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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: Another movie where Asa Butterfield’s performance is better than the movie he’s in. 

 A few days ago, I reviewed xXx: The Return of Xander Cage. The secret to enjoying it, in my opinion, was to watch it without thinking. That’s easy to do with an action film. The same approach can be taken for The Space Between Us. The only difference is, while it’s easy to sell the idea of watching a Vin Diesel action flick without putting your brain into third gear, it’s a little harder to do the same watching a Sci-Fi drama featuring a “teen” romance that gets a little racy (don’t worry, though, the actors playing the teens are 19 and 27, so it’s not as inappropriate as it feels) and enough bad science to make the Trump administration give a standing ovation.Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: Really? Do you mean it? Gosh, I hope so!

If there was an award for loudest movie of 2017, I feel safe in saying Resident Evil: The Final Chapter would make the list even though it is only January. Reminiscent of a Marilyn Manson concert I went to in November ’98, my ears were actually ringing when I walked out of the theater when the credits began to roll for what (fingers crossed!) promises to be the final chapter of the Resident Evil saga.Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: Looking for a movie that is 85% action, 10% cheesy flirting and double entendres and 5% plot? xXx: Return of Xander Cage should be on your short list.

What would January be without a few useless sequels? xXx: Return of Xander Cage might be the least useless sequel of January 2017 though as there’s probably a few xXx fans out there who wanted Vin Diesel to come back and reprise his role from the original xXx. They were surely hoping it would have happened sooner than 15 years but at least it was made before Diesel’s 50th birthday which is later in 2017.Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: Apparently, a dog’s purpose is to die on screen to manufacture tears from the audience. It isn’t the first time, it’s been done but it’s never been done with this frequency. Pure dog lover propaganda with dog abuse allegations as background noise don’t jive.

Your dog is going to die. I think that’s the point of A Dog’s Purpose. If you’re lucky enough, though, your next dog might be your old dog in a new body. I guess that’s the other point of A Dog’s Purpose. Trying to figure the point of this one, other than to make dog lovers screech, “Awwwwwww!” and children gleefully giggle, that’s the only logical conclusion.
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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Matthew McConaughey is great… the movie is adequate. What? Did you think I would pan it?

When you have a story “based on true events” starring Matthew McConaughey and it receives a limited release in December, you go in expecting Oscar caliber. The closest thing to Oscar caliber about Gold though is McConaughey’s performance as Kenny Wells, a prospector who has a dream there’s gold in the Indonesian jungle. Even that’s a stretch although McConaughey’s transformation from his normal look to balding and out of shape is almost as impressive as Christian Bale’s transformation for American Hustle a few years ago.Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Michael Keaton keeps turns out one great performance after another. How’d the Academy miss this one?

The only conclusion I can draw from Michael Keaton not being nominated for Best Actor this year is that between Birdman, Spotlight and The Founder, The Founder is probably his weakest performance. Since it came third, the Academy might have suffered fatigue and ignored his excellent performance as Ray Kroc in the story of how McDonald’s became McDonald’s.Read More →

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In: 2016, 2017, Hot Take, Lists, Weigh In

We’re a few hours away from the announcement of this year’s Oscar nominees. Like last year, now would be as good of a time as any to weigh in on who I think will be nominated for this year’s awards. And, for fun, who I’d nominate if my vote was the only one that counted:

Best Picture

My Nominations

  • Jackie
  • Sing Street
  • Hell or High Water
  • Moonlight
  • Fences
  • Arrival
  • La La Land
  • Everybody Wants Some!!
  • The Witch
  • Lion

Who Will Earn the Nominations (From most to least likely):Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: Part of me liked Split. Part of me didn’t. You leave wanting to talk about it though and M. Night is gifted when it comes to getting people to talk about his movies.

M. Night Shyamalan has a knack for creating things people want to talk about, whether they want to see it or not. Split is a perfect example (and a perfectly placed film on the release schedule) of his ability to get people talking even without the usual overhype his previous films have had. In this case, Shyamalan’s secret weapon was James McAvoy who at even a glimpse in the trailer as he embodies multiple personalities (23 to be exact) had people very curious about Split.Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: A complete waste of time. Welcome to January!

Sometimes you see an actor and you wonder what were they thinking? Immediately after seeing Sleepless, a lazy remake of 2011 French thriller Sleepless Night, I Googled, “How much did Jamie Foxx get paid to make Sleepless?” I didn’t find an answer but I have to imagine it was a decent payday considering how bad the movie was. We’re talking about the guy who played Ray Charles and Django in one of the most cliché action movies in recent memory. Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Scorsese’s passion project took 20+ years to make it to the cinema. It’s hard to believe a film of its caliber with a director of Scorsese’s pedigree was this difficult to get financial support. Then again, it won’t make any money at the box office so you’d be hard pressed to fault the studios.

Silence is one of those films that you watch and realize why someone would become so obsessed with getting it made. You also realize, as the film spans 161 minutes and deals with very deep philosophical issues, why many studios wouldn’t give the film the time of day even with an auteur such as Martin Scorsese as the obsessed artist looking to bring the film to life. Silence is beautifully shot and well thought out. It’s a real think piece. It’ll also be lucky to break even despite its somewhat modest (in modern terms) $40 million budget.Read More →