July 4th weekend is the perfect time to revisit the classic biography of George M. Cohan YANKEE DOODLE DANDY. Released 81 years ago, the film has lost none of its star spangled patriotism. Chosen for the American Film Institute's Top 100 films of all time, and Top 25 Musicals of all time, this timeless classic still inspires. James Cagney was known for his tough guy gangster roles like "Angels with Dirty Faces" and "White Heat". He breaks through those expectations with his Academy Award winning Best Actor performance as showman/composer Cohan. Often imitated but never duplicated in the decades since, Cagney commits to the complicated dancing scenes with such fever that he creates a stiff-legged style all his own. The film's creators came together one year after the attack on Pearl Harbor to create the ultimate American war-time film, rousing the country and troops to their mission. And what a list of creators it is. Director Michael Curtiz helmed "Casablanca" the same year! The screenplay is by Julius J. Epstein (Casablanca), Robert Buckner (Knute Rockne All-American) and Edmund Joseph. The story opens with an aging Cohan called to the White House for an important meeting, where he begins telling his life story to President Roosevelt. The film flashes back to his youth and tells of his start with his family act The Four Cohans. His father is played by the legendary Walter Huston (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre) in a winning and hilarious performance and Rosemary DeCamp is equally good as Cohan's mother. His sister Josie is played by Cagney's real-life sister Jeanne Cagney. As the foursome travels the country with a variety show of drama, song and dance, George's star begins to emerge and he pairs up with another playwright Sam Harris (Richard Whorf) for their first big hit on Broadway. The film spans many decades, loaded with all the classic songs that Cohan composed through the years. Highlights are "Give My Regards to Broadway", "Mary's a Grand Old Name" and "Over There" which became America's war anthem in World War II. "Off the Records" is a favorite as well. I'm very moved by heartfelt patriotism and if you can keep a dry eye during the full scale stage performance of "You're A Grand Old Flag & War Medley" by Cagney and his full cast, you're made of steel. Singing songs and recreating moments throughout American history on stage, the medley hits you in the gut. The conclusion sees the entire cast and some very clever staging (featuring long treadmills for marching) as seemingly endless American flags march from the capitol. It's STIRRING and when you consider the staging was done 80+ years ago, it's jaw dropping. At the heart of the story, Cagney delivers a passionate, joyous performance as George M. Cohan, smiling, full of conviction and love for America. He's unapologetic and winning. Was Cagney a great singer? No. Was he a classically trained dancer? Not by any stretch, but he does both with such absolute commitment that he creates one of the best singing & dancing performances in film history. Featured in almost every scene, Cagney raises the film proudly onto his shoulders and marches it right into film history. Like "White Christmas" every holiday season, YANKEE DOODLE DANDY is a must watch every July 4th weekend. "My Mother thanks you. My Father thanks you. My Sister thanks you. And I thank you." No thank YOU, Mr. Cagney. YANKEE DOODLE DANDY gets an old-fashioned, star spangled A.

Sitting in a theatre a couple months ago watching the ponderous, boring "Batman v Superman" or "Clark v Bruce" or whatever it was called (honestly I don't care enough to even try to remember) I remember looking at my watch and remembering how much fun the superhero movies used to be. If you are looking for all the storytelling, characters with relationships, laughs and most of all, the FUN that was sucked out of that film, look no further than the terrific CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR. Civil War finds the Marvel universe pondering the same global issues that BVS did for DC and "Spectre" did for James Bond, wondering where the balance is between oversight and invasion of privacy and attempting to discover the point at which the collateral damage of saving the world from the bad guys outweighs the goal. After the massive amount of deaths in the final act of last year's "Avengers:Age of Ultron" and the civilian casualties in the opening scenes of Civil War, over 100 countries around the globe pull together to enforce new rules for how and when the Avengers can engage their powerful might. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr, terrific as always) supports the rules, suddenly faced to weigh the personal tragedies behind the kick ass superhero v alien invaders. Captain America (Chris Evans in fine form) sees it differently, not wanting the rest of the world and all their individual agendas to get in the way of what their team sees as right and wrong. As our two leads entrench on their sides of the argument, the rest of the Avengers line up for battle. Falcon (Anthony Mackie), War Machine (Don Cheadle), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Vision (Paul Bettany), Scarlett Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) all pick a side, while Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson...uh, wow) finds herself torn between her friends. Three great new adds bring plenty of drama and laughs to the screen by joining our team. Chadwick Boseman (42, Get On Up) brings excellent screen presence and acting to his role of Prince T'Challa/Black Panther. From his first appearance as a superhero in a superb car/foot chase in pursuit of the Winter Soldier and Captain America, Black Panther rocks. Finally, and I mean FINALLY, we have a Spiderman worth rooting for as well. Young Tom Holland brings Peter Parker/Spidey back to his high school roots. The writers brilliantly get through the Spiderman backstory in about 