"The Leisure Seeker" features some quality performances wasted on a mediocre story and a predictable plotline. Italian director Paolo Virzi, in his English language film debut, presided over this tale of an elderly couple on their last road trip. The less-than-satisfying story is from the screenplay [..]
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)
"Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" is an exciting science fiction film set in the 28th century, based on a French comic book series called "Valerian and Laureline." Director-screenwriter Luc Besson filmed the picture in English and featured Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne [..]
The Dark Tower (2017)
Garbage comes in many forms and an example in cinematic form is "The Dark Tower." Based on a series of Stephen King novels, the film combines elements of science fiction, horror, and western genre stories. The movie's unfocused plot was the result of bad writing by [..]
Kidnap (2017)
"Kidnap" is a tightly-directed and economically-written film about a woman following a car when her son is abducted by its drivers. The movie is so intense that it was mercifully only 81 minutes long. "Kidnap" is essentially a film that is (spoiler alert!) one big car [..]
Chappaquiddick (2017)
Independent movie director John Curran ("The Painted Veil" 2006) has made an even-handed and unbiased look at the 1969 incident where Sen. Edward Kennedy drove his car into a pond on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts, killing 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne. Australian actor Jason Clarke was more than [..]
The Wife (2017)
"The Wife" features Glenn Close in the title role as a woman reflecting on her life as she travels to Sweden with her husband as he is set to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. Layer after layer of her story is revealed in this tour-de-force of [..]
Crooked House (2017)
Agatha Christie's 1949 novel "Crooked House" has been made into a watchable motion picture starring Glenn Close as a senior member of a dysfunctional wealthy family in England. Director Gilles Paquet-Brenner ("Pretty Things" 2001). who also co-wrote the screenplay with Julian Fellowes and Tim Rose Price, kept [..]
The Tribes of Palos Verdes (2017)
"The Tribes of Palos Verdes" is an interesting story of a couple who move from Michigan to affluent Palos Verdes in Southern California with their two teenage children, drama proceeding from there. Directors Emmet Malloy and Brendan Malloy, brothers known as "The Malloys" who directed [..]
Just Getting Started (2017)
"Just Getting Started" is a predictable and formula comedy about an ex-mob lawyer and a retired FBI agent who must put aside their decades-old feud when they find themselves living in the same Palm Springs retirement community. This picture seems to have a [..]
An Uncommon Grace (2017)
"An Uncommon Grace" is the story of a U. S. Army nurse returning to her grandmother's home in Ohio, where she gets involved with an Amish man and is pulled into a murder mystery. David MacKay smoothly directed this made-for-television film for the Hallmark Movies and Mysteries [..]