The best ensemble Marvel film since "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3", THUNDERBOLTS* brings adventure & laughs back to kickoff Summer 2025. Fast paced, funny, loaded with clever action sequences and possessing a VERY dark side, it also cannily weaves in some serious meditations on mental illness & isolation. If that sounds like an ill fitting combo, it isn't, thanks to a superb cast. Florence Pugh (Midsommar, Black Widow, Dune: Part Two) is nothing short of fantastic as Yelena, still mourning the loss of her sister, Black Widow. She's a fixer for hire, traveling the world to clean up the messes of global politicians. Top of that heap is the current, embattled CIA Director, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, hilariously played by Julia Louis Dreyfus. Her delivery of every line of dialogue has the same sharp wit of "Veep", if Selina Meyer had a much more dangerous desire for domination. Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) is in his first term as a Congressman and the first superhero to do so. He's got his eye on de Fontaine (DONT forget the de!). David Harbour is back and so damn funny as Alexei Shostakov, Yelena's Dad and former Soviet superhero Red Guardian. When Yelena announces she'd like to quit after one last assignment, she's pulled into a quadruple cross. She, disgraced former Captain America John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Ghost Ava Starr (Hannah John-Kamen) and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko from "Quantum of Solace") all arrive in the same spot. Stumbling into their showdown is Bob, a quiet guy in hospital pajamas that can't remember why he's there. Lewis Pullman (Top Gun: Maverick) crafts a clever character in Bob, who turns out to be much more than a punchline. From there, the adventure is off and running. What THUNDERBOLTS* gets SO right is the laughter, camaraderie and big punch lines that carry the same spirit as the most enjoyable moments of the "Guardians of the Galaxy" series. Our heroes this time out truly are antiheroes. They're a sordid lot with a ton of baggage. We relive some of their worst moments with them. In truth, this is one of the darkest Marvel films in memory. Like Doctor Strange's terrifying tour of the Multiverse, it slithers into some jet black corners of the mind. It's never a horror film like that entry surely was, but it mines new depths on the impact of battle on our superheroes. Pugh leads this large cast effortlessly. She is amazing, harvesting far more depth of character in Yelena than I expected. She's also a complete kick-ass action hero. I also have to call out the great Geraldine Viswanathan (Blockers) for her funny, interesting role as Mel, de Fontaine's assistant with a knack for delivering a perfect cup of coffee anywhere on the globe. Her comic timing delivers one bullseye after another. Released on May 2, 2025 to mark the 17 year anniversary of the first Marvel film, "Ironman", THUNDERBOLTS* is a refreshing return to the independent spirit of that first entry, worrying less about world building and more about sheer entertainment. Too many times in the past couple years, I've felt like Marvel has tried to deliver new characters or teams that just fell flat. There were never moments that felt like the early Avengers films. For the first time in a long time, there were moments here with this ragtag bunch assembling to defeat a villain that felt RIGHT and soaring. The music score by Son Lux is also a breath of pounding, fresh air. Modern, eclectic and big, it's a hell of a compliment to the action and the drama. THUNDERBOLTS* is a refreshing blast of clean storytelling, unburdened by heavy exposition and focused on fun (with a very heavy splash of darkness). From the moment that the opening Marvel credits slow down and all that bright red goes to black and grays, you know you're entering different territory. That's a relief. THUNDERBOLTS* gets an A-. Stay tuned for a mid-credits sequence and a post credit scene, three minutes in duration, it's the longest in MCU history and left our sneak peek IMAX crowd cheering.

