To call Robert Redford's ski film DOWNHILL RACER a sports film is almost missing the point. It's actually a very quiet character study laced with excellent sports action scenes. Earlier in 1969, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" became a blockbuster across America. Those flocking to this film later in the year expecting to see the same charming, funny Redford were likely very disappointed. Playing against the charm that he'd already built in films like "Barefoot in the Park", Redford stars as arrogant, self centered skier David Chappellett, just recruited to the USA Ski Team due to an injury to another team member. David starts off on the wrong entitled foot with USA Team Coach Claire (Gene Hackman) who recognizes David's talent, but knows immediately he's going to be a lot to handle. Globe hopping all over Europe during Olympic qualifiers, Director Michael Ritchie (Fletch, The Bad News Bears) immerses you in the world of athletes half way around the world, in new hotels and new cities every week. It's a lonely life that Redford's David fills with Carole (Camilla Sparv) who works for a major ski manufacturer. David isn't a typical sports hero. He's very quiet most of the time, brooding and moody. Ritchie's film is in no hurry to paint David in a better light than he deserves, on or off the slopes. The film lulls you with everyday life, with characters often just existing in silence. Just when the quiet gets overbearing, Ritchie and director of photography Brian Probyn (Badlands) plunge you into a downhill race at full speed from every angle. Most of David's runs are shown from his point of view, thanks to two handheld cameras that must have been revolutionary in 1969. On a big screen, the timed runs have all the thrills of "Grand Prix" or "F1" as you fly down hill at incredible speeds. Redford was an accomplished skier and did most of his own skiing for the film, save the falls, which he left for a stuntman. Behind the scenes, the film took a long time to get off the ground. It was supposed to be the directorial debut of Roman Polanksi, but famed Paramount producer Robert Evans wanted Polanksi to do "Rosemary's Baby", which Redford was attached to in the John Cassavetes role. Redford backed out, Ritchie replaced Polanski and the rest is history. Hackman would joke in later years that he always felt like an extra in the film, which was clearly a Redford star vehicle. Their scenes together are strong, with two great actors going toe-to-toe. It's an early example of the variety of work that Redford would serve up over the next five decades, bouncing back and forth between character driven dramas and pure entertainment with movie star grace. At least twice in the film, especially during the sequence in which Redford's David goes back home to visit his father, I considered how this film feels like a Paul Thomas Anderson film of this era. It's focused on a jealous loner with self centered ambition. Sadly, I think that type of film was more commonly made in the late sixties and early seventies than today. Redford is excellent, fearless in his portrayal of a man who might not actually have much beneath that perfect exterior, beyond blind ambition. In DOWNHILL RACER , that's enough, earning a respectful and nostalgic B.

4 years after the mega-hit and all time classic "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", Director George Roy Hill and its stars Paul Newman and Robert Redford teamed up again and found that same movie magic with THE STING. I'm not sure there have ever been two movie stars more relaxed and effortlessly cool than Newman and Redford. Redford plays small-time con man Hooker, who crosses the wrong gangster by mistake during a street hustle. His long time partner is killed by crime boss, Doyle Lonnegan, well played by Robert Shaw (Jaws, From Russia With Love). Hooker relocates quickly to Chicago, partnering up with big time hustler Henry Gondorff (Newman). They soon form a hilariously complicated puzzle of a hustle to steal a lot of money from Lonnegan. The real fun is watching the pieces of the con game click into place in a smart and fun screenplay by David S. Ward. (Sleepless in Seattle, Major League). Ray Walston is hilarious as a key part of the horse racing set up, Charles Durning (Sharky's Machine, The Fury) is perfect as a crooked Chicago cop with his eyes on landing Hooker. Robert Earl Jones (father of James) is strong as Hooker's first partner Luther, whose death motivates the Sting. It all plays just as fun as it did in 1973 when it won 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Music adaption. Marvin Hamlisch deserved it for taking Scott Joplin's 1930's piano rags and making them part of popular culture again. You could not escape the theme song on the radio in 1973, ragtime music became part of the zeitgeist again! Surprisingly, this was the only film for which Redford was ever nominated for a Best Actor Oscar and it was also Universal Studios first Best Picture win in 42 years! I love the old fashioned titles and the full screen cards that introduce different chapters in the film like "The Set Up". Albert Whitlock's matte paintings are still great, well before CGI made virtually anything possible on screen. Roy Hill, Newman and Redford did amazing work together and they teamed up separately for other classic 70's films like Newman's 'Slap Shot" and Redford's "The Great Waldo Pepper". This became the fourth highest-grossing film in history at the time, behind "The Exorcist" which was released in theaters the same week! The Sting took in $156 million ($723 million adjusted for inflation). With its clever ending that plays brilliantly off the Butch and Sundance closing act and a complicated but understandable plot that never panders to the audience, THE STING is a ton of fun for audiences 50+ years after it's release and gets an A+. Followed 10 years later by a sequel that audiences ignored completely, for good reason. Stick with the Original. It's fantastic.

WOW is PRIMATE a massive surprise. A throwback to 80's visceral gore and terror with the best practical effects in ages, it's an 800lb gorilla of scares, suspense and freak out moments. AND it's well acted by a great cast. Didn't see this one coming. Mesa's own, Troy Kotsur, Best Actor Oscar winner for 2022's "Coda", stars as author Adam, whose luxurious cliff side beach house sees the return of his older daughter Lucy (a terrific Johnny Sequoia) after a long time away from him and his younger daughter Erin (Gia Hunter). The only other occupant of the stunning estate is the family pet chimp, Ben. Throw in a couple other friends Kate (Victoria Wyant), her older surfer brother Nick (Benjamin Cheng) and Hannah (Jess Alexander) and you've got the makings of a relaxing welcome home party. Ben isn't just any family pet. He's incredibly well versed in sign language and communication via a touch pad. His linguistic abilities are courtesy of the girls mom, Adam's recently passed wife, a brilliant scientist. But Ben isn't himself. He's been bit by a rabid mongoose that got into his pen and the disease is advancing rapidly. Writer/Director Johannes Roberts, an avowed Stephen King fan, creates a modern day "Cujo" that grabs you by the throat and never lets go. This isn't a standard stupid horror film where people go back into the house for no reason or go hide in the barn full of chainsaws. These kid's survival instincts are pretty damn great. Which makes you cheer for them all the harder when you start putting yourself in their place. What PRIMATE gets so absolutely right is the terror of fighting a wild animal, driven mad by disease. Ben's power is immense and he LOVES tearing off a face if he can catch his prey, but he might bite a giant hunk of flesh off first to make sure you can't get away. Like Andy Mushietti's "It" films, being the most vulnerable one on screen or a child does not prevent you from carnage, which violently ups the stakes.I spent the entire film wondering how in the HELL they filmed the attack sequences. It was too damn palpable and weighty to be CGI. When entire jaw bones are ripped off, you watch the tendons and skin stretch and snap, in all the right horror ways. It's a callback to 80's slasher horror, but with great actors and far better effects. Adrian Johnston provides a synth driven horror score that creeps you out with John Carpenter like beats and screaming notes to balance that piano that seems to always be lurking in the shadows. Director Roberts serves up real style throughout, mapping out a house, backyard and grotto that you understand in positioning, doubling the suspense as they try to escape from Ben. He also creates a well shot sequence when Adam returns home, immersing the viewer into Adam's world without sound, where chimps can be beating your daughter senseless in the background while you grab a cold slice of pizza in the kitchen. Kotsur delivers in these scenes, his anguish and shock is real. The sound design teams are beyond expectation, punching up the silence with a lot of ripping flesh, breaking bones and assorted splatter. Ben is actually played by a blend of effects, including an actor, Miguel Torres Umba, in effects masks and outfit so seamless that it defies belief. If you think chimps can't be scary, you are very, very misled. It's very early in 2026, but it's going to be hard to surprise me more than PRIMATE did. It's one hell of a horror movie, a clever concept executed at a very high level. When I saw Kotsur on screen, my immediate reaction was, "what the hell is he doing in a January horror flick?". I get it Troy. Good choice. I can't wait to see what Writer/Director Roberts does next. 2026 is off to a great start in the theaters. PRIMATE gets an A.

Five years after the original comet disaster flick, Gerard Butler returns in GREENLAND 2: MIGRATION , a disappointing sequel to the surprising original. The good news is that Gerard Butler and Morena Baccarin are back as John & Allison Garrity, still living underground in the encampment that they strove to find in the original film. But that massive bunker is showing signs of wear and the Earth is starting to push back against the impact of the comet. Fissures and lava emerge, earthquakes begin to roll, serving up plenty of action featuring good (not great) special effects. That's all fine, because the real core of the first film was the family dynamic of the Garrity's. Their son Nathan is now played by Roman Griffin Davis (The Long Walk) as a teenager stifled by the bunker and anxious to discover more. They all get that chance as they begin a quest to relocate to a "Lost Horizon" like site in the comet impact crater, where legends tell of a perfect atmosphere unbothered by the massive electric storms and mayhem around the globe. Is it true or just a myth created by the sparse survivors seeking to return to any kind of normal? The journey becomes episodic, and some chapters along the journey work far better than others. One of the best is a taut sequence in which the trio must cross the most rickety rope bridge since "Indiana Jones and the Tempe of Doom". It's loaded with cool visuals and suspense. A stop along the way to reunite with Allison's mother, who's boarded up "Omega Man" style, taking care of forgotten Alzheimer's patients serves up a great sequence. The best is saved for last, when the Garrity's meet Dennis Laurent (the excellent William Abadie), a French farmer and his family. Decisions there prove pivotal and set up the last, best half hour of the film. This is the third film that Butler and Director Ric Roman Waugh have worked on together and their cinematic shorthand is securely in place. Butler is, without fail, a reliable action hero, but in this and the original Greenland, he offers up a more human, less superhero character that serves him well. For a film that's barely more than 90 minutes long, it does have dull stretches. Maybe after "Silo" and "Fallout" and "Paradise", I'm just a little burned out on the whole "post apocalyptic population in a secluded bunker" genre. At least this entry gives them room to explore beyond their confines, but beyond some pretty great visuals around their arrival on the London rooftops, nothing exceeds the norm. Butler does fine work in that final thirty minutes, serving up an emotional and impactful finale, I just wish the film around him was worthy of his efforts. The original got a surprising B+ back in 2020, alas, the sequel falls to a C, stuck in all too familiar disaster genre territory.

