Author Van Roberts

PAN // NO EXPENSE SPARED Whether on the big-screen or the small screen, the media has venerated Scottish writer J.M. Barrie’s classic 1904 play and 1911 novel about a rambunctious boy who refused to grow...

BLACK MASS // DREARY, SLUGGISH “Out of the Furnace” director Scott Cooper’s “Black Mass,” qualifies as a gritty, atmospheric, but middling mobster melodrama that chronicles the life and crimes of...

THE VISIT // HOMEGROWN HOKUM Humans do incredibly asinine things in horror movies. First, there are the unreasonable psychos. Think of Norman Bates in “Psycho,” Michael Myers in “Halloween,” Jason...

TRANSPORTER // REFUELED Tall, wiry, British actor Ed Skrein resembles the late Hollywood superstar actor James Coburn of the “Our Man Flint” franchise. Not only does Skrein make a suitable substitute for...

NO ESCAPE // SPELLBOUNDING Occasionally, life imitates art, even in the cinema. “As Above, So Below” director John Erick Dowdle’s “No Escape,” qualifies as a spellbinding, ‘stranger-in-a-strange...

AMERICAN ULTRA // AUDACIOUS Imagine crisscrossing the amnesia, espionage thriller “The Bourne Identity” with the stoner saga “The Pineapple Express,” and you’ve got the nitty-gritty of “Project...

PIXELS // ANEMIC LAFFER Combine “Independence Day” with “Ghostbusters” and then insert Adam Sandler in another of his immature man-child roles as the hero, and you’ve got the premise of “Mrs....

TED 2 // LIFE The last thing Hollywood wants to do is to either insult or offend individuals, groups, races, religions, causes, genders, and ideologies. The refreshing thing about the hilarious teddy bear...

TERMINATOR // LARGER THAN LIFE The latest entry in the “Terminator” franchise “Terminator: Genisys” ranks as the best “Terminator” since James Cameron’s “Terminator 2 Judgment Day” (1991)....

INSIDIOUS CHAPTER 3 // LAUGHTER'S FIRST LADY The “Insidious” horror movie franchise lacks the satanic intensity of the R-rated “Paranormal Activity” movies. Nevertheless, this creepy,...