This is one of many summer movies I vividly remember seeing back in 1977 with my buddy Jeff, at the ChrisTown theater! Just watched it on my iPad and have to say it was hilarious (unintentionally). Hard to believe that we used to think those were special effects! Really cheesy, goofy sci-fi. But let's be honest, any movie with giant scorpions, nuclear war, horrible acting by Jan Michael Vincent (how was this guy so big in the 70's?), killer cockroaches and a wacky post apocalyptic RV can't be ALL bad....in 1977, I gave it an A-, in 2011, we'll call it a C. LOL

Matthew McConaughey leaves all his past romantic comedy sins in the past with a brave, outrageous performance as the creator of the DALLAS BUYERS CLUB. As electrician, hustler, sex addict Ron Woodruff, McConaughey is 50 pounds lighter, deathly thin and almost unrecognizable. Woodruff starts the film as a racist, homophobic low life filling his empty life with trashy women, cocaine and one scheme after another. After contracting HIV from a drug-using, nearly anonymous woman in a one night stand, Woodruff is startled by the fact that he has the disease and cannot get the AZT needed to prevent HIV from becoming full blown AIDS. Given 30 days to live, he starts a quest to not only get the drugs he needs from Mexico, but to start a pipeline of those drugs for other people like him. What starts as another money making scheme transforms Ron as a person. The film surrounds McConaughey with a great cast. Jared Leto deserves a best supporting actor Oscar for his portrayal of Rayon, a surprisingly beautiful transgender woman and a VERY unlikely friend for Woodruff. The arc of their friendship from the first time they meet to the film's conclusion is powerful. Jennifer Garner is very good as a local doctor who is mistrusting of the FDA, big pharma and her bosses as she watches AIDS patients dying without help and Ron truly trying to make a difference. The film has plenty of surprises, but probably none bigger than McConaughey's performance. It's the best acting of his career and takes him from character/action actor to the top ranks of American actors. Between this and "Killer Joe", he is on a career bending path. DALLAS BUYERS CLUB is frank, adult, sexual and not for the intolerant. It's also moving and should inspire a lot of questions about big pharma's influence on drugs in the USA. Here's hoping McConaughey and Leto both win acting awards on Sunday night, they are deserved. Dallas Buyers Club gets a powerful A.

I never saw the original “Daddy’s Home” with Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, figuring it was one of Ferrell’s lesser efforts, box office success not withstanding. But once I saw the previews for this holiday season’s DADDY’S HOME 2 and saw that Mel Gibson and John Lithgow were joining the cast as Ferrell and Wahlberg’s dads, I was all in. Neither of them disappoints, but Gibson exceeds ALL comedic expectations, stealing the movie every time he’s on screen. Unapologetically old school, sexist and funny, Gibson plays right into his off-screen image and nails every laugh. Ferrell (Brad) and Wahlberg (Dusty) have found success co-parenting as the film opens, but when they decide to celebrate Christmas together with all their merged families under one roof, their truce will be tested in every humorous way possible. Gibson’s Kurt is a former astronaut and lifetime ladies man, seducing every woman he sees and openly despising seeing his son get “soft” under Brad’s influence. Lithgow is all “on-the-mouth kisses” and loud happiness as Pop-Pop Whitaker, combining his senior enthusiasm for chatter with Ferrell in full “Elf” mode, oozing holiday spirit and positivity. The movie doesn’t waste anytime setting up funny scene after scene, delivering a ton of laughs. Highlights include Gibson stirring up trouble at every opportunity, scorching Lithgow, Wahlberg and Ferrell with perfect deadpan delivery of take down after takedown. Ferrell’s had some great movie moments of physical comedy, but they all might pale next to the single most disastrous use of a snow blower in film history. The living nativity on Christmas Eve is a powder keg waiting to go off and provides plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. The quest for a live Christmas tree is a knockout and I have to credit the filmmakers for going way past my expectations in finding a clever way to build a sweet “Love Actually” style conclusion that brings plenty of heart along with the humor. Linda Cardellini (The Avengers) has some nice moments as Ferrell’s wife, Alessandra Ambrosio is stunning as Wahlberg’s live-in girlfriend and Didi Costine and Owen Vaccaro are excellent as two of the kids, barely looking away from her cell phone and looking for good love advice respectively. There’s also one great surprise cameo at the end that we’ll let you discover in the closing moments. We went in looking for holiday laughs and found a sleigh full! Daddy’s Home 2 will definitely become a holiday film we watch every season, alongside “Christmas Vacation”, “Elf”, “Home Alone” and “Love Actually”. Some of the best moments of physical comedy in Daddy’s Home 2 would fit perfectly in the Chevy Chase holiday classic released nearly 30 years ago in 1989. There’s no better compliment than that in our book, so we’ll give this funny family comedy five HO-HO-HOs a solid B. Leave your serious film shoes on the doorstep, drink some eggnog and settle in for great Christmas themed laughs!

