"Let's a-Go!" Bigger, faster and sure to be a Billion Dollar hit, THE SUPER MARIO GALAXY MOVIE is an enjoyable barrage of video game action and laughs for all ages. Funny enough to entertain my 12 year old grandson and not too scary for his 3 year old brother, this one is sure to pack in families this long Easter weekend. Building off the fun of the first film, this one plunges us into the action immediately. Princess Peach (Anya Taylor Joy) opens the film with some nice legend building before she is kidnapped by the tiny but ambitious Bowser Jr, hilariously voiced by Benny Safdie. The IMAX visuals and sound mix in this opening sequence drops you right into the Nintendo world and everyone in our sold out screening was wow'd. That's a lot of kids getting very quiet, very quickly. The $110 million budget is all over the big screen, with minute details and legacy video game easter eggs hidden everywhere. We're then popped into a desert setting with Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) riding motorcross bikes across massive hills as the camera pulls in right behind, above and around them. On the big screen, the fun quotient is off the charts for anyone who has ever played the game. I felt like the filmmakers this time out are even more committed to giving us full size renditions of our favorite parts of the game, from its very first, blocky game versions (that I played decades ago) to the most current stunning 4k iterations. Some vocal critics, obviously mistaking this family film that's built for fun as a self important drama, have derided "a lack of plot" and the lack of "a more cohesive story". Huh? Have they ever played a video game? The film moves quickly from one universe to the next, barraging us with familiar characters like Yoshi (Donald Glover), Toad (Keegan Michael-Key) along with some nice additions like Glen Powell as Fox McCloud, the most Han Solo-like Fox in the universe. Wild worlds abound across the universe and the story pops back and forth quickly as Mario and Luigi race through them to save Peach. Rosalina (Brie Larson) is also off to save Peach and her scene in an alt universe Las Vegas is a stunner. The action takes place on all four walls, "Inception" style and the background action is a testament to the thousands of artists that created this cinematic world. Luis Guzman (Carlito's Way, Boogie Nights) almost steals the movie as Wart, ruling that casino world with lazy domination. Jack Black is back and hilarious, serving up plenty of fun and intrigue as we try to figure out if his legendary villain Bowser is still a bad guy. Has he changed? A little one next to me whispered loudly at one point "Is he really good now?" Stay tuned. The amount of cosmic worlds, different settings and fast paced action is sure to keep kids of all ages entertained. There are power ups of every variety here. While the kids enjoy the characters and the action, adults can appreciate that every camera angle and setting is pretty stunning. The movie looks AND sounds great for every moment of its 98 minute run time, which is just about perfect for the kids. At the cost of a $1 million a minute, the film delivers every dollar on screen. Brian Tyler's score is always there and very enjoyable. Tyler (Avengers: Age of Ultron) keeps it fun and majestic from start to finish. THE SUPER MARIO GALAXY MOVIE is pure popcorn fun for the family. I enjoyed it just as much if not more than the original. With the world building out of the way, this one just hits the ground running and never takes a breath. Space adventure, chase sequences, dinos, underwater worlds, game play? Yes on ALL counts, earning a solid B, slightly better than the B- I gave the first movie. There are two post credits scenes. The one mid credits is actually pretty dark and left our crowd mumbling, but the surprise at the very end after the credits rolled left our audience cheering about what lies ahead in a third film. With a $350 million opening weekend looming, I would expect that film will hit theaters Easter Weekend 2029!

A cavalcade of great performances deftly directed by Joachim Trier made SENTIMENTAL VALUE a richly deserving nominee for Nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture of 2025. This deeply felt portrait of a family with decades of history, a life in the arts and tragedy in their lineage is beautifully compelling. It pulled me in fast with its opening scenes and never let me off the edge of my seat. Flawlessly crafted, compelling human relationships are fascinating to watch and Trier (The Worst Person in the World, Thelma) has created something truly special with the Borg family. Nora Borg (a brilliant Renate Reinsve) is an actress we meet as she's about to take the stage, the orchestra is cued, the audience is ready, but she finds every reason she can think of to run from the stage and hide. I was terrified for her and pulled into her story immediately. We meet her sister, Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) whose adult life is far removed from the world of entertainment. She's raising her young son with her husband Even (Andreas Stoltenberg Granerud). Their father is Gustav Borg (perfectly cast Stellan Skarsgard) a famous, well respected film director who has just written his first big film in years. As the film unfolds, Trier's screenplay reveals subtle layer after layer of dynamics within the family. This is the type of writing I admire most. Every scene, every setting, every word of dialogue feels spontaneous, emotionally sound and powerful. It's clear that when Gustav left Nora and Agnes' mother, that their lives became easier, the home became less of a battleground, but it's also clear that Gustav wasn't the most present of Fathers. Assuming you know anything about these people, or that they are going to fall into boring cinema stereotypes is a huge mistake. The brilliance of the film is the discovery along the way. When Gustav approaches his daughter Nora to play the lead in his new film, to be shot at their family home, she immediately refuses. She seems to have a million valid reasons why. He approaches one of the biggest box office draws in America, Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning) to play the part. Kemp, tired of being stuck in popular American films with no real weight, jumps at the chance to be in an important film from a respected Norwegian director. What follows is a collision of family, film making and a reckoning on age and legacy. The family home becomes a character all itself and is beautifully shot. The memories and expectations in those walls weigh heavily. I loved the scenes with Gustav and his long time producing partner Michael, perfectly played by Jesper Christensen from "Casino Royale". Their conversation about growing older and their current station in life is just one of many moments of the film that stay with you. Fanning is terrific as Kemp too. Her self doubt about the role and search for the character is palpable. I admire Trier's structure of the film. He assumes the viewer is watching and invested, never pandering to an audience that needs him to hold their hands. Scenes leap, settings jump, long quiet moments inform as much as any brilliant dialogue (and yes, it's brilliant dialogue). Reality and art blend. Personal memories are just that and are often startling to the other person that shares them. I've rarely seen realism and art blended so seamlessly. The ending is perfect. This is a beautiful, complex and very rewarding film. Reinsve is a jaw dropper as Nora. She would have been my pick for Best Actress, bar none. Her performance is one of the best I've ever seen. You cannot take your eyes off her from opening scene to closing perfection. SENTIMENTAL VALUE is an A+, conjuring up echoes of "Vertigo", "Interiors" and Tracy Letts' "August Osage County" while delivering a stunning original film. Academy Award Winner, Best International Feature Film, Norway's first win the the category. Nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress for Reinsve, Best Actor for Skarsgard, Best Supporting Actress for Fanning and Best Supporting Actress for Lilleaas and Best Editing. (In Norweigan with English Subtitles.)

