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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: A celebration of the lowrider tradition in Los Angeles mixed with a cliché filled tale of men who can’t express their feelings unless it is through heavy machinery.

I’m waiting for Blumhouse Tilt to make a misstep this year. I guess you could call The Belko Experiment a misstep but with a $5 million budget and a $10.6 box office, it’s far from a disaster. I wasn’t expecting much from BH Tilt’s latest Lowriders and ranked it the 23rd most anticipated release of May. While there’s no reason to go overboard with praise for the latest low budget flick from Jason Blum’s cost efficient film factory, Lowriders isn’t bad.Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: I’ve always been worried about how cynical I am. Seeing Everything, Everything and liking it proves I’m not as cynical as I thought I was.

Everything, Everything has a far-fetched premise. Main character Maddy (Amandla Stenberg) hasn’t left the house since she was a baby because she has SCID (Severe Combined Immunodeficiency). As she turns 18 and still longs to see and feel the ocean up close, she meets new neighbor Olly (Nick Robinson) who is intrigued by the girl he sees at the window every day but never outside. Eventually, the two begin to text and even talk on the phone. Maddy doesn’t dare suggest to her overprotective mother (Anika Noni Rose) that Olly visit but instead convinces her nurse and friend Carla (Ana de la Reguera) to let Olly visit. They visit a few times and even share a kiss. One day Maddy witnesses Olly get into a fight with his father and when his father punches him, Instinctually Maddy runs outside to make sure Olly is okay. Maddy’s mom witnesses the entire thing and figures out what has been going on behind her back. No matter what mom does (even firing Carla and replacing her with a woman with the nursing skills akin to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), it can’t stop Maddy from longing to go outside which inevitably happens… after Maddy books a flight for her and Olly to Hawaii.Read More →

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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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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: This drama/comedy has sharper teeth than it does belly laughs. It’s funny but not hysterical but it’s also unexpectedly moving.

Very often, it’s hard to find honesty in a film. Don’t Think Twice isn’t one of those films. The 2016 drama/comedy about a NYC improv troupe who longs to find jobs on Weekend Live (the movie’s version of Saturday Night Light) is not the riotous laugh fest you’d expect a film about an improv comedy troupe to be. Instead, it’s chock full of some of the more difficult moments in life and the stark reality all of the members of the comedy troupe face as they all realize there’s a chance they may never accomplish what they thought they would.Read More →

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In: Hot Take, Ranked, Trailers

There are some huge movies on the slate to kick off the 2017 summer movie season. There are big box office expectations for 3 sequels (Guardians of the Galaxy,Vol. 2, Alien: Covenant and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) and Amy Schumer returns to the cinema to see if she can repeat the kind of success she had with Trainwreck in Snatched. All in all, there are 9 movies expected to see a wide release and 25 movies on the release schedule. Here’s the full list of films coming out in May:Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

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 →