movie review MARTY SUPREME Running time: 150 minutes. Rated R (language throughout, sexual content, some violent content/bloody images and nudity). In theaters Dec. 19. Ping pong tends to be grouped with smaller, niche sports like bowling and badminton; built for basements and ESPN3 at 2 a.m. But tiny table tennis is part of one big … Read more
movie review ETERNITY Running time: 113 minutes. Rated PG-13 (sexual content and some strong language). In theaters. Till death do us part? Apparently not. The exhausting romantic comedy “Eternity” imagines what would happen if a recently deceased woman encountered both her first husband who died in the Korean War and her second husband of 67 … Read more
movie review ZOOTOPIA 2 Running time: 108 minutes. Rated PG (rude humor, action, violence). In theaters. “Zootopia” has finally crawled out of hibernation. It’s been nine long years since Disney’s first animal metropolis movie about the unlikely buddy cop duo of a fox and rabbit hit theaters back in 2016. The original fans are now … Read more
The return of Brendan Fraser to movies has been full of fun surprises over the past several years. movie review RENTAL FAMILY Running time: 103 minutes. Rated PG-13 (some strong language, thematic elements, suggestive material). In theaters. He’s gone from “Monkeybone” to Oscar winner; from being the aughts’ favorite action-comedy star in films such as … Read more
movie review WICKED: FOR GOOD Running time: <br>137 minutes. Rated PG (some suggestive material, action and violence). <br>In theaters Nov. 21. Thus ends the longest intermission ever. A whole year after Elphaba belted “Defying Gravity” midair and the credits of “Wicked” rolled, the witch is back in “Wicked: For Good,” an emotional and elongated version of … Read more
movie review THE RUNNING MAN Running time: 133 minutes. Rated R (strong violence, some gore, and language). In theaters. Playing an all-powerful TV producer in the dystopian action film “The Running Man,” Josh Brolin dramatically proclaims, “Critics say ‘The Running Man’ represents a return to the barbarism of the Roman Colosseum!” I wouldn’t go that … Read more
movie review A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE Running time: 112 minutes. Rated R (language). On Netflix Oct. 24. Two ominous notes of music repeat at the beginning of “A House of Dynamite,” sounding like the score from “Jaws.” Only this time the killer shark is a nuke. And it’s only 19 minutes away from an unsuspecting United … Read more
movie review BLUE MOON Running time: 100 minutes. Rated R (language and sexual references). In theaters. If when you hear the words “Pal Joey,” you think fondly of your friend Joseph, Richard Linklater’s new film “Blue Moon” might leave you bothered and bewildered. As for Broadway buffs and lovers of old New York, the witty, … Read more
movie review BALLAD OF A SMALL PLAYER Running time: 101 minutes. Rated R (language and suicide). In select theaters. On Netflix Oct. 29. The first half of “Ballad of a Small Player,” a mysterious psychodrama starring Colin Farrell, is a sexy, hyperactive, high-roller’s “Catch Me If You Can.” As for the much worse second half, … Read more
movie review BUGONIA Running time: 120 minutes. Rated R (Bloody and violent content, suicide, grisly images, language). In select theaters Oct. 24. That “Bugonia” is only a tense two hours is a kind of kindness. Director Yorgos Lanthimos’ previous collaboration with Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons, the miserable “Kinds of Kindness” in 2024, was a … Read more
movie review TRON: ARES Running time: 119 minutes. Rated PG-13 (violence and action). In theaters Friday. “Tron” was groundbreaking back in 1982 for being one of the first movies to heavily rely on computerized special effects. Forty-three years later, “Tron: Ares” is groundbreaking for being the first “Tron” film with a discernible plot. Isn’t the … Read more
movie review ANEMONE Running time: 126 minutes. Rated R (language and traumatic revelations). In theaters. Daniel Day-Lewis should’ve stayed retired. Or at least come back in a better movie. But the three-time Oscar winner couldn’t resist returning for his first film since “The Phantom Thread” eight years ago — the abysmal “Anemone.” The title of … Read more
movie review IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT Running time: 105 minutes. Rated PG-13 (violence, smoking, strong language). In Persian with subtitles. In theaters Oct. 15. There is nothing accidental about the way Jafar Panahi makes movies. The Iranian writer-director isn’t known for churning out sweet, innocent comedies that go down easily. He famously prods the … Read more
movie review SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE Running time: 120 minutes. Not yet rated. In theaters Oct. 24. The Bruce Springsteen movie “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” has a lot in common with last year’s Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown.” Each eschews a sprawling birth-to-present-day storyline and instead focuses on a consequential chapter in … Read more
Theater review Waiting for Godot Running time: Two hours and 15 minutes with one intermission. At the Hudson Theatre, 141 W. 44th Street. Over at the Hudson Theatre on 44th Street, the crowd is waiting for Neo. And John Wick. And, of course, Bill and Ted. In the sense that Keanu Reeves shows up for work at … Read more
Let it be known: I recoiled more times during “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” than at “House of 1000 Corpses.” movie review A BIG BOLD BEAUTIFUL JOURNEY Zero stars. Running time: 108 minutes. Rated R (language). In theaters. You’d have to be a Roomba not to wince when Colin Farrell sings the title song of … Read more
movie review ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER Running time: 170 minutes. Rated R (pervasive language, violence, sexual content, and drug use). In theaters Sept. 26. Unrelenting drive powers director Paul Thomas Anderson’s sprawling, violent, sweaty, vulgar and invigorating new movie “One Battle After Another.” Its adrenaline-junkie characters, like Leonardo DiCaprio’s paranoid Bob, keep charging ahead as … Read more
movie review DOWNTON ABBEY: THE GRAND FINALE Running time: 124 minutes. Rated PG (suggestive material, smoking and some thematic elements). In theaters. It would be a dangerous drinking game to take a swig every time a character in “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” mentions that times are changing. But their obsession with moving on — … Read more
movie review SMASHING MACHINE Running time: 123 minutes. In theaters Oct. 3. TORONTO — In a canyon-sized leap for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, the man has gone from being a professional wrestler to playing an MMA fighter. What a stretch! But I suppose the old chestnut “write what you know” can just as easily apply … Read more
movie review FRANKENSTEIN Running time: <br>149 minutes. <br>In select theaters Oct. 17. On Netflix, Nov. 7. TORONTO — Guillermo del Toro has taken the exhumed limbs of his career and sewn them together into “Frankenstein,” which had its Canadian premiere Monday at the Toronto International Film Festival. There’s the gothic mansion and blood-red costumes from … Read more