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Hot Take: Entertaining enough but it’s easy to imagine a scenario where you forget what you watched 15 minutes after walking out of the theater. It’s silly… but it’s about a group of grown men still playing tag. Shouldn’t it be?

Throwaway comedies are nothing new. I’d run down a list of them from the previous years but I’ve forgotten most of them. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. These comedies, while forgettable, can be considerably funny. They just don’t leave a lasting impression. Tag happens to be one of those throwaway comedies that works in the moment even if it’s mostly forgettable by the time the lights come up in the theater. Powered by a stranger-than-fiction true story about a group of middle aged men still playing the kid’s game of tag and a committed cast featuring strong performances from Ed Helms, Jon Hamm, Jake Johnson, Hannibal Buress, Jeremy Renner and Isla Fisher, Tag takes plenty of swings and connects frequently at delivering laughs, even if the comedy is juvenile. It’s a movie about a kid’s game, after all. Tag works, for the most part. It’s a funny escape and shares its premise with a ridiculous true story that might not need the embellishment applied to make it compelling. Read More →

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Hot Take: Apparently, Gotti needed to burn through 4 directors, 44 producers and 8 years to get made. At some point, someone, anyone(!) could have stopped this from happening. 

The backstory to the release of Gotti is more interesting than the resulting film sometimes described as a passion project of John Travolta but originally something much different. The film was originally supposed to detail the life of John Gotti Jr. and was attached to an impressive list of talent including, at one point or another during the 8 years leading up to its release, Barry Levinson, Nick Cassavetes, Joe Johnston, Al Pacino, Lindsay Lohan, Ben Foster and Chazz Palminteri. Somewhere in the timeline, Joe Pesci was cast and gained 30 pounds for the role of Gotti’s close friend Angelo Ruggiero. Eventually, he was re-cast and had his salary cut and sued Fiore Films, the original studio to own the film’s rights. In 2015, the film landed in the lap of Kevin Connolly of Entourage fame and he was slated to direct. In 2016, Travolta joined the cast and the film began production. Lionsgate, which was set to release the film domestically, was disappointed with the resulting film and chose to skip theaters and go directly to VOD rather than attempt to release the film during the crowded Awards season back in December 2017. Producers cut ties with Lionsgate and found a new distributor in Vertical Entertainment and financial backing from MoviePass Ventures. The former being a distributor that will release pretty much anything in theaters and the latter being a new business venture from the $9.99 per month movie ticket subscription service. The resulting release date became June 15, 2018 and upon release, Gotti became the rare release to receive an odious 0% Tomatometer from Rotten Tomatoes. That’s 25 reviews to date (as of June 19th) that have labelled the film “Rotten”. Although not part of the Rotten Tomatoes review aggregator, consider this review an unofficial “Rotten” review for the film, as well. But “Rotten” isn’t quite strong enough and while it wasn’t the worst of 2018, it’s pretty darn close.Read More →

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Hot Take: The scariest horror film since 2016’s The Witch. One that might cause you to lose sleep. At 2-plus hours, Hereditary is frightening from the very beginning to the absolutely batshit crazy end. That’s a rare feat indeed.

It’s been a few days since seeing Hereditary and I still can’t quite shake it. There’s an aspect of the film that isn’t horror at all. Within one of the scariest, most horrific movies I’ve seen is a tragic look at a suffering family in inexplicable collapse. First time writer/director Ari Aster’s debut leaves an auspicious, creepy, unnerving impression. It has a vicious slow burn quality that until it hits its stride is basically a family drama. There’s plenty of freakiness going on. Whether it be Annie’s miniatures or Charlie’s clucking sound, there’s an ominous feel to the family drama which opens at grandma’s funeral but it feels like a family drama nonetheless. Once it does it its stride, Hereditary becomes one of the most horrific tales in recent memory and leaves an indelible impression on you that you might not forget for some time. I sure haven’t.

