Elvis (2022)

This is one of the reasons why I normally detest music bio pics, is that they always present a skewed version of the actual story behind so many of these musicians. “Elvis” is by no means one of the worst biopics I’ve seen, but it once again presents Elvis as someone who spent his life being exploited. “Elvis” depicts the titular rock musician as someone who was hopelessly a victim to his manager Colonel Parker who managed to find ways to control the musician and his life. At every turn the movie frames Colonel Parker as this slimy mastermind who turned Elvis in to his own circus sideshow for his entire life.

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A Man Called Otto (2023)

It seems like these days actors nearing their seventies have to make a drama comedy about nearing the end of their lives. Hell, Jack Nicholson gave us “About Schmidt” and “The Bucket List,” and Robert DeNiro had “The Intern.” With Tom Hanks we have “A Man Call Otto” which is basically his “About Schmidt.” He lends his talents to a sad tale of a widow trying to find a way to move on from the love of his life. It’s shockingly a pet project for the Hanks fam that is just fine when all is said and done. It’s not Tom Hanks’ masterpiece, but just a fine outing for the man who can do roles like this in his sleep.

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Pinocchio (2022)

Disney continues their latest studio motto of remaking and sequelizing everything that they’ve ever produced. The last being the horrendous “Lion King” CGI remake. Of course the Devil’s Advocate will explain that “Pinocchio” is more of another adaptation (one of three in 2022!) of the 1883 tale, but it’s a remake of the 1940 animated movie. Every character look like their animated counterparts, right down to Tom Hanks as Geppetto. God love Tom Hanks, he certainly tries his best here, and even does his best with the musical number he’s given. But it’s all an uphill battle for a lot of what is established here.

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The ‘Burbs (1989): Collector’s Edition [Blu-Ray]

Joe Dante has always had this peculiar style that’s always helped his films stand out among everyone else’s. “The ‘Burbs” is another of his films that features the suburban unit being terrorized or working themselves up in to a stir. Dante loves to put his hands in to the perceived American norm and stir it up with some chaos and anarchy. It’s hard to believe that “The ‘Burbs” was originally a flop, as it’s managed to become one of the most highly appreciated cult classics of all time. In the face of the passing of the late great Carrie Fisher, if you’ve yet to see it, you definitely owe it to yourself to.

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The Post (2017)

Steven Spielberg’s latest bad movie attempts to recapture the emotional drama surrounding the 1971 publication of the Pentagon Papers. One might imagine that the film would highlight the challenges and consequences faced by Daniel Ellsberg in ferrying the documents out of the realm of government classified restrictions, or the efforts of the New York Times in bringing these astonishing documents to the public. Instead, the crux of the film is curiously focused on the Washington Post, which was late to reporting the story but wound up picking up the publication of the Pentagon Papers’ contents after the Nixon White House threw temporary legal obstacles in the Times’ path.

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Sully (2016)

In 2009, New Yorkers were submitted to watching what media branded “The Miracle on the Hudson,” and seven years later, director Clint Eastwood tries harder than ever to transform the very unique event in to something of a hero’s journey. Eastwood takes Sully Sullenberger’s story and transforms it in to an unremarkable and tedious drama that would be so much more appropriate as a Sunday night movie on basic cable, if Sully were played by Neil McDonough or Tom Selleck. Tom Hanks can play a role like this in his sleep, and in “Sully,” he evokes the exact same tones and character elements we saw him master in “Captain Phillips.” In Eastwoods ho hum drama, Hanks is the poor man’s Captain Phillips, sensationalized to look distressed and making very hard decisions in a very tough situation.

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The ‘Burbs (1989)

THE-BURBS

There’s just something about Joe Dante in where he loves to shake up American middle class. We have suburbanites fighting killer gremlins, suburbanites fighting killer toys, suburbanites fighting werewolves, and now suburbanites basically turning on one another. “The Burbs” watches like something of a sick mid-quel of “Rear Window” and “The Trouble with Harry” in where the mundane is flipped on its head and transformed in to a veritable nightmare for a bunch of neighbors in a seemingly small cul de sac.

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The Terminal (2004)

the-terminalAnyone who knows me or has even an inkling of what my reviews are like know I love almost everything Spielberg does, and Spielberg manages, through “The Terminal” to create a sense of something that all comedies lack: humanity, and through its humanity, comedy that is all so amusing and likable (I laughed aloud whenever Navorski looked into the surveillance cameras). Spielberg creates a film in the Capra-esque sensibility and it creates human characters that people can love and or feel sorry for in the process. Viktor Navorski is now a man without a country after his beloved country of Krakozhia engages in a coup and war breaks loose. His passport, visa, and anything else he owns are now deemed confederate dollar rendered basically useless. The problem is he can not step foot in America, and he can not go back home, so now he’s marooned in the airport.

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