Nine years after the original surprised me with its quirky combination of math and firepower, Ben Affleck is back as Christian Wolff in THE ACCOUNTANT 2 . As the film opens, Ray King (a returning JK Simmons) is trapped in the middle of a clandestine meeting gone bad. He writes "Find the Accountant" on his arm in his dying moments, and his partner Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) does just that. Affleck digs a bit deeper into Christian this time out, delivering both humor and mystery in style. Wolff's time at a speed dating event is damn funny and Affleck deftly reveals additional layers of Christian's very complicated personality. Medina and Wolff quickly uncover a multilevel crime conspiracy that covers so many felonies that I frankly found it all a bit confusing. If you're going to put a literal bus full of children in terrifying danger for half the film, it's key that the viewer at least understands why they're in that position. While the individual elements of the story are interesting, they never really came together for me, BUT, I'm not saying I didn't enjoy the hell out of this sequel that has the guts to reach for more than the original on every level. Thankfully for all involved, Christian reaches out for his lethal brother, Braxton, personified perfectly by the astonishingly reliable Jon Bernthal (The Amateur, Fury, Sicario). Bernthal delivers relentless laughs and action as the brother decidedly on the other side of the law. And we all know that Christian doesn't exactly operate within the lines. I loved the scene in which Braxton and Christian invite three prostitutes, oops, I mean sex workers (whatever) to a dive motel. I had no idea what they were doing but loved where this scene went and how it drove the story forward. There is a lot of story between the actions scenes, but all of them deliver when they arrive. The finale is one of the best shoot 'em up conclusions since Newman and Redford took on half of Bolivia in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". Fans of that film will likely find a shot in the finale that looks very familiar. I really loved the team behind Christian, it's a unique take that I didn't see coming. Daniella Pineda (Jurassic World) is also very good as Anais, a very lethal killing machine weaving in and out of the story. I loved the pacing of the film and spending time with Christian and Braxton. If you see them line dancing in a country bar, I'd suggest you just leave them be. Director Gavin O'Connor (The Accountant, The Way Back) and Affleck have created one of the most original action heroes in recent history. Using his brain and bullets in equal measure, Wolff has returned in a very worthy sequel, blasting its way to a very solid B+.

Back in 1970, NO ONE had seen a film like Robert Altman's M*A*S*H. If you've only seen the terrific TV series that started two years later, you're in for a very different experience with this film classic. Until M*A*S*H, most war films were like "The Longest Day" or "The Great Escape", staunchly pro military and flattering toward the command. Altman's film is a brilliant, episodic treat as it details chapter after chapter of Hawkeye (Donald Sutherland, fantastic) and Trapper John (hilarious Elliott Gould) as the surgeons who fill their spare time with debauchery of every sort and constant challenging of authority. Robert Duvall is excellent as the by-the-book pain in the ass Frank Burns, who only bends the rules to romance Hot Lips (Sally Kellerman, incredibly sexy in her film debut). Audiences LOVED the film, embracing its new, non-linear and hilarious story telling style, with often overlapping dialogue, a story that fits and starts without any traditional flow, buckets of operating room gore and a cast as obsessed with sex as they are survival. Some scenes have become comedy classics. Radar (Gary Burghoff, who would repeat his role on TV) sneaking a microphone into Hot Lips & Franks loud lovemaking session and broadcasting it camp wide, the climactic football game with Fred Williamson as a drafted NFL player and Gould & Sutherland's golfing excursion are LOL highlights. This is jet black comedy at its finest, executed by a cast up to the task. In just three years, it will be 50 years since its original release in theatres, which is pretty hard to imagine. The title song "Suicide is Painless" is damn dark and will be a shock to those that only know the song from the TV show. The TV series was fantastic in its own right, with excellent writing and acting, but this is a very different animal and it earns its R rating. There's a great story around the production that Fox execs called Director Altman after seeing dailies and said that the soldiers were too dirty, that their uniforms were always clean in war movies. Altman told them that he served in Korea and everyone was filthy all the time. Rumor has it that Zanuck called the team working on "Patton" and told them to make their soldiers more dirty! Robert Altman made plenty of excellent films in his own remarkable style after this breakout hit, including "Nashville", 'McCabe and Mrs. Miller" and "Gosford Park" to name just a few. If you haven't seen this in awhile, its worth a revisit to laugh all over again. If you've never seen it, check out the first huge anti-war film of the seventies. It changed the movies for good. M*A*S*H is a hilarious masterpiece and gets an A.

