The last two Predator films from Dan Trachtenberg have been imaginative, thrilling fresh takes that breathed real life into the series. So what in the hell happened with the silly, soft, Disneyfied and stupid PREDATOR: BADLANDS ? This is the "Return of the Jedi" of the canon. It's so touch feely that I kept waiting for the Ewoks to show up and really put in the toilet. Oh wait, yep, there it is, a little baby creature that comes along for the adventure! Whoopeeee! Schwarzenegger's Dutch is rolling over in his grave. I was excited to see this one and I hated this movie. Let's talk about why. Trachtenberg's first Predator entry was "Prey", a stylish, clever and great looking R-Rated movie that plopped our alien Predator down into the Comanche nation of many years ago. Brilliant, fast paced and packed with bloody action. Last year, he delivered an animated take, "Killer of Killers", a brilliant anthology of tales across many cultures and historic times where the Predator interacted with the human species. Visually killer, violent, R rated and eye popping from beginning to end. So, hey, this time, let's make a much softer version, because it worked so well to make James Bond a sweater wearing PTA Dad in the worthless last half of "No Time To Die". It's no wonder OO7 died in that one, he was probably ashamed of himself and invited the missiles to that cliff top. This time out, we meet a young Predator with serious Daddy issues who's thrown out of his house (planet) and off to a super dangerous planet to kill an un-killable creature. That planet looks cool, the production design and effects are pretty great. But how much greater would it be if we had a true Predator battling this land in the quest for the biggest, baddest creature in the universe? Think Perseus against the Kraken kind of storytelling. Great! Nope, we get mopey self-doubting Predator dude, who I can only assume would be better as a depressed barista in PREDATOR: STARBUCKS. He's given a WAY too happy sidekick in the top half (a waist up scrap of a robot) of a Weyland Yutani synth named Thia. She is the C-3PO of this happy little Disney adventure, the Lilo to our fanged Stitch. Asking a relentless series of questions and joyous about everything, after ten minutes, I was wishing our Emo alien had found only her legs. Elle Fanning is okay, she's better as the alter ego of Thia, a bad ass android who is the only character of interest, sadly cursed with little screen time. By the time the cute little baby creature started hanging around, the PG-13 rating was really starting to sink in. Is this a Predator movie, or is there going to be a stand in the lobby selling plush versions of these weak replicas of a recently great film series? Trachtenberg, what happened? Your first two films were so GREAT! Was this a mandatory deal with Fox (now owned by Disney) for a family film version??? You're better than this. And why introduce Weyland Yutani and all of it's legendary lore in the ALIEN series and then do absolutely nothing with it? Fans of Aliens get a glimpse of a bit of iconic machinery that does nothing for us beyond reminding us of far better films while trying to slog through this overlong mess. Oh yes, I should mention that the Predator talks a lot in an updated Klingon dialogue and his name is Dek. I don't remember Schwarzenegger having time to introduce himself in the original, but I do remember some of the best action scenes in action film history. Why do we care what his name is or his family history? Maybe they should have included some scenes with Dak in therapy for his Daddy issues to make sure the target audience found their safe space. WTF. P REDATOR: BADLANDS is 100% Mickey Mouse hot garbage and gets a smoldering, stinking F.

It's no secret that the final act of Wicked on stage can't compare to the opening act. The great news for fans is that the fleshed out second act on film is a triumph, offering no let down from last year's first installment. WICKED : FOR GOOD is a powerhouse finale and sure to be a massive blockbuster this holiday season. Director Jon M. Chu and his returning creative team start the film off with a fast paced pursuit of Elpheba, months after she flew off at the end of the first film. She's a one woman force against the Wizard and his plans for Oz and she's not a big fan of that yellow brick road! Cleverly weaving in far more of the OG Dorothy/Wizard of Oz story than the play, all the pieces of that familiar story flavor the expanded second half. As good as Cynthia Erivo is as Elpheba (and she's terrific), Ariana Grande nearly steals the majority of the movie as Glinda. This chapter provides a much larger character arc for Grande to execute and she does so perfectly, hitting every punch line and tragic note with equal commitment. Glinda has taken on a PR role for the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum, quirky shine at full beam) and relishes her role, making the citizens of Oz happy. But she's torn as her newly betrothed Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) is appointed head of the guard that's assigned to track down the "wicked witch", Elpheba. Every time that Grande and Erivo share the screen, the film lifts of to another level. As many times as we've seen the stage musical, all the plot points here around Elpheba's sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode) and the Tin Man, Cowardly Lion and Scarecrow seem so much more powerful on film. Knowing there were less songs in Act Two, original composer Stephen Schwartz has composed two new, full length songs for the film