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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: A bad Lifetime movie that somehow found a way to be shown in theaters.

It’s difficult to watch Hollywood waste $10 million. With a $10 million budget, they could have at least sprung for a halfway decent score. Unfortunately, the score is only one of the many things wrong with When the Bough Breaks. However, it’s especially torturous and hard to escape as, for some reason, the volume dominates the non-speaking parts of the film. It does nothing to deaden the pain suffered from viewing a moronic script with characters who, apparently, are intelligent enough to be a lawyer about to make partner and a chef about to become a CEO (well, for a few months until it’s off to being a mom, I guess) but not smart enough to demand a more efficient background check.Read More →

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Hot Take: The most horrorific thing about The Disappointments Room occurred when it was pulled off the shelf and released after sitting there for 2 years.

The Disappointments Room is at least truthful in its title. Disappointment is a good word to use to describe your experience afterward. Dreadful is another. Dull works, too. The worst part about the film might be the fact that you feel like you’ve seen it before. The Disappointments Room is like a weird, awful combination of 2005’s The Skeleton Key and 2016’s The Other Side of the Door. It is somehow elevated above The Other Side of the Door by the mere presence of Kate Beckinsale but not by much.Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: It’s as if Captain Chesley Sullenberger landed that plane in the Hudson just so Tom Hanks would have the perfect role to play.

Every once in a while Tom Hanks makes a mistake when choosing a role to play. It’s rare. It happened earlier this year with A Hologram for the King. Even in that case, it was a minor misstep as Hanks was okay in the role but the movie itself was somewhat of a disappointment. When it comes to Sully, though, and Hanks’ role as Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the heroic pilot whose quick decision making saved 155 people on board US Airways Flight 1549 when he pulled off an impossible forced water landing in the middle of the Hudson, Hanks made a great decision. As did director Clint Eastwood in choosing to make a story well worth being told.Read More →

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Hot Take: An emotional powder keg with an unnecessarily long fuse.

The Light Between Oceans has a lot going for it. Both Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander who fell in love during the filming of the movie appear very committed to their roles. The supporting cast bolstered by a very good performance by Rachel Weisz is complementary to the two star’s performances. The cinematography makes the film beautiful to look at. The characters feel authentic, the mood is set yet the story and all its contrivances fall short of anything more than mediocrity.Read More →

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Hot Take: If Ex Machina were a handbag, Morgan would be the cheap knock-off you buy on a street corner in Manhattan. However, there’s still something halfway decent about Luke Scott’s directorial début.

Morgan isn’t a film I’m going to spend a lot of time defending. If you say it’s boring or banal or hackneyed, I doubt I could win the argument against. While the film did lack some originality (thanks mostly to the release of Ex Machina last year and the similarities between the two) and had a few lulls, there were some decent performances including Anya Taylor-Joy as the titular character in her follow up to her excellent performance in The Witch. Seeing Luke Scott’s first effort considering his lineage was also something entertaining. As a fan of father Ridley and uncle Tony, the family roots are strong in filmmaking and it’s a real curiosity to see what son Luke is capable of.Read More →

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Hot Take: Vicious and occasionally terrifying. Don’t Breathe goes places you don’t expect it to. Not because it’s surprising but because, well, who does that with a turkey baster?

Don’t Breathe is one of those rare horror movies that is about as scary as you expect it to be and more terrifying to think about even though it is incredibly unlikely you or I will ever find ourselves in the predicament the three main characters find themselves in. The premise is simple: Three young hoodlums who rob houses for a living in Detroit look for a big score and bite off more than they bargain for when they decide to rob a blind man’s house who is supposedly sitting on over $300,000. Other than the first 10 minutes or so, this is the movie. For roughly 78 minutes, we watch these three square off with the Blind Man (Stephen Lang) as they get in to his house and then try desperately to get out before he takes them out.Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: If those generic Windows backgrounds were turned into a cheesy action movie, you’d probably get something that resembles Mechanic: Resurrection.

The best thing I can say about Mechanic: Resurrection is that it’s pleasing to the eye. The film features globetrotting scenes shot in beautiful settings in Brazil, Thailand, Australia and Bulgaria. Jason Statham is a physical specimen that is sure to be eye candy for any female who has the misfortune of being dragged to see this sequel to the 2011 remake of a 1972 film about an elite assassin who specializes in making his assassinations look like suicides or accidents. Then there’s Jessica Alba who, when she’s not getting her ass kicked (something that occurs frequently in this film), proves again and again that the camera loves her. Unfortunately, the movie itself is a assault on common sense as this far-fetched action flick leaves a lot to be desired.Read More →

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Hot Take: Roberto Duran’s story is an amazing one. Too bad Hands of Stone is only mediocre thanks to it’s made-for-cable TV-like quality and overreaching story that tries to do too much.

Earlier this year, the first season of American Crime Story recreated the O.J. Simpson trial. It was wonderfully cast and the Simpson case was as compelling as TV got the first time around so it was no surprise it made for an interesting retelling. As compelling as American Crime Story was, there was something remarkably “made for television” about it. That makes sense since it was a cable TV series. The same can be said for Hands of Stone which is wonderfully cast and the story of Roberto Duran is as compelling a boxing story as you’ll find. However, it felt remarkably “made for television” but somehow made it to your local cinema. Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Before Sunrise meets the First Couple. And that’s a good thing!

If you have a top 100 films list and Before Sunrise isn’t on it, I just assume you haven’t seen it. It’s the quintessential movie about two people getting to know each other. It’s a film that has been burned on my memory for two decades yet it feels as fresh in my mind as something I watched in the last few hours. So, to say Southside With You, the “truth inspired” story of the first date of Barack Obama and Michelle Robinson, was structurally reminiscent of Before Sunrise isn’t really much of a knock on Southside With You. If anything, it’s supportive of a relatively smart decision as the 1995 Richard Linklater film isn’t a bad one to mimic. (Heck, Linklater did it himself a few more times afterward with incredibly positive results!)Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Just because the movie is based on a true story about a singer who can’t actually sing doesn’t mean the story has to be tone deaf.

One thought kept coming to mind while watching Florence Foster Jenkins: “How far away is William Hung: The Movie?” It’s a scary thought but how much of a stretch is it to see Hung’s story turned into a cinematic Hollywood tale after viewing Florence Foster Jenkins? Honestly, not much of one.Read More →