Category Archives: Film Reviews

Film reviews and analyses. Most recently published is in front.

Two Days, One Night (Deux jours, une nuit)

Posted on June 20, 2016 by Mark DuPré

Watching Two Days, One Night was a great antidote to having just seen X-Men: Apocalypse, a dreadful, action-packed, CGI extravaganza (see https://film-prof.com/tag/x-men-apocalypse/). To slip into my teacher mode, Two Days, One Night is a realist film. In a nutshell, that … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Newer films | Tagged 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days. Rust and Bone, Best Actress, Bicycle Thief, Bourne, Deux jours une nuit, Edith Piaf, Inception, Jean-Pierre Dardenne, L'Enfant, La Mome, La Vie en Rose, Luc Dardenne, Marion Cotillard, Netflix, Ratatouille, The Kid with the Bike, Two Days One Night, Vitorria DeSice, X-Men: Apocalypse | Leave a comment

X-Men Apocalypse

Posted on June 11, 2016 by Mark DuPré

The newest X-men offering is pretty terrible. Its estimated $178 million dollar budget is a tragic waste, as is the 2.5 hours of time anyone gives to it. I’m sure there are lessons to be learned at some point, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Newer films | Tagged Avengers, Captain America, Fantastic Four, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Mummy, Mutants, Nicholas Hoult, Oscar Isaac, X-Men: Apocalypse | Leave a comment

Captain America: Civil War

Posted on June 5, 2016 by Mark DuPré

Captain America: Civil War is overstuffed and not quite believable in its central concept. It’s also the best Avengers movie since the first one. It does right what the first one does, on steroids. It was a small cinematic miracle … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Newer films | Tagged Ant-Man, Black Panther, Captain America, Captain America: Civil War, Chadwick Boseman, Chris Evans, Daniel Bruhl, Darth Vader, Elizabeth Olsen, Help me Wanda, Iron Man, Loki, Marisa Tomei, Nolan, Paul Rudd, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlet Witch, Snyder, Spider-Man, The Avengers, The Hulk, Thor, Tom Holland | Leave a comment

The People v. O.J. Simpson

Posted on April 4, 2016 by Mark DuPré

Sometimes current television is not just better, but so much better, than films playing in the theater. A case in point: “The People v. O.J. Simpson: An American Crime Story,” playing on, of all places, FX. Like the original case … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Newer films | Tagged Bruce Greenwood, Christopher Darden, Courtney B. Vance, Cuba Gooding Jr., David Schmimmer, Denzel Washington, F. Lee Bailey, FX, Gil Garcetti, John Travolta, Johnnie Cochran, Judge Ito, Kenneth Choi, Marcia Clark, Nathan Lane, O.J. Simpson, Robert Kardashian, Robert Shapiro, Ryan Murphy, Sarah Paulson, Sterling K. Brown, The People v. O.J. Simpson, Titanic, Training Day | Leave a comment

Risen

Posted on March 14, 2016 by Mark DuPré

Risen is a fascinating film in what it gets right, and its major strength is its main weakness. It’s the story of Clavius (Joseph Fiennes), a Roman tribune assigned to find Jesus’ dead body after it’s been assumed that his … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Newer films | Tagged Bartholomew, Ben Hur, Clavius, Hatfields & McCoys, Jesus, Joseph Fiennes, Kevin Reynolds, Oscar champ, Passion of the Christ, Risen, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Stephen Hagan, The Robe Barabbas, Waterworld | Leave a comment

Hail, Caesar!

Posted on February 28, 2016 by Mark DuPré

I so wanted Hail, Caesar! to be as good as its trailer. It had all the ingredients that would delight this film nerd: references to movie situations and characters that I would get and most everyone else wouldn’t (appeal to … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Newer films | Tagged Alden A, Alden Ehrenreich, Barbra Streisand, Beautiful Creatures, Ben Hur, Blue Jasmine, Capital Pictures, Channing Tatum, Coen brothers, Eddie Mannix, Esther Williams, Frances McDormand, Gene Autry, gene kelly, George Clooney, George Reeves, Hail Caesar!, Hedda Hopper, Hobie Doyle, House Un-American Activities Committee, Javier Bardem, Jeff Bridges, Jonah Hill, Josh Brolin, Louella Parsons, O Brother Where art Thou?, Ralph Fiennes, Roger Deakins, Scarlett Johansson, Sean Penn, Superman, The Robe, Tilda Swinton | Leave a comment

The Big Short

Posted on February 1, 2016 by Mark DuPré

The Big Short is the film that addresses the marketing collapse of 2008. It’s suddenly the talk of the town, because it took the Producers Guild of America Award for Best Picture over The Revenant and Spotlight. Perhaps the latter … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Newer films | Tagged Brad Pitt, Christian Bale, Producers Guild of America, Ryan Gosling, Spotlight, Steve Carell, The Big Short, The Revenant | 1 Comment

Room

Posted on January 24, 2016 by Mark DuPré

Room may well be the most moving, intimate, emotional and gut-wrenching mainstream film this year. It’s tender, sweet, tense, wondrous, lyrical and biting—all at different times. Featuring a shattering performance by Brie Larson (pretty much a shoo-in for Best Actress) … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Newer films | Tagged Brie Larson, Brooklyn, Haley Joel Osment, Jason Tremblay, Julianne Moore, Kramer vs. Kramer, Lenny Abrahamson, Meryl Streep, Room, Saoirse Ronan, Sean Bridgers, The Sixth Sense | Leave a comment

The Revenant

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Mark DuPré

Cold. Beautiful. Brutal. Fierce. Intense. Stunning. Violent. And that’s just Tom Hardy’s performance. But seriously, The Revenant (recent winner of the Golden Globe for Best Picture/Drama) is a far-reaching work of art that is worth seeing while falling just short … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Newer films | Tagged All is Lost, Atonement, Birdman, Birdman or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance, Brooklyn, David Lean, Domhnall Gleeson, Dr. Zhivago, Emmanuel Lubezki, Ex Machina, Gladiator, Golden Globe, Gravity, John Wayne, Lawrence of Arabia, Leonardo DiCaprio, Montana, Old Boy, South Dakota, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Terrence Malick, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Maze Runner, The Passion of the Christ, The Revenant, The Searchers, The Tree of Life, To the Wonder, Tom Hardy, Will Poulter | Leave a comment

The Thin Man (1934)

Posted on January 4, 2016 by Mark DuPré

At once primitive and shockingly modern is one way to describe the 1934 classic, The Thin Man. It seems creaky and hopelessly old-fashioned in the way it sets up its crime story. Then we get to the heart of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films | Tagged Bette Davis, Claudette Colbert, drawers, Hud, It Happened One Night, James Wong Howe, Myrna Loy, Of Human Bondage, Oscar, tabloids, The Rose Tattoo, The Thin Man, William Powell | Leave a comment