In 1999, the original "Blair Witch Project" became a massive box office smash, earning a quarter of a billion dollars on a $60k budget. It also created the "found footage" genre. Based on early audiences, BACKROOMS is likely to be a massive hit as well, but I can't get over it's biggest sin, which is stranding two of our finest actors in a dull tale that only truly engaged me in its last 20 minutes. The film is the brainchild of 21 year old, British/American YouTuber Kane Parsons. His concept started online as a series of short films. A24 approached Parsons about making a feature film version when he was 19, making him the studio's youngest director. On any level, Kane accomplishing what he did here at his age is an amazing feat. Kudos. And there are moments of the film, especially in its conclusion, that show promise and a clever sense of horror and suspense. But they are fleeting and its a long path to get there. Chiwetel Ejiofor (The Martian, Doctor Strange) plays Clark, a divorced owner of a cheap furniture store, Cap'n Clark's Ottoman Empire, that never seems to have a customer. It is packed with ugly, bad furniture, a lot of BIG SALE! banners and signs offering to finance. We see Clark doing two primary things in the store, calculating incoming bills and sleeping in one of the beds on the showroom floor. His TV commercials are hilariously bad, playing a peg legged pirate in a KMart level costume and a fleeting accent, imploring all you mateys to come down and load up on the furniture booty. We see Clark meeting his therapist, Mary, played by Renate Reinsve, who was Oscar nominated last year for her brilliant performance in "Sentimental Value". We glimpse Mary's home life as she sits eating a TV dinner on a tray in front of the same style cheap TV as Clark, as her own TV commercial comes on touting her self-help CDs. Beyond those intriguing bonds the two share and a couple intriguing moments during their office visits, these two fine actors are stranded in the material. One day, exploring the basement section of his showroom, Clark finds a portal in the wall that leads to the BACKROOMS. A seemingly endless series of rooms and corridors, they all share the same yellow hue and a very mild sense of foreboding. And I mean mild. Much of the film seems like a leisurely stroll through the art exhibit of a mad architect. Oh, wait a minute........ Eventually, Clark becomes more adventurous in his exploration, mapping this other world just beyond his furniture store. Some of the audience around me seemed to gasp and leap at every minor scare. I found the first 90 minutes very tame when it comes to horror. Lukita Maxwell (Shrinking) and Finn Bennett (Warfare) add some much needed fun as Clark's only employee Kat and her boyfriend Bobby. When Clark shows them what he's found and they Bobby down a rope "Poltergeist"-style down a steep corridor, the film finds a brief spark and some laughs. More Kat & Bobby please! Clark confides in Mary what he's found and when he stops coming to their sessions, she heads to the store, finds the portal and enters the other world herself. Like "Blair Witch", I spent most of the film wondering what all the buzz was about. This is an intriguing concept that seems inadequately tapped. Until the 90 minute mark, my biggest challenge was to stop from falling asleep for long stretches. Parsons seems to be channeling a bit of "The Shining" and tries to unleash his own manic finale to release all the "built up" suspense (or tedium) of the film. My favorite scene in the film is when Mary has entered the corridors and just a tiny glimpse of something peeking out around the corner nearest her slides back into hiding in the background. It gave me chills. There are so many corners in the BACKROOMS. Why is there only one true creepy moment? Ejiofor and Reinsve are brilliant actors, stranded in another dimension and given so little to do for most of the film. Wasting these two fine performers seems like a cinematic crime. The manic sequence at the end of the film is a release, but then its followed by a quiet conclusion that left half of our sold out audience marveling and the other half like me with a resounding "meh...." The recent film "EXIT 8" is an obvious cousin of the concept. That film pulled me in from its opening moments, kept me on the edge of my seat and I became part of the mystery. Sadly, BACKROOMS left me thinking about the theater exit sign for most of its padded 110 minute running time. It gets a C for effort.

