Josh Board

Josh Board is a member of the San Diego Film Critics Society and has been reviewing movies since 1990.

Recent Articles

  • How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

    This is the only time, in my over 30 years of reviewing movies, that I saw a film I can’t actually review. That’s because I don’t think it’s fair to comment on the third movie when I haven’t seen the other two in the series. That would be like someone that hasn’t seen The Godfather or Godfather 2, giving a review on the third Godfather. I did bring a friend that loved the first two, and I’ll end my review […]

  • The Best Place to Watch the Awards Show

    The San Diego International Film Festival started their Film Insider Series last week with The Hummingbird Project, which was an interesting movie that had Jesse Eisenberg, who played the tech tycoon Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, playing another guy that has lofty goals of getting rich with an internet idea. The film also starred one of the most underrated actors working today — Alexander Skarsgard (The East, The Diary of a Teenage Girl, and What Maisie Knew, are movies […]

  • Untogether

    Watching this movie came at the perfect time for me. I had just seen the romcom Isn’t it Romantic, which was good, despite using all the usual cliches and tropes. Untogether deals with a handful of couples in their relationships, but not everything is sunshine and roses. And what I was loving was the sharp dialogue. There’s nothing like listening to a rabbi (Billy Crystal), talk about why George Harrison was his favorite Beatle, only to have a woman (Lola […]

  • Never Look Away

    This is the Best Foreign Language Film nominee out of Germany. This is better than the movie that’s going to win the Oscar (Roma). It’s also better than a few of the other nominees (Cold War, Capernaum); but two better foreign films strangely didn’t even get a nomination: Burning, out of Korea and The Guilty out of Denmark (which almost made my Top 10 of the year). Writer/director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (say that name five times fast) has gotten […]

  • Isn’t it Romantic

    I’m one of those guys that thinks every movie trailer makes the film look amazing. This was one of those rare times where the trailer just made me roll my eyes, but the movie surprised me by actually working. It was a great role for Rebel Wilson to take. Often times, actresses like her and Melissa McCarthy, just play crass, obnoxious characters. In this, she shows her sweet side. You can’t help but fall in love with her character and […]

  • Alita: Battle Angel

    When I reviewed Avatar, I mentioned it was a lot like Battle for Terra and Dances with Wolves, but it was so beautiful to look at, I didn’t really care. Well, James Cameron and the filmmakers behind Avatar and Sin City now give us this, which borrows from a lot. At times, I thought of Blade Runner, RoboCop, The Fifth Element, Pinocchio, Total Recall, Ghost in the Shell, Silent Running, Roller Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Terminator 2, Frankenstein, and a […]

  • Cold Pursuit

    Movie critics are hard to figure out. For example, they all hated Bruce Willis’ remake of Death Wish. It wasn’t a great film, but it was a guilty pleasure revenge flick. Yet this revenge movie, is getting great reviews from critics — and it’s awful. I was tempted to make jokes about the kind of people Liam Neeson was going after in this movie, because of his recent statements that got him into trouble. But the truth is, that incident […]

  • What Men Want

    It was a safe bet that Mel Gibson wouldn’t be making a cameo in this movie. Of course, he starred in the movie What Women Want 18 years ago. Since he seems to hate women and African-Americans (according to numerous rants he’s been recorded saying), and was so awful in Daddy’s Home 2 — he’ll probably have to stick to directing war movies. Empire star Taraji P. Henson is in the female version of the Gibson movie, and it seems […]

  • Miss Bala

    Gloria, you’re always on the run now Running after somebody, you gotta get him somehow I think you’ve got to slow down before you start to blow it I think you’re headed for a breakdown, so be careful not to show it — Laura Branigan (sorry Van Morrison, but I had to go Branigan this time).   This is a remake from a 2012, Oscar nominated foreign film. So they figured they’d take the Spanish-language flick, have them speak English, […]

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