In 1984, Warner Bros. expected their big holiday release CITY HEAT to be a massive blockbuster. Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds were the two biggest box office stars of the day, comedy genius Blake Edwards (10, The Pink Panther) wrote the screenplay and was set to direct. After Edwards was pushed out of the project, comic actor Richard Benjamin took the chair and Eastwood favorite Joseph Stinson came on to rewrite the script (why?!). Benjamin had shown some chops with his first directing effort “My Favorite Year” but that film as likely more representative of Peter O’Toole’s brilliance than Benjamins. He doesn’t bring much to the table this time out. Reynolds broke his jaw and hurt his back early in the filming and it limited his physical movement for the rest of the film, not ideal for an “action comedy”. Eastwood stars as hardened cop Lieutenant Speer, at odds with Mike Murphy (Reynolds) who left the force under cloudy circumstances. Murphy is a gumshoe now and anytime their paths cross, Speer & Murphy battle with fists and words. Some of the dialogue is funny and well delivered by Reynolds, but he always seems more like he’s sparring with Clint on the Johnny Carson show than in a 1930’s crime drama/comedy. Jane Alexander and Madeline Kahn are both terrific in broadly written roles, Rip Torn and Richard Roundtree deliver. I loved Roundtree and Reynolds detective agency partnership in the film. There was a lot to mine in that partnership, but it’s sadly left unexplored, and Roundtree is gone all too soon. It all feels very familiar. Rival gang bosses go missing, accounting ledgers are stolen and lots of tommy guns spray the Warner Bros backlot. All the money must have been spent on the cast, as the production looks depressingly cheap. Eastwood squints winningly, Reynolds pain pills keep his usual screen charm in check and the entire affair stumbles along to a predictable shoot out. With Burt unable to physically do much beyond hide behind period cars, its static and clumsy. Those two words serve as a pretty good summary of CITY HEAT, which only earns a lukewarm C. (Don't stay for the end titles, accompanied by one of the worst end credits songs ever. Irene Cara sung "Fame" and "Flashdance" in those 80's hits, but the tune she's given here is as flat as her acting. Oof.)

Stephen King’s son Joe Hill has always been a hit and miss writer for me. When he’s on, he’s damn good at creating clever concepts that grab you immediately. THE BLACK PHONE delivers exactly that, immersing you into a small town dealing with a very aggressive child killer. It’s not a light concept, with the children of the town living in fear as their friends continue to disappear. You could see it as Hill’s short story riff on a human Pennywise, but this tale is as much a crime thriller as it is a horror film. Mason Thames (For All Mankind) is 15-year-old Finney. A bit awkward at school, his best friend is his sister Gwen (Madeline McGraw). They share not just a sibling bond, but a secret. Gwen seems to have clairvoyant abilities, a fact that their deeply abusive father Terrence is desperate to hide. Jeremy Davies (Saving Private Ryan, Twister) is a terrifying monster, trying to drink his pain into hiding and creating a living hell for his two children. But there’s another monster in town, The Grabber, played by Ethan Hawke in an explosive performance that scores a 10 on the creepy meter. When Finney is kidnapped by the Grabber, he wakes up in a dark basement that features one padlocked exit, no windows and on old black phone on the wall. When it rings, let’s just say it’s not the kids living next door calling. E Roger Mitchell (The Equalizer) and Troy Rudeseal (Halloween Kills) are the two detectives on the case. They are funny, tortured in their efforts to nab the Grabber and committed to stop the killings. Both actors bring a conventional cop duo style infused with an interesting horror movie vibe. Miguel Cazarez Mora makes his film debut as Robin, a tough kid that defended Finney in life and is even more devoted in death. It’s a scene stealing role in a film loaded with good performances. Hawke has become one of my favorite actors the past ten years. He can do anything and brings such reality to his role that it makes the movie twice as scary. Twisted doesn’t begin to describe it. Horror legend Tom Savini created the prosthetic masks that Hawke wears. They’re legendary. Writer/Director Scott Derrickson (Doctor Strange) delivers a sleek, fast-paced thriller loaded with earned jump scares and lurking dread. Fans of his 2012 horror film “Sinister” will find plenty of echoes to that film. Exceeding expectations, THE BLACK PHONE is a killer paranormal thriller, scaring up a B.