adaption. Elpheba's mission anthem "No Place Like Home" is good, if a little heavy handed in the visual execution around it. But Grande's "The Girl in the Bubble" is powerful. Chu also manages to shoot the entire song with a clever series of camera tricks that visually stun. All your (and our) favorite songs are here and are brilliantly realized with a massive symphony orchestra and sets that knock your eyes out. Chu stuffs every frame of every scene with a level of production design and detail that startles. "Wonderful" is expanded in all the right ways, bringing a nice comedic flair from Goldblum that's needed, with the darkness that haunts this half of the story. "As Long As Your Mine" is everything you want it to be and then some. Erivo's "No Good Deed" provides the "blow the doors off" Defying Gravity moment to this half of the story and it left our sold out audience jaw dropped. Big applause after that last note soars. The film's conclusion is incredibly satisfying, with Erivo and Grande tearing your heart out with the title song. As for the final couple minutes, Chu and company have taken the ending of the stage version into the stratosphere. What an incredible ending. Ignore the perpetual complainers online complaining that the film is "so much darker than the first half"....yeah, we know that. I've seen comments like, "I dont know why they had to make a sequel..." Um, yeah, they split the stage musical in two halves, this isn't a sequel. Are there things to complain about? Maybe one. I feel like the only miscast role is Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible. She's fine, but I was suddenly thinking of Pierce Brosnan in "Mamma Mia" when she had a couple singing lines here.... It's a minor flat note buried deep in the power of Bailey, Erivo and Grande nailing every moment they are on screen. Ethan Slater is really good here as Boq too, in the much darker portion of his story. If you finish this film and are hungry for more of Chu's vision on film, check out his criminally under seen film adaption of "In The Heights", its excellent. If you're an older viewer like me (what? who's old!?) there's a stunning wedding that serves up the most opulent nuptials since Harris and Redgrave stolled down the aisle in 1967's musical blockbuster, "Camelot". I feel like we all got lucky with this cast, writing team and director. This could have gone wrong in so many ways, but they have all elevated the material for the big screen. Speaking of big screens, we saw an early preview in Dolby Cinema and I highly recommend that experience, as you'll feel every orchestra crescendo and spell as it rumbles the theater. How about that tornado scene!!! Sure to be the most successful screen adaption of a Broadway musical and the biggest global opening for a movie musical of all time, part two delivers on all the promises of the first installment, equaling the original in every way. I predict Oscar nominations aplenty and for as much as I doubted Grande going in, she earned what is sure to be a Best Actress nomination for her trials as Glinda this time out. Enjoy your turkey, have a great time with the family and then go see this film on the biggest screen you can find. But bring your Kleenex, you're going to need 'em. Just like the first chapter, WICKED : FOR GOOD gets an A+.

The best Broadway-to-screen adaption since "Chicago" (22 years ago!), WICKED doesn't just defy gravity, it blows the doors off of even the highest of expectations. A little history of my experience with Stephen Schwartz blockbuster musical. In November of 2003, just after it opened on Broadway, I went to see it with the original cast. I didn't want to go, I hated "The Wizard of Oz" since I was a kid! By intermission, with Idina Menzel soaring up into the air while belting out her most famous tune, I sat there with a dropped jaw. It was incredibly entertaining, funny, dramatic, it was a fantastic night of theater. Over the next 15 years, every client wanted to see it on Broadway, we would go, then I took my wife, then my daughters...by the time I wrapped up, I had seen it 13 times. Hell, I could practically be an understudy by that point. But I'd had enough. I was good. Enough Wicked. When the film was announced, I was excited Cynthia Erivo was playing Elphaba, she's been a powerhouse on screen, on stage, on TV, in everything I've seen her play. But Ariana Grande as Glinda. Hmmm....ok. I apologize Ariana. She goes toe-to-toe with Erivo and together, they deliver one show-stopping moment after another in an acting and vocal performance that does Kristin Chenoweth proud. If you don't know the story, it's based on Gregory Maguire's best selling book about what happened in Oz BEFORE the story we all know. Why is the Wicked Witch bad and how did Glinda get to be known as the "good" witch? What's up with those flying monkeys? If you don't know Maguire's story, brilliantly adapted for both stage & screen by Winnie Holzman, then it's best you discover it on your own as it's got more twists and turns than the yellow brick road. Nothing is quite what you expect and it's clever as hell. Pile on top of that Schwartz's finest music and lyric work of his career and you've got a musical packed with now classic tunes, spanning the realm from hilarious to powerfully dramatic. If you know and love the Broadway musical, then buckle up. WICKED is bigger and better in every way possible. Director Jon M. Chu created one of my favorite films of 2021, his criminally under seen adaption of Lin Manuel Miranda's first Broadway hit, "In The Heights". With many times the budget and a dream cast this time out, Chu creates a WICKED that soars. Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton, Broadchurch) steals every scene he's in as Fiyero, the brainless Prince who arrives at Elphaba and Glinda's school Shiz University. Bailey's big number, "Dancing Through Life" pops with incredible sets by Gavin Fitch (Ready Player One) and his team, as well as fun choreography by Christopher Scott. Like the dance scenes in Steven Spielberg's superb 2021 remake of "West Side Story", many players and their synchronized movements fill the entire, wide screen. There's no cheating with fast cuts or clever editing. The camera sweeps up and an entire village or university moves at once. It demands a second viewing, it all just comes at you so relentlessly and flawlessly. Scott knows the Wicked stage audience as well, bringing in many of the intimate movements you experienced in live theater into his much wider canvas here. Grande's big number, "Popular" is laugh out loud funny and a showcase for her dance talents and her incredible range. She knocks it out of the park. Erivo's first big number "The Wizard and I" turns into an epic final camera shot that rivals Julie Andrews singing across that Swiss mountaintop in the classic opening shot of "The Sound of Music". It's just one of many moments that showcase Chu's achievement in adapting this monster stage hit into a modern movie musical classic. There's a reverence in his framing and storytelling that somehow pays homage to the MGM Musicals of old while he blazes a modern new trail all his own. Hearing the score and songs with a massive orchestra elevates the material dramatically. Jeff Goldblum brings his appealing eccentricities and a sense of seductive menace to the Wizard and Michelle Yeoh is Madame Morrible, head mistress and professor of magic at Shiz, who recognizes her dream student in Elphaba. At 2 hours and 40 minutes, the film never drags (although if you hate musicals, you will probably vehemently disagree. If that's you, why are you still reading this? LOL) As just part one of the adaption, it has the same running time as the entire Broadway show, but it works perfectly. Chu has expanded back stories, exploring the world of Oz through mostly REAL, physical sets, including actual fields with 9 MILLION tulips planted for scenes in Munchkinland. That train to OZ is an actual train, not a CGI creation. With $150 million budget for each of the two parts of the film, every dollar is on the big screen. We saw it in IMAX and the production design fills every corner, as does the sound mix. There are plenty of surprises here for fans of the play, but I won't ruin any of them here. Erivo and Grande sang all their songs live during filming. It adds depth and power to every number. They are in the moment, and they will drag you in as well. We went into the theater with high expectations and WICKED exceeded them on every level. As I mentioned at the beginning, the first time I saw Idina Menzel lift off the stage singing "Defying Gravity" it became a touchstone moment in my experience seeing live theater. How could they top that? Trust me when I say, they do. The finale with Erivo soaring into the air left the packed house in our showing stunned and applauding as "To Be Continued...." filled the screen. WICKED is one of the best films of 2024 and one of the best movie musicals ever made. Defying gravity, indeed, it gets an A+.

In 1986, Woody Allen completed his brilliant New York trilogy that he began with "Annie Hall" and "Manhattan" by delivering HANNAH AND HER SISTERS . While its core is the familiar one you might expect, with Woody playing his NYC neurotic, nebbish character to perfection as he questions the meaning of life, the world around the familiar is filled with powerful stories. Woody is the ex husband of successful actress Hannah (Mia Farrow) who is now married to Elliott (Michael Caine in an Academy Award winning performance). Elliott has fallen in love with Hannah's sister Lee (Barbara Hershey) who is in a relationship with anti-social, reclusive artist Frederick (Max Von Sydow). Circling these couples is Hannah's other sister Holly (Dianne Weist in the film's second Academy Award winning role) who is a rudderless, coke sniffing, entitled mess. When Holly decides to go on a date with Hannah's ex Mickey (Allen) it's one of the funniest parts of the film and an all-time bad date. Terrific actors like Carrie Fisher, Sam Waterston, Maureen O'Sullivan, Lloyd Nolan, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss (in her film debut!) and Daniel Stern circle these characters and bring plenty of laughs and drama to the film. Many of Hannah's scenes were filmed in Farrow's actual apartment. Allen said that Farrow once had the eerie experience of turning on the television, stumbling upon a broadcast of the movie, and seeing her own apartment on television, while she was sitting in it! HANNAH is one of Woody's most positive, heartfelt movies and the journey all these characters take between several Thanksgiving holidays is perfectly written in Allen's Academy Award winning screenplay. The first Thanksgiving gathering is in a time of contentment, the second in a time of trouble, and the third showing what happens after the resolution of their troubles. It was Allen's biggest box office hit, with a $40 million take until 'Match Point" topped it decades later. Beautifully structured, funny and hearfelt, it's one of Woody's best, a terrific film, excellent ensemble cast and a solid A. Perfect Thanksgiving week viewing for the days ahead!

