Forgot how good 1977's Black Sunday is! Interesting perspective on a potential terrorist attack in a pre-9/11 USA in the 70s. From a great book by Thomas Harris (Silence of the Lambs), this is a taut suspense thriller. Wacko Bruce Dern (who does wacko better?) and Marthe Keller (Marathon Man) plot to kill everyone at the Super Bowl using the Goodyear blimp. Robert Shaw (Jaws, The Sting) is a tough foreign agent working with our FBI to track them down. Pre CGI effects hold it back a bit, but John Williams music score here is so good it's like another star of the movie. Great thriller! A

Creating a land and origin story all its own, Marvel's BLACK PANTHER is a multi-layered, unexpectedly rich stand alone film that also weaves perfectly into the Marvel universe. While 90% of the film takes place present day in the hidden land of Wakanda, the film opens in 1992 Oakland, setting up a network of extended family and spies that will echo in the present day story. T'Challa (the excellent Chadwick Boseman of "42" and "Get On Up") is prepared to become the king of Wakanda, assuming the powers of the throne and Black Panther. As he takes the reins, a nefarious arms trader named Klaue (Andy Serkis) steals vibranium, the life's blood of Wakanda's technologically advanced hidden city and powers. Klaue is working with a lethal former special ops man named Erik Killmonger, whose driven to discover Wakanda's secrets. Killmonger is excellently played by Michael B. Jordan (Creed, Fruitvale Station). The film weaves a tale rich in the tradition of the five tribes of Wakanda, drenched in the politics of the hidden land and its relation to the outside world, while entertaining the Marvel audience with the action and intrigue we've all come to expect. A showdown between many sides in a casino and the car chase that follows is a highlight, as is the final battle in the fields of Wakanda. The supporting cast is huge and exceptional, including Lupita Nyongo'o as Nakia, Martin Freeman as CIA man Ross whose finally forced to take a side, the ageless Angela Bassett as T'Challa's mother, Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us) in a pivotal role in the Oakland scenes and Winston Duke as M'Baku, the leader of the fifth Wakanda tribe. Writer/Director Ryan Coogler (Creed, Fruitvale Station) does a brilliant job elevating the material into a rich family drama/action film/political thriller mashup that entertains on many levels. Visually, every bit of its $200 million budget is there to enjoy. Wakanda is so different than any other land we've visited with Marvel. The costumes and sets are stunning. While there are grand scale battles, more of the fighting is hand-to-hand combat. In combination with the characters that Coogler and this incredible cast have created, it makes the stakes higher and all the outcomes aren't what you expect. By the closing moments of the film, you realize the world in which all these Marvel films take place in has been changed by the events that take place in Wakanda. For my money, that will only improve the next Avengers tale when it hits theatres this May. Breaking box office records this weekend as it continues to roll out, BLACK PANTHER deserves all the accolades it's getting. Riding the strong acting and action of leads Boseman and Jordan, it gets a A-. Stay through the credits for two teaser sequences, one funny and one intriguing.

This must be cinematic redemption week. Yesterday I was talking about how Ryan Reynolds had never made a good movie, but just triumphed with his massive box office hit "Deadpool". A much longer discussion lately has been the fact that it's been a VERY long time since Johnny Depp has made a movie worth watching. For me, I'd have to go all the way back to 2003 and the original Pirates of the Caribbean to name a Depp film I truly enjoyed. 13 years later, Depp pulls himself out of the dreck with an amazing performance in BLACK MASS. Depp oozes unstable menace in his biographical, true-life portrayal of James "Whitey" Bulger, a south Boston neighborhood criminal who rises to the top of the dirt-bag food chain. Bulger does it with the unabashed assistance of childhood friend John Connolly, now an FBI agent who enlists Bulger as a high level informant. The two men's lifelong bond as fellow "Southies" from the tough streets binds them still, with Connolly bending every rule to paint Bulger as a golden informant while Whitey feeds them tidbits to eliminate his competition and enable his rise up the crime ladder. Depp is fantastic, becoming Bulger with the help of some terrific make up, strong voice work and a pent up performance that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Walking old ladies home with their groceries one minute and going full Joe Pesci "Goodfellas" mode the next, Depp is better than he's been in years. What a great surrounding cast. Edgerton (The Great Gatsby, Zero Dark Thirty) is great as Connolly, dripping misplaced loyalty and triumph. Benedict Cumberbatch is Bulger's brother, a senior politician in Boston. Kevin Bacon, Peter Sarsgaard, Adam Scott and Corey Stoll are all terrific in key roles. Jesse Plemons follows up his great work in Fargo, Season 2, with a key role as Kevin, Bulger's new driver and right hand man that becomes our conduit into Bulger's empire. David Harbour, a character actor you've seen for years, breaks out in a great role as Connolly's partner, at first sharing the glory on the FBI victories fed by Bulger's tips, but then tortured by the facts as they emerge. The fact that this is a true story is fascinating, all the more so when the end credits are shown over pictures of the real folks and updates on their current status. Truth truly is stranger than fiction. Kudos to Depp for his best work in years, still aided by the makeup, hair and voice work he loves to employ, but this time put to chilling effect to create a real-life monster. BLACK MASS is a violent, Scorcese-like crime thriller that packs a punch. An old man in a Members Only jacket and giant aviators has never been so chilling..... Depp and Company get a strong B.

