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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Sally Field delivers an Oscar-worthy performance in an unexpected and delightfully quirky film. Hello, My Name Is Doris is the most surprising film so far of 2016… and one of the best.

Typically, I’m cynical when it comes to what I like to refer to as “Indie film porn” such as Hello, My Name Is Doris. Last year’s The Diary of a Teenage Girl, Mistress America, Grandma and The Lady in the Van were all overrated disappointments overly praised by those who can’t help themselves when it comes to limited releases destined for an art house run. The last two — Grandma and The Lady in the Van — featured performances by actresses with deep resumes (Lily Tomlin in Grandma and Maggie Smith in The Lady in the Van) who did their usual solid work but, for some unknown reason, were given Academy Award nominee-like praise.Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: The dressing down of Lance Armstrong’s greatness. A well told tale of deception that’s easy to look at but a little impersonal. Then again, Lance Armstrong wasn’t known for being open.

If you still have some empathy in you for Lance Armstrong, The Program is probably not going to sit well. The film starts by telling of Armstrong’s battle with cancer and rise to cycling greatness while honing in on what is often referred to as the greatest deception in modern sport. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency called Armstrong’s meticulously planned effort to cheat the “most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.”Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: One of the most vulgar, raunchy (and awkward) comedies of the last decade. Time will turn this box office bomb into a cult classic.

Let’s get this out of the way: The Bronze was not a good movie. However, it was funny. No, really. It was hilarious. Sometimes, I found myself laughing with it. Sometimes, I found myself laughing at it. Occasionally, the laughter happened and I wasn’t even sure why… or even if I felt good about myself laughing at what I was watching.
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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: The story of Anna Beam is a miraculous one. Walking in, though, you probably know most of the movie (especially if you’ve seen the trailer) and it doesn’t add much more.

Director Patricia Riggen was the person behind last year’s The 33. At the time, MHT reviewed The 33 and pointed out that the film had a problem with pacing. Riggen’s latest — Miracles from Heaven — suffers from the same pacing issues seen in The 33. Read More →

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In: To See or Not To See

The question at the box office this week is will third installment in the Divergent series underperform enough to allow Zootopia to take the top spot for a third consecutive week? There’s other questions, too. Do you believe in Miracles or does 10 Cloverfield Lane have enough staying power to finish third? It’s really a matter of faith. And how badly will The Bronze bomb? Let’s take a look at this week’s new releases and give our fearless box office projections:
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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: It’s a predictable drama/romantic comedy that feels more suitable for a TV movie if it weren’t for some hot, provocative sex scenes thrown in the mix. It’s a Lifetime movie, if Lifetime’s target audience were African American thirtysomethings.

When you refer to a film as competent, is that a good thing? It feels like it should be complimentary but typically, if the best thing you can say about a film is that it’s competent, we’re probably not talking about anything great. Yet the perfect word to describe The Perfect Match is competent. There’s not a lot of emotion and it’s hard to get too blown away by the mostly predictable plot twists (or lack thereof) but it’s not a bad movie to watch. Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Interesting premise, poor execution. Not to crucify The Young Messiah but not much happens outside of the random miracle. If Jesus were imagined as a superhero, this would be his origin story.

Going into The Young Messiah, something felt different about what many felt was purely a shameless attempt to capture the very lucrative faith-based audience. Based on a novel written by Anne Rice (of Interview With The Vampire and Queen of the Damned fame), The Young Messiah weaves the tale of a 7 year-old Jesus. The film follows the family’s return to Nazareth after spending 7 years in hiding in Alexandria from Herod the Great.Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: The Other Side of the Door does three things: (1) It uses the “jump scare” tactic frequently, (2) makes gratuitous use of the “evil child” mechanism and (3) Makes you wish a sage Indian woman was standing outside of the theater to warn you, “Whatever you do, don’t open the door to the theater of The Other Side of the Door.” Oh! And it complete rips off Stephen King’s Pet Semetary, too.

It’s not that The Other Side of the Door is awful but in comparison to the 1989 horror film Pet Semetary based on the 1983 Stephen King novel of the same name, the movie doesn’t even come close to being anywhere near as scary or disturbing. Actually, it’s as if someone saw Pet Semetary and thought it would be better if the film would be better with less of a back story and more focus on the main character seemingly going into a state of psychosis rather than the actual horror of unleashing hell by messing with the dead.Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Remember when Sacha Baron Cohen was relevant and over-the-top shocking? Well, now he’s just over-the-top shocking.

2016 is a lesson in timing. Deadpool was a good movie that did great things at the box office because of one of the weakest February lineups in years. That’s not to say Deadpool isn’t a very good movie and shouldn’t be applauded for it’s R-rated efforts, it just shouldn’t be ignored that it’s toughest competition was How to Be Single. Zoolander 2 was an awful sequel and failed miserably at the box office. Ride Along 2 and London Has Fallen were equally terrible yet didn’t totally bomb thanks to not waiting 15 years to release a follow-up. They both might even squeeze out a third. Then there’s The Brothers Grimsby. Sacha Baron Cohen hasn’t released a film since 2012’s The Dictator. At this point, the last time Cohen was truly relevant was 2006’s Borat. In 2006, his core audience was under-25 and as they’ve aged, they’ve become increasingly disinterested in his brand of shock cinema. Early returns expect The Brothers Grimsby to be a huge box office flop, pulling in under $4 million in it’s first weekend. No one took the hint that Cohen’s extension on his 15 minutes had run out.Read More →