Disney/Marvel is releasing their “Avengers: Infinity War” on the 10-year anniversary of their lavish, mammoth successful experiment, the creation of the Marvel Comic Universe. It began a decade ago with the still-wonderful “Iron Man” and now concludes with this new phase. While the films themselves are hit and miss, the overall goal of the MCU…
Early into Peter Berg’s still-fantastic 2003 action/comedy “The Rundown,” Dwayne Johnson walks into a bar (stop me if you’ve heard this one) and bumps into Arnold Schwarzenegger. Ah-Nuld taps Johnson on the shoulder, says “Have fun in there” and literally walks out of Johnson’s movie. The moment is a symbolic gesture on Schwarzenegger’s part, as…
The introductory scenes of “A Quiet Place” allow the audience to enter a world so intriguing, many will find themselves obeying the film’s core rule to remain silent. The film opens on “Day 89” of a world where humankind appears to have either gone missing or become mostly extinct. As a man (played by John…
In 2045, Wade Watts (played by Tye Sheridan) escapes from his dreary reality by entering a virtual reality world called The Oasis. While everyone living in Watt’s home of The Stacks (with living quarters of trailers and junk piled high and tight) plays in this digital world, Watts is attempting to uncover a puzzle within…
“Brian Kohne’s eagerly awaited “Kuleana” is a film island audiences deserve but might not be expecting. The only quality this has in common with “Get A Job,” Kohne’s goofball, debut 2011 indie comedy is a wealth of cameo appearances by local Maui celebrities and personalities. Otherwise, everything in Kohne’s sophomore effort is far more polished…
Following the events of “Pacific Rim,” Guillermo Del Toro’s charmless, bloated 2013 film, the world has been ridden of the gigantic Kaiju monsters and the massive Jaeger robots are no longer needed. At least, that’s how it is for a few minutes of “Pacific Rim: Uprising,” in which John Boyega stars as the son of…
Does anyone really want to see Lara Croft’s origin story? Specifically, do we really care about the life of one of the all-time most famous video game characters, before she was super-cool? Think about this for a moment. If you imagine Croft as intelligent, attractive and fierce, wearing shorts and a tank top while scaling…
Ten years later, somebody finally made a sequel to the horror hit “The Strangers” and proved that, once again, some movies absolutely do not need a chapter two. Here, a family of four (led by “Mad Men” star Christina Hendricks and Martin Henderson, lead in the Ice Cube-led fiasco “Torque”) go on a road trip…
Jennifer Lawrence stars as Dominika, a Russian Bolshoi Ballet dancer whose promising career is cut painfully short. An onstage injury redirects Dominika into a life of spying, as her uncle (played by Matthias Schoenaerts) enlists her in the Russian intelligence-sponsored “Sparrow” program. Dominika must endure living in a remote location, where she is trained to…
Writer/director Alex Garland’s “Annihilation” is about duality, specifically the uncomfortable contrast between suicide and self destruction. Because it’s a such a predictable, lumbering and thoroughly unpleasant film, it seems to have much less on its mind. Natalie Portman stars as Lena, a former soldier turned biologist who is abducted and forced to take part in…