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In: 2018, Hot Take

Hot Take: This future $3.96 DVD at Walmart is tacky, campy and sanitized by the studio. Sometimes they don’t make ’em like they used to because they shouldn’t. 

Pure Flix is best known for their series of God’s Not Dead movies. They’ve cashed in twice on the series with a third on the way but still find time to make other faith-based films to attempt to satisfy their Christian fan base. Samson is the latest effort from the faith-based studio as it takes on an R-rated tale from the Bible and attempts to clean it up for a more PG audience. In its cleansing efforts, Pure Flix strips away much of the story and leaves what feels like a highlight reel of the Samson tale while leaving out any of the really messy parts. It fails to work on so many levels not the least of which are two rather uncharismatic leads with Taylor James looking like rejected WWE talent as Samson and Caitlin Leahy as Delilah. At times, it even feels like something more suited for the History Channel or some other B-list cable network attempting to dabble in original content.Read More →

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In: 2018, Hot Take

Hot Take: Thank goodness this trilogy is over.

If you’ve submitted to the urge to watch the Fifty Shades trilogy and you found enjoyment in the first two chapters of this trilogy based on the wildly successful book series of the same name, Fifty Shades Freed is here to give you more. If you’re like the rest of us, why are you even in the theater? Fifty Shades Freed follows Christian and Ana into married life where they argue more, have sex less and fail to communicate with greater frequency. Obviously, the target audience are the women who made this wildly successful book series a phenomenon and this incredibly successful box office a behemoth yet it’s tone deaf enough to focus its energy on showing Dakota Johnson topless and never quite getting Jamie Dornan completely naked for the third consecutive film. I guess Fifty Shades Freed is into torture, too.Read More →

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In: 2018, Lists, Ranked, Top Movies

Updated January 14th, 2019

  1. Sorry To Bother You
  2. A Quiet Place
  3. Hereditary
  4. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
  5. Juliet, Naked
  6. Avengers: Infinity War
  7. Isle of Dogs
  8. Love, Simon
  9. BlacKkKlansman
  10. The Favorite
  11. Blindspotting
  12. Mary Queen of Scots
  13. Bohemian Rhapsody
  14. Black Panther
  15. Aquaman
  16. Thoroughbreds
  17. Eighth Grade
  18. Creed II
  19. Ralph Breaks the Internet
  20. Crazy Rich Asians
  21. Pick of the Litter
  22. Vice
  23. Green Book
  24. Mid90s
  25. Three Identical Strangers
  26. The Endless
  27. Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
  28. Searching
  29. Mission: Impossible – Fallout
  30. First Reformed
  31. A Star Is Born
  32. What They Had
  33. The Hate U Give
  34. The Mule
  35. Beautiful Boy
  36. A Simple Favor
  37. The House With A Clock In Its Walls
  38. Christopher Robin
  39. Tully
  40. First Man
  41. Colette
  42. Monsters and Men
  43. Destination Wedding
  44. Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot
  45. Game Night
  46. Ocean’s 8
  47. Uncle Drew
  48. Blockers
  49. Annihilation
  50. Whitney
  51. Incredibles 2
  52. A Wrinkle In Time
  53. Deadpool 2
  54. American Animals
  55. Papillon
  56. Unfriended: Dark Web
  57. Solo: A Star Wars Story
  58. Ready Player One
  59. Adrift
  60. Pope Francis – A Man of His Word
  61. Widows
  62. Sicario: Day of the Soldado
  63. Upgrade
  64. Second Act
  65. Overboard
  66. Tag
  67. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
  68. Rampage
  69. Midnight Sun
  70. The Death of Stalin
  71. Every Day
  72. Beirut
  73. Ant-Man and the Wasp
  74. I Feel Pretty
  75. The Happytime Murders
  76. Venom
  77. Bad Times at the El Royale
  78. Fahrenheit 11/9
  79. Alpha
  80. Halloween
  81. The Meg
  82. Tomb Raider
  83. Peter Rabbit
  84. Pacific Rim Uprising
  85. Chappaquiddick
  86. Red Sparrow
  87. The Miracle Season
  88. Assassination Nation
  89. Paul, Apostle of Christ
  90. The Commuter
  91. Gringo
  92. Skyscraper
  93. Teen Titans Go! To the Movies
  94. Hotel Artemis
  95. White Boy Rick
  96. Life of the Party
  97. Bad Samaritan
  98. Traffik
  99. Blumhouse’s Truth Or Dare
  100. Death Wish
  101. Kin
  102. The 15:17 to Paris
  103. The First Purge
  104. Mile 22
  105. Superfly
  106. Tyler Perry’s Acrimony
  107. Peppermint
  108. Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation
  109. Book Club
  110. Early Man
  111. The Predator
  112. Breaking In
  113. The Strangers: Prey At Night
  114. Fifty Shades Freed
  115. Den of Thieves
  116. Super Troopers 2
  117. Proud Mary
  118. Holmes & Watson
  119. The Nun
  120. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
  121. How It Ends
  122. Action Point
  123. Winchester
  124. Samson
  125. Gotti
  126. Unsane
  127. Sherlock Gnomes
  128. Show Dogs
  129. Slender Man

