BEETLEJUICE — SHOCKTOBER!
Tim Burton’s 1988 kids’ movie horror/goof-fest might have impressed that era’s young audiences with its stop-motion animation effects, but “Beetlejuice”…
Franchise
PSYCHO II — SHOCKTOBER!
SHOCKTOBER! rolls on with PSYCHO II. Anthony Perkins reprises his role as Norman Bates “22 years later.” Cole Smithey.
FINAL DESTINATION 5 — SHOCKTOBER!
Black Comedy, Capsules Blog, Franchise, Horror, sex, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, THREE STARS, Transgressive Cinema, Women's Cinema
The “Final Destination” franchise settles into its comfortable shock horror rhythm in this latest outing. Notable is the film’s proficient…
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET — SHOCKTOBER!
More contemplative and thematically muscular than Wes Craven’s 1984 original slasher flick, Samuel Bayer’s updated version has a quieter surreal…
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE — DEAD RECKONING PART ONE
With more plot holes than a colander, “Dead Reckoning” blows its bloated budget with a seemingly AI generated script that…
SPIDER-MAN 2 — CLASSIC FILM PICK
Even the budding romance between Peter and Mary Jane is handled with an eye toward the absurd. Spider-Man tells Mary…
DUNE
“Dune” is a fine movie to have projected on your wall (without sound) to add atmosphere to a party, but…
NO TIME TO DIE
With “No Time To Die’s” plaintive theme song, Billie Eilish’s lush voice announces a young, female-led era for the longest…
THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH
The World Is Not Enough keeps the stakes high for the James Bond franchise by paying closer attention to character…
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2
Action/Adventure, Action/Drama, FIVE STARS, Franchise, Reviews Blog, Spectacle, Sports, Spy Thriller
But the strongest aspect of the movie is Woo’s love of the duel. Ethan and Nyah fall in love while…
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE — FALLOUT
“Mission: Impossible” is the closest thing Hollywood has to a James Bond franchise it’s got going, and going it is.…
BLADE RUNNER 2049
All spectacle and no substance describes Denis Villeneuve’s predictably overwrought yet lightweight sci-fi snoozefest. Even Ryan Gosling comes across as…
JASON BOURNE
Which brings us to “Jason Bourne,” a script in search of a story, but willing to substitute action set pieces…
STAR TREK BEYOND
The big thing that this movie is farthest away from (as its title beckons) is authentic storytelling. Cole Smithey.
STAR WARS: EPISODE VII: THE FORCE AWAKENS
The magic is gone from the “Star Wars” franchise. It has been for a very long time. The franchise started…
SPECTRE
Witty references to Bond’s past make for fun inside jokes for loyal audiences. The romance that steams between Bond and…
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE — ROGUE NATION
Tested by a inane MacGuffin that would make anyone whose ever even heard of Wikileaks burst out laughing, an anti-heroine…
GOLDFINGER — CLASSIC FILM PICK
“Goldfinger” set in stone the formula for what would become cinema’s longest running and most reliably entertaining franchise. Regardless of…
THE THIN MAN— CLASSIC FILM PICK
Long before Ian Fleming’s James Bond became cinema’s longest-running and most successful franchise, Dashiell Hammett’s Thin Man books laid their…
SKYFALL
The James Bond franchise is especially compelling for the lengths filmmakers go to in sidestepping hard-worn formula clichés with each…
COLE SMITHEY’S CLASSIC CINEMA
