If you think a film about the near financial market collapse of 2007/2008 would have to be a dry, boring, numbers filled tutorial, you are in for a pleasant (yet disturbing) ride with THE BIG SHORT. Christian Bale plays against type as Michael Burry, a brilliant & eccentric hedge fund manager that sees numbers in the housing market that signal an almost sure collapse. He begins investing heavily against the market, setting up a vast financial reward for his investors and retirees IF the housing market collapses. At the same time, Jared Vennett at Deutschebank discovers what Burry is doing and begins looking for rich partners to jump in with him to also bet on a disaster. Vennett is played with venomous smarm by Ryan Gosling, who also serves as our story's narrator, dripping sarcasm and greed. One of Vennett's calls goes to a wrong number, where Mark Baum (Steve Carrell) and his team jump on what is said on the mis-dialed incoming call and begin to look at the opportunity themselves. Baum hates the system, feels betrayed by it, but is starving for an opportunity to benefit from its crash. Carrell is great here in a dramatic role, wrestling with his desire for revenge and the ultimate impact on millions of families if he is proven right. Brad Pitt stars as an ostracized financial wizard helping two young investors and is very good. Several guest stars like Anthony Bourdain and Margot Robbie take a moment throughout the film to explain complicated financial terms and activities in layman's terms. If you have to understand the complexities of the banking world, having Margot lay it our for you while drinking champagne in a bubble bath is NOT a horrible way to learn. There are plenty of clever storytelling techniques like that sprinkled through the film, very well directed by Adam McKay, who graduates from fun comedy films like "Stepbrothers" and "Anchorman" to a terrific dramatic turn at bat. Funny, sad, powerful and sobering, THE BIG SHORT marks the second time producer Brad Pitt has brought a seemingly "unfilmable" novel to the screen, matching "Moneyball" a few years ago. As the film unlocks fact after fact about the banking collapse, it becomes clear that the government and the banks are equally responsible. The most sobering moments occur as the film wraps and you realize that we are bound to repeat our mistakes. This is a smart, exciting and important film. THE BIG SHORT is long on talent and profits with a well deserved A.

Anytime the wife and I stay up on a Friday night until 3am binge-watching an entire series, you KNOW you've got our attention. I was thinking this was going to be a "chick-flick" but I couldn't have been more wrong. A very clever murder mystery that manages to not even tell you who got KILLED until the final 15 minutes of its 6 hour running time, BIG LITTLE LIES is a great story, well told. Reese Witherspoon is Madeline, a wealthy involved Mom who appears to have the perfect life in Malibu. Nicole Kidman is her friend Celeste, with two flawless blonde twins and the perfect wealthy husband Perry (Alexander Skarsgard). Shalene Woodley is Jane, a new Mom in town with her little boy, running from her former life and nowhere in the same economic stratosphere as the other women. Laura Dern has her best role in years as the meddling Renata, always taking a stand against the other women. Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation) is excellent as Madeline's quiet, web developer husband as is Zoe Kravitz (Mad Max Fury Road) as Madeline's ex's new young, bohemian wife. All of these perfect lives are far from it. Everyone has secrets, many of which are violent, brutal truths that wouldn't fit with the perfect beach side homes. David E. Kelley (Boston Legal) adapted every minute of the series from Liane Moriarty's bestseller and he shows the same humor, shocking drama and violence he's brought to his landmark shows. Since it's HBO, there is no filter on the sexuality, nudity and profanity the characters often unleash behind closed doors. Witherspoon is terrific and so is Woodley, but Nicole Kidman is amazing. She is fearless in portraying a woman whose world is coming undone and in allowing the camera to see her frankly naked, both physically and emotionally. Kidman deserves every award she'll get for her performance. Director Jean-Marc Vallee (Dallas Buyers Club, Wild) stylizes the entire look of the film to capture the beauty of Carmel and the horror of some of these lives. Terrific music choices throughout that are cleverly woven into the story. We couldn't take our eyes off of it for six straight hours. It's bold, sexual, adult, brutal, smart and suspenseful as you try to decipher who killed who and exactly how these characters will survive the dark side of their transparently flawless lives. BIG LITTLE LIES is a huge triumph and gets an A.