I certainly knew that Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 film BLOW-UP was a sixties game changer, often referenced as a turning point for cinema and one of the best films of all time. The only baggage I brought to my first viewing was the knowledge that it was Brian dePalma’s inspiration for one of his best films “Blow Out”. David Hemmings (Camelot) stars as London fashion photographer Thomas. Surrounded by beautiful women that he treats as throw away props, he’s shallow, demanding and closed off. The first 30 minutes has a documentary feel, trailing Thomas as he pops in and out of his convertible Rolls Royce, snapping public pics between photo shoots, buying props, and strolling through London. Antonioni is in no hurry to create a story or any real structure, It’s all day-in-the-life stuff. When Thomas decides to shoot some pics in a park, he captures the stunning young Jane (Vanessa Redgrave at her alluring best) and an older man. He’s too far away to hear them, but his zoom captures them. Are they arguing? Are they in love? Are they having an affair? He shoots many photos, which Jane immediately objects too. Why? When Thomas goes to develop them, he realizes that he’s captured something uncomfortable on the film. He keeps blowing up the images. Is that a body? Is that a gun? Thomas returns to the park to see if it is a body. What follows is either clever and mysterious or boring & inconclusive, depends on your personal take. While most films examine personal relationships, Antonioni said the exploration within is between Thomas and reality. Reality or any construct of it, is fleeting in BLOW-UP. Roger Ebert famously held days-long sessions analyzing the film frame by frame. For him, every second was filled with groundbreaking style and technique. I don’t share his passion for the film, but I can appreciate the effortless, non-conforming flow that must have jarred audiences that were used to traditional story telling. The sex and full-frontal nudity broke new ground for a mainstream film, as did the casual drug use (not to mention the mimes) LOL. Redgrave and Hemmings are both excellent, flawless really. They own every inch of the screen anytime they’re on it. Sarah Miles also has presence as a neighbor in Thomas’ orbit. Like dePalma’s “Blow Out”, the central character gets pulled so deep into the photos that the real world seems to shatter around him. I found dePalma’s spin on the concept much more enjoyable and involving than this admitted classic. Every time Thomas pulled out his camera and started shooting the models in bizarre outfits, I could only hear Austin Powers shouting, “work with me baby, oh behave! Groovy baby!” Damn you, Mike Meyers. I can appreciate the style of BLOW-UP, even if its innovation has diminished over the past 50 years. There are moments of amazing camerawork, acting and dread within Thomas’s lens. Redgrave and Hemmings alone earn a B.

For the first twenty minutes or so of the new, manic action thriller BULLET TRAIN, I resisted the flow, with the sinking feeling that I was watching a mashup of Guy Ritchie and Quentin Tarantino’s discarded ideas. Then, damned if Brad Pitt and a relentlessly surprising and funny cast didn’t settle me in for a crazy and enjoyable ride. Pitt is at his relaxed, hilarious best as Ladybug, a contract killer just out of therapy and ready to solve every conflict with words instead of bullets. His first mission turns into a nightmare when he realizes he’s one of five assassins on board a bullet train to Kyoto. Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Tenet, Nocturnal Animals) is a blast as Tangerine, one half of a killer duo with his brother from another mother Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry). Their staccato banter is pure Tarantino, crafted by Zak Olkewicz with profane, irreverent humor that I think QT would appreciate. The boys are on board the train guarding the son of White Death, played by a surprise major star who is having a lot more fun here than most of his roles allow him. Joey King (The Conjuring) is Prince, a very lethal young killer hiding behind the façade of a young schoolgirl. Musician/Actor Bad Bunny rounds out our five killers as Wolf, born in the streets and avenging the love of his life. Hiroyuki Sanada rises above all as The Elder, pulled into the story when his son Kimura (Andrew Koji providing the dramatic core of the film) is threatened. Sanada brings the same strong, quiet, and powerful presence that he has in films like “The Last Samurai”. He’s fantastic. Throw all these characters on a 200mph train, toss is several more very funny cameos from big stars, and you’ve got a non-stop adventure that kept a smile on our faces. I laughed out