MOVIE REVIEW: Doctor Strange

Now in its third phase, Marvel continues to take C-level and D-list comic book characters and titles, breath cinematic life into them with top-notch talent in front of and behind the camera, and turn the obscure in newly minted household names and merchandising windfalls. "Doctor Strange" continues the studio's blueprint of Midas Touch success while jubilantly kicking down the door for magic and mysticism in the MCU. You may not know him yet, but Stephen Strange is a major player and huge addition to an already-loaded heroic panorama.

2016, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, MOVIE REVIEW, 3 STARSDon ShanahanNovember 1, 2016Regal City North Stadium 14 IMAX2016, 2016 Holiday Movies, 2016 Fall Movies, Doctor Strange, Benedict Cumberbatch, Scott Derrickson, Kevin Feige, C. Robert Cargill, Jon Spaihts, Steve Ditko, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Mads Mikkelsen, Tilda Swinton, Benedict Wong, Michael Stuhlbarg, Benjamin Bratt, Scott Adkins, Chris Hemsworth, Robert Downey Jr., Marvel Comics, Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Films, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Phase 3, Marvel, Disney/Marvel, Disney, Sinister, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Ben Davis, Michael Giacchino, Kathmandu, Nepal, Kaecilius, The Ancient One, Stephen Strange, Christine Palmer, Karl Mordo, Mordo, Dormammu, Eye of Agamotto, Cloak of Levitation, film commentary, film review, movie commentary, movie review, comic book movie, comic book films, The Avengers, Infinity War, Thor, Thor: Ragonark, life lessons from films, life lessons from film, life lessons from movies, life lessons, life lesson, Life lessons, Donald Shanahan, Don Shanahan, Every Movie Has a LessonComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Middle Man

52nd Chicago International Film Festival U.S. Indies entry and presentation

“Middle Man” blends an acidic edge with showy panache that bleeds from every character, large and small. Credit the devious fun of Crowley for the snappy dialogue that pops from each character. The comedy is clever instead of coarse while maintaining its darkness. Nearly every speaking part of this colorful cast of funhouse mirrors nails a zinger or two that fits right into that line of taste.

MOVIE REVIEW: In a Valley of Violence

“In a Valley of Violence” lives up to the promised bloodshed suggested by its title and spins its own brand of tension and, best of all, a frank and bone-dry humor that blows into the whole film. You will either love the comedic edge or find it a distraction from the revenge. There is an undeniable panache to the absurdity that makes the film an absolute hoot. This is the giddy Western Quentin Tarantino wishes he could make while he wastes six hours of our time and stretched disbelief.

ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, 4 STARS, Film Festival, MOVIE REVIEW, 2016Don ShanahanOctober 20, 2016Jumpy, life lessons from movies, American Westerns, Mythos, American Horror Story, V/H/S, Don Shanahan, Donald Shanahan, Quentin Tarantino, independent films, Jumpy the dog, In a Valley of Violence, CFCA, film commentary, Ethan Hawke, 2016 SXSW Film Festival, Taissa Farmiga, life lessons from films, life lessons from film, Django Unchained, Tropes, Jeff Grace, Western genre, James Ransone, The House of the Devil, movie commentary, Ti West, film critics, Guardians of the Galaxy, movie review, The Innkeepers, Bone Tomahawk, The Hateful Eight, 2016 Chicago Critics Film Festival, Sinister, Westerns, life lessons, 2016, SXSW Film Festival, The Salvation, John Travolta, western genre, Every Movie Has a Lesson, Doctor Who, film discussion, Burn Gorman, Life lessons, Western horror, Chicago Critics Film Festival, Karen Gillan, film reviewComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bete)

All eyes are on the hotly anticipated live-action "re-imagining" of Walt Disney Pictures' enormously successful "Beauty and the Beast" from 1991. That March 2017 sure-fire blockbuster will garner tremendous attention in its attempt to honor the animated Best Picture Oscar nominee and double Academy Award winner. In the meantime, the fairy tale's home country of France throws down its own gauntlet to give Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve's 1740 original story and Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's abridged 1756 standard the grand, epic big-screen treatment it warrants. Let's just say the French sure know what they are doing.

MOVIE REVIEW: Snowden

There was a time Oliver Stone took risks and punched harder with his filmmaking style and history-challenging investigation efforts through compelling dramatization. The 70-year-old self-described dramatist used to stir provocative emotions and drop jaws with grand revelations. Those days feel like a distant memory with "Snowden."

MOVIE REVIEW: Bridget Jones's Baby

Tongues are inserted into cheeks at a rapid-fire pace in “Bridget Jones’s Baby. The euphemisms, drollery, puns, wild physical gags, and self-deprecating farce originate from all directions and target anyone with eyes and a smile. The writing is harebrained in the most smart and witty ways possible and, trust me, that is a compliment. Better yet, when it needs to, the movie turns off the jokes and hits you with the necessary heart to make all the silly stuff enormously endearing.

