Maybe it wasn’t impossible, but in 2011 it seemed highly likely that the aging Tom Cruise and the “Mission: Impossible” series could keep going after three films spanning 10 years (and all earning merely “decent” marks). Then “Ghost Protocol” hit theaters and made doubters bite their tongues. That being the case, “Rogue Nation” keeps those […]

Edgar Wright’s concept heist flick “Baby Driver” shows that in the right hands, a single idea can be fleshed out into a single good movie. Anyone could have thought to fuse music and action to a choreographed extreme, but Wright’s aptitude for gleeful style and good storytelling instincts give “Baby Driver” some serious wheels. Although […]

First they came for the TV shows of kids who grew up in the ’80s. It was only a matter of time before they came for my shows. As for how this big-screen adaptation fairs, color me indifferent.

“John Wick” deservedly earned a cult following in 2014 because of the way director Chad Stahelski and writer Derek Kolstad blended revenge-driven action with martial arts and the aesthetics of both first-person shooter video games and graphic novels. They created this seedy, neon hit-man underworld and tapped perfectly into the strengths of star Keanu Reeves. […]

DC Entertainment has this superhero movie business all backwards. They’ve jumped straight to the orgy without taking time to acquaint us more intimately with the individuals. It didn’t work all that well in “Batman vs. Superman,” but we held out hope that a team- up of lesser-known supervillains under the direction of David Ayer (“End of Watch,” “Fury”) could get the DC universe on track. Instead, “Suicide Squad” is a mess.

After “Days of Future Past” bridged together the two generations of big screen X-Men into an epic time-travel blockbuster, it didn’t leave a whole lot of ceiling for future “X- Men” movies. Nevertheless, 20th Century Fox, director Bryan Singer and writer Simon Kinberg were quick to deliver “X-Men: Apocalypse,” bringing the X-Men’s biggest villain to […]

Arguably the two biggest heroes in comics have come together for “the greatest gladiator match in the history of the world,” a pretty tall order for DC Comics and Warner Bros., who have struggled to build the cache of their superhero universe over the years and watched in anguish as Marvel has become an unstoppable […]

“SPECTRE” is nothing and everything that you’d expect it to be. The fourth James Bond film in the Daniel Craig era continues the work of its three predecessors in rebuilding 007 for the modern era, going for grit and substance instead of the over-the-top theatrics that defined the Bond films at their worst.

The days of the classy ’60s spy films seemed long lost. The world has gotten too complicated for simple stories of agents in tuxedos squaring off with megalomaniacs. Yet in walks “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” based on a Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons comic, offering that sleek look and those beloved spy genre conventions but […]

As hard as I tried, I could not get into George Miller’s “Mad Max” or “The Road Warrior.” Although the latter at least proved to be a more developed post-apocalyptic Australia concept with progressive action, it felt like a violent costume party for people who like things with engines. Now, 30 years after “Beyond Thunderdome,” […]

The task of bringing together Earth’s mightiest heroes took Joss Whedon into uncharted territory with 2012’s “The Avengers,” and, despite the weight of the Marvel Cinematic Universe on his shoulders, the results were staggeringly entertaining. The task of making a sequel to that ground-breaking, monumental event film, however, and being expected to deliver on par […]

In a post-“Avengers” comic book movie universe, bigger is not only better, but also necessary. Leave it to original “X-Men” and “X2” director Bryan Singer to get the whole gang together (old and new) in order to bring one of the biggest “X-Men” story lines to the big screen in attention-grabbing fashion. “X-Men: Days of […]

Before now, Godzilla was a giant dino-lizard, a punchline, a D-list movie monster. Now, in Gareth Edwards’ “Godzilla,” he is a god, the alpha predator, a force of nature. Warner Bros.’ has not only crafted an exhilarating “Godzilla” movie here, it has pulled an incredible P.R. move, transforming a brand last known for having Matthew […]

  As the world’s most popular superhero, Spider-Man is the poster hero for the resurgence of the superhero genre at the movies, but these days he’s hanging there by a strand of webbing. When Sony gave Peter Parker a reboot in 2012’s “The Amazing Spider-Man,” they became the first studio to recast and reimagine an entire […]

If you’ve ever wondered how cool it would be if a superhero movie was combined with an espionage thriller, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” is a dream come true. It’s as much “The Rogers Ultimatum” as it is an irresistibly cool blockbuster, and though a totally different film than the quality origin story of “Captain […]