Three years after creating the groundbreaking special effects for Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey", Douglas Trumbull made his directorial debut with the modern science fiction classic, SILENT RUNNING. . All of the forests and plant life on Earth are extinct and the last wilderness exists only in huge domes being carried through space by a small crew. Bruce Dern (Black Sunday, Coming Home) is Lowell Freeman, the only crew member who sees guarding the last forests as a serious mission, versus just another job. The rest of the crew taunts him and his devotion to the cause. The design of the ship is exceptional and some of the interiors were filmed in massive cargo holds of the decommissioned aircraft carrier Valley Forge. I love all the branding on the cargo, with American Airlines taking front and center as the future leader in global travel! When orders come in from the government to jettison all the domes and return home, Freeman is faced with a choice on listening or taking more drastic avenues to save his beloved greenery. Fascinating in its early seventies outlook on the environment and very well executed with great special effects by Trumbull (who would wow us again with "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"'s groundbreaking effects 5 years later) this is a solid sci-fi flick. The model work is exceptional, long before CGI was an option. The largest model of the Valley Forge used was over 26 feet long! Nobody does borderline crazy better than Dern and he is in nearly every shot of the film. Dern specialized in driven, unhinged men in the 70's, with this role following his lethal work against John Wayne in "The Cowboys". Trumbull does really well on a smaller budget and delivers the goods in a very soft, eco-friendly seventies, hippy kind of style. This was one of five films commissioned by Universal in the wake of "Easy Rider", giving emerging film makers a million dollar budget and no oversight to create films for younger (20's) audiences. The songs by Joan Baez are pretty awful, but they're a minor flaw in a decent film. To keep his budget down, Trumbull hired college students to work on his model making. One of them, John Dykstra, went on to become an Academy Award winner for Star Wars & Close Encounters. Michael Cimino (The Deer Hunter) and Stephen Bochco (LA Law/NYPD Blue) share screen writing credit with Deric Washburn (Deer Hunter, Extreme Prejudice). Excellent micro photography shows up in the opening credits too. It's sci-fi with an eco-friendly message and an admittedly slow but stylish journey. Trumbull would go on to make one of my favorite, vastly underrated sci-fi films of all time, 1983's "Brainstorm" with Christopher Walken and Natalie Wood, but he never became a prolific Director, choosing to focus on groundbreaking & Oscar winning work in Special Effects for films like "Blade Runner" and 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture". I have very fond memories of seeing this with my brother in theaters when it was released by Universal as part of a double feature with Robert Wise's "The Andromeda Strain". While nowhere near as good as that film, we'll give Freeman, Huey and Dewey a B-.

Before we can start 2026, it's time for a look back at the Top 10 of 2025. Some years, I'm struggling to pick ten great films for the annual recap, but the past year has provided a bumper crop of thrillers, franchise winners, original drama and solid horror. For every bomb like "Him" or "The Woman in the Yard", there were several winners to offer a bounce back experience at the multiplex. Speaking of which, thank you to AMC and their A-List program which served up 107 films for me this year on the big screen. There were a lot of great or just plain fun films that battled for a spot here. The movies just on the fringe, that were in and out of this list as I finalized it include "Marty Supreme", "Blue Moon", "Warfare", "Materialists", "The Life of Chuck", "Sisu: Road to Revenge" and "Fantastic 4". So here are the Top 10, in reverse order, each with my original review from time of release and an alternate poster to the one you probably saw at the theaters. 10. WICKED: FOR GOOD It's no secret that the final act of Wicked on stage can't compare to the opening act. The great news for fans is that the fleshed out second act on film  is a triumph, offering no let down from last year's first installment. WICKED : FOR GOOD  is a powerhouse finale and sure to be a massive blockbuster this holiday season. Director Jon M. Chu and his returning creative team start the film off with a fast paced pursuit of Elpheba, months after she flew off at the end of the first film. She's a one woman force against the Wizard and his plans for Oz and she's not a big fan of that yellow brick road! Cleverly weaving in far more of the OG Dorothy/Wizard of Oz story than the play, all the pieces of that familiar story flavor the expanded second half. As good as Cynthia Erivo is as Elpheba (and she's terrific), Ariana Grande nearly steals the majority of the movie as Glinda. This chapter provides a much larger character arc for Grande to execute and she does so perfectly, hitting every punch line and tragic note with equal commitment. Glinda has taken on a PR role for the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum, quirky shine at full beam) and relishes her role, making the citizens of Oz happy. But she's torn as her newly betrothed Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) is appointed head of the guard that's assigned to track down the "wicked witch", Elpheba. Every time that Grande and Erivo share the screen, the film lifts of to another level. As many times as we've seen the stage musical, all the plot points here around Elpheba's sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode) and the Tin Man, Cowardly Lion and Scarecrow seem so much more powerful on film. Knowing there were less songs in Act Two, original composer Stephen Schwartz has composed two new, full length songs for the film adaption. Elpheba's mission anthem "No Place Like Home" is good, if a little heavy handed in the visual execution around it. But Grande's "The Girl in the Bubble" is powerful. Chu also manages to shoot the entire song with a clever series of camera tricks that visually stun. All your (and our) favorite songs are here and are brilliantly realized with a massive symphony orchestra and sets that knock your eyes out. Chu stuffs every frame of every scene with a level of production design and detail that startles. "Wonderful" is expanded in all the right ways, bringing a nice comedic flair from Goldblum that's needed, with the darkness that haunts this half of the story. "As Long As Your Mine" is everything you want it to be and then some. Erivo's "No Good Deed" provides the "blow the doors off" Defying Gravity moment to this half of the story and it left our sold out audience jaw dropped. Big applause after that last note soars. The film's conclusion is incredibly satisfying, with Erivo and Grande tearing your heart out with the title song. As for the final couple minutes, Chu and company have taken the ending of the stage version into the stratosphere. What an incredible ending. Ignore the perpetual complainers online complaining that the film is "so much darker than the first half"....yeah, we know that. I've seen comments like, "I dont know why they had to make a sequel..." Um, yeah, they split the stage musical in two halves, this isn't a sequel. Are there things to complain about? Maybe one. I feel like the only miscast role is Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible. She's fine, but I was suddenly thinking of Pierce Brosnan in "Mamma Mia" when she had a couple singing lines here.... It's a minor flat note buried deep in the power of Bailey, Erivo and Grande nailing every moment they are on screen. Ethan Slater is really good here as Boq too, in the much darker portion of his story. If you finish this film and are hungry for more of Chu's vision on film, check out his criminally under seen film adaption of "In The Heights", its excellent. If you're an older viewer like me (what? who's old!?) there's a stunning wedding that serves up the most opulent nuptials since Harris and Redgrave stolled down the aisle in 1967's musical blockbuster, "Camelot". I feel like we all got lucky with this cast, writing team and director. This could have gone wrong in so many ways, but they have all elevated the material for the big screen. Speaking of big screens, we saw an early preview in Dolby Cinema and I highly recommend that experience, as you'll feel every orchestra crescendo and spell as it rumbles the theater. How about that tornado scene!!! Sure to be the most successful screen adaption of a Broadway musical and the biggest global opening for a movie musical of all time, part two delivers on all the promises of the first installment, equaling the original in every way. I predict Oscar nominations aplenty and for as much as I doubted Grande going in, she earned what is sure to be a Best Actress nomination for her trials as Glinda this time out. Enjoy your turkey, have a great time with the family and then go see this film on the biggest screen you can find. But bring your Kleenex, you're going to need 'em. Just like the first chapter, WICKED : FOR GOOD  gets an A+. 9. HIGHEST 2 LOWEST Watching Denzel Washington & Spike Lee's 5th film together unfold is a moviegoing thrill. HIGHEST 2 LOWEST  is a challenging, twisting film that pulls you in unexpected directions. The language that these two talented men collaboratively create absolutely SINGS here, quietly at first and then soaring to a perfect finale. Lee has been exceeding expectations for nearly a decade. His last two films have both been jaw dropping for me. 2017's "BlacKkKlansman" and 2020's "Da 5 Bloods" revealed a re-energized Lee, using his talents to paint in very different genres including crime thrillers and a multi generational look at the Vietnam War and its five decade impact, in the form of an action flick. He's pushing new boundaries here, while deftly examining his own relevance in today's influencer/TikTok driven world of fame (infamy?). Washington stars as Music Industry mogul David King, living a life that most could only dream of. Director of Photography Matthew Libatique (Black Swan, A Star is Born) swoops drone cameras around King's penthouse as the film opens, capturing a view of the Manhattan skyline that stuns as "Oh What A Beautiful Morning!" soars in your ears. It's a loving visual and aural introduction to King's world that drips success, beauty and luxury at the highest level. Washington portrays David as a man still thrilled by a business deal, the excitement palpable as he works on a life-changing new buyout. He connects briefly with his stunning wife, Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera from "Blue Bloods") asking her to pause the check she's about to write to a non-profit artist group. The deal he's working on will wrap up all their finances short term. We watch as King takes his son Trey (Aubrey Joseph) to a basketball camp at the university, where Trey meets up with best friend Kyle (Elijah Wright). Kyle is the son of longtime David confidant and driver Paul Christopher. Jeffrey Wright is fantastic as Paul, a former convict who shares a past with David that has somehow inspired deep, unquestioned loyalty. Paul seems to be one of the few people outside of David's marriage that can tell him their unvarnished opinion without fear. The first half hour of the film glides by at a leisurely pace, gently slipping us into KIng's everyday life at home and at work. I began to wonder if Lee was creating a family drama. Just when I started getting comfortable in that groove, Lee drops a blistering crime thriller onto the screen. Trey is kidnapped and the bag guys want $17 million dollars in Swiss Francs, which thanks to this film, I now know weigh a hell of a lot less than greenbacks. The New York City police department and detectives descend on King's penthouse. Broadway veteran LaChanze is excellent as Detective Bell as is John Douglas Thompson (21 Bridges) as her counterpart, Detective Bridges. Rounding out the squad is Dean Winters (Rescue Me and "Mayhem" in those insurance commercials) as Detective Higgins, who has the most interesting story arc of the three. (Insurance commercial references provide some big laughs!) When another twist turns the kidnapping