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In: 2018, Hot Take

Hot Take: One of those heist flicks where the bad guys are bad and the good guys are worse made by someone who watched Heat one too many times. Plus, 140 minutes? Really? You could nap through the second act and not miss a thing.

Does Gerard Butler have a following? That’s about the only reason I can come up with as to why Den of Thieves found its way into cineplexes across the country. The 140 minute heist thriller features Pablo Schreiber, 50 Cent, Evan Jones and O’Shea Jackson Jr. as the main members of a group of bank robbers and Butler as Big Nick, a corrupt LA sheriff hellbent on bringing the crew down. Within the bloated 140 minute tale, there’s enough material to make a halfway decent pilot for an episodic drama but that leaves over 90 minutes of filler that adds little to no value to the overall viewing experience.Read More →

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In: 2018, Hot Take

Hot Take: The feel of a blaxploitation action flick of the 70s but with a total lack of anything really worthwhile to deliver anything entertaining.

Taraji P. Henson has made it! After her phenomenal work in Hidden Figures amongst others, Henson has been given a role in a terrible action picture. It’s like a rite of passage for A-list female stars. At some point, a Hollywood studio realizes an A-list female should be in an action film but then decides to give her nothing to work with and totally waste the talent. With Proud Mary, a pseudo-retro action yawn released in January which almost always spells disaster, Henson is about the only thing to stop and take a peek but no one would begrudge you if you bail before the ridiculous and obligatory third act shootout which has barely an ounce of realism.Read More →

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In: 2018, Hot Take

Hot Take: It’s 2018. Why are people still fucking with Liam Neeson’s family?

If you’re a movie villain, at this point, shouldn’t your bad guy dossier have a picture of Liam Neeson in it with some sort of instructions to avoid his family at all costs? The Commuter is proof positive that this is very much not the case as Neeson plays a former police officer turned insurance salesman who is laid off and approached by a mysterious woman (Vera Farmiga) on the commuter train he takes every day to hypothetically do “one little thing” and receive $100,000. The premise is Neeson’s Michael will find a target on the train, place a GPS tracker on them and walk away. Simple enough, right?Read More →