My Dad flew countless B-17 missions during World War II and while he was always reserved about sharing too many of those stores beyond saying they were terrifying, his passion for great war films was unbridled. One of his all-time favorites was the 1949 classic TWELVE O’CLOCK HIGH. While my older brother Mark and I never missed watching an episode of the sixties TV series of the same name, I had never seen the original film on which it was based. Using only real battle footage just a few years after the conflict ended, the film packs a punch. Gregory Peck is in classic movie star form as General Savage, a tough commander brought in to take over a bombing unit suffering from soft leadership and low morale. With American forces participating in the first daytime bombing raids of Nazi Germany, every flight matters, and every man must be counted on. Avoiding cliches, the screenplay by Sy Bartlett and Beirne Lay Jr. is based on their actual experiences in the war. The film is often cited by veterans of the war (and my Dad) as the most realistic depiction of flying missions into enemy territory. A who’s who of 40’s and 50s-character actors deliver, including Gary Merrill as Colonel Davenport and Millard Mitchell as General Pritchard. Dean Jagger is terrific as Major Stovall, giving off nice echoes of “White Christmas” for any fans of that annual classic. Front and center, Peck delivers as the aptly named Savage. Establishing order and respect from the moment he steps on the base; he suffers no fools. The last half of the film surprised me in where it took Savage. This is not your off-the-shelf, standard rah-rah war film, but it provides those thrills as well. The legendary Alfred Newman (Airport, How the West Was Won) composed a music score, but it can only he heard over the opening and closing credits, leaving the quiet moments and air battles to speak for themselves. Nominated for Best Picture and Best Actor for Peck, it won Best Sound and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Jagger. More than 70 years after its release, TWELVE O’CLOCK HIGH holds up as a testament to the greatest generation, delivering an all-time war film great and earning an A.

One of the best war action thrillers of all time, 1968's WHERE EAGLES DARE is a fast moving classic with an excellent cast. Richard Burton stars as Major Smith, the English lead of an allied force that is dropped behind enemy lines to penetrate a snowbound mountaintop castle to rescue an American General. The General has key information on the pending D-DAY plans and our team has only a few days to find him and present the information from getting out. (at least that's ONE reason they are there.....) Clint Eastwood is Schaffer, the only American member of the team and Mary Ure is Mary Ellison, a beautiful blonde whose adept with a machine gun as she is with seduction. Alistair MacLean (The Guns of Navarone, Ice Station Zebra) wrote a great, fast moving screenplay with more twists and turns than you can anticipate. Eastwood's Shaffer is as confused as we are as team members seem to move allegiances very quickly and the machine guns are pointed at many different folks throughout. Burton and Eastwood are both in fine form. There are some terrific scenes here, including the most suspenseful fights on top of a cable car since OO7 in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and a grand scale explosives work around our icy lair. Eastwood trivia: he kills more people in this film as Shaffer than any other movie he ever made. The good news is, they are all Nazis and Gestapo and Eastwood's got good aim. An excellent war movie AND action thriller, EAGLES flies high and gets an A.

For Memorial Day weekend this year, I watched 1970's classic war film PATTON, This was a ground breaking film in its time and one of the first movies to depict a war hero warts and all. George C. Scott is brilliant in his Best Actor winning portrayal of General George Patton. From the film's opening moments in which Patton addresses his troops in front of a huge American flag, Scott portrays a leader that loves war, loves strategy and detests cowardice and politics. Over nearly three hours, the film depicts Patton's rise, fall and eventual rise across the scope of WW2. No one disputes Patton's brilliance as a tank commander. Even the Nazi analysts and German leader Rommel think he's a genius. But time and time again, Patton refuses to play the political games behind the battle lines and finds himself in the hot seat. One of the first film classics of the seventies, Patton portrays an anti-hero, a flawed leader far from the sixties studio films that whitewashed every American hero as perfect. The writing is superb (Francis Ford Coppola won an Oscar for his script) the music score by Jerry Goldsmith is fantastic and a modern classic in both its military action scenes and quiet moments and Oscar winning Director Franklin J Schaffner (Planet of the Apes, The Boys from Brazil) keeps the film moving as quickly as Patton's tanks across Italy. Scott owns the film as a profane, intelligent military man in love with battle and the belief he is reincarnated and fought in many of the great battles of history. PATTON is a classic war film, brilliantly made and it gets an A+. Revisting it every few years, it holds a memorable spot in my Top 100 films of all time.

(Written 6/6) On this anniversary of D-DAY and the invasion of Normandy by US and Allied forces, THE LONGEST DAY delivers a terrific history lesson with an almost documentary feel and a HUGE all-star cast. Long before Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" told the story of D-Day for our generation at the movies, 1962's three hour film told the story in a black and white tour de force. The brilliant brainchild of Eisenhower and his team, the allied strike at Normandy shocked the German forces. Stars such as John Wayne, Robert Ryan, Henry Fonda, Richard Burton and Sean Connery, along with literally 30 more are sprinkled through the film in small and large roles. It's a slowly building film, taking its time to set up the strategy of the attack from both sides of the battle before digging into an amazing, giant scale recreation of the attack. All of us should probably watch either this sixties classic or Spielberg's "Ryan" every June to remember the gift of freedom that the troops gave us with their amazing bravery and fortitude in the face of tremendous opposing odds. A valuable history lesson in the form of a powerful war film that earns an explosive A.

