A
secret government agency recruits some of the most dangerous
incarcerated super-villains to form a defensive task force. Their first
mission: save the world from the apocalypse.
Highly disappointing superhero drama with a sparkling set of big-name stars never really takes off with its thin plot and underdeveloped characters; alone Margot Robbie gives her Harley Quinn some panache and delivers most of the excitement and humor of the whole show.
Chicago, 1927. A recording session. Tensions rise between Ma Rainey, her
ambitious horn player and the white management determined to control
the uncontrollable "Mother of the Blues". Based on Pulitzer Prize winner
August Wilson's play.
Obviously stage-bound, this ace movie overcomes the boundaries of the play with stellar performances by Davis and Boseman , excellent period detail, good direction and genuine sense for the music.
A furloughed convict and his American and Chinese partners hunt a
high-level cybercrime network from Chicago to Los Angeles to Hong Kong
to Jakarta.
Suspenseful and lively cyber espionage thriller disappoints with building up a highly charged international conspiracy and coming up with a simple criminal solution.
A working-class African-American father tries to raise his family in the
1950s, while coming to terms with the events of his life.
It shows that this movie is the adaptation of a stage play as its very heavy on dialogue, but the stellar performances and intelligent direction make it worth the while.
When two little girls go missing, a father takes matters
into his own hands as the police pursue multiple leads and the pressure
mounts.
An otherwise ordinary crime drama is, although a bit overlong, enhanced by subtle and detailed direction, excellent cinematography and some highly nuanced performances.
Maltin**1/2: "Relentlessly dark and intense, this film depicts every parent's nightmare but leaves the backstory of its obsessive cop (Gyllenhal) frustratingly incomplete and winds up in strangely perverted territory. Uncompromising American feature debut for director Villeneuve..."
A young boy is recruited by the International Military to lead
the fight against the Formics, a genocidal alien race which nearly
annihilated the human race in a previous invasion.
An above-average sci-fi drama with an adequate cast hits a sour note with its unabashed militarism which is not softened with a half-baked appeal for entente cordiale at the end of the movie.
Maltin**1/2: "Elaborate rendering of Orson Scott Card's beloved novel...Creditable adaptation of the youthful empowerment novel by writer-director Hood is great looking and extremely well cast. If only it didn't drag toward the climax."
In 1950s Connecticut, a housewife faces a marital crisis and mounting racial tensions in the outside world.
In all departments masterful reimagination of a Douglas Sirk melodrama contrasting its artificiality and the protagonists' superficial restraint with the lowdown of the issues that are still relevant even today.
Halliwell (no star): "Elegantly designed and shot and acted, and made in the style of a Douglas Sirk melodrama, this subverts the form by bringing to the fore what would have been the subtext of the movie in the 1950s; it is undeniably clever, but too often feels like an exercise in style."
Maltin***: "Fascinating filmmmaking exercise in which writer-director Haynes replicates the look and feel of a Douglas Sirk Technicolor soap opera, while tackling issues that would have been taboo in that era...Not so much a parody as a recreation, as if a 1957 movie were being made in 2002, with art direction, camerawork, costuming, music, and color that recall such films as ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS."
An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides
to write a book detailing the African-American maids' point of view on
the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go
through on a daily basis.
Clearly anti-racist, but politically a bit naive period piece, which nevertheless satisfies with a brilliant all-female cast, all at the top of their art.
Maltin***: "Evocative portrayal...The white characters' plight almost seems trivial alongside the life-and-death struggles of the servants, but the performances are rich, especailly Davis, who is heartbreakingly real, and Spencer..."
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