I feel horror movies have grown more derivative than innovative as of late. The recent influx of supernatural horror has begun to wear out the genre’s tropes, and while every once in a blue moon we get a critical and audience darling like “The Conjuring” that’s only after we finish wading through a litany of…
In late 1974, a young man brutally murdered each of his family members with a shotgun in the middle of the night. He killed his parents, his two brothers, and his two sisters, some of whom were determined to have been awake at the time of his entry to their rooms. When questioned, Ronald DeFeo…
The mythically nostalgic allure of the adolescent summer spent at the lake crosses paths with the trashy, twisty nastiness of the psychosexual thriller in Careful What You Wish For, an entertaining, though highly derivative jaunt through the usual genre motions. For some reason, the protagonist is played by a Jonas brother, but Nick proves capable…
Writer/director Shane Black certainly knows how to make a good buddy-cop movie. He chalked a first Hollywood kill with 1987’s “Lethal Weapon,” the tale of two trigger-happy LAPD detectives, now considered a cornerstone of the cannon. His partner on that project was producer (now super-producer) Joel Silver, with the pair continuing to collaborate in the…
One cannot overlook the Oscar overload of talent tapped to bring in the financial rewards for the tepid on-air monetary hostage drama Money Monster. Acting leads in George Clooney (Academy Award winner for “Syrianna”) and Julia Roberts (Academy Award winner for “Erin Brockovich”) and director Jodie Foster (Academy Award winner for “The Accused” and “The Silence…
The year is 1990. The place is a rural Minnesota town and a man there reports to the police station because his daughter has accused him of raping her. John Gray (David Dencik, “The Homesman”) is polite, cooperative, and remorseful, yet he claims to have no memory of the crime. He insists his daughter is…
Keanu is an effortlessly enjoyable comedy film, bleeding with the comedic chemistry of its stars. Jordan Peele and Keegan Michael-Key can add another success to their belt in an untouched category that is hopefully just beginning.
