Review: The Secret Life of Pets 2

by Ben Miller (who has small children)

What do we want from a film when it is obviously not for us? If I'm watching an indie about a life experience that's in no way relatable to my own, I can still admire the artistry and the humanity. If I’m watching a film about talking pets specifically aimed at children, I can enjoy it... but what am I supposed to get out of it? Films like The Incredibles, WALL-E or Wreck-It Ralph are “for” kids, but non-children can enjoy them on a number of levels beyond the bright colors, fart jokes or action sequences.  Those films dug deep into issues about family, loneliness and friendship and had an overarching theme to bring everything together in a coherent way.

The Secret Life of Pets 2 is not one of those films and doesn't try to be...

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Thoughts I Had... while staring at "Wonder Woman 1984" poster

You know how it works. The thoughts as they come with no second-guessing.

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Maleficent Triptych

That's it. That's the post.

No, we kid. We need the close-up that matters and to talk trailer and costumes...

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Yes No Maybe So: "Downton Abbey"

Welcome to Downton Abbey

The new trailer for Downton Abbey has arrived. Or two new trailers. Or perhaps one of them is older... well, we lose track these days as films have so many promos and so many versions of each trailer. At any rate it's officially time to get excited about the big screen union of everyone's favourite early 20th century posh costume drama. Let's do the Yes No Maybe So thing after the jump...

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Review: John Wick 3: Chapter 3 - Parabellum

By Lynn Lee

“Guns.  Lots of guns.”

That line is only one of several of John Wick 3’s nods to its spiritual predecessor, The Matrix, albeit the most overt one.  With the right audience, it draws appreciative laughs.  It also embodies everything that’s both most effective and most lacking in Keanu Reeves’ latest blockbuster franchise.  The action pyrotechnics are dazzling, the callouts to his last blockbuster franchise amusing, but once the last gun stops firing, there’s nothing left.  Nothing to feel, think about, or care about, even as the story ends on yet another cliffhanger that practically ensures the next installment we all knew was coming and was sealed by the movie’s gargantuan opening box office haul.

It wasn’t always this way.  The first John Wick had a simplicity of premise that made for a sharp and clean, if fundamentally goofy, revenge narrative...

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