Spike Lee has become one of my favorite filmmakers and DA 5 BLOODS delivers another powerful film as follow up to his brilliant "Black Kkklansman". In scope, its perhaps his biggest film since "Malcolm X" and certainly his most ambitious shoot. His globe hopping camera at times making this feel more like Coppola than Lee. Rather than Coppola's journey to track down Colonel Kurtz in the jungle, Spike Lee delivers a compelling, huge scale tale of 5 Vietnam Vets reuniting in Vietnam to track down the body of their fallen fellow soldier. Their goal is to return Stormin' Norman's body stateside. It's quite a group. Paul (a brilliant Delroy Lindo) is a passionate Trump Supporter that still carries a lot of passion against the people of Vietnam. Otis (Clarke Peters) has organized the reunion & trip to recover Norman through his lifelong Vietnamese mistress Tien. Eddie (Broadway veteran Norm Lewis) is a successful car dealer whose always got his Black Amex in hand, ready to buy. Melvin (Isiah Whitlock Jr) is the peacemaker of the group, which turns out to be a full time job with these personalities. Lee lulls you into comfort with the early scenes of the reunion and the quintet's visit to a crowded, fun Vietnam night club called Apocalypse Now. You start to gear up for an interpersonal drama as these unique men meld again. But they're not only there to recover Norman. They are also back in country to recover a huge stash of gold that they buried after a fire fight with CIA led rebels. Having carried that secret carefully for years, the truth and their different justifications for the money spiral quickly. Paul's son David (the terrific Jonathan Majors of "Lovecraft Country") arrives in Vietnam, worried about his Dad and determined to join the quest. Just as you begin to ease into their search, Lee starts to intersperse flashbacks to their last time in Vietnam. In two daring choices, Lee doesn't cast different actors as the younger men, having the older actors portray themselves in the Vietnam war era. Lee also shrinks the picture down to a square TV ratio during the flashbacks. His smooth expansion from widescreen to square eases you in and out of time, pulling us deeper and deeper into the events that deeply influence what's happening to them today. Chadwick Boseman is powerful in the flashbacks as Norman, the squad leader than set their moral compass in the early 60's. Lee also introduces us to a local guide for the mission, Vihn (Johnny Nguyen) and a group of young French and Americans searching to build awareness on land mines. The team includes Hedy (a superb Melanie Thierry) and Simon (Paul Walter Hauser who recently played "Richard Jewell"). As he did in "Black Kkklansman" so efficiently, Lee also weaves in historical footage of the Vietnam War, much of it graphic, gory and unrelenting in its depiction of the conflict. He also weaves in quick or lingering glimpses of Black America in the 60's & & 70's in both Vietnam and the USA. It's always perfectly timed, sometimes shocking and disturbing. At over two and a half hours, it's a bit disjointed but in challenging ways. For me, it never dragged. The war scenes are very well staged, as are the incredibly tense scenes in the jungle as the men face of against each other's past and present. Delroy Lindo is a sure-fire Best Actor nominee as Paul, a man so tortured by his past and buried in his right-saying that he's impossible to penetrate. Lindo bares all, crying out sometimes in silence and very loudly in one memorable scene as he walks away across the jungle. As his grip on the situation begins to slip, Lindo looks directly into the camera, spilling his guts in long passages of dialogue that tear you apart. He's fantastic in the role, powerful. Lee bathes the whole film in the music of Marvin Gaye, sometimes in very unexpected ways. The cinematography by Newton Thomas Sigel (Drive, Three Kings, The Usual Suspects) is excellent. Film lovers will discover many direct ties to "Bridge on the River Kwai" and "Apocalypse Now". Loaded with graphic war violence, profanity and tension, this isn't going to be to everyone's taste. If there is a more thought provoking director, firing on all cylinders at a higher rate than Spike Lee at this time in his career, I'm anxious to know who they are. Boseman and Lindo's last scene together will tear you apart. DA 5 BLOODS gets a soul stirring A.