on its head, Lee ratchets up the pace, turning Denzel into a reluctant action hero delivering the ransom money. The entire sequence is a Lee classic, stealing the multiple phone calls and directions that the Zodiac Killer sent Dirty Harry on in the original Eastwood film, into a celebration of the vastly different boroughs and cultures across Manhattan. Like Ryan Coogler's brilliant sequence in "Sinners" in which music from across centuries all meld together in a seductive saloon siren song to the vampires, Lee weaves the long foot, car and motorcycle chase through the subway and neighborhoods of New York City that he has, for so long, celebrated. But the true tension in Lee's crime thriller isn't from the well shot and exciting chases. It's in watching Washington as King, wrestling with his legacy at work and at home. With finances suddenly pulled in multiple directions, what is the right choice? What will people think? It's fascinating watching KIng struggle with the immediacy of social media. His empire was built in an older, slower world. He appreciated loyalty, but it's tested. King realizes that empire was built in a very  different time. Is he still relevant? Does anything he's done in the past really matter to the latest generation? You can feel Spike Lee asking many of those same questions in the film, about his own work. From my viewpoint, this film completes three films that serve as some of the strongest work of Lee's career. Watching Denzel and Spike play and riff in their 5th Joint is perfection. A$AP Rocky is excellent as young rapper Yung Felon. He exists in a world a few miles from King's penthouse but so far away it could be on another planet. Watching those worlds collide is unpredictable, suspenseful and as thrilling as any film Lee's ever created. Pairing up Washington and Wright (American Fiction, The Batman) creates fireworks of relentless dialogue, real, passionate and life changing for both of them. Watching two of our best American actors under Lee's direction is a masterclass. Just nominate them both for this film and get it over with. Superb. The last thirty minutes is a tension filled character study with explosive violence and quiet, one-on-one scenes with Washington delivering many words at once as only he can, serving up an explosive statement on life and the choices we all make. David King learns a lot about himself in these 24 hours. It's a cinematic thrill to be along for the ride. HIGHEST 2 LOWEST  ends with a pitch perfect final scene that could fit just as easily in a musical as it does here. Since David King's world is the music business, it's an easy fit. Lee hits every note on the way to an A+, creating an operatic thriller/character study that Washington throws on his Armani suited back and carries off into a stunning NYC skyline. 8. JAY KELLY "All my memories are movies...." A dramatic and funny showcase that feels authentic from its first frame to its superb  final minutes, JAY KELLY  emerges as one of my favorite films of the year. Every moment of this carefully crafted character study avoids cliches, revealing the life of a very famous movie star and those that surround him. George Clooney has never been better than he is here as aging action MOVIE star Jay Kelly. Kelly has everything that a long career in Hollywood can bring. His European home is stunning, his travel by Range Rover fleet or private jet is world class. Kelly is surrounded by a constant group of support staff, led by his agent of many years, Ron Sukenick, played to perfection by a great Adam Sandler. For any of you out there that haven't caught on to the fact that Sandler is one of our best American dramatic actors, here's more celluloid proof that should win him some acting awards this season. Ron is at Jay's beck and call, 24/7/365. He's committed to Jay and cares about him like family. Some of his other staff, might not be quite so loyal, or the gig is starting to wear thin. Laura Dern (Jurassic Park, Blue Velvet) is hilarious as Liz, whose been at Jay's side as long as Ron, but has a keener eye on the reciprocal nature of his loyalty. Candy (Emily Mortimer) seems to be anxious to move on to a new gig as well. Jay's life as a movie star leaves him little time for family, a fact that hits him squarely in the face as his youngest daughter gets ready to head off to college with her friends after a last summer fling across Paris and Italy. Billy Crudup is excellent as Timothy, a friend from Jay's past who resurfaces and fires up the first moment of Jay's self realization about the years behind him. We've all seen films about very successful people who come to a turning point in their lives. We've certainly seen behind-the-scenes tales of famous movie stars and the glamorous life that they lead. The challenge of those films is to feel sorry for the person who has everything when they have a moment of self realization about their priorities. But that's what is so different, so emotionally resonant in JAY KELLY. Director/Writer Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story) finds the perfect actors in Clooney and Sandler to become Jay and Ron. Both are at a turning point in their lives, approaching or crossing sixty years old. It's a time when you face your mortality for the first time and question the choices you've made. What happens in the film is as spontaneous and unpredictable as Jay's sudden whims to break his routine. I had no idea where it was going but I loved every single minute of the journey. Jay's relationship with his oldest daughter Jessica (a terrific Riley Keough) and father (Stacy Keach) become major plot points in the final half of the film, as Jay heads to accept a lifetime film achievement award and invites his family. I made assumptions about where the film was going, but didn't credit Baumbach with enough originality. His storytelling and reveals pack an emotional punch that surprised me, especially with Jay and Ron. The film is packed with stars, some in small but pivotal roles. I'm not going to mention them all here, so you can be surprised as well, but look for the always great Jim Broadbent as a mentor of Jay's and Greta Gerwig as Ron's long suffering wife. The scenes with her and the kids are all hilariously believable. If someone asks me what me favorite film ending is of all-time, I always lean quickly to Warren Beatty and Julie Christie at the end of "Heaven Can Wait". Now, I'll hesitate and think about the final minutes of JAY KELLY, a brilliant, heart pulling line of dialogue that speaks to all of us, especially those of us in the same stage of life as Jay. This is intelligent, funny and moving film work of the highest order. I need to watch a lot more Baumbach, because it's hard to believe this isn't his masterpiece. JAY KELLY  gets an A+. Clooney and Sandler deserve every accolade that's about to come their way. 7. ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER Paul Thomas Anderson has been one of my favorite filmmakers since his divisive 1999 masterpiece, "Magnolia". I always approach his films with great anticipation for what he'll serve up. I was a little apprehensive entering ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER , knowing he had adapted it from Thomas Pynchon's novel "Vineland". The last time he adapted a Pynchon novel, it resulted in 2014's "Inherent Vice", a complete mess and my least favorite PTA effort. I had nothing to worry about. BATTLE is a frantic, action-packed dark comedy of epic proportions. It's adult, unflinching and twisted in the absolute best ways. I didn't expect Anderson to conjure up sequences that felt like richly 1970's William Friedkin, or the best of Quentin Tarantino and DePalma, but he does, brilliantly. That's not to say this is my favorite PTA film. "There Will Be Blood" still remains firmly at the top, but this is a challenging, fascinating film. Like QT's "Inglorious Basterds", ONE BATTLE runs just shy of three hours, but NEVER feels like it. Anderson keeps a barrage of characters coming at you in such a frenzied, hilarious pace that you can only hang on and enjoy the ride. The film opens with a ragtag, safe to say, self-important revolutionary group, the French 75, in the final stages of planning to release a large group of illegal aliens held at the border. This sequence takes place around 2009, so it doesn't inherently carry all the baggage of the current global immigration debate. This is fine, as PTA never seems wholly interested in blatantly shoving one viewpoint versus another down your throat. He's focused on introducing us to some very extreme, crazy people on both side of the debate, peeling back layer after layer of their everyday lives. (Like the best dark satire of our times, it will likely make you examine both sides and your position within that universe. There's plenty to interpret and discuss, to be sure. If you think that PTA is glorifying one side more than the other, take a step back and really look at these characters on BOTH sides.....) These lives create the biggest action sequences of Anderson's filmography. That opening sequence and a later bank robbery are pure Friedkin, moving at a violent pace as Jonny Greenwood's music score screams around you or sits just beneath the action, clicking the thrills like a voyeur metronome sitting just out of sight. Greenwood ( There Will Be Blood, The Phantom Thread) perches comfortably as PTA's composer muse, creating unique and unsettling notes for anything Anderson can envision. Michael Bauman (The Brutalist, Licorice Pizza) shot the film in VistaVision/IMAX and its gritty as hell in the urban scenes, while painting every California landscape in its own, unique light. Leonardo DiCaprio is hilariously stoned and off-kilter as Bob, providing the literal fireworks for the detention center breakout. His partner in the gang is powerhouse Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor), who owns every room she's in, relishing the terror of anyone she sets her sights on. The descendant of a long line of revolutionaries, she is 110% committed to the cause, while Bob just seems to be having fun blowing some shit up. During the operation, Perfidia runs into Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw, embodied by Sean Penn in his best screen performance in years. Their encounter takes a very unpredictable turn, raw, frank and pivoting on the power dynamic between the lifelong rigid(?) military man and the anti-establishment firebrand. Bob and Perfidia's relationship hits a wall when they have their first child together, creating a turning point for both of them as their personal priorities shift. After some clever and hilarious key plot points that I wont divulge here, the film flashes forward 16 years. Their daughter Willa, now played by Chase Infiniti in a career launching performance, is a normal teenager living with her Dad, under the impression that her Mom died many years before. Watching Infiniti in her scenes with DiCaprio and Penn is impressive. She goes toe to toe and rises above. I'd be shocked if she and Penn don't both get Oscar nominations for best supporting actress/actor. Benecio Del Toro has never been funnier than he is here as Sensei Sergio St. Carlos, Bob's friend and fellow revolutionary who runs the karate school in town. I'm not saying any more about him because I laughed my ass off at every line, every quirky movement and choice that Del Toro makes. He steals every scene he's in. If it feels like I'm describing the entire film, I've barely touched on the plot points. Like a modern day Robert Altman, creating a contemporary "Nashville" about family, revolution and power, Anderson deftly weaves many threads together into one brilliant narrative. When Bob's distant past suddenly invades the present, the film is off and roaring again as a conspiracy/escape thriller that never lets up. These characters come off the page thanks to Anderson's superb writing and an amazing, flawless cast. I laughed loud and hard at the long scene in which Bob tries to call into revolutionary headquarters but can't remember his passwords. DiCaprio's comic timing and unending supply of profanity are off the charts. "Green Acres, Beverly Hillbillies, Hooterville Junction!" LOL I was blown away by a long sequence at the end dubbed "River of Hills" by the music score. Dialogue-free, beautiful staged by Anderson & Bauman and set to Greenwood's tribute track to Don Ellis's propulsive "French Connection" score, it's a tense dual of cars across the many hills of a desert. For me, its the best use of rear view mirrors on film since Spielberg's "Duel". It's stunning and explosive when the camera pulls back from those tight shots to widescreen mayhem. In the "Like Tom Fkn Cruise" scene, tell me I'm crazy, but isn't that the Wicked Witch of the West's theme music from "The Wizard of Oz" weaving in and out of the track? Come on, Greenwood is just playing with us in the smartest ways possible at this point. Another sequence felt like Brian DePalma's 'Scarface" was suddenly invading the film in both the look and score. These is chameleon-like, original filmmaking at its best. Who knew Paul Thomas Anderson had an action film brewing in him? Laugh out loud funny, violent, shocking and envelope pushing, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER  is my third favorite PTA film behind "There Will Be Blood" and "Magnolia" and that's bloody great company. An A+ by any measure. 