Category: Film Reviews

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3 (Out of 4 Stars) From producer Guillermo Del Toro, this fun and delightful animated family movie comes just in time for Halloween and Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead), a Mexican and Hispanic holiday which honors loved ones who have passed away.  This vibrant film incorporates a love… Continue reading Review: THE BOOK OF LIFE

By Mark Saldana Rating: 1.5 (Out of 4 Stars) Of all of the Nicholas Sparks film adaptations, The Notebook still remains the best. Since then, all others that have followed have ranged from good/mediocre to terrible.  The Best of Me falls into the terrible range.  As I sat through this contrivance of a romance with… Continue reading Review: THE BEST OF ME

By Renee’ Collins Rating: 4.5 (Out of 5 Reels) Big city lawyer Hank Palmer (Robert Downey Jr.) returns to his childhood home where his father (Robert Duvall), the town’s judge, is suspected of murder.  Hank sets out to discover the truth and, along the way, reconnects with his estranged family (IMDB). To say Duvall and… Continue reading Review: THE JUDGE

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3 (Out of 4 Stars) Based on actual events, Kill the Messenger dramatizes the investigative reporting of Gary Webb and his attempts to expose the C.I.A.’s support of the Nicaraguan Contras through drug trafficking.  The result is a disturbing and engrossing film, but one held back by the filmmakers’ reliance on… Continue reading Review: KILL THE MESSENGER

By Mark Saldana Rating: 2 (Out of 4 Stars) This movie claims to tell the spellbinding origin story of the most infamous vampire of horror legends.  In all of its attempts to tell this “untold” back-story, the movie doesn’t really cast much of a spell.  To its credit, the film has some appealing characters and… Continue reading Review: DRACULA UNTOLD

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3 (Out of 4 Stars) With two acting greats (Robert Downey, Jr. and Robert Duvall) in the cast of this courtroom/family drama, The Judge is undoubtedly worth a watch.  The two gifted actors share a powerful chemistry onscreen, credibly portraying an estranged father and son with a mutual disdain for one… Continue reading Review: THE JUDGE

By Mark Saldana Rating: 4 (Out of 4 Stars) David Fincher–and I mean this as a compliment–has an astounding talent for presenting psychopathy and sociopathy on film magnificently.  His movies Seven, Fight Club, and Zodiac are prime examples of this ability.  He also sure knows how to select intelligently written stories to adapt for the… Continue reading Review: GONE GIRL

By Liz Lopez Rating: B  It is very hard to believe that 1975 is almost 40 years ago, but in that year a young adult woman, Robyn Davidson, began a journey of a lifetime across Australia. Although the story of her 1,700 mile travels was featured in the National Geographic magazine in March 1978, it… Continue reading Review: TRACKS

By Mark Saldana Rating: 2.5 (Out of 4 Stars) One of the more memorable and truly frightening moments of the horror film, The Conjuring, comes from a subplot involving a horrid porcelain doll kept in the somewhat safe custody of the Warrens.  Because these scenes had such an impact on movie audiences, producers Jenny Hinkley,… Continue reading Review: ANNABELLE

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3 (Out of 4 Stars) Many things have been said about the “American Dream” and the concept has been the subject of both cliche Hollywood movies and intelligent satire. Like most countries, the U.S. has its problems, but it can serve as a safe haven for refugees from other more troubled… Continue reading Review: THE GOOD LIE