Just three movies will make themselves available for home viewing this week with one of the biggest box office hits of the first half of the year joining a romantic “chick flick” and a baseball movie that skipped theaters. Here are MHT’s recommendations for what to buy, rent, stream and skip for the week of August 30th:Read More →
Hot Take: Roberto Duran’s story is an amazing one. Too bad Hands of Stone is only mediocre thanks to it’s made-for-cable TV-like quality and overreaching story that tries to do too much.
Earlier this year, the first season of American Crime Story recreated the O.J. Simpson trial. It was wonderfully cast and the Simpson case was as compelling as TV got the first time around so it was no surprise it made for an interesting retelling. As compelling as American Crime Story was, there was something remarkably “made for television” about it. That makes sense since it was a cable TV series. The same can be said for Hands of Stone which is wonderfully cast and the story of Roberto Duran is as compelling a boxing story as you’ll find. However, it felt remarkably “made for television” but somehow made it to your local cinema. Read More →
Hot Take: Before Sunrise meets the First Couple. And that’s a good thing!
If you have a top 100 films list and Before Sunrise isn’t on it, I just assume you haven’t seen it. It’s the quintessential movie about two people getting to know each other. It’s a film that has been burned on my memory for two decades yet it feels as fresh in my mind as something I watched in the last few hours. So, to say Southside With You, the “truth inspired” story of the first date of Barack Obama and Michelle Robinson, was structurally reminiscent of Before Sunrise isn’t really much of a knock on Southside With You. If anything, it’s supportive of a relatively smart decision as the 1995 Richard Linklater film isn’t a bad one to mimic. (Heck, Linklater did it himself a few more times afterward with incredibly positive results!)Read More →
Hot Take: Just because the movie is based on a true story about a singer who can’t actually sing doesn’t mean the story has to be tone deaf.
One thought kept coming to mind while watching Florence Foster Jenkins: “How far away is William Hung: The Movie?” It’s a scary thought but how much of a stretch is it to see Hung’s story turned into a cinematic Hollywood tale after viewing Florence Foster Jenkins? Honestly, not much of one.Read More →
Hot Take: Beautifully animated but scary and sad enough to question how appropriate or off-target this is a movie for kids. I thoroughly enjoyed it but I’m 40 and can’t imagine my 10-year-old self being anywhere near as entertained.
After viewing Kubo and the Two Strings, I really didn’t know what to make of the experience. The movie, thanks to some incredible animation and an impressive score, was beautiful to watch and listen to. The main character Kubo is one you instantly want to root for and the story while inherently strange and mysterious is also simple, smart and layered.Read More →
The summer is nearly over and to celebrate, the theaters are being loaded up with a bunch of films probably not good enough to do as well in the busier summer months. Don’t Breathe is expected to knock out Suicide Squad from the top spot while no other film is being projected to reach $10 million. Despite the smaller box office takes, there are 7 other films joining Don’t Breathe this week. That’s a lot so we better get right to MHT’s recommendations for what to see and not see for the week of August 26th:Read More →
Hot Take: It’s not great cinema but it’s an entertaining enough popcorn flick that fits perfectly into the middle of August.
War Dogs is one of those trips to the theater where you get exactly what expected, in a good way. The cast, the creatives and the trailer attached to the film cultivate the exact movie you’d expect them to produce. There’s something refreshing in that even if the movie is only slightly above average. Read More →
It’s always nice when the home viewing offering comes in the form of a 6-pack. This always makes it easy to find one to fit into the buy, rent, stream and skip category and leaves 2 extras to recycle the options. This week’s recap was made even easier by how good The Nice Guys and how bad Ratchet & Clank were compared to the rest of the selections. Here are MHT’s recommendations for what to buy, rent, stream and skip for the week of August 23rd:Read More →
Hot Take: Hell or High Water takes a simple concept and layers it with complex, colorful characters, moral dilemmas and social commentary. It’s so much more than a “cops and robbers” movie or a modern Western. One of the best of 2016!
With Hell or High Water, Oscar season has come early in 2016. There’s plenty to laud in this “cops and robbers” potboiler about brothers who become bank robbers in an effort to rob the bank then pay them back with their own money. Chris Pine and Ben Foster play the Howard brothers. Pine is fantastic as Toby, the younger of the two. He’s divorced with two kids and took care of his mother right before her passing and now faces financial hardship as the bank is days away from foreclosing on the family farm. Foster is equally great as Tanner, the older brother. He’s an ex-con who killed their abusive father and has a quick temper.Read More →
Hot Take: While Indignation was compelling, it was hard to not escape the thought that I just watched a movie about the overwhelming influence blowjobs and handjobs have on one’s life.
The formative college years of youth plays out on screen for young Marcus Messner (Logan Lerman) as he faces being away from home for the first time in Indignation. The trying times of the 50s, the suffocation of overbearing parents and the social awkwardness of a working class Jewish boy at a small, conservative college play out in this film. Yet, it’s hard not to focus on Sarah Gadon’s magnetic Olivia Hutton and her scene stealing moments as the object of Marcus’ obsession and a girl who, for lack of a better description, has problems.Read More →