It’s been said that we are living in the “Golden Age of Television”; a sort of renaissance, or at least a resurgence, in which stellar programs like Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, and more are drawing attention away from the silver screen. Some would even argue that, when compared to the overwhelming trend of remakes…
Last year (and somewhat this year with It Follows), I bemoaned the rise of what I referred to as “Minimalist Genre Films” – a trend of motion pictures mistaking minimalism for mystery at the expense of the story – and, considering their increasing prevalence, I had similar concerns while going into Ex Machina. I am, however, pleased…
As movie franchises progress, they inevitably have to move further and further from their original concept to keep things fresh and keep audiences entertained. Many horror mainstays are notorious for their hare brained sequels (Jason X, anyone?), but other genres certainly aren’t immune. Rocky, Rambo, the Terminator, Batman, Superman, they’ve all jumped the proverbial shark,…
’71 was an interesting experience for me, and may be a tough sell for many American audiences as it slips quietly into a limited release in the U.S. On the one hand, it’s an admittedly very British-centric film, covering a period in Belfast, Ireland in a way that isn’t so much historical fiction as it…
Critics and audiences have been lauding writer/director David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows with praise since it first arrived on the festival circuit before its larger theatrical release. With a 95% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and trailers comparing it to 2012’s Cabin in the Woods, it’s easy to go into the film with high expectations. However, what…
In 1999, director M. Night Shyamalan made his mainstream directorial debut with the iconic film The Sixth Sense. The very next year he gave audiences another glimpse into his world with the top-class thriller Unbreakable; and then, again, in 2004 with Signs. But then, something happened. Shyamalan’s trademark twists became formulaic, his ideas began to stretch credulity, his household…
Why did I do this to myself? I went into Fifty Shades of Grey with the most tempered expectations possible; preparing for a dreadfully melodramatic two hour journey that, in the end, would be bad but ultimately forgettable. The lights dimmed, the previews rolled by, the opening titles arrived, the picture started…and then, 125 minutes later, that was…
Writer/Directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa have pulled off quite the con with their latest joint venture, Focus, but that is by no means a bad thing. The duo, who are either entirely or at least partially responsible for Bad Santa; Crazy, Stupid, Love; I Love You, Phillip Morris; and (much to my amusement) The Angry Beavers have put together…
I don’t have a lot to say about The Lazarus Effect. Despite its solid cast, it’s yet another in a long line of schlocky horror films riding on the same recycled plot points and tired jump scares of every single one of its predecessors for the last decade or more. It is absolutely bereft of terror,…
Matthew Vaughn has a formula for making successful movies. Whether it’s with the fantasy-adventure Stardust, 2010’s subversive hit Kick-Ass; or X-Men: First Class, which revitalized Fox’s decaying X-Men franchise, the British director has proven that he has a knack for telling stories about young underdogs developing into world-saving heroes and making those stories exciting and accessible for audiences…
Andy and Lana Wachowski are powerhouses of larger than life ideas. Their Matrix trilogy contains some of the most iconic movie moments of the last fifteen years, and while their follow-up efforts – Speed Racer and Cloud Atlas – have both been admirable attempts to recreate the magic they once possessed, the writer/director siblings seem like they may have…
Almost eleven years to the day after the release of 2004’s The Butterfly Effect, the tagline for Project Almanac promises that “today is better the second time around”. While the film doesn’t reinvent the time travel genre (or the found-footage sub-genre for that matter), and I question whether it’s better than the film that it seems to be…
There’s a scene in Blackhat in which our characters are examining the two-part code being utilized by the still-anonymous hacker villain. The delivery system for the malicious code is described as being expertly crafted and effective while the malicious code itself is said to be a plodding and overwrought mess. The same can be said of Blackhat‘s…
For a film involving time travel, a terrorist plot, and paradoxes such as characters undergoing gender reassignment surgeries and being their own mother and father, it’s shocking to find that Predestination is in many ways too simple. The film, based on a short story by Robert A Heinlein (of Starship Troopers fame) called “All You Zombies”, is…
2015 is already set to be a year of massive tent pole releases and Summer blockbusters galore with new Avengers, Terminator, Mad Max, Hunger Games, and Star Wars films all dropping within the next twelve months. And yet, as if to balance out the bevvy of popcorn flicks descending on us, we’ve also been graced with a string of very strong,…
Thin Man Movie Reviews 