MUNICH is brilliant. It's no revelation that Steven Spielberg has made a lot of great movies that we all know and love. This is one of my favorite Spielberg films, and it's also one of his lesser known. Through incredible recreations and stellar casting, MUNICH opens with the Black September terrorists infiltrating the Olympic Village in 1972, holding the Israeli athletes hostage and killing them as the world watches. Spielberg deftly weaves actual news footage into his recreations, blurring the lines and immersing you in the terrorist attack. In response, Golda Meir (Lynn Cohen) and the Mossad hire a lesser known but devoted operative named Avner (Eric Bana) to assemble a team of five to hunt down and kill those responsible. Avner's team is an eclectic bunch. A pre-James Bond era Daniel Craig is Steve, the most emotional and hair-triggered of the bunch. Ciaran Hinds (Midwinter Break) is the business like Carl, the oldest of the gang with deep passions beneath his calm, business-man exterior. Mathieu Kassovitz is Robert, a toy maker turned bomb-maker and Hanns Zischler is Hans. All expendable, invisible low-level operatives, they become an efficient killing machine under Avner's leadership. But at what cost? The son of a well known war hero, Avner wrestles with his family legacy, as well as his guilt and concern over the pregnant wife he leaves behind for the mission. Spielberg is a master at creating action set pieces and he's at his best here, with each target of our team's vengeance providing a different scenario for their assassination and a unique set of challenges for the team and Spielberg to build suspense. Like a cross between the best of Hitchcock's political thrillers and early seventies classics like "The Day of The Jackal" or "The Odessa File", MUNICH is a terrific film. Bana is excellent, dealing with the intricacies of their plans while doubts about their methods and his moral compass begin to cloud his drive. Craig and Hinds are fantastic, providing the ying and yang of patriotic duty and business-like neutrality. The team of five grows into a family-like unit, making the loss of their members even more powerful when they unfold. Two-thirds of the way through the film and well into their mission, Avner meets a wealthy father and son team that deals in information. For the right price, they will tell you where anyone is at anytime. They have NO political loyalties and refuse to work with governments. The brilliance of this portion of the film is in its sudden shift in tone. Avner has been working with the son Louis (Mathieu Amalric) for months when a murder goes wrong and Louis' father suspects that Avner is working for a government. Avner is brought to their family estate to meet Papa, (Michael Lonsdale in a brilliant performance that lifts the entire film) the bond they form challenges everything Avner thinks he knows. John Williams provides a haunting music score, continuing his long partnership with Spielberg. The screenplay is fantastic, with playwright Tony Kushner (Angels in America) and Eric Roth (Forrest Gump) weaving a true story with fictional elements, creating characters you care about and placing them in a ticking bomb of suspense that keeps you wound tightly for just short of three fast hours. After their partnership in this movie, Spielberg abd Kushner worked together again on "Lincoln", their underrated "West Side Story" and "The Fabelmans". All four films received Oscar nominations for both men. Complicated, intelligent and suspenseful, MUNICH is one of Spielberg's best and gets an A+. It also earns a spot in my ALL-TIME TOP 100 FILMS. If you haven't seen it, I envy you experiencing it for the first time. "The race is not for the swift, nor the battle for the strong, But time and chance happens to them all. Fate's hand falls suddenly, who can say when it falls?"

Anytime I see "Authentic Paranormal Tales" in a film's description, I raise an eyebrow. Am I going to sit through 2 hours of Ghost Hunters where every shadow, pipe creak and cold spot is a tunnel to Hell? No thanks. I was drawn to Netflix's Documentary series TRUE HAUNTING due to its pedigree. Executive Producer James Wan has been behind some of my favorite horror of the past decade, including (as a Producer) Lee Cronin's The Mummy and The Conjuring films. OK, you've got my attention. Maybe it's the five episode format, but the scares never reach much of a pitch in the two "true-life" hauntings that are depicted here. The first three episodes are called "Eerie Hall" and are devoted to a college runner whose dorm room seems to house a very evil roommate. It's 1984 and Freshman Chris de Cesare is barely unpacked when he starts hearing voices and feeling an evil presence in his room. Toga parties be damned, this thing even follows him into the shower. Nothing worse than a ghost perv. But he also feels it when he's running. And BOY, does he run. A lot. Over and over. Over the hills and through the woods. Again and again. Note to self. Running isn't scary, no matter how much spooky music you layer over it. The three episodes wander through that experience and feature an amateur cast portraying the real-life subjects. The only creepy feelings are the ensuing dread that you've been sucked into one of those third rate "Dateline" knockoffs where really bad actors reenact the "actual happenings". At one point, perhaps knowing that viewers might be questioning sticking with this dreck, Wan even inserts budget rate actors as Lorraine and Ed Warren from "The Conjuring" films. Oye. It smells and tastes desperate. By the time Chris's Dad ends up sleeping in his dorm room and feeling like there's something in that very dark closet, I'm not sure if I was anxious or just anxious for it to be over. The last two episodes are better, (not a Herculean hurdle) even though you've seen the story a million times before. A young family moves into a beautiful Victorian house that's way too cheap, from a realtor all to anxious to sell it. ( Smells like Amityville around here.....) "The House that Murdered Me" at least conjures up some scares, but virtually nothing you haven't seen before. Bumps in the night? Check. An ancient history of death and abuse in the house? Check. Flashbacks to an old time with folks holding candles hiding from someone? Check. The most interesting, I hesitate to say "Best" part of the series is the fact that we see new filmed interviews with the actual people depicted in the chapters. When it works, it works. A few seem genuinely haunted to this day. This landed on Netflix right before Halloween in 2025. I imagine it found a receptive audience looking for new horror content. However, if you're looking for entertaining or scary horror, you wont find any here, just a bargain basement, meandering tale that feels way cheaper and longer than it is. The scariest thing would be if there was actually a second season of this watered down, third rate Poltergeist. Hey, everything can't be a winner. We'll chalk this up as a rare James Wan miss and move on to the real scares. This goofy, unscary schlock gets a D.

