MOVIE REVIEW: ROOFMAN

 

After escaping from prison, former soldier and professional thief Jeffrey Manchester finds a hideout inside a Toys "R" Us, surviving undetected for months while planning his next move. However, when Jeffrey falls for a divorced mom, his double life starts to unravel, setting off a compelling and suspenseful game of cat and mouse as his past closes in.

Director: Derek Cianfrance

Cast: Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, Ben Mendelsohn, LaKeith Stanfield, Juno Temple, Melonie Diaz, Uzo Aduba, Lily Collias, Jimmy O. Yang,  Peter Dinklage

Release Date: October 10, 2025 

Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama, History, Music, Romance

Rated R for language, nudity and brief sexuality.

Runtime: 2h 6m

Review:

Roofman takes a stranger than fiction true story and turns it into an engaging crime/romantic comedy that leans heavily on Channing Tatum's charisma and chemistry with an understated but layered turn from Kirsten Dunst.  Derek Cianfrance's film is disarmingly charming from the start as we get a quick rundown of the Jeffrey Manchester's Roofman crimes that land him in jail initially.  Tatum's voice oversets him up as a loveable rogue who's more of a victim of circumstance than an outright criminal.  It works for the most part as you need to like Jeffrey's inventive outlaw in order for the film to work as well as it does.  There are echoes of 2001's Blow and 2002's Catch Me If You Can as the audience is swept up in the character's increasingly precarious house of cards that's destined to fall at any moment.  There's a pervasive sense of optimism as the character that Tatum's Manchester encounters are mostly trusting and inviting at nearly every turn.  Kirsten Dunst injects a constant sense of trepidation to her single mother even as her character falls in love with Tatum's Manchester.  There's a subtly to her performance that's impressive across the board as she communicates a hefty amount of emotional information with a look that gives you the sense that's she's just waiting for the other shoe to drop.  Her character has an impressive level of depth that’s sorely lacking from some of the other supporting players who are much more broadly written, wasting the talents of the film's excellent supporting cast made up of Ben Mendelsohn, LaKeith Stanfield, Juno Temple, Uzo Aduba and Peter Dinklage.  Thankfully, Dunst and Tatum share an authentic chemistry together which serves as the film's beating heart, making the film's closing act more somber, almost tragic as the roof begins to fall in around them.  While the film doesn't absolve its central character of all the blame, he does get a decent level of cinematic sheen that glosses over the amount of emotional damage he left in his wake.  Roofman may be a bit too forgiving of its central subject but it does offer Channing Tatum a chance to really showcase his acting chops in a way we haven't seen before.  

B+

MOVIE REVIEW: VENOM : THE LAST DANCE

Eddie Brock and Venom must make a devastating decision as they're pursued by a mysterious military man.

Director: Kelly Marcel

Cast: Tom Hardy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Peggy Lu, Alanna Ubach, Stephen Graham

Release Date: October 24, 2024

Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, bloody images and strong language.

Runtime: 1h 50m

Review:

Venom: The Last Dance ends the Tom Hardy bromance trilogy on a stilted, occasionally goofy but ultimately underwhelming note.  Tom Hardy clearly enjoys making these films as he gets to banter back and forth between himself as both characters but the film's have rarely matched his commitment and focus.  This entry has a strange herky-jerky feel to it as it struggles to find any sort of consistent tone which is made even harder with a lazy script.  Kelly Marcel does her best to make the whole thing watchable with some Looney Toon inspired action sequences that are bits of contained madness which bring some life to film before it dips back down into the uninspired drudgery that makes up the plot.  Tom Hardy does his best to carry the film but the comedy here rarely lands the way it should which makes the film's hour and fifty minutes feel longer than it should.   Chiwetel Ejiofor and Juno Temple slum it here in underwritten supporting roles but try their best to make something out of the paper thin characterizations on the page.  Ejiofor is an immensely talented actor which makes it hard to watch him slog through the incredibly generic dialogue as a foil to Temple's overly naive, wide eyed scientist.  Rhys Ifans pops up in small but fun supporting role but he's in a similar battle against the script.  There's very little that happens that comes as surprise until it leads to the predictable final battle.  That CGI heavy battle provides plenty of symbiote action vs generic alien creatures which look like unused Men In Black character designs.  The whole thing ends with an odd  TV finale style montage that seems to hammer home the point that this is the end of the trilogy which aims to inspire an emotional response more meaningful than a general shrug.  

D

Movie Reviews: YEAR ONE

Sunday, June 21, 2009
Movie Reviews: YEAR ONE
IN THEATERS

 

YEAR ONE

When a couple of lazy hunter-gatherers (Black and Cera) are banished from their primitive village, they set off on an epic journey through the ancient world.

Cast: Jack Black, Michael Cera, Oliver Platt, David Cross, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Vinnie Jones, Hank Azaria, Juno Temple, Olivia Wilde

Director: Harold Ramis

Opened June 19, 2009

Runtime: 1 hr. 40 min.

Rated PG-13 for brief strong language, crude and sexual content and comic violence

Genres: Prehistoric Fantasy, Comedy

Review:


Year One is an utterly disappointing hodgepodge of lowest common denominator humor which relies on Jack Blacks buffoonery way too much for its own good. The lack of ineptitude in handling what is an intriguing if somewhat familiar concept, Monty Python’s classic Life of Brian is far better, is surprising because of the pedigree of the people behind the camera and the script. Harold Ramis sloppy direction and even sloppier script, which he co wrote, makes this film a chore to trudge through as it lacks anything consistently funny. We are given fart, pee and shit jokes which might amuse some kids under 15 but not really anyone else. Jack Black is front and center here and his tired act is grating through most of the film as we watch him act like an overfed kid one a sugar high through out. The supporting cast is much stronger but sadly the filmmakers don’t give them too much screen time. Michael Cera does the best he can with the weak script and funnier than his counter part mainly because he understands the concepts of comic timing and subtlety. David Cross is good fun as Cain and his scene with Paul Rudd, as Abel, is an early highlight. The reliable Hank Azaria is fairly impressive as Abraham even if he’s only given a bad running joke to work with. The remaining supporting cast is mostly forgettable and they mostly just wander through their scenes aimlessly much like the plot. Story wise there isn’t much rhyme or reason to the proceeding and sometimes things just happen and abruptly end with no resolution. Year One might give you a few giggles here and there but never more than that. It’s a shame because handled correctly it could have been a fun ride through prehistory like the 80’s Caveman or the aforementioned Life of Brian, as it is you’d be best served renting either of those film if your looking for a laugh.

C-