As a film critic, I’ve realized that, despite being an industry built on self-expression, there are things we best not admit. Among them is saying that you’ve never seen (or worse, didn’t enjoy) a movie considered a classic. In this review, I’m airing out such a secret: I haven’t seen any installment of the Star…
In Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) often speeds down roadways like a bat out of hell. However, in this case, the idiom should be taken literally. Following a pact with Satan, this once renowned stunt motorcyclist becomes tormented by a demonic entity which, on a mission to punish and consume the…
He wore a stovepipe hat, had an awesome beard, ended slavery and was ultimately assassinated. Can you think of a better way to make the 16th President of the United States any cooler? Well I suppose hunting vampires in between his ratifying the laws of the land would make him more awesome. This fantastical alternate…
Daniel Espinosa’s Safe House is a lesson in “Filmmaking with Parkinson’s.” The choppily edited actions sequences — onslaughts of bright colors and enough “shaky-camera” to make Jason Bourne nauseous — are hard to endure. Moreover, they’re built on clichés: Coincidental protests (allowing the protagonists some cover), accidental assassinations, and a handful of close calls. Because…
With Matt Damon out of the production, there was really only two ways Universal Pictures could have kept the highly successful franchise going: Hire a new lead as Jason Bourne and do a prequel or hire a new lead as a wholly new character and fit them into the aftermath of the Bourne fiasco. They…
The second trailer for the highly anticipated reboot The Amazing Spider-Man has hit the airwaves today. Unlike the teaser trailer released in July of last year, this one offers a more defining glimpse into what the movie is about. In a nutshell, self-discovery. Peter Parker sets out to understand why his parents abandoned him while…
In Chronicle, Josh Trank’s (who’s previously worked on TV’s “The Kill Point”) theatrical debut, we learn that, much like how it is with young love, when high school students are confronted with superpowers, things can quickly escalate from skipping stones and playing aeronautical football to committing crimes of passion and bouts of melodrama. Yet, despite…