GET OVER HERE!!!! When you hear that immortal gong and the fights begin, MORTAL KOMBAT II soars into a hilarious, thrilling battle mode that screams with nostalgia for all of us who played the video game. Unfortunately, you have to sit through some pretty goofy dreck to get to those fights! There's actually a lot to like here and some absolute stand out members in the cast. We all know the plot, with a universal battle where intergalactic bad guys take over worlds if they manage to win ten battles in a row. Don't spend a minute thinking about the overarching plot, it's all about the crazy battles to the death with an absolute orgy of batshit crazy characters we've all come to love. And here's where the film gets things both absolutely right AND horribly wrong. Let's start with the great. Karl Urban (Star Trek, Lord of the Rings) serves up a FLAWLESS VICTORY as Johnny Cage, a has-been 80's action movie star who's fallen all the way to sitting in his 10 x 10 booth at an autograph show, showing clips of his grainy 80's VHS highlights of his cheesy blockbusters of the era. Urban is hilarious, delivering one liners with the same accuracy of his death punches and karate poses. Josh Lawson returns from 2021's Mortal Kombat as Kano, the lethal, foul-mouthed, wise-ass fighter whose verbal assaults leave everyone on the floor. I laughed so hard at Lawson in the role, knowing that I knew him well from another role but driving myself crazy the entire film trying to remember where I knew him from. Being a respectful AMC A-Lister, I didn't turn my phone on during the movie (I hate when people do that!) to check out IMDB. As I walked out, I laughed out loud realizing that Lawson plays Bruce, the hilariously insecure lead surgeon on NBC's 'St. Denis Medical". He's great on that show but he's other level here and steals the entire film. Hiroyuki Sanada (Wolverine, Westworld, Bullet Train) brings his usual gravitas and superb acting to his returning role as Hanzo Hasashi. Anytime he's on screen, this thing goes to another stratosphere. Urban, Lawson and Sanada give this sequel its hilarious, action packed core and when they are on screen doing their thing, it approaches 'Deadpool" style, violent hilarity. But they are surrounded by some seriously bad acting in their company. The lead female role of Kitana is played by Adeline Rudolph in a performance so wooden, I think she deserves the Kurt Thomas "Gymkata" award. IYKYK. Kitana is key to the story line, so she's in the entire movie, and that is not good. She gives off all the emotion of wood paneling to the other actors, its really painful to watch. Jessica McNamee (The Meg) is dull as Sonya Blade. She's terrific in the fight scenes, but just blank when she's not beating the hell out of an intergalactic foe. Meh, well bottom line, we didn't come here for the acting, we came here for the action and the filmmakers have recreated everything we loved about the videogame flawlessly. In Dolby Cinema, that gong rocks you in your seat and every time it did, I would smile, knowing a great sequence would follow. All your favorites are here, along with the otherworldly setting that the fighters are transported to for their battles. My favorite world was definitely The Blue Portal, the smoky blue universe that felt just like the game, but punched up into 2026 visual thrills. Just like the first film, this is a gory, adults only romp that dumps buckets of blood and gore. The language is also Deadpool level raunch from start to finish, I was shocked to see a Dad bring two kids under 10 to the movie. Behold our Father-of-the-Year nominee. We all found ourselves looking at those kids through the movie in the second row and shaking our heads. Great parenting....(but I digress...) I came to the sequel wanting a lot of fun that honored the legacy of the gaming experience, spectacular visuals, action and laughs. MORTAL KOMBAT II over delivered for me on all those quadrants, but it is dragged down by some seriously bad acting in the troupe. I still had a blast and would give it a very solid B, just like it's predecessor. LAWSON & URBAN get an A+. Just make a third film with those two doing a Butch and Sundance style violent romp across the universe and I'll be there opening night! Loved the closing credits with the full blast Techno redo of the original theme highlighting each of the characters. It pops you out of theater in style. R Rated trailer below tees up the fun.

THIS is the way..... The most fun I've had at a Star Wars movie in a decade, STAR WARS: THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU took me back to summers far, far away. The opening scene is the perfect kickoff. Just when you think you're going to be immersed in one of those endless round table political discussions that George Lucas was obsessed with in his second trilogy, the film explodes into HUGE scale action that feels remarkably like a OO7 pre-title sequence. When the titles did start and they were the exact same font, size and style as the classic Bond main title graphics by Maurice Binder, I knew Writer/Director Jon Favreau was going to take us on a mission. Instead of globe hopping, this one galaxy hops through more hyperspace leaps than an afternoon at Star Tours. The puppetry around Grogu, the mini-Yoda sidekick always at Mando's side is superb. Grogu is hilarious and has a lot of tricks up those tiny green sleeves. I should mention that I've only seen a couple episodes of Season One of "The Mandalorian" series on Disney+. I enjoyed what I saw, but there was always something I wanted to see more. Seeing all previous Star Wars content is absolutely not a requirement for enjoying this big screen chapter. Pedro Pascal and his stuntmen are terrific as The Mandalorian, a bounty hunter now working with the New Republic (the good guys) to go after the scattering Empire leaders (the bad guys) after the events of "Return of the Jedi". He reports to Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver) the way that Bond does to M. Like M and OO7, they have a mutual respect and Ward admires The Mandalorian's results, even if he often works outside the lines to get it done. Conjuring up nostalgic memories of the original trilogy and those amazing summers in packed theaters seeing the first three films, Mando's next assignment is to track down Rotta the Hut, Jabba's son. The apple fell quite a way from the tree this time. Rotta is the most buff Hutt you've ever seen, fighting in a gladiator style series of fights with wild intergalactic creatures. Jeremy Allen White (The Bear, The Iron Claw) voices Rotta and the character really surprises. Rotta's Aunt and Uncle have offered to serve up the location of a very senior Empire figure if Mando can find their nephew. Everything isn't quite what it seems. His mission to find Rotta explodes into many unexpected directions, including some of the best action sequences in Star Wars in a decade, since "Rogue One" in 2016. In addition to that opening scene with massive four-legged AT-AT Walkers from "Empire Strikes Back", we're pulled into a long chase through a "Blade Runner" style city. Favreau stages the sequence