Warren Adler’s dark comedy novel gets another big screen adaptation. It has previously been adapted to film by Danny DeVito and starred his Romancing the Stone co-stars Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. This time out, Olivia Coleman and Benedict Cumberbatch take on the lead roles of the Roses, a married couple who when adversity hits,…
Tag: actors
Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) – James Cameron
Fire and Ash is an experiential popcorn movie. It needs to be seen on the biggest screen possible, and while 3D has some detractors, it is used beautifully in this film. This is a movie-going experience. Having said that, I miss James Cameron’s early work, Aliens, The Abyss, The Terminator, and T2, even True Lies….
Hellboy: The Crooked Man (2024) – Brian Taylor
I love the character of Hellboy, both the cinematic and the source material brought to life in the Mike Mignola’s comic books. However, this time out, thanks to budget constraints, which directly impacted actors, effects, camera et. al. what fans are given feels like a fan-film and not a studio one. Set in the early…
Death Whisperer (2023) – Taweewat Wantha
I love digging into horror films from around the world, seeing how different directors and cultures dole out their scares, what is frightening to them, and how some things are scary across the board, seemingly tapping into some primal fear. Thailand delivers Death Whisperer, which according to the film’s intro is based loosely on a…
Family Ties (1985) – Remembrances of Things Past
Season three of Family Ties ended with an hour-long episode that was broadcast on 28 March, 1985 and was written by series creator Gary David Goldberg and Alan Uger. Steven (Michael Gross) gathers the family up to head to his family home to help his mother, May (Anne Seymour) sell the house. It also forces…
Haunted Mansion (2023) – Justin Simien
There’s just a little too much going on in Disney’s Haunted Mansion. It seems to want to dip its toe into as many genres as it can, but doesn’t give any of them enough time to actually pay off. There are some great concepts and the cast is solid, but it just doesn’t fire on…
The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016) – Andre Ovredal
Andre Ovredal’s first English language film is a very well-crafted and viscerally terrifying film starring Biran Cox, Emile Hirsch and Olwen Catherine Kelly. Cox and Hirsch play father and son, Tommy and Austin Tilden who run a morgue and crematorium. Austin has dreams of getting out of the business and town, and taking his girlfriend,…
Tropic Thunder (2008) – Ben Stiller
Ben Stiller directed the ultimate Hollywood satire with Tropic Thunder. He developed the story with Justin Theroux, and the pair wrote a script with Ethan Cohen. It’s sharp, pointed, and under its endlessly quotable dialogue and performances is a skewering look at Tinsel Town. Everything seems to be a lie, from promotions to images to…
The Raid 2 (2014) – Gareth Evans
Picking up shortly after the first film, The Raid 2 sees Rama (Iko Uwais) recruited into a secret, and small division of the police to go undercover in the hopes of securing tangible and undeniable proof of police corruption. The only way for it to be believable is if Rama breaks the law, and can…
Lord Edgware Dies (1933) – Agatha Christie
Murder most foul! Three of them in point of fact, but don’t be fooled by the image on the cover of the book, none of them are committed with a pistol! It’s been awhile since I read an Agatha Christie mystery, other books came along, and I knew her library of work would wait patiently…
The Mind Reels 