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Hot Take: The most important film of 2016. The respect Moonlight shows its characters and its subject matter is something to admire and strive for. 

Last year, I thought Room should have won Best Picture. Spotlight won instead. It was hard to argue considering the importance of Spotlight and the gravity of the subject matter. This year, we have Moonlight. Currently, it isn’t at the top of my list for 2016 but it’s high up there. If Moonlight walks away with every award this Oscar season, I won’t complain for a second. As far as the timeliness and subject, this movie matters more than any other film released in 2016 so far and I doubt any other film will reach the importance or handle such important topics with the delicacy and respect that Moonlight does.

***WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD***Read More →

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If you have kids, this week’s BuRStS contains 2 films MHT recommends and 1 that might at least serve as a 90 minute babysitter. There’s also a quality horror flick and a TV-to-big screen conversion that’s easy to dismiss. Here are the recommendation from Movie Hot Take on what to buy, rent, stream and skip for the week of November 29th:Read More →

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Hot Take: Inspirational story. Mediocre movie.

The story of Vinny Pazienza is incredible. Most boxing stories of any length are. At some point, a boxer who fights 30-plus times has a near-death experience in the ring, it seems. That was true for Pazienza who nearly died after a fight with Roger Mayweather in 1988. That’s where the story of Bleed For This begins. However, Bleed For This doesn’t contain one but two comeback stories as the real inspirational tale begins after Pazienza breaks his neck in a car accident and is told he’ll never fight again. Read More →

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Hot Take: Disney does it again! Actually, it’s a female heroine not driven by a potential suitor or being held back… unless you call being told you can only be chief of the entire island being held back. So, when I say Disney does it again, I only mean it in the sense that they made yet another great animated tale.

Every second of Moana is excellent. It might the most watchable film of 2016, so far. It’s a heartwarming tale of bravery, responsibility, dreaming big, survival and independence. It’s not groundbreaking but it doesn’t need to be. It embraces a culture that deserves to have its story told. It emboldens a female protagonist without tying her to a handsome prince or another equally attractive suitor. (There’s actually no suitor at all.) It’s hilarious for kids. It’s equally funny for adults and not even in the sense that it has adult jokes that will fly over the heads of children, either. The music is great. The songs are memorable. Even The Rock sings!Read More →

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Hot Take: Entertaining movie. I still can’t figure out who the target audience is, though. Based on the box office numbers, neither could the audience.

As I sat through Rules Don’t Apply, there were two overriding thoughts. The first was how thoroughly entertained I was by the various performances including Warren Beatty’s first role in over 15 years as Howard Hughes. The second, thanks to sitting in a completely empty theater, was how there wasn’t an easily definable audience this movie seemed to be made for.Read More →

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Hot Take: When Allied is good, it’s really good. Too bad it wasn’t good that often.

How often does a Robert Zemeckis movie miss the mark? The last big swing and miss from Zemeckis was probably What Lies Beneath in 2000. Okay, to be fair, I don’t think Allied missed the mark completely. However, the period romance about intelligence officer Max Vatan (Brad Pitt) and French resistance fighter Marianne Beausejour (Marion Cotillard) who fall in love during an assassination mission in French Morocco during World War II, has some low lows despite some high highs. Read More →

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If you missed Hell Or High Water in theaters, don’t let the opportunity to see it at home pass you by. This was one of the best movies of the year (maybe the best) and an easy choice for what to buy this week. Along with Hell Or High Water, here are the other recommendations from MHT on what to buy, rent, stream and skip for the week of November 22nd:Read More →

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This week, we’re back to splitting up the choices to watch at home as there’s a number of movies worthy of seeing. While the #1 choice of what to buy this week was easy (and will headline Part 2 of BuRStS), the second choice wasn’t so easy. See the rest of this post for which one MHT recommends to buy along with what to rent, stream and skip for the week of November 22nd:Read More →

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Hot Take: I’m not sure what emotion Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk was trying to evoke but I’m positive leaving the viewer feeling nothing was not the goal.

Admittedly, I’m an emotional movie watcher. I got a little touched watching Trolls last week. So, when a movie like Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, a film about a 19-year-old soldier (Joe Alwyn) on a tour of the U.S. with his fellow soldiers lauded as heroes after surviving an attack during the Iraq war that left their Sergeant (Vin Diesel) dead, left me feeling nothing, I was surprised. How could a movie with access to so much low hanging fruit completely miss the mark?Read More →