like an intergalactic tribute to William Friedkin's infamous car chase in "The French Connection". As Mando weaves through endless traffic and an elevated train barrels overhead, the camera moving to his point of view behind the wheel, I could only imagine that Gene Hackman would have a pretty big grin on his face. Jonny Coyne (For All Mankind) is perfectly cast as the Mob Boss overseeing the fighting ring and the Las Vegas style destination in the stars. There are crosses and double crosses and I'm intentionally not revealing much about the story, as the mission's discoveries drive the fun. The film feels like Favreau set out to make a BIG screen, old style Star Wars adventure that would feel at home if it had been released in the early 80's as a follow up to Jedi. He really captures the essence of seeing those older films in a packed theater, and our IMAX 3D showing was FULL, absolutely wall-to-wall. His visuals harken back to those days, with the constant swipes left to right or top to bottom between scenes, fantastic world in every corner and a damn near perfect blend of creatures and aliens old and new. The film bookends it's brilliant opening with an epic finale, Tie fighters swooping down in laser blasting battle that really took me back. The fun and heart are really driven by the Father/Son relationship of Mando and Grogu. The story embraces the theme of the old protecting the young and then the young protecting the old. I was surprised how much I laughed throughout. My biggest complaint about these films is when they jam in a cute character here and there to sell plush toys, but every choice here is intentional and an absolute blast. The pint size Anzellans that sound like Minions and move like old school puppets are hilarious. They get off plenty of LOL one-liners during the action. I didn't realize how much I had missed seeing a great Star Wars movie in a packed theater on a Memorial Day weekend. THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU serves up a galaxy of thrills, laughs and fun. See it on the biggest screen you can find this weekend and settle in for some old school Star Wars enjoyment. The Force is strong with this one. It gets an A.

Guy Ritchie is one of most prolific modern Writer/Directors. He's churning out action flicks at a pace that no one else can equal. Stuffy critics be damned, I laughed thru and enjoyed every minute of his taut new caper thriller, IN THE GREY. It starts fast and never lets up, blending an international finance operation with an Oceans 11 style escape from a very hostile island. Ritchie's deft touch at staging action, slight of hand and complicated sequences really hit their stride in the hands of a killer cast having a very good time. Returning from Ritchie's hugely enjoyable 2024 WW2 flick "The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare", Eiza Gonzalez oozes high class snark as Rachel, a clever operative who recovers the impossible for some of the largest corporations around the globe. When South American island ruler Manny Salazar (a terrific Carlos Bardem) decides he's not paying back $1 billion to a major corp led by Bobby Sheen (Rosamund Pike), Rachel takes on the case and says she'll recoup the entire Billion. She takes $10 million in advance of her fee to hire her reliable team. And that's when the real fun starts. Jake Gyllenhaal is Bronco, the wise-ass gunman ready for anything. Gyllenhaal is having as much fun as I've ever seen him have onscreen, dropping one liners and bad guys in lethal fashion. And his one liners are excellent thanks to Ritchie's fast paced, zinger loaded script. Of course, it helps every agent with a quip to have a perfect straight man for his jokes and Henry Cavill delivers that and more as Sid, the other muscle that never leaves Rachel's side. Each of Rachel's team has their own niche and they are a hell of a lot of fun to watch. Her leadership qualities are unmistakable, since every one of the men on her team will do anything to protect her, at any and all cost. Fisher Stevens (The Blacklist) continues his recent career revival with a hilarious performance as Salazar's lawyer, William Horowitz. When Horowitz refuses Rachel's request for information, she begins a systematic attack on all the resources that Salazar holds most dear. When you're messing with a crime kingpin's Mega Yacht and Private Jet, you've got him by the cojones. Ritchie constructs a brilliant and complicated puzzle that is a lot of fun to watch. He gives you an overview of Salazar's operation and then delights in watching Rachel pull out one Jenga piece at a time until his entire global network begins to crumble. Saving the best for last, Ritchie shows you the team's very elaborate and action packed method for escaping Salazar's island. He has a small army in place, along with every policeman and asset on the island. So how will they escape? No spoilers here, but I loved the way Ritchie sets up every possible way out and gives you enough information to know exactly how each route should work. The final half hour sees our team trying to escape one impossible scenario after another. We never left the edge of our seat for much of the film, but especially during the last 30-45 minutes that are full of massive set pieces, chases on land, sea and air, and some of the best practical explosions captured on film in years. Gyllenhall and Cavill are terrific together, generating huge laughs and jaw dropping action that pound off the screen, one after another. I'd love to see another movie with Sid, Bronco and Rachel targeting another Bond-like baddie. They are a fantastic trio. Special kudos to Kristofer Hivju (Game of Thrones, Red One) as Axel, the muscle that Salazar turns to when no one else can take out Rachel. He's lethal fun, as is Kojo Attah (The BeeKeeper) as Andre, Bronco's loyal right hand demolitions expert. I loved Chris Benstead's music score that drives you in globe hopping style from the highest skyscrapers of Manhattan to the deepest jungles of South America. It's the perfect accompaniment to the usual fun titles and chapters that are Ritchie's signature. In one scene, Bronco rattles of an amazing amount of weaponry they've assembled to go after Salazar, using hilarious slang for everything. As he speaks, the real names of the items unspool down the left side of the screen. Its perfectly Ritchie in all the right ways. There's a scene that kicks off the explosive finale in which Rachel and Bronco stop at a tiny bar in the middle of the town to have a cerveza after confronting Salazar. Ritchie's writing/direction and the editing by Martin Walsh (V for Vendetta) and Jim Weedon (Gladiator) in the entire sequence is textbook, but writes it's own new chapter. As sinister forces descend from all angles, Ritchie and team cleverly place you in the middle of the danger with a clear understanding of what you are facing. It's so much fun I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. Rarely has deception, revenge and escape been wrapped this tightly into a taut 98 minute thriller. It's black & white for me, IN THE GREY is an absolute blast, stealing a B+ from me in high style.

