Weekly movie reviews

By Bob Garver The legacy of the “Tron” franchise is complicated. On a consistently positive note, the series has always been a feast for the eyes and ears, with pleasing, if not groundbreaking special effects and musical scores that heart-pumpingly convey that technological developments are happening every minute. But the films have never quite stuck…

By Bob Garver A popular criticism I’ve heard about “The Smashing Machine” is that it tries too hard to subvert expectations. I assume that this is a reference to the way the film follows mixed martial artist Mark Kerr (Dwayne Johnson) on his journey not to a major win, but to his first professional loss.…

By Bob Garver Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson is known as a top-tier talent without top-tier recognition. None of his movies have made more than $50 million at the domestic box office, and despite 11 nominations, he’s never won himself an Academy Award (a combined three Oscar wins have come from his films, including Daniel Day-Lewis…

By Bob Garver Jokes linking football and religion, especially Christianity, are common. “One gets Americans to sit attentively for hours every Sunday, the other is religion.” “Christian athletes always thank God when they win, never blame Him when they lose.” And of course, “WW(FSDJ)D? – What Would (Football Star Du Jour) Do?” With “Him,” it’s…

“Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle” By Bob Garver NOTE: Many theaters have this Japanese animated film available in both “Subbed” and “Dubbed” versions. This review is based on the “Subbed” version – Japanese spoken with English subtitles, with the Japanese voice cast credited.             Ah, “Demon Slayer,” the anime franchise that comes…

By Bob Garver A few days before I saw “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” a friend of mine asked me about my plans for the weekend. I told her that I planned to see the film, and I was excited. When she asked me why I was excited to see yet another entry in the generally-middling…

“Caught Stealing” By Bob Garver “Caught Stealing” is one of those twisty crime thrillers where it seems like the filmmakers cast as many interesting names as they could and then wrote the movie around using them all. For example, at no point did I feel it was necessary for the film to feature Matt Smith…

By Bob Garver             This past weekend’s biggest big-screen hit didn’t go straight to the big screen. Animated actioner “KPop Demon Hunters” premiered in June on Netflix, reportedly racking up over 180 million views in its first eight weeks. A special one-weekend-only “Sing-Along” version of the film was released to select theaters this past Saturday…

“Freakier Friday” By Bob Garver I remember being a big fan of the 1976 “Freaky Friday” with Jodie Foster and Barbara Harris. Granted, I saw it when I was young enough to not know the tropes of the body-swap comedy, but I still have fond memories. I got a few laughs out of the 2003…

By Bob Garver In a weekend that I could have sworn would be dominated by family-friendly franchise fare “Freakier Friday,” it was R-rated horror movie “Weapons” pulling off the upset. What happened here? I know stars Julia Garner and Josh Brolin have important roles in the MCU, but were they such draws without Garner in…