I’m the damned fool who waits until the year actually ends before rolling out my Best Of… list every year, and that’s because I’m often able to squeeze in about a dozen or more films in the last few weeks of December, mostly stuff that others have told me is worth checking out that I either didn't have time to see in the theater or things that simply never came out locally. I also tend to do a great deal of re-watching in that timeframe, mostly in an effort to solidify my top 10...
Read moreWar For The Planet Of The Apes Review
With WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES, as the title suggest, war is the status quo. Director Matt Reeves returns (co-writing this film, along with Mark Bomback, who also had a hand in scripting DAWN) in what is hands down the boldest and bleakest APES entry yet, once again shifting the focus further into the world of the apes...
Read moreBest Films Of 2016
I’m the damned fool who waits until the year actually ends before rolling out my Best Of… list every year, and that’s because I’m often able to squeeze in about a dozen or more films in the last few weeks of December, mostly stuff that others have told me is worth checking out that I either o or things that simply never came out locally. I also tend to do a great deal of re-watching in that timeframe, mostly in an effort to solidify my top 10...
Read moreSuicide Squad Review (non-spoiler)
Ever since that first bit of footage was leaked from Comic Con last year…:) Suicide Squad has been presumed to be destined for resounding critical praise and warm audience embrace. The marketing has been out of this world, interest and awareness are high, and it taps into some of the same sensibilities that made Guardians of the Galaxy and Deadpool so beloved and popular. In fact, if you can imagine Guardians of the Galaxy’s anti-hero team dynamics and humor (dialed down a couple of notches but still frequent) mixed with Deadpool’s more cynical tone and extreme ultra violence, that’s a pretty good way to describe what to expect from Suicide Squad. After having just seen this movie I think this movie will mostly get the sort of positive reaction everyone expects when it officially comes out Aug 5th, but I also think it won’t wind up quite as acclaimed as those two films, for a few reasons...
Read moreThe Neon Demon: How To Embrace The Disturbing And The Beautiful
Even when I don’t like his films (which is rare), I’m always glad writer-director Nicolas Winding Refn is out there in the world making movies. He’s something of a button pusher, sometimes a little too obviously so, but going back to his PUSHER trilogy, BRONSON, VALHALLA RISING, and his breakthrough work DRIVE, Refn remains as solid a visual artist as anyone working today. I consider him a modern day Stanley Kubrick, even if his themes of violence amid a certain amount of serenity don’t always hold together. Again, the fact that a filmmaker is even thinking in these terms and challenging the norm (of both big-budget and indie films) is just a sight to behold.
Read moreThe Witch: A Love Letter
If you happened to read my Best Films of 2015 list, you would have noticed near the top of that list sat this film that I was lucky enough to see at Fantastic Fest last year. With its official wide release coming this Friday, I felt it appropriate to expand more on my love for this film, and give you all a more in-depth look at what I feel a “true” horror film is...
Read moreDeadpool Movie Review
I said something similar to last year when Fury Road came out, which after seeing this movie begs repeating: “The fact that this movie even exists is a triumph.” Not to get lost in the history of the project, but I’m very confident some of you may not even remember the fact that Ryan Reynolds has played the foul-mouthed, psychotic, Marvel comics mercenary Wade Wilson/Deadpool before - in 2009’s X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE. The main problem there was that the geniuses behind that film took a character whose most evil weapon is his mouth and literally sewed it shut… Then poor Reynolds had another shot at superhero stardom a couple years later with GREEN LANTERN, and the less said about that the better. (Yes, he acknowledges both of those movies in Deadpool.)...
Read moreThe Worst Films of 2015
First, the good news: 2015 was a fantastic year at the movies. There were great original stories, sequels done right, adaptations that match their source material, and more. But for every great movie, there are a ton of bad ones too. For those of you with short memories, 2015 was also when we watched Ed Helms (The Office, The Hangover) bathe in raw sewage, the Entourage crew prove their alpha-douche toxicity could not be contained to the small screen, and a recent Oscar winner giving such an over the top, hammy performance while at the same time wearing such a sparkly costume, that I reckon he’s been taking wardrobe inspiration from Jareth the Goblin King (if you haven’t seen Labyrinth, you really should).
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