Glen Powell is officially the new Tom Cruise, a classic action movie star at ease with comedy, drama and running like hell, which he does a lot of in the enjoyable new remake, THE RUNNING MAN . If you're going to do yet another remake, you may as well target a goofy movie that wasn't very good to begin with. The 1987 original was always lesser Schwarzenegger, directed by Starsky (from "and Hutch" fame) and dragged down by a preening Richard Dawson. It was a one and done for me in an era of Arnold films I watched on constant repeat. Everything here is bigger, better, funnier and the stakes are much higher. The film benefits from Director Edgar Wright's sure hand at the helm. Wright (Baby Driver, Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) knows comedy AND action. He's in fine form guiding a great cast through 2+ hours that feels much more like an hour and forty. I didn't have time to look at my watch, I was having too much fun. Powell stars as Ben Richards, an everyday hero who's bounced from one job to another in a future America where doing the right thing is frowned upon if it infringes on production. Stunning Jayme Lawson, who memorably played Pearline in "Sinners", is Richard's wife. They're both worried about him being out of another job and their young daughter's high fever. Living day to day, Richards decides to try out for one of the game shows on government controlled TV. And what a slate of game shows they are. Glimpses of them provide big laughs and some of the most overt social satire since Paul Verhoeven's classic commercials and TV military adverts in "Robocop" and "Starship Troopers". After a delicious face off with the slimy head of the network, Dan Killian, played to perfection by the perfectly cast Josh Brolin, (Weapons) Richards is cast on the number one global game show, The Running Man. A dystopian update of the most dangerous game, its a nightly ratings bonanza as three people try to escape 5 trained hunters and everyone on the planet with a cell phone. Any citizen that reports a confirmed sighting wins cash. It's a great set up, much better executed here than the original film, in a world well designed and imagined by Wright and his production team. Watching Richards walk on foot from his world of the have-nots, through a gate into the lap of luxury of the wealthy city's core has elements of "Elysium" and "Children of Men" blended into a lighter, but still impactful take. It reminded me of my times on business in Mexico City and Beijing, staying in a plush hotel with superb service and elegance and then driving ten minutes into some of the most overt poverty I've ever seen. Shockingly different worlds, lightly touching each other on the borders. It leaves a mark. But 90% of the time, Wright's focused on delivering a pure popcorn summer style flick, which he does well. Colman Domingo (Wicked: For Good, The Color Purple) is fantastic as Running Man host Bobby T, whose theatrics drive the biggest TV ratings possible. Domingo is hilarious and perfectly cast. I love the way Wright visually sets up the rules of the game with enjoyable visuals and clarity. He's also cast some great actors as Richard's support system on his quest for 30 days of survival and the billion new dollar prize. William H Macy (Fargo) is Molie, the "Q" character in an underground hideaway sporting every disguise, weapon and type of ammo a guy needs to disappear. Michael Cera (Superbad, This is The End) is even better as Elton, a guy who really, really hates the network and its goons. The scenes with Richards holed up in Elton's house with Elton's absolutely bonkers Mom are laugh out loud, action packed highlights. Once the race starts, Wright's entertainment switch never goes off, propelling across the race with non-stop action, laughs and some nice emotional payback as well. The finale aboard a futuristic V-wing luxury jet is a triumph of stunt work, set design and imagination that left us winded. For Stephen King fans and Constant Readers, there are so many King Easter Eggs, I bet I missed many of them the first time around. It's hard to miss Richard's freeway chase that leads to Derry and the matchbook noting the garage from "Christine". Powell serves up the solid core of the flick, Cruise-like in his ability to build an action character you cheer for and invest in. After picking him for "Top Gun: Maverick", Cruise has been a huge supporter and cheerleader of Powell's career. Why is on display in every frame of THE RUNNING MAN . It flees, explodes and soars its way to a very entertaining B. Check out the red band trailer below!

Recovering from its lackluster second entry nearly 10 years ago NOW YOU SEE ME, NOW YOU DON'T sparks some enjoyable, if a bit too familiar, magic. The great news is that the final caper is a hell of a lot of fun and genuinely surprised me. We meet a trio of young illusionist street hustlers who have connected to the 4 Horsemen's mission of taking money from bad hombres. Dominic Sessa, who was SO damn good in his first role in "The Holdovers" a couple holiday seasons ago, is front man Bosco, all bravado and stage presence. Ariana Greenblatt (Barbie, 65) is June, the fast moving, fast talking member of the group. Justice Smith (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) is terrific as Charlie, the quiet man behind the illusions. After the trio pull off a fake first appearance of the Four Horsemen, the originals connect with our new trio. They've all received mysterious tarot cards that pull them into a unified force on a quest. 90% of the fun in these films is discovering exactly what that quest is and how it unfolds, so not more plot points. After nearly a decade, our Four Horsemen and team have not lost any of their humor or screen appeal. Jesse Eisenberg is in perfect form as J. Daniel Atlas, the effusive leader of the Horsemen. Woody Harrelson is hilarious and everything you want him to be, back as Merritt the mentalist. Harrelson gets some big laughs with his flawless comic delivery. Dave Franco is in fine form as the lethal card spinning Jack Wilder and Isla Fisher is clearly enjoying her return ( for the first time since the original) as escape artist Henley Reeves. There are plenty of surprises on other cast members here as well and Morgan Freeman returns as Thaddeus Bradley. I always love seeing Morgan in anything, but am I alone in worrying about how much older and frail he looks here? It's the first time I've felt that watching him on screen. At 88 years old, I'm hoping this isn't a swan song for one of our finest actors. Every caper needs a great villain and we certainly have one here. Rosamund Pike (Die Another Day, Gone Girl ) plays diamond industrialist kingpin Veronika Venderberg, an ice queen by any measure. Pike is a great actress and she's relishing her juicy role here, as the Horsemen focus in on the hellaciously big Heart diamond she's currently revealing to the world. NOW YOU SEE ME gets a lot of things right, recapturing some of the magic of the original film. The sets are fun and complicated, visually arresting. Each of the mini capers are perfectly timed and then we get to see in flashbacks exactly how our team pulled them off. The final caper in the last half hour had me going and I NEVER saw the resolve coming. I love being fooled and it got me every step of the way, serving up a fun and satisfying resolution. Not everything is magic however. The emotion of Freeman's last scene in the movie feels rushed and unearned. There are some racetrack size plot holes in the F1 sequence in Dubai, but when the film is globe trotting all over the world to luxurious or fantastic locations like the James Bond films of the 70's, you won't hear me complaining. Good. not great, NOW YOU SEE ME, NOW YOU DON'T falls in the middle of the trilogy, not nearly as good as the original, but better than the sophomore entry. Looking for harmless fun? Grab the popcorn. Abracadabra, it gets a B-.

