MoviesMillers

Passing - Movie Review Critics Score - 7 of 10 General Audience Score - 6 of 10 Black and white movies are quite a peculiar specimen among the pantheon of films. While most movies from the early days of cinema were made that way as the standard of filmmaking, nowadays it’s generally considered to be more of an artistic choice and usually lines up with films critics fall all over themselves for as opposed to being loved by mainstream audiences. The new film Passing from Netflix is one such film that not only uses the black and white style, it’s also set in the early 1900’s and has the look and feel of films’ from that era. Some director’s decisions to lose the color makes sense while others leave you wondering why, but with Passing, the director Rebecca Hall’s choice is obvious. She tackles the issue of race, the term “passing” is used in the context of this film when light-skinned people of color try and pass themselves off as white. While the film succeeds at nailing the aesthetics of...

Spencer - Movie Review Critics Score - 8 of 10 General Audience Score - 6 of 10 The royal family has been an object of fascination for the general public for hundreds of years, and with modern technology, events like royal weddings become the center of worldwide attention. Even with the kings and queens losing most of their actual power as the years pass, the royal lineage of old and those next in line for the crown are the source of countless stories, movies, tabloid articles and shows. A new film from Pablo Larraín, the director of Jackie, brings us his latest piece of cinema about one of the most fixating personalities to ever grace the royal stage, Princess Diana of Wales. The movie is Spencer, and it’s one of the most interesting films of the year for several reasons. The main performance by Kristen Stewart is utterly remarkable, she’s not only likely to get a Best Actress nomination, she’s got a fantastic chance to win. Several other Oscar nominations are also likely to show up, ...

Red Notice - Movie Review Critics Score - 6 of 10 General Audience Score - 8 of 10 The mainstream action blockbusters are in short supply these days in a post Covid-19 world with theatres struggling to keep the doors open and many people hesitating before purchasing a movie pass. Amid this scary box office landscape, many studios are happy to just break even on huge films with massive bankrolls, allowing Netflix and other digital streaming services to swoop in a grab films for distribution online. That’s exactly what happened to Universal’s film Red Notice, the $200 million dollar film that Netflix acquired and dropped onto it’s streaming site on Nov. 12th. This con-man heist action/comedy is being advertised as a Wonder Woman, Deadpool and Maui from Moana collaboration, with fights, action and jokes aplenty. Cinephiles and film critics will see through this film within the first couple minutes and be shaking their heads through the duration, but this movie was not made for them. Gener...

tick, tick . . BOOM! - Movie Review Critics Score - 7 of 10 General Audience Score - 5 of 10 If you've ever found yourself humming along to any songs from the hit Broadway show Hamilton, this summer’s In The Heights or the it's stuck in my mind for eternity and there's nothing I can do about it You're Welcome or Shiny from Disney's Moana, you've experienced the power of Lin-Manuel Miranda. He's been writing iconic songs for several years and now with his success he's begun taking on bigger and more pronounced projects, besides writing songs for big budget films. His latest effort and first mainstream directorial project is called tick, tick . . BOOM! and it just dropped on Netflix last weekend. While the film is based on a play that was conceived by Jonathan Larson, the creator of Rent back in the early 1990's, it never found much success as a play on Broadway. As a movie, it works in giving us the fascinating insight into a struggling musical theatr...

King Richard - Movie Review Critics Score - 8 of 10 General Audience Score - 8 of 10 My family never had much money growing up, but the struggles and challenges that some of the poor and economically depressed areas of the world have to deal with are something I cannot pretend to speak to, so I will not. And while there certainly is a difference as a parent between trying to keep your kids off the streets and the desperation of trying to provide the single meal a day for your family that’s the norm in some lands, the desperation of parents fighting for their children’s well being is something almost any parent can identify with. King Richard is the latest Will Smith film to drop on HBO Max that chronicles the real life journey of Richard Williams and his efforts to keep his five daughters off the streets, away from drugs and safely growing up in the 1990’s in Compton, Los Angeles. The task of bringing up those kids to just be functional adults is a tall one, but Richard has a plan to t...

