The “Jurassic Park” films have raked in over $5 billion at the worldwide box office. Naturally, Hollywood is as interested in resurrecting the franchise as the evil corporations are in resurrecting those aggressive dinosaurs. “Jurassic World Dominion” is the sixth film in the series, and it offers more of the same, an abundance of action, […]

Lenexa, Kansas native and “America’s Got Talent” winner Grace VanderWaal stars in the Disney+ musical, “Hollywood Stargirl,” a sequel to the 2020 film “Stargirl.” When Stargirl and her mom leave Arizona for the West Coast, the young singer gets involved with neighbors trying to make their own movie. While it’s totally predictable and filled with […]

It’s been 36 years since Tom Cruise first scrambled his jets in the action blockbuster “Top Gun.” The long-gestating sequel “Top Gun: Maverick” has finally arrived and, happily, these Navy pilots nearly reach mach 10. But, as Maverick says, “You don’t have time to think up there. You think, you’re dead.” Good advice for the audience, […]

The second “Downton Abbey” feature film, “Downton Abbey: A New Era,” provides fans with just what they expect from their favorite British period soap opera; High-toned escapism. Multiple plot threads unfold as the dowager countess, played with her patented aristocratic spunk by Dame Maggie Smith, discovers that she has inherited a villa in the south of […]

Is it possible to find comfort in mutual desperation? The extremely edgy comic drama “On the Count of Three” dares to explore that thorny question in a story about two friends who make a mutual suicide pact. Jerrod Carmichael and Christopher Abbott are excellent, full stop, as lifelong friends who decide that life’s challenges aren’t […]

Remember Charles Bronson, the actor who in the 1970s and 80s, made a slew of bloody revenge dramas during his golden years? The career of Liam Neeson has taken a similar trajectory. The latest example is “Memory,” the story of an aging hit man who gains a conscience but loses his memory. When he’s assigned to […]

The medieval Viking legend of Amleth, the inspiration for Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” becomes a dark big screen extravaganza in “The Northman.” Alexander Skarsgård takes the title role of a prince who spends years seeking revenge on his uncle who killed his father, married his mother, and stole his kingdom. Director Robert Eggers lacks Shakespeare’s depth and poetry but […]

The Harry Potter prequels have all the superior production values that fans have come to expect from this popular franchise. And while better than the previous episode, “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” is still saddled with a somewhat clunky, meandering storyline. Jude Law returns as Hogwarts professor Albus Dumbledore, but Mads Mikkelsen replaces Johnny […]

The HBO Max cloak-and-dagger drama “All the Old Knives” is a well-acted espionage thriller with a plot that twists like a mobius strip. Chris Pine and Thandiwe Newton add steamy eroticism as former lovers who reunite years after their CIA field intelligence office mishandled a hijacking case that left over 100 people dead. Are they […]

Like the recent “Venom” movies, the Marvel entry “Morbius” is a Spider-Man villain origin story. It’s a full-blown horror flick about a brilliant doctor, played by Jared Leto, who attempts to cure his own blood disease, only to unintentionally turn himself into a super vampire. It’s watchable, but the by-the-numbers execution leaves “Morbius” just a bit […]