A sweeping, epic fantasy that only the brilliant Guillermo Del Toro could create, FRANKENSTEIN is a big, sprawling, beautiful cinematic experience that I can't wait to watch again. It's been a lifelong quest to bring Mary Shelley's classic to the screen for Del Toro, and that passion shows. Each frame is a carefully crafted, stunning visual experience. From an ice bound ship (yes, that was built for real, not CGI) to the most stunning Dr. Frankenstein lab ever seen, this one knocked me out for every bit of its never slow, two and a half hour running time. Del Toro structures the film like an intricate fantasy/horror puzzle, popping back and forth in time as our main characters tell their story. We meet Victor Frankenstein (the reliably great Oscar Isaac) as he flees from a massive, growling creature across a barren ice landscape, where he's brought aboard that massive, icebound ship by Captain Anderson (Lars Mikkelsen). Victor tells his story, starting with his childhood, in scenes that capture a youth of wealth and strict discipline at the hands of his father Leopold (the regal and perfectly cast Charles Dance from "Game of Thrones"). Leopold is a famous surgeon when the science was just emerging. I'll share no more, except to say that this entire sequence captures the beauty of the age like no film since Kubrick's stately 1975 film "Barry Lyndon". The lush countrysides, the falling snow, the color contrasts in the funeral scene....I kept popping back to watch them again. Visually stunning and sure to earn Director of Photography Dan Lausten (The Color Purple, John Wick 4) and Oscar nomination. Victor is much closer to his Mother (Mia Goth) who offers him kindness and comfort in the face of his Father's demands. Goth's costumes in these scenes are incredible. Del Toro weaves together his costumes, set design and photography in a way that's wholly recognizable as his film. That style has never been better utilized. The film moves forward to the bits of the Frankenstein story that we remember from James Whale's original classic film and every iteration since, but they are re-imagined here into something much more epic in scale. Victor begins his experiments to bring the dead back to life. He's shunned by the medical community but gathers intense interest from Harlander, a wealthy man with unlimited funds who finds a kindred spirit in Victor. Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained) is perfectly cast, bringing just the right tinge of eccentricity alongside the pathos. Harlander's niece Elizabeth (Mia Goth-again!) is betrothed to Victor's younger brother William, played by Felix Kammerer (All Quiet on the Western Front) as a young man on the right side of wealth, ambition and life, challenged by the much darker drive of his older brother. Del Toro delivers one visual wonder after another as Harlander and William construct Victor's laboratory in an abandoned, cliffside castle. Then he delves directly into the graphic gathering of all the strong, dead bodies that are graphically carved into a wholly new, massive Creature. There are few more famous scenes in cinema than the 1931 original film with lightning bolts and tesla coils sparking in black and white while Colin Clive screams, "It's Alive!!!!". Rather than recreate it, Del Toro's creates something much bigger, more dangerous and incredible to watch. Along with the ship, the laboratory and catacombs beneath it were also full size, practical sets built for the film. That matters. Jacob Elordi is excellent as The Creature, blending menacing stature with childlike innocence perfectly. Just when I thought the role wasn't going to offer Elordi more than a few grunts and a single word, Del Toro turns the film on its head and structures the ability for the Creature to share his tale. And what a tale it is. It was such a pleasure for me to discover, I'm not going to ruin a bit of it for you by detailing the Creature's story. Elordi endured 10 hours a day in the makeup chair, often doing 20 hour days on the production, prompting Del Toro to call him "superhuman". David Bradley (After Life) also delivers in an important role as the blind man with a much bigger part in the story than Gene Hackman had in "Young Frankenstein". As Victor and The Creature's two tales begin to blend, there are grand scale events of destruction. Some of property, some of the heart. There's a fascinating relationship as Elizabeth discovers the creature shackled beneath the laboratory. A mental child ready to be molded. Goth and Elordi are great in these scenes that maybe only Del Toro could mold so delicately. Look, he managed to emotionally connect a woman and a fish creature in his brilliant "The Shape of Water", my favorite film of 2017, so perhaps creating a bond between an innocent semi-human creature and an intelligent young woman or another era comes naturally, but this level of film making doesn't. Del Toro says so much here, especially when you consider that the newly born Creature, like every newborn, is a blank imprint for the world to instill the values and attitudes of the people in its life. Consider Victor and Elizabeth and the impact they have on shaping the Creature. You could talk about those scenes for hours, and I imagine many will. I loved observing how the creature went from stooping over at birth to standing boldly and confidently by film's end, in direct opposition to Victor's own bearing. It's one of a thousand tiny details that permeate every layer of another Del Toro masterpiece. The heart of the film is about love, forgiveness and the legacy we all inherit, wrapped in one of the biggest, most beautiful gothic horror films I've ever seen. Alexandre Desplat bathes the entire film in a symphonic score that perfectly complements the emotions of the film, just as he did with "The Shape of Water". Like that film, FRANKENSTEIN may just be my favorite film of the year. Del Toro's done it again, as ONLY he can. A stunning A+.