Oscar winners Lee Marvin and Gene Hackman teamed up in 1972 for a violent mob thriller bathed in blood. While it has a few great scenes, PRIME CUT is decidedly underdone. Hackman, hot off filming "The French Connection" is Mary Ann, a Kansas City mobster with a hair trigger who likes to put his adversaries through the meat grinder at his KC slaughterhouse, Mary Ann's Meats. His name is never explained, but I can only imagine it's part of why he's so pissed off. After a rival Chicago mobster sent to collect monies owed from Mary Ann is sent back to his boss Jake (Eddie Egan) as fresh hot dogs, Jake hires free lancer Nick Devlin (Marvin) to put Mary Ann back in his place. Violence ensues. Egan is a fascinating actor. He was the real life NYC cop that inspired Popeye Doyle, Hackman's character in "The French Connection". He carries real weight as Jake. Marvin's performance is a reminder of just how great he was in action roles. Even in films like this, working off a half baked screenplay that barely supports 90 minutes of running time, Marvin is fantastic. They don't make tough guys on film like this anymore, and they are missed! Marvin's Nick gathers his boys (his loyal driver and two younger goons) and heads to KC. It's immediately apparent when he gets there that he and Mary Ann have some serious history, including with Mary Ann's wife Clarabelle, played by 70's screen vixen Angel Tompkins. Her Playboy Playmate appearance in 1972 rocketed her to fame after many TV guest star spots in the late 60's. She also starred in one of my personal favorite TV series of the early seventies, 'Search". She's stunning and does just fine in her big scene with Marvin. Any time that Marvin and Hackman are on screen together, its riveting. Nick and Mary Ann have hated each other deeply for a very long time. Hackman is so damn good at playing a man with a hair trigger that I couldn't wait for Marvin to set him off. Marvin's quiet bravado seethes just below the surface and my money is ALWAYS on Marvin. Hackman accepted the role after sitting unemployed for six months since the end of filming on Friedkin's "French Connection". His next film after this would be a huge hit, "The Poseidon Adventure". Director Michael Ritchie (Fletch, Semi Tough) seems as fascinated with showing us small town farm life and county fairs as he does the action, leading to a strange pace that suffers plenty of lulls between the action. You can't accuse him of shying away from violence and nudity, revealing stables full of beautiful naked young women that Mary Ann is auctioning off like prized cattle. One of the girls, Poppy, whispers "please help me" to Nick and he immediately takes her with him. Poppy is played by Sissy Spacek in her first acting role. She's excellent, boldly frank in her nudity and displays all the acting talent in her first role that would earn her an Oscar playing Loretta Lynn eight years later. Marvin and Director Ritchie famously had huge fights during production as Ritchie wanted to film love scenes between Marvin and Spacek, which Marvin refused to do, due to their age difference. Gregory Walcott (The Eiger Sanction, Joe Kidd) is slimy as hell playing the aptly named thug Weenie. His penchant for grinding up folks in the slaughterhouse and dripping blood & sweat all over his victims makes him one of the most repulsive screen bad guys of the era. There are a couple of great action sequences in the film, the best being Marvin and Spacek running endlessly across wheat fields with a mob of gunmen and a huge threshing machine chasing them. It conjures up Cary Grant's dual with that airplane in Hitchcock's "North by Northwest". A second cat and mouse face-off in a field of sunflowers also delivers the goods. But for a film that's only 88 minutes long, it's got more filler than those bloody hot dogs. Even Marvin and Hackman's heroics can't save it from being more than an average early seventies thriller with a few great scenes. When even the great Lalo Schifrin's music score sounds like he phoned it in, you've got issues. This is the man that wrote the action music for "Bullitt" and "Mission Impossible". Just like the rest of the film, his score here comes up far short. PRIME CUT feels more like celluloid ground chuck. I'll stamp it with a C.