loud at all of Ladybug’s efforts to get off the train at every stop. Watching Tangerine try to get back on after being left off the train is even funnier. Director David Leitch started his career as Pitt’s stunt double and stunt coordinator. He brings the same frantic, violent and jaw dropping style that he fostered on the John Wick films and Atomic Blonde with Charlize. He’s got style to spare and a deft hand at mixing humor into the action, just as he did as director of “Deadpool 2”. As QT does in his films, Leitch and team bathe the action in an eccentric mix of music from start to finish. ”Stayin’ Alive” covered by Avu-chan opens the film as Ladybug strolls through Tokyo. Engelbert Humperdink’s “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” floats over a death scene, while Pussy Riot and Kyu Sakamoto drift in and out for big laughs. Asakura Miki’s version of “Holding Out for a Hero” is crazy and perfect during the jaw dropping climax. Pitt did about 95% of his own stunts and continues his recent roll, the Zen center of the madness. When White Death boards the train in Kyoto for the final showdown, all hell breaks loose, and the film manages to top itself for a brainless but enjoyable finale. BULLET TRAIN is one crazy, bloody, hilarious thrill ride. Check your brains when you board, get ready for more Thomas the Tank Engine references than you ever thought possible in an R-rated movie and enjoy yourself. BULLET TRAIN speeds to a solid B.

Kenneth Branagh’s second time behind the camera and in the starring role of Hercule Poirot is the lavish, all-star murder mystery DEATH ON THE NILE, that’s as great to look at as it is to solve. As a fan of the 1978 film version starring Peter Ustinov, I went into this version thinking “well I already know who did it, so this could be boring”. Branagh’s got plenty of surprises up his sleeve, including an opening sequence with Poirot as a young man in the 1914 trenches of WWI, devising a plan to take an enemy bridge. It’s clever, unexpected and serves as a nice amuse bouche to the main story. Poirot is on vacation in Egypt, soaking up the atmosphere at a Jazz Club and observing many of the clubgoers with all of his Poirot attentiveness. They include beautiful young Jacqueline de Bellefort (Emma Mackey) dancing seductively with her new fiancé Simon Doyle (Armie Hammer). When her stunning and wealthy friend Linnet Ridgeway (Gal Gadot) arrives at the club, she and Simon seem to hit it off a bit too well. Poirot is pulled into their circle and several weeks later he meets up with their travel group, which includes Ridgeway’s Godmother (Jennifer Saunders) her loyal assistant Bowers (Dawn French), Linnet’s former fiancé Dr. Windlesham (Russel Brand in a rare but fine dramatic role), Ridgeway’s attorney Kathadourian (Ali Fazal). Poirot also connects with his old friend Bouc (Tom Bateman) and Bouc’s mother (Annette Bening). Soon they’re all on a beautiful river boat down the Nile to celebrate the recent wedding of Simon and Linnet Ridgeway! Of course, Jacqueline is jilted, angry and predatory, threatening harm to Linnet or herself. With Poirot and this cast all together in one place, it’s not long before murders are attempted at superbly shot exotic locations. Then the actual murders start piling up, as do the suspects. Letitia Wright (Black Panther) is another enjoyable piece of the puzzle as she and her mother, Jazz singer Salome Otterbourne (Sophie Okonedo) join the river trip and offer up additional clues. This is one of the most beautiful films I’ve seen in recent memory. Haris Zambarloukos (Belfast. Thor) fills every corner of the screen with jaw dropping detail as his camera swoops in and around the action. Half the thrills are riding along with his camera from beginning to end. Patrick Doyle’s music score is old fashioned perfection, but never intrusive to the action like Richard Rodney Bennett’s score so often was in the 1974 Poirot classic “Murder On the Orient Express”. The entire cast is great and it’s a lot of fun to see Saunders & French riffing off each other again. Branagh clearly has a passion for telling these tales and after his first two forays into Poirot, I’m hoping he’s got plenty more in him. He makes the film’s $90 million budget look like twice that on screen. Branagh brings much more humanity to Poirot than portrayals by other actors. It serves this story of love and loss very well. Is there any better moment in a murder mystery than that scene when you realize all the players are enclosed in one room and Hercule announces that he is about to solve the riddle of whodunit? As Branagh says powerfully, shutting the doors behind him, “The murderer is here…and will stay here.” DEATH ON THE NILE gets an A.

