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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: One of those movies you kind of love or kind of hate but in neither instance do you feel that strongly about it. Slick but hollow and the climax reveals just how thin the plot is. Oh and why can’t Hollywood find teenagers to actually play teens?

What starts as a slick, hip thriller devolves into a preachy almost whiny sermon on the dangers of the anonymous internet. It should come as no shock the film is directed by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost, the creative minds behind the documentary Catfish and the subsequent MTV series. While Nerve is based on a 2012 novel by Jeanne Ryan, Schulman and Joost’s paranoid fingerprints are all over this one. The paranoia of the anonymous wasteland that is the Internet isn’t the movie’s fatal flaw, though, as it actually helps propel the suspense. However, by the final act, the preachiness is so thick it buries the best qualities of the film and turns the movie into one big missed opportunity.Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Ridiculous (in a good way) and hilarious (in an even better way). It’s not perfect but Bad Moms is that funny summer comedy you’ve been waiting for.

Comedy is an odd, deeply personal experience. In the theater, it can be largely affected by the crowd you see it with. My viewing of Bad Moms played to a room full of slightly intoxicated men and women who all seemed to hit the Regal Movie Theater bar before taking in the preview night showing. For viewing purposes, this played into the movie perfectly as the audience (myself included) was laughing loudly from beginning to end.

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In: To See or Not To See

Last week, the box office saw 5 movies rack up $20 million+. This week, two movies are expected to début at over $20 million and one from last week should hold as well. The expectation is for Jason Bourne to walk away with the box office crown but can Bad Moms knock off Star Trek Beyond for the second spot? Nerve actually hit theaters on Wednesday but could finish anywhere from 5th to 8th for the weekend. In addition, to the trio of wide releases, there are 5 platform releases that may or may not cast a wider net in the coming weeks (like Café Society and Captain Fantastic will be doing this week). Here are MHT’s recommendations on what to see and not see for the week of July 29th:Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: A fun ride. It occasionally embodies the spirit of the original, sometimes delivers some freshness to the concept and from time to time gets bogged down with cheesy, cheap effects. It’s imperfectly not bad.

With all the negative hype around the Paul Feig all-female reboot of Ghostbusters, it was hard not to be intrigued by the movie. The trailers weren’t as bad as the YouTube backlash they received but they weren’t great, either. The casting of Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones in the primary roles was an excellent decision but tough to compete with Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson. Read More →

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In: BuRStS

Quantity doesn’t always mean quality. This week is a perfect example as 10 movies find their way to the home video market yet there is a severe lack of selections worth watching. That being said, Movie Hot Take’s #1 movie of the year (so far) is now available so it isn’t all bad. Though we are subjected to a John Travolta flick that skipped theaters and a Corey Feldman movie that was green lighted. Read on and see what Movie Hot Take recommends to buy, rent, stream and skip for the week of July 26th:Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Star Trek Beyond is one heck of a ride. The pace and humor balance the stakes which, as always, are incredibly high. It’s a blast.

In a summer full of unnecessary sequels and reboots, Star Trek Beyond is both a sequel and reboot that finds a way to rise above that feeling of pointlessness and delivers an experience that is loads of fun and very different than any previous Star Trek but, at the same time, very familiar. It also pulls off the rare feat of making a 2 hour run time fly by to where you only realize how long it is when you look at your watch as the credits roll. Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: A generic low budget horror story with some cool visuals that placate our fear of the dark. Not scary enough to force me to keep the lights on though.

In no way, shape or form are you getting opinions from a horror aficionado at Movie Hot Take. While I definitely enjoy a good scare from time to time, it is not the genre of choice when it comes to movies. That being said, 2016 has been an especially weak year for horror films. Outside of The Witch, there really hasn’t been anything worth mentioning in the top half of 2016 movies unless you count Green Room as a horror movie. Read More →

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In: To See or Not To See

Last week’s reboot of Ghostbusters didn’t fail. It also wasn’t an overwhelming success as The Secret Life of Pets secured the top spot for the second straight week. This week, another animated sequel joins the sequel of a reboot, a horror film with a middling budget, a niche TV show headed to the big screen and some Sci-Fi action thriller no one has ever heard of. Here’s MHT’s recommendations on what to see and not to see for the weekend of July 22nd:Read More →

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In: BuRStS

Each week in BuRStS, if you haven’t caught on, the lead is the movie we’d recommend buying and then everything else. So, while we’re leading with Miles Ahead, the movie everyone will be interested in (not necessarily buying though) is Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice which packs in 30 more minutes to a movie about half the people didn’t care for in its original form. So, maybe it’ll be… better? Yeah because they always leave out the good parts of a two and a half hour movie and save them for the DVD. There’s other stuff coming out this week, too. Don’t believe me? Read on and see MHT’s recommendations on what to buy, rent, stream and skip for the week of July 19th:Read More →

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In: 2016, Ranked

 

It took 197 days but we’ve reached 100 movies reviewed for 2016. When we reached 25, 50 and 75, we graded the last 25 movies seen and here are the grades for the last 25 movies seen as well as links to the recaps of the other grades:

For the fourth time this year, here are the last 25 movies released in 2016 graded from 0-5 stars:

The “Thumbs Up” Group

Swiss Army Man 4 out of 5 stars (4 / 5) REVIEW
The Infiltrator 4 out of 5 stars (4 / 5) REVIEW
Sometimes movies can be insanely unique which adds to their fabulousness, sometimes they can overcome being completely generic and still be wonderful. Both Swiss Army Man and The Infiltrator are aided by excellent casting and stellar performances.Read More →