The flat out BEST series I've seen in a long time, FALLOUT is hilarious, exciting and packed with knockout visuals. I should probably start with my perspective. I've never played the video game and know nothing about it. Needless to say, I approached Prime's new series with fresh eyes, eyes that were assaulted with a terrific & intriguing collection of characters. The opening is a brilliant set up for what lies ahead. A perfectly cast Walter Goggins (Justified, The Hateful Eight) is Hollywood Western movie star Cooper Howard. We meet Howard for the first time in full cowboy garb at a child's birthday party. The luxury home sits in the hills overlooking Los Angeles, incredible views in every direction. Is Cooper a faded movie star? He's incredibly charming, but seems out of place. How does he know these people? His daughter doesn't seem to be friends with the other children. Before you can dive too deep into these questions, atomic bombs begin dropping into the skyscrapers of LA, their blinding light and shock waves coming right for the home. The execution of this scene is so sure handed, so flawless, that you are immediately pulled into the what and why of what lies ahead. I remember Richard Kelly's crazy, half dumb but intriguing 2006 film "Southland Tales"that opened in a similar fashion. It was one of the things I liked most about Kelly's film, but his film eventually petered out under the tonnage of its unfulfilled promise. Showrunners Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Captain Marvel, Tomb Raider) and Graham Wagner (Portlandia, Silicon Valley) nail the tone and the adventure out of the gate PERFECTLY. Watching Cooper on his horse with his daughter, riding hard into the Hollywood hills as orange mushroom clouds rise in the distance BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! is a perfect moment. It will be followed by many more. That scene is the opening few minutes of eight hours/episodes that never falter. After the titles, we move forward more than 200 years and meet the population of Vault 33. A massive underground bunker, all of it's inhabitants live an idyllic, Rodgers & Hammerstein, 1950's style American life. Cornfields are healthy, the projected sky is always patriotic blue and jello cake seems to be an indulgent favorite. Ella Purnell (Army of the Dead) is Lucy MacLean, the boundlessly upbeat and enthusiastic daughter of the bunker's elected leader, Hank MacLean (Kyle MacLachlan). Hank leads the citizens with a 1950's flair. This could just as easily be a prequel to "Happy Days" as it is a post-apocalyptic dwelling. A major event is about to take place. Lucy is to marry the male member of neighboring Vault 32 that has been deemed most worthy to breed. The events of the wedding and its aftermath are just the first shock in a series of events that eventually drive Lucy to the surface of the Earth as a lone member of the vaults to exist above ground. And what a landscape it is. Los Angeles 200+ years after the apocalypse is a rubble filled landscape. Adding to the superb visuals, landmarks of the past always loom in the background. LAX's unique former control tower lurks like a battered spider. The beaten remnants of the Santa Monica Pier, the empty, towering, burned out skyscrapers of downtown and massive craters where the A-bombs dropped are everywhere. Crossing this landscape is The Ghoul. And he steals every scene he's in. The Ghoul is Cooper Howard, two centuries later. His face burned flat, his nose missing, he still walks with the confident cowboy strut of his former film days. I had a million questions. How is he still alive? What is a Ghoul? Half the fun is watching the story ahead reveal (or not reveal) answers to those questions. Deeper into California, the Brotherhood of Steel mans iron-giant style battle suits about 8 feet tall, loaded with weapons and power you might expect in a very early Tony Stark armored suit. Their ranks feel much like the old Marines, with the lowest of them stuck polishing boots and cleaning latrines. Aaron Moten (Emanicpation) is Maximus, a grunt who seems doomed at the low end of the ranks. When Maximus is sent out as the personal servant of one of the armed warriors Knight Titus (Michael Rapaport in a profane, hilarious performance), they face giant cockroaches and one hell of a nasty bear. Maximus begins a path toward redemption that will eventually lead him to cross paths with The Ghoul and Lucy. Michael Emerson (Lost, Evil) stars as Dr Wilzig, whose research & discoveries lead to the McGuffin that powers the quest for our three main players. The eight episodes find an incredible balance in telling this massive, three pronged story. We move from character to character and move back and forth in time. Every revisit to the pre-atomic bomb LA reveals more about the future. Jonathan Nolan (HBO's "Westworld", Inception) is a big influence behind the scenes, but his world building is 1000 times better here than it was with Westworld, a series that grew too complicated and impenetrable as it went on. It all reminded me a great deal of the heyday of "Lost" and its ability to weave a compelling adventure that crossed timelines and many, many lives. There are too many great characters to name, but there are some that really stood out for me among the massive cast. Moises Arias (Nacho Libre) is an enigma as Norm MacLean, son of Hank and brother of Lucy, he's a coward and a cypher who might just be finding his way after Lucy departs for the surface. Zach Cherry (Severance) is an absolute blast as Woody Thomas, a Vault 33 occupant inspired to take Hank's place as their leader. Every line delivery is perfect, including his one-liner in the voting booth. Leslie Uggams (Yes! That Leslie Uggams, the singer/damcer from the 70's) is great as Betty Pearson, a political leader in the Vault whose mysteries run deep. Sarita Choudury (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay) is powerful as Lee Moldaver, a power player in one rebel faction of the surface world. Johnny Pemberton (Ant-Man) delivers big laughs as Thaddeus, a loud mouth member of the Brotherhood whose story arc cuts through all the tales with humor and many twists. Like "Lost" or "Westworld" the scope of the storytelling is massive. Every new part of the world they took me too delivered visual fun. From the scale of the weaponry to the nuances of minor characters that come and go, post apocalypse Los Angeles is alive in a way that other films of the genre never quite matched. The eight hours allows plenty of valuable time for character building as well, making the payoffs of the final episode all the more powerful. Purnell is excellent, going from wide-eyed innocent with a tough edge to a true above ground survivor, Lucy never loses who she is at her core. Moten shows great range and his final scenes with Michael Cristofer (The Witches of Eastwick, Die Hard with a Vengance) as Elder Cleric Quintus are powerful. Goggins rises above all, creating a character so unique, so dangerous, twisted and just that he upps the series everytime he walks on screen. He brings violence and bloodletting like a Tarantino version of John Wayne. He's never been better. Great cameos abound, from Chris Parnell to Fred Armisen. Just thinking about their scenes makes me laugh. A rare, perfect blend of fantasy, sci-fi, comedy and drama, FALLOUT is fantastic. After a huge first week of streaming, Amazon Prime has just announced a Season 2. I can't wait. I'll be there opening night to binge the entire season with anticipation. FALLOUT gets an A+, okey-dokey? Watch the first half of the end credits of each episode to catch great still concept art of the episode you've just watched. Just another cool touch to a series packed with discovery.