MICHAEL absolutely floored me, blowing away my expectations with at least three historical recreations that soared in Dolby Cinema. It's an absolute thriller. Ignore the naysayers that approached the film with their own agenda, mostly social media warriors that didn't see their own issues addressed. The film takes place from Michael's early years to the kickoff of his BAD Tour in London, before any accusations began surfacing. I'm watching the film as a lifelong fan of MJ's and someone who was in their early 20's when the Thriller album hit stores. The impact of that album on the cultural zeitgeist is hard to comprehend if you weren't there at the time. It was brilliant, fresh and jaw dropping. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Magnificent Seven) crafts an unflinching look at the 1960's childhood of young Michael, his brothers and their abusive, power hungry father Joe Jackson. Colman Domingo (The Color Purple, Selma) is relentless as Joe. Some of the scenes of his beating of Michael are very hard to watch. Young Juliano Valdi is excellent as the Michael we all first remember, the youngest and most obvious superstar of the Jackson 5. Nia Long (The Best Man, Stigmata) is very good as Katherine Jackson, who's always there for the boys, but stands by to watch Joseph's abuse, a decision she comes to regret. The film's first musical stunner is a montage that recreates the Jackson 5's initial club and fair appearances, followed by an appearance with Gladys Knight (Liv Symone) that gets the attention of Motown. When the boys head to Motown to record for legend Berry Gordy (Larenz Tate), his coaching of Michael and emotion as he hears young Michael sing "Who's Lovin' You" is powerful. Valdi and Tate's moments on screen together are the first spark of magic in a well cast film that's full of them. We soon jump forward to Michael (Jafaar Jackson) ready to cut his own record deal with Sony and write his first solo album. From this point forward, the film takes off with behind-the-scenes history I didn't know and historical events that I remember well. All are lovingly re-created via a great production team and the startling performance of Jafaar as Michael. After seeing the trailers, I approached the film thinking, "well he doesn't really look like Michael, I guess I'll roll with it...." Jafaar absolutely blows the doors off the joint. He is, in real life, Jermaine Jackson's son and Michael's nephew. DNA is an amazing and magical thing. There are moments as the film went on that Jafaar's resemblance in looks, voice and movement are so spooky that he seems to be channeling his uncle. I'd be shocked and disappointed if Jackson isn't nominated for his performance. It is chill inducing, especially in his recreations of the most famous moments and songs of Michael's career. The entire "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" sequence is fantastic, down to the Tower Records appearance on Sunset and his creating of the song behind the scenes. The dynamic between his disgusting, power hungry father and Michael's caring personality creates dramatic tension throughout. The moments we all remember are here. The large section of the film dealing with Michael's second album, Thriller, is fantastic. Kendrick Sampson is very good as Quincy Jones, MJ's second mentor after Gordy that truly guided some of the best selling albums of all time, to this day. Miles Teller (Top Gun: Maverick, The Offer) is very good as John Branca, Michael's handpicked lawyer on the Sony/Epic team that never left Michael's side and was MJ's backbone against Joe until Michael found the time to break loose. When he does, its a great moment of the film. KeiLyn Durrel Jones (Succession) is a standout as Bill Bray, the driver and bodyguard Joe hires to watch over Michael. The arc of that relationship is a powerful one to watch and Jones is excellent in the role. Mike Myers is almost unrecognizable, sincere and hilarious as CBS/Epic President Walter Yetnikoff. He and Michael changed the music landscape when they convinced MTV to show Michael's videos, the very rare black artist at the time to achieve that. They changed the world overnight. I remember all my friends at that time making sure they were home or having our VCR's (a brand new device at that time!) set to record the premier of Michael's "Thriller" short film on MTV when it premiered. The entire country came to a halt to watch, re-watch and love that video. The film re-creates it stunningly here, down to amazing lookalikes for Michael's girlfriend in the video, Director John Landis and the historic dancing of Zombie MJ and those ghouls. My favorite moments of the film include the behind-the-scenes sequence around Michael with rival LA gang members developing the music video for "Beat It". The Dolby Cinema mix, Jafaar Jackson's exacting replication of Michael's creative process, dance moves and attitude gave me chills. The film then ups the ante with an uncanny recreation of Michael's live performance of "Billie Jean" at the 1983 Motown 25 celebration. If you were alive in '83, you remember that creative firestorm as Michael moonwalked for the first time, creating a sensation that changed the music world and elevated his global presence. We're dropped into Dodger Stadium for the final night of the Jackson's tour in a special effects wow that equals the Freddie Mercury Live Aid performance recreation in the 2018 Queen biopic "Bohemian Rhapsody". Graham King produced both films, impressively. He's joined as Producer by the real life John Branca and much of the Jackson family. Then, in the films final moments, we are transported direct from Dodger Stadium and that incredible live performance to Michael's opening night in London on the "Bad" Tour. The sound and visuals of the entire sequence deliver, recreating the moment with thundering bass, kinetic movement and the absolute perspective of a front row seat across the pond. I got chills again. Jafaar Jackson is an incredible find and brilliant casting. He brings Michael back to life in a powerful tribute to his uncle, recreating the moments that made him one of the biggest music forces of the past 50 years. After two hours of flawless Dolby Cinema visuals and sound, I feel like I was there again. Talk about taking you back. MICHAEL is a THRILLER of the highest order, a box office record breaker and gets an A+. See it in the best sound format you can find, you won't be disappointed. Unless your a social justice warrior, then there's nothing to see here.