I love discovering great films. Seeing The Coen brothers brilliant 1998 hit THE BIG LEBOWSKI for the first time last week was one of the best movie experiences I’ve had in a long time, generating more laughs per frame than any comedy in recent memory. Jeff Bridges is at his best as “The Dude” Lebowski, who gets mistaken for a much wealthier Lebowski and is pulled into a kidnapping plot. Bridges is as good as it gets and his stoned one liners throughout are so perfectly delivered that you cant imagine anyone else in the role. Luckily for us (but not so much for The Dude) he’s surrounded by an eccentric group of friends. John Goodman is fall over funny as fellow bowler and hair-trigger Vietnam vet and Jewish convert (Not on the Sabbath!) Walter Sobchak. His constant shouts of “STFU DONNIE!” to Theodore Donald Kerabatsos (the stunningly deadpan Steve Buscemi) get funnier every time you hear them. Goodman’s rants at a diner “Lady, I got buddies who died face down in the muck so that you and I could enjoy this family restaurant!” kill me. If anger management had a poster child, it would be Walter. As the Dude meets the very wealthy Big Lebowski (David Huddleston), he is drawn into a complicated plot involving a hilariously uptight Philip Seymour Hoffman as Big’s personal assistant, Julianne Moore as Big’s eccentric artist ex-wife Maude, Big’s current young wife Bunny (Tara Reid) and a motley crew of kidnapping nihilists including Peter Stormare (Fargo) and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Consider that one of the best characters, Jesus Quintana (“You got a date Wednesday, baby!”) is so fully formed and hilariously played by John Turturro that its hard to believe he only has about two minutes of screen time. I’ve seen hundreds of movies where the lead character isn’t as interesting as the purple jumpsuit clad Jesus. Sam Elliot shows up as a Cowboy narrator with virtually no desire to assemble all the brilliant parts of this puzzle for you. Thankfully, we are all on our own to figure it out. The Coen Brothers are genius at word play, stunning visuals and colliding every weird character type you can imagine with purpose. When The Dude started having visions of himself flying through the air and landing in a bowling lane made of beautiful ladies, I was laughing out loud at the sheer audacity the Coens have to conjure this mix out of sheer air and create one of the most consistently funny and entertaining movies of the last twenty years. The soundtrack rocks, with plenty of CCR and Dylan and some classical music sprinkled in. When The Dude meets the Big, he shares this intro of himself: “Let me explain something to you. Um, I am not "Mr. Lebowski". You're Mr. Lebowski. I'm the Dude. So that's what you call me. You know, that or, uh, His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing.” Bridges delivers this so well that you sit back knowing you are in for a couple hours of brilliance. Hilarious, relentlessly profane, clever and riddled with dialogue that seems penned by Aaron Sorkin blended with Tarantino and a dash of Monty Python, The Coen Brothers masterpiece is one of my all time TOP 10 films. I can’t wait to watch this again. The Dude gets an A+. That rug really did tie the room together, did it not?

I constantly underestimate Disney Animation. Why I do so after "Up" and "Wreck It Ralph" is beyond me, but I feel like an idiot for not seeing BIG HERO 6 in 3D on the big screen. Disney is not just making these visual spectacles for kids anymore, and BIG HERO is one of their best. In the future city of San Fransokyo, imagined as a spectacular blend of San Fran and Tokyo, brilliant young inventor Hiro is wasting his time until he visits his older brother Tadashi's university. Once seeing the incredible inventions the students are working on, the boy genius joins the school and creates a powerful new invention that could change the world. Meanwhile, Tadashi's invention is Baymax, a harmless, inflatable robot that serves as an in-home medical assistant that can scan you at an instant and fix your ailments. When tragedy strikes the school, Hiro realizes that it might have been driven by greed and he links up with Baymax and his five best student friends to battle a worthy adversary bent on destroying the city. The digital animation is spectacular. Every bit of the film's $165 million budget is right there on the screen. When Hiro upgrades Baymax's programming for some very different capabilities and they take a flight over and through the city, its visually one of the best sequences in animation history. These are talented folks and the ability to create photo realistic action and settings and then propel you through them makes for a great film. Baymax is a terrific character and damned if that inflatable dude doesn't generate a lot of laughs and choke you up once or twice as well. It's a great film for the entire family to enjoy together and a fantastic set up for future adventures. The music score by Henry Jackman is terrific. If this is what comes out of Disney buying Marvel, then keep it coming. Big Hero 6 is a visual feast from beginning to end, one of the best films of the year and gets an A. If you love Marvel films, this one is going to rock you.