A fun throwback to the adult action comedies of the 80's, MIKE & NICK & NICK & ALICE delivers a double helping of Vince Vaughn in his best role(s) in years. It takes a bit to get going, but once the intricate pieces start to fall into place, so does the fun. Over the opening credits, we meet a screwball scientist named Symon, played by Ben Schwartz (Sonic the Hedgehog). We can't quite tell what he's working on, but I do know he's singing an entire Billy Joel song from a long forgotten Disney movie called "Oliver & Company", not the last fascinating, eclectic song choice to be heard here. Disaster strikes the lab. Meanwhile, mob enforcer Quick Draw Mike (James Marsden) is setting up a meeting with his secret love Alice (Eiza Gonzalez from "Baby Driver") who just happens to be married to his best friend and fellow mobster, Nick, played with hilarious intensity by Vaughn. It's a fun core trio that will soon become a quartet. Meanwhile, lead underworld figure Sosa (Keith David from "The Thing" having an enormous amount of fun) is celebrating his adopted son's release from prison after 6 years. His son, Jimmy Boy, is surely one of the dumbest mobsters in film history. One of my favorite laugh out loud moments is when Sosa gives his boy a gold plated shotgun with the initials JB and his son says, "JB, what does that stand for?", David's reactions throughout are classic. Jimmy Tatro (Modern Family) is a comic standout with more testosterone than brains (or virility). As the first of four parties kicks off, Sosa announces that the celebration will continue to dawn, but that he also knows that among them is the rat that sent Jimmy Boy to prison. Sosa has discovered that the snitch is Mike, hiring Nick to kill his best friend. That's the set up. That would be enough, but what happens when another Nick from the future shows up, determined to change history? It's the find of callback that happened often in 80's films, an enormous plot device that you were just asked to roll with and enjoy the ride, Marty McFly style. If you can do that (and why wouldn't you?) this just gets funnier and funnier. One Vince Vaughn is a highlight in any film, but you get double the fun here as a slightly wiser Nick arrives to save their friend Mike from his fate. I laughed a lot as the film morphs into a classic buddy comedy times two, deftly tossing in a gallery of hilarious but dangerous bad guys that reminded me of the first two Beverly Hills Cop films, a rare comedy/action equation. In a real stroke of comic genius, all of the mobsters are aptly named by their biggest character trait. Arturo Castro (Tron:Ares, Road House) always knows the worst thing to say at the worst moment, hence his name Dumbass Tony. He lives up to it for big laughs. Lewis Tan (Mortal Kombat) is Roid Rage Ryan, ripped with muscles and a hair trigger. There are a couple of fun surprises in store around The Barron, a cannibal hitman also on the trail of Mike. I am not familiar with BenDavid Grabinski, the writer/director, but after a bit of an unsure start, he finds definite footing for the last 3/4 of the film, delivering some classic comic set pieces. My favorite was the scene in the convenience store with a very stoned clerk witnessing Mike and Nick trying to kidnap...Nick. The comic and action timing is flawless. Grabinski stages a mega-finale showdown with enough firepower to jaw drop John Woo. It's a thrilling, crazy finale on a massive and well staged scale. Vaughn and Marsden (and Vaughn!) deliver a roaring ending followed by an unexpected conclusion that I really enjoyed. Film buffs will also enjoy some funny references to "Ghost" and "Big Trouble in Little China". Packed with big laughs, twisted turns & surprises & stockpiles of ammunition, MIKE & NICK & NICK & ALICE would have been a big hit on the big screen this weekend. Hulu's dropping it directly to your living room instead. We're still laughing the next morning, which earns it an appreciative B.

"A battleground in shades of gray, played out in deception, seduction, and bad faith..." So wild that it could only be true, OPERATION MINCEMEAT is an intriguing World War 2 drama with suspense and intrigue to spare. An all-star British cast delivers an impossible series of deceptions in one of those beautifully detailed period dramas that the UK seems to have mastered long ago. Rather that a front lines themed story with plenty of big budget war action, this is a tale about all the agents in the shadows, steering history with elaborate plans to deceive the Nazis by diverting their attention. Will the Germans actually fall for a plan that depends on a corpse washing up on the right beach with falsified plans of attack in its pocket? It's the plan that Captain Montagu (a perfectly stalwart Colin Firth) has hatched alongside his right hand officer Charles (Matthew Macfayden of "Succession"). Their boss, the obnoxiously dug in Admiral John Godfrey (Jason Isaacs) thinks their approach is too simple, too stupid to possibly work. He's probably right, but the film has a lot of fun showing the inter-department rivalry and politics that would be at home in any office. Penelope Wilton (After Life, Downton Abbey) is terrific as Hester, running an incredible team to support Montagu with all the falsified details to give their plan believable tenure. Johnny Flynn plays real-life Ian Fleming, the author who created James Bond, who was very much part of the secret service behind the mission. Kelly Macdonald (No Country For Old Men) plays Jean Leslie, a key member of Montagu's staff that he begins to fall for during the long hours behind the mission. Their unspoken romance is one of those staid, English longings that Macdonald and Firth excel at playing. Simon Russell Beale is terrific as Winston Churchill, serving up one liners and swirling cigar smoke in equal, sublime measure. The film is loaded with pleasant surprises and more laughs and fun that you might expect. It's not easy to get a dead body to wash up right where and how you want it, especially when its maybe been in the cooler a bit too long... It's been said that the real-life story behind the film, the creation of a British officer that never existed, inspired Hitchcock and Ernest Lehman's similarly themed "North by Northwest" and fans of that film will appreciate the subtle links within. OPERATION MINCEMEAT is such a fascinating true story that its been adapted into an award winning Musical that's won huge acclaim on the West End and Broadway, still playing to packed audiences here and across the pond in March 2026. After seeing the film, I can't wait to see how it's been turned into a comedic musical! The roots are certainly there. A bit underappreciated upon its release in 2021, this is a mission worth looking up. Enjoyable, fast paced and clever, it's packed with real people in danger around the world on a mission to defeat Hitler and his evil ranks. More "Downton Abbey" than "Where Eagles Dare", it gets a very solid B+. Fleming perhaps served up the best summary of where our tale is focused: There is the war we see, a contest of bombs and bullets, courage, sacrifice, and brute force, as we count the winners, the losers, and the dead. But along side that war, another war is waged. A battleground in shades of gray, played out in deception, seduction, and bad faith. The participants are strange. They are seldom what they seem, and fiction and reality blur. This war is a wilderness of mirrors in which the truth is protected by a bodyguard of lies. This is our war.