They don't make them like this anymore. Thank the film gods. Stately, dull and a complete waste of Bisset & Bergen, RICH AND FAMOUS is a 1981 melodrama that manages to even make sex boring. Director George Cukor (My Fair Lady, The Philadelphia Story, Gaslight) turned out his fair share of film classics in the 40's and 50's, but this was his last, tired film. It's gasping on fumes as it reaches out to a past era of two hankie melodramas. Jacqueline Bisset (Bullitt, Airport) more than does her part as famous novelist Liz Hamilton. Her hugely successful novel was an important, artistic novel and she's struggling like hell to write her next one. Her friend since college, Merry Noel Blake (Bergen) is the opposite of artistic. She's loud, flamboyant, proudly Southern and newly Rich. Bergen struggles in the part, often mistaking loud and over-the-top with character building. But in all fairness, she's playing a proud woman of the south (with an accent that seems to vary in intensity) named Merry Noel. That doesn't leave much room for nuance. Gerald Ayres screenplay, adapted from a play by John Van Druten, plays like a two actress stage play, no matter how much he jet sets the settings and moves from penthouse to beach house in a style that drips TV's "Dynasty" and "Dallas". David Selby isn't very good as Merry Noel's husband Doug, who seems to flit from bar to bar and secretly long for Liz, who is everything Merry isn't. I really liked Selby on "Dark Shadows" as a kid, but wow his acting is.....bad. He damn near sunk "Raise the Titanic" by himself and he struggles here. It's awkward. When Merry Noel decides to write a great Southern novel, loaded with gossip and trashy melodrama, it becomes a HUGE hit and her fame skyrockets. This should create tension between Liz's artsy writer's block and Merry Noel's schlock, but honestly it just bores. Every time Cukor feels like the film is slowing down, he throws in a fairly graphic sex scene between Bisset and a parade of men that come her way. He makes a serious casting mistake in casting the most important two with actors that look so much alike, its confusing. Or at least it would be if I really was that drawn into the story. Hart Bochner (Die Hard) plays a Rolling Stone reporter who falls in love with Liz while a young NYC gigolo, played by Matt Lattanzi (Grease 2, Xanadu) chases her all over Manhattan, but mostly to her suite at the Algonquin. It's all goofy, takes itself way too seriously and goes on forever. Meg Ryan is good in her film debut as Merry Noel's 18 year old daughter Debby, who shows far more intelligence and good judgement than her mother. When the best scene in the film is Liz's Mile High Club adventure on a 747, it says a lot about the rest of the movie. The film jaunts across time with chapters in 1959, 1969, 1975 and 1981. The only thing it proves is that boring plays the same in any decade. The cocktail parties in the film are kind of fun and at least give you the chance to play "spot the famous author or director" with folks like Ray Bradbury and Roger Vadim wondering in and out in search of champagne. Dick Cavett and Merv Griffin actually show up to host Merry Noel on their respective talk shows of the day. I feel like Bergen got punked by Academy Award winning Costume Designer Theoni V. Aldredge (The Great Gatsby). Her outfits are laugh out loud funny. I was waiting for her to bust out the Carol Burnett/Scarlett O'Hara drapes at one point. With nearly a $12M budget and a $15M gross at the box office, audience of the day were pretty indifferent and it's easy to see why. This feels like the kind of film MGM would have made three decades early, sans the nudity and sex of course. There are slick films of this era that are absolute trash that are guilty pleasures. "The Other Side of Midnight" and "The Betsy" come to mind, both based on books by novelist Harold Robbins. His books were all sexy, trashy fun and never claimed to be anything more. Those two films had the same attitude. RICH AND FAMOUS seems to be reaching for something more important. Alas, it never climbs out of its own dull limitations, settling for a C-. Bisset was my first crush as Gwen the Stewardess in 1970's "Airport". Out of allegiance to her status in that regard, I'll resist giving this film she produced a D. But only cause I'll never forget Gwen and my mad crush on her on the big screen 11 years before this dud.

