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Oh my VOD! What started out as a trial experiment, with studios dropping major movies directly onto streaming services to soothe our lockdown boredom and (ideally) make a buck, has turned into an avalanche. For the last two months, the film release schedule has been routinely packed with titles — great and horrible — for …
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One plus one can occasionally equal too much. A prime example is the new Netflix chase-comedy “The Lovebirds,” starring Hollywood darlings Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani as a pair on the run from the law — and a killer. Likable though they are, their distinct comedic personalities don’t gel at all. Rae, a fun-loving everywoman, …
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It’s taken 51 years, but someone has finally done in “Scooby-Doo.” Oh, don’t worry, the talking pup’s not dead, but his newest movie, called “Scoob!,” is totally lifeless. I thought the 2002 Freddie Prinze Jr. live-action film would never be topped in its badness, but that one at least understood the classic “Doo” formula: Mystery …
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Tom Hardy really dodged a bullet with this one. The actor’s new biopic “Capone” skipped its theatrical release due to the coronavirus pandemic and, as a result, few people seem to know it exists. Lucky for Hardy, because he makes the worst Al Capone ever. For those of you who thought Al Pacino yukked it …
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If you want to celebrate the life of legendary actor Brian Dennehy, who died last month at age 81, start with one of his final films: “Driveways.” His performance as a widowed veteran is right up there with his finest screen work, which makes his passing all the sadder. For fans, the easy-to-embrace new dramedy …
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A new outfit has real power. Clothes can rejuvenate our spirit, change our walk into a strut or send us, sobbing, to Peloton.com, in hopes they might one day fit. Rarely, however, does something from the closet turn us into a full-blown serial killer. But that’s what a jacket manages to do, bitingly, in the …
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Sometimes it’s refreshing when a movie is just an improper noun that delivers what it promises. That’s “Extraction,” an ultraviolent action film in which a free-agent soldier is tasked with rescuing an Indian drug lord’s teenage son from the clutches of a rival Bangladeshi drug lord. He needs to extract the boy, Ovi (Rudhraksh Jaiswal), …
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When it comes to the movie “Endings, Beginnings,” I prefer the endings. But, goodness gracious, it takes an eternity to get there. This bore fest is nearly two hours of sizzle-less romance and thudding dialogue, centered around the sort of obnoxious free spirit who’d start up an unwanted conversation with you at a bar. Her …
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We movie critics may have loathed “Dolittle,” but Britney Spears doesn’t think it’s “Toxic” at all. The “If U Seek Amy” singer, 38, gushed about the reviled family film — starring a check-cashing Robert Downey Jr. as a Brit who natters on to cheetahs — in an Instagram post, cementing Spears as one of our …
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If you find hedge funds hard to wrap your head around, the movie “Human Capital” won’t do much to ease the confusion. “Nobody can explain what we do,”says the lawyer (Aasif Mandvi) for Quint Manning, a multimillionaire hedge-fund manager. Adds Quint (Peter Sarsgaard): “We move invisible money through invisible markets at invisible speeds.” Great, thanks. …
Oh my VOD! What started out as a trial experiment, with studios dropping major movies directly onto streaming services to soothe our lockdown boredom and (ideally) make a buck, has turned into an avalanche. For the last two months, the film release schedule has been routinely packed with titles — great and horrible — for …