90 seconds and launch him full speed into the film, with a pretty awesome costume upgrade courtesy of Stark Industries. The first two Spiderman films with Tobey Maguire were terrific, with Spiderman 2 my fave superhero film for many years, but that was back in 2004. Everything Spidey since (with the exception of Marc Webb's first Amazing Spiderman film) has been a full on trainwreck or a simple disappointment, so it's a genuine movie going thrill to see the Marvel team get Spidey SO right here. Lastly, Antman (Paul Rudd) joins Captain's team for this adventure and Rudd brings all the laughs and charm he had in his stand alone film last year, to this ensemble. The film's major action set piece is a major battle between our heroes set at a huge German airport. It might be the best Marvel action scene of all time, fusing toss away humor, full on laughs, immense action and real drama into one perfectly executed sequence. Daniel Bruhl (Munich, Rush) is a bit underserved in the villain role manipulating our heroes into conflict, but he gets the job done. Just as with the last Captain America film, Cap's friend Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier serves as the catalyst for much of the action as loyalty is tested at every level. Also just like that terrific last Captain America film, our writers our Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, crafting an excellent story. I didn't see the emotional impact for Tony Stark coming in the final act. For everyone wondering why these folks are fighting, it provides plenty of emotional heft, versus the bland story mechanics you could hear cranking loudly just off screen all throughout Batman V Superman. Directors Anthony and Joe Russo are back as well, answering the very difficult challenge of equaling 'The Winter Soldier". Challenge met. This is a terrific summer film and one of the best MARVEL films of all time. I found real depth in the way the story is structured, with the very young Tony Stark seen early and cleverly at MIT echoed nicely in our first glimpses of the young Peter Parker when Tony visits his home. Spidey's line in the airport scene referencing "The Empire Strkies Back" is both funny and perfect in its context. With CIVIL WAR standing as the perfectly executed middle chapter between Ultron and Parts 1 & 2 of AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR coming in 2018 & 2019, it earns the right to be compared to "Empire". FUN (are you listening DC Films??) taut, exciting and suspenseful, CIVIL WAR should unite all film fans at the box office as a massive hit to kickoff Summer 2016. Just like "Captain America: The Winter Soldier", it gets an A+.

Back in 1996, Will Smith owned the box office with the July 4th weekend hit INDEPENDENCE DAY. Smith is a hotshot pilot, Jeff Goldblum is an out of work scientist that figures out the aliens plan and Bill Pullman makes one hell of a President willing to go the distance against the ET bad guys. Randy Quaid foreshadows his real life downfall into scruffy insanity with his crop duster role, Harvey Fierstein is hilarious in his reactions to the invasion and Will Smith provides the best alien punch out in film history. It's pure summer fun with BIG special effects, massive destruction and more laser blasts and explosions than you can count. Twenty years ago, it didnt offer anything new from the standpoint of an original story, but it blasted you with so many state-of-the-art effects, plenty of laughs along with suspense and enough red blooded patriotism in the guise of Pullman and Smith that story holes just faded away in the noise. The solution that Levinson (Smith) comes up with to defeat the invading forces is clever if goofy. David Arnold provides one of his best music scores here, the main theme's become a sci-fi classic. On a summer day as escapist entertainment, It doesn't get much better than this all out sci-fi blast. It holds up surprisingly well two decades later and is FAR superior to its superfluous sequel unleashed in 2016. Save yourself the lame-brained experience of the sequel and revisit the full blast fun of the original. These aliens are big, bad and angry and the original INDEPENDENCE DAY is tons of fun, earning a solid B.

"I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace; that two are called a law firm, and that three or more become a Congress!" - John Adams. July 4th week serves up the perfect time to watch the 1972 film adaption of the Broadway hit, 1776 . Detailing the month before the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, the film's opening scenes creak and moan like a tired dinosaur. But damned if the founding fathers don't start to find their footing as the film goes on. Anytime that John Adams (William Daniels) starts singing to the rafters and the specter of his wife Abagail (Virginia Vestoff) appears to sing back to him, run for the popcorn. Their first song in an excruciating ballad that spends most of it's time having them dual over saltpeter or pins. WT-Patriotic-F? Every time those two start singing to each other long distance, the film creaks to a giant old-fashioned halt. The songs are based on actual letters between the two, but maybe that correspondence should have stayed buried in Abagail's diary. I almost gave up on making it through this until Howard da Silva (The Lost Weekend, Coppola's The Great Gatsby) showed up as Benjamin Franklin, bringing plenty of laughs and fun to the proceedings. Ken Howard (The Thorn Birds) is also terrific as Thomas Jefferson and Blythe Danner adds plenty of energy as Jefferson's wife. After the first thirty minutes that feel much like any traditional sixties big screen musical, the film settles into a long section about the early days of Congress that is actually informative and interesting. As the men from all different backgrounds and varying levels of devotion to England battle over independence, the screenplay by Peter Stone (The Taking of Pelham, Charade) reveals