Antoine Fuqua’s solid updating of The Magnificent Seven is a good time at the movies, an easily digestible modern Western that isn’t interested in anything else other than providing two hours of comfortable, great-looking entertainment. Denzel Washington is excellent, as usual, and leads a very sturdy ensemble cast, with Ethan Hawke, Chris Pratt, and a…
Other than the misleading title which suggests some sort of revisionist feminist twist on the old west milieu which never comes to pass, I’m not so sure what the problem was with Jane Got A Gun. This is that supposedly “bad” outlaw revenger that came and went this past winter, getting beat up by “critics”…
Following on from the Skype Horror film Unfriended comes another social media scarefest with Friend Request. The story follows Laura, a popular girl at school who’s life is posted to social media until one day she has a friend request from the school outcast. Said school outcast gets jealous when she isn’t invited to the…
Indie horror Bite claimed that sick bags were handed out at the premiere of the film as it was claimed to be incredibly gory. Once the credits rolled at the end of the movie I was still waiting for a hiccup of bile or sick in my mouth, but nope. Nothing. In quite a tame…
Regardless of what your stance is on mass data collection supervised by Uncle Sam, Oliver Stone’s engrossing political thriller Snowden raises some extremely provocative and timely questions about our right to privacy, the ever evolving war on terror, and how trustworthy our government has been and can be in the future in regards to these…
It’s too good to be true, the mere notion of what Captain Chesley Sullenberger did on that particular day in January 2009, but due in large part to pure movie magic, we’re now able to get a first-hand glimpse of the terror, confusion, heroism, and stroke of miracle that took place on the Hudson River….
Pardon my French but the black comedy Cheap Thrills was f**king disgusting. And aggressively amazing. And never not fully entertaining. But fucking disgusting all the same. This is as nasty of a movie as I can think of – only strong stomachs need apply. The idea is simple: Two down on their luck guys (the…
I’ve got to say that during an opening of a movie I have never been happier seeing a couple being abducted on screen. I know it’s an indie flick and I know to always gauge my thoughts and opinions on a different scale than studio movies, but my god, what the hell was going on…
It’s too bad that the new Mel Gibson actioner Blood Father is getting buried by Lionsgate in terms of a full-on theatrical release, as it totally represents a return to ass-kicking form for star Mel Gibson, and would make for a tasty double bill with the late summer sleeper hit Hell or High Water….
If the musical biopic feels stale to you, then check out the defiantly non-traditional Born to Be Blue, which takes an impressionistic look at the troubled life of famed jazz musician Chet Baker, played by Ethan Hawke in yet another superb lead performance. Independently financed by multiple international production companies, the film was written, produced,…
Films like The Light Between Oceans are a tough and tricky task for some moviegoers, as pure, heartfelt, cinematic melodrama seems to be mostly out of fashion these days. I am not sure what some people were expecting from this visually lush, overtly sentimental, yet extremely dark film. While I would have preferred that this…
Hell or High Water is easily my second favorite movie of the year, not far behind the hard to classify gem Midnight Special. Of course Peter Berg produced (and was at one point attached to direct) this shit-kicking, dusty, Texas-set tale of brotherly love and bank robbing. It’s nothing revolutionary, but rather, underrated filmmaker David…
Afternoon Delight is a sweet little indie from 2013 that deserves more attention. Written and directed by Jill Soloway (Amazon’s award-winning series Transparent) and starring the always awesome Kathryn Hahn, this is an extremely funny, well observed, sexy comedy that hits all the proper notes of pathos and hilarity. Hahn’s wildly amusing and emotionally volatile…
With War Dogs, it’s clear that cinematic funnyman Todd Phillips (The Hangover, Due Date, Old School) wanted to make a film that would raise his dramatic credibility as a storyteller. Sort of akin to the transition that Adam McKay made with his blistering financial meltdown drama The Big Short, this new and extremely entertaining film…
Five strangers – newlywed serial killers, a suicidal cop, and two runaways – become suspect and victim when a masked murderer makes its presence known in an isolated mountain town. A very cool retro dramatic opening starts our story off with newlywed serial killers on their honeymoon of murderous rampage. There’s a cool antique vibe…
Set five years after the events of “Sharknado 3,” a pulse device has been invented by a billionaire that are rendering sharknados a thing of the past, but once a sandstorm hits Las Vegas and tears through a brand new shark inhabited hotel, this leads to another shakrnado killing spree on our hands. So I’m…