Looking for a superb war-time film for viewing this Veteran's Day? ALLIED is in many ways a rarity. First, by being a big-budget, old school thriller aimed squarely at adult movie goers. The film opens in 1942, with a dialogue-free ten minute sequence in which intelligence officer Max Vatan parachutes into the Moroccan desert, making his way to a rendezvous with his undercover contact, who brings him to Casablanca. As he will throughout the beautiful looking film, Director Robert Zemeckis creates the WW2 era down to the last visual nugget, digitally, flawlessly painting Casablanca and London in their wartime glory and madness. Max (a terrific Brad Pitt) meets his fellow operative, French resistance agent Marianne Beausejour (Marion Cotillard oozing Bacall grace) and they cultivate their undercover roles as husband and wife. In ten days, they are to assassinate a high ranking Nazi ambassador at a state event. The first hour of the film builds toward that operation and it's taut, tense, yet leisurely. Two standouts of the first half are August Diehl as SS Officer Hobar, who the couple must meet and secure an invitation from to the event where the assassination will take place. Diehl's Hobar will be fascinating to film buffs, as he plays a very similar role to the SS officer he played perfectly in Tarantino's "Inglorious Basterds". In that film, his Major Hellstrom was a tightly wound SS officer who stood between our heroes and their planned attack on the Nazi high command. Here, the connections to that role are startling, including a card game that comes into play in each film. In both, Diehl is humorous and menacing in all the right ways. Great performance. The second standout is the scene with Max and Marianne in their car as a sandstorm envelopes them. The sound and fury of what happens outside the car, matched to the passion inside of it, set to a camera that never stops whirling around them, is pure Zemeckis: fantastic. The second half of the film is nearly a different picture all together, as Max and Marianne begin a life together in London. It's a perfect recreation of a war torn London, with nightly massive air attacks by the Nazis and the English people refusing to give into the assault. Since it's all in the trailers, I'm not giving anything away by telling you that Max and Marianne are now husband and wife with a beautiful baby girl. Max is stunned one idyllic day to be summoned to headquarters and told that intelligence believes that Marianne is a German spy, implanted back in Casablanca and now reporting back on everything that Max shares with her. I'll say nothing about where the film goes from there. As Max's world is shattered by paranoia and doubt, Pitt is terrific, making you feel his anguish as he battles his own mind in trusting his beloved wife, while starting to watch her every move and question her actions. You'll flip back and forth ten times in the final half hour between who to believe. The ending is a somehow perfect balance between the accusations and the truth, incredibly moving and powerful. ALLIED is that rare film less concerned with action than storytelling. It plays much more like Hitchcock's "Saboteur" than any film of the past fifty years. Zemeckis creates worlds. In his hugely unappreciated "The Walk" he recreated 1970's NYC and the Trade Center towers. He's taken you back to the 50's for "Back to the Future" and to a lonely island with Tom Hanks and Wilson in "Castaway". Here he takes you back to a different era, when movies could take their time to build the stories of two smart people, falling in love while they fight for their countries. As Marianne says early in the film, the trouble for agents in any conflict is when they start "feeling". ALLIED stages massive action sequences with perfection, but the scenes that will stay with you are those in which Max and Marianne begin to let down their guard and show their feelings. Whether those feelings are real or not is for Zemeckis to powerfully unwrap and you to enjoy. ALLIED gets an A.

