Month: February 2018

Originally published:  December 28, 2008 Note: Lari White died of cancer in January of this year. I will always remember her. Rolling Stone article about her life and death. Amazing Performance of Lari White in Cast Away I just saw Cast Away again and still love it. I want to give special kudos to an under-appreciated performance. That is Lari White as Bettina Peterson. “Who?” I hear you ask. If you’ve never seen this film, I suggest renting or buying it, and then read the rest of this entry. If you’re still reading, I assume that you’ve seen the...

Before the Movie: The previous showing of the movie I’m seeing is letting out. A group of exiting patrons is saying things like, “That was shit.” And “So he used the real people. Bullshit!” Uh-oh. After the Movie: I’m still collecting my thoughts about this movie and will likely write a slightly longer review. But for now, I’ll just say the exiting patrons were right. Thoughts Collected: The script is terrible. Horrid, horrid dialogue. Eastwood had to cast the actual people because that’s the only way this film could work at all. Knowing they’re not real actors almost excuses...

GAME NIGHT is a completely silly little movie. And I laughed my ass off! The premise is a long-standing game night between competitive friends gets amped up to perilous levels when Max’s (Jason Bateman) better looking, more successful, older brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler) comes to visit. Jesse Plemons steals every scene he’s in as the weird, divorced, next-door-neighbor cop, who used to get invited to game night because people liked his ex-wife, but has been shunned since the divorce. His creepy deadpan is a work of...

Saw an advance screening of ANNIHILATION. I highly recommend seeing BLACK PANTHER again. ANNIHILATION seems like it would be a gripping novel, but it doesn’t really translate well to the screen. People who didn’t enjoy ARRIVAL (which I loved) found it too languid and cerebral. ANNIHILATION makes ARRIVAL seem like THE BORNE IDENTITY. There’s enough there that I’ll likely read the novel… I just looked up the novel to confirm my recollection that the film is an adaptation. The first paragraph of the Wikipedia plot description is more interesting than the entire film. So I’m putting the “Southern Reach...