Month: June 2023

‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ points downward, as the film disrespects and damages our beloved hero

Jeff Mitchell

“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” (2023) – “Just go ahead.  I’ll follow you.” – Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) says to Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) It’s been 15 years since audiences have last seen Dr. Henry Walton “Indiana” Jones, Jr. on the big screen in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” (2008), and 42 summers since Harrison Ford first donned the famed brown fedora and cracked a bullwhip in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981).  This critic was 11 years young in 1981, witnessed Ford’s first Indy…

First Reaction to My Dinner with ‘Secret Invasion, S1E1-2’

Jeff Mitchell

My First Reaction…”Secret Invasion, S1E1-E2″ = My Dinner with Secret InvasionSamuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Emilia Clarke, Olivia Colman, and Kingsley Ben-Adir star in the brand-new MCU television show about The Skrulls, a shape-shifting alien race, living on Earth. Wow, what a cast! Which makes my first-reaction report so surprising. This might be the most sluggish espionage event since “My Dinner With Andre” (1981). Oh, wait, the 1981 movie was about two friends conversing over dinner for almost two hours, and that’s what we get here. If you want to…

Movie of the Week: ‘Ulee’s Gold’

Jeff Mitchell

Ulee’s Gold arrived in theatres 26 years ago today, June 13, 1997, and to celebrate writer/director Victor Nunez’s smalltown USA drama – about an ordinary beekeeper (Peter Fonda) forced to cope with a troubling family crisis – “Ulee’s Gold” is AHFW’s Movie of the Week. Fonda stars as Ulee, a widower who rather keep to himself in his modest Florida home and wrestle with his demons while caring for his bees in their apiaries.  Instead, his grown son (Tom Wood) sits in prison and his wife (Christine Dunford) left their…