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In: 2018, Hot Take

Hot Take: While it’s perfectly understandable director Clint Eastwood’s desire to honor the heroes of the story, making them act out their tale of heroism isn’t the way to go. The three heroes might be able to stop a terrorist but they surely can’t act. 

Usually a filmmaker has two choices — make a “Based on a True Story” recreation or record a documentary. Director Clint Eastwood has blazed a new path and instead used the actual heroes of the story to act out their tale. I guess the thought is to add realism to the re-telling but instead it shifts most of the focus to the horrific acting from these three amateurs and an anecdotal backstory that fails to deliver what seems to be an effort to convince the audience that it was the trios destiny to be on that train at that particular moment and instead makes it all seem like a fortunate coincidence that landed Spencer Stone, Anthony Sadler and Alek Skarlatos on the train to Paris and put them in a position to be the heroes who took down a terrorist before he could carry out his plan.Read More →

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In: 2017, Ranked

It took a little longer to close out 2017 than it did 2016 and while MHT only reached 151 movies in 2017 (compared to 181 in 2016), it was still a solid year of reviews. It took until the final 26 to get 2017’s top movie which controversially happens to be Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Actually, the top 3 films of MHT’s 2017 list all came from the final viewing period and 7 of the top 11. While 2017 started off with a fizzle, it definitely closed with a bang! Here are all of the links to the previous grades for 2017:

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: It would be an insult to chalk this film up as an 8 Mile clone. Sure, Patti Cake$ is similar to 8 Mile but not the same. It’s better and one of the best of 2017.

Patti Cake$ is many things. It’s a coming-of-age tale, an underdog story and also fits in the nook that’s occupied by many a struggling musician trying to make it narrative that has come before it. Patti Cake$ also shares a lot of similarities to the semi-autobiographical 8 Mile featuring Eminem from 2002 which ripped up the box office at the time. Dubbed the female version of 8 Mile, Patti Cake$ didn’t have the same box office impact. While 8 Mile broke the $100 million mark domestically, Patti Cake$ didn’t even break $1 million during its brief summer run. It’s a shame, too. For me, it ranks 11th of all the films viewed in 2017.Read More →

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In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: Under-the-radar December release should have been talked about more thanks to a harrowing tale and an amazing performance by Christian Bale. However, somehow Hostiles got lost in the Oscar shuffle but that doesn’t make it less of a perfect homage to classic Westerns and one of the saddest films you’ll see in 2018.

Release in 3 theaters in December, Hostiles didn’t find a wide release until near the end of January. Having heard nothing about the film before seeing it, I assumed it was another “Dump Month” release despite the cache of Christian Bale in the lead role. Quickly, I realized it wasn’t a January release at all and then began to wonder why this film, especially Bale’s performance and the stunning visuals, were never mentioned during Oscar talks. Hostiles turned out to be a hidden gem of a film featuring a number of strong performances in addition to Bale including Rosamund Pike, Ben Foster, Timothee Chalamet, Wes Studi, Jesse Plemons, Rory Cochrane, Jonathan Majors and Stephen Lang. Read More →

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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 →