John Candy: I Like Me (2025)

A portrait on the late actor who starred in 43 films in his 43 short years. Still remembered fondly by fans and all who knew him, he was larger than life, but known for his kind heart and gentle nature. If you're looking for dirt, you won't find it here. No one has nary a bad word to say about him. His only demons were the ones he was battling in silence. A lot of his story is told in his own words, as well as through his SCTV castmates, and especially his collaboration with John Hughes. He resists being typecast as the fat man, while seeming very secure in who he is, which remains relevant 30 years after his death. Like John Belushi or Chris Farley, he appears to live on with each new generation.

3 smiles through the pain out of 5

Note: Hearing Catherine O'Hara give John's eulogy hits doubly hard now. R.I.P.

Marty, Life is Short (2026)

Comic actor Martin Short has led a life lined with many failures, punctuated by death and tragedy, but in the process managed to find his own voice. Filled with madcap energy, and ever the life of the party, his efforts might come off as exhausting, but his sensibilities are always funny. His greatest success was with his wife Nancy, whom he shared 36 years with before her life was cruelly curtailed. Lawrence Kasdan's documentary explores the behind the scenes through home movies and celebrity interviews, who all praise the man behind the persona, previously a one-note joke, but now more in demand than ever.

3 insults out of 5

Toy Story 5 (2026)

The reason this franchise hits so hard is because it's clearly made by people who love film and have a fond remembrance of childhood. Each one has been about embracing and leaving behind the past, and as we get older, so do our memories. The farther away we are from those experiences, the harder it hits.

This one tells the story of how electronic devices are leaving the traditional brick and mortar toys in the dust and forcing kids to grow up too quickly. It's easily the most depressing entry of the series and makes me feel older and more obsolete than ever because it hits on an inevitable truth. It seems like it's on the verge of having something significant to say, but then bails out at the last minute. It's a shame. Can't disparage our technological overlords, I guess...

2½ Lilypads out of 5

Toy Story 4 (2019)

Boy, 2019 feels like a long way behind. This film features the vocal talents of Don Rickles, Carl Reiner, Betty White, Estelle Harris and Carl Weathers, all of whom are no longer with us anymore. It also predates COVID, which feels like simpler times. Film truly is a time capsule. It's important to preserve the past.

Likewise, this franchise understands the value of legacy while continuing to take risks and reinvent itself, branching out in all new directions. This film is about those left behind who must move on from the past in order to find new purpose. It does it in traditional Pixar fashion and succeeds with flying colors.

This would have worked better as the last film in the series, but, you know...

3½ sporks out of 5

Freaky Tales (2024)

A loose anthology of four interconnected morality tales that take place in Oakland, California in 1987. The first has to do with neo-Nazis, the second with misogyny, et cetera. The third story features Pedro Pascal (with a fun cameo from Tom Hanks) that should have been expanded into its own feature film because it was by far the most interesting and ended just as it was getting good. The fourth one that links it all together was just eye-rollingly obtuse.

It tries really hard to be Pulp Fiction, but ends up being straight up poop.

1½ green glows out of 5

The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch (2003)

A retread of the 1978 mockumentary about the Prefab Four, which utilizes lost scenes and a wealth of material captured for the original film, while featuring new wraparound segments and interviews from contemporaries. It's basically the same jokes as before, but it was so good the first time, it still works here.

The songs are genuinely great in their own right, you almost forget it's farce.

3 triangular records out of 5

Joe Versus the Volcano (1990)

Joe works a soul-crushing job and feels like death all the time. He goes to the doctor who tells him he only has 6 months left to live. What will he do with his remaining time? Travel to the South Pacific and throw himself into a volcano, of course. That's the setup. It's up to you if you want to follow him there. This is a wonderfully whimsical fantasy adventure and one of my favorite films.

4½ floatable luggage out of 5

Big (1988)

Some films are so ingrained into who I am as a person that they are hard to look at objectively. Such is the case with Big, about a boy who makes a wish on a fortune-teller machine that comes true, and must suddenly contend with the trials and tribulations being an adult, without any of the experience or tools. Of course, it's a fantasy film, so anything is possible, and he ends up falling ass backwards into a dream job as a toy tester, while attracting a beautiful young executive with his boyish charms. It's just naïve enough to sidestep any grandstanding moral issues (not that I care about such things anyway) and leaves you longing for those innocent days, before life got too complicated.

