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In: 2018, Hot Take

Hot Take: A solid B-movie. If Ex-Machina were a low budget B-movie action flick, this might be the result. Stir in a little Death Wish, too… it’s at least much better than the Death Wish reboot. (And maybe better than the original Death Wish, too.)

I’m very cautious when I see Blumhouse Productions attached to a project. On one hand, Blumhouse was responsible for Get Out, Sleight, Split and Happy Death Day last year. On the other hand, it was also responsible for such duds as Jem and the Holograms, Hush, The Darkness, The Belko Experiment and Truth or Dare. While there’s reason to think that any movie from Blumhouse has potential, there’s also the chance you’re about to sit through a real slogfest. So, a film like Upgrade, a futuristic Sci-Fi action flick with B-movie written all over it and the usual low ($5 million) budget that accompanies a Blumhouse Production, was hard to get too excited for. A relatively unknown cast featuring Logan Marshall-Green as a man left paralyzed after a senseless attack on him and his girlfriend and offered the opportunity to walk again through the use of something called STEM, artificial intelligence that can control your body also didn’t do much to raise expectations. However, Upgrade delivered a witty, fun, violent and even smart script with committed performances and very little lost due to a relatively shoestring budget.Read More →

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Hot Take: Somehow, 84 minutes feels like 184. Action pointless.

From what I’m being told, Action Point had a running time of 75 minutes followed by 9 minutes of outtakes. Even if I looked at the clock before and after viewing the latest Johnny Knoxville comedy and calculated the run time, I wouldn’t have believed it. I would have just assumed that the clock stopped at some point during my viewing of Action Point, an unambitious attempt to weave a plot around a lite version of Jackass. The plot is so distractingly dull, drifting away and missing the stunts is an absolute possibility. This was evident when the credits rolled and during the outtakes, there were fails shown from stunts that I didn’t remember from the film. Read More →

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Hot Take: One of the most pleasant surprises of 2018. Too bad it only made it to 20 theaters… guess you’ll have to be pleasantly surprised on DVD or streaming.

The Endless debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival over a year ago. The low-budget Sci-Fi flick from directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (Benson also wrote and the pair also starred) took another year to get a theatrical release. The fourth collaboration from Benson and Moorhead since 2012 made it to 20 screens which happens to be the widest release of their film careers. It’s a shame, too. The Endless has a compelling plot about two brothers who escaped a UFO death cult but have struggled adjusting to life in the mainstream since leaving the group. Benson and Moorhead star as the brothers and the independent look and feel is evident but also, the quality of this small, relatively unknown film is also obvious from start to finish. While not quite a 5 star film, The Endless offers up a successful Sci-Fi flick on a shoestring budget with a tinge of horror and a number of unique twists.Read More →

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Hot Take: Harsh reality set in watching Solo: A Star Wars Story. I realized maybe I don’t care about Han Solo’s backstory enough for a prequel. While still above average, it’s a step backward from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and doesn’t earn a guaranteed sequel.

Solo: A Star Wars Story is the second “Star Wars Story” to be told outside of the main films. While Rogue One: A Star Wars Story did a solid job of telling the story of how the Rebellion obtained the blueprints that eventually led to the destruction of the Death Star in Star Wars: A New Hope (the first Star Wars film ever which technically was the fourth Star Wars chapter but which became the fifth chapter once Rogue One was introduced and now is the sixth chapter if you place Solo: A Star Wars Story in sequential order), it was all about nostalgia right down to the way the film was shot. Granted, it introduced a handful of new characters but most of them died in their effort to obtain the blueprints and act only as a footnote in the Star Wars tale. With Solo: A Star Wars Story, while the film had a little bit of nostalgia, this chapter relied strictly on fan service and, if you’re a Han Solo fan, delivered a slightly above average prequel to how Han became Han Solo, how he met Chewbacca and how Han became the Millennium Falcon’s captain. Director Ron Howard was brought in to salvage the film after the directorial team of Phil Lord and Chris Miller were fired. He reshot most of the film which ended up having the look and feel more closely resembling the prequels than the original trilogy or the latest works. The resulting film is an example of the Star Wars franchise playing it completely safe without much risk of total failure as there is plenty to see here and discuss about Han and this aspect of the Star Wars universe that was revealed.Read More →

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In: 2018, Ranked

Still about 2 weeks behind the 2017 pace, it’s time to recap the last 25 movies seen and give them arbitrary grades. If you prefer the thumbs up/down methodology, that’s here, too! Three 5 star films join Love, Simon as the 5 star films of 2018 and A Quiet Place owns the top spot of 2018 through May for Movie Hot Take. There’s a new bottom, too… Show Dogs. MHT reviewed the uncut Show Dogs, too. Don’t you feel special? Here’s the second batch of 25 films of 2018, graded:Read More →

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In: 2018, Hot Take

Hot Take: Decent follow-up that obliterates the fourth wall. It’s more of the same BUT that’s a good thing. It does occasionally get too smug but sequels have a habit of smelling themselves, don’t they?

