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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: How do you make King Arthur boring? Ask Guy Ritchie.

One of the trickiest movies to pull off is the origin story. It shouldn’t be as tricky as Guy Ritchie makes King Arthur’s origin tale appear to be. Walking into King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, I was ready for almost anything. One thing I wasn’t ready for, though, was boredom. Yet somehow despite it’s frantic action scenes, pulsating (and kick ass) soundtrack and twisted take on the Arthurian legend, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is a snooze.Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: It starts off intense but becomes grating. It’s hard to get invested into characters with very little back story or a highly dissatisfying one.

The Wall isn’t an original concept. Maybe if you fall for its Iraqi war disguise, you don’t recognize 2002’s Phone Booth but that’s basically what it is. It isn’t necessarily a bad thing but don’t get too carried away with giving the film points for originality. Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: Raunchy girl comedy on par with what you’d expect from Amy Schumer. If you are not a fan, don’t waste your time. If you are, take this nonrefundable trip for a few laughs.

It’s becoming fairly obvious that Amy Schumer is a polarizing figure in comedy. There are some comic acts that bring that out of the audience. She definitely has her haters. Take a look at the amount of YouTube videos devoted to dissecting her comedy act and comparing it to other comics accusing her of lifting material. If you don’t know what I’m talking about or don’t care, this bodes well for you finding entertainment value in Schumer’s latest Snatched.Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: It starts out interesting but eventually you want to tell this movie to go fuck itself.

The Dinner accomplishes something most movies can’t. It contains three of the most wretched and deplorable characters in recent movie memory. The film gives you enough to explain away their behavior but then piles on to make it nearly impossible to defend their actions. The Dinner has 4 main characters and 3 of them are awful human beings. Come on!Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: It takes a special movie to thrive at 2-plus hours and this sequel isn’t that movie. If Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 were more self-aware there would have been a kitchen sink in the movie because everything else is.

Before seeing Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, I was warned on Twitter to not see it without first seeing the first installment in the series. After seeing the latest in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I’m not really sure where that warning came from or why the movie would have been enhanced by following such advice. If anything, I probably would have been more disappointed in the movie as my favorite thing about GotGV2 was the characters and the cast. It didn’t take long to pick up their story arcs (with an assist from a quick recap of the original GotG thanks to Wikipedia) and it wasn’t difficult to follow the plot despite a lack of background on the film or its characters.Read More →

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Hot Take: It takes a little bit for this comedy to get going but once the laughs start coming, they don’t stop. How To Be A Latin Lover exudes joy in its performances and has an unexpectedly sweet center that is endearing.

Preconceived notions are the enemy of a lot of films. I know I walked into How To Be A Latin Lover expecting to find a lot wrong with the film based solely on the trailer. The film is about a man who decides he’s never going to work and, instead, find a rich woman to take care of his financial needs by giving her sexual attention. Come on! Can you blame me for expecting the worst?Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: With talent like Tom Hanks, Emma Watson and John Boyega at its disposal, The Circle shouldn’t land with as loud of a thud as it does. A colossal waste of time.

I really wanted The Circle to be good. April was a rather weak month of releases but it landed at the top of MHT’s anticipated films of the month list. There’s a lot to worry about when it comes to our privacy in this much more transparent, digital age and that gives The Circle a solid foundation to build something compelling and timely. Unfortunately, The Circle feels about 5 years too late and today’s fears don’t match yesterday’s concerns and The Circle‘s paranoid plot appears outdated and off the mark.Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: 2017 still doesn’t have a 5 star movie but it does have a new #1. Sleight is a genre blending (and bending) delight. It feels fresh which is something severely lacking in today’s cinematic world.

Typically, I get a little nervous when I see Blumhouse Tilt and WWE Studios as the film distributor. This year, Blumhouse Tilt is having a banner year with Split, Get Out and now Sleight. As for WWE Studios, Sleight is one of the rare releases that doesn’t feature an appearance from their stable of wrestling superstars. Blumhouse Tilt and WWE Studios have tag teamed a film previously with rather disappointing results as they’ve paired up to release Incarnate in 2016 and The Resurrection of Gavin Stone earlier this year. Neither were received well and the history of the two studios provided plenty of reservations about what to expect from Sleight.Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: This classic adventure film is both reserved and resplendent in its telling of the story of Colonel Percy Fawcett, a military man-turned-explorer sent to South America on a mapping expedition that turned into a lifelong obsession with finding a mythical lost city deep within the Amazon.

The Lost City of Z is based on a New York Times bestseller by David Grann entitled The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. The nonfiction tale of Percy Fawcett written and directed by James Gray spans 2 hours and 20 minutes and crams a lot into its epic run time. It’s a risky proposition for a film to try and cover so much and extend past the 2 hour mark but the film maintains an engaging pace and is engrossing enough to carry the audience through to the finish without that belabored feeling many movies of its length can sometimes give you.Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: Is it the story of a love triangle set against the backdrop of the Armenian Genocide or was it the story of Armenian Genocide set against the backdrop of a love triangle? Technically, there’s a fourth person involved… does that make it a love rectangle?

There’s so much promise in The Promise. Not only does it boast an impressive cast featuring Oscar Isaac, Christian Bale and Charlotte Le Bon in the main roles, the largely untold story of the Armenian Genocide is one that seems ripe for the cinema. It’s also written and directed by Academy Award winning filmmaker Terry George who was nominated for Best Screenplay for In the Name of the Father (1993) and Hotel Rwanda (2004). With all of that going for it, The Promise still can’t get out of its own way, focusing on a rather dull love triangle invented for dramatic purposes yet its placement in the film actually strips away most of the drama of the 2 hour and 14 minute film.
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