Hot Take: It might be a little preposterous but Finding Dory is also a lot of fun.
Parts of Finding Dory are actually more enjoyable than parts of Finding Nemo. The storyline is secondary here as we’ve already come to know the characters and pretty much know what to expect. The second adventure across the ocean is actually as much fun as the first and, at times, surpasses its predecessor. Read More →
Hot Take: I guess you need more than a little Hart and a big Johnson, after all. A funnier script might have helped.
Potential. Central Intelligence had a ton of it. Dwayne Johnson is a bonafide star and has proven he can carry action movies with both might and charm and has also had a few glimpses of a comedic presence. Kevin Hart is one of the funniest stand-up comedians going and typically delivers a funny performance even when the movie isn’t all that good. (See, well, almost anything Hart has done.) So, pairing the two in a buddy comedy seems like a can’t miss. Throw in an excellent trailer and some great pre-movie appearances by the duo and Central Intelligence was primed to be the comedy hit of the summer. Unfortunately, there was something missing: Comedy.Read More →
Hot Take: 400 Days has plenty of plot twists but there are too many lingering questions to not make one question dominate: Why is this movie so full of shit?
Here’s the premise of 400 Days: Three guys and one girl (and no pizza place) are used as guinea pigs for a government experiment where they are locked in mock-up of a spacecraft that is built underground and where they must remain for 400 days. Read More →
Hot Take: The first 90 minutes suffers from a weak story and one dimensional characters. When the big battle starts though, damn if it isn’t visually impressive enough to pull out a satisfying conclusion to an otherwise scattered and feckless fantasy.
Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve never been a fan of the World of Warcraft series. I’ve watched friends play the game and listened to the chatter yet the only things I’ve found entertaining are the South Park episode that parodied the game and, of course, Leroy Jenkins! Unfortunately, due to the lack of connection to the franchise, Warcraft didn’t make a lot of sense for the first 30 minutes or so. At least that’s what I’m blaming it on. The opening of the film is likely to only be bearable to an actual WoW fan but even that is a stretch as the opening is torture.Read More →
Hot Take: The Enfield Poltergeist gets a Hollywood ending. Yay! (That’s sarcasm.)
There’s something manipulative about using the words “based on a true story” especially in horror movies. It immediately increases the stakes and adds a bit of fear. The worst thing you could possibly do before seeing The Conjuring 2 is read History vs. Hollywood’s comparison of the real-life story to the shiny penny Hollywood came up with. Read More →
Hot Take: More style and less substance than the first. Not awful but nothing you’ll be disappointed to miss.
The original Now You See Me was fun. It wasn’t deep or overly memorable but it definitely had a lot of shine. As it meandered along, it worked so well because it caught you by surprise. By the sequel, you knew what to expect. The element of surprise was reduced to practically nothing. Sure, the tricks are bigger but they’re harder to believe and not like “how’d they do that?” hard to believe but “was that really magic or just camera tricks?” As for the story, it’s hard to imagine you’ll get as invested in the second installment as you would in the first. The stake aren’t higher and the twists have road signs now pointing you in which direction the film is going to turn next.Read More →
Hot Take: Unique. Maybe too unique. (Is that possible?) If you polled the audience afterward, 80% of them got it and 90% of those people are lying. Welcome to the king of art house porn for 2016.
I didn’t hate The Lobster. I didn’t love The Lobster, either. Honestly, I didn’t know what to make of the film. It’s been about two days and I still don’t really know what to make of it. It’s funny to read through the reviews of the film and see how many different takes there are. Even funnier is how they are confidentially presented as fact. Unless you wrote it or spoke directly to the person who wrote it and he told you exactly what he meant, I’m calling bullshit. You can think you know what you just watched but with The Lobster, you don’t really know.Read More →
Hot Take: Too low-key to be anything better than okay. Jaeden Lieberher is the best actor in Hollywood under the age of 15.
The Confirmation doesn’t do anything special on screen to warrant too much excitement. Clive Owen as Walt, a working class father living paycheck to paycheck who has his son for the weekend, delivers a very good performance. Young Jaeden Lieberher as Anthony, Walt’s son who doesn’t know much about his dad other than what his mom (Walt’s ex-wife Bonnie played by Maria Bello) has told her, continues to be the best young actor in Hollywood. The pair have great chemistry. The supporting cast — Bello, Stephen Tobolowsky, Patton Oswalt, Tim Blake Nelson, Robert Forster, Matthew Modine, Spencer Driver — all add to the movie. The directorial début of Bob Nelson is adequate. However, there’s something missing from The Confirmation to really get you out of your seat with excitement.Read More →
Hot Take: I’m not sure Mr. Right was a good movie but it was a lot of fun.
There’s a lot of things you can say about films written by Max Landis. Usually, boring isn’t one of them. The Landis’ penned Mr. Right is uneven, ludicrous, over-the-top and silly. It’s also a lot of fun and bolstered by the chemistry of Sam Rockwell and Anna Kendrick who make the most of this rom-com meets action thriller. Sure, we’ve seen this before. John Cusack and Minnie Driver did it in Grosse Pointe Blank 19 years ago and did it a little bit better but Mr. Right is fun from beginning to end and well worth the 96 minute investment.Read More →
Hot Take: Visually enthralling, narratively dull. Eventually, even the visuals reach overload and the movie pot pie that is Alice Through the Looking Glass becomes possessed by other films.
Let’s start with the positive. Alice Through the Looking Glass is nowhere near the disaster it is being made out to be. People have been rooting against the follow-up to the overly successful and poorly received Alice In Wonderland since it was announced. (The details of Johnny Depp’s personal troubles and accusations of domestic violence surely didn’t sway the pitchforks and torches in another direction, either.) However, Alice Through the Looking Glass isn’t one of the worst movies of 2016. It’s just not good.Read More →