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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Compelling recount of the harrowing tale of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. This Peter Berg/Mark Wahlberg team produces some solid viewing.

Before the movie, the story of Deepwater Horizon wasn’t one I was familiar with. My guess is I heard of it when it occurred but didn’t pay attention enough to commit any details to memory. The Peter Berg directed “based on true events” disaster flick makes sure you pay attention and firmly points the finger at the big oil company for why such a disaster could occur. From beginning to end, the film’s pacing and detailed visuals of the disaster intertwining spectacular effects with some real life video mixed in make for both a strong indictment of BP Oil and a human interest piece about those who were injured and, in some cases, lost their lives due to the disaster.Read More →

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In: 2016, Ranked, Trailers

Thanks to a trip to Vegas, the Movie Hot Take normal schedule was thrown for a loop. It’s October now and we typically kick off every month with a list of trailers for all of the releases coming out for the month. While the first week of October is already in the books, we’ll pretend like that didn’t happen yet and run down the list of 25 anticipated releases for October. Here’s the list of October releases ranked in order of anticipation:

1. The Accountant (October 14)

We haven’t seen Ben Affleck since Batffleck and the positive reviews of his performance in an otherwise panned Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice should help The Accountant at the box office. The movie actually looks pretty good and there’s a decent supporting cast (Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons, Jeffrey Tambor, John Lithgow).


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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Unmistakably Tim Burton. Too bad it’s handcuffed with an overstuffed story and Asa Butterfield who is usually brilliant but peculiarly vacant in the lead role.

Second only to the reboot/remake phenomenon is the YA franchise-starter. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, based on the début novel from Ransom Riggs that spawned two sequels, looks to be a film that will follow in its source’s footsteps. It’s the nature of the movie business right now. It’s hard to argue with the approach as even when the results are terrible (*COUGH* The Divergent Series *COUGH*), the third movie in the series somehow yanked in $180 million worldwide. That’s not good considering the film’s $110 million budget but it isn’t a crippling result. So, here’s yet another attempt to launch a franchise and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is helped by the presence of a rather peculiar filmmaker as Tim Burton directs the first installment.Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Another remade classic. It’s good… not a classic. Then again, how can you go wrong with Denzel Washington?

If you have remake/reboot fatigue, it’s fair. There’s been too many remakes and reboots at this point. The original The Magnificent Seven isn’t even really all that original considering it’s Western-style remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. The original Seven also spawned numerous sequels which is another film trend causing serious fatigue amongst frequent moviegoers. Despite all of that, Antoine Fuqua’s remake of the 1960 classic isn’t good enough to be called a classic but it is good enough to overcome that fatigue this trend has injected into the cinematic experience.Read More →