ALL-TIME TURKEYS If you LOVE bad movies, and I don't mean casually bad, I'm talking legendarily horrible, hilariously dumb movies, AIRPORT 79: THE CONCORDE is 113 minutes of heaven. It will serve no purpose to review the plot, as it's so nonsensical and poorly constructed that it barely exists. Better to review some of the unintentionally hilarious moments: * The passengers include John Davidson as a TV reporter in love with a 22 year old Russian gymnast played by 30 year old Andrea Marcovicci. At one point, Davidson has a nearly nude scene in a hot tub. Really? *Jimmy "JJ" Walker stars as a famous saxaphone player who smokes pot the entire film in the plane's restroom (no smoke detectors?). Martha Raye spends the entire film in the other restroom and Eddie Albert plays the owner of the airline. At one point, his plane seat comes unattached and nearly falls through a hole in the bottom of the plane. His dialogue when they finally pull him up? "I had the best seat in the house!" ugggghhh There are so many different missiles, fighter jets and bombs attacking this plane, it does about a dozen barrel rolls in flight, yet leaves on time the next day for the next leg of its journey. * George Kennedy, in his early 60's here and not exactly in great shape, has a love scene in front of a fireplace with a French hooker, wrapped in fur. I'm not kidding. * At one point as missiles are being fired at the plane, the pilot OPENS THE COCKPIT WINDOW and fires a flare gun out the window to divert the missile. I am not a physics expert, but I think that if it was possible to open the window going 700+ miles an hour, it would be awful hard to hold the gun steady out the window..... The dialogue includes this gem: Flight Attendant: "You pilots all want black coffee? I forget what MEN you all are!" George Kennedy: "They don't call this a cockpit for nothing." OK.....this script is written by Eric Roth, who went on to pen "Forrest Gump". Hard to believe he wrote both films..... Robert Wagner plays a rich industrialist dating a TV news anchor. He is clearly exposed as having illegally sold arms. On the Concorde flight to Paris, Susan Blakely as the TV anchor survives attacks on the plane by missile launch and unmarked fighter jet that she knows are by Wagner. So when she gets to Paris, does she announce it on TV? Call the police perhaps? The FBI? No, she meets Wagner for dinner, allowing the film to set up a flight the next day so Wagner can try to take down the plane again on its way to Moscow. By the way, if she is on the Concorde to Paris from Washington DC and makes the flight in 3 hours, how does he meet her for dinner a couple hours later in Paris when he flew his private plane? There is a scene where Wagner is watching TV reports on his private jet where I swear to you the TV reporter is behind the wall the TV is supposed to be mounted on, and is reading the news as if its a TV. This is sloppy, hilariously bad film making. I never understood in the 1970's how you take a great film like the original Airport that makes millions and then make three sequels, each one cheaper and dumber than the last. As the films got worse, the box office plummeted for each proceeding film. Fox did the same thing with the Planet of the Apes series in the late sixties and early seventies. It's the self fulfilling law of diminishing returns people! The Concorde bombed badly at the box office and was the end of the Airport series. It would soon be lampooned brilliantly by "Airplane" in 1980. There is more creativity and pride in any 5 minutes of "Airplane" than the entire cheap, silly flick on display here. After about ten minutes I was rooting for the plane to go down. I imagine Cicely Tyson is still trying to figure out how she starred in a movie with Jimmy Walker and Charo. A silly, sprawling, flying mess of an F.

LB Jeffries (Jimmy Stewart) is an adventure photographer whose latest photo shoot on a race track has landed him in a wheelchair. He's stuck in his apartment with nowhere to look but out his massive REAR WINDOW . Luckily for him (and for us) that window looks into a massive Manhattan courtyard and the rear windows of all his neighbors. Jeffries has the equivalent of a dozen reality shows all going on in his neighbors rooms, from a young dancer to a middle aged woman who's desperately lonely. Jeffries finds his focus drawn to the apartment across from his, where a seemingly bed-ridden woman constantly fights with her brooding hulk of a husband Lars Thorwald, played by TV's Perry Mason, Raymond Burr. Jeffries girlfriend Lisa (the stunning Grace Kelly) and visiting nurse Stella (Thelma Ritter) soon join Jeffries in becoming convinced that Thorwald has murdered his wife. Director Alfred Hitchcock crafts one of his best films with this 1954 classic. The first 45 minutes takes its time, slowly revealing all of the stories in the surrounding apartments and then tightening the suspense for the final hour. The last 15 minutes is a masterclass in editing and photography as Lisa enters Thorwald's apartment looking for clues and their secret voyeurism turns back on them. Jimmy Stewart is fantastic, showing plenty of humor, talent and energy even though he never leaves the wheelchair. Stewart and Grace are great together. She's got to be one of the most beautiful movie stars in history and their chemistry is terrific and surprisingly frank and sexy for 1954. Ritter is very funny as the nurse with an endless supply of clever one-liners, Burr is intimidating and Wendell Corey is fine as Jeffries detective buddy who thinks Jeff should mind his own business. Hitchcock is at the top of his game here. The set design is flawless and massive. His camera rarely stops, swooping in and out of windows across the courtyard (but NEVER physically into any other apartment) to turn what could have been claustrophobic in lesser hands into a story-rich playground for his visual style. Hitchcock directed the entire film from Jeffries apartment set, telling the actors in the other apartments what to do via flesh colored ear pieces they all wore. Somehow, being bound in the same apartment as Jeffries adds immeasurably to the tension. REAR WINDOW is a masterpiece, worthy of repeat viewings and one of Hitch's best. Definitely in my all-time top 100, it gets an appreciative A+. Check out this original trailer that gives you a glimpse of the set design, as well as some fun, direct to camera narration from the amazing Jimmy Stewart.

