A character-driven comedy-drama based on a true story, The Duke (2020) is a pleasant little film reminiscent of the type of British picture that was commonplace during the story's setting, the early 1960s. Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren star, with Broadbent in especially fine form.

Kempton Bunton (Broadbent) is a 60-ish pensioner living in Newcastle with his wife, Dorothy (Mirren), an elderly housekeeper for a local councilor and his wife. Years before their 18-year-old daughter died in a bicycling accident, Dorothy suppressing her grief to the point of hiding away all photos of her late daughter and refusing to visit her grave. Kempton, meanwhile, drives his wife to distraction with his inability to hold onto a job, his community activism, and his television...Read the entire review

THE FILMS:

Box sets of unrelated films are often hit or miss; at best a collection of strong movies alongside a few duds or, at worst, an obvious way to force viewers looking to purchase only a couple of titles into dropping more cash. Fortunately, the Columbia Classics: 4K Ultra HD Collection Volume 1 bucks this trend and provides a wonderful collection of six excellent films with superior presentations. The titles include plentiful legacy bonus materials and a few new items, and the handsome, sturdy packaging is attractive and functional. Given the wealth of material in this set, I have chosen to provide the highlights below; short film critiques and examinations of the set's technical merits that will end with my highest recommendation: DVD Talk Collector Series.

The eldest film in the set, Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is r...Read the entire review

The Movie:

Unbeknownst to me, the collaboration between director Michael Winterbottom and actor Steve Coogan has gone past films such as The Trip to Spain, with Greed being apparently the eighth film between the two. Given recent events and eating of the rich, it would seem like a nice idea to peek at this.

Winterbottom write the screenplay, which examines the life and business practice of Sir Richard McCreadie (Coogan), a card shark who matured to a retail business tycoon who thrives on having his merchandise worked on for the lowest costs possible (usually in sweat shops) while he makes billions. On the eve of his 60th birthday, his life and legacy is examined by Nick (David Mitchell, Peep Show), an author looking to make a biography ...Read the entire review

THE FILM:

My memories of seeing Bad Boys II in theaters back in 2003 are kind of poignant considering all that is going on in the world. I was a sophomore in high school and on vacation in New York City with my family. That is back when I barely missed a movie in theaters, especially action films, so I bought a ticket at a huge Times Square theater and watched the Bayhem explode alongside the handful of other weekday patrons. To say I loved it would be an understatement. This long-in-development follow-up, Bad Boys for Life, is the last movie I saw in theaters before their temporary shutdown, and I had a hell of a time at the packed IMAX showing back in January. Directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah take over for Michael Bay, the film is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and i...Read the entire review

The Movie:

Some of it may be in retrospect, but there is a certain aspiration for people when they get older to have a gathering of those close to them before their health takes a turn; it did with my Dad before his health deteriorated, and it does with Frankie, starring Isabelle Huppert, who has gradually fought towards receiving the respectability she deserves decades after the widely scorned Michael Cimino film Heaven's Gate.

Huppert plays the eponymous role of Frankie, aka Francoise Cremont, a famous actress who has a terminal cancer diagnosis. She invites her family to the Portuguese riviera to be around them once more before things chance, but whether she decides to tell them of her health remains unknown. Jimmy (Brendan Gleeson, Read the entire review

THE FILM:

Boy, oh, boy, this film is a piece of shit. I hate to be a hater, because director Nicolas Pesce obviously is a fan of the Japanese horror series upon which 2004's The Grudge and his 2020 reboot are based, but very little in this convoluted horror film works despite Pesce's attempts to incorporate elements from previous, more successful franchise films. Sony slaps front and center on the poster that this film is produced by Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead), but I question whether he had much involvement past cashing the paycheck he got for that nod. The cast is surprisingly good, and includes John Cho, Lin Shaye, Jacki Weaver and Andrea Riseborough, but these poor thespians are tasked with acting out Pesce's lousy, convoluted scree...Read the entire review

THE FILM:

Director John Singleton passed away last April at the age of 51. Nearly three decades earlier, he released the excellent Boyz N the Hood, just months after graduating from the USC School of Cinematic Arts. The film went on to gross $57.5 million at the American box office and brought worldwide attention to the lives and struggles of Los Angeles' young, inner-city residents. Singleton's film spotlighted a group of people rarely featured in the era's coming-of-age stories, and it also provided the perspective of the residents effected by a type of violence usually only discussed by outsiders. Featuring career-defining performances from Cuba Gooding Jr., Laurence Fishburne and Ice Cube, Boyz N the Hood is Singleton's best film, and one whose themes and message resonate loudly nearly thirty years later.

The narrative, also written by Singleton, conce...Read the entire review

The Movie:

I think when anyone saw the trailer for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood that people knew what they may have been getting, what they were in for and probably shed a tear just on that. You have a two-time Oscar winner in Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips) playing Fred Rogers, one of the more influential figures in child development in the latter half of the 20th century? Hell yeah it was going to be emotional.

Based on an 1998 Esquire article on Rogers by Tom Junod, Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster (Maleficent: Mistress of Evil) adapted a screenplay which Marielle Heller (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) directed. In the film, Junod is Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys, Read the entire review

The Movie:

I have a bit of a Pedro Almodovar (Volver) blindspot in my film-watching history. Not because of preference or choice, with a lot of things going on there are bound to be things that are gently guided downwards, things that some people tend to advocate for. Yet like a lot of other well-regarded creative forces, he's managed to hit on some themes in his life that seem pseudo autobiographical and I feel close to at the moment, so I figured now was as good a time as any to dive in with Pain and Glory.

Almodovar wrote and directed the film, which focuses on Salvador Mallo (Antonio Banderas, The 33) a film director dealing with a creative regression while going through some personal experiences. The film shows us Salvador's memorable or even life-defin...Read the entire review

THE FILM:

Arriving for its belated victory lap nearly ten years after the release of Zombieland, this sequel, Zombieland: Double Tap, is fairly entertaining, but feels about as stale as the truckload of decade-old Twinkies the heroes find during their journeys here. The principal cast, including Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin, returns, and is joined by Luke Wilson and Rosario Dawson. Our four heroes have been moving about the country looking for a permanent home, and ultimately reach a crossroads with each other as permanent cabin fever sets in. Ruben Fleischer returns to direct, and Double Tap adds a newly evolved, more dangerous zombie into the mix, as well as an airheaded, blonde distraction for Eisenberg's c...Read the entire review

The Movie:

It would probably be safe to say that Quentin Tarantino has meandered a little creatively over the last several years, right? Since Death Proof, which was a bland version of Grindhouse for him, he did Inglourious Basterds (his WWII revenge-y film take) Django Unchained (kind of the same but in the South during the Civil War) and Hateful Eight (a film based on a story he'd been writing for a while before that). When I saw the rather extensive cast of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood I got a little ...Read the entire review