Rating: «« out of ««««

Running Time: 140 minutes

Maybe I’m getting old. Or perhaps I’m just in a grouchy mood this week. Ready Player One is a fantasy film and homage to the 1980s that should have been tailor made for me. It even comes from director Steven Spielberg, the man who made many of the films that helped me foster a love for cinema. Yet in this particular film, the overall effect is a little flat. The movie certainly has its share of entertaining sequences, but it feels like an obvious attempt to curry nostalgia at the expense of delivering a strong message about its subject matter.

Set in a dystopian future, the story follows teenager Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan)...

Rating: ««« out of ««««

Running Time: 101 minutes

After nine feature films, director Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom, Rushmore) has a firmly established and distinct visual style, as well as an eccentric sense of humor that continues to help build on his already large fan base. After more than 20 years, his films still feel vibrant and fresh. The latest is a stop-motion animated film with photographic cues similar to Fantastic Mr. Fox, an earlier feature that dabbled in the same genre. However, with Isle of Dogs the subject matter is entirely original, adding an invigorating element to the proceedings. Once again, the end results are quite...

Guess what? There’s a blockbuster movie arriving on shelves. In fact, it’s so big that others seem to have vacated the release date to give it some space. Still, there are a few interesting little independent features arriving, as well as plenty of classic flicks getting a high definition upgrade. So if you can’t make it out to the movies this week, be sure to give one of these titles a try!

Big New Releases!

Acts of Violence - Not to be confused with the recent Blu-ray/DVD release Act of Vengeance, this action picture involves three brothers who previously served in the military. When the fiancé of one of the trio is kidnapped by human traffickers, they join...

Rating: «« out of ««««

Running Time: 111 minutes

The original Pacific Rim arrived as a modern take on Japanese monster movies, placing humans in giant robots called Jaegers and forcing them to combat an invasion of enormous Kaiju creatures from an inter-dimensional portal. It may not have been to everyone’s taste, but this reviewer enjoyed the eccentric imagination and visual inventiveness of filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro (The Shape of Water, Pan’s Labyrinth) run wild across the screen. This week sees the release of Pacific Rim: Uprising, a follow-up that features different people behind the camera, as well as a mostly new team onscreen.

Set 10 years after the previous...