They were as synonymous with America as apple pie and baseball. No band in American history has had more songs on the music charts than The Beach Boys. Their upbeat melodies and distinct vocal harmonizing would often mark the dawn of summer for an entire nation. For all of their success, their history had almost […]

A determined L.A. fireman struggles to save his endangered family in the earthquake thriller San Andreas. Just below California’s beautiful coastal cities lies a restless sleeping giant capable of reducing its towering skylines to a hulking mass of twisted wreckage with one fatal blow. Should the giant awake, in the form of a long-overdue earthquake, […]

A nerdy, eccentric engineer finds love and wonder in the curious documentary Sunshine Superman. Carl Boenish knew a thing or two about overcoming daunting obstacles. As a child, Carl was stricken with polio, losing the use of his legs for nearly a year. Once back on his feet, nothing could keep him grounded. Boenish would […]

A rebellious science student joins forces with a reluctant inventor to decipher the mysteries of the futuristic Tomorrowland. Somewhere in the fabric of space and time, there exists a fantastical place called Tomorrowland. It exists in a dimension unknown by nearly everyone on Earth except for the very few invited to visit. Recruiters from this […]

A resilient survivor teams up with a resourceful counterpart looking to find her way back home in the frenetic chase film Mad Max: Fury Road. George Miller‘s seminal franchise began with 1979’s Mad Max, starring a very young, unknown Mel Gibson. It held the title of most profitable film for two full decades, spawned two […]

A green but loyal officer finally gets her big chance to make an impression in the lukewarm comedy Hot Pursuit. This vapid farce of a film directed by Anne Fletcher continues her unblemished string of entirely forgettable films (The Guilt Trip, The Proposal and 27 Dresses). The story starts off with a nice enough concept. Cooper […]

Most serious gamers out there have, at some point, come into contact with a social party game called Mafia. In Mafia, players secretly take on roles right out of The Godfather. There are mobsters, policemen, a doctor, everyday citizens and the Godfather himself. Each round, the innocent townspeople try to unmask the mafiosi through deductive […]

A talented artificial intelligence expert is called on to evaluate his boss’s latest evolutionary achievement in the riveting sci-fi drama Ex Machina. The promise of advanced artificial intelligence serves as the centerpiece of countless Hollywood films. 1927’s Metropolis captivated audiences with its cautionary tale of a dystopian future ruled by smart machines. Our own tech […]

A discredited former New York Times journalist finds that a potential killer adopted his identity in True Story. That certainly sounds like a recipe for a potentially thrilling drama. The film even starts us off with a highly engaging, deeply disturbing opening sequence. Unfortunately, it’s all downhill from there. This is a big-fish story that […]

Unnecessarily confusing for half of the film.

A struggling middle-aged couple is drawn to the energy of young bohemian lovers in While We’re Young. Every long-term relationship reaches a point when you wake up and realize that your romance has inadvertently evolved into routine. It’s inevitable for most of us. Life is pretty much dictated by routines. We eat. We sleep. We brush […]

A riveting true story about a Jewish refugee’s fight to recover stolen works of art plays out in Woman in Gold. Helen Mirren, sporting a pair of colored contact lenses that entirely transform her look, stars as Maria Altmann, whose well-to-do family was decimated by the Nazis during their occupation of Austria during World War […]