Life (2017)

Life (2017)

Six astronauts on the international space station—a medic (Jake Gyllenhaal), a Ryan Reynolds-like pilot (Ryan Reynolds), a handicapped biologist (Ariyon Bakare), a CDC safety officer (Rebecca Ferguson), a computer guy (Hiroyuki Sanada), and the captain (Olga Dihovichnaya)—recover a microscopic life form from a Mars probe and start to experiment with it. Naturally, it grows until

Doctor Strange (1978)

Doctor Strange (1978)

The barriers between worlds are falling as the current sorcerer supreme (John Mills) comes to the end of his time. He and his associate, Wong (Clyde Kusatsu), must find the new sorcerer, Dr. Strange (Peter Hooten) in three days. In that same amount of time, Morgan LeFay (Jessica Walter) must destroy them to allow a

Ranking Spider-Men

Ranking Spider-Men

I did it with Batmen; I can do it was Spider-men. Once again, animated versions confuse matters, so I’m sticking with live action. One big difference between Spider-Man and Batman is that the secret identity is key with Bats, but not with Spidey. Batman and Bruce Wayne are different. Peter Parker is Spider-Man. He can

Innocents in Paris (1953)

Innocents in Paris (1953)

A collection of generally uninformed and eccentric Brits (including Alastair Sim, Margaret Rutherford, Claire Bloom, Ronald Shiner, James Copeland, Jimmy Edwards, and Mara Lane) travel to Paris and have miscellaneous and unconnected adventures. Nostalgia is on display as much as jokes in this mild comedy. The central idea is that France is a strange and

It (2017)

It (2017)

A group of teens, each defined by one attribute (the Jewish one, the fat one, the black one, the girl, etc.), who are bullied and have terrible parents, are set upon by an evil clown (Bill Skarsgård). Based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, It removes the half of the book—the weird

Colossal (2016)

Colossal (2016)

Gloria (Ann Hathaway) is a mess. She’s a jobless, lying, alcoholic. She tries to be good, but she doesn’t try very hard and is weak. She’d be self-centered if she put in the effort. Yet she’s likable, as long as you don’t have to rely on her or trust her. Her longterm boyfriend does need

Get Out (2017)

Get Out (2017)

Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya), a Black man dating White Rose Armitage (Allison Williams) heads for a weekend with her White parents (Katherine Keener, Bradley Whitford) in their White town surrounded by the Whitest of White culture. All the White people are a bit extreme, making constant weird comments about race, but the Black servants are

War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

Following immediately after Dawn of the Planet of the Apes such that a recent viewing of the previous entry is required to understand this one, Caesar (motion-captured Andy Serkis) leads a band of apes that are being hunted by fanatical humans under the command of the deranged Colonel (Woody Harrelson). An attack by The Colonel

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

Kirk discovers that Spock’s soul is trapped in Bones, so the remaining bridge crew swipe the Enterprise to travel back to the Genesis planet to attempt to put Spock’s mind and body back together. Meanwhile a Klingon captain has set his sights on Genesis as a great weapon and will do anything to get it.

The Naked City (1948)

The Naked City (1948)

A beautiful blonde model is murdered in her New York apartment. Lt. Dan Muldoon (Berry Fitzgerald) and detective Jimmy Halloran (Dan Taylor) are put on the case. It will lead to a string of jewelry robberies and to the nearly pathologically untruthful Frank Niles (Howard Duff) and his snooty fiancée Ruth Morrison (Dorothy Hart). Critics

Gamera vs. Barugon/War of the Monsters (1966)

Gamera vs. Barugon/War of the Monsters (1966)

Gamera’s rocket is struck by a meteor, returning him to earth where he vanishes from the movie for nearly an hour. Meanwhile, three men (who I think might be low level gangsters—it isn’t clear) head to New Guinea to recover an opal that our more-or-less hero’s brother hid during WWII. The opal is not a

Man Made Monster (1941)

Man Made Monster (1941)

Dan the Electrical Man (Lon Chaney Jr.) is the sole survivor of an electrical accident. He is taken in for study by Dr John Lawrence (Samuel S. Hinds), who has some pretty odd views on electricity. His partner, Dr Paul Rigas (Lionel Atwill), has even stranger views, thinking he can turn people into zombies with