IFC Films R for language including sexual references, and for teen drug and alcohol use. Running time: 162 minutes. Four stars out of four. Simply as a piece of experimental filmmaking, “Boyhood” would have been fascinating. What Richard Linklater did was so inspired, so risky, and it could have gone...
Read more
Reviews
Begin Again
The Weinstein Co. Rated R for language. Running time: 101 minutes. Three stars out of four. It’s been out for a couple of weeks now, but I didn’t want to let too much more time pass before I wrote a little something about “Begin Again.” This movie charmed me so...
Read moreWhat the Flick?! — Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Machine gun-toting apes barreling on horseback through the fiery streets of San Francisco? Yes, please. Matt Reeves’ movie is pretty bad-ass — thrilling, terrifying and vividly rendered — but it also features some intimate moments of real emotional poignancy. We all dug it, although Alonso was less wowed than Ben...
Read moreWhat the Flick?! — Boyhood
All of us were moved and wowed by Richard Linklater’s ambitious and profound film following the life of a Texas boy from first grade through freshman year in college. Solely as an experiment — shooting with the same actors in snippets at a time over a 12-year period — “Boyhood”...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Tammy
Melissa McCarthy has enough clout in this town and in this industry, after standout performances in the massive box-office hits “Bridesmaids,” “The Heat” and “Identity Thief,” to make pretty much any movie she wants. She’s used it to make “Tammy,” a comedy she stars in, produced and co-wrote with her...
Read moreTransformers: Age of Extinction
Paramount Pictures Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, language and brief innuendo. Running time: 165 minutes. One and a half stars out of four. Long before Optimus Prime hoists his hulking metal frame onto the back of a giant robot dinosaur, wields his mighty sword and...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — They Came Together
Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler star in this parody of romantic comedies and all the formulas and cliches that make them seem so interchangeable. Working with director David Wain and an impressive supporting cast of likable comic talents, they’ve essentially made a formulaic, cliched romantic comedy. It’s sadly lifeless. My...
Read moreWhat the Flick?! — Transformers: Age of Extinction
It’s the fourth ‘Transformers” movie. You know what you’re getting into by now — only worse. Our good friend, LA Weekly critic Amy Nicholson, joins me and Alonso for a fun and lively discussion....
Read moreWhat the Flick?! — Begin Again
Writer-director John Carney’s follow-up to the miraculous “Once” may not have quite the same innovative power, but it’s still a completely charming musical in a scruffily romantic version of New York City. Alonso and I kinda loved it; Amy, not so much....
Read moreWhat the Flick?! — They Came Together
Alonso and I have a major disagreement with our good friend, Amy Nicholson, over whether the romantic comedy parody “They Came Together” is actually funny or not....
Read more