I’ve never been a huge Elvis fan but have always respected his place in music history. For that matter, I’ve not been a fan of all of Baz Luhrmann’s films. I enjoyed his “Romeo + Juliet” and “Moulin Rouge” but “Australia” bored me to death. Wait a minute, I really liked his DiCaprio “The Great Gatsby” update too. Maybe the debate over Luhrmann is over for me. I don’t know what alchemy is behind the big, loud, splashy concoction that is ELVIS, but it’s a hell of a movie. Presley and Luhrmann belong together. Not a minute of the movie would work if you had the wrong actor in the title role. Austin Butler is astonishing as Presley. He doesn’t play Presley, he IS PRESLEY. I haven’t seen a performance like this since Daniel Day Lewis as Lincoln in Spielberg’s film. Butler seems like he’s channeling Elvis. A mid-film sequence depicting the creation of the least holiday-ish NBC Live Christmas special ever is classic film making. Watching Butler take the stage for the live TV performance, he captures every nuance of a nervous, excited Presley finally doing what he wants to do. He’s on a quest to get back to his core. That’s Butler singing in that sequence. I got goose bumps. You can’t take your eyes off his performance, its legendary. I’m predicting now that the next Best Actor Oscar will go to Austin Butler. But here I am hopping to the middle of the film. Luhrmann captures every bit of Elvis glitz down to the last rhinestone, filling the screen with multiple images at once, assaulting your eyes while filling your ears with a music score as splashy as Elvis’s wardrobe. Original tracks mix with Doja Cat, Jack White and Eminem. The film is narrated by the very unreliable Col. Tom Parker, surely a self-serving voice that becomes increasingly suspect as history unfolds. With a loose past and a con-man’s heart, Parker sees gold in Elvis and proceeds to milk every cent out of his groundbreaking talent. Parker is played by Tom Hanks in the least likable role of his long career. Buried in a thick, bizarre accent and wrapped in a fat suit, Hanks is a cigar & scenery chomping villain. I must admire Hanks commitment to playing such a horrible man, but it feels more like an overly mannered Johnny Depp performance than a Hanks role. It doesn’t really work, but Butler is so great he drags Hanks along with him. Dacre Montgomery (Stranger Things) is a cast standout as TV producer Steve Binder. Kevin Harrison Jr (Trial of the Chicago 7) is a superb BB King and Richard Roxburgh (Van Helsing) is moving as Elvis’ father. I loved the film’s commitment to showing the deep roots of Elvis’s music in the legendary black music of the 40’s and 50’s. Elvis was always transparent in the artists that he admired, and the film does a superb job (with Presley’s families blessing) of detailing his treasured friendships and admiration for artists such as BB King, Little Richard, and Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup. It’s hilarious watching the audiences of the day overwhelmed by the raw sexuality of Elvis’s moves. The laughs turn to drama when the politicians of the day display blatant racism in their fear of Presley bringing “black music” to the masses. Elvis was a trailblazer, colorblind in his love of talent, artists, and music. Its tragic watching Col Parker’s personal limitations, limited thinking and stupidity hold Presley back from what he could have been. By the time the film gets to Las Vegas for Presley’s first ever residence at The International, relationships, drugs, and excess spin out of control. Butler captures every stage of Presley’s all-too-short life. Luhrmann inserts real video of shots of Elvis at all the right moments for me, especially in the heart-breaking real video of one of Presley’s last performances in Vegas. Almost unable to stand, he sits bloated at the piano, bathed in sweat, and hampered by drugs. But somehow as he sings “Unchained Melody” the voice emerges, reminding everyone of just how tragic his passing was at the age of 42. At the time of his death, Elvis was preparing to work with Barbara Streisand in her ‘A Star is Born” remake. Kris Kristofferson played that role, but watching this film, I felt like that part could have been the showcase Presley needed to escape his downward spiral. I loved this movie. Exciting, fast paced, funny, tragic, and fascinating, this is my favorite Luhrmann film to date. Powered by a true star-making performance by Austin Butler and complimented by Baz’s flamboyant, non-stop visual assault, ELVIS hits every note to perfection and gets an A+. See this one on the big screen. In Dolby Cinema, it assaulted our eyes and ears until the final gold curtain came down. “Elvis has left the building….”

