REAL HEROES. NOT ACTUAL SIZE. After the events of Captain America: Civil War (2016), Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is under house arrest; soon, he becomes involved in an attempt to find Hope’s (Evangeline Lilly) mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) who’s been trapped in the quantum realm for 30 years. A sequel that matches the original, as it … Continue reading Ant-Man and the Wasp
WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, THE TOUGH GET GOING. Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner) agrees to write a biography for a charming Arab ruler (Spiros Focas) and visits his country… where she soon learns there are cracks in the façade. The sequel to Romancing the Stone (1984) might’ve been something if the woman who wrote the … Continue reading The Jewel of the Nile
UNDEPENDABLE. UNPREDICTABLE. UNFORGETTABLE. Pittsburgh university professor Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas) teaches creative writing while desperately trying to finish the follow-up novel to the book that made him famous; one of his students (Tobey Maguire) is peculiar and brilliant… Curtis Hanson followed the success of L.A. Confidential (1997) with this dramedy set in a wet and … Continue reading Wonder Boys
THIS JULY, HEROES DON’T COME ANY BIGGER. Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is persuaded to break into a house, but has no idea that it’s a trap that will set him on a path to becoming the smallest superhero the world has ever seen. At a time when Marvel is in need of a change of … Continue reading Ant-Man
THERE ARE A MILLION REASONS NOT TO LIKE OREN LITTLE. JUST ASK EVERYONE. After suddenly being saddled with a nine-year-old granddaughter he didn’t know he had, grumpy and selfish realtor Oren Little (Michael Douglas) grows closer to his neighbor (Diane Keaton). The intended target audience of older women deserve better movies than this romantic comedy – … Continue reading And So It Goes
WHAT DO YOU GET FOR THE MAN WHO HAS EVERYTHING? Wealthy investment banker Nicholas Van Orton (Michael Douglas) is contacted by his ne’er-do-well younger brother (Sean Penn) who gives him a special birthday gift – participation in a game that will change his life. David Fincher followed up the success of Se7en (1995) with another … Continue reading The Game
The Saturday Night Live clip above shows President Barack Obama finally having that famed shot of Kentucky bourbon with the incoming Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell. The latter is unconvincingly played by Taran Killam, but the point is clear – get a high-ranking Democrat and Republican drunk together and they might just discover what they have … Continue reading The U.S. Congress and the Movies
SHE’S A GIRL FROM THE BIG CITY. HE’S A RECKLESS SOLDIER OF FORTUNE. FOR A FABULOUS TREASURE, THEY SHARE AN ADVENTURE NO ONE COULD IMAGINE… OR SURVIVE. New York City romance novelist Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner) goes to Colombia to help her sister who’s been kidnapped, and gets unexpected aid from a bird smuggler (Michael Douglas). … Continue reading Romancing the Stone
THEY LEFT HER NO CHOICE. After a successful mission to Barcelona, covert operative Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) is sent to Dublin to pose as the wife of an MI6 agent (Michael Fassbender) – but realizes that she’s been set up. 2012 was a busy year for director Steven Soderbergh, but this action flick has better … Continue reading Haywire
NO ONE GETS AWAY CLEAN. After watching Traffik, a 1990 British miniseries portraying the illegal drugs trade from the Pakistani opium poppy grower to the British user, Steven Soderbergh knew that the story would work just as well transferred to an American and Mexican setting. He also knew that he wanted a reportage feel, which is … Continue reading Traffic: The Never-Ending Story
TODAY, ONLY A HANDFUL OF PEOPLE KNOW WHAT IT MEANS… SOON YOU WILL KNOW. In one of the most bizarre turn of events in Hollywood history, a film highlighting the dangers of nuclear power was released mere days before the most serious accident in U.S. history happened at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania. … Continue reading The China Syndrome: Getting to the Core
IT’S GOING TO BE LEGENDARY. When Billy (Michael Douglas) is about to marry his 40 years younger girlfriend in Las Vegas, his childhood buddies (Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Kline) gather to throw him a bachelor party… but there are unresolved issues between them. It may be easy to label this a Hangover for … Continue reading Last Vegas
What Steven Soderbergh announced as his “final” film is a straightforward HBO biopic detailing the love affair between flamboyant Vegas entertainer Liberace and the decades-younger lover he took in the late 1970s. Seen from Scott Thorson’s perspective, it was a relationship begun with open eyes but turned into a bizarre rollercoaster of kitsch, drugs, jealousy … Continue reading Behind the Candelabra
