mroberts46

Leave it to the combined brilliance of Director Steven Soderbergh and Writer David Koepp to come up with an ultra hip, hi tech take on those twins of annoyance, Siri and Alexa...

Combined with a simply brilliant performance by Zoe Kravitz as an agoraphobic, brilliant computer savvy little waif who emerges as one of the great movie heroines in recent memory, 'Kimi'' is a 90 minute wonder (HBO Max)

If you can buy Angelina Jolie as a Smoke Jumping firefighter (and I can buy her as practically ANYTHING), you'like this sold action thriller with a decent plot and great spcial effects...

Miss Jolie, in her usual uncanny fashion, Is simply terrific, as is Finn Little as the little boy she befriends....

Never got around to the Tom Clancy novel, but this movie adaptation rehashes two of the oldest plots in the universe: conspiratorial forces in the government desire to create a war in order to unify a divided country, while an Ex NavySeal seeks revenge for the murder of his wife and child...

It's all been done before...There's no shortages of shoot outs,Explosions, fights and mayhem..but maybe it's in the writing or direction... for an action movie, it's strangely lifeless...(Amazon Prime)

Don't let the title fool you...it's a thriller with Denzel Washington and Rami Malik effectively playing two detectives in pursuit of a serial killer (played with appropriately psychotic menace by Jared Leto...)it's been done many times before and way better ('Seven' immediately comes to mind)

Yet, It has its moments and some hip dialogue but meanders at the end as if the screenwriters didn't know how to get out of it. (HBO MAX)

The most annoying couple in Found Footage history combined with a truly imbecilic plot make this a challenge to sit through....

The barn obsessed 'hero' is such a Putz, you wonder why anyone would want to spend more than 10 minutes in his company (even the 'alien' seems annoyed)

'Unaware" does occasionally have some riveting dialogue:

Joe: I'm going back to the barn

Lisa: no...come back to bed, babe

Noted Director, Barry Levinson tackles the 'Found Footage' sub genre of horror film (Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield) to penetrating effect with 'The Bay'

Told strictly with the use of video footage and Facetme, The film tells the story of an environmental disaster that causes a small town on Chesapeake Bay to be overrun by flesh eating parasites...

The story is covered up by local authorities, the FBI, the CDC and the DHS until recently undiscovered video footage is exposed due to the efforts of a local novice news reporter...

An example of what a fine film maker with a decent budget can do with a sub genre of horror film which has more times than not been hampered with amateur video effects, poor plotting and bad acting...

Levinson also co wrote the screenplay. (HBO)

I've become a fan of the 'Paranormal Activity' franchise, (though sometimes I feel like I'm watching a Bar Mitzvah video with monsters)

But this one's my favorite...maybe because it takes place in the hood, so the dialogue in hipper, the characters are more relatable and there are some clever little gimmicks like the use of the 'Simon' game as a Ouija board...(Crackle)

Viola Davis as legendary blues singer Ma Rainey and the late Chadwick Boseman as a troubled musisican named Levee give performances in this film so incredibly searing, it's impossible to judge them sanely...they are aided and abetted by Glynn Thurman, Coleman Domingo and Michael Potts who are just brilliant as Ma's band members....

Ruben-Santiago Hudson wrote the screenplay based on the stage play by August Wilson which echoes through present day...produced by Denzel Washington

Oscars will (and should) abound! (Netflix) Miss this...and you are missing an EXPERIENCE!

We have only the words of the credits to believe this is a Hitchcock film... It's like watching wallpaper dry!

Frady seeks out a friend, a former FBI agent, to provide him with a false idenity... Problem is , at this point of the film, Frady has no idea the sinister Parakllax exists or that he would NEED a false ID

The scene should have been inserted later in the film, after Frady discovers the Parallax entrance exam, and arranges (with the help of Scchwatzkopf..played by an unbilled Anthony Zerbe) to have an actual psychopath take the test for him...

Still amazes me, no one has seemed to pickup on this

you'll all be thrilled to know that "American Hot Wax" is available in DVD format from Whirlin' Disc.com........the quality is not outstanding but it's certainly watchable.....

Centerpieces of this terrific little film remain the late Tim McIntire's fabulous performance as Alan Freed as well as the great late 50's rock soundtrack................

Who can forget that sensational scene when Freed gets a disturbing call from his father in Ohio....Freed hangs up, cues up the Drifters and says in a voice husky and mysterious "it's raining in Akron Ohio, but it's a beautiful night in New York...here are the Drifters and "There Goes My Baby"....

He turns up the swirling string intro as loud as he can and you can tell the music soothes something deep inside him just as it did for the rest of us...

Maybe someday Paramount will get hip and commercially release "WAX" for the home video market.