Powerful, funny and disturbing, Spike Lee's best film in years sticks with you well after its thought provoking final scenes. BLACKkKLANSMAN tells the true story of Colorado Spring's first African American police officer in the seventies, Ron Stallworth. In his first major role, John David Washington is perfect as Ron. He's strong, funny as hell and incredibly likable. What he puts up with blazing a trail in the Colorado police force is astonishing. When Stallworth cleverly infiltrates the dangerous local installment of the KKK by phone, he partners up with fellow detective Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver, terrific) to be the in-person half of Ron, since the real Ron cant attend the KKK meetings for obvious reasons. What unspools from there is a smart, sometimes hilarious, often uncomfortable tale of breaking barriers, blatant racism, good cops and bad cops, the in-your-face stupidity of the Klan, wrapped in a very good crime thriller. Director Spike Lee is at his very best. Lee seduces you with the carefree humor of the story before stopping you in your tracks with the backward reality of everyday racism. Lee elevates the film by taking you behind the surface of many of the characters. A long club sequence in which Stallworth meets a college activist for a drink that evolves into a long dance and a romance that will impact the entire film is flawless. Credit Lee with perfect casting and bringing great performances out of all his actors. Corey Hawkins (24, Straight Outta Compton) is better than he's ever been on screen as Kwame Ture, a speaker who ignites the story with his appearance at a local college. Ryan Eggold (The Blacklist) is strong as leader of the local KKK and Paul Walter Hauser follows up his hilarious performance as the worlds dumbest crook in "I, Tonya" with his dumb as a box of rocks klan member Ivanoe. Topher Grace is strong as real life KKK leader and current politician David Duke. Lee builds real suspense in the final act as an undercover operation tilts toward disaster, a violent plan is put in play by the KKK and all our characters are propelled toward a confrontation. But Lee saves his most disturbing moments for the final 5 minutes, which move away from the film you just watched and into a montage of scenes showing news clips from events surrounding racial hatred, many of them in the past few years. By mirroring the opening moments of the film, which feature news footage of racial battles in the early sixties, Lee holds up just how little we've changed in the last 50 years. For me, the best films are those that make you think, that challenge what you think you know or inspire you to feel differently. WIthout being preachy, Lee holds truth up in front of you and challenges you to feel & to think. Our lack of progress fifty years after Selma and Martin Luther KIng is disturbing. BLACKkKLANSMAN will stick with me for a very long time. It's Lee's best work in 25 years and gets an A+. It's in the top half of my all-time Top 100 films.

In 1989, Ridley Scott and Michael Douglas teamed up for the enjoyably stylistic, violent crime thriller BLACK RAIN. Douglas is a NYC cop under investigation for pocketing drug money found at the scene of his crimes. He's a great, tough cop with a grey area at his core, if the internal affairs suits are right. When Nick (Douglas) and his partner Charlie (Andy Garcia) are witnesses to a Japanese mob assassination on their Mafia counterpart, they are chosen to escort the killer back to Japan. The two are immersed in the exotic underworld of Japan and teamed up with Japanese detective Masahiro, well played by the late Ken Takakura. Director Ridley Scott wraps the whole film in 80's pastels, steam and atmosphere, dropping you into Japan. Watching the young, aggressive gang try to explode every tradition through murder and mayhem is fascinating, like a mashup of "The Raid" and "The Godfather". The action scenes are plentiful and really well shot and staged by Scott and his team. Douglas is damn near perfect as Nick and Garcia is a great wing-man with a much more defined sense of right & wrong. As the raging Yakuza gangland battle escalates, Douglas is determined to find justice and eventually revenge. Some of the foreshadowing is pretty heavy handed and the NYC characters a bit cliche, but with Scott and Douglas at the helm, its never anything but a fast moving, fun ride into some very dangerous territory. Douglas cornered the market for a decade or so on portraying men that work outside the law to get what they want. No one did it better and it's always fun to revisit. BLACK RAIN is a perfect storm of 80's music, great photography, exotic locales and terrific action that blasts its way to an A.