One of the most powerful miniseries I've ever experienced, HBO's CHERNOBYL plunges you directly into the greatest man-made disaster in world history. Spread over five episodes, it's gripping from its very first moments, presenting tragedy on an unimaginable scale, hidden by a now extinct Soviet regime that could never admit failure on any scale. There are NO weak episodes among the five, with each highlighting a distinct part of the story. We open with a quiet scene featuring Jared Harris as Russian Nuclear scientist Valery Legasov. His part in the legacy of Chernobyl is key, heroic and stalwart in the face of death from every angle. Harris (Fringe, The Crown) is powerful in every moment and is our throughline over the entire 5+ hours as Legasov. Almost immediately, we are thrust into the events of April 1986 at the Nuclear Power Plant, an explosion so unimaginable that everyone involved refuses to see how serious it is until it's far too late. This first hour is packed with compelling moments that won't let you avert your eyes. Families gather with their children on a bridge in Pripyat, a nearby town in the middle of the night, woken by the explosion. As they look at the amazing light show projected into the clouds, tiny snow like ashes begin to fall, loaded with lethal amounts or radiation. Children sing and dance around in them, catching them on their tongues. Plant Manager Anatoly Dyatlov (Paul Ritter from "Quantum of Solace") is a wrecking crew of bad decisions, forcing a plant test that never should have happened and refusing to acknowledge the true level of the damage. We walk alongside crew members forced to go check on the reactor. They look over the edge into the core itself, fully exposed and blasting lethal radiation into the sky like a volcano of light. The film doesn't shy away from the reality of the event. The near immediate effects of the radiation poisoning turns people's insides to blood, causing massive burns within seconds. The special effects and make up teams are first rate and base everything on the actual events. Compounding the tragedy of an uninformed public and a town just a couple miles away, is Chernobyl's management team, who disregard anyone stating the truth in order to cover their own ass in the tragedy. Jessie Buckley (Hamnet) is excellent as the wife of a local fireman who's one of the first responders. Her husband Vasily (Adam Nagaitis) is brave beyond measure and will pay the price over the story arc. Legasov is appointed to a commission to explore the accident as the reality of it begins to sink in. He reports to Boris Shcherbina, excellently played by Stellan Skarsgard (Dune, Melancholia). Shcherbina is a fascinating man, a loyal comrade of the Soviet military who detests Legasov's theories on what's happening at the plant. The relationship these two real-life men form over the arc of the series is fascinating, moving and powerful. Skarsgard & Harris are an acting duo for the ages. In episode 2, Ulana Khomyuck (Emily Watson), a nuclear scientist in a plant hundreds of miles away begins to detect the radiation leak from Chernobyl and believes that another explosion is imminent. She immediately begins chasing down Legasov as the plant's core continues to spiral out of control. Episode 3 sees Valery developing a plan that may finally bring the core exposure under control, or will it just make it worse? The Tula miners that the Soviet government hires for a dangerous dig under the power plant are led by Andrei Glukhov, played by Alex Ferns (Andor, The Batman) in a scene stealing performance that stays with you. Episode 4 is a fascinating, different tone as we meet the soviet workers and military personnel charged with the cleanup after the nuclear disaster. From burying every bit of farmland and forest beneath ground to wiping out the radioactive animal population in the evacuated countryside, it's brutal work. Barry Keoghan (Crime 101, The Banshees of Inisherin) stars as Pavel, a young enlisted man exposed to things no human should ever see. The two other senior soldiers in his team are the ying & yang of the human experience as the world around them falls apart. The final episode recreates the Soviet trial to hold the plant managers responsible. Every failure must have a scapegoat. By the time this episode arrives, you'll know that a guilty verdict is far from complete justice, with many other factors in play for that tragic April night in 1986. CHERNOBYL is a rarity. It's educational, suspenseful, as amazing as any disaster movie, but wrapped in real human drama and a thriller that keeps you guessing. The level of human tragedy and loss here is staggering and the deaths depicted are slow and horrific. The final scenes detail the facts of history since the accident and how the globe has changed, or not. It's a cautionary tale that kept me glued to my seat for over five hours without a moment to breathe. Winner of 10 Emmys, the miniseries was created by Craig Mazin, based on the first-hand accounts of survivors of the disaster. It's directed by Johan Renck (The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad). Brilliant work by all. I have to mention a few more actors whose performances shined through from a massive and talented cast. Alan Williams (Rome) is terrifying as KGB Chairman Charkov, whose gentle gaze and quiet manner can stop your blood from pumping. Ralph Ineson (The Creator, Fantastic Four: First Steps) stands out as General Tarakanov and David Dencik (No Time To Die) sets the perfect tone as Mikhail Gorbachev, who's presence at the council meetings sets an ominous tone. This is a superb, riveting miniseries that I highly recommend with an A+. CHERNOBYL isn't just incredibly well made, it's important.

