Movie reviews of Don Shanahan

Wiping away all the dropped cameos, the central high-spirited affection in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is incredibly powerful. Review

Gattaca isn't full of special visual effects and spectacular fights and aliens, but it is a visually stunning film. It is a work of art, and I will rewatch it. Review

Sign Lulu Wilson up for action, horror, comedy, or whatever she fits. Let her make more of these Becky romps or give her something bigger. Review

The celebrated music does that purely on its own, but the rest of the spectacle, amid some foibles, is all there as well. This is a fitting use of an entertainment appointment for families ready to skip the streaming couch for the summertime big screen. Review

While a modern 21st century maturity against frank toxic masculinity was infused to be appreciated, there is an unmistakable edginess that is missing, top to bottom in White Men Can’t Jump. Review

The real question for Hypnotic is whether these inclusions and angles are nods and homages or cheap knockoffs. For a while, the invisible layers are bonkers, but they flirt with turning clever after a while. Nevertheless, it still feels like the trivial latter. The aftereffect of all this creates one of the most cockamamie and off-the-rails action movies in recent memory. Review

More than anything, What’s Love Got to Do With It puts a strong emphasis on family honor and its aforementioned different speed of romantic finality. Those nuclei become natural and not forced on a journey where the wallup and flourish surprisingly arrive in two different places. Review

A Tourist’s Guide to Love respects its characters, its audience, and its cultural depictions with more tact and nobility than the norm, giving us a refreshing and relaxing PG-rated romantic drama. Review

Any air-conditioned frost of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 can be scraped or shaken off relatively easily, but not this movie’s heart. Review

Lowery seems to be the one hired auteur from Disney that takes the prospect of “re-imagining” seriously to deconstruct and reconstruct big mythos. Review

Regrettably, there was a fuller movie possible that was washed away at the end. Review

This is one of the most affecting performances of Steve Zahn’s career and a beautiful spotlight of his ageless appeal. Review

Admiring the semi-straight effort, bets could be made where this cookier version would play better than this soapy one and fit the comedy strengths of his director Andy Fickman. Review

To say Showing Up is watching paint dry or, in the case, clay dry is far too mean. Quiet is one thing and introspective is another. Do you relish the glacial anticipation and personal payoff of creative culmination or are you just showing up to the art show at the end, as characters do here, for the wine and cheese. Review

Mamma Mafia wastes two of the best female actors of their generation. Review

The narrative scaffolding around Carl Nargle in Paint is terribly flimsy. Not a cog in the story fits his antiquated dimensions, and it shows. Review

Those curious and poised to watch composures rattled, zingers exchanged, balls busted, and dreams fulfilled get all that and then some in Air. Review

Banner and Sedgwick dangle and then decidedly choose a bumpy climactic path, putting us right back to curiosity versus anxiety. Correcting either for a wayward soul or two exceeds this movie’s reach. Review

Egerton’s charm turns what could have been a semi-lame biopic into an R-rated, borderline caper film of corporate espionage circling dire Cold War consequences. Review

Much can be complimented in those crisply stylish attempts at big ideas and even bigger questions. Yet, it is hard to fathom the so-called infinite as having something missing, but a penetrative punch is absent. Review

Boston Strangler, for better or worse, needed more of its ominous titular villain. Those looking for a more forensic treatment of this historical hullabaloo will not find that satisfaction here. Yet, there’s more than enough respectful polish and attempts at prestige in Boston Strangler to stand out slightly above the pile of repetitive television entries. Review

Without spoiling, Colin West is shrouding a doozy of heart-punch with Linoleum. Review

The overall filthy, guilty pleasure sustenance of Cocaine Bear circles reflection back again to the effects of the titular drug. Review

In two sharply-composed hours willing to embrace that kind of empathy, Michael B. Jordan and his collaborators offer welcome and compelling depth to go along with the satiation for fisticuffs that fit the humble origins and comfort zones of this now two-pronged franchise that began nearly a half-century ago. Review