I’m a huge Sam Raimi fan. “Evil Dead”, “Darkman” and “Spiderman 2” are some of my favorite films across genres for many years. You can see flashes of Raimi throughout Marvel’s new film DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS. But I was left wanting more Raimi and less Disney by the end of this enjoyable but flawed entry in the Marvel series. Benedict Cumberbatch is reliably great as Strange, realizing that his actions in “Spiderman No Way Home” have opened cracks in our universe. Terror and threats of every kind start spilling into our world. Teenager America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) also pops into our realm, telling Strange that the battles he is dreaming about every night are not dreams, but real happenings in other universes. She needs his help. Strange realizes that the best person he can reach out to is Wanda Maximoff/The Scarlett Witch (Elizabeth Olsen). After the happenings of “Wandavision” she seems to be recovering. When Strange visits her and asks for her help, events spin out of control and the movie finds Strange, Chavez and multiple allies pulled into an ever-tumbling series of alternate universes cascading into and away from our own. What Raimi gets right is some of those worlds. I loved the unique visual and aural experiences in each. Each is unique and for the most part, fascinating. But Raimi seems to struggle with tone, flying more clumsily from comedy to horror than he did in “Evil Dead” or “Army of Darkness”. There are some shocking moments within and some of the most graphic and shocking violence we’ve seen in a Marvel film. There are also some excellent surprises, none of which I’ll spoil here. Characters from other film series, some beloved and played by actors you know, pop up and deliver some great moments. There are also some shocking characters involved, played by new actors that are welcome faces to the Marvel universe. But the film never lingers long enough in some of its more pleasurable moments for real payoff. I feel bad for anyone coming to this film without seeing ‘WandaVision” on Disney+. It’s a great series and a clever showcase for Olsen as Wanda/The Scarlett Witch. She’s terrific here, delivering some of the most adult moments in the series, along with some of the most heartbreaking. If I had not seen that series, I would have been lost on many of the key plot points in this adventure. Raimi does manage to weave Zombies into the plot in a major way, surely scaring the hell out of some of the younger audience members. Raimi and George Romero are our cinema zombie experts, and he’s in fine form with a long dead Strange taking part in the action-packed climax. Benedict Wong is always a welcome presence as Wong, this guy is in every Marvel entry! Rachel McAdams is back as Strange’s ex, Dr. Christine Palmer. She’s given a lot to do and delivers in every iteration of her character. It’s all enjoyable but feels a little routine. I expected more from Raimi in his first film in nearly a decade. He does deliver big laughs when Doctor Strange puts a spell on an annoying NYC hot dog vendor. Raimi regular Bruce Campbell is hilarious and manages to get even bigger laughs in the final post credit scene. Speaking of post-credit scenes, another one introduces a big star in a teaser scene for the next Doctor Strange film. Rather than being excited I felt some level of fatigue as yet another star driven character was introduced to this ever expanding universe. How many damn people can I keep track of? LOL Interesting and enjoyable, DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS is the first Marvel horror film. After the brilliance of ‘Spiderman: No Way Home” it’s hard to call it anything but a middle ground Marvel film. Let’s call it a B-. Cumberbatch and this cast demand at least that mark, even if their director couldn’t quite find his typical sure footing.

