Before collaborating in Suicide Squad (and before Barbie, and before the Slap), Will Smith and Margot Robbie teamed up for this sly, smart, sexy caper from the writer-directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (Crazy, Stupid, Love). Robbie is a up-and-coming con artist, specializing in quick scams and picking pockets, who wants to learn how to play for higher stakes; Smith is the old pro who teaches her the ropes. The locations and costumes are gorgeous, the stars even more so, while Ficarra and Requa's script is clever but not too convoluted. Fans of the Ocean's movies and their ilk will find much to like here.
This enjoyable series, which ran on Syfy from 2015 to 2020, isn't the most original thing on Netflix the show, based on the novels by Lev Grossman, is unmistakably aiming to scratch the wizarding-school itches of Harry Potter fans. But granting the nakedness of its ambitions, there's much to admire about this modest charmer: the charisma of the lead, Jason Ralph; the WB soapiness of the conflicts between its college-age characters; and the better-than-average (for basic cable, at least) visual effects and settings. It's junk food, sure, but undeniably tasty.
This durable, popular USA mystery series (2002-9) helped give that channel a distinctive identity and helped lift its star, Tony Shalhoub, from a valued cinematic character actor to a marquee name (and even sex symbol) for a certain demographic of television viewers. He stars as Adrian Monk, a consulting detective for the San Francisco Police Department, whose investigative prowess rivals that of Sherlock Holmes and whose obsessive-compulsive disorder rivals Jack Nicholson's.
Collection
[
|
...
]