Jeremy Renner

Let’s talk about “Arrival”. Brought to you by one of my favorite working directors, Denis Villeneuve (“Prisoners”, “Sicario”), this sociopolitically fueled sci-fi flick might best be described at the “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” for millennials. Writer Eric Heisserer has cooked one of the most intelligent screenplays of the year, developed from Nebula Awarding-winning […]

Never has the term “thinking man’s science-fiction film” been more accurate than when describing Denis Villeneuve’s latest directorial effort, Arrival. Working from a thoughtful, complex screenplay written by Eric Heisserer – whom I dismissed as a screenwriter capable only of writing middling films based upon other sources in my review of Lights Out – Villeneuve […]

Area Theaters May 6th Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo Written by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeeley Starring everyone except for Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo and Samuel L. Jackson Note: Stay through the credits for two additional scenes Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) makes some enemies in the third “Captain America” flick, among them Tony Stark (Robert […]

Good evening, Mr. Hunt. 36 hours ago, there was a breach in our military’s communication network. Now, an emerging terror organization known as The Syndicate has control over our entire drone fleet. Their targets: Unknown. Your mission, should you choose to accept it… — the closing “tape scene” of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol With those words, Impossible Mission Force (IMF) Agent […]

“Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” has more than  its share of clever ideas and death-defying stunts. Even before the opening credits, star Tom Cruise, consistently narrowing the divide between himself and the super spy that he’s portraying, clings to the side of a cargo plane as it makes a rather abrupt ascent from takeoff. Ethan […]

During the opening sequence of  “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, in which our mega-heroes lay siege to a compound belonging to the sinister Hydra organization in a fictitious Eastern European country, I had a vision of the film’s writer/director Joss Whedon playing maniacally with action figures in his parent’s’ basement while mouthing the characters’ frequent wisecracks at […]