If you’ve been looking for something different, EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE is an in-your-face blast of originality, loaded with wall-to-wall psychedelic trips of fancy and laugh-out-loud humor. Adult, smart and unwieldy, it’s probably the craziest big screen trip I’ve seen since John Boorman’s “Zardoz” way back in 1974. But this is a much better film than that Sean Connery sci-fi mess. Michelle Yeoh plays Evelyn Wang, an overworked owner of a laundromat whose world is spinning out of control. Her husband Waymond Wang (Ke Huy Quan in his big screen return from his famous roles in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “The Goonies”) is ready to serve divorce papers. Her father Gong Gong (the legendary James Hong of “Gremlins” and “Big Trouble in Little China”) is old fashioned and demanding. Her daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) wants to introduce her American girlfriend to the family at a party that evening. On top of all that family drama, their Laundromat is under a serious IRS investigation by the frumpy, overly aggressive agent Deirdre Beaubeirdre, played by Jamie Lee Curtis in a horrifying wig and fat suit that renders her one of those people in the “Shoppers of Wal-Mart” calendar. Just when everything comes to a boil, Evelyn is approached Matrix-like and told that she’s the only hope not only for our universe, but for a cascading multitude of other multiverses spinning off from her own. She begins popping into those other universes at random, spinning the film off into a million different direction, all depicting lives that Evelyn could have led if she made different life decisions. Some of them hilarious, some violent, each is stranger than the last. One of them includes Evelyn being Michelle Yeoh at the premiere for “Crazy Rich Asians”. Another features a universe where everyone has hot dogs for fingers. YOU try opening doors with hot dog fingers! It’s all very meta and over-the-top in such a self-assured way that I loved the ride. Directors “The Daniels” Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert have a lot of fun, visually assaulting you with a ton of humor, much of it R-rated. Almost every joke lands. Hsu’s Joy emerges as the evil entity in other worlds and Hsu nails every scene. I had no idea what she would do next. She’s fantastic as the off-kilter center of every spinning universe, including the one in danger of being sucked into a giant bagel black hole. In one universe where life never developed, Evelyn and Joy are both rocks, talking to each other with captions that are as funny as they are unexpected. Another world is a guffaw-worthy homage to Disney with “Raccacoonie” taking over for that rat chef. Harry Shum Jr is flawless as the young chef with the helpful animal. Let’s just say it’s a lot harder to hide a raccoon under your chef’s hat than a rat. Hilariously so. Every bit of the visual effects was done by a crew of 9, including the directors. That’s astonishing if you’ve ever seen the VFX credits at the end of an Avengers movie, listing thousands of people for five minutes on a scrolling credit. The visuals here are imaginative and soar through every imaginable style. Flat-out bonkers and not for you if you like linear storytelling, EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE made me laugh a lot and surprised me more than once. The amount of original creativity on display slaps you in the face with hot dog fingers and several other floppy appendages. Look out! This madness demands an A+. I can’t wait to see what The Daniels do next.

One of my favorite films of the early 90’s, DEAD AGAIN is a twisty little thriller that served as Kenneth Branagh’s introduction to American audiences. Branagh (Death on the Nile, Hamlet) stars as Mike Church, an LA private detective. He’s asked to find the identity of a mysterious, mute woman named Grace at a local catholic church. Grace (Emma Thompson) is haunted by violent, nightly nightmares about a murder 50 years before. In the flashbacks to her dreams, we meet famous pianist Roman Strauss (Branagh again) who violently murders his wife Margaret (Thompson again). Mike is baffled by the woman and takes a personal interest in trying to discover who she is. They are drawn to an eccentric antique shop owner Franklyn (the perfectly cast Derek Jacobi) who says that he can hypnotize Grace and discover her identity. Branagh also directed the film and working off a witty, sharp screenplay by Scott Frank (Logan, Minority Report, The Queen’s Gambit) he keeps the surprises coming fast and furious. They also create two compelling stories, drawing us into black & white flashbacks of Roman and Margaret’s whirlwind romance that always conclude in Roman stabbing her with a shiny, lethal pair of scissors. The current story of the quest for Margaret’s past is just as engaging and Branagh and Thompson have palpable chemistry in both eras. There are some great surprises and one jaw dropping one that hits you in the face just as Patrick Doyle’s music score punches you in the gut. Doyle (Thor, Rise of the Planet of the Apes) creates a great score that’s as much Jerry Goldsmith as John Williams, one of his best. Andy Garcia is terrific as Gray Baker, the perfect film noir reporter who’s in love with Margaret but holds secrets for Mike. Robin Williams has a great cameo as an eccentric former Doctor that holds several key pieces of the puzzle and Wayne Knight (Newman!!) is fun in a minor role. This was shot in the early 90’s and some of Branagh’s uninterrupted shots and 360 camera moves were revolutionary at the time. The first hypnosis scene in the antique shop is a hell of a showcase for Branagh as a director. Fast, clever and fun, DEAD AGAIN launched the film careers of Branagh and Thompson, both of whom continue to deliver the goods more than three decades later. Remember….”these are for you”…. DEAD AGAIN gets an A.

