Director David Yates and screenwriter J.K. Rowling can’t conjure enough secrets to keep their fledgling Harry Potter spinoff interesting. A continuation from the previous two films, with even more Hogwarts and Dumbledore this time around, “The Secrets of Dumbledore” is a long-winded slog. Eddie Redmayne’s Newt Scamander, the charming focal point of the first film, […]
Why 20th Century Studios is releasing the prequel “The King’s Man” amid the awards films and a dominating superhero film is anyone’s guess. Director Matthew Vaughn’s prequel to “Kingsman,” however, is quite impressive in the second half. Vaughn, who wrote the screenplay and directed the franchise’s previous films, assembles an impressive cast that includes Ralph
It took seven previous movies for two-time Oscar nominee Scarlett Johansson, playing Natasha Romanoff, dying in the most recent Avengers film, and the #MeToo movement, to get her own Black Widow film. The male superheroes are on their third (Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man) or even fourth (Thor) stand-alone flick. In her eighth and final
Those who have followed the Conjuring series of films are familiar with the husband-wife duo of a demonologist (Wilson), Ed, and his psychic wife, Lorraine, (Farmiga) who set up their equipment on site wherever there are clues or trouble. In this instance, there is trouble in the Glatzel family where young David seems to be possessed. It’s one of
“This movie is both a sequel and a prequel, set between the opening and main plot of the first Conjuring film – an extremely rare occurrence in any genre of film.” That might be a cool byline if you can understand it. Unfortunately, there are so many movies that center around The Warren’s, Annabelle, and
2013’s “The Conjuring” offered a glimmer of hope for the horror genre in dire need of rehabilitation. James Wan curated that true story based on The Warren’s special abilities and highly documented cases, from facts and events combined with the dedicated performances from Oscar nominees Vera Farmiga, Lili Taylor and Patrick Wilson. While the horror
It’s the first time Marvel Studios (aka Disney) has been behind the superhero curve. Eager to release their first solo female superhero, they managed to tie “Captain Marvel” (changed from an original male character to female) into the ongoing Avengers saga rather quickly. Oscar winner Brie Larson (“Room”) is an ideal champion for this sarcastic,
I can appreciate what Paramount did here, going back to the drawing board to fix what wasn’t working with the Transformers franchise. The original “Transformers,” directed by Michael Bay starring Shia LeBeouf worked because it was new, fresh, full of room to offer something different to the silver screen. That quickly wore off after mindless
The Fantastic Beasts sequel is not as good as the first one (imagine that) and this prequel, which occurs 70 or so years before Harry Potter, is just not as captivating overall. Director David Yates returns to the wizarding world yet again with Rowling on screenwriting. The Crimes of Grindelwald suffers from a variety of
I’m tempted to copy and paste everything I wrote about the last Purge film onto this review, as it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between them. Despite its status as a prequel, “The First Purge” offers very little we haven’t seen before. The controversial franchise is basically a cinematic encouragement of violence as it pits