Lives online, lives offline. Activities that only happen because web cameras connect us to an anonymous multitude. What happens online may stay online, or overlap with the “real world.” What happens when a person is one thing on the Internet and another in the outside world? The questions around such alternative lives are pressing concerns…
Two ex-convicts working at a dead-end diner are given an opportunity to change things around when a lawyer proposes a heist, unaware that larger antagonistic machinations are hard at work. While this plotline is fairly standard as far as heist capers are concerned, Hadi Hajaig has cranked the tonal voltage up to eleven by infusing…
If the “Mission Impossible” film series hadn’t solidified itself as one of the most thrilling action franchises to date, it surely has subscribed to the title after its latest installment, Mission: Impossible – Fallout. The sixth installment to the franchise tracks the return of the battle-tested and highly qualified IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise,…
The favorable trend as of late is the recurring gimmick of gender-switching casting in films of previous familiarity. The craze was recently ignited — seemingly — by the 2016 Paul Feig-directed “Ghostbusters” estrogen-driven remake to this year’s earlier released “Overboard” remake with Anna Faris and Eugenio Derbez demonstrating the sex role reversal routine. So who…
“Are you an angry person?” “Who are you angry at?” “Are you ever inclined to hurt someone?” The First Purge begins on Staten Island, where evaluation teams interview prospective participants in a new experiment organized by the New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA), a political party organized as an alternative to the existing system. On…
Mexican cartels are bad and Emily Blunt is good. These are the main takeaways from the generic sequel Sicario: Day of the Soldado, which serves only as an overlong, unnecessary reminder of how gripping Denis Villeneuve’s 2015 predecessor was. This continuation of the story that follows government agents embroiled in the drug war jettisons Blunt’s…
The resiliency of the human spirit is pummeled by a squall of sentimentality in Baltasar Kormákur’s based-on-a-true-story survival drama Adrift, which long vacillates between prettily photographed seafaring and soggy backstory. The movie opens thrillingly in the chaotic aftermath of a storm that has left a luxurious sailboat in ruins and protagonist Tami (Shailene Woodley, “Allegiant”)…