6. WEAPONS I knew walking in that WEAPONS  had a brilliant story hook. What I didn't expect was its smart, "Pulp Fiction"-like story structure, so many killer performances and how tight director Zach Cregger would wind the screws. The hook is one of the best in years. At 2:17am one morning, 17 of the 18 young students in Mrs. Gandy's class run from their homes and disappear. Cregger sets up the first ten minutes with a Dateline type feel, but instead of Keith Morrison's booming voice, a young child speaks to us about what happened. It's haunting and clever, pulling you into what feels like a traditional mystery. We see a parent's meeting at the school in which devastated mothers & fathers hurl threats at Justine Gandy (Julia Garner), accusing her of knowing what happened to their children. Justine is shattered and spends her days obsessed with the welfare of the one little boy who did show up for her class the next morning, Alex. Is he okay? Cregger's screenplay begins to reveal pieces of Justine, slowly, methodically. She's harassed, intimidated and flawed. When all the parents of the missing children have no explanation, the most logical suspect is Justine. What did she tell those kids? We're then pulled into her nightmares, which got some great jumps and laughter from the nearly sold out IMAX preview crowd. What's fascinating about Cregger's style is that he delivers a LOT of laughs of the darkest nature, sometimes at the scariest moments of the film. But every time you think he's going for fun kills, he shocks you with some intense, grisly gore that pulls you back into terror. It's all brilliantly structured, not a word I use often in the horror genre beyond the usual suspects where Kubrick, Peele or Carpenter are involved. As Justine's story unfolds, the film moves solidly out of horror and back to mystery. Then we jump to another character, Archer Graff, played by Josh Brolin in one of his best performances in years. Archer's son is one of the children who ran off into the night. Like many of the parents, he can watch that run over and over on his ring camera footage. Arms spread out like he's about to take off, Matthew Graff flies out the front door, across the street and into the dark woods. Archer is falling apart, singularly obsessed with finding his son. We begin to see some of the same scenes we've already seen in Justine's story, but this time from Archer's viewpoint, both literally and psychologically. Then Cregger pops to another character and reveals their story, overlapping yet another view. Then he jumps to another character, then another. In lesser hands, this would quickly become annoying and tedious. Not here. I actually grew more excited for each jump, knowing that I'd learn more about just what in the hell is going on in this town. As frequent readers know, I'm a huge Tarantino fan and it's no small compliment to say that I feel like Cregger has captured the essence of the QT chapters in the way he tells his story, punctured by big laughs and huge scares. There were two scenes that I wanted to look anywhere but the screen as the camera slinked slowly into dark rooms. Both payoffs scared the hell out of me, along with one of those classic dream within a dream sequences that John Landis created way back in "An American Werewolf in London". The cast is great across the board, Brolin dominates every scene he's in, Garner creates a multi-faceted, troubled young woman who seems lived in, real. Alden Ehrenreich (Solo) continues to morph into one of our best character actors. This guy is almost recognizable every time I see him in a new film. His struggling cop becomes one of the funniest through-lines of the story. Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange) is terrific as the Principal of the school whose children are missing. His scenes with Garner as Justine argues why she wants to stay in her classroom are superb. Amy Madigan is unrecognizable in her role as the distant relative who's long overstayed her welcome. Two very important pieces that help define WEAPONS are its music and photography. I swear that Cinematographer Larkin Seiple (Everything Everywhere All At Once) knows what scares me. Every camera angle, every dark corner and daylight angle delivers the creeps. It's beautifully shot, morphing from a horror film to a detective story to personal drama flawlessly. The music score by Ryan and Hays Holladay and Cregger is really surprising. When the music over the opening scene morphed into what felt like a 70's ballad set up, I was thinking, "what the hell is this", but a couple minutes later, it settled in as another intriguing choice by Cregger, the sum of which have created one of the best films of the year. I see those folks online complaining that the ending is a disappointment. I disagree. Superb and ORIGINAL horror concepts are always hard to land. "Hereditary" is one of my favorite scary films of all time, but the last five minutes sucks. Not here. Cregger delivers one of the most manic, wild, bloodthirsty and propulsive finales in recent memory. It feels like he's wound the rubber band up as tight as it will go without breaking and then lets it all go in a violent, funny and thrilling finale that left our crowd looking for breath. WEAPONS  is a fully loaded, funny, gory thrill ride with brains and surprises in every chamber. It gets an A+. 5. FRANKENSTEIN A sweeping, epic fantasy that only the brilliant Guillermo Del Toro could create, FRANKENSTEIN  is a big, sprawling, beautiful cinematic experience that I can't wait to watch again. It's been a lifelong quest to bring Mary Shelley's classic to the screen for Del Toro, and that passion shows. Each frame is a carefully crafted, stunning visual experience. From an ice bound ship (yes, that was built for real, not CGI) to the most stunning Dr. Frankenstein lab ever seen, this one knocked me out for every bit of its never slow, two and a half hour running time. Del Toro structures the film like an intricate fantasy/horror puzzle, popping back and forth in time as our main characters tell their story. We meet Victor Frankenstein (the reliably great Oscar Isaac) as he flees from a massive, growling creature across a barren ice landscape, where he's brought aboard that massive, icebound ship by Captain Anderson (Lars Mikkelsen). Victor tells his story, starting with his childhood, in scenes that capture a youth of wealth and strict discipline at the hands of his father Leopold (the regal and perfectly cast Charles Dance from "Game of Thrones"). Leopold is a famous surgeon when the science was just emerging. I'll share no more, except to say that this entire sequence captures the beauty of the age like no film since Kubrick's stately 1975 film "Barry Lyndon". The lush countrysides, the falling snow, the color contrasts in the funeral scene....I kept popping back to watch them again. Visually stunning and sure to earn Director of Photography Dan Lausten (The Color Purple, John Wick 4) and Oscar nomination. Victor is much closer to his Mother (Mia Goth) who offers him kindness and comfort in the face of his Father's demands. Goth's costumes in these scenes are incredible. Del Toro weaves together his costumes, set design and photography in a way that's wholly recognizable as his film. That style has never been better utilized. The film moves forward to the bits of the Frankenstein story that we remember from James Whale's original classic film and every iteration since, but they are re-imagined here into something much more epic in scale. Victor begins his experiments to bring the dead back to life. He's shunned by the medical community but gathers intense interest from Harlander, a wealthy man with unlimited funds who finds a kindred spirit in Victor. Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained) is perfectly cast, bringing just the right tinge of eccentricity alongside the pathos. Harlander's niece Elizabeth (Mia Goth-again!) is betrothed to Victor's younger brother William, played by Felix Kammerer (All Quiet on the Western Front) as a young man on the right side of wealth, ambition and life, challenged by the much darker drive of his older brother. Del Toro delivers one visual wonder after another as Harlander and William construct Victor's laboratory in an abandoned, cliffside castle. Then he delves directly into the graphic gathering of all the strong, dead bodies that are graphically carved into a wholly new, massive Creature. There are few more famous scenes in cinema than the 1931 original film with lightning bolts and tesla coils sparking in black and white while Colin Clive screams, "It's Alive!!!!". Rather than recreate it, Del Toro's creates something much bigger, more dangerous and incredible to watch. Along with the ship, the laboratory and catacombs beneath it were also full size, practical sets built for the film. That matters. Jacob Elordi is excellent as The Creature, blending menacing stature with childlike innocence perfectly. Just when I thought the role wasn't going to offer Elordi more than a few grunts and a single word, Del Toro turns the film on its head and structures the ability for the Creature to share his tale. And what a tale it is. It was such a pleasure for me to discover, I'm not going to ruin a bit of it for you by detailing the Creature's story. Elordi endured 10 hours a day in the makeup chair, often doing 20 hour days on the production, prompting Del Toro to call him "superhuman". David Bradley (After Life) also delivers in an important role as the blind man with a much bigger part in the story than Gene Hackman had in "Young Frankenstein". As Victor and The Creature's two tales begin to blend, there are grand scale events of destruction. Some of property, some of the heart. There's a fascinating relationship as Elizabeth discovers the creature shackled beneath the laboratory. A mental child ready to be molded. Goth and Elordi are great in these scenes that maybe only Del Toro could mold so delicately. Look, he managed to emotionally connect a woman and a fish creature in his brilliant "The Shape of Water", my favorite film of 2017, so perhaps creating a bond between an innocent semi-human creature and an intelligent young woman or another era comes naturally, but this level of film making doesn't. Del Toro says so much here, especially when you consider that the newly born Creature, like every newborn, is a blank imprint for the world to instill the values and attitudes of the people in its life. Consider Victor and Elizabeth and the impact they have on shaping the Creature. You could talk about those scenes for hours, and I imagine many will. I loved observing how the creature went from stooping over at birth to standing boldly and confidently by film's end, in direct opposition to Victor's own bearing. It's one of a thousand tiny details that permeate every layer of another Del Toro masterpiece. The heart of the film is about love, forgiveness and the legacy we all inherit, wrapped in one of the biggest, most beautiful gothic horror films I've ever seen. Alexandre Desplat bathes the entire film in a symphonic score that perfectly complements the emotions of the film, just as he did with "The Shape of Water". Like that film, FRANKENSTEIN  may just be my favorite film of the year. Del Toro's done it again, as ONLY he can. A stunning A+. 4. AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH James Cameron just delivered a jaw dropping Christmas gift with AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH , an IMAX 3D thrill ride that is,for me, the BEST  of the series. The ever grumpy naysayers are murmuring, "It's too long", "its repetitive" "it's boring". NOPE, NOPE and HELL NO. For the entire middle of the film, it feels more like Mel Gibson's killer adventure "Apocalypto" than Avatar, and the final hour..... buckle up. For me, it's Cameron's best film since "Aliens", with strong echoes of that film and "The Abyss" that will make any Cameron fan smile throughout. As a matter of fact, I think by the end of this one, I felt like I need to go back and watch "The Abyss" again, as there is a pleasing duality with this stunner. Cameron starts this third film off with just a taste of what's to come, soaring through the skies of Pandora. What sets this epic chapter apart is the sense of family that covers every spectacular frame. Behind the action scenes, which are of an impossible scale and some of Cameron's all-time best, there are deeply felt themes of loss and grief. Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and their children are all reeling with grief after Neteyam's death. While Jake entrenches himself in preparing for war with the sure-to-return forces led by Colonel Quaritch (the perfectly evil Stephen Lang, getting better with each chapter), Neytiri retreats into hate over the loss of her son. When the decision is made, due to both emotions and survival, to return Spider (Jack Champion) back to his kind (as harsh as it sounds for all the right reasons), the family joins a band of floating traders, led by Peylak (David Thewlis, a welcome addition). This begins a massive journey that kicks this edition off in style, introducing new creatures, and fascinating airborne ships. It's not long before they face off against a terrifying new Na'vi tribe, the Ash People, who are led by the beautiful & lethal Varang. Oona Chaplin, grandaughter of Charlie, is a powerhouse villain for the franchise. When she meets Quaritch, the combination of their hate for Jake torches the saga to new heights. Think about some of the greatest action films of our lifetime. The classic face offs in "Terminator 2", the bridge chase sequence with Jamie Lee and Arnold in "True Lies", ANY part of "Aliens". Cameron's been behind them all. He's been building his available technology toward this moment. With FIRE AND ASH , he's able to commit to screen some of the largest scale action sequences in history and they are STUNNING. You have to see this film in IMAX 3D. The visuals are thrilling. Every fantasy/sci-fi film buff of a certain age remembers the first time they saw the huge space battles in "Return of the Jedi" with warring ships flying by in every direction, echoing WW2 dogfights. Well here we are decades later in years and generations later in special effects. There are long sequences here that take those memories you have and blow them up into something bigger,better and breathess. The motion capture technology that Cameron and his team have perfected is so nuanced that you never feel cheated out of any actor's performance. The visuals also are now so strong that every moment is shown with brilliant clarity on the IMAX screen. There are no muddled, dark corners here. This is modern moviemaking at its zenith. The returning cast is terrific, including Edie Falco as General Ardmore, who's having a hell of a time corraling Quaritch this time out. Falco is a rock, as is Jemaine Clement as a scientist who's unwilling to sacrifice the indigenous Nav'vi for a profit. Britain Dalton is excellent as Lo'ak, throwing an entire subplot about a wise whale counsel on his back and running with it. It's a coming of age story mashed up with the best moments of "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" that could have been silly, but lands powerfully during that massive finale. Cameron's been building for two films toward his EPIC conclusion here and it's thrilling. And exhausting, in all the right ways. As Cameron pops back and forth between several suspenseful showdowns, he cleverly weaves them together into a powerhouse visual feast that left my sold out IMAX 3D house cheering and applauding when the final credits rolled. Cameron has said that he's created the second and third films, "Way of Water" and "Fire and Ash" as films that could conclude a trilogy perfectly, if the box office fell off. Based on the crowd I saw it with, the opening day box office on a run that will roll for weeks over the Christmas and New Years holidays, I'm ready for the fourth and fifth films that Cameron, now 71, has promised if audiences want it. Count me in, James. I never count him out, but I didn't expect him to deliver the best of the series and one of my favorite films of the year underneath my Christmas tree. AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH  gets a wide-eyed, jaw-dropped, appreciative A+. Find an IMAX 3D showing near you and get ready for the ride of the year. 3. MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: THE FINAL RECKONING Tom Cruise and company have saved the best for last, delivering an epic, funny and dramatic finale that might be the best IMAX showcase of all time. MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: THE FINAL RECKONING  is everything you want in a summer movie x10. From the opening Paramount and Skydance logos, set to a thrilling new music score by Max Aruj & Alfie Godfrey, to its perfect fade out, this is action movie bliss. Cruise is a mad man. I feel like after that motorcycle jump off the mountain in the last chapter, he said, okay, what can I do as Ethan Hunt to make that look pedestrian? Asked and answered. Buckle up. NO SPOILERS here for the many surprises within. At nearly three hours, the film is loaded with them, along with deft, fast immersions into past films. The film opens with Cruise in hiding several months after the events of the last chapter. The Entity has taken a grip over all things on the global internet. The world's governments are on shaky ground, with the Entity now feeding idle minds and people glued to their phones with the ultimate deep fakes. It all feels a bit to realistic and timely. Esai Morales is back and terrific as Gabriel, the human partner of the Entity. He's the perfect blend of suave megalomaniac and warped visionary. In true Mission Impossible form, the loyalties and true motivations of many characters are mysterious and half the fun to figure out. US President Erika Sloane, played by the always formidable Angela Bassett (What's Love Got to Do With It) is begging Ethan to come in and help her as the world teeters on the brink. Her surrounding cabinet, including the superb Nick Offerman as General Sidney and Holt McCallany returning in fine form as Serling, make even those meetings at long conference tables feel like suspenseful cliff hangers. Hunt's team is as funny and clever as ever, with Simon Pegg's Benji leading the way. Pegg has been great in all the films, but he's at his best here, running the team as Ethan globe hops to save the world. Hayley Atwell's Grace was a fantastic add in the last chapter and she's even better here, fleshing out her world class thief into a full blooded character. Ving Rhames, here since the very first chapter nearly three decades ago, brings Luther fill circle, adding a lot of heart to the action. I'm not going to discuss the plot in depth as I don't want to spoil anything. Cruise and his director muse Christopher McQuarrie have an incredible movie making bond. They are the Scorsese/DiCaprio of action films. You can't put your finger on the unspoken alchemy of the best Actor/Director bonds in film history, but its not an overstatement to put Cruise/McQuarrie in that pantheon. I didn't think I needed another underwater sequence involving a submarine. I was wrong. The submerged action sequence as Hunt returns to The Sevastopol from the last chapter is stunning. In that twenty minutes, I sat jaw dropped, thinking about everything from James Cameron's film "The Abyss" and the 1968 classic "Ice Station Zebra" to Stanley Kubrick's film making techniques in "2001". Visually, this one is a stunner. The scale of it is epic. But McQuarrie and Cruise save the best for last, an airborne conclusion that left the packed IMAX audience stunned. It's the first time in my movie watching life that I said something out loud 5+ times watching one scene. No one could hear me as the plane's engines roared and the perfect music score pounded in IMAX glory, but they were all commenting out loud too. Many variants of "Holy Sh*t!" and "WTF!" moved through the crowd in waves. This is thrilling movie making at the highest level. Cruise is truly a movie star, but name another actor that has been this committed for decades to entertaining us and topping what he delivers to his audience. He's one of a kind. I fully expect many Oscar nominations early next year for this final entry. I'd be thrilled to see Cruise get a nomination for Best Picture as the film's producer. McQuarrie deserves one for Best Director. Bassett could easily be nominated for Best Supporting Actress, alongside Best Special Effects, Best Editing, Best Sound and Best Score. About the music. Aruj & Godfrey have somehow managed to top Lorne Balfe's terrific scores for "Fallout" and "Dead Reckoning: Part One", no easy feat. Lalo Schifrin's original theme for the TV Series is legendary, providing a core piece of music history that composers as diverse as Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer and Michael Giacchino have spun riffs on for the films series, all successfully. Aruj & Godfrey deliver the goods on the action cues, but also provide eerie, atmospheric backgrounds to the sub sequence (do you hear those momentary echoes of James Horner's notes from "The Abyss"?) and plenty of humor and emotion throughout. There's no better feeling than getting goosebumps in a theater, when a movie takes you there. The main credits gave me that moment, the airborne battle gave me another. I can't wait to see this again on Monday. MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: THE FINAL RECKONING  is a summer movie beast of thrills, laughs and chills. What's a better grade than an A+? Cruise and Company have delivered a modern action blockbuster and a sendoff for the ages. Run like Cruise to your nearest, biggest screen and settle in for one hell of a ride. 2. F1: THE MOVIE WOW. Absolutely blown away by F1: THE MOVIE , an old fashioned, perfect summer blockbuster that looks and sounds incredible in IMAX. Jerry Bruckheimer has created the same magic he did so many summers ago with the opening music and visuals of "Top Gun" and "Days of Thunder". This time, he drops you into the world of F1 and behind the wheel of the fastest cars in the world. Filmed at the real F1 events around the globe, the film oozes class, drips money and thrills. When I say that we were on the edge of our seats for all the races, I mean that literally. Director Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick) delivers a flawless experience that exceeded my very high expectations. Brad Pitt is a movie star, effortlessly charming, real and funny as driver Sonny Hayes. Talented, haunted by his past and lurking at the corners of Nascar and other race formats, he was at the top of his game in F1 when tragedy struck. Former race team partner and great friend Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem, reaching his career peak in cool) approaches Sonny to join his last place F1 team. He's got a talented but very young emerging star in Joshua Pierce (Damson Idris) but needs a lead driver or he may lose his F1 team. Idris is a breakout star here and the perfect, funny and dramatic foil for Pitt's Sonny. Cervantes has the only woman head engineer in the sport and luckily for us, Kate McKenna is played by Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin) in a great, unpredictable performance. Condon is a standout, as is Sarah Niles (Ted Lasso) as Pierce's mother, Bernadette. This is old fashioned movie making, elevated by modern technology and a $200 million budget that fills every inch of the IMAX screen. Tiny cameras were inserted in the cars, allowing us to see Pitt and Idris driving the cars on the actual tracks and all the action going on around them. Drone cameras swoop through the action from dizzying heights above the tracks to a couple inches off the ground between the cars. In IMAX, its one of the most stunning visual experiences I've had in a very