Category: Review

Casablanca Michael Curtiz (1942) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Shakespeare-180×180.jpg’ attachment=’76’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] Ruud Rating 4 Shakespeares [/av_image] Casablanca today is a sprawling, teeming metropolitan area of some nine million people. While it doesn’t approach the huge megalopolises of Lagos or Cairo, it is still among the largest cities in Africa, a… Continue reading Casablanca

RBG Julie Cohen and Betsy West (2018) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/3-12.jpg’ attachment=313′ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] Three Tennysons/Half Shakespeare[/av_image] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] The U.S. Supreme Court is not generally looked upon as a hotbed of human drama, a mine from which the stuff of emotionally riveting films might be extracted. Nevertheless,… Continue reading RBG

The Incredibles 2  Brad Bird (2018) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/3-12.jpg’ attachment=313′ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] Three Tennysons/Half Shakespeare[/av_image] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] Has it really been fourteen years since the first Incredibles movie? Maybe it just doesn’t seem that long because Brad Bird’s initial animated foray into the superhero genre was so fresh,… Continue reading The Incredibles 2

Ocean’s 8 Gary Ross (2018) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Tennyson-180×180.jpg’ attachment=’77’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] You know the formula: suave and confident ex con concocts an elaborate scheme to pull off a hitherto undreamed-of heist where a vast fortune is a stake. The aforementioned con puts together a team of rogues, beginning with… Continue reading Ocean’s 8

Book Club Bill Holderman (2018) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/SusannTennyson.jpg’ attachment=313′ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] Back in 2011, John Madden gave us The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a brilliant sleeper of a movie that presented aging stars like Maggie Smith and Judy Dench, Bill Nighy and Tom Wilkerson in… Continue reading Book Club

Solo: A Star Wars Story Ron Howard (2018) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Tennyson-180×180.jpg’ attachment=’77’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] In a lot of minds, the opening weekend of Solo: A Star Wars Story was a box office disaster, netting “only” some $83 million domestically over the three-day Memorial Day weekend (it will be about… Continue reading Solo: A Star Wars Story

Deadpool 2 David Leitch (2018) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Tennyson-180×180.jpg’ attachment=’77’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] The original Deadpool was clever, irreverent, sardonically humorous and self-referential, breaking the fourth wall with impunity and refusing to take itself seriously. As Wade Wilson, aka Deadpool, Ryan Reynolds created a persona as memorable as any “serious” superhero… Continue reading Deadpool 2

Life of the Party Ben Falcone (2018) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Susanns.jpg’ attachment=’78’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=10” appearance=’on-hover’] 2 JACQUELINE SUSANNS [/av_image] In 1960, Bing Crosby starred in a Blake Edwards film called High Time, in which Bing plays a widower and self-made fast-food millionaire who at the age of 51 (Bing was 57… Continue reading Life of the Party

Tully Jason Reitman (2018) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Tennyson-180×180.jpg’ attachment=’77’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] Charlize Theron could have had a comfortable career playing beautiful, graceful, and sexy women. She never would have had to stretch or play anything other than herself and people would have paid her to do it because lots of… Continue reading Tully

Avengers: Infinity War Anthon and Joe Russo (2018) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/SusannTennyson.jpg’ attachment=313′ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] Perhaps the most anticipated movie in the long ten-year construction of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, one that in some ways weaves together strands from the previous 18 films so as to… Continue reading Avengers: Infinity War