A film classic that defines BIG film making in every way, 1958's THE BIG COUNTRY is a superb drama with a lot to say and a powerful way of saying it. Gregory Peck stars as James McKay, a New England sea captain arriving in the old west to meet his fiance Pat (Carroll Baker) and her father, rich land owner Major Henry Terrell (Charles Bickford). Almost immediately, the gentlemanly McKay is challenged by the macho bravado of the west, where your reputation is everything and what folks think of you defines your social status. McKay is challenged not only by local bad boys the Hannassey brothers, but also by the Terrell's ranch hand Steve Leech (Charlton Heston). Caught in the middle of a decades long feud between the Terrells and the Hannasseys, McKay stands the middle ground. As his integrity is questioned again and again because he won't take the bait to fight in front of a crowd, take part in violence against the Hannassey's or "throw down" at the drop of a cowboy hat, McKay continues to stand his ground. He proves himself (to those smart enough to observe his true actions) and is challenged to examine everything that he came west to pursue. Chuck Conners is pure evil as Buck, the worst of the dastardly brothers, Jean Simmons is 100% movie star as Julie, the owner of the Big Muddy, a watering hole between the feuding clan's herds that both want to control and Burl Ives is excellent as Rufus Hannassey, father of the brothers and leader of the clan, who may have more depth to his morality than one first suspects. Peck and Heston are at the top of their game, playing two very different types of men, with their eye on the same woman and very different views of what makes a man in the west. Director William Wyler (Ben Hur, The Best Years of Our Lives) keeps this three-hour film moving and stages everything beautifully on an epic scale. The music score by Jerome Moross is a classic. Even if you don't think you know film music, you will recognize this score. Its legendary and one of film's all time best. Everything about the film is BIG, the performances, the landscapes, the emotions, the feuds. This is a powerful film classic and an enjoyable A. Thank you to my friend Rob for leading me to discover this movie!

This quirky little documentary about an everyday Joe obsessed with a failed 60's Disneyland like bible park is fascinating, weightless and interesting as hell. Speaking of hell, One of the rides at Bible Storyland was going to be a boat ride to Hell, but I digress. Art dealer Harvey Jordan discovers some original sketches by a Disney designer that capture a failed construction project in California for a theme park to rival Disneyland. Called Bible Storyland, its a big concept, a big dream and obviously never gets built. Harvey becomes obsessed with uncovering the details and you discover them along with him as a camera crew follows his quest. After awhile, his wife is furious that all he does is chase information about the park all day while she works and takes care of the house. It's a surprisingly open portrait, following them as lead after lead dies, people he can't wait to talk to know absolutely nothing and some of the interviews he does get on camera are from some hilariously eccentric folks as his marriage sinks lower and lower. This is not a religious movie, its a documentary about Harvey's obsession and features fascinating behind the scenes peeks at early Disneyland, sixties California history and a grand but ultimately failed vision. Winner of Best Documentary at several film festivals,it's a fun movie told with lots of vintage photos and footage, animated sequences and a long sequence of Harvey being forced to pick up all the pot belly pig poop in the backyard. And that's a lot funnier (and more tragic) than it sounds. Well done and entertaining, I swear on Bible Storyland! We'll give it a B.

In the history of film sequels, they don't sink much lower than BEYOND THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE. Schlocky producer Irwin Allen had followed his big hits the original Poseidon and his one great film, The Towering Inferno with the stinker The Swarm. Inexplicably, Michael Caine decided to follow up that cinematic mega-bomb with this horrible movie about a group of folks sailing up and claiming salvage on the overturned ship. Caine is a tugboat captain, Karl Malden is is loyal old shipmate (think a waterlogged skipper and Gilligan) and Sally Field is aboard with them for reasons never explained. Anyone that "really, really likes Sally" should see this performance, its whiny, unfunny, and BEYOND annoying. Granted she is given nothing to work with, but she did take the part....rent must have been overdue... Now toss in a second salvage team headed by Telly Savalas, who chooses to wear an all white ensemble to climb through a wreckage and a new group of survivors including Peter Boyle as a New Jersey dude that screams at everyone, Jack Warden as a blind guy, Slim Pickens as a rich Texan (cleverly named Tex) and Mark Harmon as a young passenger and you have this boring, suspense-free, cheap, dumb movie. Couple questions....where are all the other rescue ships, navy, helicopters, news coverage? About 16 hours after a huge luxury liner capsizes, there's a tug boat and a yacht? hmmmm. What nice things could I say about this box office disaster? Nice poster! The movie gets an eye rolling F.

