The Movie Guy

“Jurassic World” misses an opportunity to be better than what Michael Crichton envisioned when he wrote his novel “Jurassic Park,” a terror ride through a theme park where genetically-created dinosaurs run amok attacking the very tourists who came to see them. What “World” could and should have been is a scathing satire and indictment of the corporate greed that gives people what they want regardless of safety- what it does instead is narrow its vision and settle for being just another standard B-monster movie sequel. Continue reading →

You don’t walk into “Spy” without wanting to see Melissa McCarthy, especially when she’s being directed by Paul Feig. Director Feig and McCarthy work well together, as evidenced in “Bridesmaids” (which earned her an Oscar nomination) and “The Heat,” which paired her as a tough, acid-tongued detective opposite Sandra Bullock’s straight-laced FBI agent in the cop-buddy film we’ve all become accustomed to seeing yet were nonetheless able to enjoy through their characters’ genuine comedic chemistry. Continue reading →

Like the title itself, Cameron Crowe’s film “Aloha” presents a conundrum: does the word Aloha mean hello or goodbye? The answer is both, depending on the context in which it’s used. For the film “Aloha,” the viewer is given a similar question: should the story define its characters or the characters define its story? Given the context of “Aloha’s” comedic melodrama storyline, you might think the former and you might be right. However, the beauty of Cameron Crowe’s writing and films has always been the latter: richly-drawn characters that seem to define its story. The fault of “Aloha” is that it holds onto too much of the former, overlooking the latter: Crowe forces “Aloha’s” characters to hit designated conventional plot points along a familiar rom-com context that ultimately gives them a lesser depth than what you would want or expect him to deliver. Continue reading →