GOOD BOY turns out to be a one-trick puppy, but moments of the trick are undeniably entertaining. The definition of a low-budget horror entry, Writer/Director Ben Leonberg shot the film over 400+ days, capturing natural moments of his own dog Indy on film. And damned if Indy isn't great as the center of the tale. I can't imagine the patience it took to film the puppy for that many months to get the exact right expression/whimper or bark, but Leonberg and Indy nail all the key moments. We meet Todd (Shane Jensen) but only from Indy's viewpoint, mostly from the neck down, with faces of all the characters mostly in shadows until the finale. Todd is just out of rehab. His caring but annoying sister Vera (Arielle Friedman) has found him almost comatose, his nose dripping blood as Indy hovers nearby, whimpering. Todd inexplicably decides that the best place to go when he gets out of rehab is to their late Grandpa's haunted/cursed cabin. At least that's how Vera describes it. Indy agrees with her. He doesn't want to enter the Cabin in the Woods and almost immediately, the camera follows him as he crouches down by dark spaces just past the reach of the ambient light. Indy is especially fond of a room in the attic, where he'll sit and stare at nothing for long stretches of time. Leonberg gets several things in his film very right. He pays off our patience. How many times have you watched a low budget horror feature that's all tension and no payoff? He definitely lets those spirits and creepy beings come out of the shadows, selectively. From my perspective, just the right amount. As the bumps in the night, apparitions of another dog in the house and quiet barks and voices elevate their frequency, the film falls into a bit of a repetitive loop, serving up the same basic sequence over and over with slight variations. What happened to Grandpa? What's up with that neighbor? I liked the way that Todd's discovery of Grandpa's many, many VHS tapes set up an even bigger part of the mystery, but if feels like there was a lot more tension to be built out of watching snippets of those VHS tapes, peeling back the mystery. "Lee Cronin's The Mummy" recently served up exactly how to deal with a terrifying old VHS that holds horrific secrets. That feels very fumbled here. At just 72 minutes long, there was time to tell that part of the story, but you have to also credit Leonberg with making the absolute most of his $70,000 budget. That's the catering budget for a week on many Hollywood productions. Indy is fantastic. That dog expresses more hesitation, curiosity, terror and bravery than plenty of his human counterparts. Leonberg's cinematography is pretty damn good too. Once I got over thinking about how Muppet Babies only shows adults from the neck up too....... The fact that GOOD BOY made over $8 million on that budget should tee up Leonberg for something much grander next time out. Based on this mildly scary appetizer, the horror entree should be pretty tasty. He has said that the thematic inspiration for this film was "Poltergeist" and the way the dog in that film sensed the spirits long before the Freelings had a clue. I get it. This is no "Poltergeist" but it's no dog either. I'll give it a C+, with panting anticipation of what Leonberg does next. If you are a dog lover, bump that up to a B-.

Any NFL fan will be hard pressed to not enjoy DRAFT DAY on some level. Your enthusiasm will vary wildly based on your forgiveness for how badly the film fumbles the ball when it gets off the field. Kevin Costner stars as fictional Cleveland Browns general manager Sonny Weaver. He has just lost his legendary father/previous Browns GM after firing him the year before. Sonny is facing a draft day that will shape his team and his career as he is truly at the controls for the first time. Denis Leary is excellent as Browns Coach Penn, whose style is the opposite of Sonny's. Leary brings his usual humor and attitude to the role, man how I miss "Rescue Me". Frank Langella is owner Anthony Molina, who challenges Sonny to make a splash on draft day but has no idea how seriously Sonny will take that advice. Trading to the #1 pick in the draft, Sonny must decide between a picture perfect QB who may or may not be hiding something and Sonny's personal favorite Vontae Mack, whose passion for the game and the draft is over the top. Vontae is played by Chadwick Boseman and he is terrific, completing an amazing year of film roles that included playing James Brown in "Get On Up" and Jackie Robinson in "42". As long as the film stays in the boardroom, on the field or at Radio City Music Hall for draft day, it's a lot of fun. When it strays into Sonny's personal life it fumbles badly into predictable and maudlin territory. It manages to correct itself in the final quarter, scoring some unexpected twists and turns that manage to make drafting players look pretty damn exciting. The fourth quarter elevates everything that came before it, just like on the gridiron. Costner is reliably good as Sonny, Jennifer Garner is ok as his love interest Ali, but she and Costner have zero chemistry in the huddle. Ellen Burstyn is terrific as Sonny's hard-wired Mom. Look for Sean Combs as an agent and plenty of ESPN reporters and NFL players as themselves. Director Ivan Reitman knows how to create a compelling, witty film. With everything from "Ghostbusters", "Heavy Metal" and "Stripes" on his resume, this would prove to be his final film before his death in 2022. DRAFT DAY is predictable but fun for football fans and (as long as it's focused on football) a well made diversion, especially on Draft weekend! The real life Cleveland Browns will wish yet again tonight that they had Sonny Weaver at the helm! We'll give it a game day B-.