They don't make movie stars like Robert Redford anymore. In 1984, four years after his last film "Brubaker", Redford returned to the screen in THE NATURAL . Beautifully shot, leisurely paced and set to Randy Newman's all-time great music score, it's a baseball fable that spans decades. The film opens with young Roy Hobbs (Redford) on his way to Chicago to play with the Cubs. There are glimpses of amazing talent and an anxious departure for the big city. But the story doesn't take the path you expect, with a sudden tragedy derailing Hobbs for almost 20 years. We move forward to the hapless New York Knights. Cellar dwelling, inept and frustrated, they can't believe it when Roy, far too old to be starting his career, walks into the clubhouse. Wilford Brimley (Cocoon) is Pop Fisher, the coach who refuses to play him, thinking its a bad joke. Richard Farnsworth (Havana) is the asst coach who sees something in Hobbs beneath the quiet surface. Darren McGavin plays a glass eyed, powerful bookie, Kim Basinger is Memo, seductive bad luck in a white dress and Robert Prosky (Heat) is The Judge, who thinks that any man can be bought. Director Barry Levinson (Diner) and writer Robert Towne (Chinatown) carefully craft an episodic but legendary mythology. Hobbs is superhuman with the baseball but a complete mystery off the field. Who is Roy and where's he been for 18 years? Glenn Close is Iris Gaines, Roy's girlfriend who saw him off in that train station for Chicago decades ago. When she returns, she's got secrets of her own. The heart of the film is on the baseball diamond and the Knights journey from the depths to a pennant contender is lot of fun. It's loaded with comedy , heart and romance for the game. Hobbs most legendary home runs in the film are now part of movie history, with Newman's music soaring up as lighting and thunder boom and the crack of Roy's bat sends the ball up and into the stadium like a rocket. Clocks and scoreboards shatter, lights explode in showers of sparks that drip down on the celebrating players like fireworks. While the first thirty minutes is shockingly unpredictable, the final thirty delivers exactly what you hope. Redford is terrific from start to finish and his growth from innocent farm hand to a sports legend is sports movie nirvana. There's nothing subtle about the storytelling. Virtuous characters seem bathed in golden light in almost every shot. Bad guys are wrapped in dark rooms and swirls of smoke, but Levinson's hand is sure and he pulls such great performances out of all his actors that you feel like you know them. Brimley and Farnsworth have never been better. The other man present across all those years is Robert Duvall as sports reporter Max Mercy. For decades, he searches for who Hobbs really is as a man. Mercy seems to be the only character who straddles the line between light and dark and Duvall's terrific jumping back and forth over that border. I loved Hobbs bat Wonderboy, hand-carved from a tree struck by lightning. Carrying it like Excalibur, Hobbs steps up to the plate and stares down the pitcher. If the pennant was my Holy Grail, there's no one I'd rather have at bat than Roy Hobbs. THE NATURAL rounds all the bases with an A+ and a lineup spot on deck to my all time top 100 lineup.

Packed with wall-to-wall laughs, action and gore, READY OR NOT 2: HERE I COME is a hilarious & twisted horror sequel that does not demand you've seen the first film, I haven't! But I'm going to make a point of seeing it now. A very game cast, young & established, deliver a bloody entertaining good time. The film picks up right where the first entry ended, with Grace (Samara Weaving from "Babylon" and "Scream VI") emerging victorious from a lethal game that her new in-laws sprung on her on her wedding day. It was a "Most Dangerous Game" style human hunt, with her as the prey. Important to note that her wealthy new family and their guests had all sold their souls to the devil. When Grace defeats them, they each explode in a massive bomb of flesh and blood that's left her wedding dress a very deep red. But this chapter is just getting started. By defeating her new husband and in-laws and surviving until dawn, she's put a universal clause into effect that draws powerful families owned by the red dude from all over the globe. The aging patriarch of one of those families, The Danforths is played by Director David Cronenberg, who sets up his two children, Titus (Shawn Hatosy from "The Pitt") and Ursula (Sarah Michelle Gellar, very funny) to battle in the grand scale, very lethal hide and seek game. The families can only use weapons from the era when their bloodline first sold their souls, which makes for some fun choices. Gellar manages to use a long spike that should conjure up some great memories for Buffy fans. Grace wakes up in the hospital when her estranged sister Faith arrives. Kathryn Newton (Big Little Lies, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) kills it as Faith. She has no idea what she's signed up for, but before long, the two sisters are at a mega mansion, with the countdown about to begin for round two of the hunt. What made me laugh from beginning to end are the diverse families from all over the globe that range from weak to very ambitious. Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings, Sin City) is perfect as the always calm family lawyer that sees over all the proceedings, making sure Beelzebub's rules are followed to the drawn-in-blood letter. Kevin Durand (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, The Strain) steals every scene he's in as Bill, a wild man who screws the rules and decides to take the sisters out early. His comic timing is flawless. Nestor Carbonell (The Dark Knight, Lost) slays as Ignacio, who's sniper skills maybe could have used a bit more honing. His young son Felipe (Juan Pablo Romero) may not be a teenager yet, but he's got Tony Montana level gunplay down to a science. Every family member carves out a niche and serves up everything from big laughs to some seriously lethal hand-to-hand combat. Weaving and Newton throw the entire sordid affair on their backs without straining, serving up just enough family angst in the middle of the scabbards, gunshots, rocket launchers and crossbows. According to the directors, 325 gallons of fake blood was used during filming with 140 gallons being used in the final event alone, serving up a hilarious, Tarantino style finale that left me laughing. What really kicks the fun off in style is having all 14 main characters in the film together on set as the rules are explained to Grace & Faith. Their expressions and interactions are entertaining and kudos to Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett for filming those scenes with a sense of scope that allows you to see them all at once, or in large groups. Lesser talent would have fast cut their way through all the characters and lost much of the hilarious interplay between deadly group dynamics as a whole. If you love horror, dark comedy and gore, this is an enjoyable, fast paced and laugh-out-loud game, winner take all. It gets a very solid B. READY OR NOT 2: HERE I COME is a bloody feast of humor, action and double crosses that will keep you guessing all the way to the grand guignol feast of a finale. Now I need to go find Part One....

