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.

It's so hard to believe that 40 years ago last Saturday, 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 trademarks, 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 25 films of all time. Followed by three sequels of dramatically diminishing returns.

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 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 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'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.

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 horrible as Quaid's love interest and I was cheering for the shark to make her an appetizer the entire film. Let this be knows 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......

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. 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 good 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!

In the early 80's, there was an onslaught of fantasy swords & sandals epics in theaters. 1982's THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER is memorable for its adult mix of gore, sci-fi like weapons and the easy charm of its cast. It also makes little sense and is pretty damned goofy at times, but you can't have everything. I hope the dude in charge of all the fire effects got plenty of overtime, he was clearly busy!Watching the film again, it made me laugh a lot. (Thanks Tubi!) Richard Lynch, who I'll always remember as bad buy Moon in 1973's"The Seven Ups", has a field day as King Titus Cromwell. No, not THAT Cromwell, history buffs. This king mostly lusts after power and the hearty bosom of Princess Alana. Kathleen Beller plays Alana, displaying the same wooden acting that gave us all splinters in the camp 1978 Harold Robbins classic "The Betsy" and TV's "Dynasty". Lee Horsley (TV's Matt Houston and a Tarantino player in "Django Unchained" and "The Hateful Eight") is a lot of fun and brings the perfect attitude to the hero role. He's all George Michael Wham-hairdo and brawn as Talon, tossing off one liners and lethal sword attacks without ever messing up his carefully manicured coif. I'd describe a bit of the story for you, but there really isn't much of a story, just a revenge thru line and a whole lot of people trying to conquer lands and bed wenches, each with their own priority among the two. A giant Richard Moll (Night Court) is enjoyable as a sort of demon/Golem thing that shoots light out his XXXL press on nails and pulls the beating heart out of adversaries two years before Mola Ram used the same stunt against Indy in "Temple of Doom". A gallery of b-list actors pop in and out, spewing regal dialogue and dripping buckets of blood and sweat. Simon MacCorkindale (Death on the Nile, Jaws 3D) brings Shakespearean thespian attitude to the proceedings while George Maharis (Route 66) wonders around a bit lost in his last big screen role.. He seems like he can't figure out if this is a serious film or a Monty Python flick. It's always great to see Jeff Corey (True Grit, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) show up in any role and he gets the tone perfectly, right alongside Horsley. Three bladed swords that seem to have rocket propelled launching are put to good use as the film slips into comic heroism in its last hour. Horsley's Talon brings the same tongue in cheek line readings that Ford gifted Indy with through his film legacy. This is NO Indiana Jones film, but it's a lot more fun that those Cannon film knock offs that plagued cinemas for more than a decade. The special effects vary between cheap and impressive for the day. Fans of "The Deep" might recognize that this marks the second battle to the death between characters portrayed by Robert Tessier and Earl Maynard. In "The Deep (1977) their battle to the death was legendary, including the use of an outboard motor in a boathouse. It's a much quicker face off here. Back in the 80's, this was VHS gold at the video store and built a great cult following after it hit Blockbuster. I rented it so many times that I ended up buying a copy. You'd think after all those viewings, I'd be able to decipher the plot. I don't think they had time for one, but audiences didn't care, driving it to $40 million at the 1982 box office. If you're looking for cheesy, VHS era fun, doused with occasional buckets of blood & gore, THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER delivers plenty of action, laughs, knights and damsels in distress in grand B-movie style. It gets a C+. But please, please, don't come in looking for a coherent plot. It moves way too fast to bother......

