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In: 2016, Hot Take

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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In: 2016, Hot Take

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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In: 2016, Hot Take

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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In: 2016, Hot Take

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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In: BuRStS

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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In: 2016, Hot Take

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 →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Mediocrity was not what I expected out of an offshoot of the Harry Potter series.

Am I interested in what happens next in the story of Newt Scamander and his fantastic beasts? Sure. The last 45 minutes of rather lengthy origin story saw to that. However, this isn’t the franchise restart I expected when Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was announced as the successor of the Harry Potter franchise. The 132 minute origin story drags in places and while the fantastic beasts sparkle with personality, the latest slew of characters added to the world of wizards and magic created by J.K. Rowling don’t have the same appeal as Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, Hagrid and the others we’ve left behind in the Harry Potter series.Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Am I being too critical of The Edge of Seventeen because the trailer led me to believe the film would have a different tone? Maybe.

Things got away from me this month and there was not a November preview of potential movie releases. The Edge of Seventeen would have been one of the most anticipated releases. The trailer was one of the funniest of the year and set expectations on the film that turned out to be unrealistic given the film’s approach to what essentially was a coming-of-age high school dramedy about the struggles of being a socially awkward teen.Read More →

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Hot Take: I get why you might think Hacksaw Ridge is a great film but Mel Gibson’s affection for graphic violence knocks this incredible true story down a peg from great to good.

I’m not really sure why Mel Gibson thinks we need to see every dangling body part or every dripping appendage caused by the results of a horrifying battle during World War II. I get it. War is hell. People got hurt, disfigured, lost limbs and died during battles. However, Gibson’s obsession with showing us every detail (right down to the rats eating away at the corpses on the battlefield) feels almost sadistically pornographic for someone with an obsession with graphic violence. Considering this is the same director who delivered Braveheart, The Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto, maybe graphic violence is an obsession for Gibson. For this movie, it becomes a distraction as you’d like the center of attention to remain on its remarkable main character, Private Desmond T. Doss (Andrew Garfield), but find yourself focusing on the scenes of death and dismemberment which dominate the third act.Read More →