Josh Hartnett offers up a much funnier, much higher version of John Wick in the absolute madhouse thriller FIGHT OR FLIGHT . After giving his all in the dopey M. Night serial killer flick "Trap" last year, Hartnett offers up body and soul for a hell of a beating as Lucas Reyes, a mercenary with a mysterious past. Drunk in Thailand, he comes into play as the absolute last resource available to bring in The Ghost, a computer genius and assassin who is playing far too easily with the global economy. The first half hour is a rickety contraption of predictable set ups and character introductions that offer up little innovation. Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) is a welcome presence as Katherine Brunt, the tightly wrapped head of a mysterious organization that seems to have screens devoted to every agent on the planet. Sackhoff is almost unrecognizable, wound and ready to coil at every kiss ass employee that she's pressing for information. That war room they work in reminded me of the operation center on CBS's "FBI", albeit with a lot more f-bombs and danger of instant liquidation if you muck it up. Surprises around that organization made me laugh out loud. Once Hartnett drags his drunken ass on an airplane for a very long flight back to America, the film kicks into another, much improved gear. Half the passengers seem to be killers for hire, trying to uncover the true identity of The Ghost. Imagine an Agatha Christie whodunit on a 14 hour flight, with chainsaws, automatic weapons, buckets of blood and a couple drug-induced mad trips. I loved how Director James Madigan goes all in on showing us what Lucas sees when he decides to drink a bunch of toad venom. Sparks fly out of the top of a killer's head, lighting up Lucas, who bathes in the light like he's at a rave. It's a hilarious visual sequence, suddenly flashing to the reality of passengers bathed in blood instead of sparks. Madigan and his effects team are equally adept at staging the action, which is basically an hour long hand to hand battle aboard a large plane. How can that possibly last an hour? Well its easy when you're dealing with this Tarantino / John Wick fantasy world where an endless series of assailants line up in the aisles and wait their turn. I laughed a LOT and loved the twisted humor of all involved. Fight Choreographer Brahim Chab did excellent work on "MONKEY MAN" and he delivers again here, with an added dose of physical comedy between the breaking bones, stabbings and eye gouges. Charithra Chandran (Dune: Prophecy, Bridgerton) is terrific as Isha, a flight attendant who proves to have some serious fighting skills. Hughie O'Donnell is very funny as Garrett, a flight attendant absolutely committed to protect the flight experience of his First Class passengers, who've paid a lot for their flight and deserve the best. That's hard to provide with body parts and chainsaws flying down the aisles. This is some seriously dumb but enjoyable, pure popcorn action with Hartnett having the time of his life at its center. Looking like a beach blond surfer stuck in one hilariously bad outfit after another, Hartnett is like Wick's goofy brother, always ready with a laugh right before he spills your brains by any means available. If you loved "Bullet Train" you're going to love this throwaway adult action flick. It's sudden ending feels abrupt, setting up further adventures that feel a bit unearned. As a one off, if you don't mind stupid, mindless action, you can book a lot worse flights than a seat next to Hartnett. Somebody cast this guy in a comedy, quick. His delivery and acting chops have only improved with age. FIGHT OR FLIGHT gets a C+, taking off nicely after a very bumpy takeoff.

