It’s a jam-packed week on the What the Flick?! Podcast, and not just because of the prodigious casts in this week’s new movies. Alonso and I review the excellent heist thriller “Widows,” the so-so Harry Potter prequel “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” and the feel-good drama “Green Book.” We also discuss...
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What the Flick?! Podcast
RogerEbert.com — Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
It’s not as fantastic as the original, and there aren’t nearly as many beasts. Still, this spin-off series from the “Harry Potter” universe keeps slogging along. The second of five planned movies has its moments of magic, but it also features way too many characters and subplots to even begin...
Read moreWhat the Flick?! Podcast 10/18/18
It’s a Halloween miracle: Ben Mankiewicz actually joined me and Alonso for the latest What the Flick?! Podcast. (One of these days, all four of us will be in the same place at the same time, I promise.) This week, we talk about the latest incarnation of the horror classic...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Venom
“Venom” isn’t quite the unmitigated disaster you’ve heard it is, but it’s also not the optimal use of its prodigious talent. Tom Hardy gives it his all, as always, in the title role as the Marvel Comics villain. (Although here, in his origin story, he’s more of an amusingly menacing...
Read moreWhat the Flick?! Podcast 9/13/18
It’s our third episode of the What the Flick?! Podcast so it’s fitting that three of us are here this time. Maybe all four of us will be able to get it together for episode four …? Alonso, Matt and I talked about as many movies as we could on...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Reprisal
“Reprisal” is a blandly gritty piece of late-August mayhem that’s as forgettable as its generic title. I’m actually sort of amazed that it got a theatrical release at all. Perhaps this empty crime thriller is only seeing the light of day because of the presence of Bruce Willis, who basically...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — The Spy Who Dumped Me
I love Mila Kunis. I love Kate McKinnon. I love the idea of these two talented ladies co-starring in an R-rated action comedy. But I did not love “The Spy Who Dumped Me.” Director and co-writer Susanna Fogel has trouble pulling off the tricky balance of broad antics and brutal...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Skyscraper
Dwayne Johnson battles a Hong Kong high-rise in “Skyscraper.” It’s “Die Hard” meets “The Towering Inferno”: just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Ocean’s 8
“Ocean’s 8” is a complete blast of a heist movie featuring an all-star cast of formidable actresses in to-die-for designer gowns. But beneath the glitz and glamour of this sequel lies a statement about the way women still unfortunately tend to be underestimated. The entire cast enjoys great chemistry, but...
Read moreWine the Flick?! — Breaking In
Gabrielle Union gives it her all as a mother who will stop at nothing to save her kids, but “Breaking In” is never crazy enough. It’s sort of “Panic Room” in reverse, with Union’s character finding herself stuck outside a high-tech house while her kids are trapped inside with a...
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