By:
On:
In: 2018, Hot Take

Hot Take: With a talent like Jennifer Lawrence, this could have been better. It at least should have been sexier. Instead, it’s an average spy thriller with enough star power to at least keep you interested.

The release of Red Sparrow practically came out of nowhere. At least for me, it did. I don’t remember seeing the teaser trailer back in September and the official trailer didn’t air until January 8th which is pretty late for a March 2nd release date. You’d think with the re-teaming of Jennifer Lawrence and the director of 3 of the 4 films in The Hunger Games series, Francis Lawrence (no relation), Red Sparrow would at least have generated a bit more buzz. After seeing Red Sparrow, a spy thriller featuring Lawrence as a Russian ballerina turned spy who is sent to “whore school” to learn how to manipulate others as a Sparrow to get what information or whatever else is needed from the target, it makes more sense how this flew under the radar as what unfolds on screen is a rather average film with very little being memorable.Read More →

By:
On:
In: 2018, Hot Take

Hot Take: A mediocre remake that not only fails to bring anything relevantly new to the film but also has awful timing. 

I might be one of the biggest Bruce Willis fans there is. Case in point, I actually liked 1994’s Color Of Night. Need more proof? I went to see a marathon showing of every Die Hard which included not leaving during A Good Day to Die Hard. I think that’s enough to establish my fandom for Mr. Willis. I’m also not one of those people who frowns on every reboot or remake coming down the pike. Every once in a while, they surprise and delight which is where my hopes were for Death Wish, the 2018 remake of the 1974 Charles Bronson film that spawned a five film franchise. Considering director Eli Roth has had no qualms with a little bit of shock and awe in his filmmaking career, it came as quite the surprise when this remake failed to do much in the way of bringing any sort of new twist to the classic film which isn’t always bad but, in this case, it drags the film into mediocrity and it looked at some points as if Willis were sleepwalking through the lead role.Read More →

By:
On:
In: 2018, Hot Take

Hot Take: Loved the first one but this sequel kept all the parts that were wrong with the original and nothing that was right. The best thing I can say is that it’s a throwback to 80s horror BUT most of us are happy that phase is behind us.

Admittedly, I was secretly excited about a sequel to The Strangers, the much maligned 2008 horror flick starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman which killed at the box office thanks to a modest $9 million budget. However, after seeing The Strangers: Prey At Night, I just wanted to go back and watch the original again. There’s not much tension, it’s not all that scary and some of the scenes that should elicit the most fearful reactions are kind of laughable thanks to an oddly placed soundtrack which makes the film more humorous than harrowing.Read More →

By:
On:
In: 2017, Lists, Weigh In

We’re roughly 36 hours away from knowing who the Best Picture winner is and if they’ll screw up the announcement this time. For the first time in 3 years of predicting, MHT didn’t nail all of the Best Picture nominations (only 7 of 9). Could that mean the rest of the predictions will be off? Here’s who should and will win this year’s Oscars:Read More →

By:
On:
In: 2018, Hot Take

Hot Take: Shockingly, it works. Fun, funny comedy that made me laugh out loud more than a few times.

I think my first thought when seeing the trailer for Game Night was something along the lines of “Wow, this is going to be dumb.” And while it might not be the most intelligent comedy in the world, it did something really smart that you almost never see from a comedy. Rather than reveal the funniest scenes of the film in the trailer and then make the audience slowly realize they could have stayed home and gotten just as many laughs from the YouTube trailer as they did in the theater, Game Night teased its best comedy bits in the trailer and then expanded on them in the movie. In addition to the funny scenes from the trailer, Game Night had a number of laughs beyond its trailer and might be funnier than anything that was released in the last 12 months… although Ingrid Goes West might have been funnier.Read More →

By:
On:
In: 2018, Hot Take

Hot Take: Alex Garland continues to deliver. While not as good as Ex Machina, Annihilation does enough to impress and unnerve at times. 

Visually, Annihilation is something special. From writer/director Alex Garland (writer/director of Ex Machina and writer of 28 Days Later), based on the first of a series of novels called the Southern Reach Trilogy from Jeff VanderMeer, Annihilation is a creepy science fiction tale with enough elements of horror sprinkled through it to give you at least a nightmare or two and tension thicker than a brick. Garland has already proven to have a knack for these types of films — ones with a slant on the human condition and humanity in general — on the big screen and while Annihilation doesn’t achieve the level of excellence that Ex Machina did (nor 28 Days Later for that matter), the end result is a solid entry into the science fiction genre and one that has to make you a little curious about what might follow if the rest of this trilogy were to come to fruition.Read More →

By:
On:
In: 2018, Hot Take

Hot Take: YA NYT Best Seller has a novel concept and works well on screen. Or maybe I’m just a sucker for a YA romance. However, there are deeper questions explored and even if you don’t like it, you have to commend it for at least being a little different.

Maybe I’m giving Every Day, a film about a 16 year old high schooler Rhiannon (Angourie Rice) who falls in love with the spirit of “A” who inhabits a different body every day, too much credit. The film’s somewhat unique concept isn’t as unique as it seems once second level thinking is introduced and the stark realization that the film is just an amalgam of Groundhog Day, Freaky Friday and every coming of age angst filled high school romance ever. However, I’m willing to still give the film credit for its dare to be different even if the concept is a tad derivative hodge podge of other films. Read More →

By:
On:
In: 2018, Hot Take

Hot Take: So, cavemen invented soccer… And that’s an interesting plot for a movie because? Aardman Animations has an impressive resume. Consider this a blemish.

The stop-motion animation experts at Aardman Animations and director Nick Park — the director behind a handful of Wallace & Gromit tales and Chicken Run — decided that a film about cavemen who must win a soccer game (and have never played soccer but realize their ancestors did according to carvings) against the Bronze Age city folk to save their homeland was a good idea. The result is a purposely crude but ineffectively simple story that feels more primitive but not because it is about cavemen. It’s more standard fare with a feel of episodic Saturday morning cartoons and lacks memorable or endearing characters. Read More →

By:
On:
In: 2018, Hot Take

Hot Take: Unnecessary “inspired by true events” tale which relies solely on the jump scare for 99 minutes to try and spook the audience. Another low budget horror disaster.

It seems like we’re subjected to a low budget horror flick on a monthly basis. In January, it was the latest installment into the Insidious series which had a great run at the box office despite lackluster reviews. February’s entry into the low budget horror genre was Winchester which had a lower budget, worse reviews and didn’t find quite the same success at the box office despite Helen Mirren being attached to the project based on true events that occurred at the Winchester Mansion in San Jose, California in 1906. Also starring Jason Clarke, the film does a great job of checking the boxes — jump scares, creepy kid, Lurch looking servants, creaky hallways, dark basements, powerful poltergeists — but fails to put together anything solid with what seems to be at least a story ripe for a nice scare. Read More →

By:
On:
In: 2018, Hot Take

Hot Take: While it isn’t quite true to Beatrix Potter’s source material, Peter Rabbit has plenty of laughs. It’s more like Bugs Bunny than Peter Rabbit but, for the most part, it actually works.

If you’re looking for the storybook tale of Peter Rabbit, the hybrid live action and animation film Peter Rabbit based on the same characters takes many liberties. As a matter of fact, it goes for a more crass, less gentle and overly slapstick version of the characters many have fallen in love with as a child. It’ll likely work for new audiences, especially younger audiences (under 10 years old), as there won’t be any preconceived notions about how the characters should act. This is Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit if it were to get locked in a convenience store overnight, survival instinct kicked in and Peter ate all of the chocolate and downed all of the Red Bull. Read More →