Perhaps the most important thing to note about writer-director Andrew Semans’s new film, “Resurrection,” is not that it is horrifying, but rather that it is grippingly horrifying. It may be described as a “psychological thriller,” and while those words are… Read More ›
Years ago, NBC offered up reruns by explaining, “if you haven’t seen it, it’s new to you.” The same sort of notion is present in DreamWorks Animation’s latest, “The Bad Guys.” Rather than just recycling an old episode though, what… Read More ›
In my review of the first “Sonic the Hedgehog” movie, I suggested that the film had managed an incredible task – it had exactly the same amount of good and bad within it and therefore somehow hit a neutral state…. Read More ›
“You had me at hello.” Renée Zellwegger’s line from “Jerry Maguire” has become something of a punchline (maybe it was a punchline from the moment the film came out), but there is still truth in there. Sometimes, from the moment… Read More ›
Is there a reason for it? Even if we don’t know why someone in a movie acts in a specific manner, or takes a specific action, does the character have a reason for taking the action? If the answer is… Read More ›
You have almost undoubtedly heard the saying, “Chocolate and peanut butter — two great tastes that go great together.” Reese’s wasn’t wrong, the peanut butter cup is delicious, but there’s something important there in that idea at the saying’s core… Read More ›
Liam Neeson, as we always note, has a very particular set of skills. It isn’t just Neeson’s on screen characters that do, it’s the man himself. The actor has the ability to portray aging killers with a heart of gold… Read More ›
Some movies are stuffed to the gills, packed with quick cuts and a constantly shifting camera, overloaded with dialogue and characters and plot twist after plot twist. There is often a sense with such a film that they are trying… Read More ›
Although some of the advertising promises for “Hotel Transylvania: Transformania” to be the final “Hotel Transylvania” film, such an inducement did not, apparently, convince Adam Sandler to return as the voice of Dracula. Yes, after three entries in the series,… Read More ›
As the end credits roll in writer-director Adam Leon’s new film, “Italian Studies,” the character played by Vanessa Kirby is given the name “Alina Reynolds.” She does go by this name for a little while in the movie, but until… Read More ›
What is it that we expect of a sequel? If characters from one movie return for a second, should what happened to them in the first matter? Can motivations from the original, motivations that put the entire plot of the… Read More ›
Although the assumption was not always correct, once upon a time it was easily believed that if a movie was switched from a theatrical release to VOD, or never given a theatrical date in the first place, it was going… Read More ›
George Costanza famously once said, “it’s not a lie if you believe it.” Paul Verhoeven’s latest movie, “Benedetta,” may not deal with anything quite so mundane as trying to beat a polygraph test on whether or not someone watches “Melrose… Read More ›
Some movies do not tell a single story, they tell two or three or more (or none!). Such movies can often display a sort of hybrid sensibility, more easily swinging between various emotions depending on which story is front and… Read More ›
All too many Christmas movies are infused with a saccharine sweetness – a cloying, fake, forced sense of happiness and joy. Every year there are new entries into this disappointing cadre of works and 2021 is no exception, one only… Read More ›
We have all heard of the horrors of working retail on Black Friday, and some television series, like “Superstore,” have depicted the event. What the Cloud 9 employees did not have to deal with, however, was an alien invasion. That’s… Read More ›
Sometimes a movie’s greatest strength is also its greatest weakness (or perhaps vice versa). Directed by Brent Wilson, “Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road,” puts the Beach Boys legend front and center and in doing so offers us a glimpse at… Read More ›
Written and directed by Geeta Malik, “India Sweets and Spices” takes a fictionalized look at one wealthy Indian community living in New Jersey. It is a movie that succeeds in being touching and funny and rather cutting. Slightly messy, slightly… Read More ›
There’s a general sense about “fun-size” candy bars that there is in fact very little that’s fun about them — they are, simply put, not terribly enjoyable. They offer the sense of what is there in a regular-sized bar, but… Read More ›
As I have said before (as have many others), movies are magic. Movies have the ability to transfer us to a new world, to show us new and amazing things about our world, to offer up stories of heartbreak and… Read More ›
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