Bob Odenkirk is the new Liam Neeson. Didn't see that one coming. NORMAL is another hugely entertaining action thriller and a great follow up to Odenkirk's "Nobody" flicks. In those films, he played a former agent who's just trying to retire. This time out, he's Ulysses Richardson, a good lawman who's found quiet respite as a fill in sheriff in a very small, very cold Minnesota town that might remind you of a little place called Fargo. The townspeople certainly are the same kind of folk. Quick with a warm smile and a wave, the town seems to be hugely prosperous under the guidance of Mayor Kibner, played by a foul mouthed, very confident Henry Winkler. He's terrific, playing against type and owning it. Ulysses narrates the film via long messages he's leaving for his estranged wife. Something in his law enforcement past is haunting him, leaving him restless in the local fleabag motel. His deputy Mike Nelson is an absolute idiot, hilariously played by Billy MacLellan (Nobody). A people pleaser of the highest order, some of his interactions with the feuding citizenry left me laughing loudly, especially watching Odenkirk react to them. An almost unrecognizably frumpy Lena Headley (Game of Thrones, 300) plays Moira, the town bartender with a ready pour and an eye for bullshit. Ryan Allen is Deputy Anderson, who might not be the best shot in the force, but he's got a lot of enthusiasm. The armory at the police station would make Rambo proud. Seems like a lot of firepower for this little frozen berg. Just as Ulysses is beginning to have strong suspicions that this tiny town seems to have a whole lot of unexplained money, two outsiders Lori (Reena Jolly) and Keith (Brendan Fletcher) decide to rob the downtown bank, where the town's mysteries are deeply rooted. What happens next is part action thriller, part laugh out loud comedy and 100% entertaining. By the time a squad of Yakuza fighters are landing in a private jet to descend on the town and about 50 bodies litter the streets in a huge variety of pieces, I was having one hell of a great time. Odenkirk creates a character to cheer for in Ulysses. He's a good man looking to wind down and hide, drawn into a massive battle in which he's got nothing to lose. The sheer variety of lethal characters that populate Main Street had me smiling ear to ear throughout. Derek Kolstad, the creator of John Wick and the screenwriter of the first three films in that series, brings the same depth of character building and mad fight scenes to this snowy little burg that he did to Mr. Wick and The Continental. There are huge echoes of Neo-Western lore here, with High Noon coming to mind in Ulysses man-against-the-entire-town story. Fargo fans will get a chuckle out of Sheriff Gunderson as well. Like the Wick films, the extreme violence reaches almost slapstick proportions and serves up real suspense and gory fun. I don't know how much weapons training that Odenkirk's been through, but between this and the Nobody films, he's an unlikely and very believable action hero. He may be fighting yokels here, but they're motivated. The grand finale with the Yakuza is funny as hell, especially the way it starts, but it's also Tarantino worthy in its close quarters, bloody mayhem. I laughed out loud more than a few times. Like Wick, Ulysses is an on screen hero who sits down out of breath, half broken and bleeding at the end of every confrontation. I don't know how in the hell he kept getting up for the next fight, but I was always glad he did. This is a fascinating and very enjoyable, weird blend of John Wick and a John Wayne western. Who knew those Johns blended together would serve up something so fast & fun? NORMAL is anything but and gets a very solid B for its double barrel blast of action and laughs.

One of the most troubled productions of the mid 70's, LUCKY LADY proved to be anything but at the box office. Hot off of her Best Actress win for "Cabaret" in 1972, Liza Minnelli was very careful about her next big screen project. Perhaps lured by the chance to work with legendary (but aging) Director Stanley Donen (Singing in the Rain, Two for the Road) and the two biggest box office actors of the time, Burt Reynolds & Gene Hackman, she leapt in with both feet. You can't say that the three of them don't give 100%, but they're working from a very bad screenplay by married writers Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz. These two define HIT and MISS on a grand scale. They gave us "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and "American Graffiti", but also delivered "Howard the Duck". This one spends a lot of time on the water alongside Howard. Minnelli plays 1930's nightclub singer Claire, performing at her husband's Tijuana cantina that also serves as a base for their rum running operation. When her never seen husband is killed, she recruits Walker (Burt Reynolds) for the next liquor run. When everything goes wrong, a stranger named Kibby (Gene Hackman) makes their operation a trio and the three become the rum running team of choice between Mexico and the states. Thankfully for us and the movie, John Hillerman (Blazing Saddles, Chinatown) plays Mob Kingpin Christy McTeague, a lethal, stuffy gangster boss who's not happy the trio are horning in on his action. Hillerman delivers every line with perfect droll contempt. Every time he's on screen, it feels like he's wandered in from a much better movie. Our leads have absolutely zero chemistry on screen. Minnelli has been vocal, especially in her recent biography, that Hackman talked down to her the entire time they made the film, making her feel that she hadn't earned the star billing. She loved working with Reynolds and the two of them have the closest thing to chemistry that you'll find, but it's low wattage. Poor Minnelli is stuck with a screenplay that has her yelling most of the time and Donen has her playing for the back row. Liza has shown incredible presence in "Cabaret" and "Arthur" with a much more still, more quiet and present delivery. Less is more and she knows it, but not given the opportunity here. Reynolds is just enjoying himself and Hackman is the journeyman bringing everything he can to the underwritten role. Hackman shows flashes of the comic timing he'd put on full display later in Richard Donner's "Superman". This was his biggest paycheck at the time at $1.5 million. Poor Geoffrey Lewis (Maverick, Tango & Cash) makes Liza's performance look positively reserved. I thought he was going to stroke out from screaming at everyone. His Coast Guard officer is on a quest to take down our rum running trio, but his crew feels like McHale's Navy. Huyck and Katz never find a tone for this lumbering wannabe epic. Is it a musical? Nope. Cabaret composers Kander and Ebb created two songs for Liza to perform, but they're treated like throwaways and she only performs one on screen. Is it a comedy or a drama? It tries to be both but fails in the middle ground, serving up violent deaths of major characters and then awkwardly going for laughs a moment later. Huh? Way too late, the film hits its stride with a fun, large scale air and sea battle between our trio, alongside their partners in 43 boats of all sizes, against the mob. That 15 minutes serves up plenty of laughs and some decent action, but then saddles itself with a horrible music score by Ralph Burns that sounds like leftover tracks from a Brady Bunch episode. It's been said that Steven Spielberg was offered this film as his first big screen feature, but he chose to make "Jaws" instead. Great choice, Steven. In his autobiography, Burt Reynolds said that Donen made a complete mess of the movie in the editing room and destroyed Minnelli's performance. If Reynolds is right, it would explain some of the very strange and abrupt changes in tone throughout the film. Even Hackman, who clearly didn't connect with Minnelli during the production defended her and said that Donen had destroyed the film with poor editing. It's hard to imagine that there is a great film somewhere between the one I watched and the film on the cutting room floor, but there very well may have been a better one. LUCKY LADY was 20th Century Fox's big Christmas release of 1975 and sank quickly to obscurity after bombing badly. Some things are better left at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. It gets a waterlogged D.

