Movie Reviews
Movie Review: Kung Fu Panda 4
By Bob Garver Since Po (Jack Black), the main character of the “Kung Fu Panda” movies, is known for his corpulent eating habits, it makes sense to compare the animated franchise to a sort of comfort food. These movies aren’t exactly “healthy” choices that send the imagination soaring, but they aren’t “junk” that…
Read MoreMovie Review: Dune – Part 2
By Bob Garver I wasn’t the biggest fan of the first installment of director Denis Villeneuve’s take on the Frank Herbert sci-fi classic “Dune” back in 2021. The sounds and visuals were great, and I understood why it won so many technical Oscars that year, but I couldn’t get invested in the characters or…
Read MoreMovie Review: “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – To the Hashira Training”
By Bob Garver NOTE: This Japanese film is available in both “subbed” and “dubbed” versions. This review is based on the “subbed” version – Japanese spoken with English subtitles. Prior to “Hashira Training,” my exposure to the “Demon Slayer” anime series was limited to the 2020 film “Mugen Train.” Well, that and all the…
Read MoreMovie Review: “Bob Marley: One Love”
By Bob Garver It was a good idea for “Bob Marley: One Love” to open on Valentine’s Day. Not just because there hadn’t been a decent box office performer in weeks (and even “Mean Girls and “The Beekeeper” were only mild hits) and the market was ripe for a takeover. Not just because…
Read MoreMovie Review: “Lisa Frankenstein”
By Bob Garver I had high hopes for “Lisa Frankenstein,” whose trailers promised a lead performance from Kathryn Newton (of the gleefully twisted body-switch horror-comedy “Freaky”) and a sick sense of humor that might actually be jarring in a fun way. Then I learned the truth: the movie still stars Kathryn Newton, but it’s…
Read MoreMovie Review: Argylle
By Bob Garver As much as I enjoyed the fun, exciting trailers for “Argylle” that made excellent use of the film’s eclectic cast, there was one element that told me the movie was in serious trouble. Amongst shots of the cat belonging to spy novelist Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard), onscreen text insisted that,…
Read MoreMovie Review: “Anyone but You”
By Bob Garver Not every week brings a shiny new blockbuster for me to review. Sometimes I need to look to the holdovers. Sadly, I’m not referring to “The Holdovers,” one of the best films of 2023 that you should definitely check out if it’s playing in your area. I’m referring to whichever movie did…
Read MoreMovie Review: The Beekeeper
By Bob Garver Last week I wrote about “Mean Girls” and the problem of having seen a version of the movie before, which made it too familiar and predictable. I meant it in a very literal sense – there was a 2004 movie called “Mean Girls,” written by Tina Fey, with basically the same characters…
Read MoreMovie Review: Mean Girls
By Bob Garver Of all the pop culture institutions to be cancelled, ended, or otherwise shut down by the pandemic in 2020, the permanent closure of the “Mean Girls” Broadway musical was perhaps the one that disappointed me the most. I’m not sure why it wasn’t brought back post-pandemic – ticket sales had…
Read MoreMovie Review: Night Swim
By Bob Garver For the first time since the pandemic, January means the release of a terrible horror movie in “Night Swim.” Actually, the pandemic only really affected January horror in 2021. It’s just that with January 2022 bringing us that nifty “Scream” reboot and January 2023 giving the world the instantly-iconic “M3GAN,”…
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