I'm surprised that the suspenseful spy thriller THE AMATEUR didn't find a bigger audience in theaters. Packed with strong performances and a "Three Days of the Condor"/"Bourne Identity" vibe, it's smart, enjoyable and very well cast. Rami Malek stars as Charlie Heller, a CIA computer decoder who supports worldwide missions from a dark (but very cool) corner of the agency sub-basement. He lives his adventures in code, as his wife Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan) reminds him before she leaves on a work assignment in London. When a terrorist attack claims the life of Sarah, Charlie becomes obsessed with tracking down and killing her killers. The trailers would have you believe that his reaction and covert mission to do so is immediate. The actual film delves much deeper into the grief and pain after his loss and at this, Malek excels. He's a terrific actor, we've always known that. He wears his emotions boldly and creates a character you feel for. Thankfully, this film doesn't put him in the role of a Bond villain, as "No Time To Die", Daniel Craig's weak OO7 exit did so poorly. Malek looks like he weighs 100 lbs and is about 5'5". A lethal adversary he ain't. But Charlie is damn smart and very talented. What Malek creates in Charlie is a man with a deep seated, blazing core of revenge. If his agency won't do it, Charlie will. There is great dialogue about losing someone so close to you, including a discussion about "the sounds that a person makes in your life, that are suddenly gone". Great, real dialogue rings out in the quiet moments, and the loudest. Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix, John Wick 4) is excellent as Henderson, the agency man hired to train Charlie for his new role. Fishburne always brings menace and he hasn't lost a step, I loved his character. Holt McCallany (Mindhunter, Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning, Nightmare Alley) has become one of my favorite character actors. He's excellent as CIA Director Moore, the classic CYA political official with a license to kill. Julianne Nicholson follows up her great role in Hulu's "Paradise" with a fascinating turn as CIA Senior Director O'Brien. Her verbal fireworks with McCallany are quiet and you'll lean on every word. The globe hopping feels like a Bourne movie and there are foreign agents in the field of every loyalty. I loved seeing Jon Bernthal (The Accountant 2) as an agent whose life Charlie saved and I really enjoyed that his story line is far from predictable. It's also a real pleasure to see Marthe Keller, the star of two of my favorite 70's thrillers (all-time faves actually) "Black Sunday" and "Marathon Man". She has a small role as a florist, but her voice is so distinct and so much a part of my favorite films, I knew it was her immediately. Images of her trying to calm down Bruce Dern's crazy blimp pilot or soothe Dustin Hoffman's terrified runner came immediately to mind. The widescreen photography by Martin Ruhe (The Boys in the Boat) is stunning. His framing made me wish I was watching this in Super Panavision 70. Smart work and visually intriguing. I was fascinated after watching the film to note that it's the second adaption of Robert Littell's novel. The first movie version was made in 1981, starring John Savage, Christopher Plummer and.......Marthe Keller! I've got to go back and watch that now! If you love spy films or revenge films made for adults, you're going to love THE AMATEUR . It deserves more eyes on it than found it in its original release. It gets a very solid B+.

Every Memorial Day weekend, I go back to find a war film that I haven't seen in years. This year, it was 1979's HANOVER STREET . Between "Star Wars" and "The Empire Strikes Back", newly minted movie star Harrison Ford filmed this throwback war film that bombed like the Blitz at the box office. I remember seeing it opening weekend and wondering where the funny dude that played Han Solo was. I was (and am) doubly disappointed because this was from Writer/Director Peter Hyams, who was riding a serious high in 1979 after delivering "Capricorn One" two summers before. Surely between Ford and Hyams, audiences were in for a great war flick. Well, No. Let's first talk about what really works in the movie. John Barry's old fashioned, romantic music score is top of the list. The James Bond composer delivers a lush full orchestra and some memorable themes. It's another in a long line of great music from Barry. David Watkin (Out of Africa, Chariots of Fire) is a legendary cinematographer and he shoots the film beautifully. Everything looks like a perfect painting of the English countryside and classic, stately war rooms. OK, now that we've talked about what works, let's talk about everything else. As the titles begin, they're in the cursive, large style of a 1940's era romance. The opening scene features what Roger Ebert used to call a "meet cute" with American pilot David Halloran (Ford) waiting for a double decker bus near the Hanover Street station in London. English Nurse Margaret Sellinger (the gorgeous Lesley-Anne Down) cuts in front of him and they banter, leading to a long afternoon of posh tea and some of the worst dialogue I've ever heard in a movie. Hyams wrote the original script and its saddled with horrific speaking parts from start to finish. People on planet Earth do NOT talk like this. At first, I thought maybe Hyams was just trying to adopt the film style of a 1940's war film, but I think that's giving him far too much credit for being clever. This is the equivalent of AI spitting out every movie cliche into one plot. The film pops back and forth from Halloran's bombing raids to Ford and Down staring wistfully into each other's eyes, drinking tea and driving through the countryside. I think the only cliche they missed was a scenes with them riding on horseback across an English pasture. Richard Masur (The Thing, Risky Business) is annoying as hell as nose gunner Cimino. It's not the actor's fault. Hyams writes him page after page of nagging dialogue and then features that voice over chatter the first time the bombers take off. How about letting Barry's music soar as the American bombers take off into the sky? No, lets just have a bitchy character whine about his neurosis for three minutes. Painful. About halfway through the film, we meet Christopher Plummer as Margaret's husband, Paul. He's a senior spy in the English military, training a mole to infiltrate Gestapo headquarters and steal a list of blah blah blah out of a safe.....honestly, the story is so sloppy, I cant be too bothered. In perhaps one of the dumbest motivations in any war film ever made, Paul decides to take off on the top super secret ultra dangerous mission on his own. Guess which pilot is going to take him there and drop him behind enemy lines? Do you think something will happen to that flight? Wait until he reveals why he did it! Will Margaret find out that both her lover and husband are down behind Nazi lines? Honestly, if that sounds like a 1970's soap opera, it is, but the dialogue is worse. I laughed out loud at least three times at the way these people talk to each other. The jokes are flat, every word is stilted. The film shows a blip of life in the final twenty minutes as Plummer and Ford try to escape the Nazis, but its way too little, way too late. It's fascinating to see Ford here, before Empire and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" took him to the stratosphere. He's quieter, skinnier and "less" all-around than he would become just a year later. But no one could look good trying to spill Hyams words out of their mouths. I'm a huge fan of some of Hyams other films, especially "Running Scared" and "2010". Hey everyone has a turkey once in awhile. This one is a big fat Christmas turkey, stuffed with cliches jammed into a forced, stupid plot. Only Barry and Watkin save it from an F, elevating it slightly to a dull & boring D.