Watching this 1979 Sci-Fi flick, the power of The Black Hole is obvious becuase it's sucked the talent out of all the actors & the writers. Disney's attempt to capitalize on the Star Wars craze that exploded in 1977 throws a LOT of money at the screen, but other than some strong visuals, not much sticks. Of the cast, only Maximillian Schell and Ernest Borgnine come off well. It should be film law that when Ernest Borgnine comes off as the least over-acting member of your cast, you have issues. Anthony Perkins basically brings Norman Bates to space, personal fave Robert Forster comes off very flat, Yvette Mimieux over emotes every line like its Armageddon and Joseph Bottoms is truly horrible. In all fairness to the players, the screenplay is pretty bad. No one talks like these people do and it is laugh out loud funny more than once at the worst moments. The black hole effects are very good, as is John Barry's music score but this huge financial bomb for Disney is really a confused mess. The last 5 minutes is like some Dante's Inferno/Brainstorm mashup that just arrived from another flick. And one quick question writers, when you are millions of miles in deep space and a meteor smashes through the ship, wouldn't everyone die instantly? I guess they can run around for about seven minutes and just get some ice in their hair; who knew? Through the entire movie, the Black Hole sits there in the background, waiting for something to happen. It wasn't the only one...... The Black Hole sucks up a D.

Kevin Costner gives one of his best performances in years in 2015's drama, BLACK OR WHITE. Costner stars as Elliot Anderson, a widower and proud grandfather to his bi-racial granddaughter Eloise. When he suddenly faces raising Eloise on his own, he is drawn into a custody battle by Eloise's grandmother Rowena, powerfully played by Octavia Spencer (The Help). The film dances a fine line between reinforcing the stereotypes it means to dispel, but slowly unfurls Elliot and Rowena's emotions as they are forced to challenge their perceptions of each other and their own families. When the custody battle ends up in the courtroom, the tonal shift from family drama to John Grisham style courtroom drama is a bit jarring. The screenplay makes its biggest misstep in forcing Elliot (and Costner) to shout a racial epitaph at Eloise's less than ideal father in the middle of a street. It feels forced. It doesn't feel like the character of Elliot that we've come to know would say it, but its there just to foreshadow a court confrontation later. Writer/Director Mike Binder (The Upside of Anger, Ray Donovan) otherwise crafts characters and families you'll care about and pull for as they face their own prejudices that emerge in their love for Eloise. Luckily for the movie, Eloise is played by child actor Jillian Estell and she's a doll. As Costner's aged, I think he's only gotten better, becoming a more weathered and grizzled actor. He's terrific here and his relationship with Spencer feels authentic. The tangled family web that has ensnared Elliot, Eloise and Rowena is chock full of issues that are anything but black & white. As a serious study of race in America, it leaves a lot unsaid, but as a family drama about families working to find common ground and playing to this sappy grandfather who would do ANYTHING for my beloved Grandson, it gets a B.

