The Movie Guy

Set in the desert towns of West Texas, “Hell or High Water” is a bank heist movie that blooms like a cactus flower: colorful in its characters, organic in its plot progression, and beautiful despite its prickly environment. Like its locale with its undercurrent of “black gold,” its caper is just as sleek and slick. “Hell or High Water” is a film so complete that I don’t think I’ll see a better one this year. Continue reading →

Badly marketed as an arms dealing comedy, “War Dogs” is actually a war profiteering drama. While the film’s poster parodies Brian DePalma’s “Scarface,” it mirrors another gangster movie. With a similar real-life event story origin, storyline arc and directing style, “War Dogs” resembles Martin Scorsese’s 1990 film “Goodfellas.” Is that high praise? You bet. “War Dogs” is one of this year’s best films. Continue reading →

Mom said don’t play with your food; “Sausage Party” proves she was right.

After its initial set-up and the gag you know is coming- watching animated food groups panic as they realize they’re about to be eaten, “Sausage Party” inflates too much story around a funny idea. Adding subplots to make more of this central gag wears thin and backfires for writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (“Superbad,” This Is The End”); the jokes and humor of the subplots aren’t nearly as fast or nearly as funny. Continue reading →

More trifle than triumph, “Suicide Squad” lacks the humor and exposition of its motley crew to elevate it to the blockbuster status audiences were expecting. However, it’s a decent enough diversion to occupy the time of rabid fans stuck in Gotham City awaiting the return of Superman and the formation of DC comics’ Justice League after this March’s Zach Snyder film “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.” Continue reading →