Three years after the original set the box office ablaze, Eddie Murphy returned in 1987 as Axel Foley in the action packed sequel, BEVERLY HILLS COP II. A daring band of robbers is pulling big heists in Los Angeles, led by the statuesque Karla Fry (Brigitte Nielsen in her Amazonian 80's glory). Leaving cryptic letters behind, they've dubbed them the Alphabet crimes. When Chief Bogomil (Ronny Cox of "Deliverance") is nearly murdered by the gang, Axel rejoins the mismatched pair of detectives Billy (Judge Reinhold) & Taggart (John Ashton) in California to help on the case. What works well in the sequel is Murphy's trademark rapid-fire delivery of hilarious one-liners or BS as he winds his way deep into the investigation. Nielsen is a blast as the villain, Jurgen Prochnow (The Keep, Dune) is a terrific bad guy and the 80's soundtrack is loaded with everyone from Bob Seger to the Pointer Sisters. Gilbert Gottfried is hilarious as a slimy lawyer in a scene that he and Murphy mostly improvised and Paul Reiser (Mad About You) is funny as Axel's partner in Detroit. What doesn't work? The overly loud, predictable new chief Harold Lutz, unappealingly played by Allen Garfield (Nashville) and an unnecessary subplot with an arms dealer, blah blah... But Murphy is at the top of his game. Watching him talk himself into staying at a Beverly Hills mansion or stroll into an upscale shooting gallery and verbally abuse the bad guys delivers the laughs. Reinhold is hilarious as Billy, morphing from the meek detective of the first film into a Rambo-like warrior, loading up on so many weapons that he delivers terrific action and laughs in the finale. Watch closely for a very young Chris Rock as a valet attendant during the cement truck sequence. A massive hit with the biggest opening weekend in '87, it generated a second, horrible sequel 7 years later. Stick with this and the original! Axel's first return to the screen gets a violent, laugh-filled B.

Do you have any film favorites that are so trashy bad they’re good? A seventies classic of that genre for me is the gilded garbage of 1978’s THE BETSY. Based in the cutthroat world of the automotive industry, this Harold Robbins drama is loaded with enough plot lines for a trilogy and a truck full of great actors slumming for a big paycheck. Laurence Olivier leads the way as “Number One”, the retired but ready to re-emerge auto tycoon behind Hardemann Motors. He’s got the fever to create the world’s ultimate fuel-efficient vehicle, but the industry and most of his own company are in the way. Olivier has the worst accent of his career and some pretty embarrassing moments, including banging the maid on his son’s wedding day. It may be a subtle reference to Sonny in “The Godfather” in its opening scene, but this is NO “Godfather”. However, Robert Duvall does turn up as Loren Jr. in some bad short shorts and high athletic socks to play handball and hardball with his father. Tommy Lee Jones is incredibly young here as Angelo Perino, an Italian (?) race car driver that Number One picks to lead his new project. A gorgeous Lesley-Anne Down (The Great Train Robbery, Dallas) is “Lady Bobby Ayres” whose sleeping with Loren Jr. but hot for Tommy Lee, oh excuse me, I mean Angelo….Jones isn’t even TRYING to have an accent here….. Katherine Ross (The Graduate) is Loren Jr’s wife who ends up sleeping with….oh you get the idea. It’s all race cars, big business boardrooms, mansions and wicked capitalist dealings in rich settings and in its own way, it's incredibly trashy fun. Joseph Wiseman is a mafia bad guy that looks like Dr. No in a bad suit. Edward Herrmann is a sidekick that never quite gets his due and supposedly leading the way is Kathleen Beller as Number One’s granddaughter Betsy. Beller is wooden. Or whatever surface is less talented than wood. She has a gratuitous nude scene in the pool that serves no purpose other than to make Angelo look lecherous and make sure the film was rated R. In the early 80’s she landed an ongoing role on TV’s “Dynasty” but never any leading roles after her termite bait of a performance here. The Razzies named THE BETSY as one of the 100 most enjoyable BAD movies ever and I have to agree. Where else can you see big actors spouting really bad dialogue and sleeping with someone new every half hour, a “revolutionary” car that looks suspiciously like a Mercedes with a fake front on it, a test run of that car with the sound of an engine turbine clumsily laid over it, and Laurence Olivier hooking up with everyone from his servants to particularly awkward family members? This is pure trash and pretty fun to watch, like some big budget TV movie in the “Dallas” or “Dynasty” vein. It made some money in theatres and still sits in my DVD collection as a memorable bad movie that I have to pull of the shelf every decade and enjoy. Olivier’s character may be called Number One, but this movie’s definitely all Number Two. We’ll give it a C.

