Hot Take: This is Kevin Hart as expected. If you’re a fan, you’ll enjoy.
Last year, Kevin Hart was in Philadelphia to close out his stand-up tour to a sold out crowd at Lincoln Financial Field. By doing so, he became the first comedian to perform at an at-capacity football stadium. Hart’s stand-up in front of 53,000 was turned into a stand-up comedy concert film and Kevin Hart: What Now? is the end result.Read More →
Hot Take: A rare purely positive experience at the theater. The thought of the story will warm your heart for days. It should put even the most cynical in checkmate.
The biggest criticism you might be able to send across Queen of Katwe‘s bow is that there’s a Disneyfied aspect to the story. However, a bit of research reveals the heart of the movie’s story beats true as very little of the true tale of Phona Mutesi (Madina Nalwanga), a young girl from the slums of Uganda whose life changes when she realizes her masterful chess talent, is embellished. If anything, the film downplays some of the more gritty aspects of how tough the living conditions for her and her family truly were.Read More →
Hot Take: Masterminds manages to steal two hours of your life and never give it back.
If you don’t know the backstory to the release of Masterminds, it’s worth getting you up to speed. Set for release in August 2015, the film’s studio Relativity pushed the release back to October 2015 due to financial troubles. As the company headed into bankruptcy, the movie was shelved for an entire year. Finally, with Relativity out of bankruptcy, the movie was released at the end of September 2016. Why do I mention the backstory? Well, it’s much more interesting to discuss the backstory than the actual movie.Read More →
Hot Take: By twisting the facts, The Birth of a Nation takes liberties where it doesn’t need to. The real story contains enough that it doesn’t need any help.
Any time a movie is “based on a true story”, you’re bound to get differences between reality and the Hollywood-polished movie version. The Birth of a Nation, by first time director and writer Nate Parker (who also starred as Nat Turner), is the latest example of a movie that unnecessarily strays too far from the truth to the point where a potentially great film becomes just an okay movie. If this were a fictional tale, it actually would have been better but as a biopic the film revises history too much in an attempt to incite the audience unnecessarily. And not unnecessarily as the topic is unimportant but the actual story has plenty to incite the audience.Read More →
When you need a 5th movie to recommend to buy for Part 5 of BuRStS, who ya gonna call? Check out the 5th installment of what to buy, rent, stream and skip for the weeks of October 4th & 11th to find out:Read More →
Part 4 of BuRStS could be worse but with propaganda film Hillary’s America coming out this week, it’s already way down on the list. Here’s the 4th set of movies set for release on October 4th and 11th:Read More →
A reboot, two sequels and Blinky Bill gets a movie. That’s all crammed into part 3 of BuRStS #35:Read More →
Highlighted by what might be the most unusual movie of 2016, here’s the 2nd part of BuRStS #35:Read More →
Time to do a little catch up on what has been coming out for home viewing. This week’s BuRStS will feature releases from both this week and last week which means it’ll be a 5 part series. Here’s Part 1 of what to buy, rent, stream and skip for the week of October 4th & 11th:Read More →
Hot Take: If Gone Girl had a less fun, more manipulative sister she’d be The Girl on the Train. Next stop: Boredom.
Poor Emily Blunt. Blunt portrays the titular character in The Girl on the Train and does a heckuva job as a blackout drunk divorcee suffering from depression and delusions. Her performance as Rachel might be the only reason to watch the movie. The rest is a schlocky thriller with a predictable arc and what might be the world’s worst detective in cinematic history. Read More →