The fourth annual Maui Comic Con is upon us and one of the featured guests is a local hero in the most profound sense. Maui native Noble Richardson has created eye-catching, emotionally stirring murals in Wailuku and Kahului. His art, in addition to being beautiful and rich in detail, often interweaves Hawaiian history and culture. […]
‘Gemini Man’ New Movie Review: Will Smith and cutting edge CGI can’t save this script
In the mid-’90s there were two high concept screenplays that were much discussed and in demand to be made within the Hollywood studio system. One was called “The Ticking Man,” set in the near future, about a man who wakes up, finds a bomb has been surgically planted in his chest, and has one hour […]
‘Joker’ New Movie Review: It succeeds at stacking cringe-worthy scenes
Finally, someone at Warner Brothers realized that if you release a stand-alone movie about the Joker, you’re bound to make piles of money. The trouble is, they entrusted the story of Batman’s greatest nemesis with Todd Phillips, the director of Due Date, whose love of ‘70s movies (and mean-spirited material in general) gets the better […]
‘Alien’ Movie Review: Still a masterpiece, ‘Alien’ returns to theaters for three days in October
The “jump scare” is a well established trope of horror films, in which the “shriek chord” on the soundtrack suddenly rises, in order to give audiences a jolt. Lazy horror films aggressively use the “shriek chord” but aren’t fooling anyone. If a filmmaker needs the equivalent of someone screaming in my ear to induce fear, […]
‘Ad Astra’ New Movie Review: The film is engrossing, but asks challenging questions
Director James Gray’s Ad Astra takes place in “The Near Future” and stars Brad Pitt as Roy McBride, a celebrated astronaut of notable lineage – Clifford, his late father (played by Tommy Lee Jones) is a cosmonaut of legendary status. McBride is working on the International Space Station when a cosmic freak occurrence, referred to […]
Lean, No-Nonsense, and Brutal – “Rambo: Last Blood” delivers
After John Rambo (played by Sylvester Stallone) saved a group of missionaries and murdered most of the bad guys in Burma, he settled down, found a home with a mailbox bearing his last name, and embraced normal life. At least, that was the conclusion of Rambo, the 2008 installment which belatedly caught us up with […]
It Chapter Two: Pennywise returns, and the grown-up losers of Derry are back to stop It
Following the enormous financial and artistic success of It (2017), returning director Andy Muschietti had a real monster to contend with: how to top the first film and shape what needed to be the horror genre equivalent of The Godfather: Part II. To the credit of the filmmakers and actors, this ambitious sequel gets halfway […]
2019 Fall Movie Preview: After the summer, we deserve this
The fall movie season isn’t unlike the summer run before it. Yet, everything is looking better (and after Godzilla: King of the Monsters, we all deserve better). Although there are more sequels, at least they’re for movies we really want sequels to, like Zombieland, and not the likes of The Angry Birds Movie 2. Some […]
Summer Movie Roundup 2019: Farewell to the worst summer movie season in years
Grown-ups rule and kids drool. This is the conclusion I’ve come to after four months of one of the worst summer movie seasons in years. Movies made for young, out-of-school, spectacle-loving audiences are a highlight of my year but not when the formula has become this stale. A tub of popcorn shouldn’t be the best […]
‘The Peanut Butter Falcon’ New Movie Review: It’s like ‘Rain Man’ on moonshine
Somewhere between the title and the impossibly cutesy-looking trailer, The Peanut Butter Falcon seemed totally miss-able. The whole thing sounded like one of those pre-packaged Fox Searchlight movies that flaunts independent film street cred while touting an all-star cast that most little films could never dream of affording, in a premise that seems ready for […]
‘Good Boys’ New Movie Review: It’s Super Bad
Best friends Max (played by Jacob Tremblay of Room), Thor (played by Brady Noon of “Boardwalk Empire”), and Lucas (played by TV veteran Keith L. Williams) have been friends since the beginning of their lives and are struggling to survive the sixth grade. In addition to fending off bullies and dealing with their confusing parents, […]
‘The Farewell’ New Movie Review: A unique, sensitive, and absorbing comedy-drama
When we meet Billi (played by Awkwafina), she’s broke and living alone in New York. The one constant in her life is her relationship with Nai Nai (played by Zhao Shuzhen), her grandmother who lives in China. Billi is informed by her parents that Nai Nai’s doctor discovered she has cancer. Nai Nai doesn’t have […]
‘Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw’ New Movie Review: More like ‘Long & Tedious’
Law enforcer Luke Hobbs (played by Dwayne Johnson) and career criminal Deckard Shaw (played by Jason Statham), supporting characters in the Fast & Furious franchise, now have their very own spinoff. What was once fast and furious is now long and tedious. If you’ve ever wondered what one of these movies would be like without […]
‘Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood’ New Movie Review: This film is a pleasure to watch
In Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Rick Dalton, a B-level Western star whose career has never branched outside of television and who’s often accompanied by Cliff, his stuntman, go-to repairman, and best friend (played by Brad Pitt). As the late-1960s radical counter-cultural movement overtakes America, Dalton’s career momentum […]
‘Yesterday’ New Movie Review: This is a refreshing summer sleeper
Danny Boyle’s Yesterday isn’t the jukebox musical I feared, nor the one-joke sitcom its trailer would leave you to believe. In fact, even with its shortcomings, this is a refreshing summer sleeper that has more on its mind than what’s on the surface. Television actor and big-screen newcomer Himesh Patel makes a strong starring role […]
‘Midsommar’ Movie Review: Why this film critic is postponing his Swedish vacation
Ari Aster’s Midsommar is the first movie I’ve seen all year that feels like it was made by a real filmmaker, an artist who has carefully designed each shot, collaborated in full with every cast member, and has a true vision he reaches with every scene. It’s that good. While the promotional materials are pushing […]
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