A complete cinematic train wreck, THE BRIDE! is an unwatchable, boring, moronic, self-important mess that starts badly and goes downhill from there. It's a good thing Jessie Buckley won an Oscar last weekend for "Hamnet", because she's horrible here, overacting so badly she makes Jack Nicholson in "The Shining" look monstrously reserved. To be fair to Buckley, Director Maggie Gyllenhaal is responsible for this mess. There is "swinging for the fences" and then there's this, an $80 million student film that just wants to vomit it's "so important" take on you until you submit. The film has no style beyond appearing very expensive and trying to be as LOUD as possible, always. What a mess. The film opens with author Mary Shelley (Buckley again, sporting an annoyingly garish, gruff voice that sounds like she's smoked eight packs a day for 100 years) setting up our story. This isn't going to be about ANY MAN, it's going to be about THE BRIDE! MEN are stupid and oppressive and WOMEN are not being heard! That certainly had merit when Shelley broke the rules and boundaries in publishing 'Frankenstein" at the age of 19 in 1816. Gyllenhaal has been vocal that women, from her view, haven't made much advancement in the 210 years since and she's created her impossibly brilliant & important opus to testify to that fact. Unfortunately, she's forgotten to create any characters or people we actually care about to convey her oh-so-very-important take, which she beats us over the head with every five minutes. Shelley immediately possesses the body of Ida, a mobster's girl in 1930's Chicago. In the first sign of just how bad Buckley has over-committed, she leaps to the tabletop, grinding away on mobsters in a fine dining restaurant, slurping oysters and breaking into long winded rants in Shelley's sandpaper voice as patrons look on and mobsters get pissed. Ida gets thrown down some stairs and killed by the mobsters in question. Meanwhile, Frank wonders into Chicago looking like the comic strip hero The Shadow, scarf across his face and hat in place. It's Christian Bale, a surprisingly urbanite version of Frankenstein's monster whose worst attribute seems to be the odor of rotting flesh he carries with him like Axe body spray. He's on a quest to meet Dr. Euphronious, played by Annette Bening (Bugsy, Love Affair). She's a cutting edge doctor exploring "revitalization" in animals, which sounds a lot like his Daddy's experiments to Frank. Before you can crank up the electricity and shout "She's Alive!" the doc and Frank dig up Ida and wake her up, the black ooze that they pumped into her corpse splashing across her face like a lurid tattoo. Frank takes a break just after the procedure to go to a Chicago movie house and watch a film with his favorite song and dance man, Ronnie Reed. Reed sings and dances his black & white way through a series of big numbers that Frank imagines himself in. As the film goes on, Frank will return to Reed's movies again and again (and again...) and we see his visions of he and Ida, oops, I mean The Bride! in these song and dance numbers. It's a bizarre allusion to another massive film flop, 1981's "Pennies from Heaven" starring Steve Martin. There were at least three scenes in that visually stunning film that carry more heart than the entire, exhausting 126 minutes of this turd. Ronnie Reed is played by Jake Gyllenhaal, who I can only imagine owed his sister a huge favor. Consider that debt paid in full, Jake. He's fine in the part and is the only actor who escapes unscathed from this celluloid manure heap. Frank and The Bride! (NEVER forget the exclamation point!!!!!) head off on a Bonnie and Clyde style crime spree from Chicago to New York, killing a bunch of dudes from street thugs to pervy cops. Gyllenhaal (Maggie, not Jake) must have been deeply inspired by Arthur Penn's 1967 classic because in that film, Clyde (Warren Beatty) was impotent, a condition shared by Frank until the murders fire him up. There is a scene on a train with Frank and The Bride! hiding on a train, on the lam. Ida is suddenly possessed again by Shelley and she starts singing "Falling In Love Again" at the top of her lungs. Her singing voice sounds like a blend of Bea Arthur in "Mame" and Al Pacino. I'm not sure what emotion writer/director Gyllenhaal was going for in that sequence, but like the rest of the film, it splats flatly on screen with a dull thud, simply serving as a bridge between one dull scene to the next. The entire film has virtually zero flow. At one point after the murder spree has started, we are introduced to two detectives, Jake Wiles (Peter Sarsgaard) and Myrna Malloy (Penelope Cruz). I thought, ok, maybe these are characters to drive the story. That lasted about two minutes. Poor Sarsgaard and Cruz, two great actors, are stranded playing one note characters that serve one purpose: Look! Wiles is lazy and knows nothing, yet he has the detective badge! Myrna is the woman really doing all the work with all the brains! MAN: BAD, WOMAN: GOOD!!! (this mess NEVER forgets its exclamation points!!!!!!) Just when I thought is couldn't get any worse, it actually manages to stage a song and dance number with Frank, The Bride and Ronnie Reed and the song is....."Young Frankenstein" fans get ready..... "Puttin' On The Ritz". It's staged with so little humor, style or sense of place that it just splats on the screen. At this point, it just became a test of patience to make it through this dreck. I have to give credit to the production design by Karen Murphy, (Elvis, A Star is Born) the entire film LOOKS great. The costumes by Sandy Powell (Gangs of New York, The Departed) are also excellent. Murphy and Powell create a real sense of time and place. Too bad Gyllenhaal populates them with such heavy handed crap. Bale does what he can, acting just as surprised at some of Buckley's antics as we are. Watch for this one to disappear quickly off every actor's highlight reel. There were moments during the film that I thought it most closely resembled 2024's "Joker" Folie a Deux" a film that I actually liked a lot. I was in the decided minority on that one, audiences hated it. I remember walking out of a packed preview as audiences voiced how much they hated the film. The end of THE BRIDE! was far different. The two other people in the theater just walked out in stunned silence, as baffled as I was by the complete waste of time and vision we just suffered through. Save yourself 126 minutes and leave THE BRIDE! at the altar. It's one of the worst films I've ever seen, splatting to the basement with an F.