The Producers of "The Conjuring" films continue their hit streak with the spooky and enjoyable entry THE CURSE OF LA LLORONA. A social worker (the always terrific Linda Cardellini) and her young children find themselves under a vicious curse from a legendary demon spirit who feeds on children. Like in "It", her kids find themselves the main target of La LLorona, who can appear anywhere and yank you into some pretty terrifying danger. It's R rated fun, loaded with jump scares and close up horror. Luckily for Anna (Cardellini) and her kids, a renegade former priest specializes in battling La Llorona, operating without the cloth but loaded with one-liners and bravado. Rafael (Raymond Cruz from "Better Call Saul") is a bad ass demon fighter and loads the last half of the film with laughs, some intrigue and some pretty vicious hands on battles with the gruesome title character. The kids are well cast, even through the script makes them do silly things that no kid would ever do. Don't go near that pool! Don't go in that dark room! Hell, that's half the fun. It's not up to the level of The Conjuring films, but its a reliably enjoyable scary flick for a Friday night. Fans should look for subtle references to Annabelle. With nearly $60 million in ticket sales against a $9M budget, look for plenty more entrees in the Conjuring universe to haunt theatres for years to come. Ay dios mio, this one made me jump more than a couple times! LLorona scares up a B-.

Filled with plenty of moments that make you laugh out loud, more that make you smile, but nearly derailed by the casting of its leading lady, Woody Allen's 2001 THE CURSE OF THE JADE SCORPION is an enjoyable comedy/mystery/romance. Woody stars as legendary old-school insurance investigator CW Briggs. His world has been disrupted by his boss bringing in a fiery and demanding efficiency expert named Betty Ann Fitzgerald (Helen Hunt). His Boss Magruder (Dan Aykroyd) has eyes for Betty Ann, and she for him, and Betty and CW detest each other. When a company night out finds them watching the magician and hypnotist Voltan (a perfectly smarmy David Ogden Stiers), Betty Ann and CW are hypnotized into believing they are madly in love. He also manages to hypnotize CW with code words that allow him to control him and erase all memory of doing so. Under Voltan's spell, CW begins robbing his clients, defeating the elaborate safety measures he's put in place. So what happens when you start investigating a clever thief that you have no idea is...yourself? Charlize Theron and Wallace Shawn both bring very different things to the table in great style and Woody is very, very funny throughout. Some of his best lines to Betty Ann expressing his dislike for her: "Germs can't live in your blood, its too cold." "We're a match made in heaven...by a retarded angel." "We'll have lunch. I know a great restaurant you'll love. Gestapo food". The one liners are fast and furious and perfectly delivered. Except for Hunt. She's going for a Hepburn/Tracy type banter, but Allen's rapid fire dialogue never rolls off her tongue. She's an ill fit in a great cast and she almost kills the whole damn movie. Thankfully we have Woody's writing and delivery and a fun little mystery along with way. When CW asks Betty Ann, "Are you divorced or widowed? Did your husband commit suicide? I could understand that." it sets the tone that he just keeps rolling. The only curse here is the miscast Hunt. Jade Scorpion has plenty of humor with a nice sting and gets a B.

