Movie Reviews

By Bob Garver         The streak is over.   The last time I started a review with that phrase, it was to mean something bad – 2022’s “Lightyear” was the first Pixar movie that I didn’t recommend. This time, it’s something good – Zach Cregger’s new take on “Resident Evil” is the…

By Bob Garver “By Any Means” is a movie about two disparate FBI employees that can’t decide if it wants to be a “Buddy Cop” movie or not. The pair are mismatched, but are they “comically” mismatched? The pair banter, is there enough banter to qualify for the “Buddy Cop” label? There’s action, but is…

By Bob Garver The big drawback to getting in an advance review of “Coyote vs. Acme” last week is that “Insidious: Out of the Further” is even less relevant this week. The horror film toppled from second place to fourth at the domestic box office, behind even the seventh weekend of “The Odyssey,” while “Spider-Man:…

By Bob Garver     The dialogue-free Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote cartoons are my favorite of the Looney Tunes. No jokes centered around annoying accents or speech impediments, just pure physical comedy about a hapless carnivore and his Ahab-like obsession with catching and eating a skinny flightless bird. Although the cartoons are ridiculous, they follow…

By Bob Garver I am well aware of the case against Disney’s live-action remake of its 2016 animated hit “Moana,” namely that the original film is less than ten years old and doesn’t need a remake, and also that  Disney live-action remakes are lazy cash-grabs in general. And I agree with a lot about that…

By Bob Garver “Minions & Monsters” is the seventh cinematic outing for the Minions, and the third where they take center stage, as opposed to playing backup for former supervillain Gru. The jellybean-like animated gibberish-spewers all voiced by Pierre Coffin are once again taking the prequel route, as their story is told by a modern-day…

By Bob Garver           Krypto the Superdog isn’t very cute in “Supergirl.” I understand that the way the pup was rendered for this film involved taking a real dog (who probably was very cute) and slathering CGI all over his likeness. The result is a dog whose face looks unnatural and…

By Bob Garver Simply put, “Toy Story” is my favorite movie franchise of all time. The 1995 original about cowboy doll Woody (Tom Hanks) fighting for relevance against hi-tech spaceman action figure Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) was a groundbreaking first for computer animation – not to mention about the most fun a kid could possibly…

By Bob Garver   All-time-great director Steven Spielberg is back with a film built around one of his most popular subjects: aliens. From the man that brought us “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” comes “Disclosure Day,” a film about a small group of people deciding that it is time to…

By Bob Garver From the fifth “Scream” movie proving a shockingly strong January release in 2022 to “Backrooms” opening to over $81 million just last weekend, the past few years have been some of the best ever for the horror genre. So it makes sense that this would be a good time to revive the…

By Bob Garver Last week, I reviewed “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” which was based on a series that I hadn’t seen, but I was well-aware of its larger world and its place in popular culture. This week is “Backrooms,” which is also based on a series that I haven’t seen, and was in no way…

By Bob Garver “The Mandalorian and Grogu” is coming at an interesting time in the history of “Star Wars.” It is a test to see if the franchise’s recent success on the small screen can translate to blockbuster status on the big screen. I have not seen “The Mandalorian” streaming series on Disney+, though I…

By Bob Garver   With “The Devil Wears Prada 2” and “Michael” still ruling the domestic box office, I thought I’d give this week’s review spot to a couple of also-rans from the past two weeks.   “Mortal Kombat II”   The 2021 “Mortal Kombat” movie was a disaster that left fans disappointed for many…

By Bob Garver I had never seen 2006’s “The Devil Wears Prada” until a few weeks ago when I watched it in preparation for the sequel. I didn’t care for it, mainly due to the off-putting character of Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). I knew going in that the fashion magazine editor’s dialogue was filled with…

By Bob Garver   The big problem with “Michael,” the new Michael Jackson biopic, is that it has the approval of the Jackson family. As such, we are going to get a very flattering portrait of possibly the single most controversial personality in the history of the music industry. The scandals that plagued his later…

By Bob Garver Prior to what I will generously call his “new take” on “The Mummy,” director Lee Cronin was best known for 2023’s “Evil Dead Rise.” Original “Evil Dead” director Sam Raimi had a new movie out earlier this year with “Send Help,” and he didn’t put his name in that film’s title. And…

By Bob Garver Good news, grown-ups, even though most of the screens at your local theater are probably still devoted to “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” there’s a decent option for adults in one of the other houses. I’m convinced that “The Drama” has stayed in the top three at the domestic box office for…

By Bob Garver 2023 brought audiences “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” by far the most successful cinematic adaptation of a video game ever. It was a wonder how appealing the property was with vibrant, colorful animation and respect for both its source material and its audience. I couldn’t bring myself to recommend the film, as…

By Bob Garver In 2019’s “Ready or Not,” Grace MacCaullay (Samara Weaving) won the deadly game of Hide and Seek that ended the lives of the entire La Domas family. It all tied into a Satanic ritual that frankly didn’t make much sense. Now she has to play another, also-deadly game of Hide and Seek…

By Bob Garver It has been just over ten years since viewers were first introduced to the work of sci-fi author Andy Weir with Ridley Scott’s “The Martian.” In that film, a scientist (Matt Damon) was stuck on a planet millions of miles from Earth and forced to use his wits to survive against near-insurmountable…

By Bob Garver Author Colleen Hoover is apparently dominant in the genre of tearjerkers. She’s best known for “It Ends With Us,” about the upsetting subject of domestic violence. Now comes “Reminders of Him,” which features both a death and a torn-apart family. It wants to inspire tears of sadness and sympathy, but the best…

By Bob Garver               The 2020’s haven’t been kind to once-great animation giant Pixar, at least with its original titles. “Onward” had its box office cut down by the pandemic. Three straight movies had to forgo theatrical releases and go straight to Disney+. “Lightyear” was the first movie from the studio that I couldn’t…

By Bob Garver In 2019’s “Ready or Not,” Grace MacCaullay (Samara Weaving) won the deadly game of Hide and Seek that ended the lives of the entire La Domas family. It all tied into a Satanic ritual that frankly didn’t make much sense. Now she has to play another, also-deadly game of Hide and Seek…

By Bob Garver   Christian music biopic “I Can Only Imagine” had a surprising performance at the domestic box office back in 2018. The film made $83 million despite never finishing above the #3 position on any given weekend. While it never escaped the shadow of “Black Panther,” which beat it every weekend, it did…

By Bob Garver “Wuthering Heights” is based on a classic novel by Emily Brontë. I’ve never read the novel, which is probably for the best. Reports of the movie differing from the novel are actually quite relieving to me. They’re relieving in the sense that I do not have to lose respect for people who…