Reviews

This is a slow moving maudlin soap opera about the Bard coming back to Stratford to retire and try to reconcile family matters with the wife Anne nee Hathaway and the two daughters. The younger daughter, Judith, is still unmarried at the ripe old age of 28 and the prospects aren't looking good. The center of the plot is Hamnet, who was born Judith's twin but died when he was 11 of the plague. Shake wants to plant a garden in his honor but wifey Judi Dench and daughter take it upon themselves to remind Shake over and over that he didn't even make it back to S-U-A when Hamnet died.

I suppose this soap opera being (allegedly) about Shakespeare gives it special meaning. Watching this awful drama I just thought praise heavens Shake that you went to London and stayed there most of the time because you would not have gotten anything accomplished in that freaking daily melodrama.

If you like Judi Dench go for it. She has a great Elizabethan/Jacobean frown that pretty much carries through the film. I like her but didn't see where she made a difference. Ian McKellen as the Earl Of Southhampton yeah pretty good but he had some good lines, nice outfit and looked, well, properly ugly in an Elizabethan way. When wifey hears he might drop by she gets all over Shake about his sonnets since she figured he had the hots for the Earl.

And the "cinematography" ain't all that much either. Can't carry this made-for-tv melodrama.

So go see it for yourself. I just have no faith in Kenneth Branagh now, someone who's managed to make a career off Shakespeare. Finally got the nerve to get up and go for a drink of water 10-15 minutes before it was over, never to return.

Just writing this review to controvert some of the bad reviews. Glad I didn't pay attention to them, glad I saw Mary Queen of Scots. Both Saoirse Ronan as Mary and Margot Robbie as Elizabeth deliver believable, compelling performances. For me it checked off all the boxes: beautiful and stunning cinematography, proper historical costumes, dramatic court scenes and palace intrigue as the movie marches toward Mary Queen of Scots final dramatic scene. Very fine rendition by director Josie Rourke though I think the viewer would understand and enjoy the sequence of events much more just by reading, say, the wikipedia bio of Mary. In real history way too much going on and way too many arguments amongst historians about too many things regarding Mary. Rourke does take some very minor license with casting and according to some the accents are not perfect, as if they expected Saoirse (as Mary who was raised in France) to be spitting out Scottish dialect as if she were Bobby Burns. The movie naturally has to discard, refine and distill piles of intrigue, movements and events concerning Mary. Josie Rourke does a fine job. Check this one out, you'll enjoy it!!

Okay go see the movie 'Gravity'. Why? Because it gets a super high rating. Because everybody else has seen it, so you'll be able to carry on an informed conversation about another CGI movie and be up-to-date.

But don't expect much in the way of dialogue, characters, or plot, in fact don't expect anything. The first fifteen minutes of 'dialogue', if dialogue interests you, just might have you scratching your head. Who wrote this drivel? And it doesn't get any better... well it can't, actually. Sandra Bullock and George Clooney? Okay they help. Gotta have a couple nice looking stars to sell the product. From my point of view that's good enough reason for them to be in the movie but sorry I don't see any awards here.

This is a lot of 3D CGI and a lot more 3D CGI. I just don't see that it's all that great, sorry. A half hour of that'll do me. And adding to the problem was the 'discount' matinée price of $20 for two. Sorry for me way overpriced. I suggest if you're on the fence about this to wait until it gets to a discount $2 theater. In the meantime you can pretend you've seen it, just ooh and aah and mention the "objects in space that looked like they were floating over my seat", and so on.

But if you like things like story, characters, dialogue, plot twists and real cinematography- not that there's much of that around anymore but hey once in a while something does come along- well I wouldn't waste too much of your money or time on 'Gravity'. Way over-hyped.

Of course Robert Reich is mostly preaching to the choir but he also informs and entertains the viewer. Reich is not isolated theory or ivory tower. He served in the administrations of Ford and Carter and was Labor Secretary under Clinton from 1993 to 1997. For me what gives Reich credence is the economic expansion of the 90's- the sustained growth, stronger middle class, low unemployment, low inflation, lower poverty rate and budget surpluses (to name a few) of which Reich was a key driver in economic policy.

