50 Movie Reviews 2026

                                                                                                                          2.5 out of 4 stars Full disclosure, I read the book first before seeing the movie, and often this doesn't end well. I think you can just build worlds, tensions, and inner lives in a book in ways you just can't translate in two hours on the screen. The movie sticks to the story though. When the movie opens, Poppy is young, bursting with energy and full of life. Alex is 18 going on 40. They are driving back to their hometown together from Boston where they attend school, to Ohio, which Poppy hates and Alex loves. Through a series of misadventures, they go from enemies t...

                                                                    3 of 4 Stars   It's hard not to like Brendan Fraser's 2nd act. The guy went through a very rough couple of decades, and there is some elements of life imitating art in this little redemption story. Much like Lost in Translation, we have a fading actor and a Toyo backdrop here. Both of them are obvious outsiders in a massive city with traditions, customs, and norms they couldn't possibly understand. Brendan plays a man named Phillip who is forced to take an acting job at an agency that rents out people to step in where there is a void, (it's based on a real business in Japan.) His first moment of insight comes when he goes through a sham wedding with an attractive Japanese woman to appease her parents. He's not feeling good about this at all. And th...

3.5 Stars out of 4 I've always been fascinated by bands that imitate other bands. Some I have seen have been downright awful and a few have sounded better than the bands they were imitating.  Musicians often live on the margins, and only a select few get rich doing it. Sometimes, wildly talented people never get their break. Conversely, plenty of mediocre talents have also become superstars. Timing, nepotism, connections and just flat-out luck all play a part. But having dipped a toe in the show business world myself, I would say a combination of exceptional talent AND the exceptional ability to sell yourself would give you the best possible chance to succeed. That or the Nepotism thing.  But even then, there would be no guarantee.  Some musicians accept they will never get big playing their own songs and make a living playing cover songs. Some of my favorite people fit into this category. You can still bring a lot of joy to the world singing other people's songs.  I...