itself as smart and loaded with history. He also wrote the book for the Broadway musical and later wrote the book for "Titanic" on Broadway. About halfway through the film, it starts to soak in that in many ways, Stone and Sherman Edwards, who wrote the music, laid the traditional groundwork that would be shattered and reformed decades later by Lin Manuel Miranda in his groundbreaking Broadway hit "Hamilton". The 46th Street Theater, where 1776 played on Broadway, running for 1217 performances, is now the Richard Rodgers Theater, home to "Hamilton"! In 1776, future first President George Washington sends depressing messages describing the almost insurmountable odds of his 5000 ragtag troops facing off against 25,000 English soldiers arriving in NYC. The first Congress, made up of farmers, aristocrats,architects and clergy each have one vote on creating America as an independent nation. Stone lifts entire sections from historically accurate letters and court documents for the historical characters to act or sing. This is not a sung through musical like "Hamilton". It's far more traditional, occasionally painfully so, but when the songs are about politics, they're smart. When they are about love, they feel very dated and I kept waiting for them to start battling over politics again. Like Spielberg's "Lincoln" the film also focuses on the fascinating battle over slavery at the core of the Declaration of Independence. William Daniels and da Silva are just two of many actors recreating their Broadway stage roles and Daniels is great as the very stubborn John Adams. While I've read the history, I had forgot how dangerously close the country came to not forging its own path. "The Lees of Old Virginia", "But Mr. Adams", "Cool, Cool Considerate Men" (with all its clever ties to the Star Bangled Banner) are all enjoyable comedic songs, but the Finale serves up the best moments, stirring strong patriotic feelings. "Mama Look Sharp" is a dramatic precedent for "Bring Him Home" in Les Miserables. Included among the American Film Institute's 2006 list of 180 movies nominated for AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals, 1776 is a patriotic, entertaining, very old fashioned big screen musical that manages to teach a bit of history along the way. I'll give it a red white and blue B-. "Those who would give up some of their liberty in order to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin

THIS is how you do a live action remake! Packed with great visual effects, John Powell's soaring, wall-to-wall music and Gerard Butler's best performance in years, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON is family summer movie perfection. Setting a humorous, exciting tone from its opening scenes, Writer/Director Dean DeBiois has carefully created a stunning live take on his own, original animated version. Maybe that's the magic here, having the original creator adapt his own material. Whatever alchemy is at work, it conjures up a LOT of movie magic, especially in it's final sixty minutes. All roles are perfectly cast, starting with Mason Thames (For All Mankind, The Black Phone) as Hiccup, the warrior wannabe son of Viking Chief Stoick, embodied by Butler, who's having more fun here than he's had in a long time. Butler brings his usual intensity to the role, but also packs in a lot of heart & pride that will resonate with plenty of Dads this opening Father's Day weekend. After thousands of years of his village fighting dragons as their lifelong mission, Hiccup meets the young dragon Toothless, who CGI artists have packed with incredible realism, great facial expressions and the rumbling roar of Spielberg's T-Rex. Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) steals every scene he's in as Gobbler, the Dragon Fighter Trainer who seems to be missing a whole lot of body parts. Frost's comic timing will make the kids laugh, but adults will really enjoy how savvy he is in the part. He's fantastic. Astrid is perfectly embodied by Nico Parker, a fierce young female warrior with all the battle skills that Hiccup lacks. Julian Dennison (Deadpool 2) and Browyn James (Wicked) are also standouts as two hapless young dragonslayers that keep the laughs coming hot & heavy. Visually, the film is stunning to look at. The dragons come in many varieties, from very small to Godzilla size and each one is perfectly rendered. The care with which each species has been designed adds to the fun. From the moment that Hiccup first saddles up on Toothless, about an hour into the film, through the fiery, wildly emotional and grand scale conclusion, this is pure summer movie magic. When I saw the previews, I felt like the flying scenes were just going to be a rehash of what I've seen with different creatures in "Avatar", but DeBiois infuses so many fun visual details and the right amount of danger, that it all feels more joyful. Powell's music score is certainly a huge benefit. Butler (reprising his role from the original animated version and finding much more depth) and Thames are the father/son heart and core of the story and the duo are just as adept at hilarious small talk as they are battling for their lives, dodging massive blasts of blazing dragon's breath. Their quiet scene in which they try to bond in a little hut is packed with laughs. Butler is clearly relishing the most fully rounded character he's had the chance to play, maybe ever. He brings the heart AND the warrior, delivering a pre-battle speech that would make anyone walk though a wall for him. But mostly, it's just pure sword and sorcery, flying dragon fun on a level far beyond my expectations. This is everything you want in a summer family movie. As the lights go down, let the huge orchestral score of John Powell wash over you and settle in for fun. I'm betting you walk in expecting the laughs, but the amount of heart on display will surprise you. HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON gets an A.