As a very casual observer of the series, I was surprised how much I enjoyed the new film KARATE KID: LEGENDS . When I say casual viewer, I mean it. I've never seen any "Cobra Kai", I saw the first two films back in 1984 and 1986 but have zero recall if I saw the third. The benefit of that is that I bring zero baggage to the film, beyond fond memories of Daniel, Mr. Miyagi and "wax on, wax off". The new cast is excellent. After a quick flashback to the original film, we meet young Li Fong (a very winning Ben Wang) a kung fu prodigy training secretly with his beloved teacher, Mr. Han (Jackie Chan). His mother has forbidden him to fight, due to a recent family tragedy. A surgeon and single mom, Dr. Fong (Ming-Na Wen from "Agents of Shield") decides the best thing for them both is a fresh start in NYC, where she's accepted a new job. What's refreshing is that the film avoids overly predictable territory as the two adapt to Manhattan. It carves out its own tale in a very family friendly mode, with refreshingly fun new characters. Li is so funny and charming, speaking perfect English at school, that he makes friends fast, especially with Mia, who works at the Pizza place around the corner from his home. Sadie Stanley (Brea on "The Goldbergs" for all those hilarious seasons) is perfectly cast. Her Dad, Victor (Joshua Jackson from "Fringe" and "Doctor Odyssey") is a former neighborhood fighter whose borrowed money from some bad dudes for the pizza shop. Those NYC rents must be brutal! Fights seem to be brewing around every corner. Okay, I guess it is all kind of predictable, but so enjoyable and laid out with such a soft touch that I bought in. We didn't all buy a ticket to watch Li NOT fight, right? He's got a great baddie to square off again as a Five Burroughs of NYC Fighting Championship looms. Repeat champion, Conor (a suitably evil, if one note Aramis Knight) is Mia's ex-boyfriend and about a foot and a half taller than Li. So who will train Li? As the trailers detail, both Mr. Han (Chan) and one of his mentor Mr. Miyagi's greatest students, Daniel (Ralph Macchio) make appearances. Some have complained that their roles seem tacked on or too shallow, but I had no issues with the film's balance between it's new generation story and its enjoyable allegiance to the series legacy. Chan has the ease of a film legend and Macchio seems to be having a good time as well. The original Daniel, Macchio is now 63 years old, 12 years OLDER than Pat Morita was when he played Mr. Miyagi in the original film! That's hard to believe. The film's been a bit disappointing at the box office, which is a shame, as it's found a confident, happy blend of nostalgia, drama and laughs in a rare mix that's entertaining for all ages. Special kudos to both Dominic Lewis's music score and the team behind the visuals that pop up on screen during the matches. They're a visually inventive, fun way for us all to understand the fight scoring and exactly what's at stake. Another intriguing creative choice by a team that clearly values the series legacy. As Daniel says at one point and Macchio has expressed in interviews about the film, "It's about spreading Mr. Miyagi's wisdom and knowledge in a good way, in a positive way." That perfectly describes the film. It's positive, enjoyable, brisk at 94 minutes and family friendly in all the right ways. I'll give KARATE KID: LEGENDS a triple spinning, flying through the air style B. Keep an eye on Ben Wang, that kid's got talent & screen presence to spare. He's going to be in the new "Hunger Games" film and the long awaited film version of Stephen King's "The Long Walk". His star is about to rise.

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.