David Fincher's most gentle and moving film to date, 2008's THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON is a fantastic tale, perfectly told. Based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it's been expanded into a leisurely, enthralling adventure by screenwriter Eric Roth ("Forrest Gump" and the Gaga/Cooper version of "A Star is Born") that quietly weaves an amazing spell. Brad Pitt is hugely underrated as one of our best American actors. In light of his Oscar for last year's Tarantino saga "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", its great to go back and see Pitt deliver not only a nuanced performance here, but tone perfect narration that spans the entire, near three-hour running time. It's the tale of Benjamin, born as a tiny, very old man and aging backwards through his natural life span until he becomes a teenager, a young boy and eventually a newborn. Never complicated but often rewarding, its fascinating to watch Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club) use cutting edge special effects to enhance his story. Pitt's excellent, as is the huge ensemble cast around him. Cate Blanchett ages just as much as Pitt does as Daisy, a neighbor girl that becomes the love of Benjamin's life. The challenges of watching their paths barrel toward each other in opposite directions create real tension and big screen, old-fashioned romance that would feel at home in any classic film of the 50's. Fincher has polished it all to a high sheen and wrapped it in an almost non-stop beautiful music score by Alexandre Desplat (The Shape of Water) and the sweeping camera of Claudio Miranda (The Life of Pi, The Game). Julia Ormond (Sabrina) plays Daisy's daughter Caroline in framing scenes that serve the story well. Daisy is elderly, in her final hours and revealing Benjamin's story through his personal diary. Daisy asks Caroline to read it aloud as she dies and the story unfolds before us. As she reads to her mother in a New Orleans hospital, Hurricane Katrina barrels down on them, providing moving context and a brilliant final shot that's a Fincher masterstroke. Taraji P. Henson (Hidden Figures) is Queenie, the woman that finds Benjamin on her steps and adopts him as her own. Mahershala Ali (True Detective)is Queenie's husband. Tilda Swinton (Doctor Strange) is a core character that the middle-age Benjamin meets in a lonely Moscow hotel. She's mysterious and alluring, lulling the young Benjamin (who looks old!) into his first love. Jared Harris (Fringe, Allied) is hilarious as the hard drinking tugboat captain that recruits a very old/young Benjamin into a one day journey that becomes a global career. Jason Flemyng (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) shows great range as Benjamin's father in what could have been a thankless role. Weaved gently through Benjamin's life are lessons on aging, appearances, redemption and youth. There are long scenes that become milestones in both the film and their lives. Benjamin's visit at Daisy's opening night in "Carousel" on Broadway in NYC, the many nights in the huddled kitchen of the Moscow motel and some of the revelations for Caroline in the diary are unusually lyrical Fincher. I loved the six different "hit by lightning" moments, they're funny, quiet bits that nicely balance the times that you realize Fincher and Ross have structured a powerful meditation on love & loss. The message is captured well in this small piece of Benjamin's narration. "I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again." Well said and incredibly well told. THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON is in my all time top 50 and gets an A+. If you haven't seen it in a long time, it's worth a revisit. And if you've never seen it, I envy you that experience.

Largely overlooked at the time of its release in 1979, even Sean Connery can't quite save CUBA from being a muddled drama/historical romance drama that can never quite decide what it's about. Connery plays British mercenary Robert Dapes, who arrives in Cuba just as Castro's internal forces seem poised to takeover the country. He's surprised to find former lover Alexandra living the life of the entitled as owner of a huge rum manufacturing plant. Alexandra is played by Brooke Adams (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Days of Heaven) and she and Connery have nice chemistry together as she battles her philandering, lazy husband Juan Pulido, played by Chris Sarandon (The Princess Bride, Fright Night) and his nonchalant abuse of his father's wealth. One biography of Connery details that he took on the role before the script was finished and it shows. The film meanders all over the place, with romantic scenes, political maneuvering and enough lesser characters to confuse a "Game of Thrones" fan while never really clarifying any details of their motives. A young assassin wonders in and out of the plot, popping up only when needed as a story device. It never gels and its SLOW, but its almost redeemed by the effortless Connery and two real scene stealers. Denholm Elliott (Raider of the Lost Ark, Trading Places) is terrific as Skinner, bringing much needed levity and style to the film and Jack Weston (Wait Until Dark, Gator) is hilarious and perfect as the quintessential ugly American trying to close a deal in the middle of a bloody revolution. Director Richard Lester (A Hard Day's Night, Superman II) brings his usual visual style and throwaways to the entire film and David Watkin (Robin and Marian, Out of Africa) shoots every scene like a great painting, capturing the wealth, poverty and excitement of Cuba. If you want to see a much better film about the same time period, check out Robert Redford and Sydney Pollack's "Havana". CUBA is just too unfocused and slow moving to be anything more than a lesser Connery vehicle and it gets a C.