2016, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, MOVIE REVIEW, 3 STARSDon ShanahanSeptember 14, 2016Kerasotes ShowPlace ICON X at Roosevelt Collections2016, 2016 Fall Movies, Bridget Jones's Diary, Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason, Bridget Jones's Baby, Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant, Patrick Dempsey, Colin Firth, Tim Beven, Eric Fellner, Sharon Maguire, Helen Fielding, Emma Thompson, Jim Broadbent, Gemma Jones, Women over 40, Romantic comedies, life lesson, life lessons from films, life lessons from film, life lessons from movies, Life lessons, movie review, film review, movie commentary, film commentary, sequels, movie sequels, Donald Shanahan, Don Shanahan, Every Movie Has a Lesson, Bridget Jones, Dan Mazar, Dan Mazer, Sarah Solemani, Sally Phillips, James Callis, Shirley Richardson, Neil Pearson, Kate O'Flynn, Gangnam StyleComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Sully

Celebrated director Clint Eastwood is no stranger to biopics based on historical figures, making him an ardent practitioner of hero worship. Because the 86-year-old, four-time Oscar winner classically directs with a soft hand and a comely tone, his brand of adoration consistently lands on the veneration half of the definition. Combining forces for the first time with another hero worship professional in All-American leading man Tom Hanks on “Sully,” you have double the cinematic potential of cherished devotion.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Light Between Oceans

One could say melodramas take preposterous human mistakes and play them for dramatic effect. They challenge the audience to interpret how you would act defiantly or morally differently in the same situation. These films do so while still compelling you watch in hope for any semblance of a happy ending. To understand “The Light Between Oceans” is to understand melodrama. The themes of melodramatic journeys are meant to be arduous. In the medium of film, the clinchers that aid in the ability to embrace and appreciate a melodrama are its tone and the acting performances. “The Light Between Oceans” flourishes to accomplish both benchmarks.

ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, 2016, MOVIE REVIEW, 5 STARSDon ShanahanAugust 31, 2016World War I, The Place Beyond the Pines, life lessons from films, Donald Shanahan, Epic, The Lobster, 2016 Fall Movies, Every Movie Has a Lesson, David Lean, movie review, The Danish Girl, Malborough, New Zealand, life lessons, 12 Years a Slave, The Light Between Oceans, Oscar contenders, Adam Arkapaw, Tim Dirks, Alexandre Desplat, Bryan Brown, Cinematography, Oscar hopefuls, Don Shanahan, Youth, Jack Thompson, AMC, Alicia Vikander, Macbeth, Ingrid Bergman, melodramas, life lessons from movies, 2016, Oscar race, life lessons from film, Blue Valentine, Shame, Awards bait, Oscar bait, movie commentary, Michael Fassbender, Filmsite.org, Derek Cianfrance, film commentary, movie melodramas, Rachel Weisz, film review, Cape Campbell Lighthouse, M.L. Steadman, Filmsite, Daniel Day-Lewis, Steve Jobs Comments

DOCUMENTARY REVIEW: Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World

Leave it to renowned filmmaker Werner Herzog to hit you with a buffet's worth of food for thought. His musings on the origins of the internet and its growing ramifications, both positive and negative, on this modern world are sternly served in his new documentary "Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World." Scintillating one minute and sobering the next, this film is required viewing for anyone who has seen how far we've come with connectivity and wonders fearfully just how high this Icarus of technology can fly towards the Sun before it melts and crashes back to Earth.

MOVIE REVIEW: War Dogs

You know the "Goodfellas" tropes: excessive narration, ordinary people getting rich or powerful doing extraordinary and often illegal activities played by colorful actors or actresses, dramatic license spinning a likely lesser true story, a kicking period soundtrack, pervasive drug use, freeze-frame shots to stamp moments, and a tidy epilogue of comeuppance. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but it is also lazily standing on the shoulders of giants. That’s the impact and existence of Todd Phillips’s “War Dogs” in a gun… err… nutshell.

MOVIE REVIEW: Pete's Dragon

Blooming out of a cradle of artistic and narrative perseverance, it is clear a philosophy of great care and pleasant patience was given to “Pete’s Dragon” by Lowery and company. The film enhances the magical charm audiences remember from the original with newly gained maturity to operate as a loving family drama and touching adventure of friendship. It is a welcome and calming addition of heft painted by that superb idyllic tone. The wonderment never overplays its moments.

MOVIE REVIEW, 5 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, 2016Don ShanahanAugust 9, 2016Don Shanahan, 2016, Lindsey Stirling, Summer Movies, Every Movie Has a Lesson, Oona Laurence, Leonard Cohen, Bosque Brown, Pixar, film commentary, Robert Redford, Life lessons, St. Vincent, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Ain't Them Bodies Saints, family films, The Lumineers, 2016 Summer Movies, Donald Shanahan, Life lessons from movies, Okkervil River, movie commentary, Beau, Karl Urban, Life lessons from film, summer blockbusters, Candle in the Water, Daniel Hart, Walt Disney Pictures, Disney, summer movie, David Lowery, Oakes Fegley, Life Lessons, life lessons from films, Bryce Dallas Howard, film review, Beauty and the Beast, Pete's Dragon, life lessons from film, life lessons from movies, Wes Bentley, movie review, life lessonsComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Suicide Squad

In the words of professional wrestling Hall of Famer Razor Ramon, “Say hello to the bad guy!” Warner Bros. and their DC Entertainment wing need a rebound from the maligned “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” and are banking getting you to cheer for villains instead of heroes with “Suicide Squad.” Packed with a head-turning cast of wild cards and very little shame for spectacle, this film aims to combine the delicious referential villainy you loved in “Deadpool” with the anti-hero team dynamics of “Guardians of the Galaxy.”

EVERY MOVIE HAS A LESSON

by Don Shanahan

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