“The Haunted Mansion” (2023) finally gets the Disneyland ride juuust right…

*****SPOOKY SPOILERS AHEAD!***** First Time’s Not Quite the Charm… Before I get into 2023’s “The Haunted Mansion,” I wanted to drop a few lines about the first live-action version of “The Haunted Mansion,” which debuted 20 years ago (feels like both yesterday and forever ago).  2003 is a time when formerly R-rated comedy superstar Eddie…

CBS/Paramount+’s “True Lies” reboot fails to reach critical mass…

*****TRUE SPOILERS!***** “La Totale!” (1991) Written by Simon Michaël, Didier Kaminka and director Claude Zidi, “La Totale!” was a French action-comedy involving a seemingly dull telecommunications employee, named François Voisin (Thierry Lhermitte) who misses a surprise 40th birthday party from his bored wife Hélène (Miou-Miou), while planting a surveillance device during a dangerous mission. François,…

“Halloween Ends” (2022) sees the franchise taking an overdue dirt nap…

*****SPOOKY SPOILERS!!***** Halloween Wanes. In 1978, writer/director/musician John Carpenter (“Assault on Precinct 13”) unleashed his micro-budget thriller “Halloween” into theaters, and the movie became a runaway hit. I still remember seeing another movie at a multiplex around that time, and hearing screams from the “Halloween” screening in the next auditorium. I would eventually see “Halloween”…

“Halloween Kills” (2021) offers brutal tricks, but few treats…

******PUMPKIN SPICE SPOILERS!!****** After more than a year’s delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, “Halloween Kills” is finally getting a release. Like the Godzilla franchise, Halloween’s continuity has been rebooted multiple times since the classic 1978 original. Halloweens 2, 4, 5 and 6 were (more or less) a straight line series of diminishing quality that…