Mike Flanagan has created some of the best horror films & series of the past five years. The writer/director of "Midnight Mass" and "The Haunting of Hill House" also delivered one of the best Stephen King film adaptions ever made, "Doctor Sleep". If you haven't seen that sequel to "The Shining", its fantastic. So you might think that you're in for more horror with his new film adaption of King's short story, THE LIFE OF CHUCK . Nope, constant King readers know that Chuck falls into the superb King genre of "The Shawshank Redemption" or "The Green MIle". But what I didn't expect going in was for Flanagan to expand that short, quirky tale into a modern day Frank Capra tale of affirmation and the kind, human connections between all of us. If that sounds ponderous, it's not. Think joyous. Think Uplifting. Flanagan hasn't created a traditional tale either. It opens with Act 3. The world seems to be approaching its end times. We don't see this in $100 million special effects shots. We experience it as everyday people in a small town would. Snippets of news and talking heads on the news, shakily delivered on a TV signal that seems intermittent at best. Emergency vehicles pass in the street and smoke seems to rise up in the distance, or is that just what we expect? California is breaking off and sliding into the ocean in huge chunks. The internet seems to be on it's last legs. School teacher Marty Anderson (the always brilliant Chiwetel Ejiofor) tries to carry on his parent/teacher conferences, but the parents treat it more like a therapy session, bitching about the internet being down, no matter how much Marty reminds them that the library is still open next door. Just listen to the rhythm and words of the conversation between Marty and one parent, Josh (David Dastmalchian making a hell of an impression in a small role) as they talk about the world. The scene is very early in the film and it was the first of many moments here that Flanagan's writing, in both structure and dialogue, wow'd me. He writes the way people speak, he creates moments that feel so real, they create a bond between you and the characters that draws you deeply into the story. It's Flanagan's gift. Which makes me incredibly excited that he's currently creating a wholly new take on "The Exorcist". I'm already scared. But back to Chuck . Marty heads home to his lonely existence, trying to bury himself in old movies. Across town, nurse Felicia Gordon (Karen Gillan) watches as the structure in the town's hospital begins to fall apart. As electronics and communication seem to fail, staff begins to not show up for work. Everyday life begins to slip away. A giant sink hole opens up downtown. The news gets harder to watch, both by definition and in definition. And then, billboards start to pop up. TV's pop back into high-def to share the same message with a normal looking accountant's picture. "CHARLES KRANTZ 39 Great Years! Thanks Chuck!" The message seems to be the only thing that cuts through the failing ecosystem to get delivered clearly. Everywhere. Why? It's just the first of many of life's mysteries that will be explored with heart in Flanagan & King's tale. Act Two is the middle of our story, but we see it informed by what we know will follow. We meet Chuck Krantz (Tom Hiddleston) a middle aged accountant visiting our small town for a conference. Between his speaking engagements at the event, he decides to take a stroll downtown, where he meets drummer/busker Taylor. Their chance meeting and what follows is a fun, uplifting sequence that changes & touches the lives of Chuck, Taylor and Janice (Annalise Basso) a young passerby who has just broken up with her boyfriend and needs something wonderful to happen. It does. Act 3 is the start of our story. We meet Chuck as a boy and he's played by two talented young actors as the story evolves. Benjamin Pajak plays Chucks 11-12 year old self, living with his grandparents Sarah (Mia Sara returning to acting after many years, telling Flanagan she'd star in anything he made after seeing "Midnight Mass") and Albie (Mark Hamill in his best performance in decades). Chuck has lost his parents, but Sarah and Albie are kind guides for him to dance and math, both of which heavily influence our tale. Older teen Chuck (played by Jacob Tremblay from "Doctor Sleep" and "Room") brings the story to a powerful conclusion as all the mysteries and secrets of the that locked attic that Ablie closely guarded, come to fruition. I've not even mentioned the many, many other characters in Chuck's orbit that come and go, each making a big impression and all perfectly cast. Many of Flanagan's incredibly talented usual stable of actors return here and deliver across the board. As with all of Flanagan's work, there are so many moments that emotionally resonate. Many of Chuck's life choices are unpredictable in their spontaneity, with all the unexpected twists and turns of real life. As the movie unfolds, it doesn't hold huge scares or grand scale action scenes. The power of the film is in the people we meet and the ties that bind. While it may appear to be a simple story on the surface, Flanagan's non-linear structure is just the first hint at what truly lies beneath the surface. Watch the backgrounds in key sequences. Is that who I think it is? Is time fluid? As our personal existence nears the end, do the best moments of our past flood to the forefront? I am multitudes. What a beautiful, uplifting and powerful tale of life, love and caring. Each viewing will, I'm sure, bring even more treasures from the past to discover. THE LIFE OF CHUCK is one of the best films of 2025 so far, an A+.

