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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: This cash cow should have been called The Predictable and the Tedious.

As much as I am not a fan of this franchise, damn if it isn’t highly successful. Knowing the entire movie slate was cleared for the 8th installment of The Fast and the Furious franchise, I finally buckled in for a full fledged start to finish watching of my very first full taste of the franchise with The Fate of the Furious. Having seen bits and pieces of many of the other installments in the series, I knew there would be at least one spectacular chase or race scene I would enjoy. I was right. There was one. Unfortunately, it was the opening race sequence when Dom (Vin Diesel) races a Cuban street racer for his ride in Havana to come to the defense of his cousin. This is all while Dom is on his honeymoon with Letty (Michelle Rodríguez). After a somewhat entertaining race which (SPOILER ALERT!!!) Dom wins, it’s all downhill from there.Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: Adam Sandler loves to make turkeys… Loves to make tur-ur-ur-keys!

How much money does Netflix have? Three films into an eight film deal with Adam Sandler, it’s pretty obvious they had at least a little to burn. The epic-length Sandy Wexler is Sandler’s latest. It’s basically a roast disguised as a feature film of Sandler’s talent manager Sandy Wernick who signed Sandler when he was 22 and well before his breakthrough as an SNL regular. With most of Sandler’s movies, the question isn’t whether or not Sandy Wexler is bad but how bad is it? It’s pretty bad. It’s watchable though so there’s a win.Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: Sure looked like a lot of fun but this overly talkative mess is too tasteless. It’s a Tarantino or Shane Black knock-off with an untimely facetious approach to police brutality without a big enough entertainment yield.

 It isn’t that War on Everyone is completely void of entertainment. When a movie opens with a pair of cops running down a mime, you might set your hopes high for something truly different. Wait, people actually think mime jokes are still funny? The pair of cops — Terry (Alexander Skarsgard) and Bob (Michael Pena) — are as bad as they want to be. They’re experts when it comes to blackmail and extortion of criminals. There’s the obligatory sit down with the police chief (Paul Reiser) where they promise not to be so bad and the immediate obligatory follow up scene where they’re doing coke in a pool hall bathroom with a perp they are trying to turn informant. Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: Sweet film with its heart in the right place. Chris Evans shows a little range and Mckenna Grace steals the show as Mary. You’ll laugh, you might cry, you’ll smile.

2017 has been an odd year for movies. So far, there haven’t been many home runs. MHT hasn’t given any movie more than 4 stars with Logan at the top of the heap. There haven’t been many complete strike outs, either. While Rings, Sleepless, Collide and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter were all awful, they all somehow managed to squeeze out a 1/2 star rating. While 2017 hasn’t produced anything that’ll be hanging around in the top 15 movies of the year so far, there have been plenty of above average movies worth seeing that would be considered a single or double if we continue the baseball analogy. Gifted is one of those above average movies.Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: A silly cartoon in an age where animated films are usually far from silly. It’s dumb one joke premise wears thin but it also has the occasional moment in the sun.

We’re in a different age of cartoons. There was a time when almost every animated film felt like The Boss Baby. While it might not be as madcap as the Looney Tunes series but it definitely has a Tiny Toon Adventures feel about it.Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: A light, mildly entertaining remake of a darker, mildly entertaining 1979 comedy.

Sometimes it is refreshing when a movie is exactly what you expect. Going in Style, the remake of the 1979 George Burns, Art Carney and Lee Strasberg heist comedy of the same name, is exactly what you expect. Starring Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Alan Arkin, this 2017 update goes in a very different direction than the original. It’s more righteous and seemingly draws more influence from last year’s Hell or High Water than the original Going in Style, at times. Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: Jessica Chastain is a phenomenal performer. The Zookeeper’s Wife is an emotional look at another story of courage and self-sacrifice during the Holocaust. It is likely to get lost amongst these films as many are great and this one is adequate. Did I mention Jessica Chastain is a phenomenal performer?

From the beginning, you realize The Zookeeper’s Wife isn’t going to always be easy to watch. However, for a film which details a heroic footnote to the widespread impact of the Holocaust during WWII, it often downplays the most depressing aspects of the story. It’s solemn nature also has a romantic and softer feel thanks to a strong lead performance from Jessica Chastain who portrays Antonina Zabinski, the titular character of the film. Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: Visually, Ghost in the Shell is pretty damn impressive. Too bad the story isn’t the same as it feels like an overproduced facsimile of the source material.

Call me insensitive. I was never overly affected by whitewashing in films. It could because I’m white and suffer from white privilege as much as the next white guy or girl. After watching Ghost in the Shell, though, you can call me woke. Full disclosure: I love Scarlett Johansson on the big screen. She’s one of my favorite actresses. This probably explains more of why I wasn’t bothered by the choice of Johansson to play the main character of the live action version of the immensely popular 1995 Japanese animation of the same name (not to mention the original manga which actually launched the concept.). However, seeing Johansson in the main role, two thoughts consistently entered my head: (1) Johansson gives an excellent performance and (2) she’s completely wrong for the part.Read More →

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Hot Take: The only thing disappointing about Power Rangers is that I was completely ready to write, “No, no Power Rangers!” as the Hot Take. Then I watched it and I actually enjoyed it!

Rarely are reboots something I look forward to. Power Rangers was not the exception to the rule. If you ever caught a glimpse of the ’90s live action TV show, you’d expect this reboot to be nothing more than a cash grab. However, Power Rangers delivers something unexpected. No, not just because it doesn’t suck. Director Dean Israelite and writer John Gatins take the cheesy concept of the ’90s show and update it by serving up meatier characters and then glazing them with the cheese of the show but without ever fully losing its new identity. It’s weird to say it but Power Rangers is done well enough that its opening box office numbers and the thought of its inevitable sequel don’t make me cringe. That’s actually saying a lot.Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: There’s enough of Gravity and Alien here that Life has a hard time standing on its own. There’s more positives than negatives though which makes Life a decent Sci-Fi horror flick.

You’ve seen Life before. Some people won’t get past the fact that the plot is so similar to Alien and borrows more than it should from Gravity. That’s a shame because Life is an adequate Sci-Fi horror/thriller. If you dismiss Life solely on these obvious glaring issues, you’ll miss some very good performances from a committed cast, sleek visuals and a suspenseful build up to a huge third act payoff.Read More →