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In: 2015, Hot Take

Hot Take: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! The 33 is a good rescue spoiled. You feel all 69 days of the 33 miners trapped in a well in Chile. Every single one of them!

There’s a story worth telling about the 33 miners trapped in a Chilean mine in 2010 for over two months. The 33 doesn’t bother to tell it, unfortunately. But there’s definitely a story there. You’ll see it buried under the two hour feel-good, crowd-pleaser that often feels more like root canal than a rescue.Read More →

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In: 2015, Hot Take

Hot Take: It’s hard to pull off movies with multiple, intertwining storylines as so many things can go wrong. Sometimes, Love the Coopers gets things wrong but gets plenty right to deliver an entertaining, adequate kick-off to the holiday movie season.

As I settled in to watch Love the Coopers, I was armed and ready to blast the movie through some snarky live tweets during the viewing. However, as Steve Martin began the narration, I was completely disarmed by such great casting, I was shaken in to accepting Love the Coopers as something watchable. By the time the disposable storyline involving Ed Helms’ character was introduced, I was already willing to forgive a miss or two.Read More →

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In: 2015, Hot Take, Trailers

Anticipation (Before Trailer): 65/100

Anticipation (After Trailer): 70/100

Begrudgingly, the trailers for Concussion are winning me over. There’s still a little too much NFL in the preview with logos and the feeling of there being “express written consent” of the league that owns a day of a week (and a night and Thanksgiving and a day in late January/February and rents Thursdays sometimes).

If anything Will Smith’s performance looks like it could be one of his best and the scenes of Pittsburgh in the preview capture the picturesque cityscapes of the Steel city. Looks like Christmas is the release date for Concussion.

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In: 2015, Hot Take

Hot Take: Suffragette is an empowering, sobering tale that applies the appropriate gravity necessary to the Women’s Right to Vote movement. It occasionally has the feel of a docudrama a substitute teacher would throw on for her grade school class to get through a rainy afternoon.

How much screen time did Meryl Streep get in her role as Emelinne Pankhurst in Suffragette? If it was more than 3 minutes, I’d be shocked. However, in our backward world, that might be enough to land Streep a supporting actress nod at the upcoming Oscars. While her 3 minutes were well done, it’s hard to justify the likely hat tip for her contribution to this empowering story.Read More →

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In: 2015, Hot Take, Trailers

Anticipation (Before Trailer): 90/100

Anticipation (After Trailer): 90/100

The 2nd trailer for The Night Before is not quite as funny as the first trailer BUT there’s nothing in it to discourage my excitement for what looks like to be a ridiculously funny (or is it ridiculous but funny… or ridiculous and funny?) film.

The release date for The Night Before is right around the corner (November 20). Hallelujer!

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In: 2015, Hot Take

Hot Take: Miss You Already proves passing the Bechdel Test and tugging at your emotions with a cancer storyline doesn’t guarantee a movie being passably entertaining.

After the first 60 minutes or so of Miss You Already, there’s a decent chance you won’t care about the characters you get to know. Neither Milly (Toni Collette) nor Jess (Drew Barrymore) come across as interesting, funny or mildly entertaining. By the time the film reaches the third act, the emotional investment might not be there to make the final 30 minutes as impactful as they might be if you cared for the characters. Read More →

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In: 2015, Hot Take

Hot Take: Great movie for kids. Good movie for fans of Peanuts who have wanted to see Charlie Brown and Snoopy’s greatest hits on the big screen after a 35 year hiatus. For everyone else? Eh.

The Peanuts Movie was an incredibly safe big screen take on the Peanuts franchise. As a viewer familiar with the past history of Charlie Brown but not particularly enamored with the characters, it was nice to see a new layer of paint put on the old reliable vehicle but it would have been nice to see it take a few risks. At it’s heart, The Peanuts Movie held true to it’s roots but after 70-plus years, there could have been a few modern updates to the material while keeping the heart in tact.Read More →

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In: 2015, Hot Take

Hot Take: Spectre has all of the elements of other Bond films but that’s more due to it’s absurd length than anything. At times, it feels like it’s working a checklist. Even with it’s slightly formulaic feel, it’s an entertaining ride when it gets on track.

Spectre, unofficially “Bond 24”, is full of peaks and valleys. The opening “Mexico City” scene sets the bar incredibly high but the pacing and smoothness of the opening action scene is never reached again. As rumors swirl it may be his last turn as 007, Daniel Craig delivers a solid performance but there’s too much formula to differentiate Spectre from Bond 1-23.Read More →

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In: 2015, Hot Take, Trailers

Anticipation (Before Trailer): 100/100

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_UI1GzaWv0

Anticipation (After Trailer): 100/100

Can’t wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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In: 2015, Hot Take

Hot Take: When you make a movie called The Last Witch Hunter and it comes across as far fetched and despite it featuring witches, immortal hunters, shape shifters and dream walkers, the least believable thing is the connection between Vin Diesel’s Kaulder and Rose Leslie’s Chloe, that’s never good. The special effects are cool though. There’s that.

Whenever a movie is rewritten and there’s a change of directors, it rarely results in a quality finished product. Enter The Last Witch Hunter. Sorry if it sounds like I’m sour on the idea of Vin Diesel as an 800 year old witch hunter who is the only thing standing in the way of powerful witches dominating the world. It’s hard to decipher exactly what makes Diesel’s Kaulder such a great “weapon” against the dark arts but here’s what can be discerned: He’s been around a long time, can’t die, has a lot of weapons and remarkably lucky when throwing sharp objects. Read More →