long time. I was already loving the movie and then we hit a pivotal early scene, with Sonny arriving to test drive the team's car design around the track. As Pitt straps in, Chris Stapleton's song "Bad As I Used To Be" pounds out of the IMAX system and Sonny speeds around the track trying to hit a lap time. It's one of the best, perfectly set up, pure entertainment big screen moments since Kosinski's "Top Gun" Maverick" blew us away in theaters. Kosinski, Bruckheimer and Pitt are just getting started. The characters are funny, good and evil. Competitive passions run high, creating some awesome high drama moments. Pitt is back in Cliff Booth mode here, oozing the same "cool" as he did as the stuntman in "Once Upon A Time in Hollywood". He is fantastic from opening scene to final credits. We walked out asking, who of the current young male movie stars are primed to take the place of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise as action film leads? We couldn't come up with anyone. There's a quality that Pitt has here that shares widescreen movie star DNA with Steve McQueen. This is his biggest payday as an actor, $30 million for the role. He's worth every penny. This is one of Pitt's best films and continues to establish Kosinski as the go-to creator of mass appeal, traditional summer blockbusters. There's a huge difference here. It's one thing to come in and create a massive hit sequel to a known property like Top Gun. What's even more impressive here is his creation of an entirely new story in the world of F1 racing. He has said they had 5000 hours of racing footage they shot, which he and his team have edited into this stunning experience. I've never watched an F1 race. I've been close to one, checking into The Wynn Las Vegas the morning after the race, but the film MAKES me want to watch F1. Stunning. Speaking of The Wynn, its beautifully featured here in a sequence around the Las Vegas F1 race. The city looks fantastic, as does this stunning resort. It's the best ad for The Wynn I've ever seen. Kudos to their PR team. A rare, absolutely perfect blend of thrilling action and human drama, F1 is the movie of the summer. Find an IMAX screen near you and buckle up, like the sold out, cheering crowd we saw it with, I was blown away. An A+ from this pit crew for the best racing movie ever made. Based on all the folks we saw it with sporting F1 gear from their favorite team, this is going to be a massive hit and deservedly so. And, finally at number one, my favorite film of the year by a wide stretch is..... SINNERS Ryan Coogler's SINNERS  is a rarity. An original , adult drama that morphs into perfect & relentless vampire horror. The last half is packed with Avengers-style thrills, but this is no kids movie. Sex, violence, gore and music pour out of every frame of Coogler's creation. I don't remember a non-musical in which music played such a huge role. It's sexy, seductive, fun and terrifying. With both his writing & direction, Coogler has conjured up a mystical blend of Walter Hill's 1986 film "Crossroads" and Stephen King's "Salem's Lot" that works on every level. NO SPOILERS  here. This film demands to be seen with unknowing eyes. Michael B. Jordan stars in a dual role as twin brothers Smoke and Stack, returning to their tiny home town in 1930's Mississippi. They're flush with cash from their recent years in Chicago, wearing the finest clothes and driving a flashy car. As they arrive, it's clear that the citizens either love them or fear them, but the respect for them is universal. The first hour of the film pulls you deep into the Jim Crow era south, unflinching in its portrayal of the everyday, casual racism of the era. The Smoke/Stack Brothers have come back to town to open a juke joint for their community. They're committed to opening their joint the same day that they buy on old saw mill, spreading the word to the town. The citizens are packed with memorable and wholly original characters that Coogler crafts with humor and care. Newcomer Miles Caton stars as Preacher Boy Sammie Moore, the son of the local pastor whose gifted with a rare musical talent. His guitar rarely leaves his side. When he sings and plays, it touches spirits of every kind. He's also the young cousin of Smoke & Stack. They're bringing him to perform opening night, much to the consternation of his father. Delroy Lindo (Malcolm X, Get Shorty) is perfect as Delta Slim, a local piano playing blues legend chasing his next drink. Lindo is fantastic throughout, it's one of his best performances in a career loaded with superb work. I hope he gets remembered for Best Supporting Actor come Oscar season. Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit, Hawkeye) is very good as Mary, a local woman whose past with one of the brothers echoes throughout. Steinfeld is excellent, delivering a many layered performance that will keep you guessing. Jayme Lawson (The Batman) blows the doors off the joint as Pearline. When she takes the stage and belts out "Pale, Pale Moon", she serves up a crescendo that builds and builds to a stomping, frenzied explosion of energy that rocked the IMAX theater and last night's crowd. Omar Benson Miller is terrific as Cornbread, the joint's doorman and Li Jun Li (Babylon)is powerful as Grace Chow, who owns the town's store and also serves up a hell of a drink at the joint. I could go on and on about this cast and the townspeople they play, but you need to meet them yourself. Discovery is a huge part of the journey here. When evil comes a calling via Remmick, a vampire with glowing red eyes and a voracious thirst for blood, his terror envelopes all the characters that Coogler has so carefully crafted for more than half the film. Coogler treats the vampire threat like Spielberg did the Great White in "Jaws" you barely see it until the halfway point of the film and then fasten your seatbelt, here we go. Jack O'Connell (Unbroken) plays Remmick like a seductive Irish neighbor with a very dark side. Composer Ludwig Goransson's score is a brilliant action score haunted with the blues and bloody harmonica licks that sink deep. It's ever present, pulling you gently into the muddy swamps. When the terror kicks in, it doesn't stop. Coogler created both "Black Panther" films for Marvel and he's an expert at crafting fast and large scale action that knocks you out. Freed from the need to keep it PG-13, the bullets and blood fly and the fangs sink deep. Several of the huge action scenes leave you on the edge of your seat and surprise you with their fast pivots and unexpected deaths. Michael B. Jordan is fantastic. He's starred in every film that Coogler's made to date. From their debut together with "Fruitvale Station" in 2013, through "Creed" and both "Black Panther" films, Jordan & Coogler have forged a powerful creative bond. Jordan is terrific in both roles and I can't even begin to understand the CGI wizardry that allows them to interact like they do here, onscreen together for most of the film. With SINNERS, Coogler has managed to create a true original. I've never seen anything quite like it. It's portrayal of the 1930's South cuts deep. You feel the pain of these characters long before any vampires descend. Coogler is at his best visually, especially during some of the musical performances at the joint, as the influence of these original blues artists conjure up the musical genres that they will create throughout decades in the future. His nods to the past are just as powerful. He's created an entire world in the film that's just as powerful as the world he created for Wakanda, but the consequences here are more deeply rooted in sex, blood, lust and power. SINNERS  is the best film of 2025 so far, whipsawing you through drama and horror to an A+. See it on the biggest screen you can find, it was born  to be seen in IMAX. Stay tuned for a long and powerful mid-credits sequence and past all the credits for a softer but perfect coda. What a great year it was. On to 2026 we go. See you at the movies!

It took me about 48 hours to realize just how much I liked MARTY SUPREME . Josh Safdie's film pummels you with 150 minutes of fascinating/sordid characters, relentless tension and a music score that shouldn't work. Walking out of the theater, I wasn't sure that the whole thing did. I knew that Timothee Chalamet absolutely knocked it out of the park, creating yet another character in a cavalcade of diverse performances that seems almost impossible at his age. Like Daniel Day Lewis in one of my all time faves, "There Will Be Blood", Chalamet crafts a despicable human being that you can't take your eyes of for one moment. His Marty Mauser is a dream salesman. This kid could sell fire in Hell. As the film opens, he's working in a shoe store where the manager just wants to promote him. Marty's got bigger dreams. He wants to compete in the global Table Tennis (ping pong) Championships, a dream that no one around him understands. Marty is a ruthless young man and NOTHING is going to get in the way of his dreams. While you have to admire his passion and the sheer force of his will, he leaves a wake of emotional and physical destruction in his wake. Safdie is a master at creating an oppressive atmosphere on film. Wherever Marty goes (and he covers the globe) his surroundings always seem too small for his personality. That alternates between hilarity and wince inducing events that threaten everything in his world. What a ride. Safdie has put together an amazing cast and team behind the camera. Gwyneth Paltrow gives her best performance in years as Kay Stone, a fading film star who spins into Marty's orbit and finds it hard to escape. Kay's blockbuster film days are well behind her, but she's getting ready to open a Broadway play as her comeback. The play is financed by her husband, mega wealthy businessman Milton Rockwell, played in a shockingly great performance by Shark Tank's real life business expert Kevin O'Leary. He's fantastic as a man who always gets what he wants, until he meets Marty. In his acting debut, O'Leary is believable in every moment of an important role, going toe-to-toe with Chalamet and Paltrow and holding his own brilliantly. Odessa A'zion is also a stunner as Rachel, Marty's girlfriend at home, newly pregnant, devoted to Marty and strapped into a ride that always seems to shock her. But she never backs down. She's a powerhouse and every time I expected her to buckle as the world spins away, she stands taller. I had only seen A'zion in her very funny role as Stephanie, a young prom spectre on CBS' "Ghosts". She's excellent in this dramatic role. Safdie creates the Lower East Side of NYC in 1952 down to the curtains. He fills every room with characters that pop. Angry, loud, rude, loving, strange, they cover a very dark spectrum. The music score by Daniel Lopatin is another character in the film. Ten minutes in I hated it. It feels like a soundtrack from an early 80's action flick dropped into a 1950's film. But it works. Beautifully. Casting director Jennifer Venditti (Uncut Gems) deserves credit for the craziest and best casting of the year. How she found O'Leary is a story in itself, but she's compiled acting veterans, newcomers, playwright David Mamet, rapper Tyler the Creator and at least three basketball players into one of the most eclectic, rewarding casts of 2025. I barely recognized Penn Jillette as a farmer who gets dragged into the third act, double barrel shotgun blazing. Unexpected. At the blazing core of all the madness is Chalamet's Marty Mauser. What a douche this guy is, defiling monuments and lives wherever he goes. So how did I find myself in the finale cheering so hard for his success? Great writing and superb acting, clearly. Chalamet practiced table tennis for years for the role, and it shows, but he's also transformed his persona, his "being" from the powerful Paul Atreides in "Dune", Bob Dylan or the quirky Willy Wonka into a skinny, barely past acne, brute force of will on display here. MARTY SUPREME is a two and half hour, blazing panic attack with pauses in the action that stun. If you would have asked me when I walked out of the theater if I liked it, my response would have been, "I don't know yet, maybe." 48 hours later, I couldn't stop thinking about how brilliant the structure, acting and writing are. It's just outside my favorite films of 2025, an original experience that continues to create a legacy for Chalamet as one of our most versatile actors. It gets an A.