Michael Mann has made some of the best crime dramas of the past two decades, including "Heat", "Manhunter" and "Thief". His latest, BLACKHAT shows moments of the old Mann magic, but has a couple damaging flaws. Chris Hemsworth stars as Nick Hathaway, a brilliant hacker serving prison time for online theft from banks on a major scale. When the USA and global financial markets find themselves under attack by a sophisticated online extremist faction, Hathaway is sprung from captivity to capture the elusive man behind the plan. A nuclear reactor in China is the first target. A young, American-schooled captain named Chen takes point for the Chinese government and teams up with American intelligence for the mission. Chen and Hathaway share a past, including a past romance between Hathaway and Chen's sister Lien. The film's problems start with Chinese actress Wei Tang as Lien. Not since Sofia Coppola in "Godfather III" have I seen acting this poor in major film. Her co-stars do everything they can to support her, but WOW she just takes you out of the film with her deadpan line readings. I've heard more exciting dialogue delivery at the DMV. It's a shame, as much of the rest of the supporting cast is really strong, including Viola Davis as CIA top brass, Christian Borle as a fellow agent and Leehom Wang as Chen. Mann keeps the cameras constantly moving around our team as they chase the bad guys, bouncing all over the world from China to Chicago to Jakarta to Hong Kong and Los Angeles. The photography and action scenes are everything you'd expect in a Mann film and Hemsworth proves he can carry a film without carrying a big hammer, just as he did last year in the little seen but powerful racing film, "Rush". Alas, the film goes on a bit too long and Wei Tang appears in way too many scenes. They could have fixed both problems by editing out any parts with her in at and cutting the running time by 20 minutes. There are plenty of scenes of physical chases, huge gun battles and action set pieces on a major scale to balance all the time our teams spend staring at computer screens. There's also a strong cautionary tale running beneath the surface on the dangers of our personal information all bouncing around the cloud. When you see what some of these folks can do with information in about three seconds, it will make you cringe. BLACKHAT is not top notch Michael Mann, but still exudes a stylish momentum that earns a B-.

t's safe to say that I will never step in another Sea World park the rest of my life after watching the powerful documentary BLACKFISH. CNN FIlms has produced a detailed, smart look at Killer Whales in captivity, going back 40 years to trace the horrors of keeping these massive creatures in what are essentially glorified bathtubs. Starting with actual footage of a team trapping and separating a baby Orca from its family, the film traces the lineage and dangerous history of Tilikum, a killer whale that has indeed killed three people, including one of the top trainers in the world. Powerful scenes show real footage of the baby being captured and hauled onto the boat as its family, untrapped and free to go, line up screaming and howling in anguish at the trappers. Former Sea World trainers and employees give in depth, detailed and emotional interviews, combined with actual footage of them from Sea World, that tell of their regrets over bonding with the mammals, only to watch them be mistreated or turn on their captors. The film is fast, detailed and shocking as it unwraps the very tightly controlled media spin that Sea World has dumped upon the country for years. The fact that Tilikum's DNA is now in over 50 killer whales across the Sea World parks and that this notorious whale is STILL performing at Sea World Orlando is as scary as it is shocking. As the film's tagline says, "Never Capture What You Can't Control". Indeed. Real footage of many of the attacks, along with eye witness accounts, make the facts very hard to submerge. A disturbing, powerful documentary that gets a solid B.

I have such great memories of seeing Disney's BLACKBEARD'S GHOST as a little kid in 1968 at the Chris-Town theatres in Phoenix, that its fun to be able to enjoy it again and share it with my grandson in the years ahead. Disney made a staple of live action comedies in the sixties and early seventies and this enjoyable family comedy is one of the best. Dean Jones (was there a better known lead actor in Disney films in that era than Mr. Jones?) stars as a new track & field coach at Godolphin High School. He soon discovers that the team is the joke of the school, while the football team demands all the attention. Steve (Jones) also captures the attention of beautiful teacher Jo Anne Baker, played by the gorgeous and funny Suzanne Pleshette in her pre-Newhart days. Baker has her hands full trying to save a local Inn run by the Daughters of the Buccaneers, who claim to be descendant from Blackbeard. When Steve buys an old relic at an auction to help them raise money to save the inn from the hands of some local mobsters, he unintentionally conjures up the ghost of Blackbeard himself, played with great wit and physical comedy by legendary actor Peter Ustinov. Ustinov delivers in every way as the title pirate, who has a great time getting involved in every way he can in Steve's life. The only problem is, ONLY Steve can see him. Proof that family comedies dont need to be stupid or pander to low intelligence, this Disney classic provides plenty of fun for all ages and a TON of great slapstick that young and old can enjoy together. Like "The Absent Minded Professor" and "The Shaggy Dog" of the same era, BLACKBEARD'S GHOST is classic, clean family fun from a much more innocent time. Director Robert Stevenson (Mary Poppins, The Love Bug) keeps things moving so the young ones dont get bored and gives Ustinov free rein to throw in dialogue aimed at parents too. Throwback Disney fun and a nice mix of nostalgia and laughs in just the right spirit, this ghost gets a B.

