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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: A much needed successful romantic comedy in a genre desperately lacking anything worth talking about. One of the best movies of the first half of the year. Kumail Nanjiani gives a heartfelt and heartwarming performance as, well, himself.

Every summer, there is a smaller flick that sneaks up on us and “wins” the summer. I put wins in quotations because with the monster box office numbers of some of the summer tentpoles, it obviously doesn’t win as that is reserved for juggernauts usually involving superheroes (See the box office figures for Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, Wonder Woman and Spider-Man: Homecoming). Last year, the best example was Hell or High Water. The early August release with a tiny $12 million budget more than tripled that at the box office and carried a solid summer performance to 4 Academy Award nominations. A similar path could be in store for The Big Sick, the 2017 romantic comedy based on the real life love story of star Kumail Nanjiani and his wife Emily V. Gordon. It’s already drawing at the box office in limited release and is slated for a monster 2,500+ theater expansion this weekend.Read More →

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It’s a rare double digit release week for the home viewer with box office giant The Fate of the Furious finding its way onto the small screen less than 90 days since it hit theaters. The rest of the releases — including The Lost City of Z — failed to make half of what the 8th installment into The Fast and the Furious franchise did at the cinema pulling in a combined $61 million vs. the $223.8 million of the Vin Diesel/The Rock vehicle. There’s plenty to see (and not see) this week. Here’s what to buy, rent, stream and skip for the week of July 11th:Read More →

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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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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: Play this movie on repeat! The most fun I’ve had at the movies all year.

It’s rare to walk out of a movie with the feeling of wanting to run to the box office, buy another ticket and watch the same movie again. With Baby Driver, the adrenaline rush of an action flick infused with a killer soundtrack and an excellent cast from Edgar Wright, the desire to see it again hit me about 30 minutes in and still hasn’t left. It’s currently the movie of the summer and going to be very difficult to unseat.Read More →

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This week’s home video releases features no “Buy It!” recommendations but nostalgia rules as TV shows from the 70s and 90s that were rebooted for the big screen find their way back to the small screen. In addition to CHiPs and Power Rangers, there’s a Trainspotting sequel and 5 other movies for you to choose from. Here is what Movie Hot Take thinks you should buy, rent, stream and skip for the week of June 27th:Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: Less than meets the eye. But I didn’t hate it and that’s confusing. (Don’t mistake that for me saying it was good. It was terrible.)

At this point, my childhood has been brutalized by Michael Bay so often, I think I’m getting used to it. Bay’s latest assault on my childhood memories is the fifth installment in the Transformers series, Transformers: The Last Knight. Luckily, this isn’t the longest Transformers in the series. Transformers: Age of Extinction clocked in at a Lord of the Rings-esque 165 minutes which makes Transformers: The Last Knight slight at only 149 minutes. Even better for the latest Universal cash grab is that it is not the worst film in the series, either. Read More →