By Nick Maylor (****) Getting one’s hopes up in anticipation of a film release can be dangerous. Building the hype too much can make the experience of finally viewing the film underwhelming. Despite my devoted and pure love of all things geeky, Avengers: Endgame (2019) only made it to the second spot on my list…
By Nick Maylor Everyone is talking about “Baby Yoda” The internet showed me photos of Baby Yoda… Baby Yoda is the reason I started my free trial of Disney+ last night. Not the multitude of Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars content, just Baby Yoda. The Mandalorian is a space western Disney+ series set in…
By John H. Foote On May 31, next year Clint Eastwood, two-time Academy Award winning Director, two-time Academy Award winning producer, two-time DGA winner and twice nominated for Best Actor turns 90. 90! His new film Richard Jewell is another superbly crafted example of cinematic storytelling, which Eastwood mastered four decades ago. And once again…
By John H. Foote (***) Watching Tom Hanks emerge into one of American cinema’s greatest actors has been nothing but a pleasure. From his breakthrough as the man child in Big (1988), to his two consecutive Academy Award-winning performances as the AIDS afflicted lawyer in Philadelphia (1993) and the idiot savant stumbling through American history…
By John H. Foote (*) I must open this review with an apology to my colleague Craig (Cal) for crucifying yet another Disney film and again bringing to a review their obscene greed. I suspect Disney films meant a lot to Craig growing up (me too!) but I am appalled by what they are becoming…
By John H. Foote (***) Though I do not place myself into the elitist (snobby) plateau of film critic who looks down on pure entertainment films, made for the popcorn crowd, I do confess to appreciating films that have something to say, that attempt to reflect society in some way. For me the greatest films…
By John H. Foote (****) As a blue-collar family, my father worked for 41 years in General Motors building cars. He would work two weeks days and two weeks nights, until he gained enough seniority to work steady days. He despised factory work, but had a wife and four kids to cloth, feed, and raise,…
By John H. Foote Every major actor working today – film, stage or television, professional or otherwise – owes a debt to Marlon Brando, arguably the greatest actor in the history of the art form. Do I believe he has been surpassed as our greatest actor? I do, but his impact and staggering domination of…
By John H. Foote (**) Mike Flanagan had an enormous task ahead of him when he agreed to make this film. On one hand, he was adapting the best selling novel by the great Stephen King which had been written as a sequel to the novel The Shining. On the other hand, he was creating…
By John H. Foote (****) Divorce can be an ugly, vicious event in the lives of two people who were once in love. Everything they have experienced together, good and bad, can be used as a weapon against them by the other party, distorted, twisted until they do not recognize the person they were married…