For four decades, Martin Short has been one of my favorites, making me laugh out loud like no other actor/comedian/singer/entertainer. Seeing him twice on Broadway in 2006 in his one man show, "Fame Becomes Me" was the hardest I've ever laughed in a New York theater. (Yes, "Book of Mormon" is a very close second.) The new documentary MARTY, LIFE IS SHORT is filled with laughter, but also, like Martin's life, with tragedy. The way he deals with those tragedies is inspiring, providing many moments of revelation within Director Lawrence Kasdan's film. A long time friend since the cinematic bomb they made together, "Mumford" in 1999, Kasdan (Body Heat, Silverado, The Big Chill) enters into a filmed conversation with Marty that is relaxed, unfiltered, warm and transparent. In other words, everything Chevy Chase wasn't in his recent doc. We see the amazing cast of the early SCTV years including John Candy, Andrea Martin, Eugene Levy and the late Catherine O'Hara. Lucky for us and Kasdan, Short has been making home movies of his family, home life and his many get togethers with his fellow actors for decades. Short also relates plenty of stories of growing up with his brothers in a very funny house, where everyone was ready to grab the spotlight and go for the biggest laugh. His first major loss of a life close to him hits him at the age of 12, but it won't be the last. The film is a packed treasure chest of hilarious, warm and genuine moments with everyone from Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn to Tom Hanks. It's like having a time machine back to the era of "Innerspace" and "Captain Ron". Seeing home movies of Short and Hanks recreating Ed Grimley and Forrest Gump for a Butch Cassidy tribute on vacation is a highlight! I never realized just how short (no pun intended) his stint on Saturday Night Live was, but he delivered iconic moments that still show up in every highlight reel today. Watching his early years in the cast of "Godspell" where he met his wife, along with Gilda Radner and Paul Shaffer, Short exudes such an amazing level of energy it's laugh out loud funny. The fact that he still pours out that same energy at 76 years old is jaw dropping. The core of Martin's life and the film, is his loving marriage to his wife Nancy. It's an incredible, loving and symbiotic relationship that stood the test of time and every challenge sent their way. Teaching moments on marriage and relationships abound, but not in a classroom setting, through emotional moments of love and support captured on film. Nancy's battle with cancer is handled with grace and Short's commitment to family and living up to her legacy is beyond touching. If it sounds heavy, it can be, but they are moving moments in a film chock full of new hilarious footage, the best moments of Short in TV and film and testaments from his fellow actors on his amazing and ongoing career. We had tickets to see Steve Martin and Short at The Wynn a couple years ago. We were so bummed when Marty came down with Covid and the show was rescheduled. It's still on my bucket list to see them together, live. Short is so relentlessly hilarious, but he's versatile. You want over the top, rambunctious characters with no off switch? No one better. You want spot on impressions of plenty of famous people? Here's an incredible Richard Burton making a pot of coffee and relating it to life. Prefer a very quick wit that destroys you faster than you can breathe and then moves on to the next barb? I give you Martin Short. He's one of a kind and for me, the funniest guy on the planet. After watching this beautifully told story of his life, he may also be one of the kindest. Tragedy has not left Martin, with his daughter committing suicide just last month, yet another tragic loss. It's the calm grace and huge heart that he always leads with that sets him apart. Well done, Mr. Short. Here's to you. I can't wait to see what you do next. MARTY, LIFE IS SHORT gets an A.