As we get ready to watch the latest Andy Weir adaption, "Project Hail Mary" this evening, let's take a look back at my review of "The Martian" , the film adaption of Weir's first novel in 2015. When you look at Ridley Scott's three films within the Science Fiction film canon of the past 40 years, "Alien", "Blade Runner" and even (arguably) "Prometheus" stand out as modern film classics. Let's add another one to that group with 2015's THE MARTIAN . Based on first-time novelist Andy Weir's best seller, the film version starts fast and never lets up. As the film opens, botanist Mark Watney is among an international team on the surface of Mars, halfway through their mission on the surface. When a massive storm hits their camp and Watney appears to be killed, the rest of the crew quickly boards their craft for an emergency escape and the start of the very long journey home. As NASA soon discovers, Watney is very much alive. With only about a year's food supply and nearly three years before a rescue mission can save him, Watney must get very creative, very fast or succumb to a lonely, slow death on Mars. Matt Damon plays Watney with plenty of humor and intelligence, talking to the daily video log (and the audience) to share his feelings, his plan & details of his day-to-day existence. The film switches back and forth from Watney's solitary adventure on the red planet to the inner workings of NASA and JPL as they scramble to mount a supply mission and a rescue against all odds. Jeff Daniels is Teddy Sanders, the head of NASA, wrestling with the best way to present the truth to the public and the needs of the many versus the needs of the one (you're welcome Star Trek fans). Chewetel Ejiofor is terrific as the head of the Mars mission, alongside Sean Bean as Henderson, the astronaut trainer for the crew. Among the crew that has unwittingly abandoned Watney is Jessica Chastain as Lewis, the mission commander, a terrific Michael Pena as Rick Martinez, Watney's closest friend on the team and Kate Mara, recovering nicely from the horrible "Fantastic Four" earlier this year. The less you know of the plot the better, as Director Scott builds nice suspense throughout on how Watney will possibly survive, communicate and plan for the years ahead. The production values are beautiful and incredibly real. If this isn't what Mars looks like, it's what it OUGHT to look like. They have nailed the brutal yet stunning terrain and the workmanlike simplicity/scientific complexity of the Mars camp itself down to the finest detail. Like Tom Hanks in "Castaway", Damon carries more than half the film on his own. Alone on screen, he drives plenty of laughs and emotion as Watney. The final 30 minutes of the film are exciting and tense, definitely on-the-edge-of-your-seat time. Ridley Scott continues to make great film after great film, especially in the science fiction genre. He and his production team create an incredible world here that seems all too real, as do the characters that populate it. Schedule a voyage with THE MARTIAN , its a great trip that earns an A.

A feast for the eyes and the ears in Dolby Cinema, PROJECT HAIL MARY aims for the stars and beautifully blows past them by every measure. Adapting Andy Weir's best selling novel, Oscar winning Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have created a science fiction film for the ages. If you're old enough (like me) to have seen "2001" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" on the big screen when they were released, get ready to have that same sense of wonder again in the theater. The last time that Ryan Gosling played an astronaut, he was the emotionally closed off space pioneer Neil Armstrong in 2018's "First Man". Here, his man in space, Ryland Grace is the polar opposite. He's a science teacher who wakes up as the sole survivor of a deep space mission, light years from Earth without a clue as to why he's there. As memories begin to emerge, we experience them alongside him. As we know from the trailers, the sun seems to be dying. Our planet has sent a mission to explore the only apparent sun in the universe that has not been affected. The brilliance of the film's structure in the screenplay by Drew Goddard, who also adapted Weir's previous novel, "The Martian" for the big screen, is that the flashbacks are as exciting and informative as Grace's dilemma on the ship. Luckily for us, the folks back on Earth are also an incredibly well cast lot. Sandra Huller (Anatomy of a Fall, The Zone of Interest) is reliably stunning in her first American film as Eva Stratt, a high level government official who targets Ryland for the worldwide scientific effort to find out what's happening to the stars. Gosling and Huller's interactions are so well written and acted that you hang on every word the entire film. It's a fascinating and unpredictable relationship. Lionel Boyce (The Bear) is great as Carl, a secret service agent assigned to Ryland and Ken Leung (Lost) is terrific as Yao, one of the astronauts on the mission who's not too sure how to take Ryland from their first meeting onward. The film's first half is a mystery informed by it's flashbacks. At about the midway point, Grace arrives at his destination in a very distant universe to observe the unaffected sun. Almost immediately another massive ship arrives and pulls up directly next to him, setting up a laugh out loud sequence in which Riley, definitely NOT a pilot, attempts to maneuver the ship away from the intimidating alien craft. But soon, the alien craft is reaching out to make contact and what follows for the last hour+ of the film is a carefully crafted, beautifully told sci-fi/human adventure that blew me away. It would be easy to say it had elements of "ET", "Contact","2010" and the previously mentioned "Close Encounters". I also saw a bit of "Silent Running", "Denis Villeneuve's "Arrival" and "The Andromeda Strain" within the story. But PROJECT HAIL MARY isn't a ripoff, a remake or a direct homage to any of those films. It's a unique story that inspires the same emotions of visual wonder that those films did in their day. I'm going to intentionally say very little about the astronaut that Grace meets on that other ship, even though the trailers, to me, give away far too much. The trailer that I attached below is my favorite, as it keeps that astronaut pretty hidden. But don't worry, even the longest trailer barely scratches the surface of what happens when two astronauts from different worlds are faced with the same threat to their respective home planets. It's important to note that practical effects, not CGI were used to create the other astronaut. It makes a HUGE difference on screen. Derek Arnold (Rogue One) creates real magic with the character. The visual effects team is top notch, creating spaceships, planets and space scenarios that I've never seen on film. Daniel Pemberton (Spider-Man: Across the Universe, The Materialists) creates a massive score that's at times playful and often awe inspiring in some of the film's most jaw dropping moments. It's as diverse in tone as the film itself, covering every range of emotions perfectly. Above all, the movie is a fun, suspenseful, fast-paced blast of humor, heartfelt drama and WOW moments that amaze. Lord and Miller have created something special here alongside Gosling, creating a single human character that you spend the majority of the film with, one-on-one. Gosling's always been likeable, but he takes that to another universe as a man discovering exactly who he is a very, very long way from home. A summer movie blockbuster that's arrived two months early, this is sure to be a blockbuster. I'm predicting a $100 million opening weekend, even WITH March Madness in play. An irresistible, perfect blend of heart and laughs, PROJECT HAIL MARY executes a perfect landing that I can't wait to see again. Fist my bump, it gets an A+ and sits alongside "Crime 101" as the best film of 2026, so far. Amazon/MGM is on a roll.