Tag: Doug Liman

The narrow, orderly focus trips up ‘Chaos Walking’

Jeff Mitchell

Tom Holland is rightfully enjoying massive success in the movie biz these days. Hear!  Hear! Holland, 24, easily fits into the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-man, but he’s not just a red-and-blue superhero.  He’s starred in other big-studio films, like “In the Heart of the Sea” (2015), “The Lost City of Z” (2016), “Onward” (2020), and “The Devil All the Time” (2020). His characters handle themselves just fine when saving humanity or diving into a one-on-one scrap, and his friendly bravado translates into real-life. Holland is a certified star, but no…

‘American Made’ reproduces a truly wild story

Jeff Mitchell

“American Made” – Thirty-one years ago, Tom Cruise “owned” the skies and movie theatres everywhere by playing a hotshot U.S. Navy pilot in “Top Gun” (1986).  This flashy, testosterone-filled box office juggernaut cemented Cruise’s big screen appeal after his breakout role in “Risky Business” (1983), just three years prior.  In 2017, Cruise plays a pilot again, another daredevil who takes massive risks, but sports a very, very different career in the wild, true story of Barry Seal, who made an American fortune in “American Made”. Barry’s tale of fortune begins during…

Taylor-Johnson and Cena cannot rest against ‘The Wall’

Jeff Mitchell

“The Wall” – What images immediately come to mind when you read the words, “war movie”?  Human history unfortunately can provide thousands of examples in which people become mired in mass conflict and attempt to kill one another, and the big screens sometimes masterfully recapture those horrific struggles. For me, three films immediately pop into my brain. Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” (1998) illustrates the murderous spectacle of war via the Allied invasion of Normandy.  Stanley Kubrick’s “Paths of Glory” (1957) depicts the brutality of war, when French soldiers scurry…