Kong: Skull Island movie review: ape-ocalypse now
Boiled down to its bonkers essence, Skull Island is a Vietnam war movie with monsters, a retro analog vibe, and a dash of both Moby-Dick and The X-Files.
CGI
Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts (89th Academy Awards) review
My pick: “Pearl,” blending new VR tech with old-fashioned characters and emotions, demonstrating storytelling possibilities that are beginning to open up.
Doctor Strange movie review: even Marvel is now tired of origin stories
Busy with CGI to hide the emptiness where the emotional core should be. Even the mechanics of getting a man from mere mortal to demigod-in-a-cape are rote.
Pete’s Dragon movie review: big friendly dragon
More like a pleasant walk in a redwood forest with a boy and his dragon than a rollicking adventure, but its serenity and warm heart are infectious.
Suicide Squad movie review: sh*t squad
Should be grim, bitter, and as horrifyingly alluring as Hannibal Lecter. But it’s nothing but a teen-friendly ad for toys, Ts, and other disposable merch.
The BFG movie review: that sense of wonder where it all went wrong
Fantasy meandering twists into something more action-oriented, and there’s little magic in it. This is not what we expect from a master cinematic fantasist.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows movie review: shell schlock
Leaden and witless, though it obviously believes there is humor in its loud, chaotic juvenility. It would be an insult to cartoons to call this cartoonish.
Gods of Egypt movie review: those whom the gods wish to punish, they force to watch this movie
Hilariously, casting white Westerners as mortals and deities of the ancient Nile is the least offensive thing about this crime against goofball cinema.
X-Men: Apocalypse movie review: everyone knows the third movie is always the worst
About precisely nothing other than pure pulp comic-book soap-opera rigmarole, overshadowed by clichés, implausibilities, and missed opportunities.
Huevos: Little Rooster’s Egg-Cellent Adventure (Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos) movie review: a cock and balls story
Bad chicken-and-egg puns and indoctrination into animal cruelty as just good fun for everyone involved (including the animals). You know, for kids.