When I first heard they were making another Batman movie, my reactions went from an eye-rolling “Already? Too Soon!” to “who cares?”. Then it was announced that we’d be spared another doughy, dull performance by Ben Affleck and I put that in the plus column. Having never seen a “Twilight” movie by choice, my only exposure to Robert Pattinson was his strong performance in the bizarre indie “The Lighthouse” and his brief but strong role in Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet”. The previews were dark and seemed to be trying too hard. I entered the theatre for THE BATMAN with more curiosity than expectation. After the first 15-minute, Halloween night sequence, I turned jaw dropped to my buddy Mark and said, “This is kind of brilliant”. That opinion didn’t change over the next three hours. Pattinson is a young, dark, and moody Bruce Wayne. With no use for the Wayne fortune other than to use it to battle street crime, Pattinson carries a huge chip on his shoulder. The Gotham these characters live in is a near perfect meld of Tim Burton’s atmosphere and Nolan’s epic, jet black perspective on the material. Part Chicago, part New York City and all Gotham, we’re lowered into its recesses with a montage of crime, petty and grand. Pattinson narrates over the scenes, questioning how effective his Batman can be after two years of battling evil. He can’t be everywhere. Evil seems to be taking over the city. The Riddler (Paul Dano, fantastically twisted) is murdering political figures and leaving clues addressed to The Batman. Lt. Gordon (Jeffrey Wright, dependably great and picking up with Batman where he left off as Felix Leiter to OO7) is the lone lawman to see Batman as an ally, bringing him into the investigation. With a feel akin to David Fincher’s “Se7en”, the Riddler’s murders weave a twisted path to wrongs of the past. I won’t spill any of its mysteries here. An unrecognizable Colin Farrell stars as Oz/The Penguin, without a shred of humor but dripping in underworld violence. Zoe Kravitz is a fine Selina Kyle/Catwoman, delivering plenty of kickass antics that leave you guessing until the final scene. John Turturro is excellent (when isn’t he?) as Gotham’s mob boss Carmine Falcone, whose slimy past wraps around every character in the film. Andy Serkis is good as Alfred, who plays a key role here without evolving into the ridiculous crime fighter that Jeremy Irons’ Alfred did in Zack Snyder’s hack Batman films. Writer/Director Matt Reeves created the latest “Planet of the Apes” trilogy (2014-present) that batted cleanup from Tim Burton’s goofball one-off film and Reeves does similar service for Snyder here. Snyder’s DC films seemed to mistake pathos and death for drama and his efforts at Batman were, for me, unlikable and unenjoyable. Reeves creates a true, epic Batman movie his first time out with the character. There are so many things he and his team get right. At first glance, the new Batmobile looks kind of dull. Then Reeves stages a fantastic car chase with Batman in pursuit of The Penguin. Huge scale, edge-of-your-seat and excellent, it reminded me of the legendary Steve McQueen “Bullitt” scene, no greater compliment available. Pattinson’s Batman doesn’t have a million magic CGI effects or a magic wand. He’s got every physical weapon, batsuit trick and gadget that the Wayne fortune can buy. We never get the scenes of glamorous charity balls that Keaton and Kilmer’s Bruce Wayne enjoyed. Pattinson’s Batman is 100% reclusive, pissed off and vengeful. He executes the hell out of it. Michael Giacchino’s music score is excellent and nearly wall-to-wall. Epic. The finale in Gotham’s Madison Square Garden is spectacular and suspenseful but well-staged. The soon-to-be-famous “Batman with a red flare” shot is a hell of a payoff after all the action. This is Paul Dano’s first mainstream big-budget action film. He’s completely unhinged. Dano said that he based his Riddler on the infamous Zodiac killer. His mad, cackling anger at his victims is all too real and haunts you long after the credits roll. Part film noir, part action epic and flawlessly executed, THE BATMAN is every bit the equal of Nolan’s trilogy. I can’t wait to see what Reeves has up his sleeve for the next two installments. With over $300 million at the box office in its first ten days, it’s a massive, well-deserved hit that gets an A+. Too soon? Nope, turns out THE BATMAN arrived just in time.