SUPERMAN IV: THE QUEST FOR PEACE is what a Four Seasons would look like if you let Motel 6 run it for a year. B-movie producers Golan and Globus have taken everything that worked in the first two films and shoved it through their cheap, cost-cutting schlock filter. What a mess. The budget difference is noticeable immediately, just as the main credits start to roll. Do you remember when the main titles started in the original, 1978 Richard Donner classic? John Williams music soared as the titles flew across the screen in blue, 3D style font. It was thrilling. Golan/Globus apparently threw about $500 to a kid and told him to recreate it on a Dell this time out. The graphics look cheap, limply teetering for a bit before flying over the Earth. John Williams music is here, but in another cost cutting move, they just hired Alexander Courage to do some new arrangements of Williams score. It's like one of those old K-Tel albums with some dude in his basement pretending to be the Rolling Stones on his Casio keyboard. But wait a minute. Can this be true? The first half hour of the film is kind of charming, certainly closer in spirit to Donner's original than that awful Richard Pryor storyline in Supe III. Even Margot Kidder is back after refusing to do more than a cameo in the last film. Christopher Reeve is just fine too, saving some Russians orbiting space in the opening scene and then flying back into the family farm in Smallville and digging back into that secret compartment in the barn. Reeve came up with the story of the film, wanting to create something more akin to the original two films after the "comic" tone of the Pryor entry. Kudos to his ideas, you can feel the bones of a traditional Superman film straining to bust free. Gene Hackman is back as Lex Luthor! He's having fun flashing his superior intellect around the chain gang he's working on and has soon escaped and started his plan for revenge against Superman. Things start to go a bit wonky as soon as Jon Cryer shows up as Luthor's nephew, Lenny. He feels like an extra from "Smokey and the Bandit" dressed in 80's garb when he arrives and he never gets better. Meanwhile, Luthor steals a strand of our Man of Steel's hair, determined to create an evil super hero who gets his power from our Sun. The last half hour is absolute hot garbage from the Golan/Globus producers. Just before filming began, they cut the budget from $36 million to $17 million. Donner's original cost $55 million. That gap shows in every frame. The special effects are horrific, even by 1987 standards. The flying rig for Superman this time out was apparently made at Home Depot. It's so much more bulky and cheap that some shots look like Reeve put on about 40lbs. That's distracting enough. Now add on the shoddy visuals that sometimes make Superman's suit look green. I've seen episodes of HR Pufnstuf with better effects. The budget cuts ended up cutting about 30 minutes from the film, leaving a final act that makes no sense and feels rushed and stupid. The only benefit is that this junk only lasts 90 minutes. Nuclear Man, Hackman's big villain arrives in the persona of actor Mark Pillow. He only acted in an episode of a few TV series after this. It's easy to see why. Zzzzzzzzz. Some great actors like Jim Broadbent and Sam Wanamaker are wasted, but Mariel Hemingway (Lipstick) manages to redeem herself in a sympathetic role. Poor Reeve. He has a couple moments where you can feel the film that he was inspired to make. His passionate speeches at the United Nations about the country and the globe are vintage Reeve as Superman. They are the only moments that work. This movie is a travesty to the legacy of the series. Reeve hated the film and said in his memoir, "Superman IV was a catastrophe from start to finish. That failure was a huge blow to my career." As bad as Superman III was, this plunges to far greater depths. Often when a film is this bad, I enjoy the hell out of watching it and relating all the funny ways it stunk. This one is such a slap in the face to the first two Reeve films, it just feels depressing. Okay, I have to mention one scene near the end, where Nuclear Man grabs Hemingway and soars off into space with her. Not the upper atmosphere, space, looking down at the Earth. The entire time, Hemingway continues to interact and scream. In space.....um.......I give up. SUPERMAN IV gets an F.

If you loved Gareth Evans' "The Raid" films, you know what you're in for with his new action-packed thrill ride, HAVOC . If you're not familiar, ( go watch them immediately ) buckle up for a John Wick/Kill Bill style film packed with non-stop bullets, hand to hand combat and weapons of every variety. Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight, Mad Max: Fury Road) stars as Walker, a beat up detective dealing with the aftermath of a massive drug deal gone very wrong. On Christmas Eve, his life in shambles, he's pulled into a wide conspiracy & gang war that spreads across both sides of the law. Hardy's terrific at playing Walker as a wound tight/at the end of his rope lawman who's strayed too far from the straight and narrow. Evans stages action with a unique, relentless pace that pulls you in at 90 miles an hour and never lets go. I'm a huge fan, built off the brilliance of his 2011 "The Raid: Redemption" and its sequel, that rare superior follow up to the original, "The Raid 2" in 2014. He does things with his camera that seem impossible and has a Tarantino like flair for plunging you face-to-face with harpoons, cleavers and automatic weapons of every roaring variety. Remember when John Woo was in vogue? His action was undeniably creative, but after a decade, the constant slow motion and flying doves got a little rote. Evans is Woo's opposite. Everything is accelerated, over speed, blood and bullets tearing through walls and flesh at an incredible pace. The martial arts battles are laugh out loud thrilling. When he does use slow motion, it seems more impactful compared to the rest of the pace. There were