War for the Planet of the Apes ★★★★ Now playing The war for the planet of the apes is seemingly fought on two fronts. On one side is the troop of freedom-fighting primates still led by their hyper-intelligent leader, Caesar (Andy Serkis). On the other is an unseen but approaching human army, temporarily tasked with […]
Neil Morris
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Spider-Man: Homecoming Makes a Fifty-Five-Year-Old Hero Feel Like a Kid Again
SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING Opening Friday, July 7 Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is readying himself to race toward some crosstown nefariousness. As fanfare crescendos on the soundtrack, he shoots his webbing to swing into action, only for it to fall feebly to earth. Cut to a long shot of Spidey sprinting through an empty golf course, dodging […]
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Movie Review: Cars 3 Is a Smooth Ride Because It Runs on Cruise Control
Cars 3 ★★★ Now playing The most perplexing part of Pixar’s Cars universe is that while anthropomorphized automobiles are the sole living creatures, they clearly inhabit a world that’s either parallel or subsequent to our own. It’s full of landmarks we know, from Route 66 to the Eiffel Tower. Cities exist and crops are grown, […]
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The Book of Henry Is a Blatant Tearjerker Whose Elaborate Plot Serves a Useless Solution
The Book of Henry Opening Friday, june 16 The Book of Henry raises several questions. What’s the kid from Room doing these days? What does Colin Trevorrow do between Jurassic Park sequels? Is this sort of work why Bobby Moynihan left Saturday Night Live? Did Gregg Hurwitz really write this?! Henry (Jaeden Lieberher) is a […]
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Movie Review: Megan Leavey Lavishes Love on the Bond of a Marine and Her Bomb-Sniffing Dog but Gives Short Shrift to Everything Else
Megan Leavey★★★ Now playing Yeah, Megan Leavey feels like a fugitive from the Lifetime channel. But, with a singleminded focus on the bond between a Marine and her bomb-sniffing dog, its earnestness eventually tames its pat predictability. Leavey (Kate Mara) is a wayward twenty-something whose broken upbringing leads her to enlist in the Marine Corps. […]
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Movie Review: Family Apocalypse Survival Saga It Comes at Night Could Use a Dash of M. Night
It Comes at Night★★★ Opening Friday, June 9 Leading with a cold open of patricide, followed by a suffocating bleakness that never relents, It Comes at Night doesn’t suffer from a lack of atmosphere. The latest thriller/horror picture distributed by A24 is a grim fairy tale set in a black forest, a milieu that drives […]
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Movie Review: The Parallels of Ancient Mythology and Modern Superheroes Become Literal in Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman★★★ ½ Now playing The long-overdue Wonder Woman film is an origin story that doesn’t shrink from the beauty or brawn of a hero in whom the parallels of ancient mythology and modern superhero fiction become literal. Diana (Gal Gadot), the precocious daughter of Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen), is a princess of the superhuman […]
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Movie Review: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Swashbuckles Under Its Own Weight
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales★★ ½ Now playing In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Captain Jack Sparrow, the role that once earned Johnny Depp his first Oscar nomination, literally jumps a shark. It’s a ghost shark, but the metaphor couldn’t be more conspicuous. A little of the […]
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In The Lovers, Adulterous Romance and Lust Rekindle a Dying Marriage
THE LOVERS Opening Friday, May 26 Ihe Lovers is a portrait of marital discord that feels familiar and staid. It immediately casts viewers into a morass of tumult and tears, and we obligingly yearn to learn more about how the marriage of Mary (Debra Winger) and Michael (Tracy Letts) became corroded. We await clues about […]
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Movie Review: The Fate of the Furious Does Dumb Fun Right
The Fate of the Furious ★★★½Now playing Any notion of logic in the Fast & Furious film series has long gone the way of the Edsel. What began as a NOS-soaked Point Break knockoff morphed into muscle-bound heist films with muscle cars. With The Fate of the Furious, the series enters its Avengers mode, with […]