Insert Jaws Theme Here: "..Dumb Dumb..... Dumb Dumb.... DumbDumb, DumbDumb..." I could just wrap the review of Netflix new disaster movie/Giant Shark thriller right there. Good night folks! But THRASH probably deserves a bit more text in honor of the actors who do their best with a screenplay so thin, a goldfish could swim through it. Perhaps inspired by what would happen if they threw "Sharknado" in a blender with "The Day After Tomorrow" we meet the various citizens of a modern Mayberry directly in the path of a Category 5 Hurricane. Djimon Hounsou (Guardians of the Galaxy, Amistad) brings presence and well delivered one liners to his role as Dr. Dale Edwards, a shark expert who just happens to be near our Mayberry as the storm approaches. Well, he's a hundred miles away, but I'll get to that later. As for the rest of the characters, they're well acted but stuck in characters that are so stupid, weak or ignorant that they just decide to stay in their homes and "ride it out 'cause them weather folk on the TV ain't never gettin' it right". Phoebe Dynevor (Bridgerton) is Lisa, who seems to be about nine and a half months pregnant, but more devoted to the accounting books at a refinery than she is having her baby in the opening scene. As the weather from hell looms, she just wraps up her day and gets in her teeny weeny car to drive somewhere, even though the roads are all closed down. (I hear the music....Dumb....Dumb.........) Whitney Peak (Molly's Game) made me scream at the screen as Dakota, Dr Edwards niece, who recently lost her Mom and has spent the months since Zoloft'ing her way through panic attacks in her Mom's home. Like Lisa, she seems to be that rare person under 30 who never looks at her phone. A storm's coming, Dakota. (Dumb.......Dumb) Lastly we meet three kids stuck with the worst foster parents on the planet, who cook steaks downstairs in a forbidden basement while the three kids live on Wonder Bread and peanut butter upstairs. The young actors Stacy Clausen, Alyla Browne (young Furiosa in the Mad Max series) and Dante Ubaldi that play the foster kids, steal every scene they are in. They're smarter than any adult in the movie, funny as hell and are the only three I ever rooted for to survive. The hurricane hits Mayberry, oops, I mean the small Coastal Carolina town of Annieville. Seawalls break, the storm surge fills the town and brings with it an onslaught of killer sharks. Faster than you can yell "Shark! Shark!", there are onscreen references to "Jaws", "Jaws 2" and mayhem galore. Some of the opening scenes with Lisa in her car, the approaching flood and the gasoline tanker are fun and the kids swim down to the flooded basement with a great white swimming around serves up some suspense, but the rest of this is pretty dull and "been there, done that". One of the dumbest moments in the film, and there are plenty to choose from, is when Dr. Edwards and the TV News team they have hooked up with to head to Annieville. As they move from their truck to a boat to head the rest of the way there, Edwards flashlight shines on a road sign that says, "Annieville, 100 miles". Huh? 100 miles!!!!??? We just laughed out loud, assuming that we were going to see some fantastically stupid shark antics along the way. Nope. We see about two minutes of that journey. Did they run out of budget? Why place your possible heroes 100 miles from their objective and then show none of their quest? Lazy or stupid writing or massive budget cuts. At only 86 minutes long (thank the Shark Gods) is that 100 mile trip on the cutting room floor? Some of the sets are clever. They were built on a set of pulleys that could lower the entire set into a massive tank, allowing the furniture and everything around the actors to float as the flood waters rise. It's effective and looks great. Some of the practical effects are well done as well. The CGI sharks range from good to hilariously silly. The last few minutes are laugh-out-loud stupid & funny, especially when a Megaladon sized mega shark shows up while Lisa is having her baby in the flood waters. That shot of Lisa with the harpoon was telegraphed in such hack fashion in the her opening scenes that I said out loud, "watch for her to shoot a harpoon in the last 5 minutes." Yep. The final moment sets up a sequel. Please, NO. 86 minutes of this goofy crap is enough. THRASH gets a D. It's only saved from an F by those talented & very funny kids and some great flood effects. Sing it with me....Dumb, Dumb..........Dumb, Dumb.......

