Tag: Jennifer Garner

Posted in: by Robert Horton, Contributors, Film Reviews

Review: Love, Simon

Written by Robert Horton

Reviewed by Robert Horton for Seattle Weekly

Early in Love, Simon, the hero jokes about getting together with friends and watching bad ’90s teen movies—the real joke being that Love, Simon essentially is a ’90s teen movie … with a few tweaks. Already acclaimed for being the first wide multiplex release with a gay high-schooler as its protagonist, Love, Simon dutifully follows the outline of other groundbreaking movies since at least the time of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Put another way, it’s as bland as vanilla pudding. But unless you’re completely vanilla-phobic, the movie’s unforced good feelings are easy to enjoy.

You’re probably wondering: Hasn’t this ground been broken? There have been plenty of gay teens in TV and indie movies, but let’s allow Love, Simon its distinction in opening in 2,400 theaters at once.

Continue reading at Seattle Weekly

Posted in: by Robert Horton, Contributors, Film Reviews

Film review: ‘Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day’

Written by Robert Horton
Ed Oxenbould

A relatively simple children’s book gets pumped up into epic mayhem in Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Apparently the filmmakers felt it necessary to live up to the humongous title. Published in 1972, Judith Viorst’s Alexander has charmed readers ever since. It’s about the travails of a kid who wakes up with chewing gum stuck in his hair — an early sign that everything is going to go wrong for him on this particular day.

Alexander (played by Ed Oxenbould) is having his birthday today, not that anybody else in his family seems overly interested — as usual. His unemployed dad (Steve Carell) has a job interview, mom (Jennifer Garner) has a big presentation at work.

Continue reading at The Herald

Posted in: by Robert Horton, Contributors, Film Reviews

Film Review: ‘Draft Day’

Written by Robert Horton
Kevin Costner and Jennifer Garner

Now that March Madness is over, that annual ritual in which everybody goes nuts about filling out a bracket with teams they don’t actually know very much about, we need another obsessive- compulsive sports-related activity to occupy our minds. That’s where the NFL draft comes in. Who can resist guessing which players we don’t actually know very much about will go to which team? (I can’t. This stuff is high drama. And if the Seahawks don’t take an offensive lineman this year, they’re crazy—you can get a wide receiver in the second round.)

However, the NFL draft is a month away. In the meantime we have Draft Day, an entire film built around the wheeling and dealing of football’s big countdown. The day dawns with Cleveland Browns general manager Sonny Weaver (Kevin Costner) being handed a stick of dynamite: The Seahawks want to trade him the No. 1 overall pick in exchange for a barrel of future picks.

Continue reading at The Herald