The new series IT: WELCOME TO DERRY is everything that the disappointing "Alien: Earth" wasn't: scary, thrilling and one hell of a franchise expansion. THIS is how you create 8 great episodes that expand the Stephen King universe while honoring its legacy. Noah Hawley's "Alien" FX series spent most of its time focused on a bunch of Peter Pan mythos and androids, reducing the xenomorph to a domesticated house pet. Not here. Pennywise is one lethal, gory, brutal sonofabitch. Just the way we like him. Fans of the two blockbuster films will be thrilled to know that Director Andy Muschietti is back as show runner, building a superb story arc that takes place in 1962. The entity known as Pennywise is back to start another killing spree after resting for 27 years and he finds plenty of tasty food in Derry. Missing kids pile up fast as the first episode details a lethal, gory killing spree in a local theater that kicks off our story line. Theater employee Hank Grogan (Stephen Rider) isn't there when the murders happen, as the surviving children of the attack, his daughter Ronnie (Amanda Christine) and Lilly Bainbridge (Clara Stack) will attest. But being African American in 1962 near a killing where the population wants answers is a very bad place to be and Pennywise feeds off hatred. A lethal mix. As the local police chief and city council ratchet up pressure for an arrest, the story moves to a local, sprawling army base, where Officer Leroy Hanlon (a superb Jovan Adepo from "Overlord") arrives for a top secret mission. His commanding officer, General Shaw (James Remar from "The Cotton Club" in a great role) has a very special task for Hanlon, who seems unable to feel any type of fear due to a recent head injury. That trait is going to come in VERY handy in Derry. Hanlon meets fellow soldier Dick Halloran (the excellent Chris Chalk) a key member of the mission who seems to have what you might call a "shining", the ability to see deep into people's minds. King fans already know where I'm going. It's a thrilling conduit to the world of King and a brilliant storytelling device. Ronnie and Lilly bond with several other young kids to face off against the terrors that seem especially focused on Derry. Blake Cameron James is terrific as Hanlon's son, Will and Arian S. Cartaya is hilarious as Rich, the smallest and funniest of the group, whose knowledge of the occult may just come in handy. As a kid, if you've ever had nightmares about riding your bikes through a cemetary, that nightmare is about to get a whole lot worse. Taylour Paige is also a standout in the massive cast as Charlotte, Hanlon's wife who finds far more of the backward South in the scariest town in Maine than she expects. Muchietti crafts a sprawling narrative in which Pennywise's thirst grows with each kill, the children begin to form a bond to face off against the evil they can't identify and all the dark conflict of the early sixties era provides a feeding ground for the hate and fear that Pennywise feeds on. The eight episodes give the story room to breathe, for characters young and old to emerge and evolve. Popping back and forth between the military base and the local high school offers up plenty of chills in both locations. King's original hook was brilliant. Muschietti's film version over two exceptional film adaptions of the monster King novel was flawless. There is no let down here. Like Spielberg did with the shark in Jaws, you don't see much of Pennywise for much of the series, but when he arrives, it's in his full glory. Bill Skarsgard returns in the role and just doesn't rehash it. The tale expands to include the origins of Pennywise and how that traveling circus clown became the eater of worlds. No one on the planet could deliver the voice, the pitch, the curling sneer, the voracious thirst for souls that Skarsgard delivers. He's fantastic. Also returning from the films is composer Benjamin Wallfisch (Twisters, Blade Runner 2049) who serves up a score that pulls you into the town and then scares the hell out of you time after time. It's haunting, seductive and terrifying, a beautiful and immense score. King fans will find Easter Eggs aplenty as well as some surprising cameos and appearances in the final episode that made me grin bigger than that damn clown. The final scenes offer up some of the best story links to the IT films since that thrilling end of "Rogue One" led right into the start of the original "Star Wars". Character names and background characters dish out a lot of great references to the future. This is the first season of the series, which Muschetti has said will total three seasons, each in a different time period around the 27 year cycle for the reappearance of Pennywise. Packed with bloody suspense, creative storytelling and a narrative that kept me glued from first frame to last, Muschietti has served up one hell of a first season. The Deadlights have never looked so terrifying. IT: WELCOME TO DERRY gets an A+.

Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson are showstoppers in the moving, new based-on-an impossibly-true-story SONG SONG BLUE . As the story unfolded, I kept turning to my wife and whispering, can this actually be true??? Researching it post viewing, the surprising answer is, for the most part, YES! Hugh Jackman plays Mike, Vietnam vet and long time rocker with a great reputation around Wisconsin after decades of playing bars. Celebrating 20 years of sobriety in a blue collar life, his music comes first. He's currently taking gigs impersonating other rockers in a road show booked by longtime friend and Buddy Holly impersonator Mark, well played by Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos). When he's asked to sing "Tiny Bubbles" as Don Ho, Mike backs out, but the night is saved when he meets Patsy Cline impersonator Claire (Kate Hudson) who knocks him out with her rendition of "Walkin' After Midnight" and her playful sense of humor. Soon, the two are meeting for a coffee and the idea is born for Mike to impersonate Neil Diamond, who Mike practically worships from afar. Jackman is so good as Mike that you ignore the fact that his style of singing is Broadway show tune vibrato and Diamond was the ultimate solo folk/soft rock troubadour. Soon, Claire and Mike form a Diamond tribute act called Thunder & Lightning that takes the state by storm. Families merge, and they are a fascinating group that only true life could have formed. They're all superbly cast too. Big screen newcomer Ella Anderson is perfection as Claire's daughter Rachel. She keeps a close eye on her young brother Dana (newcomer Hudson Hensley). The two have formed a tight bond with their single mom. Rachel doesn't know quite what to think when she meets Mike's daughter, Angelina (the excellent King Princess from "Nine Perfect Strangers"). Angelina is independent, transparent and speaks her mind. The family dynamics in the middle of the drama are what elevates the film far beyond a typical tale. Writer/Director Craig Brewer (Hustle and Flow) introduces you to each of these characters and makes you invest in them before life unleashes all the craziness it can muster. The film doesn't shy away from its portrayals of addiction, recovery, loss and grief, unleashing a powerful third act. Hudson and Jackman put on a hell of a show as Thunder & Lightning and we get to see their performances in entire songs, not quick edits and montages. When Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam calls and asks them to open for Pearl Jam (YES, that really happened) we witness a clever recreation with John Beckwith nailing it as Vedder. Mustafa Shakir is also a standout as Sex Machine, their James Brown impersonating stage host and loyal friend. Jim Belushi gives his funniest and most heartfelt performance in years as Tom D'Amato, the soft-hearted concert booker who takes their act to the next level. I've always been a Neil Diamond fan and his music serves up plenty of perfect accompaniment to the story, from "Forever in Blue Jeans" and "Play Me" and the hilarious importance of "Soolaimon" to Mike, to a Hudson rendition of "I've Been This Way Before" that will not leave a dry eye in the house. What a sweet movie. Endearing, funny, deeply rooted in heartfelt emotions and the love of friends and family, it's a warm way to start a New Year. This time of year, we always seek to invest in our passions, to refocus on our ultimate goals. There is no better example of a man 100% devoted to his goals than Mike. Jackman invests him with an inspiring soul and reckless, unleashed musical talent and a sense of wonder, it inspires. I can't resist. Is SONG SUNG BLUE good? Sing it with me..... SO GOOD! SO GOOD! SO GOOD! It gets a soft, sappy, old fashioned A.

