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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: I’m not sure Mr. Right was a good movie but it was a lot of fun.

There’s a lot of things you can say about films written by Max Landis. Usually, boring isn’t one of them. The Landis’ penned Mr. Right is uneven, ludicrous, over-the-top and silly. It’s also a lot of fun and bolstered by the chemistry of Sam Rockwell and Anna Kendrick who make the most of this rom-com meets action thriller. Sure, we’ve seen this before. John Cusack and Minnie Driver did it in Grosse Pointe Blank 19 years ago and did it a little bit better but Mr. Right is fun from beginning to end and well worth the 96 minute investment.Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Visually enthralling, narratively dull. Eventually, even the visuals reach overload and the movie pot pie that is Alice Through the Looking Glass becomes possessed by other films.

Let’s start with the positive. Alice Through the Looking Glass is nowhere near the disaster it is being made out to be. People have been rooting against the follow-up to the overly successful and poorly received Alice In Wonderland since it was announced. (The details of Johnny Depp’s personal troubles and accusations of domestic violence surely didn’t sway the pitchforks and torches in another direction, either.) However, Alice Through the Looking Glass isn’t one of the worst movies of 2016. It’s just not good.Read More →

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In: BuRStS

12 new releases hit the video shelves this week. TWELVE!!! A DOZEN!!! With plenty to choose from, MHT guides you through which titles you should buy, rent, stream or skip for the week of June 7th:Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Heroes in a snore shell.

What happens when the nostalgia wears off? The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had a run of three films in the ’90s and was followed by an animated movie before the 2014 reboot. (I’m mercifully leaving out the Coming Out of Their Shells tour where the TMNT became a band.) With Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, the turtle brothers have now made more trips to the big screen than Transformers. (The Transformers have probably been on screen more than the Turtles since each Transformers movie is roughly 6-7 hours long in my estimation.) At this point, I think any points TMNT earns for bringing back someone’s childhood are exhausted. Now, it’s all on whether or not the latest incarnation of TMNT is any good. Unless your having trouble sleeping, this one is pretty useless.Read More →

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In: 2016, Ranked

After recapping the first 25 movies seen of 2016 on March 9th and the next 25 movies seen of 2016 on April 21st, it took 45 days to see the next batch of 25. Currently, 4 of these are in the top 10 of 2016 including Sing Street, the best movie (so far) of 2016. MHT also saw the worst movie (so far) of 2016… Mother’s Day. Here is the third batch of 25 movies of 2016, graded on a scale of 0-5 stars:

The “Thumbs Up” Group

Sing Street 5 out of 5 stars (5 / 5) REVIEW
Totally expected to like this film but not love it this much. By the end, I was tempted to give it a standing ovation and I was the only one in the theater.Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Anti-climactic pile of who gives a crap. Regression starts with promise and ends with a thud.

This cop thriller/Satanic horror/psychological suspense starts off okay. With Ethan Hawke, Emma Watson and David Thewlis on board, it already starts ahead of the curve.  Writer/director Alejandro Amenebar — the writer/director behind Abre los Ojos (the foreign film Vanilla Sky was based on) and The Others — comes with cache, too. So, what the hell happened?Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping would have been funnier 5 years ago when it was more relevant and might be funnier 5 years from now when it takes on a more timeless feel but right now, the shit just feels kind of played. Lots of swings, plenty of misses but a few comical parts hit home runs and even a couple of them weren’t in the trailer!

There’s two things that struck me regarding Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. While watching Andy Samberg and The Lonely Island (a trio completed Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer) do their thing, it was hard to find the relevance in the mockumentary. Sure, it’s a spot on riff of Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never from 2011 but it’s 2016 and now it has the same stale aftertaste of a pack of crackers eaten after their best by date. Adding to the irrelevancy is a cast of cameos that feel better placed closer to the beginning of the decade or, in some cases *COUGH* SEAL! *COUGH* maybe the previous one. That’s not to say it wasn’t funny. It was often funny. It would have worked so much better if it had better timing and came at a time where it had more relevance. Justin Bieber has moved on to much more ridiculous behavior to make fun of… keep up!Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: If your idea of entertainment is listening to a silent crowd of teenage girls sobbing, Me Before You is can’t miss! If not, it’s still pretty good. Emilia Clarke = Pure Delight.

Admittedly, I’m only vaguely familiar with Emilia Clarke. I barely remember Terminator: Genisys (other than her poor chemistry with Jai Courtney) and have never seen an episode of Game of Thrones. After seeing the Me Before You trailer back in February, I was tempted to binge watch the show just to see if Clarke was as magnificent as she appeared in the original trailer for this film but I didn’t want to set my already unrealistic expectations for this movie any higher.Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: With quick wit and masterful timing (and Kate Beckinsale’s best performance of her career), Love & Friendship is one of the funnier films of 2016.

“I’m not going to like this,” I thought during the opening moments of Love & Friendship. The pace of Whit Stillman’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s epistolary novel Lady Susan is unexpected and catches you off guard. It’s like waking up in a car going 70 miles per hour after falling asleep poolside on a lazy afternoon. Thrust right into the story, we’re bombarded with characters who will provide depth throughout the film but are introduced with such rapid fire succession (and through title cards), your head starts to spin. Don’t worry. The feeling passes. Eventually.Read More →

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In: To See or Not To See

Roughly half of the weeks this year have seen the box office crown worn by a sequel. With the arrival of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, the heroes in a halfshell are likely to continue the trend and even if a miracle happened and TMNT didn’t remain at the top, X-Men: Apocalypse would be likely to repeat. Also arriving is Me Before You and Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. Here’s MHT’s recommendations on what to see and not see this weekend:Read More →