Book Club Is As Paint-By-Numbers As It Is Enjoyable

Book Club is a predictable affair in many respects, that much is true. But just as The Force Awakens took a plot similar to the original Star Wars and made it fresh by having it be performed by a talented diverse cast, so too does Book Club find ingenuity in its frequently paint-by-numbers plot by making sure its the rare American comedy to be headlined by four women over 60, all of whom are portrayed by acting legends. Yes, there are plenty derivative qualities to be found in here, but choosing to create a humanizing portrait of different types of women in this age range is certainly not one of them and having that kind of unique quality serve as the foundation for Book Club helps somewhat offset its formulaic tendencies.

The Godfather Trilogy Comes To An Underwhelming End With The Godfather: Part III

And so, we come to the end of The Godfather trilogy, a saga of films adapting the literary work by Mario Puzo of the same name. Following his tenure helming the lasts two entries in this series, Francis Ford Coppola returns to the directors chair for this final chapter in the Corleone saga, though considering how starved Paramount Pictures is for content these days, I'm preparing myself for an inevitable McG directed reboot of The Godfather to get announced anyday now. For now though, The Godfather: Part III serves as the definitive end of one of the most acclaimed franchises in cinematic history, though this third chapter received initial responses that proved to be far more critical than its predecessors.

Few Sequels Are As Amazing As The Captivating The Godfather: Part II

Sight & Sound Voyage Entry #38
Placement On Sight & Sound Top 50 Movies List: #31 (Tied witb Taxi Driver)   

For years, I've heard the usual picks of when people say best sequels; The Empire Strikes Back, Spider-Man 2, and of course, The Godfather: Part II. That 1974 Francis Ford Coppola has been held up as the paragon of sequel filmmaking for decades now and getting to actually watch it for the first time totally made me realize why The Godfather: Part II is held up in such high stature in discussions of cinema. This thing not only manages to surpass the quality of its already incredible predecessor but it also does a remarkable job of enhancing the world established by the first movie by lending a sweeping mythic quality to the Corleone crime syndicate.

Manhattan Review (Classic Write-Up)

Certain filmmakers have a recurring feature in their filmography to utilize their city/state of birth as a prominent figure in their motion pictures, taking a well-known location and attempt to weave in more nuance and depth into an environment and its inhabitants that many may normally dismiss as just a tourist trap. Jean-Luc Godard has Paris, France. Richard Linklater has Texas and, of course, Woody Allen has New York. For his ninth motion picture, Manhattan, (one that came two years after Annie Hall, Allen's movie that won Best Picture at the Oscars), the importance of New York to the filmmaker can be seen in how this film is titled after one of the five boroughs that can be found in New York City.