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

ALL TIME TOP 100 FILMS (Review from opening night in 2022) Every time I hear Tarantino talking about his commitment to only making ten movies as a writer/director, I’m forced to consider who else is making films I look forward to with that kind of anticipation. The writer/director at the top of the list is Jordan Peele. His latest film NOPE only solidifies my position. On the surface, it’s his most accessible film, but he’s layered the story with so much nuance, excitement, and suspense that the only word for it is ambitious. We meet OJ Haywood (the reliably great Daniel Kaluuya) and his sister Emerald (a superb Keke Palmer). They’ve taken over the family business as Hollywood film horse trainers after the mysterious death of their father Otis Haywood Sr (Keith David from “The Thing”). Otis Sr is killed by random objects hurtled out of the clouds in a haunting scene that informs what’s to come. OJ sees his father’s mysterious death as it happens. OJ is the work horse of the remaining siblings, but Em is undoubtedly the salesperson. Peele writes excellent dialogue for them both and Kaluuya is powerful in the quieter role, letting Palmer steal every scene she’s in as the motor-mouthed, hard selling and opinionated Em. OJ starts to notice that everything isn’t quite what it seems at the ranch. Financially in danger of losing the property, OJ visits their neighbor and former TV star Ricky “Jupe” Park. We meet Jupe (Steven Yeun of “The Walking Dead”) and glimpse a secret room dedicated to the infamous sitcom he starred in as a child actor. The TV series was focused on a funny chimp, but Peele unveils the very dark history that made the series infamous. Its animal star went wild, violently attacking a young girl in the cast and beating another unconscious. A tracking shot from that episode opens the film, leaving you wondering what its connection is to flying saucers. Every preview sets NOPE up as a UFO film. And that it is. An excellent one. Peele loved Close Encounters and has created a 2022 riff worthy of that film, one of my all-time favorites. Like Spielberg in the first half of that classic, he gives you glimpses of a flying saucer. A peek here, a quick shot there. But in 1977, Spielberg also gave you the finale with the mothership coming down over Devil’s Tower and long scenes where you got to look at that ship in wonder. Peele’s got plenty up his sleeve for his conclusion, no worries. After a couple of those quick glimpses of a UFO convince OJ that their ticket to money is to capture the ultimate proof of extraterrestrials, he and Em head to Fry’s Electronics and salesman Angel Torres (the hilarious Brandon Perea) comes out to the farm to install a lot of equipment. After that equipment is in place, Peele unleashes scene after scene that delivers, all building to an unleashed conclusion that kept me on the edge of my seat while making me laugh. Michael Wincott is perfectly cast as cinematographer Antlers Hoist. Self-important and talented, Hoist sees the ultimate shot of a UFO as his crowning achievement. Watching him go after it is as fun as it is moving. Wincott’s gravelly voice is perfect. You’ve never heard “Purple People Eater” sound quite this menacing. When he tells Em and OJ, “This dream you’re chasing..where you end up at the top of the mountain..it’s the one you never wake up from” gave me chills. It’s great writing, perfectly delivered. Peele’s crew behind the camera is in top form. Michael Abels (US, Get Out) creates a music score that soars for the scenes at Jupe’s Western show and disturbs during the “UFO above the house” sequence in the same way that John Williams score did during Cory’s “abduction from the house” sequence in “Close Encounters”. The cinematography by Hoyte Van Hoytema (Spectre, Dunkirk, Tenet) is fantastic and the special effects and sound design teams deliver in jaw dropping fashion. In Dolby Cinema, the entire sequence with the UFO above the ranch house with Em and Angel inside delivered astonishing sounds as liquid, objects and screams poured down around us. I loved this movie. There’s so much to unpack. I won’t do it here because friends I have talked to saw things I didn’t and visa versa. Discover the hidden gems on your own, then let’s discuss. I’ll throw out a couple thoughts. What’s up with that single shoe? How is it doing that? Think about what OJ’s theory is on what they discover and then think about how that ties into Gordy’s tale. And marvel at how Peele sets up a hell of a show at Jupe’s western ranch. Or as Jupe serves it up: “What if I told you that today you'll leave here different. I'm talking to you. Right here, you are going to witness an absolute spectacle. So what happens next? You ready? ARE YOU READY?” I wasn’t ready for what Peele served up because he takes what you expect and turns it on his head. He knows you want spectacle just like that audience at Jupe’s arena. But Jupe soon realizes he’s overreached. Peele hasn’t. He continues to challenge audiences by making intelligent movies that defy every effort that we make to shove them into a genre. Peele delivers and then piles on layers of context and then delivers again. While its messages aren’t as easily received as they were in “Get Out”, I credit that to a writer/director improving with each film. “Get Out” and “Us” were amazing. So is NOPE. It’s an ambitious blast at the movies. See it on the biggest screen with the best sound you can find. Should you see NOPE? YEP, as soon as possible. It gets an A+ and another Peele spot in my all-time Top 100 films.

