Tag: Studio Films
Top 25 Most Anticipated Studio Films of 2019
And between the remakes, prequels, sequels, reboots and rehashes pouring out of the Hollywood studio system, we sift through the detritus of continual superhero...
Top 25 Most Anticipated Studio Films of 2018: DuVernay, McQueen & Scorsese Top the List
Looking forward to the theatrical pleasures of 2018, the Hollywood studio system seems mostly a foregone conclusion save for a handful of items which...
Last Knights | Review
About Last Knight: Kiriya’s Culture Club Reimagining of the Feudal System
It’s unclear for who or for what reason Japanese director Kazuaki Kiriya decided to...
Get Hard | Review
The Harder They Fall: Cohen Takes Us Back To Racial Stereotypes of Yore
Screenwriter Etan Cohen makes his directorial debut with Get Hard, a crass,...
The Gunman | Review
The Gun Show: Morel’s Failed Fashioning of Penn Into Unlikely Action Star
If anything, it’s safe to say that The Gunman, the latest film from...
Insurgent | Review
Rebel Heart: Schwentke Usurps Plebeian YA Franchise
In many ways, Insurgent is an easier film to watch than its 2014 predecessor, Divergent, in which we...
Focus | Review
The Grift of Love: Ficarra & Requa’s Perfunctory Take on the Art of the Con
Those hoping for a scintillating update on the con-artist sub-genre...
McFarland, USA | Review
Personal Best: Caro Returns to Studio Filmmaking with Feel-Good Adaptation
It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything from New Zealand director Niki Caro, who...
Exodus: Gods and Kings | Review
Death on the Nile: Scott’s Biblical Epic Unworthy of the Gods
Arriving just in time for ritual slaughter is Ridley Scott’s update on the Moses...
Sin City: A Dame to Kill | Review
Love the Sinner: Miller & Rodriguez Bring Back Hyperstylized Noir with Mixed Results
It has been almost a decade since the visually innovative Sin...
The Giver | Review
Tis Better to Give: Noyce’s Adaptation Too Little Too Late in YA Dystopic Cinema
In today’s onslaught of dystopic film franchises dominated by adaptations of...
Mr. Majestyk | Blu-ray Review
To recall the cinema of Charles Bronson, one can’t get far without referencing his sterling epoch in 1970s era American film, a period eclipsed...
Into the Storm | Review
Storm Drain of the Century: The Disaster Film Gets a Retrofit
It’s unclear if there’s any real point to the rather silly conception of...
Get On Up | Review
The F in Funk: Brown’s Biopic Lodged in a White Man’s World
For all the preliminary grumbling about white actors portraying Egyptians in a...
Guardians of the Galaxy | Review
Rocket Fuelled; Gunn Pleasures Summer PG-Spot
It's the end of the world as we know it. Or so the popcorn films of the summer thus...
Separate Tables | Blu-ray Review
Playwright and screenwriter Terence Rattigan was an indubitable influence on mid-century British cinema. He authored several of the era’s most notable titles, including The...
Lucy | Review
In the Sky With Diamonds: Besson’s Latest a Crock of Crack-pot Sci-Fi
It’s rather a shame to report that Luc Besson’s latest directorial effort, Lucy,...
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes | Review
Monkey Trouble: Reeves Get a Crack at Famed Cinematic Simian Franchise
It’s kind of wild to think how much cinematic mileage (now eight films and...
Tammy | Review
Tammy Girl: Falcone’s Debut a Tepid Turkey
Rex Reed might have been better served to save his wayward disparagements about the cinematic talents of Melissa...
Jersey Boys | Review
Jersey Show: Eastwood Plays It Safe with Broadway Adaptation
While it earns a great deal of credibility due to the retention of several notable cast...
Criterion Collection: All that Heaven Allows | Blu-ray Review
As Laura Mulvey’s essay, “An Articulate Screen” contends, 1955’s All That Heaven Allows was “just another critically unnoticed Hollywood genre product,” the attempt for...
Edge of Tomorrow | Review
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow: Liman’s Simple Sci-Fi is Lean Entertainment
Considerable praise is in order for director Doug Liman and a trio of screenwriters...
The Fault in Our Stars | Review
Never Having to Say You’re Sorry: Boone’s Adaptation Jerks Your Tears
Director Josh Boone adapts John Green’s popular 2012 novel The Fault in Our Stars...
Maleficent | Review
Moralificent: Stromberg’s Debut Gets a Dastard Disney Straitjacket
Anticipation has been extremely high for Disney’s live action dedication to one of their most enjoyably memorable...
Chef | Review
Mostly Favreau: Actor/Director’s Return to Indie Scene a Pleasant Surprise
A thinly veiled allegory for Jon Favreau’s own career, whether he consciously means it to...