I was never a big Ryan Reynolds fan. I think I once had an argument about the movie Just Friends with my brother and said some pretty harsh things about how I felt Reynolds was completely overrated. (Note: This isn’t making me want to go back and re-watch Just Friends to see if I have a different opinion. I still think it’s a pretty shitty movie. Just sayin’!) There are roles that actors can get, though, that they are just made for. Reynolds has the luxury of getting a second crack at the role after the first time in the role (in a supporting role as Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine). In Deadpool, Reynolds turned the superhero genre on its ear with a wise-cracking send-up of superhero flicks but also a serious kick-ass action-packed comic book film that captures the essence of the comic it was based on. Now, in the sequel, Reynolds establishes the fact that he was made for this role and gives those of us who’ve been poking fun at this whole comic book film renaissance something to laugh at AND again delivers another really solid comic book film that comic fanboys should enjoy, too. It doesn’t quite get to the level the first film does but that is mostly because of the novelty of the film’s premise wearing off and not the typical things that cause the demise of a sequel.Read More →

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Hot Take: An insightful, inspirational and humbling look at the most prominent spiritual leader in the world. Pope Francis offers up some progressive views (on the environment, especially) and words of wisdom for the Christian and non-Christian audience.

Five years ago, Pope Francis was elected as the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. After half a decade, director Wim Wenders has provided a portrait of the man and his word interspersed within a history of Francis of Assisi who took a vow of poverty in the 13th century in support of the poor, animals and the environment. Saint Francis acts as the inspiration for the current pope and the historical account combined with speeches around the world the Pope has delivered to the masses. What Wenders does here that is most impressive is strip away the religion and present a more secular view of the Pope and his thoughts. It’s not easy to do when it comes to such an iconic religious figure but Wenders is able to put together a documentary that should appeal to the religious and non-religious as the Pope’s views, in many ways, apply universally. Read More →

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Hot Take: Are you sure this isn’t a Nancy Meyers/Garry Marshall collaboration? Maybe Bill Holderman is a pseudonym.

No matter the talent of the cast, you have to think a film inspired by the Fifty Shades of Grey book series has to have problems. Heck, we’ve already experienced the problems of the book series being adapted for the big screen. Now, we get to experience a bunch of older women and their reaction to reading the smutty best sellers. I’m sure plenty of cinephiles will get a kick out of seeing Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen working together as well as the supporting cast of Craig T. Nelson, Andy Garcia, Don Johnson, Richard Dreyfuss, Ed Begley Jr. and Wallace Shawn. However, thanks to a mind numbing plot and  lazy writing and directing, even this stellar cast can’t salvage this geriatric version of Sex and the City.Read More →

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Hot Take: Awful CGI, bad stereotypes, silly inside jokes about the cast and an unnerving obsession with canine genitals makes for one of the most painful watches of 2018. 

I had zero expectations for Show Dogs walking in. Somehow, this “for kids” talking dog/buddy cop movie starring Will Arnett and the voice of Ludacris failed to meet that level of expectations. How do you fail to meet zero expectations? Watch Show Dogs and you’ll see.

If, for some reason, you watch the trailer for Show Dogs and think it’s worth a look because there are cute dogs and something in the trailer makes you laugh OR you have children who seem to be interested, it would be more entertaining to type “cute dogs” into the YouTube search bar and watch what pops up. I’m really not sure what would make someone want to see this movie, let alone why someone would green light it. It should be no surprise, though. Director Raja Gosnell’s track record is dubiously brutal. His resume includes Home Alone 3, Never Been Kissed (probably his best work), Big Momma’s House, Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Yours, Mine & Ours, Beverly Hills Chihuahua and The Smurfs and The Smurfs 2. Brutal!

Other than a commitment to make every review at least 300 words, there’s not much else to say about Show Dogs. Screw it! Sometimes rules are made to be broken. Don’t see Show Dogs… you’ll thank me later!

Why Watch?

Your relative worked on the crew and you made a promise. Or maybe you’re obsessed with jokes about animal’s genitals? I’m grasping at straws here.

Why Skip?

You have to have all of your toe nails and finger nails removed… it’s more entertaining and less painful. You literally have anything to do other than this. Anything! Root canal! Punching yourself in the face! Anything!!!

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In: 2018, Hot Take

Hot Take: We’ve seen every piece of this movie before (Back to School, PCU, Revenge of the Nerds, Mean Girls and any Melissa McCarthy movie ever) and understand why it’s never been put together like this. A boring, mostly unfunny comedy that proves yet again that McCarthy should never star in a movie directed by her husband, as if Tammy and The Boss weren’t enough proof.

Ben Falcone and I grew up during the same time period. So, it’s not a stretch that Back to School or PCU would have had an influence on a film he made. Both films, especially Back to School, were run on a loop on HBO and Cinemax in the ’80s and ’90s. Life of the Party, the latest from Melissa McCarthy, is basically an amalgamation of the two movies with a gender swap on the main character and a sprinkling of a few other movies, as well. McCarthy is a more sanitized version of Rodney Dangerfield’s character whose one regret is never getting a college degree. Most of the movies Life of the Party is inspired by are much better than this Frankenstein of a college life movie and McCarthy’s particular brand of humor falls even flatter than normal here as she’s less caustic and crass than normal. The result is a film that will likely strike a cord with the die hard McCarthy following (who seems to like everything she does no matter the quality) but find little to no reaction from the rest of us.Read More →