With 2019 about to close, a decade will end along with it. Fellow film critic Charles E Elmore and I reflect on the films of 2019 and the 2010s in this retrospective for Tulsa People. Excerpts: "Elmore: The serialization of cinema has become quite the daunting task! Even so, it’s quite a fascinating time in [...]
Month: December 2019
RISE OF SKYWALKER Doesn’t Retcon LAST JEDI, It Fulfills It (ANALYSIS)
Major spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker follow The first, hottest, and possibly most predictable take to come out of the initial reactions to Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker was that director J. J. Abrams had retconned (a.k.a. reversed) the divisive subversions of Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi. For the most vicious critics, it [...]
STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER (Movie Review)
***1/2 out of **** Rated PG-13 (for sci-fi violence and action) Released: December 20, 2019 Runtime: 141 minutes Directed by: J. J. Abrams Starring: Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Carrie Fisher, Ian McDirmand, Anthony Daniels, Keri Russell, Billy Dee Williams, Joonas Suotamo, Richard E. Grant, Naomi Ackie, Kelly Marie Tran, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, [...]
TENET Trailer Another Mindbender From Christopher Nolan (VIDEO/IMAGES)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdOM0x0XDMo&t=0s "You have to start looking at the world in a new way." That line of dialogue can sum up the essence of any film from blockbuster auteur Christopher Nolan, and it certainly applies to the new movie it actually comes from, Tenet. It's hard to describe the premise in a nutshell but the gist [...]
LITTLE WOMEN (Movie Review)
***1/2 out of **** Rated PG (for thematic elements and brief smoking) Released: December 25, 2019 Runtime: 134 minutes Directed by: Greta Gerwig Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, Timothée Chalamet, Laura Dern, Chris Cooper, Tracy Letts, Meryl Streep, James Norton, Louis Garrel, Bob Odenkirk Greta Gerwig's new adaptation of Little Women isn’t the [...]
Nothing Being Faked In TOP GUN: MAVERICK Flying Featurette (VIDEO)
https://youtu.be/Nz9lnIDdkMo "We're going to show what it's really like to be a Top Gun pilot." So says producer Jerry Bruckheimer about the long-awaited sequel Top Gun: Maverick, and here's the behind-the-scenes featurette to prove it. In an age where everyone makes the default assumption that what they're watching in a blockbuster is a digitally animated, [...]
Abbotts Still Tiptoeing In Teaser For A QUIET PLACE: PART II (VIDEO/IMAGE)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbynQn2_0RU It's quiet. It's that place again. And as before, even the slightest leaf crunch could be mean absolute terror and sudden death. It's the first teaser for A Quiet Place: Part II and, along with it, a first look photo of the new family. It confirms how much time has passed since the end [...]
Excellent New Photos Revealed For BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC (IMAGES)
Whoa. The most excellent thing is definitely happening: Bill and Ted are back, and you can catch a glimpse of their new adventure in these first look photos. Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves return as the titular dudes whose time has finally come to save the world. Picking up years later after Bill & Ted's [...]
More Creatures In Pixar’s Latest ONWARD Trailer (VIDEO)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxKXiQvyG_o&t=0s If you've seen the previous previews for Pixar's Onward (here, here, and here), you're not going to learn anything new in the latest one. It's still a father-and-sons story set in a hybrid world of fantasy and suburbia. The voices of Tom Holland and Christ Pratt star as elvish brothers Ian and Barley Lightfoot who go [...]
RICHARD JEWELL (Movie Review)
*** out of **** Rated R (for strong language including some sexual references, and brief bloody images) Released: December 13, 2019 Runtime: 129 minutes Directed by: Clint Eastwood Starring: Paul Walter Hauser, Sam Rockwell, Kathy Bates, Jon Hamm, Olivia Wilde, Ian Gomez A true story about how the government and media conspire together to spin a false [...]