Rating: 3 of 5 Brad Pitts A pretty fun ride. Preposterous plot, a twist on Romancing the Stone. Good chemistry with the actors. Not many surprises, but it's more dark comedy than adventure. Harry Potter is evil. Channing Tatum is dumb. Sandra Bullock carries the rest of the film. Also,

Rating 5 of 5 Willies Everything is classic cult B movie. It has a modern day car, so it’s present day, but it also has a full 70's vibe including soft/grainy film, dial phones (with mismatched handsets), IBM Selectric typewriters, tape-based answering machines. This would just be a

Rating: 4 of 5 Quarks A pretty fun post-apocalyptic romp with comedians. Fun cameos, it has Barry Bostwick, Armin Shimerman, plus the evil Mayor from Buffy the Vampire Slayer in it. A pretty well written and acted comedy, no real spoilers, a couple goes through an apocalypse of unknown origin.

Rating: 3 out of 5 Wahlburgers Could easily have been called “Chase”. There are many chase scenes. More than a modern Bond film. It revolves around immortal beings who can die, but are reborn through sort of reincarnation? They're not really clear on the science there. One guy seems to

Rating: 4 of 5 Vampires on a Plane A German film, but interestingly almost 1/2 the cast speaks English. A pretty simple plot, there’s a plane, there are some kind of terrorists who take over the plane, and then there’s a Vampire. That’s it, that’s

Rating: 3 of 5 Brandys At its heart, a cookie cutter psychological haunted house tale. A woman is living alone in a house her recently dead husband built. As she deals with his death, and starting to pack his things away, she starts discovering mysterious things. Oh, and she hears

Rating: Incomplete Are you totally amped up from work/drugs/anxiety? Do you need a nap? Give this flick a try. As the preview suggested, a bit like “My Dinner with Andre´“. Except rather than fascinating stories told by a charismatic storyteller, it’s two attractive ex-lovers and ex-CIA, one

Rating: 3-1/2 of 5 colors It’s an adaptation of a H. P. Lovecraft story about a prismatic meteor that falls to earth, effecting every living thing around it in bizarre and horrific ways. Nicholas Cage movies are always a gamble. He has been in some really terrible movies,

Rating: 1 of 5 bad habits Quite disappointing. Watched it because we were fans of Molly C. Quinn from Castle. Even the posters are misleading, although sometimes it’s fine to be surprised at the actual movie, this time, not so much. I’ll keep this spoiler-free. A creepy convent,

Rating: 2 of 5 nose swabs The movie with the cute pre-launch campaign, and the delightful Karen Gillan. Nothing deep here, just a fun romp about a very bad movie being made during the pandemic. Lots of cameos (mostly uncredited) of some big or moderately big names, and it’s

Rating: 4 of 5 submersed haunted mansions Two “Youtubers” (so you already want evil to befall them) visit abandoned buildings hoping to get enough views to make money. After some cursory setup, they're taken to a lake with an intact house at its bottom. Scary shit ensues. Cool concept, going

Rating: 4 of 5 CGI Alien bugs A made for TV movie, staring Bruce Campbell and Renee O’Connor. Exactly what I expected, a total cheesefest, about on par with an episode of Xena. Defeated humans with no will to fight, human collaborators that corral and punish the slave humans,

Rating: 4 of 5 unnecessary remakes It's West Side Story. Same as the 1961 movie. Maybe a bit more explicitly violent. Slightly updated, but it takes place in the 50's, so not much to update. Really not sure why it needed remaking. It's good, just like the 1961 version was.

Rating: 4 of 5 evil tech stereotypes Ryan Reynolds movies all have a common thread. Reynolds is going to be a wise-ass, mostly playing the same character. But, he's so good at it, usually you don't mind. OK, this one has time travel, a wise-ass younger version of Adam, a

Rating: 5 of 5 boxes of Kleenex Absolutely wonderful performances by the entire cast, a realistic and poignant storyline, a great soundtrack. I laughed, I cried, I loved the entire film. This is what good storytelling is all about.

Rating: 2 of 5 sword canes Well, it’s a prequel. It’s got some great action, interrupted by like an hour and a half of over-complex plots, layered over a terribly simple plot. Oh, and a bunch of silly action. So much dialog, of which I remember none. The

Rating: 5 of 5 shadowy archways It's Macbeth, so no surprises there. Spectacular use of light and shadow and really sparse sets. Looked like a great 50's film noir. Good performances. Denzel and McDormand play the happy couple with all their amazing talents.

Rating: 4 of 5 experience points Fun premise, an NPC is suddenly able to evolve and act on their own in a video game. A thin plot ensues with a bad guy (gleefully overacted by Taika Waititi). Not for Ryan Reynolds haters, since he mostly just plays the same character

Rating: 3 of 5 creepy carnies Nightmare Alley was visually stunning, had great actors doing their thing, and an interesting, straightforward plot. Nothing complicated, more style than substance, but enough style for days. Kept me interested, and just marveling at the sets and photography and lighting.

Rating: 3 of 5 dystopias Lazing around on Sunday. Saw “The Starving Games” on Amazon Prime, a lampoon of The Hunger Games. Surprisingly good for a parody. It’s no Zucker Brothers comedy, parts worked, parts sucked, but we both enjoyed it and laughed throughout.

Rating: 1-1/2 of 5 Sean Beans Pretty slow, plodding, gory film about a group of guys with swords, lead by Sean Bean, heading off to find a village that’s rumored to be free of the pestilence, and to kill the witch who’s obviously keeping it that way.

Rating: 1 of 5 Matrices Well, that was a movie. Not sure how to rate it, or why it was made (other than the usual making bank). Lots of action, barely comprehensible plot, so, it's much like the second and third installments, but not as good. All the characters you

Rating: 1 of 5 Cumberbatches An unpopular opinion, I know. Many people loved this movie. Every character was unlikeable, I didn't like them. Or the depressing story. That is all.

Rating: 5 of 5 California rolls It's a local (to me) story about a Hispanic single mom in East Oakland who wants to be a sushi chef. Super low-budget, self-financed by the writer/director. Loved the story and characters. Yeah, it's a predictable story, but as a very frequent sushi

Rating: 1 of 5 Depressing flashbacks Well acted, good cinematography. Many people loved this film. I found it endlessly depressing, not a story I needed to see. If we weren't watching it with friends who really wanted to see it (and they liked it), I wouldn't have made it to