Hollywood is a Slave to Fukunaga; Hot Helmer Adds Sony’s “The Black Count” to Future Slate
Take a filmmaker that has easily become tinseltown's hottest commodity with a hit television series (see True Detective) and Hollywood comes calling. To some...
The Other Woman | Review
Birds of a Feather: Cassavetes’ Brings Generic Chops to Predictable Comedy
Long before the inevitable denouement of the vainglorious adulterer catalyzing the female frenzied revenge...
Transcendence | Review
The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes: Pfister’s Debut Oversteps Limited Reach
Hopes were perhaps set a bit too high for the directorial debut of Wally Pfister,...
Draft Day | Review
Final Draft: Reitman’s By the Numbers Sports Drama
Director Ivan Reitman leaves behind the realm of rom-com for a masculine about-face with the football drama,...
Noah | Review
Wrath of a Titan: D’aronofsky’s Demilled Egg
Four years after his critically lauded Black Swan, a work of finesse made despite budgetary limitations from Darren...
Sabotage | Review
Treacherous Uncoupling: Ayer’s Latest May is Fun, Brutally Violent Nonsense
Okay, so, if you can keep in mind that the outcome of its tizzied, conventional...
Divergent | Review
Dissatisfaction: Burger Launches the Next YA Dystopia to Unwieldy Lengths
Director Neil Burger joins genre courting/sci-fi alum Andrew Niccol’s dip into the abscessed pool of...
Need For Speed | Review
On the Road Again: Waugh’s Woeful Film an Offending Lemon
Leaving behind the galvanizing propaganda of his Navy SEALs plugged film debut, Act of Valor,...
Burden of Dreams; Alfonso Gomez-Rejon Befriends with “Me & Earl & the Dying Girl”
Directing a popular television series has become, the new calling card currency for wannabe future feature filmmakers and American Horror Story's Alfonso Gomez-Rejon is...
300: Rise of an Empire | Review
Empire Strikes Back: Murro Piggy-back’s Off Snyder’s Initial Action Epic
Though director Zach Snyder may not be returning for director duties of 300: Rise of...
Non-Stop | Review
Murder on the Familiar Express: Collett-Serra’s Airborne Caper a Watchable Throwback
Director Jaume Collet-Serra has jumped aboard the Liam Neeson renaissance train, reuniting with star...
Odd Thomas | Review
Odd Man Out: Delayed Koontz Adaptation a Tone Deaf Misfire
Filmed way back in 2011 and then delayed indefinitely in 2013 due to legal actions...
3 Days to Kill | Review
Days Go By: McG Can’t Find the Beat in Mottled Espionage Drama
Now with a handful of brightly lit baubles of films to his name...
The Company You Keep | Review
Return for Redford as Actor/Director in Heated Political Thriller
Robert Redford, the actor, has been a staple of American pop culture for half a century,...
The Host | Review
Disembodied: Niccol Unable to Overcome Parasitic Source Material
For the sake of comparison, it’s safe to say that the latest adaptation of a Stephanie Meyer’s...
Oz the Great and Powerful | Review
Dour and Sorrowful: Raimi’s Revamp a Hollow Echo of Magical Source Material
Serving as only yet another testament to the flaccid capabilities of blatant dependence...
Dead Man Down | Review
Down With Love: Oplev’s American Debut Silly and Enjoyable
Reuniting with Noomi Rapace, star of his insanely successful 2009 adaptation of The Girl with the...
Phantom | Review
Campfire Tales: Robinson’s Cold War Conjecture Leadenly Onerous
For his first directorial feature since 2006’s true story tinged Lonely Hearts, Todd Robinson is back with...
Zero Dark Thirty | Review
Mourning the Mythic: Revenge has no Taste in Bin Laden Hunt Film
Director Kathryn Bigelow willfully reigns in her own mythologizing instincts in the harrowing...
Patton | Blu-ray Review
When you are the only General ever feared by the Nazis in World War II you can expect to have an equally epic story...
Skyfall | Review
Bond's 50th Birthday Bonanza His Best Yet?
What a celebration. The Bond series turns 50 this year, and Skyfall is nearly the perfect film to...
Columbia Pictures Join Team “Foxcatcher”; Make it 2 for 2 with Bennett Miller
Columbia Pictures are making an early bid towards possible 2013 Oscar talk by grabbing the distrib rights to the Bennett Miller directed, Foxcatcher. The studio...
Flight | Review
Zemeckis’ ‘Flight’ is no Thriller, just Lazy 12-step Evangelism
In Hollywood, is AA the new Scientology? Director Robert Zemeckis’ attempt at a “grown up” movie,...
Criterion Collection: Rosemary’s Baby | Blu-ray review
Just in time for Halloween, Criterion has remastered what’s long been culturally considered one of the most notable pieces of horror film making in...
Cloud Atlas | Review
Atlas Sneezed: Epic Sci-Fi Flick Spans Eons of Space and Time with Overbearing Message
In what has to be one of the most anticipated directorial...