The fascinating documentary THE BOYS details the lives of famed songwriting duo The Sherman Brothers. Suffice to say that everything in this family was not a spoonful of sugar! I was surprised by the depth of emotion and division evoked by the film. It's an intimacy that owes a lot to the documentary's co-directors, the actual sons of the two Sherman brothers, Gregory V. Sherman and Jeff Sherman. I went in expecting some behind the scenes fluff about one of Disney's most prolific movie songwriters. I was constantly surprised, not only by the frank analysis of the brothers, but also by the depth of clips and tales from their non-Disney efforts, like "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". The boys first got the attention of Walt at the studio with their song for a 1961 live action Disney effort. They exploded on the scene with their work on "The Jungle Book" (Bare Necessities, anyone?) and the Oscar winning megahit, "Mary Poppins". Featuring a deft blend of archival behind the scenes video clips and modern interviews, we see two men that grew up in the same house, but led very different lives. Richard is the more joyous, bouncy showman of the two, constantly "on" and one of the best pitchmen and composers to ever sit across from Walt. I spent the first half of the film wondering why Robert always seemed more pensive, deeper in thought. The film then reveals just how different the boys younger lives were. Robert, the older brother was among the very first American troops to liberate the Nazi Dachau concentration camp at the end of World War II. The effects of that life experience, in ways I can't even imagine, altered Robert's persona for the rest of his days. It gave me a new respect for his work, which almost always inspired joy, peace and happiness. Say what you will about the ear-worm theme the boys created for Walt's "It's a Small World' ride at the World's Fair and then Disneyland, it's message of global unity takes on new meaning when you hear about Robert's harrowing military life. It's flat out fun to see them sharing stories of how some of their most famous songs like "A Spoonful of Sugar" were created, but those moments are again balanced by watching these two brothers in their later years. While their 9 to 5 work was exceptional, their off hours relationship grows very damaged. Clips and interviews with stars like Dick Van Dyke, Julie Andrews, Angela Lansbury and Jim Dale are frequent, along with interviews with Disney studio heads and technicians that worked with the brothers. Barbara Broccoli of OO7 fame talks about her father Albert "Cubby" Broccoli hiring the brothers for his big budget adaption of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" and its songs like "Toot Sweets" and "Hushabye Mountain". Director John Landis is hilarious (as always) sharing the influence their songs had on his early years. The songs these two wrote are part of many generations of children's lives. "Chim Chim Cher-ee", "Supercalafragilisticexpialidocious""I Wanna Be Like You" "Winnie the Pooh" and so many more. Their legacy is amazing, but the story of these two men's relationship throughout their lives is an incredible story, beautifully captured by each of their sons. By capturing those lives in all their glory and struggles, it only solidifies The Sherman Brothers place in film history. THE BOYS gets an enjoyable and inspiring B.

Haunting and hypnotic, EXIT 8 is a twisty, unforgiving puzzle that will have you looking for clues with the same passion as its characters. We meet The Lost Man (Kazunari Ninomiya) as he boards the Japanese underground subway. His ride is uneventful except for a strange interaction he observes between a businessman and a young mother trying to comfort her crying child. He's also on a call with his girlfriend that keeps getting interrupted. As he begins his way out of the subway, he's faced with a series of hallways that seem baffling. It's like trying to get out of an IKEA. Good luck! The film very quickly and cleverly sets up his dilemma, helped by a dual language sign on the wall. To get to Exit 8, there are three simple rules: Do not overlook anything out of the ordinary. If you discover an anomaly, turn back immediately. If you don't, carry on. Go out from Exit 8. Simple, right? What drew me in immediately is my ability to walk down this endless series of turns alongside our protagonist, searching every wall, every poster, every door, every vent. Is anything out of place? The film teases you by having some simple anomalies at first, but as you move closer to your exit, the levels get harder and harder and the consequences are more dramatic. Based on a video game (have never heard of it, let alone played it), the film soars above those typical built in limitations through a seamless blend of repetition and discovery. Just when you begin to settle in to the flow, the Walking Man who appears every time you enter a long corridor begins to change his behavior. When these flesh and blood people stop or glitch, they turn into a very disturbing frozen (?) person just inches away. Yamato Kochi is perfectly cast as our strolling businessman. He's creepy as hell. Then The Boy (Nari Asanuma) appears in the middle of a level. I began to question everything. Who is real? Who is window dressing? The puzzle grows more complicated, elliptical and mysterious. Where the hell is he? With more than a few references to Kubrick's film adaption of "The Shining" and a music score that also conjures up the same chills of Stanley's long corridor shots, this little film has big aspirations, and mostly succeeds at reaching them. Director Genki Kawamura delivers genuine thrills and chills. Ravel's "Bolero" is also used as musical accompaniment, which quietly fits within the puzzle as its one of the most obvious famous compositions in history based almost solely on repetition, a major theme of the film itself. There were moments when I saw an anomaly and found myself wanting to yell "Look Up! Look out!" and then dreading what would be around the next corner, knowing our Lost Man missed it. Beautifully designed down to its smallest details, the production drops you into this handful of corridors and let's you play along, generating great suspense. I loved the poster on the wall detailing an Escher exhibit. The famous Dutch graphic artist will be familiar to anyone who's obsessed over the moving walls and floors of Hogwarts or Christopher Nolan's "Inception". His art includes incredibly detailed, logistically complicated visual puzzles that defy the brain. As does EXIT 8. If you're a patient moviegoer who likes to be challenged, come on down to Japan's underground train tunnels and search for a way out. There's plenty to see down here..... EXIT 8 gets an appreciative A. (Spoken in Japanese, with subtitles)

