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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: With talent like Tom Hanks, Emma Watson and John Boyega at its disposal, The Circle shouldn’t land with as loud of a thud as it does. A colossal waste of time.

I really wanted The Circle to be good. April was a rather weak month of releases but it landed at the top of MHT’s anticipated films of the month list. There’s a lot to worry about when it comes to our privacy in this much more transparent, digital age and that gives The Circle a solid foundation to build something compelling and timely. Unfortunately, The Circle feels about 5 years too late and today’s fears don’t match yesterday’s concerns and The Circle‘s paranoid plot appears outdated and off the mark.Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: 2017 still doesn’t have a 5 star movie but it does have a new #1. Sleight is a genre blending (and bending) delight. It feels fresh which is something severely lacking in today’s cinematic world.

Typically, I get a little nervous when I see Blumhouse Tilt and WWE Studios as the film distributor. This year, Blumhouse Tilt is having a banner year with Split, Get Out and now Sleight. As for WWE Studios, Sleight is one of the rare releases that doesn’t feature an appearance from their stable of wrestling superstars. Blumhouse Tilt and WWE Studios have tag teamed a film previously with rather disappointing results as they’ve paired up to release Incarnate in 2016 and The Resurrection of Gavin Stone earlier this year. Neither were received well and the history of the two studios provided plenty of reservations about what to expect from Sleight.Read More →

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In: 7 Days

While this week contains May 4th, don’t expect that day’s recommendation to be a Star Wars movie. Instead, this week’s “7 Days of Streaming” focuses on some historic days in history, a birthday of The Godfather (of Soul) and the anniversary of one of the greatest films of all-time:Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: This classic adventure film is both reserved and resplendent in its telling of the story of Colonel Percy Fawcett, a military man-turned-explorer sent to South America on a mapping expedition that turned into a lifelong obsession with finding a mythical lost city deep within the Amazon.

The Lost City of Z is based on a New York Times bestseller by David Grann entitled The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. The nonfiction tale of Percy Fawcett written and directed by James Gray spans 2 hours and 20 minutes and crams a lot into its epic run time. It’s a risky proposition for a film to try and cover so much and extend past the 2 hour mark but the film maintains an engaging pace and is engrossing enough to carry the audience through to the finish without that belabored feeling many movies of its length can sometimes give you.Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: Is it the story of a love triangle set against the backdrop of the Armenian Genocide or was it the story of Armenian Genocide set against the backdrop of a love triangle? Technically, there’s a fourth person involved… does that make it a love rectangle?

There’s so much promise in The Promise. Not only does it boast an impressive cast featuring Oscar Isaac, Christian Bale and Charlotte Le Bon in the main roles, the largely untold story of the Armenian Genocide is one that seems ripe for the cinema. It’s also written and directed by Academy Award winning filmmaker Terry George who was nominated for Best Screenplay for In the Name of the Father (1993) and Hotel Rwanda (2004). With all of that going for it, The Promise still can’t get out of its own way, focusing on a rather dull love triangle invented for dramatic purposes yet its placement in the film actually strips away most of the drama of the 2 hour and 14 minute film.
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In: BuRStS

Another Tuesday, another 8 movies you probably didn’t go bother see at the cinema but now may be compelled to watch at home. With the exception of La La Land, this week’s releases either didn’t get a theatrical run or performed poorly at the box office (*COUGH* Underworld: Blood Wars *COUGH*). Here’s what you should buy, rent, stream and skip for the week of April 25th:Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: Disneynature’s latest Earth Day contribution that is as adorable as you can expect any documentary about snow leopards, pandas, antelopes and monkeys to be. Warning: It goes for the feels!

Almost every year, Disneynature produces a documentary that coincides with Earth Day. This year’s offering is Born in China featuring narration by John Krasinksi and noticeably lacking any commentary about the effect of climate change on the habitat of the animals we follow. Instead, the stories are humanized and emotional. The beautifully shot and slickly edited documentary contains a number of incredible shots promoting family values and the instinctiveness of familial love.Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: Bad as you want it to be. Unintentionally funny at times. Katherine Heigl is a campy, convincing whack-a-doodle. This year’s When the Bough Breaks which was last year’s The Perfect Guy.

Lifetime Channel’s movies became so big, they launched a separate Lifetime Movie Network. Occasionally, though, when we’re really good, Hollywood treats us to a big screen version of the movies that are usually reserved for endless repeat on LMN. Unforgettable (an ironic title since you won’t be able to differentiate this movie from others of its ilk come next year) is one of those movies that somehow avoided landing on the Lifetime Channel and instead got the green light from a major studio (Warner Bros.) and is now unintentionally making audiences laugh as Katherine Heigl and Rosario Dawson square off in a prolonged cinematic catfight.Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: If you think this is a Tarantino rip off, you’re not watching close enough. It’s more of an homage to 70s and 80s action or a Guy Ritchie rip off than anything. It’s actually a good bit of fun though. How often do you get to experience a 62 minute shootout?

Sometimes film critics get obsessed with making a connection between two films and dwelling on it. That seems to be the case with Free Fire and Reservoir Dogs. It’s easy to relate the two movies since both films have a memorable warehouse showdown. Unlike Reservoir Dogs, Free Fire doesn’t give you a clear cut good guy to root for in the film and Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump’s script for Free Fire isn’t nearly as wordy or filled with pop culture references as Quentin Tarantino’s directorial début and Free Fire‘s plot unravels in about 15-20 minutes before launching into what has to be the longest shootout in movie history while Reservoir Dogs experiences a slower burn and a much different feel. Saying both of these films are comparable would be like saying LeBron James and myself are comparable since we both wear Nike and have dribbled a basketball.Read More →

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In: 7 Days

In this new feature, MHT gives a list of movies to celebrate birthdays, commemorate deaths, recognize what happened in history and observe holidays. This week features Earth Day, the birth of Shakespeare, the death of the Red Baron and more:Read More →