The Bearded Trio

STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER Starring Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega. Oscar Isaac, Anthony Daniels, Naomi Ackie, Domnhall Gleeson, Kellie Marie Tran, Kerri Russell,  Richard E. Grant,  Ian McDiarmid   and Billy Dee Williams Screenplay Chris Terrio and JJ Abrahms Directed by J.J. Abrams Reviewed by Paul & Patrick Gibbs  Out of Four When we first saw a press screening of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, most of us who attended the screening fell in love with the film and considered it a masterpiece. When we ran into writer and Star Wars expert Bryan Young later that evening at another screening, we talked between us about how much we loved Rian Johnson's film."I think it's safe to say J.J. Abrams has the hardest job in the world following it", Byan remarked.  Of course it turned out that The Last Jedi became the most divisive film in the entire franchise, loved by some and hated by others. But Bryan was sti...

A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD Starring Tom Hanks, Matthew Rhys, Chris Cooper, Suusan Kelechi Watson, Christine Lahti, Enrico Colantoni Written by Micha Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster Directed by Marielle Heller Out of Four Reviewed by Paul and Patrick Gibbs Fred Rogers (better known to most of us as Mister Rogers) can't be an easy character to play. It's been 16 years since the children's television icon passed away, and by now he's typically remembered with respect and even reverence, which is well deserved. But many of us remember a time in the 1980s and '90 when he was a popular target of comics and impersonators, who caricatured his gentle mannerisms and tenor voice as syrupy or effeminate. Trying to capture the mannerisms and  voice of such an icon is always a difficult task for an actor, and it;s even harder when the actor is iconic in their own right. Two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks certainly qualifies as iconic, and while he seems l...

FROZEN II Starring the voices of Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, Sterling K. Brown and Evan Rachel Wood Screenplay by Jennifer Lee Directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee Reviewed Patrick Gibbs &  Paul Gibbs  Out of Four There’s a lot of talk about whether we “need a  Frozen II . Well, Of course we don’t “need” it. Let’s be honest, we don’t “need” any sequel (and that includes any and all Marvel or Star Wars movies). The question often would be more accurately phrased as “is there really anything more they can do with this story?” and most of the time that’s a debatable point. But the answer here is a qualified yes: Frozen lends itself to a sequel more so than, for example, Tangle d, because it’s a different type of story that broke the mold on the traditional idea of what happily ever after means, and there were still some questions left unanswered (where did Elsa’s powers come from? What happened to Else and Anna’s parents...

FORD v. FERRARI Starring Matt Damon, Christian Bale, Catriona Balfe, Jon Bernthal, Ray McKinnon,   Noah Jupe, Josh Lucas, Tracy Letts, Remo Girone Written by Jez Butterworth, John Henry Butterworth and and Jason Keller Directed by James Mangold Reviewed by Patrick  & Paul Gibbs   Out of Four In 1963, desperate to be a modern sensibility to their image, the Ford Motor Company approached Enzo Ferrari to propose a buyout.  The negotiations were cut short when  Enzo suddenly realized that the deal included the purchase  Ferrari's racing program, the champions at the 24 hours of Le Mans for 10 years running. Not one to accept defeat, Henry Ford II directed his team to build a race car capable of winning Le Mans.     Images Courtesy 20th Century Fox Enter Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon), the legendary automotive designer, who recruited the one driver he felt was up to the task: Ken Miles (Christian Bale), a b...

TERMINATOR: DARK FATE Starring Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger,  Mackenzie Davis,  Natalia Reyes, Gabriel Luna, Diego Boneta Screenplay by David S. Goyer & Justin Rhodes & Billy Ray Directed by Tim Miller Reviewed by Patrick Gibbs   Out of Four It's been 20 years since the release of Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace , and a lot of disgruntled fans of the original trilogy are still trashing it, and many enthusiastically embraced The Force Awakens as a return to form (albeit one that played things very safely and covered very familiar territory). But whatever your opinion of the prequels, there's no denying (okay, no legitimate denying) the fact that the franchise belongs to creator George Lucas and it was his right to take it in the direction of his choice. But that's not the case with 2003's Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines or its subsequent sequels/reboots, all of which were done without the involvement of writer-director James C...

TELL ME WHO I AM Starring Alex Lewis, Marcus Lewis Directed by Ed Perkins Reviewed by Patrick Gibbs   Out of Four The most compelling movie of the year is a Netflix premiere, but it's not The Irishman, Dolemite Is My Name or Marriage Story . It's a little documentary about twin brothers Alex and Marcus Lewis. Tell Me Who I Am chronicles a dramatic true story that would seem far too lurid to believe if it was fiction. At the age of eighteen, Alex Lewis was in a motorcycle accident that left him a head injury and the loss of his memory. The only thing Alex could remember was his twin brother, Marcus: everything else, including the rest of his family was gone. He didn't recognize his own mother, or have every memories of who she was. The only person, the only anything that Alex had to cling to was Marcus, who took on the monumental task of giving his brother back his life and his memories.  Or something like them. Alex Lewis (Images Courtesy Netlfix...