***MINOR SPOILER ALERT*** (Usually, there are none but in this case, there are some minor reveals below. Skip the following paragraph if you’re looking for no spoilers at all.)Read More →

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Hot Take: Hotel Artemis is proof it takes more than a strong cast, interesting characters and original premise to deliver an entertaining film. Somehow with all those assets, this dystopian action flick is dull and goes nowhere. You’d think it would take more to get Jodie Foster back on the big screen after a five year absence.

Everything is there for Hotel Artemis to deliver a good cinematic experience. Everything except a solid, interesting script or a plot you might actually care about. Despite an excellent cast including the return of Jodie Foster to the big screen after a half decade absence, Sterling K. Brown, Dave Bautista, Sofia Boutella, Jeff Goldblum, Zachary Quinto and Charlie Day and a competent dystopian premise, a complete and utter disaster of a script that can’t seem to figure out who or what it is about makes 94 minutes feel twice as long and offers almost nothing memorable to hang it’s hat on. Okay, maybe there’s one fight sequence that’s worth re-watching (and due to the spoiler free nature of this review, I can’t divulge any details) but outside of that brief glimpse of excellence, Hotel Artemis is a wasted opportunity.Read More →

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Hot Take: Consistent with the franchise. This’ll be one you’ll happen to trip across on cable in a few years and watch again. The all-female cast doesn’t have as much fun as the all-male Ocean’s Eleven crew but comes pretty darn close.

In 2016, a gender bending twist on Ghostbusters hit theaters and was met with vitriol from Internet trolls everywhere. Despite the fact that I wasn’t overly impressed with the all-female reboot, the film wasn’t the atrocity the anonymous Twitter trolls and the secret Rotten Tomato commenters would have had you believe. With all of the controversy around that film’s release and the firestorm of opinions offered, it was natural to ponder if Ocean’s 8 would receive the same type of reception. Fortunately, the all-female cast of Ocean’s 8 led by Sandra Bullock didn’t have the icy reception of Ghostbusters which means the focus can be on whether or not the film was any good. For the most part, the answer is yes. Considering Ocean’s 8 is the fourth film in the franchise and is more sequel and less reboot since Bullock’s character is Debbie Ocean, sister of Danny Ocean, having enough gas left in the tank in its fourth iteration is a feat in itself. Ocean’s 8 actually ends up being a slick, speedy, fun but formulaic heist flick  that rests on its charismatic laurels and mimics many of the characteristics that made Ocean’s Eleven a huge success. Read More →

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Hot Take: Your typical “based on a true story” tearjerker that’s an excellent vehicle to showcase the talents of Shailene Woodley. The stunning visuals are a bonus, too.

Tami Oldham’s survival-at-sea tale took almost 4 decades to make it to the cinema. That’s a little surprising considering the speed at which harrowing true events find themselves converted into cinematic works. Starring Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin who have previously toyed with our emotions in other films (Woodley tugged at the heartstrings in The Fault In Our Stars while Claflin  plucked at them in Me Before You), Adrift shares the story of two sailors who sail directly into Hurricane Raymond in 1983 on a delivery passage on a 44-foot-yacht traveling from Tahiti to San Diego. Lost at sea for over a month, Adrift mixes YA romance with Cast Away and The Perfect Storm and the result is better than expected thanks to a committed performance from Woodley and exactly what you’d expect from Claflin who is perfecting the hunky supporting love interest role. The scenes at sea are realistic and the flashbacks add some emotional heft that might not do much for those who tuned in just to watch a survival odyssey but most of the audience will be just as interested in their backstory as they are how harrowing 41 days at sea with little hope in sight would be.Read More →

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Hot Take: A solid B-movie. If Ex-Machina were a low budget B-movie action flick, this might be the result. Stir in a little Death Wish, too… it’s at least much better than the Death Wish reboot. (And maybe better than the original Death Wish, too.)

