Spiderman - No Way Home, Review: Spidermen Indian release today, American release tomorrow. How exciting! Shot during the Covid 19 Coronavirus pandemic. How daring! Third part of a Trilogy – Homecoming (2017) and Far from Home (2019). How challenging, if you are not a die-hard fan and do not remember the previous homings well-enough! A cast that consists of Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jacob Batalon, Jon Favreau, Jamie Foxx, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Benedict Wong, J.K...

Dolittle, Review: Only a veterinarian can save the Queen Imagine a veterinarian doctor who can understand animal language and talk to any member of the animal, bird and fish kingdom. When translated to cinema, as in Dolittle, this story creates a dramatic premise where his unique ability would prove crucial in an effort to save the dying Queen of England, no less. It’s as preposterous a premise as the basic platform itself, but, nevertheless, adds to the cuteness value of the whole exer...

Spies in Disguise, Review: Walter, Pigeon and These Guys You might say that being in disguise is an essential qualification of being spies, so why give your film an obvious title? There is a rhyme and reason. The spy in this film turns into a pigeon, no less, upon drinking a serum, invented by a teenager called Walter Beckett, and that is one hell of a disguise! Use of the plural is questionable, though, since there is only one spy in the picture, while the other guy in ‘disguise’...

The Current War, Review: DC Edison v/s AC Westinghouse Unless you do some background reading, this review included, you will not guess that the film is not about a conventional war but about the rivalry between Thomas Alva Edison, credited with inventing Direct Current operated incandescent bulbs, and their Alternating Current based, dynamo-run variants, developed by George Westinghouse, back in the 1880s. It’s a double-barrelled bio-pic that spouts too much jargon and is not saved by f...

Spider-man--Far From Home, Review: PP, HH, Ray, May, MJ, Ned, E.D.I.T.H., Nick and Beck Can a pulsating teenage romance between a super-hero’s alter ego and a beautiful schoolmate over-ride inherent flaws in a film’s scripting and logic? Is the inability to go “aw..so cute!” every time you see an awkward boy mustering up the courage to approach his love interest, to utter the three magic words, a sign of aging and fossilisation? Is the need to look beyond the obvious, ...

Avengers, Endgame: Thanostradamus As star casts go, Avengers: Endgame runs up a mind-boggling score. Like in theatrical performances, where all characters come on to the stage after the performance to take a bow, Endgame brings them all on screen, even resurrecting the dead, in a show of ultimate strength, before their nemesis is vanquished. Just as it takes two lives to conquer the dark force, the dark force itself needs to be conquered not once but twice. It is ingenious writing, to lay out...

Avengers-Infinity War, Review: Ashes to ashes, dust to dust #Book of Common Burial Prayer, 1662: Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life. #‘Ashes to ashes, funk to funky’ Artiste: David Bowie, Album: Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), 1980. From all appearances, a large number of Marvel’s Avengers and their partners in common cause have become ashes by the time the film ends. Whether any of them will be Re...

Spiderman: Homecoming, Review by Siraj Syed: The Age of Coming This tale of and by (the opening credits say so) Peter Parker is just a shade slower than Transformers 5, which means it is crack-neck, if not break-neck. Nevertheless, that’s some relief. Looks like it is the trend now, and this is what comic/superhero films are going to be all about—hundreds of rapid fire cuts and thousands of barely discernible special effects, all adding up to a good two-and-a half hours or thereab...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent We could run down the Marvel list of past Spider-Men: impish Tobey Maguire, troubled Andrew Garfield, and they were great. But why bother, Spidey fans, because Tom Holland owns the new web-slinger entry SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING, which opens July 7. (Hey, is that Jon Favreau in the background photo above? Yes.) Owns it along with his co-starts, that is. Those being Robert Downey, Jr.,  back as his Iron Man/Tony Stark mentor; Michael Keaton as...

By Maria Esteves – March 14, 2017 Dedicated to the Loving Memory of My Father Getulio Esteves (1927-2016). THE LOST CITY OF Z is a compelling true story based on the three voyages of a British explorer Lieutenant Colonel Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) during 1906-1954, who journeyed to find a city between Bolivia and Brazil, in the uncharted Amazonian jungle, the oldest civilization known to mankind. Raised from humble beginnings, the first voyage, allowed Percy to redeem his fam...

By Maria Esteves The 54th New York Film Festival 2016 (NYFF54) Closing Night Premiere Press Conference of THE LOST CITY OF Z, with director James Gray; cast members , Sienna Miller, Robert Pattinson, Tom Holland, and Angus Macfadyen moderated by festival director Kent Jones, NYFF, was held at the Walter Reade Theater, NYC, Saturday, October 15, 2016.   Questions posed to director Gray and cast members by moderator Jones and members of the press included: When did you read this materi...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent No, you’ve probably never heard of explorer Percy Fawcett; he’s the main character of best-seller David Grann’s “The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon." It's a non-fiction rundown on an Amazonian adventurer who found and lost his soul in the jungle. Now, what if you heard Sons of Anarchy’s Charlie Hunnam is going to come out in a movie as Percy Fawcett? What an exciting choi...

Captain America-Civil War, Review: Danger...Us? Emerging from the 2006 Marvel Comic storyline, Civil War, this is a top heavy assembly, where the heroes get divided into two camps and battle it out, before realising that unity in diversity must come first, and egos should take second billing. It is about two superstars taking opposing, dictatorial stances, but with so many characters doing their bit for the fans, the film is a democratic treatise. Villains, by comparison, are poorly delineate...

SPOTLIGHT MEDIA PRODUCTIONS   The American Cinematheque Presents… By Adrienne Papp   By Adrienne Papp  The American Cinematheque Presents…  Horror, Thrills & Chills On The Big Screen  Film Series “Night of the Living ’80s: A New Wave of Horror”  Starts Thursday! ...