The Skolney Blog

In theaters: THE END OF OAK STREET The kind of fun late summer movie that always goes down well. A suburban neighborhood is mysteriously transported from the 80s to the age of the dinosaurs. Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor have to keep their family (including daughter Maisy Stella!) safe. Watching Hathaway fire a shotgun at dinos is quite enjoyable. I really liked this movie, even though its ending backs off one of its more daring twists.  COYOTE VS ACME A movie that Warners tried to bury for tax purposes finally sees the light of day. And it deserves to be seen. It's a really fun, zippy mix of Looney Tunes and live action, centered on the coyote suing ACME for always making defective products that keep him from catching that roadrunner. Will Forte, a great match for material, is the lawyer the coyote hires. Pretty much all the usual characters pop up, but this is mostly a coyote tale. Lots of clever comedy here, and even a sweet little bit at the end that recontextualizes a relati...

1986: We now arrive at the first movie I cared about.  I was 7 years old in 1986 (do the math, I'm old), and by far my favorite bit of what would later come to be commonly called "IP" was the Transformers. I watched the animated series all the time. I had tons of the toys. And then here comes this movie. So I didn't understand things then about TV seasons or character continuity or all that. I just knew the show and characters. So I probably didn't even know what the movie itself was, other than thatnit was a movie. I had only seen a few movies in theaters at that point, and I think they were all tied to birthday parties. So Transformers: The Movie marked the first time I went to a movie because I wanted to see that movie. I have some vague memories of seeing the commercials for it. I didn't know anything about release dates or anything like that. I don't even remember what theater I saw this at. Honestly, I don't even recall the experience...

PHILLIES 7 TWINS 5 Okay, we had some fun. We had some laughs. But it's time to admit the Twins aren't only not making the playoffs, they never were.  Since I last set foot in Target Field, we had the trade deadline. And for the first time in years, the Twins were absolute buyers (albeit buying from the bargain bin), bringing in starting pitcher Dean Kremer and relievers Jeff Hoffman and AJ Minter.  The other thing that happened, though, is that the Twins went in the tank. They came into Sunday 4-7 since the deadline. Hilariously, this hadn't cost them too much ground in the "race" for the 3rd wild card, cause all these other teams "fighting" for the spot have stayed bad, too.  But Sunday proved one thing pretty conclusively. We have all been fooling ourselves. The Twins are not at all eliminated from the playoffs, but they will NEVER make it.  Sunday was close to a must win game. The Phillies had clobbered the Twins in consecutive games, including the Fi...

"Marvel is cooked," they said. Idiots. The 4th MCU Spiderman entry, Brand New Day picks up shortly after the end of No Way Home, where everybody forgot who Peter Parker is. Peter is still Spiderman, and still fighting bad guys, and working with the police. Good. It's a tired trope to have the cops hate Spiderman. But he has no friends, and still stalks MJ and Ned on social media (not in a weird way). The only people he sort of has are a friendly police chief, and Frank Castle! Yes! Jon Bernthal's Punisher is in this, and quite a bit. Obviously, he is toned down from his show, and there's a lot more comedy in his testy relationship with Peter.  The early part of the movie is kind of an extended montage, pushing through about 4 years, just long enough for MJ and Ned to finish college, return to NY, and be involved in the plot. The main plot involves a mystery figure or entity or something taking people over, and going after Damage Control, the government...

THE INVITE I strongly dislike Olivia Wilde as an actress, but she has proven a solid director. Booksmart is one of the best comedies of the last 20 years. I was even softer on Don't Worry Darling than most. The Invite is in between. A chamber piece, taking place almost entirely inside an apartment, it's the kind of comedy where some of the jokes hurt. 3/4 of the cast is great, with Seth Rogen on absolute fire, and Penelope Cruz giving her most captivating performance in years. And Edward Norton again shows a flair for awkward comedy. Too bad the 4th role is Wilde herself, who is totally out of her league. Not enough so to ruin the movie, but a better actress there makes this a classic.  THE ODYSSEY The Odyssey will probably make at least another million just in the time it takes to read this review. Deserved. Look, stupid internet controversies aside, there was never the slightest doubt that Christopher Nolan was going to hit it out of the park with this. He can handle the scal...

1996: Here is where we would have Independence Day, but I already did this one for the  25th anniversary No great 90s movie summer was complete without that great drama, the counter programming to all the big blockbusters. In 1996, that was A Time To Kill, the 3rd time in 4 summers that a John Grisham book became a movie adaptation. And I think this was the best of the bunch.  It's kind of striking to know that this movie with this plot was a big mainstream hit. Set in Mississippi, a couple of rednecks rape a young black girl. The father carries out a revenge killing of the 2 men, and then HIS murder trial makes up the majority of the movie. Mixed in is a KKK uprising. Can you imagine a mainstream, star packed movie like this being made now? The film is directed with absolutely zero subtlety by Joel Schumacher, in his mid-90s commercial peak, where for 4 straight summers, he alternated Grisham movies (1994 brought The Client) and Batman movies. But pitching this at...