Movie Reviews

  By Bob Garver With Zack Snyder’s version of the DC Universe having officially fizzled out, Warner Bros. is trying a hard reboot of the multi-faceted superhero franchise under the direction of James Gunn. First up for Gunn is “Superman,” with actor David Corenswet stepping into the role of space alien Kal-El/mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent/blue-suited…

By Bob Garver               After three “Jurassic Park” movies and three “Jurassic World” movies, it seems the time has come to kickstart the “Jurassic” franchise again with “Jurassic World: Rebirth.” I’ll give the franchise credit for recognizing that there was no need to continue with the Chris Pratt or Bryce Dallas Howard characters from…

By Bob Garver “F1: The Movie” takes viewers inside the exciting world of Formula One auto-racing. The director is Joseph Kosinski, best known for taking “Top Gun: Maverick” to the top of the yearly box office three years ago. Between that movie’s jets and this movie’s cars, it seems the man’s specialty is directing movies…

By Bob Garver It has been 23 years (not 28, somewhat frustratingly) since British audiences were first introduced to the mind-and-body-ravaging Rage virus in “28 Days Later.” The virus turned everyone it affected into zombies, known as The Infected, obsessed not so much with feeding as with turning more people into zombies. The film’s heroes…

By Bob Garver After three weeks of domination by the Disney live-action remake “Lilo & Stitch,” it’s time for the top spot at the domestic box office to be taken over by the Dreamworks live-action remake “How to Train Your Dragon.” It feels like it’s too soon to do a remake of a movie from…

By Bob Garver “Final Destination: Bloodlines” It’s hard to believe that we went over a decade without a new “Final Destination” movie. Fans love this series and its “slasher-movie-without-a-slasher” gimmick. The “killer” here is the concept of Death itself, which takes the form of unlikely, elaborate, horrific accidents.   This sixth installment features arguably the…

By Bob Garver             The latest edition of Disney’s trend of remaking its animated classics in live action or “realistic” CGI is “Lilo & Stitch.” I remember seeing the 2002 original with my mom, both of us huge Disney fans, and we agreed that the studio’s magic from its mostly-90’s “Renaissance” era was long gone.…

By Bob Garver “Thunderbolts*” certainly scared off the competition in its second weekend at the domestic box office. This sometimes happens the weekend after the opening of a huge blockbuster. Other studios will know that they can’t compete against the powerhouse, so they hold off on releasing anything that they think has the potential to…

By Bob Garver “Thunderbolts*,” the latest offering from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, seems like awfully familiar territory. In the film, a group of assassins, criminals, and burnouts band together to form a ragtag group of do-gooders looking for redemption. There are definitely shades of the MCU’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” in play. Or how about…

By Bob Garver               “The Accountant” was a midsized hit from 2016 that until recently had a reputation as a wannabe franchise-starter that never got a follow-up. I watched the first movie for research last weekend, and I would have guessed that the reason the film went so long without a sequel was that…

By Bob Garver              If “A Minecraft Movie” is the commercial hit that 2025 needed, then “Sinners” is the creative hit it needed. Writer/director Ryan Coogler has delivered a film that starts off as a compelling-enough 1930’s period piece before wildly shifting into supernatural territory. But the later developments don’t devalue the efforts made…

By Bob Garver             After a mere two weekends, “A Minecraft Movie” has claimed the top spot of the 2025 domestic box office. It’s not shocking that this franchise piece beat out January fare, but since then we’ve had an MCU entry and this movie just blew right past it. And I have to ask:…

By Bob Garver               Jason Statham has a new movie out. He plays with a guy who used to work in a violent profession, but he’s sworn to leave that life behind. But now some bad people have messed with his employer (the only people to help him out when he was at a…

By Bob Garver               Disney’s “Snow White” is the latest live-action remake of one of the studio’s animated classics. In this case, it’s perhaps the biggest “classic” of all, as 1937’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” was the first full-length animated feature in American history, and in 2008 was named the greatest animated…

2025 has been a great year for Hollywood so far. Not only have the first couple of months shown impressive blockbusters, but the movies coming out soon in March also promise a great box office performance. Movie lovers are already speculating about which films will take the topmost spots, among which the thrillers coming out…

By Bob Garver “Novocaine” stars Jack Quaid as Nathan Caine, a man with a condition that makes him unable to feel pain. This is an action movie, and it sounds like a man who can’t feel pain would fit right into the role of action hero, right? Actually, no. Caine’s condition is just terribly inconvenient…

By Bob Garver               “Mickey 17” is the kind of movie where you just have to trust the filmmaker to take you on a ride. Fortunately, it’s a filmmaker who has proven trustworthy with such rides in the past. Six years ago, writer/director Bong Joon-ho released “Parasite,” another movie that didn’t really telegraph its…

By Bob Garver   This week, I’m going to do what I usually do and review the biggest as-yet-unreviewed movie at the weekend box office with “Last Breath.” However, I’m also going to take a detour and review the film that just won Best Picture at the Academy Awards in “Anora.” My rationale is that…

By Bob Garver “The Monkey” is a movie on the sillier end of the horror spectrum. It’s so silly that the catalyst for the many, many deaths that occur throughout its runtime is a literal toy. Granted, it’s a toy that I’ve never known anyone to actually like, and come to think of it, I…

By Bob Garver The Marvel Cinematic Universe at large got to take a break in 2024. Sure, “Deadpool & Wolverine” was one of the biggest hits of the year, but that was more about Disney showing off its newly-acquired 20th Century Fox toys than advancing the lore of its bread-and-butter franchise. But “Captain America: Brave…

By Bob Garver   For whatever reason, the studios decided that what America wanted this Valentine’s season wasn’t romantic comedies or sweeping dramas, but violent R-rated fare with varying degrees of love and relationship theming. Frankly none of these movies are going to be big commercial hits, with “Dog Man” still ruling the box office…

By Bob Garver All January long, I’ve been mentioning (okay, “whining”) that the month is a dead zone for new movie releases. So it makes sense that the biggest release of the month would be one that opened on the very last day (Friday the 31st) before making most of its money in February. With…

By Bob Garver               I notice that I’ve given a “C” rating to every movie I’ve reviewed in 2025. That’s four straight times I’ve basically said that the movie, while not worth writing off entirely, isn’t worth recommending. I even split the review last weekend and gave out two “C” ratings. Director Mel Gibson’s…

By Bob Garver   Since two new releases made about $11 million each at the domestic box office this past weekend, and since I don’t have much to say about either movie, I’ve decided to throw them both a quick review.   “Wolf Man”               January horror movies are a special breed. The studio…