Old fashioned, beautifully shot in its namesake islands and Hawaii, Rodgers and Hammerstein's SOUTH PACIFIC was one of the first musicals my parents ever showed me on the big screen. It's still a favorite today, loaded with drama, laughs and some of the best songs ever written for the American musical theater. If you've seen it once, you've probably seen it a dozen times. Released in 1958 after its Broadway debut in 1949, it was ahead of its time in its powerful take on racism and conflict. Its messages land even harder after the story has introduced you to some very likeable characters that all connect in the South Pacific. Mitzi Gaynor (Anything Goes) is fantastic as Nurse Nellie Forbush, a beautiful optimist from the middle of America who falls for wealthy local landowner and man of mystery Emilie De Becque, perfectly cast in the suave Rossano Brazzi (The Final Conflict, The Italian Job). Ray Walston (The Sting, Fast Times at Ridgemont High) is hilarious as Luther Billis, the wily navy man who can get you whatever you want. But he struggles to get a day pass to the stunning but secretive island of Bali Hai, always looming in the distance with great music swelling up behind it. He finds his ticket to the island in new arrival Lt. Joe Cable (John Kerr from "The Pit and the Pendulum") who's looking for both De Becque and a quick getaway to Bali Hai. Broadway vet Juanita Hall repeats her stage role of Bloody Mary, the local woman who seems to run the island. Her songs were dubbed by Muriel Smith, who played the role in London. Her stunning daughter Liat (France Nuyan) is about to fall for Lt. Cable in a romance that predicted Chris & Kim in "Miss Saigon" decades before the Vietnam conflict. The war looms, love blossoms and fantastic songs fill the entire film, never dragging the action down. Director Joshua Logan (Camelot, Paint Your Wagon) delivers a widescreen spectacle, making great use of the locations and his director of photography Leon Shamroy (Cleopatra, Planet of the Apes). Logan make a bold choice (that Shamroy famously hated!) in key moments of the film, wiping a colored filter across the lens to create a dream like state. It really bothered me on the early VHS and DVD transfers of the film, but in the new High-Def versions, the clarity pops and the red to yellow to purple transitions during "Bali Hai" stun. As the songs fade and the romanticism of the moment fades, the film returns to the harsh daylight of reality. The only Rodgers and Hammerstein film adaption to include every song from the Broadway version, it even adds "My Girl Back Home" that was unbelievably cut from the final show in NYC. Every song is a legend of modern musical theater, including "Some Enchanted Evening", "There is Nothin' Like a Dame", "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair", "I'm In Love With a Wonderful Guy" and "This Nearly Was Mine". They are all great. "Carefully Taught" is a brilliant statement on racism that holds every bit the power today it did 60 years ago, post World War II. After the intermission, as Lt. Cable journeys back to Bali Hai to meet with Liat, the orchestrations and photography are jaw dropping. Listen to that music and see the couple swimming underwater and you instantly escape. Did anyone ever transport the viewer with music & lyrics quite like Rodgers & Hammerstein? In my opinion, no. Mitzi Gaynor is fantastic, offering up one of the most winning, confident and enjoyable performances of any movie musical. We see the world through her eyes, but not through rose colored glasses. Gaynor won the role over every major film actress of the day, including Judy Garland, Elizabeth Taylor, Doris Day and Audrey Hepburn. Brazzi matches her in all the dramatic moments. His singing is voiced by Georgio Tozzi, seamlessly. Alfred Newman conducting the huge 20th Century Fox orchestra wows in the new Dolby soundtrack. We had the great fortune of seeing the 2008 Broadway revival (Twice!) at NYC's Lincoln Center, complete with a full orchestra for the first time since its initial run. Kelli O'Hara and Tony Winner Paulo Szot, Matthew Morrison and Danny Burstein were all terrific and both nights, the orchestra received a standing ovation before they played a note. Then the Lincoln Center stage floor slid out over the orchestra and the play began. Powerful. The film is based on James Michener's book "Tales of the South Pacific" and its strength is the ability to weave powerful war time events into the personal relationships of those stationed together against the enemy. Michener is a powerful writer and his stories are the solid core that the lyrics wrap around. This was the top grossing film at the box office in 1958 and featured the first soundtrack to be issued on a stereo LP album! Watch for Tom Laughlin as the pilot dropping Cable off as the film opens. He's terrific in a small part, 13 years before he broke out as Billy Jack. Find the biggest screen you can, turn up the sound and escape to the S OUTH PACIFIC . No matter how many times you've visited this classic, it's always powerful entertainment. Nominated for 10 Academy Awards, it deservedly won Best Sound for Todd AO's Fred Hynes (Oklahoma!, Cleopatra) and wins an A from this corner. It's ultra widescreen, old fashioned spectacle at its very best.

50 years ago, the summer blockbuster was invented. The world came to know Steven Spielberg, and I sat in my parents station wagon at the Round-Up Drive In in Scottsdale, unable to take my eyes off the screen as John Williams music lurked around every corner. What a summer. It was JAWS mania everywhere you turned. As a 14 year old kid, I bought every game, devoured "The Jaws Log" making-of novel by Carl Gottlieb and saw the film many times in the theater, long before VHS players revolutionized home viewing. The magic of the film remains untarnished, a testament to Spielberg's young genius and sheer talent. While the first sequel has its goofy charms, greatly enhanced by fond memories of the summer of 1978 in which it was released, the other sequels are prime evidence against sequels as a genre. How do they all rank? Let's take a look here, featuring different posters for each film that the most common versions that are found on the actual reviews at George At The Movies. To kick our ranking off at the bottom, with a film that plumbs new depths of the sea for celluloid rock bottom we start with 4. Jaws: The Revenge When people ask me what's the worst movie I've ever seen, JAWS: THE REVENGE always comes close or wins, certainly in the worst ten movies I've ever seen. It's one of those movies you have to watch every ten years or so just to revel in how bad it is. So why is it so bad? A few examples: * Lorraine Gary was OK as a small player in the original 2 films, but in the lead role here, she is so grating, so overly dramatic, all while sporting the absolute worst hairstyle ever seen by an actress in a major film. How did she get this role? (oh yeah, she was the wife of the President of Universal