It’s hard to make Ryan Reynolds unlikable, but the relentlessly dark and dour 2005 remake of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR achieves the impossible. The original 1979 adaption of the “true” bestseller by Jay Anson is legendary for Rod Steiger’s over-the-top priest, Margot Kidder’s screaming and Jody that pig in the upstairs window. But even in its late seventies schlock and blood dropping walls, it was a fun scare. There is NOTHING fun about the remake. George Lutz (Reynolds) and his new bride Kathy (Melissa George) have juts merged families and move into a home that’s just too good to be true (GET OUT!!!). Faster than they can start unpacking, demonic forces start appearing to young daughter Chelsea and George starts acting like a madman. Chelsea is played by Chloe Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass, Carrie) in her film debut, she went on to much better films. In the original, James Brolin at least had some fun scenes as George, making his transition into a madman more powerful. This time around, Reynolds barely registers on screen until he starts hearing voices in the basement and wielding a very sharp ax. Philip Baker Hall (Magnolia, Boogie Nights) is reliably great as Father Callaway, he’s the best thing in the movie during his brief screen time. His careful words to Kathy about the one-eyed doll that Chelsea carries everywhere is the creepiest moment of a movie dying for some sense of style. Meh. It’s all just so unnecessary. This was Andrew Douglas’s first time in the director chair for a major film, and his last. There’s no real flow to the horror, just some decent jump scares and dread without any real build to the suspense. It made over $100 million at the box office and is only 90 minutes long, so it’s got that going for it. I’ll call it superfluous and give it a C-. Without Reynolds and Moretz, it would be an F.

As much as I love Christmas movies, I had never caught up with 1945’s THE BELLS OF ST MARY’S, but I knew it had an incredible pedigree. Bing Crosby was the #1 Hollywood star in 1944 and hot off his Best Actor winning performance as parish priest Father O’Malley in “Going My Way”. The film he won for Best Picture and Best Director as well for it’s director Leo McCarey, who’s back this time as writer/director. Father O’Malley finds himself shipped to a new parish, the decrepit St. Mary’s. It seems ready to close and that’s made even more likely as the big businessman next door (Henry Travers from “It’s A Wonderful Life”) has his eye on St. Mary’s land for a parking lot next to his massive new office building. But Travers and Crosby face their biggest challenge from no-nonsense Sister Benedict (Ingrid Bergman) who doesn’t understand Father O’Malley’s lax style. She brings some serious challenges to the men in charge in all the right ways, decades before that became more common place. Bergman was hot off her Best Actress Oscar for “Gaslight” and brings real power to the role. Watching the film nearly 80 years after its release, it still plays very well, heartfelt in all the right ways. Bing Crosby's performance as Father O'Malley earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, the first time a person received a nomination for playing the same character in two different films. The final several minutes are an acting class by Crosby and Bergman as one discovers the truth must always be told and the other finds salvation and peace in those words. What better message could there be for a Christmas classic. Widely considered one of the best sequels of all time, the film grossed a staggering $3,715,000 at the box office in an era where tickets were all 35 cents. The BELLS OF ST MARY’S still ring as loud and clear as ever, earning a solid B+.