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In: 2016, Hot Take

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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In: To See or Not To See

The first official week of fall is upon us and the weekend cinema will now be competing with both college and professional football. A different type of airplane disaster film featuring Tom Hanks tackles the box office 2 days before 9/11 and is joined by kid’s fare, a drama targeting the African American audience, more low budget horror, an art house inner city flick and a documentary. It’s crowded, so let’s get right to what to see and not see for the week of September 9th:Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

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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In: BuRStS

We’ve reached the 3rd part of MHT’s very special episode of BuRStS. There’s been one heck of a gap between part 2 and part 3 but you had to expect there to be a cliffhanger, right? It’s time to find out the 3rd suggested movie to buy this week and maybe we’ll find out what happened to Dudley, too. Well, one of those things will happen:Read More →

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In: BuRStS

It’s another very special 3 part episode of BuRStS. I wonder if the guy who played Dudley on Diff’rent Strokes has flashbacks when he hears the words “very special episode”? 15 new movies and 1 very important re-release hit the home market as there are plenty of options to stay home and watch a movie this week. Most of them don’t completely suck, either. Here are MHT’s recommendations for what to buy, rent, stream and skip for the week of September 6th:Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

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, Ranked, Trailers

September is an odd month for movies. It’s not quite awards season but summer is definitely over. In 5 of the last 7 years, the #1 movie in September at the box office has been animated. While the MHT list of anticipated releases isn’t ranked by box office appeal (just personal excitement), there are two animated films down on the list (Storks and Wild Life) which might do well when it comes to ticket sales. However, the big guns will be at the end of the month when Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt give The Magnificent Seven a reboot and Mark Wahlberg headlines the disaster flick Deepwater Horizon. Plus, there’s Tom Hanks and Sully which could still be part of the discussion come Oscar nominations. Here’s a list of the 30 anticipated September releases (and their trailer) in order of anticipation:

1. The Magnificent Seven (September 23)

Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke and the director who made Training Day (and Olympus Has Fallen) remake the 1960 Western classic based on the Akira Kurosawa ’54 classic Seven Samurai. Let’s hope that $107 million budget is put to good use.

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In: To See or Not To See

It’s Labor Day weekend and it’s a light release week as just two new movies hit theaters and none reaching more than 2,500 theaters. This is typically the lowest grossing weekend of the summer and with only Morgan and The Light Between Oceans coming out, the weekend should live up to expectations. Here’s MHT’s recommendations on what to see and not see for the weekend of September 2nd: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 →