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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Racist, stereotypical jokes aren’t edgy. They’re lazy.

I’ve mentioned previously how comedy is personal and laughter is contagious. For me, Sausage Party was one of those films that beats the drum of comedy being personal but flies in the face of laughter being contagious. As the film reached its raunchy, ridiculous climax and the audience I was seeing the movie with was doubled over in laughter, I realized I may not have laughed out loud once during the entire showing.Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Suicide Squad is now officially the biggest movie to ever hit the cinema in August and basically a lock to own the box office for a 2nd consecutive week. This week’s battle will be for the #2 spot where Pete’s Dragon should take the title unless Sausage Party rises to the occasion with a bigger than expected opening. In addition to these two movies, Florence Foster Jenkins and 4 other movies hit theaters. Here are the recommendations for the week of August 12th:Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Action overload! The first hour is 90% action and 10% plot. By the time the movie settles in and gets good, you’re too worn out. Maybe I’m just getting old or maybe not much really happens here.

Having never seen a movie in the Bourne franchise makes me an outsider when discussing the appeal of Jason Bourne. However, when I say Jason Bourne feels all too familiar, I’m not referring to the fact that it is the fifth installment in the Bourne franchise. Unfortunately, all the hyperkinetic action that takes place in the film (which is actually some pretty impressive action, by the way) can’t hide the fact that Jason Bourne doesn’t really have anything fresh to offer.Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: What a mess! Nowhere near as bad as last year’s Fantastic Four but with an eerily similar feel. Suicide Squad is the most disappointing mediocre film since, well, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Suicide Squad had such promise. The trailers were about as good as trailers can be. The cast assembled for the film had plenty of proven talent with a track record of making excellent movies. Writer/director David Ayer wasn’t a sure thing but has plenty of watchable flicks on his resume to give you confidence he could pull this off. Despite the excellent marketing, cool concept, solid cast and competent writer/director, Suicide Squad fails to deliver the goods. Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Of course it’s awful. How could it not be? The question was never, “Is this going to be bad?” It was, “Why would anyone make this in the first place?”

If you choose to see Nine Lives and whine about how bad it is, you have no one to blame but yourself. If you’re too young to remember the switch movie craze of the late ’90s and early 2000s, you’re probably just the right age for this movie and won’t dwell too much on trying to figure out what kind of gambling debts Kevin Spacey must have to pay off to take such a role. If you are old enough to remember those movies, you probably were left wondering if this movie came out of a time capsule. At one point I was expecting the 90s to call and ask for their movie back.Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: I was kind of half bored, half fascinated by the whole thing.

Woody Allen’s Café Society is well written and loaded with more than capable performers who efficiently bring the writing to life. Not only do the bigger names — Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Steve Carell, Blake Lively, Parker Posey — sparkle but the less recognizable members of the cast — Jeannie Berlin, Corey Stoll, Ken Stott, Anna Camp and others — also deliver performances that enhance what amounts to a rather small but entertaining film.Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Viggo Mortensen is fantastic in this twisted family drama with a polarizing plot and thought-provoking story.

Captain Fantastic has a rather scrupulous plot about a family headed by Ben (Viggo Mortensen) who lives in the deep woods of the Pacific Northwest. Ben is focused on turning his six children into book smart, athletic survivalists who can do everything from recite the U.S. Constitution (and debate its merits) to set a broken bone. Ben’s wife has bipolar disorder which is what brought the family to the forest years ago in the first place but early in the first act, while receiving treatment at a hospital, she kills herself. Against her wishes, her parents decide to give her a traditional Christian burial (despite the fact she is now a Buddhist) and her father (Frank Langella) bans Ben and her children from the funeral.Read More →

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In: 2016, Ranked, Trailers

While August is not always the strongest month, this August should see Suicide Squad possibly become the biggest August release of all time. To do so, it would have to surpass the $333.2 million Guardians of the Galaxy brought home in 2014. While it’s all but a foregone conclusion Suicide Squad will take the top spot at the box office this month, there are plenty of other films to look forward to. Here’s a list of the 27 movies headed to theaters this August ranked in order of anticipation:

1. Suicide Squad (August 5)Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: One of those movies you kind of love or kind of hate but in neither instance do you feel that strongly about it. Slick but hollow and the climax reveals just how thin the plot is. Oh and why can’t Hollywood find teenagers to actually play teens?

What starts as a slick, hip thriller devolves into a preachy almost whiny sermon on the dangers of the anonymous internet. It should come as no shock the film is directed by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost, the creative minds behind the documentary Catfish and the subsequent MTV series. While Nerve is based on a 2012 novel by Jeanne Ryan, Schulman and Joost’s paranoid fingerprints are all over this one. The paranoia of the anonymous wasteland that is the Internet isn’t the movie’s fatal flaw, though, as it actually helps propel the suspense. However, by the final act, the preachiness is so thick it buries the best qualities of the film and turns the movie into one big missed opportunity.Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Ridiculous (in a good way) and hilarious (in an even better way). It’s not perfect but Bad Moms is that funny summer comedy you’ve been waiting for.

Comedy is an odd, deeply personal experience. In the theater, it can be largely affected by the crowd you see it with. My viewing of Bad Moms played to a room full of slightly intoxicated men and women who all seemed to hit the Regal Movie Theater bar before taking in the preview night showing. For viewing purposes, this played into the movie perfectly as the audience (myself included) was laughing loudly from beginning to end.

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