Fascinating, informative and strangely echoing the current political climate in the USA, the 2015 documentary BEST OF ENEMIES chronicles a pivotal moment in television news. It's 1968, ABC News is a very distant third in the ratings and they have decided to only do 90 minutes of prime time coverage of the Republican and Democratic conventions. At the time, CBS and NBC covered the conventions gavel to gavel and ABC's approach was laughable to their competition. ABC really breaks the mold when they schedule 10 debates as part of their nightly coverage. Weighing in were uber-conservative William F. Buckley and outspoken liberal author Gore Vidal. The two men detested each other, often ripping each others opinions to shreds in print. They ooze hate for the others position. Its terrific to watch the original ABC coverage, much of these debates themselves and learn how the media reacted. The public loved them, with ABC's ratings skyrocketing and coverage of the debates never the same, and its easy to see why. There is no middle ground for Buckley or Vidal. They spend as much time verbally skewering the others personal attributes as they do the issues, making for lively TV. It's easy to see where Dan Aykroyd got his famous "Point/Counterpoint" line to Jane Curtin, "Jane, you ignorant slut" (shown here and still hilariously delivered by Aykroyd & Curtin). At times, you feel like there is a mutual respect for each others intelligence lurking just below the surface, but its soon repressed with another nuclear verbal assault. Watching the film now and relating the deep divide between the parties and the country in 1968 that created a violent convention atmosphere to the events just last night at the Trump rally in Chicago, I get the creeping feeling that 48 years after these events, the country hasn't evolved as much as we would like to pretend. Listen to the dialogue between Buckley and Vidal and transplant that chatter to this week and its astonishing and sad how relevant the social issues are today. It's also fascinating to watch how the impact of Vidal & Buckley's most famous, profane and explosive moment in the debates changed both men's lives forever. One of them lives in the shadow of that ten seconds, struggling to understand why those words were his primal fallback, while the other wallows in his hatred for the other, literally penning a welcome letter from hell when his opponent eventually dies. Smart, entertaining and riveting, BEST OF ENEMIES gets an A, a great documentary that captures an important political moment that seems all too familiar today.

Like the Texas bordello of its title, THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS is filled with some predictable fun and more than a few surprises. This 1982 filmed adaption of the Broadway hit musical casts Burt Reynolds as Sheriff Ed Earl Dodd, the "Sheriff Taylor" like leader of the town and steady boyfriend of the house madam, Miss Mona, played with voluptuous sincerity and fun by Dolly Parton in her prime. When a shady TV evangelist, hilariously played by Dom DeLuise, uses his network TV Show to throw a light on the "Chicken Ranch", all sorts of political trouble and soft R rated hi-jinks ensue. Burt and Dolly have effortless chemistry and Dolly has enormous screen presence two years after her screen debut in "9 to 5", elevating the entire affair anytime she's on screen. Burt (thankfully) only sings one song, but great character actor Charles Durning nearly steals the show with his terrific number "The Sidestep", showing terrific singing and dancing skills. Some of the numbers are pretty cheesy and the Texas football team comes off more like The Village People in "Can't Stop the Music" but there's real fun to be had at the ranch. Director Colin Higgins (Foul Play, Silver Streak, 9 to 5) has a deft comedic hand, the songs are fine and Dolly even sneaks in an early version of "I Will Honestly Love You" that was quite a hit in '82, but nowhere near the monster it would be for Whitney Houston years later. When the film tries to turn serious, it nearly derails, but Reynolds and Parton know what they're doing and get things back on track in short order. Get through the first 15 minutes of Jim Nabors narration and Burt and Dolly's only number together and then things improve quite a bit. I nearly gave up in that first stretch! Good for a down home laugh or two and benefiting greatly from Dolly's ample talents, we'll give it a double D, oh I mean a B.

Another hilarious, mostly improvised comedy from the folks who brought you "Waiting for Guffman" and "A Mighty Wind", BEST IN SHOW brings together a wacky bunch of characters for the Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show. Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara are Gerry and Cookie Fleck, an odd couple with bookish Gerry and vivacious Cookie, whose past seems to catch up with her everywhere she goes. Amorous men approach her everywhere as former "clients" and Levy's facial ticks and reactions are fall over funny, this guy can work an expression. Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock are Meg & Hamilton Swan, the most over-protective pet lovers in history. Their emotional drama escalates hilariously throughout as they helicopter-parent their pet. Michael McKean plays Stefan Vanderhoof, whose partner Scott is played with LOL flamboyance by John Michael Higgins. Director Christopher Guest plays country boy Harlan Pepper, who might have a thing or two to teach city folks about their pets. Round out the cast with Jane Lynch and Jennifer Coolidge and their giant poodle alongside Fred Willard as the side-splittingly funny horrible television announcer for the Dog Show and you have a winner. This entire cast is genius at improv and playing off each other to great effect. We meet each of them and follow them through the show in the spirit of a documentary. More laughs than you can count + characters you grow to really care about, in the hands of a very clever cast. Fred Williard alone is funnier than most current "comedies". This really is Best In Show as one of the best comedies of the 2000's. Voted by Premiere Magazine as one of the 50 best comedies of all time; hard to argue when you are laughing this hard! Blue Ribbons and an A.