Author Van Roberts

HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY, PART 1 // LIKE WATCHING HALF OF A GOOD MOVIE As much as “The Hunger Games” and “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” captivated me, I’m less than elated that Lionsgate has...

"DUMB AND DUMBER TO" // A RIOTOUS ASSAULT ON GOOD TASTE )***1/2 out of **** Twenty years have elapsed since Bobby & Peter Farrelly made their cinematic debut as co-directors on “Dumb and Dumber”...

"JOHN WICK" // SIZZLING SHOOT 'EM UP // NATURALLY, IT'S BARELY BELIEVABLE Never kill an action hero’s dog! All Hell breaks loose in the sadomasochistic, R-rated, revenge-thriller “John Wick” because...

"GONE GIRL" // FAITHFUL TO THE BOOK AND DEFIES EXPECTATIONS Watching David Fincher’s deliriously tantalizing whodunit “Gone Girl,” a melodrama about a troubled married couple wrestling with...

"THE MAZE RUNNER" // THIS SAGA IS PRETTY AMAZING // BETTER THAN THE BOOK Usually, Hollywood does little justice to novels. Undoubtedly, this has something to do the sense of unity the author or authors...

"THE EQUALIZER" // MEMORABLE ACTION AND THE CHARISMA OF DENZEL Although he neither dons a mask nor fires silver bullets, Denzel Washington does virtually everything else that The Lone Ranger would in the...

"AS ABOVE, SO BELOW" // CAST GIVES IT THEIR BEST SHOT, BUT... “Quarantine” director John Erick Dowdle conjures up plenty of spooky atmosphere but delivers only a paucity of thrills in his half-baked,...

"THE EXPENDABLES 3" // DELIGHTFUL // PACKS A LOT OF TESTOSTERONE More bang for your buck is what you get with "The Expendables 3." Sylvester Stallone reprises his role as good guy mercenary-for-hire Barney...

"TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES" // AN EXHILARATING JOY RIDE **** out of **** Believe it or not, I saw the original “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” movie when it appeared in theaters back in 1990, and I...

"THE PURGE: ANARCHY" // PALATABLE PARANOIA // ALL CRIME IS LEGAL Eighteenth century Irish author and satirist Jonathan Swift would have enjoyed writer & director James DeManaco’s violent, sanguine,...