55 years ago, Gene Roddenberry, the creator of "Star Trek" wrote the screenplay for an MGM sexploitation comedy/mystery. Roddenberry may have been out of work, but I would have never guessed he wrote this taboo breaking, goofy, sexy comedy. PRETTY MAIDS ALL IN A ROW stars Rock Hudson (a long way from Doris Day and "Pillow Talk" here) as high school football coach Tiger. Whenever Tiger turns on that red neon TESTING sign above his locked door, he's supposed to be testing students. But he's actually bedding an endless line up of high school girls, played by a bevy of gorgeous, obviously-of-age young women. Student body indeed. Very much of its time in the early 70's, the nudity is frequent and anything but shy. Playboy famously did an article (with lots of photos) entitled "Roger Vadim's Pretty Maids." Vadim directed the film as his follow up to the 1968 sex farce "Barbarella", a huge hit starring his then wife, Jane Fonda. By 1971, he and Fonda were separated and his mistress recommended Hudson for the role. The gorgeous students of Oceanfront High put student Ponce de Leon Harper, played by an actor with an equally long name in his film debut, John David Carson, into a stupor. He's too shy to get laid, and has a hard time standing up to go to the blackboard due to his constant state of high alert. When he escapes to the boys bathroom, he finds a recently murdered young woman, much to the concern of Principal, fussily played by Roddy McDowell. Detective Surcher, a fan of Tiger's football team arrives on scene, played by Telly Savalas with all the wit of his famous TV detective Kojak, without the lollipop. Savalas has a very unique way of holding a cigarette that I first noticed when he played Blofeld in OO7's "Oh Her Majesty's Secret Service". He's got the same approach here, which made me laugh in its eccentricity. In many of his scenes, the way he held his cigarette is the most interesting thing happening on screen. Local yokel Sheriff Poldaski (Keenan Wynn) is the most inept lawman since Barney Fife and Savalas just keeps sending him outside to direct traffic. Tiger is committed to getting substitute teacher Miss Smith, played by Angie Dickenson (Dressed to Kill) to teach Ponce the ways of the bedroom. Any subject of the being a bad idea is never addressed. What planet did Roddenberry set thing thing in? The film becomes a loop of Tiger banging a hot student, Ponce fumbling his way to fourth base and gorgeous students turning up as hot corpses all over campus. Hudson seems to be having a very good time embracing the groovy early 70's as the coach with unrelenting libido and an endless stable of repeat partners. James Doohan (Scotty from Star Trek) even shows up as Surcher's loyal law sidekick. Modern audiences are likely going to really struggle with the free love and sexuality of 1971. Vadim didn't care then and he wouldn't care now, he always wanted to bust through what he thought of as American's puritanical attitudes toward sex. There is very little mystery around who the killer is, I'm not even sure that Roddenberry was trying to hide it. This is the only screenplay he ever wrote. Based on this one, its fairly easy to see why. Joe Namath was originally considered for the role of Tiger, that would have been great casting! Just when you think It cant get any stranger, The Osmonds start singing the main title and return for the end title Theme Song. I can only assume that Mom and Dad Osmond did not see this movie or the script in advance. Those boys would not have been singing a note. As a bizarre, one-off relic from Roddenberry, its fascinating. As a movie, it's too goofy to be anything but a throwaway. All those Pretty Maids notwithstanding, it gets a D. Or a double D....but I digress....

While it might not hit the highs of his "The Haunting of Hill House" or "The Fall of the House of Usher", Mike Flanagan's THE MIDNIGHT CLUB still delivers occasional thrills & chills. Spread over ten episodes (probably two or three too many from a story telling standpoint) the story structure is clever. We meet Ilonka (Iman Benson) just as she's about to enter college. After receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis, she instead travels to Brightcliffe, a strange and mystery laden hospice for teens. The collection of young patients in Brightcliffe covers a wide range. This isn't the Breakfast Club, and that's a great thing for us, the viewer. As always, Flanagan casts a stellar bunch of newcomers, as well as reliable members of his acting troupe that appear in many of his superb horror miniseries on Netflix. (If you haven't seen "Midnight Mass" drop everything and go watch it. NOW!) Ruth Codd (so memorable in "House of Usher") plays Anya, a fiery, in-your-face patient who has zero tolerance for sympathy or false hope. Codd breathes incredible fire into Anya. This was Codd's first acting role and she kills it. As in the memorable series, "Lost" each character is embellished by flashbacks, but smartly here, they are also informed by the stories they take turns telling to each other, every night at Midnight in the fireplace lit library, hence the title. The stories are pure fiction, but they reveal a lot about each narrator. Flanagan is in fine form telling most of these fiction stories as tales within the tale. Some are funny, some are clever and some are packed with scares. Igby Rigney ( Midnight Mass) is very good as Kevin, Chris Sumpter shines as Spencer and Sauriyan Sapkota delivers as Amesh. Each week tends to spotlight a character and their tales of fiction and some were far superior to others. When they don't work, things slow down and its the ONLY Flanagan series that I grew a bit tired of in its cushy middle section. I'm spoiled by his hard driving narrative that kept me glued to my screen for hours in "The Haunting of Bly Manor" and the previously mentioned "Hill House" and "Midnight Mass". Those series were so fast, so compelling, so incredibly involving that you couldn't walk away. This one took me over two months to finish and I began to question if I would. It is the only series so far that Flanagan has adapted from a modern, YA series of novels, by Christopher Pike. Haven't read it, don't plan to, but I can only assume that the core story was less inspiring to the writer/director than the brilliant works of Shirley Jackson on "Hill House" and Poe for "Usher". There are bright spots. They include Zach Gilford as Mark, one of the med caretakers at Brightcliffe, whose relationship with the patients is special. Some of the trips down that forgotten elevator to the basement are classic Flanagan, with taut suspense and horrors just out of reach of every flashlight. But nothing here matches the storytelling propulsion of his other series. The entire subplot with Samantha Sloyan as Shasta, Brightcliff's neighbor, could be dropped without consequence and would only help the flow. Even when that part of the tale reaches its big climax, its thrown away so fast it's of zero consequence to anyone at the manor. Sloyan was fantastic as Bev Keane in "Midnight Mass", it is one of the most compelling performances of the past decade. But she's given little to do here but collect herbs and mushrooms. Nightmare on Elm Street fans will also like seeing Heather Langenkamp who played young Nancy Thompson, Freddy Krueger's main target in the original 1984 hit. She was a horrifically bad actress in that role. More than 40 years have passed....and some things remain constant.... Overall, the whole thing just goes on way too long before wrapping up with a sweet bow on its final episode. Even lesser Flanagan is better than plenty of other options, so I'll just drop THE MIDNIGHT CLUB a C and move onto every other brilliant series that Flanagan has created for Netflix, all of which are world class. Skip this one and dive into one of the others now. You won't be disappointed. MASS first, HILL HOUSE second, USHER third, BLY MANOR fourth. All superb.