Looking for a dumb, silly 90-minute comedy, a quick hit of laughs? Let the meta-goofball ANACONDA put its squeeze on you. Paul Rudd and Jack Black are two of my favorite big screen comedy actors and they put on a superb show of goofball antics as two lifelong friends who've always wanted to make a movie together. Black plays Doug McCallister, a frustrated film maker stuck in an everyday job as a wedding photographer. His storyboarding of a nuptials video as a slasher flick are pretty funny, if underappreciated by the couple. When childhood best friend and bit part actor Ron Griffin Jr (Rudd) returns home for Doug's birthday, he carries hometown hero status, even though his biggest role to date was a four episode arc on "SWAT". Two other best friends from childhood complete their fearsome foursome. Thandiwe Newton shows off her comic skills as Claire, recently divorced and ready for adventure, and Steve Zahn (You've Got Mail, That Thing You Do) is hilarious as Kenny, their cinematographer with a bit of an addiction issue. Reliable he isn't, generating big laughs. When Ron announces that he's got the rights to remake "Anaconda" to the group, they soon drop everything to shoot a cheap ass sequel in the jungles of Amazon. Watching these suburban jokers land in a third world country, hire a giant snake handler and head out on the most unpredictable boat down the river since Martin Sheen's Captain Willard headed out to find Brando's Kurtz is a hell of a set up. The comedy is a lot more meta and funnier than I expected. Their adventure gets a lot bigger when they run into a Lara Croft type bad ass named Ana (Daniela Melchior) who's guns deep in an illegal gold mining operation. Snake handler Santiago (Selton Mello) is a laugh out loud blend of yogi, outdoor adventurer and pet lover. Of course his pets are rather large and deadly. I had no idea where this was headed and loved where it went for laughs, flipping itself on its head and bending over backwards. Jack Black is one funny dude. His line delivery, facial expressions and physical comedy timing comes to life in the jungle. He nails the creative spirit and overconfidence of a movie maker who knows his big break is right around the corner. Pairing Black with Paul Rudd is inspired. Rudd fills Ron Griffin with so much bravado, self importance and enough bad acting instincts for a crowd of extras. I imagine a lot of their dialogue was improvised, as it's so fast, furious and off the wall that it's hard to imagine it was ever on a page. Steve Zahn steals the entire movie for me, delivering huge laugh after laugh. His Kenny is so innocent, so stupid and so high for most of the movie that he becomes its comic core. It's a master class in understated and quiet asides. Zahn's fantastic. There are some very funny cameos, nailed by the actors that I won't reveal here. The special effects are better than expected, and the photography by Nigel Bluck (True Detective) is first rate, capturing all the right parts of Queensland, Australia to surely make you think that you're deep in the Amazon. I saw this as the second half of a double feature day, after the intense and breathless "Marty Supreme", the light dessert after that feast, if you will. It turns out that ANACONDA was the perfect comic fluff and hilarious bite, slithering and exploding its way to a surprising B.

Underappreciated, hilarious and a spectacular example of the 1960's American musical, PAINT YOUR WAGON is a gold rush of classic stars and old fashioned spectacle. And those songs! Lerner and Loewe have always been a personal favorite, since my parents introduced us to the film version of "Camelot" on the big screen at a very young age. This 1969 film adaption of their 1951 Broadway musical is wholly different from the stage version, with five new songs and a greatly expanded story line. As the only "M" rated studio musical of the era, it also takes a broad swing at some more adult issues, tame by today's standards, but bold for the day. It was adapted for the screen by Paddy Chayefsky, known for "Network" and "The Hospital", both blistering with satire and cutting observations, making him a fascinating choice for the material. Lee Marvin (The Dirty Dozen, Prime Cut) shows massive movie star power, taking on a singing role and proving that he's a far better actor than a singer. Marvin is hilarious in a role that feels like a spiritual cousin to his performance in "Cat Ballou" a few years earlier. Famously, Marvin only drank real liquor during the filming, so anytime you see him drinking from a bottle of booze, that's real liquor. Director Josh Logan (Camelot) addressed many on-set stories of he and Marvin getting into fist fights with a letter that said, "Lee Marvin is a very close friend of mine and we will stay friends for many years to come. It is true that we have had a few mild discussions, never any violent ones. Lee Marvin is a great Southern gentleman. Therefore, when he is sober, it is absolutely impossible for him to have done such a thing, and when he is drunk, which he is once in a while I must admit, he is really drunk. He staggers and careens in such a way that he wouldn't have the aim." Marvin plays Ben Rumson, a haggard, drunken Michigan prospector who, by chance, discovers gold alongside a very unlikely partner, dubbed Pardner by Rumson and perfectly played by Clint Eastwood. This was Eastwood's follow up to "Where Eagles Dare". Talk about range! He's great, showing off perfect comic timing as the straight man to Marvin's Ben. Pardner doesn't drink, smoke or gamble when we first meet him. The two's gold find sparks a massive California gold rush, which Logan and his production team stage in a full blown, actually built l(ong before CGI) town in the middle of the forest. It's a mind blowing set, perfectly designed by John Truscott (The Spy Who Loved Me, Camelot) and photographed by William A Fraker (Bullitt, Close Encounters of the Third Kind). There are many scenes with Fraker's camera sweeping up into the air to photograph a massive line of covered wagons or the entire town nestled in the wilderness that make you step back and wonder at the sheer size of the production. They don't make them like this anymore! Ben and Pardner soon meet Elizabeth (Jean Seberg) when she is auctioned off by her visiting Mormon husband as if she's part of a mining claim. Of course, a very drunken Ben wins the bidding in one of the funniest scenes in the film. Marvin is laugh out loud for the entire sequence, playing the comedy broadly and to perfection as a newly awake Ben is trying to wrap his mind around an actual woman being in No Name City. The story line from there unspools in as many different directions as a 2 hour and 45 minute running time allows. The film meanders but never bores. Highlights abound, including Harve Presnell, the only true singer in the cast as Rotten Luck Willie, belting out "They Call the Wind Mariah" to perfection during a long rainy spell. I had the chance to play golf with and hang out for a weekend with Harve at a Corporate event in 1999. He was a gentleman, funny and gracious with stories about the films he was in, including "Saving Private Ryan" the year before. I asked him about the stories of Lee Marvin and he shared some legendary anecdotes, all portraying Marvin as a first class actor, who liked to have a very good time. When Ben decides to hijack a wagon train full of French prostitutes and deliver them to No Name City, one of Lerner and Lowe's best uproarious songs takes off, "There's a Coach Comin' In". It may be in the same vein as "The Wells Fargo Wagon" from "The Music Man", but the parcels in question are decidedly different. Eastwood and Marvin both provide their own singing voices, Eastwood is especially good in the leisurely "I Talk to the Trees". Marvin actually had a #1 single in the UK in 1970 with his song "Wandering Star". While Marvin talks through some of it and then softly sings the rest, the song is a stunner, especially when that massive chorus comes in to support him. Both of the actors are far superior to the other non-singing actors who were cast in movie adaptions of the same era. Rex Harrison was horrible muttering his way through 1967's "Doctor Dolitttle" and the less said about the great Peter O'Toole and his 1972 bomb, "Man of La Mancha", the better. Jean Seberg is dubbed for her songs, but veteran Ray Walston belts out several tunes like the "South Pacific" veteran he is as Rumson's buddy, Mad Jack Duncan. PAINT YOUR WAGON was truly the end of an era. It was the seventh biggest film of the year, but films like "Easy Rider" and "Midnight Cowboy" dominated the changing tastes of audiences. The number one film of the year was also a western, but a very different, antihero take on the genre, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". WAGON remains a sealed time capsule of another time, when huge budget studio musicals with major stars would play for over a year in theaters, complete with Overtures and Intermissions, an event. I miss those days. You can still get a taste of them by sitting down with the biggest screen you have and letting the down home humor and huge orchestrations of Lerner & Loewe's songs lull you down a nostalgic road. Funny and soaring with plenty of heart, this one gets a nostalgic B.

Seeing this was trending as the most watched film on Netflix on the lazy day after Christmas, I thought "Great! an old fashioned disaster flick", there's no better cinematic comfort food. THE GREAT FLOOD is kind of a disaster, but not in a good way. Drowning in ideas, and dragged waaaay under by one of the most annoying child characters in history, it's more sink than swim. We meet An Na and her young son in an opening scene so grating that I immediately wanted the kid to drown. Since the flood hadn't even hit yet, that's a bad sign. Water begins leaking into her apartment, which if I was on the 20th floor of a building, would be a major sign of concern. But she's got that annoying kid spouting horrible dialogue and whining, so maybe a gargantuan tidal wave is less of a concern. Soon, Hee Jo, a secret service type dude in a neon blue jacket screams the opposite of clandestine arrives to try and help her and her son escape. For the first 30 minutes or so, we're not told what generated this flood, we just see An, her son and hundreds of others trying to get up the stairs to the top of the building. Minor behaviors seem unnatural, some characters seem flat and everything isn't quite what it seems. If you don't want to know why, just skip to the later in the review below where it says END SPOILER ALERT. Go ahead...I'll wait. Okay, for those that have seen it, did you buy The Matrix angle more than I did? The upside of realizing that the entire disaster is an AI designed test to instill humanity and continue the human race is that it opens up the story for many iterations and repeats, "Edge of Tomorrow" style. The difference in that 2014 Tom Cruise/Emily Blunt sci-fi thriller is that you cared about the characters and the challenge was ever evolving and suspenseful. THE GREAT FLOOD simply dives you back into the deep end with the most annoying kid since Cousin Oliver on "The Brady Bunch" and Hee Jo, who serves up some decent action, but no real soul. Kim Da-Mi is the best thing in the film and her portrayal of An Na is an island of reality in the middle of the mess. I liked some of the DePalma/ John Wick 4 style camera work as the camera pulls up above the action and you can see the AI settings and the undefined, shimmering "Matrix" style territory beyond them. But how do you build suspense when your ultimate objective is so undefined? END SPOILER ALERT Are there upsides? The special effects are pretty good, especially as giant wave after wave approaches the skyscrapers and 70 story stairwells fill with water. The space set action looks terrific as well, with crisp visuals. Interestingly, the best characters are some of the throwaway citizens of that massive apartment building. A young couple about to see their first child born in a hallway as flood waters rise toward their floor. An older man care taking for his invalid wife, giving her one more spoon full of food as a 200ft wave approaches outside their living room window. Those are people I connected with. If the film had been about An Na trying to save them, I would have been all in. But no, we have to save this kid who pretends to swim on the floor as water seeps into their high rise home, and can't stand in one place for 30 seconds, constantly putting himself in peril. So dumb. So annoying. THE GREAT FLOOD is indeed all wet, earning a soggy C-, saved from a lower grade by decent special effects and an interesting, if poorly executed concept.