Hollywood Reviews
DRAG ME TO HELL 4K Review: Mad, Visceral Storytelling
Sam Raimi’s 2009 return to horror after the 1992 Army of Darkness, Drag Me to Hell, is from a more innocent time. Just like ye old E.C. Comics and Tales From the Darkside, Drag Me to Hell is a morality...
RED ONE Review: Short on Christmas Cheer, Long on Holiday Schmear
If there was a Guinness World Record for the most jacked-up Santa in a big-budget, Hollywood-financed, holiday-themed action-comedy, Oscar winner J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) would win hands down and biceps curled for his committed portrayal of Father Christmas (aka, St. Nick,...
THE APPRENTICE Review: Or, How To Use Film To Capture An Essence Of Donald Trump
Ali Abassi's Trump biopic is a good film, better than most will think, regardless of what politics you follow.
HERE Review: Tom Hanks, Robert Zemeckis Reunion Disappoints, Underwhelms
As a commercially oriented, artistically ambitious, innovation-embracing filmmaker, Robert Zemeckis (Death Becomes Her, the Back to the Future trilogy, Romancing the Stone) enjoyed an unparalleled pre-21st century career where box-office, critic-approved hits far outweighed the occasional misses or missteps. Awards...
JUROR #2 Review: Legal Drama, By the Numbers
Directed by Clint Eastwood, the film stars Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, J.K. Simmons, Kiefer Sutherland, Chris Messina, Gabriel Basso, Zoey Deutch, Cedric Yarbrough, Leslie Bibb, Amy Aquino, and Adrienne C. Moore.
HERETIC Review: A Diabolical Hugh Grant Takes Two Mormon Missionaries On A Hell Of A Ride
A pair of Mormon missionary sisters find themselves in a dangerous battle of wills with a charming but sinister spiritual seeker in Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’s religious themed horror puzzle box, Heretic. Sisters Paxton (Chloe East) and Barnes (Sophie...
ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES 4K Review
Not only is Halloween thankfully upon us, but the next major holiday, Thanksgiving, at least in America, is next. That can only mean one thing: it’s time for a re-watch of Addams Family Values! Our friends at Paramount Home Entertainment...
DISCLAIMER Review: A Rare Misstep From Alfonso Cuarón
The series is now streaming on Apple TV+.
DON'T MOVE Review: Filler Thriller Doesn't Overstay Its Welcome
If you hike or bike in city, state, or federal parks regularly, you're likely familiar with a simple, potentially life-saving rule: Always, and we do mean always, leave information behind as to where you're hiking or biking and when you're...
VENOM: THE LAST DANCE Review: Third Time's Sort of The Charm
Given how the Marvel stranglehold on entertainment has been loosened as of late, it can be hard for fans to know what to expect from a current Marvel film. It's become clear that having to be an expert across multiple...
SMILE 2 Review: Effective, But Overlong and Obvious Horror Spectacle
Smile 2 picks up right where Smile left off. Well, "six days later," as onscreen text tells us. It's a bold move from writer/director Parker Finn that combines with a bravura long-take opening sequence to announce that Smile 2 is...
PIECE BY PIECE Review: Colorful, Engaging, Surface-Deep Bio-Doc
As a music producer, singer-songwriter/rapper, and serial entrepreneur with a career spanning three decades and two centuries, Pharrell Williams's genre-redefining contributions to American pop culture can't be fully explored, evaluated, or even quantified in a standard ninety-minute documentary. The bio-doc...
SATURDAY NIGHT Review: Jason Reitman Gives SNL the Hagiographic Treatment
For pre-cable or Internet audiences of a certain vintage and generation, the arrival of a late-night, weekly sketch comedy show, Saturday Night (Live), represented keenly subversive, self-aware, comically absurdist counter-cultural programming. It was the last, sustained gasp of one generation’s...
WOMAN OF THE HOUR Review: A Date with a Killer
Women are not believed. This has been true for decades (if not centuries) and it has allowed men to perpetrate terrible crimes, almost in plain sight, without remorse or consequences. I realise this is something of a blanket statement (yes,...
JOKER: FOLIE A DEUX Review: Sweet Psycho Romance Stuck in an Edgelord's Mess
Whether she's loved the character since she was a child or is making a calculated attempt at winning an acting Oscar, Lady Gaga's performance as the Joker universe's Harley Quinn is by far the best thing to come out of...
SALEM'S LOT Review: King Adaptation Leans Heavily Into Greatest Hits Territory
For Stephen King’s Constant Readers, adaptations of his novels or short stories into film, TV movies, cable/streaming miniseries, or comics are almost as plentiful as King’s prolific output over the last 50 years. His first published novel, Carrie, became an...
New York 2024 Review: In NICKEL BOYS, the POV Conceit Disappoints
RaMell Ross directed. For a subject this weighty, though, the aesthetics in 'Nickel Boys' don't work.
WOLFS Review: Clooney and Pitt Renew Their Onscreen Bromance in Breezy, Disposable Action-Comedy
Closer to the end of their feted, award-winning careers than the beginning, George Clooney and Brad Pitt, longtime, if not lifelong, friends, Oscar winners (Syriana and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood …, respectively), reunite once again for writer-director Jon...
NEVER LET GO Review: Halle Berry Lends Her Oscar-Winning Bonafides to Post-Apocalyptic Thriller
A founding member of the “New Extremity” movement that brought French horror filmmakers to the attention of international audiences in the early oughts, writer-director Alexandre Aja (Oxygen, The 9th Life of Louis Drax, Haute Tension) parlayed his fearless, uncompromising approach...
Toronto 2024 Review: THE WILD ROBOT, Ground-breaking Animation Powers Familiar Family Tale
Dreamworks Animation presents Chris Sanders' adaptation of Peter Brown's popular children's book.
