(***1/2) They’re gone. Just like that they disappeared into the night. At 2:17am. Seventeen kids from a third-grade class vanished like ghosts. What the hell… That premise in writer/director Zach Cregger’s affecting horror/thriller is a seed that he grows organically. Starting with that mystery, then unraveling what happens afterwards in a compelling way that grabs any […]
The Naked Gun
(**) The Naked Gun is shooting blanks. Not all the time. But some of the time. There was something so fresh and funny about police detective Frank Drebin in 1988’s The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! He was an oddball, thickskulled dufus. A character Canadian/American actor Leslie Nielsen played completely deadpan and locked and loaded […]
I Know What You Did Last Summer
(**) They had it coming. The negligence and callousness they showed that night set them up for a karma payback. Evil sought them out. That was the premise of the first I Know What You Did Last Summer, which dates back to 1997 and starred Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michael Gellar, Ryan Phillippe and Freddie Prince […]
Superman
(***) It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s a broken man. A broken Kryptonian who’s trying to find his place on this earth. Just like the rest of us. The themes of finding oneself, especially after others have tried to redefine and demonize you, is an all-too-common occurrence. And it’s just one of the many […]
F1: The Movie
(***) It’s a Tom Cruise kinda movie, but it stars Brad Pitt. He’s the protagonist in this tale about an ageing, washed-up race car driver who everyone’s counted out. Except for a dear friend and the driver, himself: “If the last thing I ever do is drive that car, I will take that life man, […]
28 Years Later
(***) Waking up in a hospital bed and discovering the world has been devastated by a Rage virus is an opening scene that’s hard to beat. That set of images from the 2002 film 28 Days Later‘s intro passage may make some film fans eager to see this third chapter’s beginning. With that in mind, you wonder […]
Wizkid: Long Live Lagos Premieres at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival
If Afrobeats music has a king, it’s Wizkid. He wasn’t self-anointed. It’s just that his music has crossed over worldwide in a way that’s made him part of the genre’s royalty. This insightful bio-documentary, which leads up to an historic concert, corroborates that notion. Karam Gill directs this exploration into the Grammy-winning singer’s life, career […]
The 2025 Capital Jazz Festival Welcomed Music Lovers
(***1/2) And so, they gathered. From near and far they came to Columbia Maryland for the 32nd Capital Jazz Festival. Music lovers. Musicians. All seeking great performances and good spirits. The 20,000+ participants at the fest roamed around 36 acres in Symphony Woods Park. Some holding tickets for the roof-covered, 19,000+-seat Merriweather Post Pavilion amphitheater, a […]
October London is the Rebirth of Cool
(****) “Make me, make me wanna get down tonight….” October London sang what was on the minds of his audience during his entire performance at the Beacon Theatre. On New York’s Upper Westside, on May 25, 2025, that’s what his aura did to them. London’s path was created by Marvin Gaye, Teddy Pendergrass, Luther Vandross and […]
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
(***1/2) If there’s one thing that we’ve learned over the 30-year history of this franchise, it’s that the missions aren’t so impossible when Ethan Hunt is in charge and Tom Cruise takes the wheel. Frankly the last chapter, Dead Reckoning Part One, was good but not great. So, this, possibly the final episode, needs to be […]
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