John Candy was one of the most relatable, kind and loved comedic actors of the past 50 years. All those traits shine brightly in the new documentary, JOHN CANDY: I LIKE ME on Prime. In 1994, Candy died of a heart attack at the age of 43. Belushi and Farley battled the demons of addiction to their end and the film reveals that Candy certainly faced his challenges, but led a more peaceful life. I'm a Candy fan and loved that the doc goes far back, with great video of Candy's earliest days in high school. Dabbling with acting and then improv, Candy emerges as a quick witted comedian. What a cast of characters around him in his early days! Director Colin Hanks (yes, that Colin Hanks) has assembled a Who's Who of modern comedy, all of them Candy's co-stars. Bill Murray is hilarious and touching sharing his lifelong friendship with Candy that started on "Stripes". He tells a story about one beloved scene and how much Candy hated filming it that surprised me. It highlights a side of Candy that kind of breaks your heart. Steve Martin shares superb stories of making "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" with Candy, along with generous clips of that holiday classic. Mel Brooks is hilarious sharing tales of "Spaceballs", as is Tom Hanks recounting how much he loved making "Splash"with Candy. Hanks conveys so much warmth in those memories, a trait that shines through in so many new interviews with Martin Short, Chris Columbus (Uncle Buck) and Dan Aykroyd. I forgot that Candy was in so many of my favorite films of the late 70's and 80's like "1941", 'The Blues Brothers" and "Heavy Metal". His early SCTV days are fondly recalled by that amazing cast, including Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas and the legendary Andrea Martin. The precursor of SNL, SCTV was pure Canadian brilliance that kicked off so many careers. The old clips with Gilda Radner and team are so enjoyable. What amazing memories they bring back. The film feels complete, detailing the entire arc of ups & downs of Candy's career, his growing and tight knit home life, his foray into owning a hockey team and struggles with his weight. All of us remember the caring warmth that Candy exuded on screen in the deeply dramatic moments that he brought to life when the laughs died down. Planes, Trains is hilarious, but one of the most memorable moments is his character Dale Griffith revealing that he has no home, a lonely widower. The finale of that film is pure heart, rewarding us every Thanksgiving week in our annual viewing. The lump in our throat never fades, even after 25+ viewings. That was his gift. Macaulay Culkin shares deeply personal memories about Candy on the set of "Uncle Buck", keeping a wary eye on McCauley's Dad long before it became fashionable. A people pleaser in the user atmosphere of Hollywood, you see Candy being swallowed up. His relationship with his Father is fascinating and always present. A documentary as warm and inviting as the man himself, JOHN CANDY: I LIKE ME is revealing, sad, hilarious and enjoyable. If you're like me, you'll find yourself really missing Candy as the credits fade. Cynthia Erivo's beautiful rendition of "Everytime You Go Away" lands perfectly. We like you too, John! You are missed, but what a kind legacy you've left behind. I LIKE ME gets an appreciative B.

What better time than Day of the Dead to remember C O C O . (Original Review from it's premiere in 2017). A visual masterpiece with a huge heart, Disney/Pixar's latest, COCO is a funny, moving adventure into the land of the living & the dead. Set in Mexico, with colorful visuals from its opening frames that immerse you in Mexican culture and traditions, COCO is transporting. Young Miguel (newcomer Anthony Gonzalez) has a passion for music, but since his great grandfather left the family to become a musician, all music has banned from their home. As the annual Day of the Dead celebration nears, many generations in Miguel's house prepare to honor those that have passed. Miguel inadvertently opens a pathway to the land of the dead and finds himself in an incredible world where all our loved ones that have died live on. Talk about crossing over! The scenes around how they move back and forth between worlds at a spiritual border station are funny and filled with incredible visuals. COCO brilliantly sets up an urgent quest to return to the living while simultaneously exploring family ties, the legacy of generations, the aging of our elders, all blended with a mystery around Miguel's father that's surprisingly intriguing. The cast is excellent. Standouts include Gael Garcia Bernal (Y Tu Mama Tambien) as Hector, and Benjamin Bratt as superstar singer Ernesto de la Cruz, whose fame has followed him into the next world. My (almost 4 year old) grandson LOVED every minute of the film, and at nearly two hours long was never anxious to leave. He loved the comedy and the giant "spirit creatures" that guide our characters into the land of the dead. I remember watching "Up" and wondering how an animated film can be so emotionally connected and moving, but the final scenes of COCO take that to another level all together. Stirring up deep emotions about loved ones that have passed and the importance of remembering them, COCO is as moving as any live action film in recent years. It's not a musical, but music plays an important role. You'll cheer (and Jonah laughed a lot) at the talent show where Miguel proves his chops. And bring your Kleenex for Miguel's moving final act song "Remember Me" to his aging, Alzheimer's afflicted great grandmother. Far beyond a simple "cartoon", COCO is one of Pixar's best and a fun, visually powerful and moving adventure into family and tradition. One of my favorite films of the year, it gets an A+. Thankfully. my grandson didn't notice me losing it like a blubbering grandpa in the film's final scenes, I still have my cool "Bumpa" credentials intact....