Have you ever watched an "Airport" movie and wished the cast would get eaten by sharks? Your dream just came true with DEEP WATER, a disaster movie hybrid with some bloody great action but waterlogged special effects. The cast of characters is straight out of a 1970's Airport sequel. Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight) is Ben, the committed First Officer trying to get one last round-trip done so he can get home to his wife and ill son. Ben Kingsley (Gandhi, Schindler's List) plays Rich, the fun loving Captain of the flight who's the relaxed commander to Ben's by-the-book co-pilot. We meet Chinese and American sports teams all boarding the flight from LA to Shanghai, along with an American businessman who is so obnoxious and rude he actually takes the plane down. You'll see how. Angus Sampson (Mad Max:Fury Road) plays Dan, the ugly American with such disgusting vigor that you spend the entire film hoping he gets eaten. For a film that's half air disaster and half shark movie, the air bound half is far superior. We've seen various plane crashes on film, from the emergency landings in the Airport films to the incredible third-person view in "Knowing", one of Nicholas Cage's best films. Kudos to Director Renny Harlin being incredibly well positioned to make this movie. "Die Hard 2" showed us he knows his way around an airport and crashing jumbo jets. His "Deep Blue Sea" is a brutally fun Jaws take off with leaping sharks that take down people at any moment. Harlin and team create a unique air crisis, as a fire starts in the luggage hold and explodes outward, creating so many flying metal projectiles that the inside of the cabin looks like the Normandy beaches. A long sequence from when the fire starts until the aircraft touches the sea is Harlin at his best. Eckhart and Kingsley are exactly who you want at the helm, a couple enrolling in the Mile High Club have a hell of a journey and explosions reign everywhere you look. The effects budget was wholly spent here because it looks great and keeps you on the edge of your seat. The plane breaks up, cleverly separating the survivors into different locations across the debris field. It's as if the filmmakers wanted to have one group in an "Airport 77" scenario, with the plane stuck on a coral reef with air at the top of the fuselage, and another group floating in the front section with the cockpit, just so they had to get to each other at some point. Sharks show up. And this is where the film really fell off that coral reef for me. The effects are second rate CGI and don't serve up anything new. Harlin's last shark flick, way back in 1999, "Deep Blue Sea" was a ground breaker and my favorite shark movie of the era after Jaws 1 and 2. His sharks were lethal, they came out of the water like Shamu and ate any one of the above-the-title stars at any moment. It was funny, fast and furious. This time out, the sharks are a bit more predictable and have less bite. Lots of limbs get torn off in R rated gore, but predictably so. The biggest surprise in this half was Harlin's ability to get me to invest in young Cora, the daughter of that amorous couple in the lav. Molly Belle Wright is the third best actor in the flick behind Eckhart and Kingsley. Never boring, the second half just alternates between different groups of survivors and their plight. It gets a bit mired down in shouting matches between passengers that reminded me of Ernest Borgnine's constant shouting in "The Poseidon Adventure". Harlin also manages to throw in the dumbest helicopter rescue scene since Bruce the Shark took down the helicopter in "Jaws 2". The final ten minutes also seems to jump forward through a major potential sequence. Budget crunch? Gene Simmons from Kiss is one of the producers and this isn't the first time he's bankrolled a Harlin movie. Anyone remember Andrew Dice Clay's movie debut in 1990's "The Adventures of Ford Fairlane"? Woof. I have a bad feeling SImmons may go 0 for 2 with this second pairing. As a airline disaster flick, its pretty good. As a shark movie, from Harlin, it's disappointing. In a pitch room, this must have sounded fun. On the big screen, its bloody meh. DEEP WATER offers only shallow thrills and only thanks to that plane crash, manages a C-.