Last month I finished reading William Friedkin's autobiography, "The Friedkin Connection", documenting in his own words, the making of some of the seventies greatest films like "The Exorcist" and "The French Connection". It made me want to dig into some of his other films in the 70's and 80's that I had missed, starting with 1980's CRUISING. Very controversial at the time, hated by the gay community and shunned by moviegoers, the film is a real mess. Filmed in real locations in the late 70's in Manhattan, Cruising depicts an NYC that all of us who love the highline district today will find very hard to recognize. A serial killer is targeting gays in a series of brutal murders, so Captain Edelson (Paul Sorvino) sends young new detective Steve Burns undercover as a single gay man to frequent clubs and look for the killer. Burns is played by Al Pacino in a mostly reserved performance that is played so close to the vest 90% of the time it's hard to figure out exactly what is happening in the movie. In his autobiography, Friedkin says that he was more interested in creating a look at a lifestyle that no one in America had seen in 1980 than in making an entertaining film. The gay community was rightly disturbed and angry that this is how Friedkin would chose to introduce the culture. Friedkin seems determined to show the most lurid, impersonal, vile, violent and sexually promiscuous depiction of gay life in the city. It would be impossible to call this movie entertainment on any level. Pacino was furious when he saw the final version because it's so ambiguous that (Spolier alert) you actually are left thinking he may be a serial killer at the end of the film. No one would produce the movie until Lorimar, the producers of "The Waltons" stepped in to finance the film. John Boy would not approve. Foul, nasty, poorly written, very graphic, uber violent and ugly, this is an offensive film and a huge misfire from Friedkin that gets a rare F grade.

Guillermo Del Toro is a confounding filmmaker for me. Starting back in 1997, he delivered three great horror films in a row, "Mimic", "Hellboy" and "Pan's Labrynth". Based on that, I couldn't wait to see his films, but "Pacific Rim' was a mess, and I can't really say his latest, CRIMSON PEAK is much better. You can't complain about his cast. Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland, In Treatment) is Edith Cushing, a young & innocent daughter of a wealthy construction man in the late 1800's/early 1900s America. She is swept off her feet by a wealthy visiting industrialist from Europe, Thomas Sharpe (well played by "The Avengers" Tom Hiddleston. After her father is mysteriously murdered, Edith leaves for Europe to live with Thomas in his massive but ill maintained mansion. Unfortunately, Thomas also has his sister in tow. She is Lucille, all dour expressions and spooky entrances embodied by Jessica Chastain. As Edith settles into the creaky, massive house, ghosts and apparitions begin to warn her to escape. del Toro knows how to scare a viewer, and there are some good scary moments, thanks to fantastic sounds and set design, but meh........ The story is slight, the path it takes is a bit predictable and save some fantastic sets and photography, it doesn't amount to much. Hiddleston and Wasikowska have strong screen chemistry and Charlie Hunnan (Sons of Anarchy) has some nice moments as a Victorian doctor/amateur sleuth with Edith's best interest in mind, but the pace is too slow and the surprises too few and far between. There's a scene near the end where Thomas bursts through the front doors and the sunlight, snow and wind create a perfectly composed shot that's been carefully composed to the last snowflake. It's beautiful, but carries no emotional weight, much like the rest of the film. Between the graphic violence, tubs of blood and the red clay the estate is built on, I get the Crimson. But Peak? For me, this lesser del Toro effort never does..... It gets a dark red C.