Studios) * In one scene, the giant shark chases Michael Brody through a shipwreck, inexplicably going where he goes, even though Michael has to squeeze through tiny portholes and the shark is 35 feet long. What great continuity! What great editing! * Even Michael Caine phones it in. He's been in some awful dreck, but here you can tell that he knows this is crap and he's just enjoying the Bahamas. Don't miss the scene where he swims 30 yards and comes onto the boat with dry clothes. Who was in charge on continuity on this film, Mr Magoo? * How does the shark go nearly 3000 miles from Amity in New England to the Bahamas in just a couple weeks? Oh leave your common sense at the door, people! * Of course, you cant talk about this waterlogged stinker without discussing the ending, in which the shark leaps out of the air and is speared on the end of the boat and then, for absolutely NO reason, explodes as if it was filled with dynamite. At least that's what I think happened. It's one of filmdom history's most muddled, poorly edited, filmed and executed conclusions, so you might have to guess for yourself. Holy Shark Balls, this is ONE HORRIBLE movie and it sinks miserably to the ocean floor with a well deserved, capital F. 3. JAWS 3D I would have loved to have been in the room when this movie got pitched to the Universal executives that green lit this piece of crap. "OK, let's say the two sons of Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) are both grown up now and the first one, Mike (played by a very young Dennis Quaid) works at Sea World! The younger brother Sean lives in Colorado but comes to visit Mike in Florida. Sea World is about to open up a big new attraction of underwater tunnels just when the biggest Great White ever manages to sneak into the man made lagoon! The shark can chase pyramids of water skiers and guys with scuba tanks! Awesome!" Shame on Universal for tarnishing the name of the JAWS franchise with this goofy, cheap, silly and needless sequel, JAWS 3D , unleashed upon an unsuspecting audience in 1983. The director Joe Alves, was in charge of making the robot sharks for the first two films and he manages to turn all the actors into robots here, so at least he's consistent. Louis Gossett Jr. fresh off his Oscar win for 'Officer and a Gentleman" is given almost nothing to do, but he manages to do it gratingly with the worst Cajun accent since Ernest Goes to Mardi Gras. The special effects are horrible and WILL make you laugh out loud. They are even worse watching them in 2D. Bess Armstrong is just horrific as Quaid's love interest and I was cheering for the shark to make her an appetizer the entire film. Let this be known as the film in which the JAWS series "jumped the shark". I'll give it a D-. It's only saved from an F by the fact that the film series managed to get much worse in its next and final incarnation, JAWS: The Revenge. 2.Jaws 2 More than 45 years ago, the sequel to an all-time great thriller hit theaters! Just when you thought it was safe to get back in the water.....the summer of 1978 brought JAWS 2 ! I have such fond memories of seeing this with my cousins Tammy & Cindy in Ohio that summer, it will always have a special place in my movie memories. By FAR the best of the JAWS sequels (which is a hurdle an ant could jump over), Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gary and Murray Hamilton return from the original for another shark filled summer in Amity. It's no JAWS, but it does manage to spark some of the same summer blockbuster energy thanks to Scheider's performance as a man who can't believe he's going through this again. I remember that we were all so hungry for more Jaws, three years after the original that audiences (including ours) embraced every shark scene with enthusiasm. Director Jeannot Szwarc is no Steven Spielberg and it shows, but he does a decent job with a few suspenseful scenes. The scene with Tina & Eddie (and the shark) in their boat is very good. The stunt work with the mechanical shark is pretty damn great and John WIlliams' music holds up very well in an all new music score featuring the classic JAWS theme. Most of the young actor's acting is so bad I found myself rooting for the shark, but all in all (and gilded with fond memories) JAWS 2 is a 70's summer classic. It's $209 million box office on a $20 million budget guaranteed we would see JAWS 3, and that's when things REALLY started to smell fishy. As for JAWS 2, we'll give it B as a fun, guilty pleasure. But of course, all the sequels were merely treading water compared to the original masterpiece, released 50 years ago today! Jaws It's so hard to believe that 50 years ago today, we saw JAWS at the drive-in during its opening weekend in 1975. To remember it all again, we just watched the digitally remastered JAWS on Blu-Ray and it looks excellent, with better sound than ever featuring DTS 7.1 completely remixed by archivists from the original tracks. By now, we all know the story, but I had forgotten just how brilliantly the film is constructed. We open with the now famous two note strains of cello by John Williams, ramping up to a full menacing pitch through the underwater credits. Then we witness the first attack on Chrissy, meet Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) and his family and watch as Brody battles the single-minded mayor (Murray Hamilton) to close the beaches. Enter shark expert Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and Shark Bounty Hunter Quint (the excellent Robert Shaw) and you have a movie firing on all cylinders. Young director Steven Spielberg shows all the style that would become his trademark, deftly not allowing us to see a full view of our shark until over an hour into the film. Williams music is fantastic throughout and Bill Butler's photography is excellent, really popping in this remastered version of the print. So many classic moments here, but my favorites are still the nighttime discovery of Ben Gardner's boat by Brody and Hooper, JAWS in the estuary on July 4th, the first barrel encounter at sea ("We're going to need a bigger boat.") and the classic final 15 minutes. Robert Shaw famously wrote his haunting, well told story of The Indianapolis and his interaction with Scheider and Dreyfuss is stellar. The mechanical shark rarely worked, but it's masterful how Spielberg uses shots of it sparingly, making it more powerful when you do finally see the beast. In today's age of CGI and everything being on screen every moment with every nut and bolt of every Transformer explosion in our face (often boring) it's surprising how effective Spielberg's approach is throughout. JAWS still holds up as 124 great movie minutes, one of the best thrillers in movie history and a perfect A+. One of my Top 10 films of all time. What are your JAWS memories from the first time you saw this film classic? One thing is certain, we all remember the first time we heard those quiet cello notes of John Williams score, the first hint of the thrills to come.