The Matrix - Movie Review Critics Score - 10 of 10 General Audience Score - 10 of 10 What is the Matrix? Unfortunately no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself. Fortunately for us, twenty years ago the Wachowski brothers who have since identified themselves as trans-gender and are known as the Wachowski sisters, were kind enough to show us how deep the rabbit hole went. These visionary filmmakers introduced the world to ideas and concepts that had never been explored on screen before and taught a generation what “cool” was all about along the way. So many of the visuals became iconic as the film not only solidified itself among blockbuster movies from the late 90’s, but it elevated itself into the stratosphere of becoming a pop culture guidepost reaching into the realms of music, anime, toys, video games, magazines, fashion, everyday conversations and countless other aspects of life. There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path, and T...

No Time To Die - Movie Review Critics Score - 6 of 10 General Audience Score - 8 of 10 The James Bond saga is entering is sixtieth year as a movie franchise in 2022 and while the series as a whole has had its ups and downs, each portrayal of Bond has had it’s unique elements and contributed to the character in interesting ways. The debate of which actor portrayed Bond the best has been going for decades and while Daniel Craig has been the face of Bond for the current generation, many lovers of the films still prefer the Moore and Connery days of yesteryear. But Daniel Craig finishes his stint in No Time To Die, which finally dropped into theaters last month and just hit streaming last weekend. While it needs to be commended for trying to do some new and inventive things with the series, the film feels like it follows a Mission: Impossible style film plot and deviates in ways that may leave hardcore Bond fans puzzled. It’s a decent enough movie and certainly has the action sequences, ch...

Belfast - Movie Review Critics Score - 9 of 10 General Audience Score - 7 of 10 There have been some terrible crimes and atrocities committed in mankind’s history that were based on religious beliefs and prejudices against people of other faiths and denominations. One of the long standing feuds in Europe has been between the Catholics and Protestants, with numerous countries and cities being pulled into the conflict at certain points in time over the past several centuries. Belfast is a new film from actor/director Kenneth Branagh who has made a bit of everything from action films like Thor and Jack Ryan to Shakespeare adaptations like Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet (1996). This is a story pulled straight out of Branagh’s youth and it’s a lighthearted family drama with little bits of humor sprinkled in here and there. The premise of the film is simple enough but eventually starts doing some heavy hitting once it gets down to business and gets where it’s trying to go. It’s not the be...

Free Guy - Movie Review Critics Score - 6 of 10 General Audience - 7 of 10 For those of us born before this century, when you say the words “video game” thoughts of Mario Brothers, Sonic, Nintendo systems with gray cartridges, Halo tournaments, old computers and World of Warcraft may be memories that come to mind. For the newer generation, games are played on anything with a screen or virtual reality headset, the games Minecraft, Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead are the names kids know and MMO (massive-multiplayer online) games have exploded in popularity. The new film from 20th Century Fox and maybe it’s last, is Free Guy, the Ryan Reynolds led action film that was originally intended to drop in 2020 and based on a MMO game. This film is straight up a summer blockbuster to ideally sit down in a movie theatre with the family and a big bucket of popcorn and bag of sour patch kids to watch. While Free Guy has something for pretty much every moviegoer, it’ll especially appeal to the younger ...

Last Night In Soho - Movie Review Critics Score - 7 of 10 General Audience Score - 8 of 10 Ghastly apparitions, ghosts to the layman, have been the topic of films of all shapes and sizes for decades and apart from the terror inducing spirits, many have materialized on film in numerous different forms. From the kid friendly Casper to the humorous Slimer and company in the Ghostbuster franchise, to the Patrick Swayze, heart-palpatation inducing Ghost. The mind of Edgar Wright takes on the genre of floating white sheets in his new film Last Night In Soho in a rather unorthodox way. This tale of supernatural forces is rather ambitious and combines elements from Midnight In Paris and The Frighteners, weaving them into a inventive piece of cinema. It’s an easy watch, the almost two hour run cruises by and at first is a glamorous spectacle of fascinating and visually stunning sequences and then kicks into a type of creepy, crime-solving, otherworldly thriller. Although it’s a crowd pleaser th...