Even funnier, smarter and more melancholy than I remembered, 1982's FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH holds up beautifully. During a fast 90 minutes, we meet all the stereotypical high school types, elevated into real people by the terrific writing of Cameron Crowe, who would go on to write and direct "Almost Famous", "Jerry Maguire" and "Vanilla Sky". Sean Penn is ripped stoner Jeff Spicoli, constantly tumbling out of smoke filled vans and into the classroom, where he battles Ray Walston's classic teacher Mr. Hand. Their verbal battles are now classic movie moments. Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight) is shy and innocent Stacy, her best friend Linda is played by Phoebe Cates in all her red bikini poolside glory. The Cars "Moving in Stereo" will never be heard in quite the same way after accompanying Phoebe in her slow motion emergence from the water. Judge Reinhold is hilarious as Stacy's Fast Food worker brother, Brian Backer is every shy high school guy in America and Richard Romanus is Mike, a cocky, womanizing ticket scalper. Of course, none of these characters are exactly who them seem to be, with the exception of Spicoli and Mr. Hand, who are already true to themselves and drive the narrative with a ton of laughs. Their final meeting in the film is unexpectedly powerful, a credit to Crowe's writing. It's jammed with classic 80's music and set in a suburban mall that will bring back powerful nostalgia for all of us that grew up spending a lot of time in similar spots. Some classic dialogue: "All I need are some tasty waves, a cool buzz, and I'm fine." " Aloha. My name is Mr. Hand." "People on 'ludes should not drive!" "No. I don't have any Blue Oyster Cult. I had 34 pairs last around. Where were you?" Just a couple years after "Porky's", FAST TIMES continued the sexually frank dialogue and nudity of that film, but elevated it with smarter writing and a world class cast. Look for four young actors we'd get to know much better in the years ahead: Eric Stoltz, Forest Whitaker, Anthony Edwards and Nicolas Cage. FAST TIMES is a near perfect mix of great dialogue, physical comedy, coming of age hilarity and serious moments of teenage angst. Jammed with laughs, it gets an A. As the poster says, "It's Awesome, Totally Awesome!" Remember those days? Crowe does. Do you remember that this became a short lived TV series in 1986? Yeah, me neither.....

It's probably time to admit that I have never seen a Fast and Furious movie. Just haven't cared or had any interest until the last few when they started grossing over a Billion dollars each at the box office. I may need to rethink my position after enjoying the pure popcorn madness and fun of FAST & FURIOUS PRESENTS HOBBS & SHAW. Watching Dwayne Johnson's massive, down-to-Earth Hobbs verbally spar with Jason Statham's fussy, elitist Shaw, I felt like I was watching a $200 million dollar, testosterone laden remake of "The Odd Couple". They're hilarious throughout. Jason Statham showed us all he could do comedy as an arrogant agent in Melissa McCarthy's hilarious film "SPY" and he's basically playing the same character here, spiced up with incredible action scenes. Idris Elba is terrific as the villain you'll love to hate, Brixton, a genetically engineered superhero come to life. Vanessa Kirby (Mission Impossible: Fallout) kicks serious ass as Shaw's sister Hattie and Helen Mirren pulls out her comic chops as Shaw's jail-bound mum. With a $200 million budget, HOBBS & SHAW delivers great looking sets, MASSIVE action set pieces and plenty to enjoy. Elba's Brixton is basically a great Bond villain dropped into a more comedic adventure. Johnson has never been more likable, especially when he's forced to return to his family in Samoa for reinforcements against the Superman like bad guy. Statham steals every scene he's in, managing to keep a straight face as his dapper Shaw taunts Hobbs everyman hero. The fight scenes are perfectly staged, brutal and exciting. A car/motorcycle chase early in the film with Hobbs, Shaw and Hattie jammed into a stunning McLaren is fantastic. Ryan Reynolds pops in and out for even more comic relief as a CIA agent desperate for Hobbs' approval. Reynolds comic timing is flawless. I had a blast at HOBBS & SHAW. It's as believable as a Roadrunner cartoon and moves at the same manic pace. For pure entertainment, I haven't had a better time in an action movie in recent memory. HOBBS & SHAW makes me want to see more of these movies. Fast & Furious fans, should I watch them all from the beginning, or which ones are your favorites? HOBBS & SHAW explodes and laughs its way to a solid B. (ALIEN fans: watch Elba's logos on his fighting suit for the Weyland logo, a fun reference to his role in Prometheus. If any evil corporation was going to create cyber-genetically enhanced super bad guys, Weyland is the right group eh?)