Ana De Armas was born to be an ass-kicking lethal weapon in the world of John Wick. She throws BALLERINA on her back (along with a flame thrower) and plows through the bad guys & gals with bloody fervor. But let's be clear, this entry may take place, sometimes cleverly, in the World of John Wick, but its NO John Wick. To be fair, I think JW4 was one of the best action films in the history of film, a giant, Lawrence of Arabia epic of murder & mayhem. It will rarely be equaled. Ballerina falls in somewhere slightly below "John Wick 2" for me as the fifth best in the series. The good news is, if we weren't comparing it to the rest of the series, this would be one hell of a stand alone action flick. We meet a pre-teen Eve, a young Ballerina who tries to escape with her Father from a massive invasion force bent on killing him. It's a great opening sequence. She's then whisked away by Winston (the always great Ian McShane) and grows up as a lethal, highly trained assassin. After the opening sequence, the first half hour settles into exposition that's never boring, but teeters on slow. But as soon as Eve, now played by the stunning De Armas, takes on her first official assignment, the film kicks into gear and rarely lets up. It's pretty damn fun in all the ways you'd expect. Angelica Huston (Prizzi's Honor) is deliciously evil as The Director of the Ruska Roma, overseeing that hilariously retro switchboard of operators dealing out death like a global game of blackjack. Gabriel Byrne (Hereditary) is well cast as The Chancellor, the KIng of a very loyal and lethal town of killers who live to protect their order. He's a charming, deadly leader who holds his safety very close. Norman Reedus (The Bikeriders, The Walking Dead) is a key piece of the puzzle as a man trying to escape his life with his young daughter. I loved seeing the late Lance Reddick in his final role as Charon, the desk clerk at The Continental, where you definitely do NOT want to break the house rules. It makes for a bloody checkout. The story is a bit predictable but not without its fun surprises and third act reveals. I LOVED the entire conclusion set in a sleepy European town that looks like Switzerland, if its population was comprised solely of killers. Once Eve drives her car into that snowy town, the film really hits its stride and sustains the fun, fevered pitch we've come to expect. There is a long battle with flame throwers as the weapon of choice that made me laugh out loud more than once with its creativity and staging. It's an absolute blast. De Armas is perfectly cast and she is a superb action hero. After she provided the only enjoyment in the woke, stupid mess that killed OO7 in "No Time To Die", this is exactly the kind of action thriller that I hoped to see her in. She's excellent. Watch what pops up on the TV behind the action as a remote control is brandished as a lethal weapon and you'll know that the filmmakers have a sense of humor. It kept me laughing throughout with the sheer inventiveness of the kills. If you've seen the trailers, you know that Keanu is going to show up as John Wick in this film that takes place in the same time frame as JW2. If you think it's just going to be a one scene cameo, you're in for a pleasant surprise. The film shows signs of post production tinkering, which isn't a surprise when the director chair is somehow occupied by Len Wiseman, who's somehow carved out a film career languishing in those "Underworld" films with Kate Beckinsdale and doing a throw away "Die Hard" sequel. To give him credit, this is by far the best film on his resume, but I wonder how much of the final product was actually crafted in re-shoots by legendary Wick creator Chad Stahelski and team. After some production and release delays, BALLERINA emerges as a worthy entry in the John Wick series, dancing a bloody, flaming and violent trail to a B. I hope we haven't seen the last of De Armas in the role.

