‘Blinded by the Light’s’ Pakistani family drama awkwardly mixes with Springsteen tunes (Movie review)
I love the way Javed (Viveik Kalra) loves Bruce Springsteen in “Blinded by the Light.” The Pakistani-British youth sings and dances in the street once he gets the Boss bug. He smiles when listening to the lyrics. He writes about the Boss for his school paper. He wins an essay contest and a trip to
Come for the Beatles tunes, stay for Lily James in ‘Yesterday’ (Movie review)
“Yesterday” isn’t the first movie to use Beatles songs as its foundation – see also 2001’s “I Am Sam” and 2007’s “Across the Universe” – but writers Jack Barth and Richard Curtis deserve credit for coming up with a killer hook. Struggling British singer-songwriter Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) gets hit by a bus at the
‘The Perfection’ isn’t what you think it is, but it’s still a clever little horror gem (Movie review)
“The Perfection” (Netflix) has one of those trailers that seems to give away the whole movie, so after making the mistake of watching the trailer, I let it fade from my mind a bit before watching the film. As it turns out, this horror thriller from director/co-writer Richard Shepard – who has a lot of
The top 100 ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ songs, ranked
Music rankings: Judging the song itself, the choreography and the performances, here are my selections for the top 100 “CXG” songs.
Malek, music are the stars of too-formulaic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (Movie review)
Prior to seeing “Bohemian Rhapsody” (2018), I was hardly a Queen fan. The band’s popularity had faded before I was old enough to appreciate it, and growing up, their music was not something I was into. My knowledge of Queen was limited to knowing they had a handful of decent songs and a few overplayed stadium
Cooper, Gaga beautifully update ‘A Star is Born’ for a new generation (Movie review)
I’m usually not a fan of remakes, but I make exceptions if the remake brings a fresh perspective to the material. I can also be won over if the remake is really f****** good. Such is the case with “A Star is Born” (2018), which was also made in 1937, 1954 and 1976, and which
John’s top 10 movies of 2018
The dominant genre of 2018 continued to be superheroes; even with the “X-Men” Universe and DC Extended Universe releasing only one film each, the three Marvel Cinematic Universe movies were impossible to overlook. Still, this was a less blockbustery year than 2017, and by year’s end I had seen at least one really good film
‘Juliet, Naked’ a pitch-perfect adaptation of Hornby’s novel about love, regret and music nerdery (Movie review)
Just as I was thinking that 2018 has been a down year for comedies, along comes “Juliet, Naked,” which got a limited release in theaters and is now on home video. It’s the sixth Nick Hornby book to be adapted for the screen, and my personal favorite. (And no, I’m not forgetting “High Fidelity” and
‘The Greatest Showman’ reviews
John’s “The Greatest Showman” review, April 10, 2018 Michael’s “The Greatest Showman” review, Dec. 30, 2017
‘The Greatest Showman’ is a beautiful celebration of showbiz that doesn’t pretend to be subtle (Movie review)
“The Greatest Showman” (2017), now available for home viewing, takes us back to a time when anything is possible if you dream big and are persistent. Did such a time ever exist? That’s beside the point, as is what happened behind the scenes at Phineas Barnum’s circuses. (Don’t do an extensive internet search if you