As a huge fan of the Coen Bros and the film FARGO, I approached this 2013 FX series adaption with a lot of hesitation. WOW, was I wrong. Building upon the film's legacy with moments that tie it to the film, but featuring an entirely new cast of characters, this FARGO vied with "True Detective" as the best thing on television this year. Billy Bob Thornton gives the performance of his career as mysterious stranger Lorne Malvo. Arriving in the small Minnesota town of Bemidji, Malvo seems to have an almost satanic like spell over the townspeople, bringing murder and evil in his wake. Martin Freeman is every bit as good as repressed insurance salesman Lester Nygaard. Brow beat and verbally abused by his wife, ridiculed at work and aimlessly moving through the snowbound town, Lester soon finds himself at a turning point. When that turning point crosses paths with Malvo, the two are forever tied together. Where the story goes from that point is superb and one of the most unpredictable and enjoyable entertainment rides I've ever had. Alison Tollman shines as a female deputy with skills, Bob Odenkirk is sad and funny as the newly appointed sheriff in WAY over his head, Colin Hanks is very good as an unsure deputy haunted by past mistakes. This is an excellent series. Billy Bob is hypnotic as Malvo, one of the best villians ever on the small screen. Freeman's journey is amazing as he completely changes as a person from the first episode through the last. That transformation is believable, scary and when he steps into an elevator with Malvo about 2/3 of the way through the season, you will jump out of your seat trying to shake him into a different action than he takes. The Coen Bros were right to trust writer Noah Hawley. He has somehow evoked the classic film, paid tribute to it and yet created an entirely different world just as brilliant that sits just next door as an equal to the film. This is brilliant work. It's as suspenseful as it is funny, creating a world of characters you will truly care about on their dangerous, intersecting paths. If you haven't seen FARGO yet, put it on top of your list. It's brilliant. A+

The Coen brothers first screamed to the top ranks of my favorite filmmakers with their 1996 hit FARGO. Frances McDormand is perfect as small town cop Marge Gunderson, whose gentle demeanor and homespun cheer mask a pretty damn good cop. William H. Macy is also fantastic as car dealer Jerry Lundegaard, who plans a faked kidnapping of his wife to extort money from his hardboiled father-in-law Wade Gustafson, played hard by Harve Presnell in his best role in 30 years. Joel & Ethan Coen write the film brilliantly, creating comedy out of gentle observations about the everyday moments of life in Fargo. As Jerry's kidnapping plan spins wildly out of control thanks to explosive kidnappers Steve Buscemi (hilarious in my favorite Buscemi performance) and Peter Stormare as his quiet blond partner in crime, the violence is graphic, suspenseful and shocking. The fact the Coens can dance the line between comedy and violent drama so perfectly made this one of my favorite films of the nineties. Nominated for 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture and winner of Best Actress for McDormand and Best Screenplay for the Coens, Fargo is hilarious, shocking, tragic and brilliant. Now don't ya know this gets an A, you betcha.

Robert Mitchum played the film noir detective he was born to be as Philip Marlowe in 1975's excellent FAREWELL MY LOVELY. Based on the Raymond Chandler novel, Marlowe is drawn into the search for the missing girlfriend of giant, paroled mob guy Moose Malloy. Moose (played by Jack Halloran of "Superman" fame) is seeking his love Velma, a nightclub dancer of questionable repute who's disappeared during his time in prison. The deeper Marlowe digs, the more complicated the case becomes. Mobsters swirl, with tommy guns firing at Marlowe around every corner. Sylvia Miles won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role of a faded, alcoholic singer who seems to know a lot of the players the private detective is seeking. Charlotte Rampling (The Night Porter) is the young, wealthy wife of a key player, drawn to Marlowe and boldly in control in the 1940's setting. Mitchum is flawless as Marlowe. His narration is classic old school detective speak, pulling us into the setting and the players, one terrific sentence at a time. "She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket." "This past spring was the first that I felt tired and realized I was growing old. Maybe it was the rotten weather we'd had in L.A. Maybe the rotten cases I'd had. Mostly chasing a few missing husbands and then chasing their wives once I found them, in order to get paid." The streets are always wet, everyone's got a cigarette smoking off their lip and there are fedoras and jazz clubs at every turn. Which wouldn't mean much if the story wasn't well written. David Zelag Goodman (Logans Run, Straw Dogs) structures a complicated mystery that's fun to unwrap, but spices it up with some surprising bursts of violence and nudity that could never have been on screen in the 40's. David Shire (The Hindenburg) composed a terrific, John Barry-esque music score and John A. Alonzo (Chinatown, The Magnificent Seven) shoots its all with a classic polish. Dean Tavoularis (Apocalypse Now, The Godfather) creates perfect sets, from broken down shacks to incredible mansions. Marlowe has been played by numerous actors, from Dick Powell to Elliot Gould, but never quite as well as Mitchum. He would reprise the role three years later in "The Big Sleep". FAREWELL MY LOVELY gets an appreciative B. If you love gumshoes, private eyes or film noir, hire Marlowe today. Sylvester Stallone fans, enjoy his last small role before he exploded to stardom with "Rocky" the following year.

