Peneflix MOVIE REVIEWS BY PENEFLIX

Enough. That is what spurred “Allan Karlsson’s” (archival performance by Robert Gustafsson) rebellious act on his century birthday; fleeing the nursing home as they prepare his celebratory feast; he is spry, weary of the quasi-prison he is  comfortably cloistered in, the ubiquitous monotony; he escapes, and viewers are treated to one of the most idiosyncratic odysseys in film history. It ... Read More »

Cecil B. DeMille’s  1956 “The Ten Commandments” still shimmers as one of the most iconic films of all time; technological wizardry, blatantly remarkable, set the bar for future filmmakers; it is a masterpiece enjoyed yearly by millions as a Passover/Easter traditional viewing experience; Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner are memorably cemented as the eponymous embodiment of “Moses” and “Ramses”. Christian ... Read More »

Woefully, for the first twenty minutes of this abused Bollywood theme (saviors vs villains) my impulse was to run, demand a refund, conserve my sanity, luxuriate in the freedom of three undetermined hours; reasoning aside, I remained. Ajay Devgan is the Eastern composite of: Sylvester Stallone, Charles Bronson, Bruce Willis,  Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Cruise; superheroes who have felled thousands of ... Read More »

Religiously faithful to Gillian Flynn’s stunningly successful novel; an unmatched character study of an initially enviable relationship gone haywire; succinctly directed and cast, even those familiar with the book will be drawn into the labyrinth of irreducible intrigue. David Fincher scores again (“The Social Network”, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”) with a scenario, pervasively known, blessing it with layers ... Read More »

Based on the play by Israel Horovitz (also his directorial debut) is uneven in execution but stunningly acted by Kevin Kline, Maggie Smith and Kristin Scott Thomas. Penniless, “Mathias (Jim) Gold” (Kline) arrives in Paris to collect his inheritance from his deceased father; an apartment inhabited by ninety-two-year-old “Madame Girard” (Smith); discovering the incomprehensible French law of “viager” which allows ... Read More »

My fervent regret is that I did not LEAVE after the first twenty minutes, when I realized that the entire “Altman” family was catastrophically boring, self-absorbed, inconsequential; their common denominator, an obsessive, insatiable,  all-consuming focus on their libido. With the exception of a charming child (whose parentage was vague) I woefully sat through the entire dull scenario, which disintegrated scene ... Read More »

Melissa McCarthy is an intelligent woman with impeccable comedic timing; together with her husband, Ben Falcone (he also directed and plays her boss “Keith”) she wrote and stars in “Tammy”, a movie that elicits little laughter and lots of disappointment; the first twenty minutes she harangues anyone and anything within hearing distance; she has created a cult to corpulence,  and ... Read More »

Tom Cruise. For thirty years I have been a worshiper, a devout member of congregation “Cruisology”; “Risky Business” (1983) was my baptismal inauguration; here is a man with more avatars than Vishnu: lover, pilot, lawyer,  lover, football player, bartender, lover, gambler, samurai,  lover, vampire, rock star; endless characterizations.  But it is his role as super-hero that has monopolized his mega ... Read More »

Glumly, I waddled out of director Stephanie Soechtig’s (produced and narrated by Katie Couric) prescient documentary about the perils of sugar; determined not to write about it, but after two weeks of it creepily, crawling around in my conscience, bit the bagel and sallied forth to my trusty “live writer”. Commencing with the utmost truth: I love anything sweet, as ... Read More »

Frequently writers rely on “Webster or Oxford” to crush the roadblocks stymieing mental acuity, a cowardly crutch; but as I watched “Chinese Puzzle” laughing uproariously, surrounded by a modestly mute audience, surreptitiously looking at me, questioning my tenuous grip on reality; it struck me with tsunami velocity that “humor” is profoundly subjective.  So,  like a multitude before me, I checked ... Read More »