GEMINI MAN Starring Will Smith, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clive Owen, Benedict Wong, Linda Emond and Ralph Brown Screenplay by David Benoiff & Billy Ray & Darren Lemke Directed by Ang Lee Reviewed by Patrick Gibbs   Out of Four Three time Academy Award Winner Ang Lee will always be a personal favorite. But when it was announced that he would be directing a movie for mega producer Jerry Bruckheimer, it was hard not to be skeptical. Bruckheimer is the poster for style over substance, and the pairing of these two filmmakers seemed like an ever bigger miss match than when Lee last attempted something this mainstream with 2004 Hulk (a film I still refuse to write-off as do many have over time, though I admit that it hasn't stood the test of time. It was an intriguing attempt to do something different and more intellectual with the comic book genre, but even a defender such as myself has to admit that the Avengers take on the character is such a perfect realizatio...

AD ASTRA Starring Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler and Donald Sutherland Written by James Gray and Ethan Gross Directed by James Gray Reviewed by Patrick Gibbs      Out of Four Director James Gray ( The Lost City of Z)  has been very upfront about the influence of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness on his film, Ad Astra, a space drama set in the not too distant future. But he seems so intent on creating his own Apocalypse Now  that he should have gone ahead and just calyoled this movie Apocalypse Later . Image Courtesy 20th Century Fox While working on a massive antennae area high above the earth, Astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) is nearly killed when  a mysterious power surge in space causes him to fall off the array and through the atmosphere, performing a spectacular HALO jump.  recruited on a special mission to travel to mission to Neptune to hunt down his father, a legendary astronaut named Clifford McBride ...

KIN Starring Jack Reynor,  Zoë Kravitz, Carrie Coon, Dennis Quaid,  Myles Truitt  and James Franco Based on Bag Man by Jonathan & Josh Baker Screenplay by Daniel Casey Directed Jonathan & Josh Baker Reviewed by Patrick Gibbs and Paul Gibbs   Out of Four If you've seen the trailers for Kin , you may have detected a bit of an '80's Amblin vibe. We certainly did, and the prominent mention of Stranger Things on the advertising only adds to that expectation. The story follows a young boy, Eli (Myles Truitt) who lives alone with his adoptive father (Dennis Quaid.). Eli likes to scrounge for scrap metal, and one fateful day he scores his biggest find yet when he climbs a fence and finds a bunch of dead bikers who look like they are going to a costume party with a "What We Thought The Future Would Look in the early '80's" theme. He also finds what appears to some sort of strange hybrid between a giant sized staple gun and a laser tag ...

ALPHA Starring Kodi Smit-McPhee, Leonor Varela, Jens Hultén, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson and introuducing Chuck as Alpha Story by Albert Hughes Screenplay by Daniele Sebastian Wiedenhaupt Directed by Albert Hughes Reviewed by Patrick Gibbs  Out of Four The 1993 teen hood drama Menace II Society was the debut film of Allen and Albert Hughes, a pair of very young directors who also happened to be twins. The talented duo made their last film together in 2010, with the bizarre guilty pleasure Book of Eli . After that, they went their separate ways, and Allen made his solo debut with 2013's Mark Wahlberg-Russell Crowe melodrama Broken City , a film that inspired such bored indifference from critics and audiences alike that even now as I write this sentence, I am not watching it. Now it's Albert turn at bat, and while he is unlikely to score a home run at the box office, he follows through with a confidence and grace that establishes him as skilled auteur who, ...

CHRISTOPHER ROBIN Starring Ewan MacGregor, Hayley Atwell, Bronte Carmichael, Mark Gatiss Featuring the voices of Jim Cummings, Brad Garrett, Toby Jones, Peter Capaldi,   Nick Mohammed , Sophie Okonedo and Sara Sheen Screenplay by Alex Ross Perry and Allison Schroeder Directed by Marc Forster Reviewed by Patrick & Paul Gibbs  Out of Four Let's get this out of the way right now: as you talk about this movie, whether online or in real life (for those of you who still do that) please stop saying "Feels" when you mean "Feelings." We can tolerate and even respect that millennials have their own slang, but a "feel" and a "feeling" are two very different things and when you say "all the feels!" in regards to a children's movie, it's not just obnoxious, it's actually really creepy. Now then: A.A. Milne's Winnie The Pooh is sacred text to us. In fact, that's putting it mildly, because the characters in t...

Mission: Impossible - Fallout Starring Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg,  Rebecca Fergusson,  Sean Harris, Angela Bassett, Vanessa Kirby Michelle Monaghan and Alec Baldwin Based on Mission: Impossible created by Bruce Geller Written and Directed by Christopher McQuarrie Reviewed by Patrick and Paul Gibbs   Out of Four After 22 years and 5 films, Mission: Impossible should absolutely be running out of steam as a franchise. None of the films has been overly strong on plot, their star is not the number one box office draw he used to be, and it's easy to dismiss all of this this as same old same old. When a 4th film was announced after JJ Abrams' supposed wrap up, people thought that Tom Cruise might be getting a bit desperate. And maybe he is. But that desperation has resulted in a second trilogy that is actually better than the first (how many of those can you point to?) and a commitment to providing spectacular, practical stunt based...