One of the best dramas of 2019, THE FAREWELL is the perfect balance of comedy, heartfelt emotion and terrific ensemble acting. Comedic breakout star Awkwafina (Crazy Rich Asians) shows her dramatic abilities as Billi, a young woman who moved to America with her parents when she was 5 and sees China as a distant but fond memory. When her treasured grandmother Nai Nai (a perfect Shuzhen Shao) receives a terminal cancer diagnosis, her entire family decides to shield her from it, simply telling her she has a cold. The Chinese perspective that people die from fear rather than the disease somehow serves as the perfect analogy between US and old world sensibilities. The family quickly organizes one of Billi's China cousins as engaged, so the entire family can gather in China for a wedding, that in reality, is a massive farewell for Nai Nai. What ensues is a hilarious series of family interactions, along with conflicts and moments that break your heart. Tzi Ma (Arrival, Veep) and Diana Lin are great as Billi's parents, who straddle the new ways of America and traditional Chinese expectations, not always comfortably. The underlying resentment from the rest of the family toward them for ever leaving provides interesting underlying conflict that's palpable. The heart of the film is the relationship between Billi and Nai Nai. Both actresses are excellent and their bond & chemistry is powerful. Nai Nai's sense of humor is as caustic as Don Rickles in his heyday. Her withering asides toward the bride-to-be and nearly every family member are hilarious. I loved the entire karaoke sequence at the wedding reception. Everyone attending can go up on a stage and sing, talk or do whatever they'd like to honor the newlyweds. No one does what you'd expect. Everyone but Nai Nai knows why they are really there. It leads to some hilarious and emotional moments, but not one character did what I expected them to do. I hate predictable, this was anything but. Writer/Director Lulu Wang saves her best for last, dropping a final 15 seconds that is so unexpected, touching and perfect that it's hard to describe and I wont touch it here. Don't let anyone spoil it for you. Mostly in Mandarin with English subtitles, dont let that scare you off. The film's poster says its "Based on an actual lie". That's clever and true in every sense, just like the film. THE FAREWELL gets an A+.

As a fan of Marvel movies for years, the past Fantastic Four movies have always left me bored. As a matter of fact, I walked out of the first one and didn't see the Silver Surfer sequel. To say I walked into the new FANTASTIC 4 with low expectations is an understatement. Sad to say, this mess of a reboot met those expectations. Director Josh Trank (Chronicle) takes the characters all the way back to when they were 10 to start the film. It's kind of like asking someone how their day is and having them say, "Well, I was born on a small farm in....". Not sure we need THIS much set up, it's like being forced to read a new car's owners manual before starting it up, and this thing takes forever to get started. Marvel fans know the basics. Reed Richards (Miles Teller) develops a machine to transport matter from one place to another with his childhood buddy Ben (Jamie Bell) at his side. Reed is recruited into a government funded science institute to develop the project into a full blown method of transport. At the institute, Reed meets brother and sister Johnny and Sue Storm, along with a stereotypical slacker genius Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell). Through story mechanics too predictable to bother repeating here, the five are exposed to alien energy matter that makes turns them into Stretch Armstrong, Fire Dude, Girl in the Bubble, RockBoy and bad green lava guy. I'm sure they had real character names, I just couldn't find the energy to care. For this big of a budget, the special effects are good but not great, there are too many long stretches of exposition and its weighted down by some very bad acting. Reg E. Cathey is just plain awful as Dr Storm, Johnny and Susan's dad. He is all gravelly voice, loud lesson shouting and overly earnest cliches. Picture Mike Brady on the Brady bunch played by a drunken Morgan Freeman and you get the drift. Tim Blake Nelson is also painfully bad as the head of the government agency that soon wants all too big a piece of the agency when the transporter works and they smell ways to weaponize the new power sources. Gee, no one saw that coming. Miles Teller is an amazing actor and his turn in 'Whiplash" last year was a real statement of what he can do on screen. Here, the script gives him nothing to do but scream when he stretches and try to grow a very spotty beard when he goes rogue. Michael B. Jordan is fun as Johnny and breathes some much needed humor to the film but Kate Mara is dull and poor Toby is forced to spout bad lines like "No more Victor...ONLY DOOM!" Oh brother...... Director Trank took to Twitter the night before the premiere to say that the film was "yanked from me a year ago and my vision of the film will likely never be seen". If I had directed this turd, I'd be trying to turn my back on it too. The last five minutes seems like a cheerful coda on the first 95 minutes. It's such a tone change from everything before it, it's as if the filmmakers said, "Okay, let's make the last part FUN so they all get excited for the sequel!" Yeah, that's not going to happen. What a fantastic mess. F4 gets a D.