at least three scenes that left all of us watching in breathless, "WOW!" mode for what we just lived through alongside the characters. The cast is terrific. Timothy Olyphant (Justified) is Detective Vincent, former squad partner with Walker with some questionable motives. Jessie Mei Li (Last Night in Soho) is Walker's new partner with plenty of brains and some fierce fighting skills. Forest Whitaker (Rogue One, Black Panther) is a powerful politician whose son Charlie (Justin Cornwell) kicks off the gang war that drives the story. I see some viewers online bitching about the action, the pace, the photography and I just have to laugh. When someone with the visionary visual skills of Evans delivers this type of rollercoaster ride, just turn your brain off and enjoy. Every film doesn't have to be "Citizen Kane". Have we lost the ability to just enjoy a popcorn thriller? I love a thoughtful film as much as anyone, but I'm equally enamored of a brainless, violent thriller that blazes new visual territory. There are moments that I can't wait to watch again, including the night club battle with every side of the turf battle arriving at once, the opening car chase sequence that manages to make a washing machine a weapon and the slam bang finale. Hardy is great as always, while remaining the one mainstream actor that I feel like I need to have subtitles on to understand what the hell he's saying half the time. Shot in 2021 and in post production since, Evans and Hardy's adventure landed last night on Netflix and delivers plenty of "Heat", "Kill Bill" and "Predator" style thrills. If you're looking for brainy challenges, keep running. If you're in the mood for light speed assaults of bullets, blood and escapes, this one wreaks HAVOC all the way to a fun B. It's no "Raid", but it's still bloody head and dislocated shoulders above the pack.

DROP is one of those suspense thrillers that's so illogical and goofy that it inspires a fight or flight response in its audience. If you stick with it, damned if it doesn't pull off an exciting finale. Let's be clear though, the ending is just as implausible as the previous eighty minutes, but two factors kept me engaged. First was Bear McCreary's excellent, BIG, Jerry Goldsmith-like music score. McCreary (The Walking Dead) delivers his best ever film score that calls back to Goldsmith's work in "Basic Instinct" and John Barry's"Jagged Edge". It's terrific. Second is a hugely engaging cast of actors that make the most of their characters. Meghann Fahy (The White Lotus) stars as Violet, an abuse counselor whose about to go on her first date in many years. We see flashbacks to her violent marriage. Its tragic ending still resonates. Violet leaves her young son Toby (Jacob Robinson) with her sister Jen (a terrific Violet Beane from "The Flash) for the evening, with a thousand protective instructions. She hasn't ever left Toby alone and she's clearly terrified to do so. She arrives at a stunning restaurant called Palate, located on top of a Chicago high rise to meet her date. The film takes place mostly in this restaurant space and kudos to the production designer Susie Cullen (Abigail) for creating a modern, beautiful restaurant I'd love to make a reservation in today. Between her design and Director Christopher Landon's establishing shots, we gain a very clear mental map of the restaurant, which is vital to the story telling. Her date Henry shows up, played by Brandon Sklenar with the same strong likability he had in "It Ends With Us". This guys defines "storybook perfect date"and my wife would strongly agree. Just before Henry sits down, Violet starts receiving strange air drops. These escalate into a very deadly game of cat and mouse that I won't dive into here. The best part of the film is guessing what the hell is going on. Each of the texts are plastered across the screen in 3D style text that dominates. The visuals are clever, especially a scene where Violet checks her home security cameras and each screen displays on the walls around her. A toilet stall has never been this visually intriguing. Points scored for creativity. I suspected at least three different characters during dinner and never saw the real story behind the dastardly deeds coming. But be warned, this upscale dinner demands the same complete surrender to illogical behavior as Taron Egerton's recent, hugely enjoyable thriller, "Carry On". In that film, he left his post as a TSA agent so many times to beat up bad guys that I started laughing. The dude would have been fired in real life before he could land a punch. Same here. Violet leaves Henry so many times at the table that he would have been gone between the appetizers and the entree. But Fahy is good at making it somehow plausible and you find yourself thinking about what you would do in her situation. Gabrielle Ryan is excellent as Cara, a bartender at the huge circular bar in the middle of the restaurant, keeping an eye on Violet. She has real presence in a small role. Jeffrey Self is hilarious as Matt, a new waiter working his first night with WAY too much energy for the space. His delivery is flawless and delivers some huge laughs. We've all had this waiter at least once in our lives. Reed Diamond (Clear and Present Danger, Memphis Belle) delivers as another patron on a first date that's not going so well. With lesser actors, lesser music or looser direction, this thing would fall apart before the first dinner seating. It won't ever rank at the top of Blumhouse thrillers and sometimes plays more like a TV movie than a big screen thriller, but it has it's simple charms. The last 15 minutes POPS with crazy action as McCreary's score soars alongside the mayhem. The final scene made me laugh out loud. "Too soon?" has never been delivered in finer form. Looking for a silly 90-minute thriller to keep you guessing? WARNING: You'll likely roll your eyes as much as you scratch your head. DROP gets a C+. I'd like a table for two at Palate tonight please. Let's avoid the window tables.....