Morgan Neville's new film LORNE is proof that you need a willing participant to make a compelling documentary. From the start, Lorne Michaels lets it be known that he is not interested in offering up anything personal. Then, best friends like Paul Simon all convey to Neville, "good luck, you're not getting anything out of Lorne". So what are we supposed to watch for the next 101 minutes? If you've been alive for any duration of the past 50+ years and have even a hint of pop culture awareness, you know who Lorne Michaels is, the creator of Saturday Night Live, a late night institution. Michaels also has a solid record of turning the characters from the show into some massive box office hits like "Wayne's World". He's also taken the show's cast to big screen stardom in films like "Tommy Boy" and "Mean Girls". For about half this docs running time, the film coasts on clips from the most iconic episodes of SNL, Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin's "30 Rock" (what a fantastic show that was) and snippets of new interviews with many of our favorite SNL alumni. But the past few years have seen entertaining and exhaustive recaps of SNL around its 50th anniversary. If you haven't been hiding under a rock, you've seen all this material and nostalgically enjoyed it very recently. We're here for something new, and that material is pretty sparse. I enjoyed the details around Michael's five year absence from the show in the early 80's. In my memory, it was only a couple years he was gone and the show absolutely hit rock bottom. The ONE new thing I did see for the first time is Lorne's own performances on his short lived Canadian TV skit show, featuring him in front of the camera as half of a comedy duo. It's fascinating to see that young, formative comedian in contrast to the behind the scenes figure he would become. It was fun hearing the dirt around some of the morons in NBC's executive suite bitching about the shows biggest stars like Adam Sandler, who they just "didn't get". I'm a huge fan of the late Norm MacDonald and the way he refused to quiet doing OJ-is-Guilty jokes even though NBC honcho Don Ohlmeyer was Simpson's steadfast best friend. But like the majority of the film, there were no new insights on that conflict or any behind the scenes feedback from Lorne. Nothing. Neville gets so desparate with the lack of material that Michaels is offering that he spends most of the movie filling the gap with "TV Funhouse" style animation and someone doing an impression of Lorne's voice for the cartoon. Huh? I could be content for quite awhile watching Conan O'Brien, Bill Hader, Fred Armisen and Chris Rock share stories, that table is a great place to be. Then the film focuses on Lorne during a week of prep for SNL, saying very little. We're forced to watch Michaels move colored index cards around on a cork board while a dozen acolytes stare silently at the board and him, saying nothing. Then he moves another card and swaps two others and the loyal dozen silently act like they've just seen a miracle. The first time we see this routine, its intriguing. By the fourth time we sit through it, it feels like filler. Meh. Neville has created some superb docs in the past decade, including 2015's "Best of Enemies: Buckley vs Vidal", 2018's "Won't You Be My Neighbor" and "20 Feet from Stardom". But even he can't spin gold out of an unwilling participant. The last ten minutes of the film are quiet shots of Lorne standing in the fields of his upstate farm, while Neville bends over backwards to make elementary connections between blooming flowers and the stars he discovered. It's pedestrian and far below what we've come to expect from Neville. Meanwhile, Lorne's still standing in that field listening to the wind, and like the entire documentary...saying nothing. LORNE gets a C.

Relentless, bloody, gory and suspenseful, EVIL DEAD RISE is s terrific new addition to the decades-spanning Evil Dead franchise. Executive Produced by original director Sam Raimi (Spider-Man, Darkman) and Bruce Campbell (1981's original "The Evil Dead") bring a thrill-ride mentality to this new chapter. All the elements fans desire are here and perfectly packaged. We barely have time to meet two estranged sisters before all hell breaks loose. Beth (Lily Sullivan) has been off the radar for awhile when she lands on the dilapidated doorstep of her sister Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) and her children. Danny (Morgan Davies) , his older sister Bridget (Gabrielle Echols) and young sister Kassie (Nell Fisher) are free spirits with plenty of experience fending for themselves in the soon to be condemned apartment building that's home. As the kids are coming back from a pizza run, an Earthquake hits and Danny finds a deep hole in the parking garage that leads to the discovery of the Book of the Dead, along with some old fashioned record albums from 100+ years ago. Any fans of the series know exactly what's going to happen next. I did, but it was so well executed that I enjoyed this new take. If kids in peril isn't your thing, this is a nightmare. Normally I can't watch kids in these kind of scenarios, but Davies, Echols and Fisher are such good young actors that they pulled me in and never let me go. Sutherland is absolutely lethal as the demon possessed Mom. She's an eyeball eating, stomach churning, "I want to eat my own kids" nightmare. The practical, special effects & makeup teams are first rate throughout. My favorite scenes were when Danny first plays the ancient record albums, featuring the Priest that originally found the Book of the Dead narrating his experience. You could hear a pin drop. Until the screaming started, then it never stops. I saw fun references to the previous films and a few others like "John Carpenter's The Thing", "Poltergeist" and most obviously "The Shining" that make you smile in the middle of the mayhem. Originally slated for direct-to-HBO Max, the film did so well they changed it to a theatrical release, where it topped the $100 million mark at the box office and is still rolling. As a huge fan of "Army of Darkness", I loved Beth saying "Come Get Some" to the demon. It's a great throwback to one of Campbell's funnier lines in that film. Irish composer Stephen McKeon (Black Mirror) delivers a scary music score that sings perfectly right along with the thousands of gallons of blood spilled. I may never use my cheese grater again. EVIL DEAD RISE butchers, bites and blasts its way to a bloody entertaining B+. RED BAND, R-RATED FULL-GORE trailer attached below.

