Steven Rea
Philly.com
Philadelphia, PA, United States
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Past articles by Steven:
In 'Christine,' South Jersey screenwriter tackles TV news tragedy
Craig Shilowich was on his computer one day in 2010, working on a film project, when he got sidetracked by a click-bait listicle thing, something like the 10 Craziest Things That Ever Happened on Live TV. → Read More
'La La Land' opens Philly film fest with joyous song-and-dance love story
What would the world be like if everyone, every now and then, just broke into song? Trapped in bumper-to-bumper traffic? Climb out of the car, kick up your heels, belt out a tune. → Read More
'Sully:' Tom Hanks gives America its mojo back in Clint Eastwood's great 'Miracle on the Hudson' drama
'Clear for takeoff" comes word from the control tower, and Capt. Chesley Sullenberger and First Officer Jeff Skiles start gunning their Airbus A320 down the runway. Just another day, another US Airways flight - this one from LaGuardia Airport in New York to Charlotte, N.C. A cold, clear January afternoon. → Read More
Woody Allen's 'Café Society,' 1930s glam, piffle
The Hollywood of the 1930s - swank watering holes, Deco manses, pristine beaches, roofs of Spanish tile - has never looked so good. If Woody Allen gets one thing right in Café Society, his 47th (!) feature, it's the hiring of cinematographer Vittorio Storaro. → Read More
'Star Trek Beyond': Phasers set on 'meh' in J.J. Abrams franchise's latest
'Things have started to feel a little episodic laments James T. Kirk (Chris Pine), voice-overing a new entry in his captain's log at the beginning of Star Trek Beyond. And sure enough, there is something a little off - and old-school series TV-ish - as the crew of the Starship Enterprise warp-speeds through deep space, on the 966th day of its five-year mission to explore strange new worlds, to… → Read More
'Ghostbusters': Sorry haters, but it's really funny
The new Ghostbusters is covered in a reverent glow. That the glow is green and emanates from the icky ectoplasm of spectral creatures unleashed on an unsuspecting New York should come as no surprise to fans of the old Ghostbusters. → Read More
'Jaws' to 'Phantom Menace': Rating 25 years of summer blockbusters
Before Jaws, there was no such thing as a summer blockbuster. The stretch between May and Labor Day was rife with genre fare, drive-in double bills, the schlock, the crock, the crusty. → Read More
'The Secret Life of Pets': Louis C.K. and Kevin Hart in animated treat for pet lovers
In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that there's a Jack Russell living in my house. One that looks quite a bit like Max, the white-and-patchy-brown terrier voiced with a canny canine neediness by Louis C.K. in the animated (extremely animated) The Secret Life of Pets. → Read More
'De Palma': Killer documentary about Philly-bred director of 'Carrie'
De Palma begins with Hitchcock, which is only right. There hasn't been a contemporary director more indebted to and influenced by the Master - and happy to acknowledge it - than the Philadelphia-raised Brian De Palma. And so, this immersive and illuminating documentary about the man who made Carrie and Blow Out, The Untouchables and Scarface, begins with a scene from Vertigo, Alfred Hitchcock's… → Read More
'Finding Dory': Gorgeous fun from Pixar and Ellen DeGeneres
"I suffer from short-term memory loss" has to be one of the stranger catchphrases in the history of Hollywood family entertainment. The declaration, repeated like a mantra (lest she forget, which, on occasion, she does) comes from the mouth of the royal blue fish Dory - the cheery yellow-finned sidekick of 2003's box office hit, Finding Nemo. → Read More
28 hot summer movies – and one's got Oscar written all over it
The movies of summer 2016 are rife with reboots and remakes, sequels and prequels, superheroes and supervillains. They're also full of cats and dogs - Weiner-Dog, The Secret Life of Pets, and Nine Lives, to name but three. → Read More
'Now You See Me 2': These magicians make all the fun disappear in sequel
Woody Harrelson, who plays hypnotist joker Merritt McKinney in Now You See Me 2, coins a new phrase in the middle of the flashy sequel to the 2013 hit: "A sack full of nada." - Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer → Read More
'X-Men: Apocalypse': A long and loud hero vs. hero duel
Ancient gods of Egypt: not fun. At least not En Sabah Nur, the mad despot who ruled the throne in 3600 BC and who is busy making plans to rule the world for all eternity at the beginning of the too serious, too long X-Men: Apocalypse. → Read More
'The Nice Guys': Gosling and Crowe find a nice groove in smart-alecky noir buddy pic
The Nice Guys opens with a shot of the Hollywood sign, from the back, in the dark, the giant letters dilapidated. Pretty soon, a car goes crashing off a hillside road. The local news warns of a Stage 2 smog alert. → Read More
'Neighbors 2': Even better than the original
There's a scene in a film class in Scream 2 where the college kids (Sarah Michelle Gellar, Joshua Jackson, practically AARP members now!) start arguing over sequels. As in, name one that's better than the original. Aliens, T-2, just about every title gets shot down. Finally, a student says he's got one: The Godfather: Part II. → Read More
'A Bigger Splash': Luscious, sexy, trouble-in-paradise flick
On one level - say, the deep end of a swimming pool in a villa on a volcanic isle - A Bigger Splash is the art film version of a houseguest-from-hell horror story. → Read More
'Money Monster': Clooney and Roberts power Jodie Foster's smart Wall Street thriller
Just a guy with boxes making a delivery to a New York office tower. Just a guy who walks past the security guards onto the set of a live TV show. Just a guy who pulls out a gun and forces the host to strap on a suicide vest. → Read More
'Captain America: Civil War': The Marvel juggernaut, super-sized
Hubble's Law of the expanding universe? Ha! That's nothing compared to Disney's Law of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With every new installment of the comic book franchise, the scale gets bigger, relationships get trickier, new forces enter the fray. In Captain America: Civil War, the 13th title in Disney and Marvel's systematic plan for global domination, a dozen superheroes come and go,… → Read More
This summer: It's the attack of the reboot blockbuster
I would like to report that the summer of 2016 will be chock-full of surprises, with daring breakouts, exciting new talent, the kinds of movies - big, small, mainstream, off-the-wall - that will turn your head, make you think about art and life and, well, everything, in entirely new ways. → Read More
Attack of the reboot blockbuster: Mark your calendar for updated "Ghostbusters," "Independence Day," "Star Trek," and "Bourne," and the return of a fish called Dory
I WOULD LIKE to report that the summer of 2016 will be chock-full of surprises, with daring breakouts, exciting new talent, the kinds of movies - big, small, mainstream, off-the-wall - that will turn your head, make you think about art and life and, well, everything, in entirely new ways. → Read More