In 2004, Denzel Washington was paired with a then-rising star, Dakota Fanning, in the revenge thriller Man On Fire, and though a lot of people found the film to be a top-notch actioner, I’m sorry to say I’m not one of them. The pairing of Washington and Fanning was incredibly smart, giving life to the scenes they were in. I was very emotionally invested in their relationship, so when director Tony Scott removed that element of the film, I was sorely left wanting. The energy and the spark that was so deliciously evident in the first act of the film crumbled without a trace, never to rise again. The same thing happens in Washington’s new film, The Equalizer, which falls into the same exact trap by following a very similar formula. Don’t Stop — There’s Plenty More

Shawn Levy has been producing (and directing) a mix of comedy and drama for some fifteen years. What he does so well is the way he effectively roots his comedy with an affectionate spirit that keeps his stories and characters from becoming overtly juvenile. In other words, there’s a maturity in the art he produces, a heartfelt passion for the characters and the stories he’s creating that help the audience relate to them on a sophisticated level (even when the films themselves aren’t necessarily great). This innate maturity is on full display in his new dramedy, This Is Where I Leave You, where he infects his world with a family of generally comic actors to deliver a low-key — what I’d like to call, quiet — comedy that utilizes the sensibilities of the actors to generate a loving, honest portrait of a dysfunctional family. Don’t Stop — There’s Plenty More

Earlier this year on American Idol, Harry Connick Jr. announced that he was working on Dolphin Tale 2, which initially threw me for a loop because it didn’t make much sense at the time (of course, if I had been following Winter’s story, it would have made more sense). Dolphin Tale, released back in 2011, was based on a true story, so without knowing the full background behind the story, making a sequel felt as if they were simply capitalizing on the name recognition of the property and the worldwide phenomenon that was Winter’s inspirational tale. How happy I was to find out that Dolphin Tale 2 was also based off of real events that miraculously occurred several years after the events of the original film, and that Winter’s story wasn’t over. Don’t Stop — There’s Plenty More

Every so often a movie comes along that I just can’t figure out how how I feel about it. On one hand, it’s not a terrible film, it’s just familiar — it knows what it is and does exactly what it seeks to do. On the other hand, after the movie’s over, there’s an emptiness that permeates your enjoyment, as if everything about it was hollow and forgettable. It’s almost like ordering Chinese food — it goes down well and satiates your hunger, but leaves you seeking additional nourishment thirty minutes later. That’s what it felt like watching The Identical, a movie that doesn’t do anything wrong except fail to deliver the emotional impact needed to leave a lasting impression. Don’t Stop — There’s Plenty More