A clever, funny and blood dripping tribute to the original "Omen", "Se7en" and his own "Evil Dead Rise", LEE CRONIN'S THE MUMMY is an absolute thrill ride of gore. Ignore the dullards who are bitching about it being "too long", Cronin's got a hell of a story to tell and I loved every minute of it. First of all, this has NOTHING to do with the superb Brendan Fraser "Mummy" movies. There is nothing family friendly about this one, especially if you are the Cannon family. Charlie Cannon (Jack Reynor from "Midsommar") is a TV news reporter stationed in Cairo for the past few years with his wife Larissa (Laia Costa) a nurse. They have a daughter Katie (Emily Mitchell) and young son Sebastian (Dean Allen Williams). Just as they are about to celebrate Charlie's reassignment back in the states, Katie is taken. I wont say much about the scene, because it's so well structured, blending the horror of a Father realizing his daughter is gone and an epic sandstorm that might just be a tribute to the massive haboob in 1999's "The Mummy". We saw the film in Dolby Cinema and the sound during this sequence was fantastic, just the first of many times that wind, sand and bumps in the night circled around my head, along with the screams of onlookers. Reynor and Costa are great as parents facing the ultimate horror of their daughter gone missing in a foreign land. They are the outsiders, with only a first time police detective Dalia Zaki (a terrific May Calamawy) on their side. There seem to be no clues to who took Katie or where she is. The film jumps forward 8 years. Charlie and Larissa have moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, living with Larissa's mother Carmen. Veronica Falcon (Ozark, Jungle Cruise) is terrific as Carmen, a grandma with a hilarious streak and a deep faith. She'll need it. Sebastian (now played by Shilo Molina) is in high school and his 8 year old sister Maud (Billie Roy) are finding their way, nearly a decade since their sister's disappearance. Out of the blue, the family gets a call from Cairo that Katie has been found. Cronin reveals all this with a mysterious set of well structured scenes that appear unrelated to the tale. They will all serve as clever pieces of the puzzle later. I'll say nothing more about how and where Katie has been found. Charlie and Larissa go to get their daughter. But is this really Katie? Catatonic with bursts of violence and guttural noises, she's a terrifying little creature. The film roles into serious "Exorcist" territory from here on out, very effectively. They take Katie (now played by Natalie Grace) back home, with Larissa confident that her nursing background will bring her daughter back from the edge. Cronin delivers relentless "Poltergeist" vibes as Katie sits in her bedroom. Remember when little Charlie would clack her jaws together in Ari Aster's "Hereditary"? Cronin triples down on the creep with Katie's insane jaws. Kudos to the makeup team and Grace for what must have been countless hours in the makeup chair. Secret passages, sprawling crawl ways, giant desert scorpions and hidden parts of the huge old house in the desert serve up a perfect playground for Cronin to scare the hell out of us. As in "Poltergeist", night time isn't exactly the best time to be inside this home. As their daughter demonstrates more and more violent tendencies and some truly gross habits, the family begins to fracture. Charlie makes a startling discovery in a sequence that brought me back to sitting in a huge movie theater in 1976 watching David Warner as the photographer in "The Omen" developing those haunting pictures foretelling death. Charlie's meeting with an archeology expert Professor Bixler (Mark Mitchinson, perfectly cast) is perfect, spooky and took me back to Gregory Peck meeting with Bugenhagen in "The Omen". Haunting film moments like these are not easy to conjure, but Cronin creates them seamlessly. Charlie sends his findings to Detective Zaki, now with eight years on the job and devoted to find out what happened to Katie. The story structure is perfect, as we pop back and forth between the horrors of what's happening inside the Albuquerque home and Zaki's "Se7en"-like detective thriller in Egypt. When those two story lines meet, fasten your seatbelt. Cronin's final half hour is a tour-de-force of sheer movie-making cojones. It's absolutely mad, over-the-top, gory, crazy and packed with jaw dropping moments. I never left the front edge of my seat. The funeral viewing in the living room is a twisted, revolting commitment to taking the viewer right to the edge with deft jolts of humor to make the revulsion more palatable. Cronin's like a great chef at work, serving up exactly what & when he wants to feed you. WTF moments abound. Composer Stephen McKeon (Evil Dead Rise) serves up a massive score of sliding strings and full orchestra screams that I wouldn't want to listen to at night. It's a flawless callback to the spirit Goldsmith's score for "Poltergeist", but wholly original. If you walk into the film expecting cloth wrapped, lumbering mummies or ancient pharaoh curses, you're in the wrong spot. But if you want a horror thrill ride blended with a mystery that delivers true, smart surprises, LEE CRONIN'S THE MUMMY has that wrapped up. I didn't like this one, I loved it. It gets an A. Cronin's earned that name above the title in bloody superb fashion. Warning: if you don't like gore or body horror, don't see this one. It's relentlessly gross and bloody in all the right ways.