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REVIEW: “Happy Feet” (2006)

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WRITER’S NOTE: The following was originally posted on my Facebook page on February 24, 2025. [In light of the current on-and-off winter season, here’s a little throwback for all you animation buffs.]  By the middle of the 2000s, Hollywood apparently had a real fascination with penguins, from the scene-stealing birds in DreamWorks’ Madagascar to the fascinating Warner Independent documentary March of the Penguins . After overseeing two Babe movies the previous decade, director George Miller turned to the medium of animation to present a stunning and entertaining song-and-dance romp about Emperor penguins in Antarctica.  All the flightless birds in this story sing, except for Mumble, whose musical vocals would actually shatter ice. (That’s a figure of speech.) The little tyke (voiced by E.G. Daily as a baby, and by Elijah Wood as a young adult) does have a unique ability to dance, especially tap. His arc soon becomes a hero’s journey, as Mumble vies for the affections of the b...
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REVIEW: “Captain America: Brave New World” (2025)

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  WRITER’S NOTE: The following was originally posted on my Facebook page on February 21, 2025.  After one solo entry in 2024, Marvel Studios gets back on schedule—and back-to-basics, in a sense—with multiple projects out this year, starting with the latest iteration of Captain America. In Brave New World , Sam Wilson a.k.a. the Falcon (the awesome Anthony Mackie) has now taken on the mantel and shield, passed down from Steve Rogers. Meanwhile, former General Thaddeus Ross (the legendary Harrison Ford, replacing the late William Hurt) has now become the President of the United States, and a conspiracy that’s been covered up for years has been emerging, and under way. (“Who’s playing who,” we’re asked.) Did I mention there’s also a Red Hulk?  Shot on Panavision cameras but mimicking the look of film grain (opening black-and-white cards included), this new story makes references to the “Snap” (from Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame ), as well as extraterrestrial ...
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REVIEW: “Love Hurts” (2025)

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WRITER’S NOTE: The following was originally posted on my Facebook page on February 14, 2025.  Those of us who grew up in the 1980s will always remember Ke Huy Quan as Short Round in Indiana Jones and as Data in The Goonies . Nowadays, the Oscar-winner from Everything Everywhere All At Once is well known for his selfies with other celebrities, but even more so for his enthusiastic and infectious personality. (And we love him for it.) But only few of us may be aware that Quan had a second career after he stepped away from the screen in the 1990s, when he took on a behind-the-scenes role as a stunt coordinator on various action movies like X-Men and The One .  Now in his early-50s, Quan’s leading role in the 87 North-produced Love Hurts could be described as a culmination of his skills as a stuntman and as a mature actor. Both are undoubtedly put to effective use. In the film, he plays Marvin Gable, an optimistic real estate agent (in Milwaukee, WI, of all places) whose viole...
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REVIEW: “Flight Risk” (2025)

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WRITER’S NOTE: The following was originally posted on my Facebook page on January 31, 2025.  Mel Gibson has only directed six feature films in his long career, most of them epic and/or historical sagas. His latest—a chilling, high-concept, suspense-thriller starring Mark Wahlberg as a hitman who intercepts a cargo plane, carrying an Air Marshall and a talkative court-case witness—clocks in at 90 minutes, and is, up front, not Gibson’s best directing effort.  Shot in 22 days, Flight Risk features thin characterizations and lazy writing, as if made in the 1970s or 80s (which may appeal to audiences of those eras). Its humor also borders on the absurd, especially when Dockery’s determined officer Madelyn gets air support from a flirty Pakistani agent. But it’s Walhberg “Daryl” who is, ironically, the most lively and menacing thing onscreen, complete with a creepy bald cut, a fake Southern accent, and a dark and sickening sense of humor. (Remember his high school stalker in Fear ...
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REVIEW: “Wolf Man” (2025)

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WRITER’S NOTE: The following was originally posted on my Facebook page on January 31, 2025. It was the first new film I saw in theatres this year, and the first new film I saw in a new year that was a horror feature since Scream (a.k.a. Scream 5 ) back in 2022.  Universal Pictures had been spending most of the 21st Century trying to update its classic slate of iconic monster movies with several attempts—many of which didn’t ultimately work in the end, resulting in an underwhelming track record overall. (We’re looking at you, 2017 Mummy .) Then, at the turn of the recent decade, along comes writer-director Leigh Whannell (co-creator of the Saw and Insidious horror franchises), with a modern retelling of The Invisible Man . That brilliantly-made but shockingly-relevant and chilling update of the 1933 original (starring Claude Rains) is now followed up with a new version of Lon Chaney Jr.’s 1941 performance as The Wolf Man .  The most intriguing aspects of horror movie directo...
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