The Kitchen Makes A Mixed Bag of a Mobster Mayhem Movie

Kathy Brennan (Melissa McCarthy), Ruby O'Carroll (Tiffany Haddish) and Claire Walsh (Elisabeth Moss) have something very important in common beyond them all being the lead characters of the new mobster drama The Kitchen. They're all spouses of critical figures in the Hell's Kitchen mobster scene circa. 1979. All of their husbands have recently gone to prison and while the remaining mob figures have promised to take care of the trio financially, they're not getting anywhere near enough money to take care of their lives. That's when Kathy, Ruby and Claire decide to take it upon themselves to take control of their lives and run their own mob racket that begins to expand in power to such a profound degree that it upsets the previous mobster status quo in New York City.

Can You Ever Forgive Me? Is A Skillfully Subdued Triumph

Like the boys (A.K.A. Zac Efron and Corbin Bleau) in High School Musical 3: Senior Year, writer/director Marielle Heller is back after her outstanding 2015 directorial effort The Diary of a Teenage Girl. A movie bursting at the seams with authentic portrayals of all the complexities of a specific teenagers angst, anything she did as a follow-up to that excellent motion picture was gonna grab my attention. But the fact that such a sophomore directorial effort, entitled Can You Ever Forgive Me?, would also serve as a chance for Melissa McCarthy to flex her dramatic acting muscles meant this was a movie that's been very much on my radar for ages now (it probably would have been on my radar anyway though given how many times I've seen the trailer over the past seven months).

Hey, A Movie! Hopefully One That's Better Than The Happytime Murders!

Taking children's entertainment icons The Muppets and filtering them through an R-rated perspective is the central conceit of The Happytime Murders, a new raunchy comedy from director Brian Henson, son of Jim Henson. If that sounds like a slightly familiar premise, it's because Happytime Murders is one in a surprisingly long line of projects that have tackled this idea. Most notably, Peter Jackson provided a gruesome peek behind the curtain of a Muppet Show pastiche in 1989's Meet The Feebles while Broadway musical Avenue Q sent up Sesame Street with its depressingly realistic take on how unfulfilling adulthood can be. Both of these projects, especially Avenue Q, were of a level of quality that Happytime Murders only wishes it could rise to.

The Boss Review

If Paul Feig is seemingly the best filmmaker for Melissa McCarthy to work (judging by their super great track record of Spy and Ghostbusters), then Ben Falcone may be the nadir of directors McCarthy has worked with, namely because Falcone directed Tammy, the absolute worst comedy of McCarthy's career. She and Falcone (who is Melissa McCarthy's real-life husband) reunite for The Boss, a new comedy that can be rightfully praised as a step up from Tammy...and that's about it.

Ghostbusters Review

After a summer full of so many big budget clunkers, the incredibly entertaining Ghostbusters arrives like a bucket of cool water to a man stranded in the Sahara for months on end. Seriously, where was this level of fun, sincerity and care been in the likes of Independence Day: Resurgence and X-Men: Apocalypse? Leave it to Paul Feig and co. to follow up the directors exceptional Spy from last summer with a remake that's not relentlessly beholden to what's come before. There's a vibrant sensation of the new pulsating through Ghostbusters and it's a vibe that's impossible to resist.

The Trailer For Paul Feig's Ghostbusters Is Here!!

Out of all of this years crop of summer blockbusters, few carry as many question marks as this years Ghostbusters reboot. Can Paul Feig graduate to the realm of summer blockbusters with all the success of Christopher Nolan, the perfunctoryness of Collin Trevorrow or the failure of Marc Webb? Will the new group of Busters (Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones) work well as a team? Will whiny Mens Rights Activists ever shut up about the film "ruining" their childhoods? A trailer for the project has arrived today to answer give us a glimpse into the film that may answerr those questions and more.

B.O.O.: The DreamWorks Animation Movie You Will Never See

There is an animated family comedy named B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Organisms starring Seth Rogen and Mellissa McCarthy as crime-fighting ghosts. Their foe? Bill Murray as an evil ghosts. This feature had a plot that basically sounded like a more family-friendly version of the 2013 box office dud R.I.P.D., had Rashida Jones, Matt Bomer and Octavia Spencer in supporting roles, and was slated to be released this past June.  However, it was pulled from the release schedule just six-and-a-half months prior to its release. Apparently, the film was in post-production when it was cancelled, to the point that when director Tony Leondis was announced as the director of The Emoji Movie, the press release for that development noted that his previous film, B.O.O., had actually been completed under his watch.

Chris Hemsworth Is Now A Part Of The Awesome Sounding Ghostbusters Reboot

After Spy, I'm totally down for whatever Paul Feig and Melissa McCarthy are up to. Their Ghostbusters reboot (which Feig is directing with McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon starring as the titular team ya gotta call) already sounded promising, but now, a new cast member has been added to the project that really makes this one sound special; according to Paul Feigs Twitter feed, Chris Hemsworth will play the receptionist for these new Ghostbusters,

Spy Review

Spies Like Us

Susan Cooper is the main character of Spy, and let me just start this review off by saying how delightful she is as a character. Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) is a warm, friendly personality whose unintentionally awkward and constantly being belittled by a number of her co-workers, including Bradley Fine (Jude Law). Paul Feigs script for Spy manages to create a delightful personality for Susan thriving on conviviality, while also giving her goals pertaining to the fact that everybody at the CIA (where she works) underestimates her.

Kristen Schaal Gets Much Deserved Major Role In Melissa McCarthy Movie Michelle Darnell

Us Kristen Schaal fans are a special breed. We all discovered her a different way (I found her out in the Summer of 2010, thanks to her supporting role in Toy Story 3 and a prominent moment in the Dinner For Schmucks trailer), but she sticks around in the consciousness of all who encounter her, thanks to her sharp comic timing and excellent voice work, namely in Bob's Burgers.

Melissa McCarthy Is The Lead In Ghostbusters 3

After many years and many many failed scripts, and even more numerous pushes from Dan Aykroyd, it looks like Ghostbusters 3 is finally taking form. Paul Feig signed on a while back to write and direct the movie, which would have a female group of Ghostbusters. It looks like that group is finally getting casted, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

St. Vincent Review

After all of his party crashing, french fry thievery and Space Jam cameos, it sorta feels weird to see Bill Murray headline a by-the-numbers feature like St. Vincent. It's not that he's bad in it, or that the film is some monstrosity (it's really not), but it's just sorta routine and lacking in the inventive spark that marks the works of filmmakers Murray usually collaborates with like Wes Anderson.

Tammy Review

This movie made more money in a single day than
The Immigrant has made in a month-and-a-half. We have failed
people. We have become monsters.

Let's get this out of the way; Tammy isn't a good movie. In fact, I'll even be bold and say it's a bad one. It's not abysmally, soul-crushingly awful like God's Not Dead or Transformers: Jesus Christ, That Movie Refused To End, but yes, Tammy is bad. And it's poor quality is only emphasized by the ambition that project contains. Ya see, the movie is really more of a drama than anything else, with numerous moments that are supposed to be devastating in terms of emotional impact. And considering Melissa McCarthy was one of three writers on the project, I gotta give her props for attempting to expand the range of movies she appears in.