I haven't seen 1994's FORREST GUMP in at least 20 years. Revisiting it this week, its simple heart is still powerful, but I was surprised at many of its darker moments. Tom Hanks (Best Actor winner for the role) is perfect as Forrest, a simple man who sits down on a park bench and shares his life story with us. And what a life he's had. In a continuous series of flashbacks, Forrest narrates his own story, starting in his days as a young boy. His Momma (Sally Field) goes to great lengths to protect her young boy, his Father long gone and never seen. In a more traditional screenplay, the boarding house that Mrs. Gump runs would provide a never ending supply of characters to populate the story. Eric Roth's Oscar winning writing only allows one legendary guest to enter the story, but he's the first famous person whose life will become intertwined in the fabric of Forrest's tale. Robert Zemeckis (Death Becomes Her, The Walk) won Best Director for his brilliant visual story telling, dropping Forrest into one important historical event after another. He manages to land on nearly every pivotal cultural moment of the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's. I remember seeing the film on the big screen in a sneak preview before its release and being blown away by the special effects and the unexpected events depicted. Those early effects inserting Forrest in history might not "wow" quite like they did at the time, but in 1994, they were a huge jump forward from the similar, clever Woody Allen film "Zelig" released the previous year. The film's structure is prime, episodic story telling. The entire Vietnam sequence is flawless, from Gump's description of why the military is his perfect fit, to Zemeckis' beautifully staged, grand scale, wartime action scenes in the jungles. The stable of friends and life partners that Forrest builds are a grand lot. Gary Sinise won an Oscar as Lieutenant Dan Taylor, a gruff squad leader with a big heart. Sinise is fantastic throughout the film, which is at its best anytime he's on screen. He's the heart of the film and the realistic core that grounds everything around him. Great performance. Mykelti Williamson (Heat) is great as Bubba Blue, whose dreams of running a shrimp boat back home inspire Forrest and build a lifelong legacy between the two soldiers. Robin Wright stars as Jenny, Forrest's lifelong best friend/love whose life path is the polar opposite of Forrest's. Her character drives me mad for the entire center of the film, before settling in with some emotional resonance in the final act. Classic film moments abound from start to finish, accompanied by a standout collection of hit songs from every era. Music always conjures up a time in your being, pulling you back to where/when you first heard it. Zemeckis and team deftly weave those songs into every scene, combining those flash memories with great visuals to let you stand next to Gump throughout history. Paramount executives pressed Zemeckis to cut $10 million out of the budget before filming started and told him to cut all the Vietnam scenes. How the hell could the film have worked without them? Zemeckis and Hanks believed in the film and waved most of their standard salaries in exchange for shares of any profit made. The final budget was $55 million and the film soared at the box office, earning $678 million! Hanks earned over $70 million for his role, thanks to his faith in himself and Zemeckis' vision. In the past ten years or so, as tastes have changed and more cynicism has crept into modern (younger?) audiences, the film has experienced some backlash, saying it was too simple to be nominated for 13 Oscars and win 6, including Best Picture. That buzz made me want to watch the film again. Like Peter Sellers/Hal Ashby's 1979 film, "Being There", FORREST GUMP has a lot to say, in simple words that carry a lot of weight. The emotions and motivations that drive Forrest forward are the same ones that propel us all through each day of our lives. Zemeckis and Hanks pull you through a funny, emotional adventure that ends up right where it starts, with Alan Silvestri's beautiful music rising up, that feather floating on to its next destination and your heart tugged in all the right ways. FORREST GUMP still gets an A. Run Forrest Run!