Flash Review The Great Outdoors (1988) Released: June 17th, 1988 Genre: Comedy Director: Howard Deutch Writer: John Hughes Cast: John Candy, Dan Aykroyd Opening Thoughts: The Great Outdoors is one of those films I’ve always liked, but each time I watch it I realize how it is even more fantastic than I remembered. I’ve been […]
Candy Comedy: The Great Outdoors (1988)
Sure, I’m as done with vampire movies as anybody. But a Bram Stoker riff in thick Irish brogues? Let’s have it, then. “Boys from County Hell” is about an outbreak of the undead in the homeland of “Dracula” author Stoker. It’s slangy and profane, bloody and bloody funny, as well. “Most people don’t even know […]
Movie Review: Irish Bloodsuckers face the “Boys from County Hell”
I think it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that Soul is going to win the Oscar for Best Animated Film. I’m not complaining because I really, really liked Soul. (I also really liked Farmageddon but, sadly, there can only be one winner.) That said, if Soul needed a boost, it certainly got one from the […]
Hi folks and welcome to the The Friday Film Club where both myself and Elwood will be highlighting a film which we feel is worth checking out. At the same time we would love to hear your own selections whether you’re choosing to just name them in the comments section or join us in arguing […]
Friday Film Club: Baby Driver (2017) & Tramps (2016)
Mads Mikkelsen? Sold! That’s all I needed to be interested in the upcoming film “Riders of Justice”. This Danish action-black comedy mix comes from writer-director Anders Thomas Jensen who previously worked with Mikkelsen on the underrated Western “The Salvation” and the astutely titled “Men & Chicken”. With “Riders” Jensen looks to be pulling from both […]
First Glance: “Riders of Justice”
“YouthMin” is a cute mockumentary in “The Office” mold — “The Office” at Church Camp. It’s got the same “cringeworthy” comedy dynamic as the dysfunctional Scranton paper supply sitcom, a similarly clueless “leader,” but with teen hormones in comic conflict with “wholesomeness” as a new wrinkle. It could use a few more laughs and another […]
Movie Review: Molding Young Minds the Michael Scott way — “YouthMin”
The Farrelly brothers arguably peaked with There’s Something About Mary, a caustic slice of anti-80s nostalgia that marked the precise moment when grossout comedy started to give way to cringe comedy. We start with a parody of the 80s fetish for the 50s – a bucolic neighbourhood, where Ted Stroehman, played by Ben Stiller, is […]
Farrelly: There’s Something About Mary (1998)
Melissa McCarthy’s collaborations with writer-director and husband Ben Falcone have been pretty brutal. Falcone has directed McCarthy in four previous movies. Of those, 2018’s abysmal “Life of the Party” has the highest Rotten Tomatoes score at 38%. Yes I know, review aggregators aren’t infallible and they don’t always represent the quality of a movie. I […]
REVIEW: “Thunder Force” (2021)
Director Evgeny Ruman Staring Mariya Belkina, Vladimir Friedman, Evelin Hagoel Rated M Score 4/6 Victor and Raya Frenkel were the golden voices of the Soviet film dubbing for decades. All the western movies that reached Soviet screens were dubbed by them. In 1990, with the collapse of Soviet Union, the Frenkels decided to do Aliyah […]
In retrospect, the genuinely great moments of Sex and the City were very few and far between. At its core, the series provided an electrifying vision of female friendship and, on the rare occasions when it genuinely embraced that project, it stood in a league of its own. We saw it in the last minute […]
If Hollywood is going to give screenwriting Oscar nominations to “Borat” movies, brace yourself for pranks, pranks and more pranks pictures. “Bad Trip” is more at the “Bad Grandpa” with Johnny Knoxville end of the practical joke pictures spectrum. A little edge, a few confrontations with angry rural America, waaaay too many bodily function/bodily fluid […]
Netflixable? A “Bad Trip” that goes a prank or two too far
I stumbled into “detectorists” when it hit Netflix some years back. But the streaming service had just the first two seasons of it, and while I binged it and absolutely adored it, I never got around to writing about it. Coming back to the series, after a third season of it brought things to a […]
Series Review: Return to “detectorists”
Steven Soderbergh’s latest film may not have been shot on an iPhone, but it cut down production fuss in other ways. Over three-quarters of the screenplay was shot on the Queen Mary 2, in a crossing from New York to London, and the cast almost entirely improvised their lines, taking their cues from a rough […]
Soderbergh: Let Them All Talk (2020)
In the States it seems like “Stan & Ollie” came and went with barely a peep. Yes John C. Reilly earned a Golden Globe nomination and the film received a warm reception from critics, but otherwise it’s a film that got no real attention. I don’t remember it hitting any theater around me and the […]
So what if I told you Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer were set to play a crime-fighting superhero duo? Well get ready because that’s exactly what we’re getting in the upcoming action comedy “Thunder Force”. Streaming giant Netflix has dropped the first trailer and I have to say it looks a lot like what you […]
The oddest thing about the new “Tom and Jerry” film is that the titular cat and mouse rivals aren’t even really the stars of their own movie. The live-action/animated hybrid directed by Tim Story places its human characters in the center, the cartoon characters feeling more like comedic ornaments that adorn the scene as needed. […]
Review: “Tom and Jerry” (2021)
Psycho Goreman (2020) Little Girl. Big Psycho. If you imagine a riff on E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) but with the kindly alien botanist swapped out for a bloodthirsty intergalactic warlord who’d look right at home in a GWAR music video, you’re on the right track here. Written and directed by Steven Kostanski, The Void (2016), […]
It’s a Tom & Jerry cartoon, so we’re not splitting the atom here. Besides, I’m pretty sure Jerry split that sucker over Tom’s noggin back in the ’50s, when they were at MGM. The “Tom & Jerry” movie is, first and foremost, cute. Animated animals — cats, a mouse, a rat, a dog, a goldfish, […]
Movie Review: “Tom & Jerry” terrorize NYC
A filmmaker suffers from writer’s block in jet-black comedy drama Black Bear, the latest effort from Lawrence Michael Levine. The initial plot sees struggling artist Allison (Aubrey Plaza) head to a rural retreat seeking inspiration for her next feature. She is entertained by expectant couple Gabe (Christopher Abbott) and Blair (Sarah Gadon) who own the […]
Dolemite is My Name (2019) Released:October 25th, 2019 Genre: Biography, Comedy, Drama Director: Craig Brewer Writers: Scott Alexander, Larry Karraszewski Cast: Eddie Murphy, Keegan-Michael Key, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Mike Epps, Craig Robinson, Titus Burgess, Kodi Smit-McPhee, T.I., Wesley Snipes, Chris Rock Opening Thoughts: I really didn’t know what to expect from this film. I had […]
Delayed Review: Dolemite is My Name (2019)