When I saw the really stupid trailers for BIRDS OF PREY, I decided I had no desire to see it. Then it hit theatres and most of the reviews bordered on ecstatic, gushing about how much fun it was. Yeah, the trailers had it right. It's a boring, overstuffed mess. It's official title, like the film itself, screams overkill. BIRDS OF PREY: AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN. Okay, whatever. Margot Robbie, who I'm a huge fan of, narrates, produces and stars in the film as the newly single Harley, blowing up a chemical plant to signal the official end to her relationship with the Joker. Unfortunately, this also lets all the people she's wronged while under the Joker's wing know that she is now fair game for retribution. It could be a fun set up, but it's so heavy handed in its flashbacks, repeated scenes and structure that it never creates any story telling flow. For all its exploding color, fast action and violence, its shockingly boring. Robbie's Harley was definitely the standout in her 'Justice League" film debut, but her quirky, mad portrayal starts to grow wearisome pretty quickly into her own film. Some of the supporting players fair better. Ewan McGregor (Doctor Sleep, Moulin Rouge) is pretty good and menacing as crime boss Roman Sionis, but his villain alter ego is barely introduced or explained. Jurnee Smollett-Bell is excellent as Dinah, a singer in Roman's club who develops into the Black Canary, but even that is a prime example of how bad the movie is. Near the conclusion, she suddenly demonstrates a super power that is never explained, anticipated or touched on other than with a bad one liner from Harley. Huh? If the writing and structure is so bad that the filmmakers dont care, why should we? Mary Elizabeth Winstead (TV series Fargo, 19 Cloverfield Lane) steals the movie as The Huntress. Her back story is good, her one liners are great and her angst over her alter ego moniker is a lot of fun. She is the only one in the movie that gets the tone exactly right. Rosie Perez is good as a police detective on the trail of almost everyone. She's having fun playing an 80's TV cop in Gotham City and it shows. The sets and production design are strong, mixing elements from Tim Burton/Anton Furst's Batman look at the Ajax chemical factory with Harley's crazy, tattooed girl power wardrobe and crap apartment. There are some fun moments, especially a roller-derby style car/motorcycle chase in final act that's a visual blast. But even that's followed by a final battle that tries to recreate Kill Bill's Crazy 88's scene with a cotton candy/glitter version of Scaramanga's funhouse that just bores you with its lack of originality. Whenever the writer and director feel like its lagging, they pour buckets of quick cuts, blood, animation or goofy characters onto the scene. It's a great looking mess that manages to be exceedingly dull while beating you over the head with how fun it is. Poor Robbie. She deserves a better movie. DC bombs again. The only thing I want emancipated from is ever having to see this thing again. Birds of Prey never soars, noisily flapping its loud,ill-built wings to a D.

In 1963, Alfred Hitchcock's challenge was following up one of the biggest box office hits of his career, 1961's "Psycho". As Hitch often did, he doubled down on the scares with THE BIRDS. The film takes its time in setting up the terror as we meet wealthy young Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren, very good in her film debut after Hitchcock discovered her in a diet soda TV commercial) entering a pet shop in downtown San Francisco. After a chance meeting with famous eligible bachelor Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor at his best), Melanie decides to buy the love birds that Mitch was looking for and deliver them to his home outside the city. In the first half hour, we see several birds acting strangely, but the first shock comes when a large gull comes down and attacks Melanie when she's approaching Mitch's country home. It seems incidental at first and the film moves on, setting up an unspoken attraction between Mitch and Melanie, surrounded by all the eccentric characters you'd expect in a small town in the early sixties. And then Hitch turns the screw and the birds descend on the small town in several vicious attacks. The scene in the schoolyard has become a film classic, with Melanie sitting down on a bench and looking over at monkey bars where one crow sits. While we watch birds fly in behind her, she looks back several moments later to a huge murder of crows waiting to attack the school children when the bell rings a moment later. Hitchcock stages the attack perfectly and shows incredible camera work later when the downtown area is attacked and we see the worst moments of the attack from a half mile above the mayhem. There are equally creepy quiet moments lurking through the farm houses of the town. Hitchcock serves up one of his most interesting film endings here, avoiding his standard THE END title credits for something much more still and disturbing. Watch for Suzanne Pleshette (The Bob Newhart Show) as Annie, Jessica Tandy (Driving Miss Daisy) as Mitch's mother Lydia and Veronica Cartwright (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Witches of Eastwick, Alien) as Mitch's young sister. It's the only Hitchcock film without any music, instead choosing strange electronic sounds as its score. Suspenseful, smart and fascinating, THE BIRDS was a huge hit in 1963 and holds up very well more than half a century later. Hedren is stunning. Hitch and his talented flock get an A.