Father of the year

SEARCHING

It may be a gimmick in search of a more resonant story, but Searching is a perfectly solid episode of SVU with an even-more-solid central performance from John Cho's face.

2018

Directed by Aneesh Chaganty

Written by Sev Ohanian and Aneesh Chagnaty

With John Cho (David Kim), Michelle La (Margot Kim), Joseph Lee (Peter Kim), Sara Sohn (Pamela Nam Kim), and Debra Messing (Det. Rosemary Vick)

Spoiler alert: mild

Obama's weather machine

GEOSTORM

On the plus side, once we finish cooking our green planet into a nice shade of brown, there won't be anybody left to make movies like Geostorm.

2017

Directed by Dean Devlin

Written by Paul Guyot and Dean Devlin

With Gerard Butler (Jake Lawson), Jim Sturgess (Max Lawson), Abbie Cornish (Agent Sarah Wilson), Ed Harris (Sec. State Leonard Dekkom), Andy Garcia (President Andrew Palma), Alexandra Maria Lara (Cmdr. Ute Fassbinder), Zazie Beetz (Dana), and Talitha Bateman (Hannah Lawson)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Impossible Week, part I: Red light! Green light!

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE

The collision of one of our greatest actors with one of our greatest directors produces one of the greatest spy films of them all.  Funny how that works.

1996
Directed by Brian De Palma
Written by David Koepp, Steve Zaillian, and Robert Towne (based on the show created by Bruce Geller)
With Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt), Jon Voight (Jim Phelps), Emmanuelle Beart (Claire Phelps), Ving Rhames (Luther Stickell), Jean Reno (Franz Krieger), Kristin Scott Thomas (Sarah Davies), Emilio Estevez (Jack Harmon), Ingeborga Dapkunaite (Hannah Williams), Henry Czerny (Eugene Kittridge), and Vanessa Redgrave (Max)

Spoiler alert: severe, because the twists are rad

Are nuclear reactors connected to the Internet, and, if so, why?

BLACKHAT

Mann's back!  And this time his form matches his movie's function, although to what extent Blackhat actually does function is a matter for some debate.

2015
Directed by Michael Mann
Written by Morgan Davis Foehl
With Chris Hemsworth (Nick Hathaway), Wei Tang (Chen Lien), Leehom Wang (Chen Dawai), and Viola Davis (Carol Barrett)

Spoiler alert: mild

The nerds of Albion, part II: Setting us up the bombe

THE IMITATION GAME

89% of a really good movie!

2014
Directed by Morten Tyldum
Written by Graham Moore (based on the book Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges)
With Benedict Cumberbatch (Alan Turing), Keira Knightley (Joan Clarke), Matthew Goode (Hugh Alexander), Allen Leech (John Cairncross), Matthew Beard (Peter Hilton), Charles Dance (Cmdr. Denniston), Mark Strong (Stewart Menzies), and Alex Lawther (Young Alan Turing)

Spoiler alert: inapplicable, but let's say "high," if you didn't get a good education, like at Cambridge

Abre las ventanas

OPEN WINDOWS

Something new is also something stupid—and is maybe something great, but it's really hard to tell. 

2014 Espana/Estados Unidos
Escrita y dirigida por Nacho Vigalondo
Con Elijah Wood (Nick Chambers), Sasha Grey (Jill Goddard), y Neil Maskell (Chord)

¡La alerta del spoiler!: moderado

Carboard Science: Not what you'd describe as "a righteous hack"

The Cardboard Science series intends to be a catalog of the science fiction of the past, today.  Science errors will be mocked.  20th century mores will be challenged.  Glories will be recorded.  Films will be, as usual, reviewed.

GOG

A bone-dry parade of fake-ass science with neither interest nor a terrible amount of incident—let alone what the marketing fraudulently claimed—but at least it hates foreigners.

1954
Directed by Herbert L. Strock
Written by Tom Taggart, Ivan Tors, and Richard G. Taylor
With Richard Egan (Dr. David Sheppard), Constance Dowling (Ms. Joanna Merritt), and Hebert Marshall, John Wengraf, Phillip van Zandt, and Valerie Vernon as a largely undifferentiated scientific mass

Spoiler alert: severe

How about a nice game of Galaga?

WARGAMES

A great thriller that has a lot of trouble concealing its controversial political agenda.

1983
Directed by John Badham
Written by Lawrence Lasker, Walter Parkes, and Walon Green
With Matthew Broderick (David), Ally Sheedy (Jennifer), Dabney Coleman (Dr. McKittrick), and John Wood (Prof. Falken)

Spoiler alert: severe