoverished District 12. But after Lucy …
The band the Zombies navigates the tumultuous music industry over the decades and making one of the most influential albums of all time, Odessey and Oracle. “She’s Not There” made them the first British band after The Beatles to reach #1 in the US. After years of touring and many …
Look back in wide-eyed wonder. An idealistic English teacher (Minnie Driver) returns to her provincial hometown following the death of her father. (Being a princess in the big city just wasn't happymaking.) There, she plans to put on a rock-infused production of Shakespeare's Tempest in a Wales high school circa …
Trump supporters are dropped in the middle of Arkansas, armed, and left to fend for themselves against a group of human-hunting liberal democrats. A spoiler alert might normally have been in order, but instead of adding an air of mystery and bolstering suspense by withholding any mention of political affiliation …
An American businessman abroad (Christopher Lambert, French accent and all) commits the faux pas, punishable by death, of glimpsing the unmasked face of Kinjo the Ninja, head of the Makato clan, and he finds himself in the crossfire (or under the crossed swords, rather) of a centuries-old feud. Allowing this …
Grueling, grisly chase thriller with Benicio Del Toro as a Rambo-gone-bad -- a Kosovo vet and now a run-amuck "killing machine" -- and Tommy Lee Jones as the Richard Crenna who trained him to kill (but never killed anyone himself) and who alone can unplug the machine. The pursuit encompasses …
An entire town turns on one of its own when little Klara (Annika Wedderkopp) makes unwarranted accusations of sexual molestation against a teacher (Mads Mikkelsen). Though it is made clear from the outset that Lucas (Mikkelsen) is innocent, one can easily understand why the tyke picked the gawky divorcee as …
Steve McQueen as a modern, urban version of Josh Randall, the Old West bounty hunter he played on TV in the late Fifties. Some eccentric characterization modelled on real-life skip-tracer Ralph "Papa" Thorson, but the movie finally seems a little short on that, and long on action scenes that give …
Craggy Willem Dafoe goes into the Tasmanian jungle to kill the rumored “last Tasmanian tiger” (thylacine), a marsupial like a striped dog, and also suspects that he, too, is being tracked. Daniel Nettheim’s film has good Down Under landscapes and tensions, but the eco-message and a faint romance don’t have …
Past acquaintances want no part of Ashley (Andre Royo), yet the good natured career-schemer insists on living life as the cheeriest ex-con ever discharged from a three-year “vacation” in the pen. Ashley finds fresh blood in the form of bottom-feeder “Germ” (George Sample III), a copacetic cohort who makes cash …
Gerard Butler and Gary Oldman go underwater in this submarine fueled action thriller about the kidnapping and subsequent rescue the Russian president. Donovan Marsh directs.
Cold War underwater thriller: neither too boring nor too interesting. The postulation of a new and bigger Soviet submarine, with an "almost silent" propulsion system undetectable to conventional sonar -- or in other words, with the capacity of cozying up to the United States coastline with a huge payload of …