5 walking pianos out of 5

Splash (1984)

It's your typical man meets fish story. In a twist on the mermaid myth, Daryl Hannah plays a mute and mysterious woman who develops a fascination for a lonely, lovelorn man in this literal fish out of water tale. What I love about this film is how romantic and out of step with reality it feels. It makes you believe anything is possible and transcends all logic. It's pure fantasy and an escape from an irrational, insufferable world. This is what the movies are all about.

4½ counts of indecent exposure out of 5

Bachelor Party (1984)

Some raunchy '80s comedies don't age as well as others, and such is the case for the lowbrow Bachelor Party, which mistakes a series of shallow jokes for any semblance of plot. It's mostly regarded for being one of Tom Hanks's earliest leading roles (before making a splash in Splash), back when he was still known as the manic character actor on Bosom Buddies. The premise is simple: a wiseacre is getting married and his pals decide to go all out on the festivities, while all the poor sucker has to do is refrain from infidelity. It's a tired and predictable morality tale, and the results are about as expected.

1 footlong out of 5

Finch (2021)

After the world has been rendered to unlivable conditions by solar flares, rising temperatures and unpredictable weather events (forcing everyone to move underground), a man and his trusty dog struggle to survive. Realizing he's slowly dying of radiation poisoning, Finch decides to build a companion robot in order to take care of his dog when he's gone, entrusting his life to it, as they set off in a reinforced RV to escape an approaching deadly storm.

Despite the very sad (and prescient) nature of the film, I adored it. It's a very stripped down sci-fi story that focuses on relationships above all. The characterization of Jeff was very well done and reminded me of Johnny 5 (Short Circuit) at times. There's something about friendly robots which is really comforting to me. It's too bad this movie got buried on the Apple TV+ platform. It makes the scale of this movie seem much smaller than originally intended.

3 games of fetch out of 5

Here (2024)

We view a section of land from a fixed vantage point spread across millions of years, from prehistoric to modern times. A house is eventually built on this spot, and we watch those lives play out before us, juxtaposing back and forth in time (sometimes simultaneously). Robert Zemeckis's latest effort unfolds like an experimental, high concept play. At the heart of this story is a couple's evolving relationship through decades (with lots of CGI transmogrification to accomplish this effect). Contains multitudes of sadness and generational trauma, as we see that life is just one tragedy after another over time. Why would anyone want to perpetuate that cycle? Regardless, it's a simple story told well and it aims for the heartstrings. Life moves fast and then it's over. It may be excessively sentimental and gaudy, but it's good schmaltz. Reunites Zemeckis, Tom Hanks and Robin Wright (as well as composer Alan Silvestri) for the first time since Forrest Gump.

3½ Relax-Y-Boys out of 5

Road to Perdition (2002)

RtP is adapted from a graphic novel of the same name by Max Allan Collins, itself inspired by Kazuo Koike's Lone Wolf and Cub manga. The importance of the father and son relationship in both books is maintained throughout.
It's set in 1931, Illinois. The father is Michael Sullivan Sr. (Hanks), a man who goes to great lengths to keep his sons from becoming aware that his boss, John Rooney (Newman), is the head of the mob and that their father is his best enforcer. But Sullivan's methods create a gulf between him and the boys.
With that established early on, the remainder of the film addresses it, but not in the way you might think. Through moments of tragedy, circumstance and sincerity, carefully distilled with shadows and light, we're drawn into their story, into the era and, if you're sympathetically equipped, into the understanding of why the swallowing of emotions that's sometimes necessary to get the job done isn't always the best course of action for either party.

4½ accounts settled out of 5

THE 'BURBS [1989]

Director Joe Dante does his darndest to create zany mayhem in the Tom Hanks led comedy The 'Burbs.  

A group of nosy neighbors believe the strange new folks in the neighborhood are murderers and go out of their way to come up with some bloody evidence.
The movie tries to be deranged but it isn't.  It also attempts to be witty but it simply isn't.  There's a few minor chuckles here and there but it mostly falls flat in predictability and too many out of place moments that never quite adds up to anything meaningful.