Hmmm...something is amiss in the second film in the FANTASTIC BEASTS film series, THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD. Could it be the Johnny Depp curse? Eddie Redmayne is back as magic zoologist Newt Scamander. He's recruited this time by a very young Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law, best part of the film) to battle the growing forces of evil that surround the dark figure of Grindelwald, embodied by Depp. It's an unwritten curse of Depp's career that the more goofy wigs and makeup he wears (Willy Wonka, The Lone Ranger) the worse the film. Suffice to say here that his hair is dyed, he's layered in makeup and contacts and an eccentric wardrobe that only feed the curse. Are there spectacular fantasy scenes? Sure. The creatures of Jk Rowling's imagination are superb, as are the settings the breathe in. But after a whole lot of portal hopping through dimensions and animals, you're left with Grindelwald wanting to take over the world from humans like a routine Bond villain and Newt scampering around like some borderline Rainman reluctant hero. I'm a huge fan of Redmayne's but Newt starts to wear thin about halfway through as you begin to question just how smart he actually is in relation to the events around him. Ezra Miller is terrific as pure-blood wizard Credence, Zoe Kravitz is fun as Leta Lestrange, but everyone else just melts into the CGI backgrounds in a hodgepodge of visual noise. A quick trip to Hogwarts only serves to make you wish you were back in the magic of those films. This is definitely a sophomore slump for Newt and his beasts. Losing $50 million against it's $200 million production costs, it appears audiences grew as restless as I did awaiting something to actually happen in this installment. I loved the first one, but the fantastic is gone here and you're just left with a lumbering beast spiraling around Depp's over-mannered, over wrought performance in it's hollow center. GRINDELWALD gets a C.

I was a late admirer of the Harry Potter film series, just watching them in the past few years, but admiring the style and craft with which they were brought to the screen. For me, every bit their equal, JK Rowling's return to the Potter world, FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM is a terrific film that ranks with the best of the Potter series. The reliably terrific and full of eccentric twists Eddie Redmayne stars as Newt Scamander, newly arrived in a bustling 1920's NYC. He's got a mysterious case at his side full of the fantastic creatures of the title. After a funny and entertaining mishap at a Muggle, oh wait I mean "No-maj" bank, Newt switches cases with a wannabe baker named Kowalski, winningly played by Dan Fogler (TV's The Goldbergs, Hannibal). As Newt discovers some great bakery treats, Kowalski unwittingly unleashes many of Newt's creatures on New York City. As Newt and Kowalski head out to find the creatures, they are drawn into an epic battle between the humans of Manhattan and the wizarding world of the big apple. Colin Farrell is great as Graves, an authoritarian leader of the wizarding commission who's after Newt while battling an emerging, truly evil force in the city. Samantha Morton is Mary Lou the lower official constantly trying to capture Newt and a superb Ezra Miller (We Need To Talk About Kevin, The Flash) is the young, poor immigrant Credence Bearbone. As the two stories collide, Rowling's screenplay peels back layer after layer of surprises, including worlds within worlds, truly fantastic creatures of every size and demeanor and enough evil to give the story some real weight. At it's center is Redmayne as Newt, creating a powerful, mild character with just as many layers as the story. David Yates directed four of the best Harry Potter films and he brings his A-game here, bringing Rowling's writings to life. He's set to direct ALL FIVE films in this new series and he's off to a great start. The music score by James Newton Howard (Catching Fire, The Sixth Sense, The Dark Knight) is fantastic, with just enough themes from John Williams classic Harry Potter scores to remind you that you're playing in the same Rowling universe. Really enjoyable, visually amazing from beginning to end, FANTASTIC BEASTS lives up to its title and gets an A.

Alfred Hitchcock's last film, 1976's FAMILY PLOT is a lighthearted thriller focusing on two couples. Bruce Dern and Barbara Harris are Madam Blanche and her taxi driving boyfriend who fall into a big payday if they can find a very rich woman's lost nephew. William Devane and Karen Black are Arthur Adamson and Fran, a jewelry store owner and his girlfriend running a very profitable kidnap with diamond ransom racket. Half the fun is finding out how these two separate stories eventually merge. Hitchcock is obviously enjoying himself here and reveling in the clever if occasionally forced dialogue by Ernest Lehman (North by Northwest). The film is never in too much of a hurry to get anywhere, but spins an enjoyable web of deceit, suspense and fun where no one is ever quite who they seem. Great music score by John Williams, his first movie score after the HUGE success of Jaws in 1975. There's no body in the family plot, but there's lots of fun to be had in this late and lesser entry in the Hitchcock library. We'll throw Hitch a B.