I’m very cautious when I see Blumhouse Productions attached to a project. On one hand, Blumhouse was responsible for Get Out, Sleight, Split and Happy Death Day last year. On the other hand, it was also responsible for such duds as Jem and the Holograms, Hush, The Darkness, The Belko Experiment and Truth or Dare. While there’s reason to think that any movie from Blumhouse has potential, there’s also the chance you’re about to sit through a real slogfest. So, a film like Upgrade, a futuristic Sci-Fi action flick with B-movie written all over it and the usual low ($5 million) budget that accompanies a Blumhouse Production, was hard to get too excited for. A relatively unknown cast featuring Logan Marshall-Green as a man left paralyzed after a senseless attack on him and his girlfriend and offered the opportunity to walk again through the use of something called STEM, artificial intelligence that can control your body also didn’t do much to raise expectations. However, Upgrade delivered a witty, fun, violent and even smart script with committed performances and very little lost due to a relatively shoestring budget.Read More →

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Hot Take: Somehow, 84 minutes feels like 184. Action pointless.

From what I’m being told, Action Point had a running time of 75 minutes followed by 9 minutes of outtakes. Even if I looked at the clock before and after viewing the latest Johnny Knoxville comedy and calculated the run time, I wouldn’t have believed it. I would have just assumed that the clock stopped at some point during my viewing of Action Point, an unambitious attempt to weave a plot around a lite version of Jackass. The plot is so distractingly dull, drifting away and missing the stunts is an absolute possibility. This was evident when the credits rolled and during the outtakes, there were fails shown from stunts that I didn’t remember from the film. Read More →

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Hot Take: One of the most pleasant surprises of 2018. Too bad it only made it to 20 theaters… guess you’ll have to be pleasantly surprised on DVD or streaming.

The Endless debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival over a year ago. The low-budget Sci-Fi flick from directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (Benson also wrote and the pair also starred) took another year to get a theatrical release. The fourth collaboration from Benson and Moorhead since 2012 made it to 20 screens which happens to be the widest release of their film careers. It’s a shame, too. The Endless has a compelling plot about two brothers who escaped a UFO death cult but have struggled adjusting to life in the mainstream since leaving the group. Benson and Moorhead star as the brothers and the independent look and feel is evident but also, the quality of this small, relatively unknown film is also obvious from start to finish. While not quite a 5 star film, The Endless offers up a successful Sci-Fi flick on a shoestring budget with a tinge of horror and a number of unique twists.Read More →

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Hot Take: Harsh reality set in watching Solo: A Star Wars Story. I realized maybe I don’t care about Han Solo’s backstory enough for a prequel. While still above average, it’s a step backward from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and doesn’t earn a guaranteed sequel.

Solo: A Star Wars Story is the second “Star Wars Story” to be told outside of the main films. While Rogue One: A Star Wars Story did a solid job of telling the story of how the Rebellion obtained the blueprints that eventually led to the destruction of the Death Star in Star Wars: A New Hope (the first Star Wars film ever which technically was the fourth Star Wars chapter but which became the fifth chapter once Rogue One was introduced and now is the sixth chapter if you place Solo: A Star Wars Story in sequential order), it was all about nostalgia right down to the way the film was shot. Granted, it introduced a handful of new characters but most of them died in their effort to obtain the blueprints and act only as a footnote in the Star Wars tale. With Solo: A Star Wars Story, while the film had a little bit of nostalgia, this chapter relied strictly on fan service and, if you’re a Han Solo fan, delivered a slightly above average prequel to how Han became Han Solo, how he met Chewbacca and how Han became the Millennium Falcon’s captain. Director Ron Howard was brought in to salvage the film after the directorial team of Phil Lord and Chris Miller were fired. He reshot most of the film which ended up having the look and feel more closely resembling the prequels than the original trilogy or the latest works. The resulting film is an example of the Star Wars franchise playing it completely safe without much risk of total failure as there is plenty to see here and discuss about Han and this aspect of the Star Wars universe that was revealed.Read More →