The Lost City (2022)::rating::3::rating::3::rating::3

T he trailers for The Lost City filled me with dread. I feared an expensive, gauche knock-off of Romancing the Stone, Indiana Jones, and a half-dozen other, better movies. And don't get it twisted--this movie still ain't gonna make anybody throw down their crutches and walk. Still, a talented, high-dollar cast buys right into this film's refined sense of…

ByTodd WoffordMay 23, 20220Comments

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Father of the Bride (1991)::rating::2.5

F ather of the Bride is a fluffy little comedy, in which perfectly amiable people grapple with an assortment of First World problems. We watch a millionaire fret about spending money on his daughter's extravagant wedding, when she'll marry into an even wealthier family. I imagine a lot of people watching this movie would swap…

ByTodd WoffordMay 19, 20220Comments

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The Northman (2022)::rating::3.5

T he Northman puts me into a bit of a tangle. On the plus side, director Robert Eggers creates a relentlessly visceral revenge epic, set against a sweeping historical backdrop. The acting, the cinematography, and the set design are worthy of Oscars. At the same time, this is a dour, wearying experience. And taken over…

ByTodd WoffordMay 15, 20220Comments

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Uncharted (2022)::rating::2

It’s all in the execution. Uncharted gives us clunky, expository dialogue and special effects so real they look fake.

ByTodd WoffordMay 11, 20220Comments

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Rookie of the Year (1993)::rating::3.5

O f all baseball movies, none will have a higher nostalgia factor for 90s kids than Rookie of the Year. It brilliantly takes a gangly middle schooler and chucks him right into the big leagues. For 103 glorious minutes, we get to live vicariously through Henry Rowengartner (Thomas Ian Nicholas) as he becomes an ace pitcher…

ByTodd WoffordMay 9, 20220Comments

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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)::rating::3.5

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will draw inevitable comparisons to Everything Everywhere All at Once, Michelle Yeoh's bravura indie feature from last month. Like that film, this story imagines an infinite collective of universes, where anything that can happen, does happen. But where Everything used its reality-hopping premise to ponder the very nature of existence, Strange 2 assembles its…

ByTodd WoffordMay 7, 20220Comments

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Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)::rating::4

N o film in recent memory gets a more appropriate title than Everything Everywhere All at Once. Over the course of its dizzying, dazzling 140 minutes, multiple movie genres smash into each other, like protons in a particle accelerator. The result is an explosion of pure cinematic energy, with shockwaves of dense plot bursting from the screen. Sadness…

ByTodd WoffordMay 4, 20220Comments

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Major League (1989)::rating::3

M ajor League is a bawdy, disposable little sports movie. Long ago, I filed it away as Porky's at the Dugout. And thirty-plus years out, it's still all of those things. At the same time, I enjoyed revisiting Major League way more than I thought. For all its raunch and silliness, this movie also has a surprising…

ByTodd WoffordMay 2, 20220Comments

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Moonfall (2022)::rating::2.5

M oonfall dwells in a weird limbo of mediocrity. I wish the script could've been a notch smarter, or else ten times dumber. The special effects might've been sharpened up a bit, or rendered hilariously incompetent. This talented cast could've been given some, you know, decent dialogue. Otherwise, they should've just farmed these roles out…

ByTodd WoffordApril 29, 20220Comments

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Moneyball (2011)::rating::4.5

M oneyball spends just over two hours stripping the mythic grandeur from the game of baseball. Along the way, it also deconstructs the sweeping narrative hubris of the baseball movie itself. Instead of supernatural legends who smash out the stadium lights or the voice of God whispering over the corn crop, this film reduces the…

ByTodd WoffordApril 26, 20220Comments