2 satanic pâtés out of 5

BRIDGE OF SPIES [2015]

Director Steven Spielberg and screenwriters The Coen Brothers team-up to tell the story of the Cold War 1960 U-2 incident in the slightly fictionalized espionage drama Bridge of Spies.
It focuses on American lawyer, James Donovan, who's recruited to defend captured Soviet spy Rufus Abel, much to the dismay of his own country.
For the kids looking for Bourne-esque car chases and knife fights this is the wrong spy movie for you.  It's a fairly quiet film that offers no surprising twists or turns but it's told and performed by such masterful cinema veterans it captivates without all the usual flashiness.  Spielberg's precise direction is at some of it's best here, complimented with some mesmerizing lighting & photography, a tastefully dramatic score from Thomas Newman and a brilliantly low-key performance from Mark Rylance as Rufus Abel.
It's not a particularly memorable film, compared to the rest of Spielberg's huge filmography but it's certainly one of his most perfectly executed.

4 big American breakfasts out of 5

SAVING MR. BANKS [2013]

John Lee Hancock's Saving Mr. Banks is an absolutely charming historical drama about Walt Disney struggling with author P.L. Travers to get the film rights to the studio classic Mary Poppins.
It's an interesting character study that's both heart-warming and surprisingly dark in areas that's largely based around the terrific performances from Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks.  At times it reeks of the Disney empire stroking it's inflated ego and gets a bit too predictably fluffy but when it's at it's best it's simply wonderful.

3½ fruit bowls for the swimming pool out of 5

CAPTAIN PHILLIPS [2013]

Director Paul Greengrass tells the riveting and intense true story of Captain Phillips and his cargo ship that was hijacked by Somali pirates.
Greengrass knows how to put the viewer in extreme unease and here he displays it with minimal setting changes which makes it all the more impressive.  It'd be easy to turn the pirates into one dimensional baddies but fortunately they're given some character as we see the world through their eyes which was a surprise when I was expecting a "Go America!" type of film.  The lead pirate is brilliantly played by newcomer Barkhad Abdi who layers him with intensity, fear and thoughtfulness.  Hanks doesn't have a whole lot to play with here until the two minutes of the film and that reduced me to tears within seconds.
A great action film that doesn't speak down to it's audience that will probably go on to sweep up the nominations come awards season.

3½ shards of broken glass out of 5

CAST AWAY [2000]

Robert Zemeckis directs Tom Hanks and a volleyball in the desert island drama Cast Away.  

Most of the credit has to go to Hanks for being able to emotionally carry the entire film all on his own, with next to no score music to cue the emotions until the final 20 minutes.  It's beautifully shot with an astounding sound design, while never really becoming the special effects bonanza most Zemeckis films tend to be.  It lags here and there but the story about fear, hope and the will to survive packs a powerful punch by the time it wraps up.  

3½ angel wings out of 5

THE GREEN MILE [1999]

Frank Darabont succeeds in bringing Stephen King's serial novel The Green Mile to the screen, moving the heart in a similar fashion as he did with The Shawshank Redemption. 

It's filled with wonderful performances by actors who fully understand the colorful and fascinating characters they're portraying.  The beautiful camerawork, music and art direction help make the 3 hour plus film never feel as long as it really is.  It's a dark, grim, yet strangely uplifting, reminder that there's magic in this world and how we'll find it in the most obscure of places.

4½ mice on the Mile out of 5

CLOUD ATLAS [2012]

Tom Tykwer and Lana & Andy Wachowski adapt David Mitchell's sprawling sci-fi novel Cloud Atlas into a visually stunning 3 hour epic.

It takes the near impossible task of simultaneously juggling six separate stories all at once, while retaining a smooth flow in the narrative. The film is a huge challenge to anyone not willing to invest their complete attention and brain into piecing together the confusing non-linear or picking up on it's many themes but the brave ambition poured into the film can't go unnoticed.  The prosthetics are a little distracting at times and hard to believe, as is the lack of character development and spotty acting.  However by the end, I felt it to be a satisfying experience that begs 2 or 3 more viewings to fully grasp onto it. 

4 problems with "pussy" out of 5