Reviews

RogerEbert.com — Life After Beth

Aubrey Plaza is game as an adorable zombie who becomes increasingly ravenous in this initially clever comedy. But writer-director Jeff Baena, making his feature debut, presents some inspired ideas and scenarios that ultimately go nowhere. My mixed review, at RogerEbert.com. Read the review here...

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What the Flick?! — The Giver

Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep add heft to this derivative but well-made sci-fi thriller based on Lois Lowry’s Young Adult novel. In a rigid and seemingly perfect futuristic society, one plucky teenage boy dares to shake up the status quo. It’s beautifully shot but it goes off the rails in...

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What the Flick?! — Let’s Be Cops

Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr. have some decent chemistry with each other but it can’t salvage this straining, one-joke comedy. They star as struggling, 30-year-old Los Angeles buddies who enjoy a rush of power and self-esteem when they pretend to be police officer. Madcap hilarity ensues....

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What the Flick?! — The Trip to Italy

Alonso and I both enjoyed seconds with “The Trip to Italy,” the sequel to the 2011 comedy “The Trip.” Co-stars Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon once again play versions of themselves and improvise their dialogue while hopping from one delicious meal and scenic locale to the next. Instead of the...

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On Robin Williams, 1951-2014

Christmas Day, 1997. Chris and I had just gotten married two months earlier and moved back to Dallas, where I’d gone to college at Southern Methodist University, because he had a great producing gig at the local Fox TV station, KDFW. Chris was stuck working on that holiday, as journalists...

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Paramount Pictures Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence. Running time: 101 minutes. One and a half stars out of four. “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” is a reboot of the franchise that began with comic books and morphed into television shows and films and general pop-culture ubiquity in the late ’80s...

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RogerEbert.com — Step Up All In

Certainly you don’t go to a “Step Up” movie for the glittering repartee. But alas, one must endure banal dialogue and a flimsy plot in order to enjoy the gravity-defying, acrobatic extravaganzas. It’s enough to make you wish they’d called this fifth film in the franchise “Step Up and Shut...

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