Goonies

“Kids suck,” is uttered by one of the antagonists during “Goonies” (1985). Later, someone says, “I feel like I’m babysitting, and I’m not getting paid.” As for me, with all the adults bickering and kids screaming, I felt like I was at Chuck E Cheese. Speaking of cheese, this film about hapless kids searching for pirate treasure is extremely overrated. It has a cult following. If you made it to age 15 without seeing it, you don’t need to. It’s only redeeming value is that some of the kid actors became successful adult actors (Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Martha Plimpton).

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

One of the themes of “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” (2010) is that time is more precious than money. It makes me wonder, then, why filmmaker Oliver Stone fritters away 133 minutes while creating no suspense whatsoever. Even a motorcycle race between lead characters goes nowhere. Why? Granted, this film is about the 2008 world financial meltdown, so we kinda know how the story goes. Still, Stone could have added subplots with more intensity than a boring love story and a boringer lesson in Macroeconomics 101. Instead, he’s too busy trying to humanize Gordon Gekko, an all-time great villain. Why?

Sicario

“Sicario” (2015) is a cross between “Syriana” and “Man on Fire,” except “Syriana” had the idea first and “Man on Fire” is more poetic. The idea? America’s amorality in wielding its power is the reason all these poor, unwashed countries are such a pain in the ass to deal with. This one focuses on the drug trade in general and Mexico in particular. It really pisses me off when filmmakers act like America invented imperialism. Note to Denis Villenueve: History didn’t begin when you slid out of the womb. Still, those are two pretty good movies to be compared to.