— by WILLIAM STERR — If it wasn’t apparent from the title, here is what gives it away. Prof. Jones (Indy) is infiltrating a Nazi unit responsible for transporting looted art, including precious antiquities. He is caught and hung within a chamber at the top of a tower, while the command[...]
Archive for July, 2023
Review: Tiger Within
Ed Asner. Multiple Emmy winner. Leader of the Screen Actors’ Guild (SAG) during their 1980 strike for a better, more equitable contract. In this film, released the year before his death at age 91, Ed Asner plays an aging Jewish widower and Holocaust survivor living in Los Angeles. One day, as he[...]
Review: Holistay
— by WILLIAM STERR — Movies about short-term rental horrors seem to be a cottage industry within the larger horror genre. This story is about a very nice “cottage” on a golf course in San Diego. A young couple, Branna (Erin Gavin – “Audrey”) and Finn (Gavin O’Fearraigh &#[...]
Review: Belle
— by WILLIAM STERR — The story of “Beauty and the Beast” has charmed readers and viewers for centuries. Adaptations have appeared on stage, on TV, and in the movies. Here we have a new one. “Belle” takes place in the starkly beautiful environment of Iceland. It begins with a reci[...]
Review: Cocaine Bear
— by WILLIAM STERR — This is the second bear-based movie I reviewed for “It’s Just Movies” in one week. The first was the execrable “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey.” Honey is supposed to be sweet, but when you mix it with blood, it’s a real stinkeroo. Both movies deal with [...]
Review: Asteroid City
— by WILLIAM STERR — Wes Anderson has been making films since “Bottle Rocket” (1996). They are distinctive for the symmetrical composition of his shots, the color palate of each shot, long, tableau-like takes, deadpan delivery of dialogue, etc. And, of course, the recurring cast of a[...]
Review: Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey
— by WILLIAM STERR — Once upon a time, when we were very young, our parents read us stories. In these stories, fairies danced in the moonlight, pirates buried wonderful treasures, cows jumped over the goodnight moon, and a handful of stuffed animals came to life and played with their lit[...]
Review: In the Shadow of Beirut
— by BEV QUESTAD — I came of intellectual age in 1970. Palestinian women, dressed in oppressively hot black, sat on sheets on the sidewalks I had to navigate on my daily walk to the American University of Beirut. My dad had always told me giving money to beggars only reinforced their beg[...]
Review: South of Sanity
— by WILLIAM STERR — At last! A movie that accurately portrays the denizens of our southern states – “South of Sanity.” Actually, no. “South of Sanity” does poke fun at the negative sterotypes of white southern folks, specifically Alabamans, but in the same sort of way that the[...]
Review: Biosphere
— by WILLIAM STERR — Ray and Billy have been friends since childhood. Really close friends. So close that Billy refers to them as “brothers from different mothers.” Ray is black. Billy is white. They even live together, although theirs is not a romantic relationship. Oh, and one more[...]