This is not a movie for dogmatic right-wingers who will find the facts, um, inconvenient to say the least. They can skip the movie but still write reviews just by calling Reich a bunch of names. For the rest of us, well most of us can see what's happening to the economy but Reich breaks it down in an easy entertaining manner. His story about the first time he met Bubba on a boat to England is pretty funny as well as his jokes about his height. (4'8")

Director Jacob Kornbluth utilizes a cross section of the economy to make his point. Rich investor, middle class upper and lower, and those living day to day and fighting off poverty. Can be a tad dry because this is all pretty much right in front of our collective noses if we care to look. But he needs to make the examples to make the documentary work.

Robert Reich yes might be diminutive in stature, but the knowledge, the energy, the passion, and the inspiration are all sky high.

A very interesting man who lives and fights for his convictions. For me made the documentary worthwhile.

Late to the party but this movie had me laughing out loud. A blend of very funny realism and sci-fi led by the crazy lead character Gary King and 4 schoolmates who reune to hit 12 bars in one night which they failed to make in their younger days.

The other four have settled into conventional safe lives but that doesn't mean their lives are that wonderful. The lead character Gary is half nuts and hasn't accomplished much since school days. But he is still full of juvenile life and leads the group on the marathon pub crawl.

Along the way some strange things happen. Gary might be nuts but he still has a mind and a will to live life against the odds, and so do some of the others. Whatever the 'best' choices in life, they would rather live on as human beings with all the failures and all the problems, than settle into a perfect, predictable life without pain and without problems.

If you're over 14 and looking for more then summer hyper schlock, go see the World's End. Just relax and enjoy it.

The Iceman a biopic based on New Jersey hit-man Richard Kuklinski who managed to murder at least 100 and possibly up to 250 victims in a span of almost 40 years.

Michael Shannon giving a strong performance as the hit-man with the calculating and creepy demeanor of a psychopathic killer with no conscience who can still flip the switch back to his life in the suburbs with wife and kids. Yet a shade of subtlety and pathos in his portrayal of Kuklinski that we can actually identify and take some interest in his struggles. With the exception of Winona Ryder who fits seamlessly as naive suburban housewife (and the 2 daughters) very unlikely to feel sympathy for the victims with the exception of one senseless killing. Mostly wiseguys, mostly scumbags. We're not all that mad at Kuklinski for the nasty stuff he's doing.

Ray Liotta a can't miss as a minor mob boss, all the acting first rate and the characters real. But the Iceman story is told without ice and without chasers, a gangster flick without sentiments real or phony thrown in. Viewers hoping to draw insights or conclusions from all the dead bodies might end up disappointed. The 'Iceman' moniker from his practice of freezing bodies to confuse the time of death.

My biggest question for Kuklinski would be, how do you get away with so many murders, so many different methods, places, people over a span of almost 40 years? In the true crime shows the perp makes one little slip in his only perfect crime and ends up in the slam.

The movie is what it is because I don't think there's all that much complex or new in a Kuklinski to learn. Abused growing up, turns to sociopathic super bully behavior as an adult to get what he wants and to survive. No genius but smart enough to know when to turn it down out in the suburbs. Kuklinski was an usher at mass every Sunday. They should have included that in the movie.

This is a gem of a movie about a frustrated young artist who turns to fakes to get a payday. Many are willing to turn a careless or blind eye for financial gain and soon he's entangled with a failed gallery owner and then New England mob boss/collector Seamus White invoking an older and possibly meaner version of Whitey Bolger.

Realistic portrayal of the world of galleries and painting. Action moving along all the way with strong setting, plot, as well as a great sound track. Robert Loggia as the crime boss, Fisher Stevens as the lone FBI agent assigned to the art crimes unit, David Thornton as the failing gallery owner, and Robert Clohessy as the son of the crime boss all providing strong characterizations. Where have they been hiding this movie? Gabriel Mann as the young painter soon over his head and Jill Flint as the girlfriend and art expert who can spot the fakes. Blanche Baker a savvy gallery owner not asking too many questions.

Great movie beginning to end especially if you have any interest in the art world.