One of my favorite Woody Allen films, 1989's CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS is the perfect mashup of Allen's humor and a powerful dramatic story in which the characters in both groups interact and intertwine. Martin Landau was nominated for best supporting actor for his role as ophthalmologist Judah Rosenthal. A respected doctor, speaker and philanthropist, Judah's life appears perfect from afar. As the film opens, Judah's life is about to be shattered by his jealous and unbalanced mistress Dolores, played to perfection by Anjelica Houston. Dolores is tired of waiting for Judah to leave his wife and has begun calling his home and sending letters. Within the same social circle, documentary filmmaker Cliff Stern (a smart and witty Woody) is selected to film a documentary about his obnoxious brother in law Lester (Alan Alda). Lester is successful, adored by the public and Cliff abhors him but he takes the job to document Lester's success because he needs the money and Cliff's wife (Lester's sister) won't have it any other way. Enter Mia Farrow as Lester's assistant, who Cliff grows infatuated with during the filming, Sam Waterston as a nearly blind rabbi and patient of Judah's, toss in a childhood friend of Judah's who works for the mob and is happy to "take care of Judah's problem" and you have an intelligent, suspenseful and funny film that will make you laugh out loud while quietly making you consider the lines of morality. The cast is fantastic, the writing is as good as it gets. This is a Woody film I watch at least every couple years just to savor the film making. If you aren't a fan of Allen, its a great choice to see what you might be missing. Crimes and Misdemeanors gets an A+ and lands in my all-time Top 100.

In 1982, legendary horror director George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead) teamed up with writer Stephen King for the original film CREEPSHOW. Built in the same style as the horror comic books of the 50's, the film tells five different tales built to scare, make you laugh and gross you out. The first segment details a murdered old millionaire who comes back from the grave for revenge on his murdering, money grabbing family, along with a piece of cake. Viveca Lindorfs is fun as Aunt Bedelia "I want my cake Bedelia!!" and Ed Harris (The Right Stuff, HBO's Westworld) appears as a young husband who gets a particularly smashing end. The second tale is the weakest, telling the tale of a dimwitted hillbilly (played by Stephen King) that finds a meteorite. It carries an intergalactic Miracle Grow, a fungus like plant that grows at an alarming rate, but not quickly enough to stop King from embarrassing himself with an over the top performance made up mostly of crossed eyes, gawking and slack jawed amazement. King is one of my favorite writers on the planet, but he should NEVER act. The third story introduces us to wronged husband Leslie Nielsen, playing it straight and having a blast getting back at his cheating wife and her boyfriend, played by Ted Danson. It's one of the most clever sequences and Nielsen's method of revenge is twisted, wet and wild. The bloodiest and funniest sequence is the fourth, in which College professor Dexter (Fritz Weaver) finds a very old crate with an extremely nasty monster inside. When his best friend Henry (Hal Holbrook) learns about the monster, he sees a convenient way to get rid of his wife Wilma (Adrienne Barbeau), who might be the most demeaning, drunken professor's wife in history. The best sequence is saved for last, in which eccentric germaphobic billionaire Upson Pratt (EG Marshall) hides holed up in his germ free penthouse in NYC. His fear of cockroaches is well earned as a blackout drives seemingly every nasty bug in the big apple into his apartment. It's gross, freaky and done with real roaches, which is enough to freak me out. The closing moments of this sequence is stomach churning and done without CGI. Marshall is terrific as a foul-mouthed, miserable old bastard who gets cosmic payback thanks to the 250,000 roaches used to film the sequence. KIng has a lot of fun with the screenplay, keeping it tongue-in-cheek while providing some solid laughs, especially in Weaver and Holbrooks reactions to the monster's attacks. Romero knows how to create old fashioned scares and keeps the two hour film moving quickly on its bloody way. This was Romero's only film to open #1 at the box office and the only film he ever directed that he did not also write. Watch for King's real life son Joe as the little boy in the opening and closing scenes. He's not a great actor, but he grew up to be a hell of a writer. His novels 'Heart Shaped Box" and "Horns" are terrific. If you're looking for campy horror fun with some serious gross out moments and more than a few laughs, CREEPSHOW delivers and gets a B.