Get ready for buckets of green blood, superb animation and a lethal atmosphere that seethes through PREDATOR: KILLER OF KILLERS, from the Director of 2022's excellent entry, "Prey". Nirvana for fans of the series (like me) this new film is a beautifully rendered take on three different eras (hunting seasons for our ugly aliens) on Earth. The film opens with "The Shield" in 841 AD, with a brutal Viking raider, Ursa, guiding her teenage son on a quest for revenge against the giant King responsible for her Father's death. The animation is stunning as the Viking ships approach a fortress and Ursa's army squares off against the King's forces. The violence and bloodletting is graphic, R rated and sounds amazing, thanks to a superb sound design by Justin M. Davey (A Quiet Place, SpiderMan: No Way Home) and his team. Each of the three chapters hold secrets among the characters and, of course, a square off with a Predator warrior looking to fight the greatest warriors in the universe. The second chapter, "The Sword" is my favorite, immersing us into Japan in 1609, where we meet two young brothers at a critical point in their Samurai training by their powerful father. It then flashes forward twenty years to the day their Father dies and the brothers begin a battle for control of Japan. The animation and character design is so good in this sequence that you feel the two brother personalities and conflict in a long hand-to-hand battle. And then our alien hunter, who's been watching from the rooftops, shimmering in invisibility, arrives to join the battle. What follows is a terrific fight sequence that seems perfectly suited for animation. I have no idea how you'd stage in practically, but its stunning here. We watched in in Dolby Atmos 4K and the resolution blows your eyes out the entire chapter. This entire chapter is far more beautiful and poetic than I expected. Writer/Director Dan Trachtenberg ("Prey", the upcoming "Predator: Badlands") is the perfect guiding hand for this series. After wallowing in trash like "Predator 2" and failed cash grabs like "AVP", this series has found its hero in Trachtenberg. By the end of the second chapter, I was all in. He and co-Director Joshua Wassung have found the perfect tone. Our final chapter, "The Bullet" drops us into America, 1941, as WW2 explodes into the USA. We meet Torres (Rick Gonzalez), a young WWII pilot who discovers there's a lot more flying through the Pacific and battling Allied forces than the Japanese fighters. The dogfights are fantastic, with the sound mix surrounding you with bullets, fighters coming from every direction and one hell of a surprise in the skies. It's fascinating to watch how brains and feel count as much in the air battle as fire power. An interesting spin, layered in non-stop WWII action. All three chapters come together in a spirited finale that I won't talk about in these pages. It's an absolute blast. It's amazing how much human drama & personality the animation team infuses in these characters. They may be drawn, but they're the most interesting lot of predator targets since the original film nearly 40 years ago. Benjamin Wallfisch (Twisters, Alien:Romulus) creates another brilliant action score, wholly original save those six notes of Alan Silvestri's original theme that land perfectly throughout. It's a beast of a score that pounds home the action while deftly evoking each era depicted. Turn down the lights, turn up the sound and settle in for the most fun you've had battling these ugly monsters for a very long time. PREDATOR: KILLER OF KILLER exceeds all expectations, battling its way to an A.

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.

If you love the John Wick films as much as I do, the new documentary WICK IS PAIN packs a great punch. Informative, funny and fascinating, the saga behind the legendary action film series is two hours of insider fun. The film is driven by on-camera interviews with most of the creators and many of the actors involved. Front and center are Keanu Reeves and creator/Director Chad Stahelski. The two share that rare language of decade long creative collaborators. Their unfiltered banner is a blast, like sitting in a lounge with the two of them telling war stories. I loved their retelling of creating the first film. Reeves was just off a major flop, "47 Ronin" a $175 million dollar film that grossed under $40 million at the US box office. Just as Wick was about to go into production, investors got nervous, Reeves was no longer a sure thing at the box office and he needed something to re-establish his action star cred. The original "John WIck" seems cursed, barraged by everything that could possibly go wrong. Within an inch of becoming a direct-to-video flick, some last minute magic provides financing and the series was off and running. While Stahelski and David Leitch were co-producers and directors on the film, their creative differences, driven mostly be vastly different styles, were legendary. Both men offer up new, transparent observations about that time and their role in it. After the massive success of 2014's "John Wick" ($86 million at the box office on a $20 million budget), Lionsgate, Reeves and Stahelski were ready to revisit and expand the World of Wick. But Leitch wanted out. He was all in on making the Charlize Theron film "Atomic Blonde" first. He went on to direct some huge hits, including "Deadpool 2" and "Bullet Train", but never returned to the Wick family. It's great to see the behind the scenes with the creative team, seeing footage from that time as they explore exactly what's going to happen next. Watching them develop The Continental, the assassin's code and The High Table is really enjoyable. 2017's "John Wick 2" cost twice as much at $40 million and grossed more than twice as much as the first film, bringing in $174 million! Part 3 was assured. But what now? Halle Berry's commitment to training for the third chapter is impressive. Expanding the filming to Morocco, the crew battles everything in their path, but once again, they build to bigger success. "John Wick 3: Parabellum" nearly doubled the budget again to $75 million and blew up to an even bigger audience, earning $328 million in ticket sales!! After Part 3, I didn't know how they could go bigger, but damned if this team doesn't pull it off, creating JW4, which, for me, is one of the greatest action films of all time. It's Wick on a David Lean, "Lawrence of Arabia" style canvas. The overhead "Top Shot" shootout is Brian DePalma on steroids. The roundabout car chase/hand to hand battle in Paris is a thing of legend. It will be difficult to top in my lifetime and one of the rare times I clapped in a theater in the middle of a movie. It is JAW DROPPING . I LOVED seeing how they filmed those sequences. These stunt men and women are amazing. JW4 cost $100 million and hit even BIGGER heights, shooting its way to $440 million at the box office. What an amazing series. Think back to the greatest film series of all time. While there have been those rare exceptions like the James Bond films and the Harry Potter series, most studios cut the budgets of every sequel, turning a legendary first film into B movie mush. The "Planet of the Apes" series in the late 60's and early 70's and the "Jaws" films of the 70's come immediately to mind. WICK IS PAIN teaches you a lot about that theme. Reeves commitment to the role and the physicality of the part is beyond impressive. The filmmakers devotion to improving each film for the audience is relentless. It created "Gun Fu", the anime and graphic novel influences on its photography and visuals are undeniable, as are its attributed stylistic choices that echo everyone from Sergio Leone and Kurosawa to Steven Spielberg. There's talk of a John Wick 5 and we have "Ballerina" hitting theaters next month. Until then, we have this superb documentary that captures a massive series from its unknowing start, through a decade of discovery to its current status. It's a bloody bullseye. WICK IS PAIN gets an A.