Rick's Reviews
Apparently, “Lost on a Mountain in Maine” is required reading of every Maine fourth-grader. Not having grown up in the Pine Tree State, I was unfamiliar with the book and the story on which it’s based. And that is my misfortune, because the saga of Donn Fendler being lost in the Katahdin wilderness, at the foot of Maine’s tallest mountain, …
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Rick's Reviews
First off, allow me to explain the meaning of the title. “Folie a Deux” is French for “madness of two,” or a shared psychosis. And that psychiatric syndrome appears early on in this sequel to the 2019 hit. In the first Joker film, Arthur Fleck, AKA The Joker, murdered five people, although in this sequel he admits to also murdering …
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Rick's Reviews
While Pixar arguably has been the gold standard of animated films in the past, the company lately has yet to land a story with as much heart and astonishing visuals as “The Wild Robot.” DreamWorks has a certified classic here and a likely hit with moviegoers of all ages. The central character is a robot nicknamed Roz, a strange visitor …
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Rick's Reviews
Esteemed New York drama critic Clive Barnes once said about his profession: “The two most important elements in a critic, as I see it, are passion and compassion.” As a theater critic in the new film “The Critic,” Sir Ian McKellen is one for two. Smoking unfiltered cigarettes and sporting a broad-brimmed hat, his Jimmy Erskine is the long-suffering seat-warmer …
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Rick's Reviews
I have to be honest. I had never seen the first “Beetlejuice” when I sat down to watch this sequel and it took me a while to process the manic energy and comedic nonsense that director Tim Burton brings, once again, to the big screen. It’s taken almost 27 years to find a decent story to resurrect Michael Keaton’s “bio-exorcist,” …
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Rick's Reviews
Back in 1979, when director Ridley Scott first sprang his sci-fi horror film on an unsuspecting public, no one could know that eventually it would spawn a cottage industry, or as much a cottage industry as ever has existed in Hollywood, save maybe for “Star Wars.” The first film received a mixed reaction from critics on release, but in the …
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Rick's Reviews
There’s no getting around the fact that this is one very long movie. Like its predecessor, Part One. The book, on which the two new movies are based, as well as the first attempt by Director David Lynch, is a science fiction saga of warring families in a far-off corner of interplanetary space. And it is one of the world’s …
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Rick's Reviews
This rom-com doesn’t begin with a “meet cute.” Instead the heroine watches at close range as her future beau blows open a door to a rooftop parking lot in a fit of rage and kicks a chair. We could have saved a lot of time diagnosing Ryle as a guy in dire need of anger management and thus send Lily …
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Rick's Reviews
I remember as a child being traumatized by the tornado in “The Wizard of Oz.” Even today, the scene of Dorothy running for cover under threatening skies, rendered in an other-worldly sepia, gives me chills. Recently, I read that the special effects director for “Oz,” Arnold Gillespie, created the cinematic monster by suspending muslin cloth from a steel gantry. Because, …
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Rick's Reviews
As I watched this latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU,) I imagined the five screenwriters meeting over beers and pizza and tossing out to each other every ridiculous idea that an alcoholic fog might induce. Because the narrative is a jumble of jokes, self-reverential posturing, pornographic humor, R-rated dialogue (beware parents!), F-bombs, as well as digs at the …
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Rick's Reviews
The hero of the story is the same Riley featured in the original “Inside Out,” only now she’s a 13-year-old high school student burdened with all the fears and anxiety that accompany growing into the teen years. More than anything, Riley wants to be accepted by the cooler girls on the school’s hockey team. And her struggle to fit in …
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Rick's Reviews
For those of you who have yet to watch the first two films in the Quiet Place series, a short introduction. Back in 2018, actor John Krasinski (“The Office”) wowed Hollywood with a high-concept horror film that he wrote, directed and starred in, along with his real-life wife Emily Blunt. The film exceeded expectations and shot Krasinski near to the …
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