Movie Reviews
You have to give smaller productions credit for having a story to tell and telling it their own way, with no studio directives getting into the mix. In finding actors who can deliver what both the filmmakers and audience need, self-funding, and having the wherewithal to stay with the process to bring this vision to […]
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I think the best thing about Martin Campbell’s Cleaner is that it knows exactly what it wants to be and doesn’t aspire to push beyond those limitations. Better yet, it doesn’t want to try to one-up its obviously biggest influence, Die Hard, both being movies about a corporate party interrupted by terrorists while someone runs […]
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The enveloping, engrossing Longlegs and the darkness within it are still fresh in my mind as I write this, my second-ever review of an Osgood Perkins film. However, if Perkins was flexing his ‘80s Satanic Panic muscles with Longlegs, consider his adaptation of Stephen King’s short story The Monkey to be his twisted version of […]
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Writer/director/actor Edward Burns seems to have a predilection for putting infidelity and broken families at the center of his films. The formula: Throw in a few siblings having hard luck with their relationships or marriages and watch what happens. For 30 years, from 1995’s The Brothers McMullen to 2025’s Millers in Marriage, the only things […]
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Two guard towers. Two highly skilled assassins. A vast, mysterious gorge between them. Their assignment? To keep whatever’s in said gorge from rising to the surface. It’s an easy setup for Apple Studios’ The Gorge, starring Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy as people hired for their “particular set of skills.” A lively sci-fi/action/horror film with […]
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The latest of 87North Productions’ “retired hitman” slate – including the John Wick oeuvre, Nobody (along with a Nobody 2 coming soon), and Violent Night – smashes its way into theaters today with Love Hurts, another film about a former assassin who made it out of The Life, but at a huge cost. However, there’s […]
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Heart Eyes is a sparklingly fiendish delight, a funny and winning combination of the best and cringiest characteristics of modern romantic comedies and slasher films. It’s a perfect blend of holiday-themed masked killer fare and the fast-patter interplay of Howard Hawks’ His Girl Friday, all rolled up into a rippingly-paced madhouse of a chase movie. […]
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(If you’re looking for Luc Besson’s 2024 film Dogman, click here.) Dav Pilkey’s two stream-of-consciousness, ADHD-fueled book series Captain Underpants and Dog Man seem to follow the rules of great improv comedy; the word “no” doesn’t exist in these universes (except when some authoritarian figure says it), and anything that can happen will happen. Want a […]
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Let’s start with the basics: Inheritance was shot completely on an iPhone with a very limited cast and crew. From rudimentary observation, it doesn’t look like streets or common areas were always locked off, nor were a ton of professional extras used. What you see is what you get in Neil Burger’s thrilling spy drama; […]
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Sometimes, it’s hard to look at a movie for what it is instead of what you wish it could be. Maybe hoping for director Leigh Whannell to take the strengths of his 2020 thriller The Invisible Man and expand upon them with Wolf Man might’ve been asking too much, as The Invisible Man is a […]
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