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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: There’s always a “take the good with the bad” element of a Will Ferrell movie. Unfortunately, for this one, it’s mostly “take the bad with more of the bad.” This one joke pony is a long shot to make you laugh and often feels like an SNL skit gone on entirely too long.

College tuition is too expensive, being a parent is hard and the government will screw you at every turn. That’s the premise given to the talented comedic cast of The House who is then asked to ad lib their way through a shoddy script and then shown off in the least flattering way possible thanks to some haphazard edited and seemingly directionless and absurdly violent (Violent? Yes, violent!) summer comedy. Despite an 88 minute run time, the movie feels overlong and, at the same time, you feel shortchanged with the lack of laughs you get back for your time invested.Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: Sofia Coppola won Best Director at Cannes for this film and it was well deserved. Don’t overlook some great performances from Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning and Colin Farrell though.

The most impressive feat of The Beguiled, a remake of a 1971 film starring Clint Eastwood of the same name, might be its length. There’s not much of a story in the tale in that it is simplistic. However, there is some complexity to its characters that gets fleshed out in just 93 minutes. The film quickly resolves itself but never feels slight nor does the story feel slighted despite its incredibly short run time. Credit Coppola for altering the source material enough for the film to stand apart from the original and for slimming it down to make every moment throughout the film count which, in this day and age of filmmaking, is a rarity.Read More →

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In: 2017, Ranked, Trailers

The height of summer movie season is usually July. Though this July does not look like one of the strongest in recent history, the box office is guaranteed to light up for Spider-Man: Homecoming and expectations are high for Dunkirk and MHT’s most anticipated release of the month, Atomic Blonde. While Spider-Man: Homecoming checks the re-boot (and superhero) box for the month, War for the Planet of the Apes, Girls Trip and An Inconvenient Sequel check the sequel box, Wish Upon fills the horror quota and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, well, I don’t know what that one does but it’s coming out, too. Here’s the full list of theatrical releases for July accompanied by their theatrical trailer:Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: I remember laughing a few times but I can barely remember anything outside of what I saw in the trailer. One of the least memorable sequels of all time.

If you sit in a theater for 90 minutes and can’t remember the experience, did it really happen? Well, that’s what it felt like watching Despicable Me 3. The third installment in the Despicable Me series and fourth (Thanks to Minions) in the Gru Extended Universe is about as memorable as a side salad. All of the characters are there, including a double dose of Steve Carell who voices both returning main character Gru and new character Dru, Gru’s twin brother, and there’s plenty of Minion fan service but there’s something about this latest chapter that says this side of the franchise might be running out of steam. Usually, you won’t see that impact at the box office until the next movie and there will be another Minions sequel before we’d see a Despicable Me 4 but if the third chapter is any indication, a fourth crack at Gru and family might be completely unnecessary.
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