James Cameron exceeds very high expectations with his new sequel AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER. Jaw dropping at every turn and powered by the best hour of pure adrenaline Cameron excitement since the final hour of “Aliens” back in 1986, this is my favorite film of 2022. Spread over a fast paced 192 minutes, Cameron delivers both an action-packed thriller and a heartfelt family drama with high stakes at every turn. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is fully Na’vi now, having left his human form behind a decade ago. He and his bride Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) are raising their two sons Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) and Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and daughter Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss) along with adopted daughter Kiri. Kiri was mysteriously born from scientist Grace Augustine’s comatose Na’vi avatar. Sigourney Weaver is back in flashbacks as Grace and with a motion-capture performance as Kiri. She matches the young stars in energy throughout. The young human son of mega military bad-ass Colonel Quartich is now a teenager and is part of Jake’s family as well. Nicknamed Spider, and engagingly played by Jack Champion, he’s a feral staple on Pandora and mostly unaware of his past. The Sully family’s peace is shattered when humans return to Pandora, destroying forests and ravishing the countryside in a blatant land grab to colonize the planet and prepare for a migration from a dying Earth. Even though our villain Quaritch (Stephen Lang) died in the original film, every bit of him has been downloaded into a Na’vi avatar better suited to beat Sully this time around. Battles ensue, the Sully’s are uprooted to a new water-based land and the middle third of the film details the family adapting to a new culture and way of life, with all the conflict and challenges that entails. We meet the leader of the Metkayina clan Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and his powerful wife Ronal (Kate Winslet). Cameron creates a completely new look and culture for the water tribe, as he did the forest-based Navi that we met in the first film. The sea creatures are creative & stunning and the environment that Cameron and his team invent is nothing short of a game changer. I remember Cameron doing things with miniatures and back screening in “The Terminator” and “Aliens” that pushed the limits of film. He repeated that with the incredible CGI of ‘Terminator 2: Judgement Day” and then practically invented modern cinema digital effects again with the original “Avatar” in 2009. Cameron has done it again. The high-res, photo realistic special effects of Pandora are better than ever. An early sequence detailing a Na’vi attack on a human encampment supply train is a stunner, earning an in-the-moment, out loud “Wow” from me in the theatre. Repeat that wow and add in a couple “Holy sh….” from me in the underwater sequences. Cameron shot all those underwater scenes with live actors in a custom-built water tank. Those are not CGI people on screen, they are the actors in motion capture gear, holding their breath for incredible amounts of time in deep, free dives. Winslet held her breath for 6 minutes and 50 seconds after six months of training by Navy Seals experts. Cameron saves the best for last with a final 60 minutes that never takes a breath. There is no confusion or lack of clarity in that final hour. Unlike every Transformer movie ever made and most Marvel films of the last few years, the action is clear. Every shot moves you forward, and you never get lost in visual noise. There are deaths of consequence and heartfelt loss. There are moments of courage and redemption that hit home with power. It’s thrilling. Cameron’s first sequel since “T2: Judgement Day” back in 1991, it’s a $350 million budgeted powerhouse that grabs you and never lets go. I saw it in Dolby Cinema 3D on its 12th day of release, the same day it passed $1 billion in ticket sales worldwide. In 3D and a big screen, this isn’t a movie, it’s an unrelenting thrill ride. It’s the most fun I’ve had in a theatre in 2022, my favorite film of the year and an absolute blast that earns an A+ See it on the biggest 3D screen you can find and buckle up. James Cameron has done it again.

Denzel Washington plays a Detective dealing with a supernatural killer that just won't die in 1998's FALLEN. Washington is Homicide detective John Hobbes, who gladly witnesses the execution or vile serial killer Edgar Reese. When additional murders begin to take place after the execution, Hobbes thinks he is dealing with a copycat killer. Soon he realizes its something much scarier. John Goodman is great as his partner Jonesy and Donald Sutherland is the Police Captain you'll love to hate. The film slips not so easily into "The Omen" territory and gets a bit trapped in a lot of exposition that's more dry than scary, but Washington is dependably good dealing with an evil adversary. You'll never quite hear The Rolling Stones "Time Is On My Side" the same way again. We'll give Fallen a B-.