With now three adaptations of trashy page-turners under his belt, all of which have averaged out to pretty spotty final products, David Fincher seems to have his heart dead set on joining the cinematic pantheon of alchemists such as Brian De Palma and Stanley Kubrick who have successfully transformed lead into gold. However, the proper…
In a moment of weakness, a middle-aged father of two tries to save himself rather than his family in a dangerous situation, an action that has deep ramifications for their relationship. Winner of the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard competition in Cannes in 2014 and Sweden’s official entry into the Oscar sweepstakes for…
Just in time for the Halloween season comes The Paranormal Diaries: Clophill, another run-of-the-mill paranormal investigation film involving a group of people exploring a haunted locale with cameras that capture a whole lot of nothing until the last 20 minutes of runtime when the obligatory creepy occurrences abound. But while this basic description holds true,…
Anyone with a heartbeat knows that when given a particular set of skills and a menacing attitude Denzel Washington knows how to administer street justice. Under the constructive guidance of director Antoine Fuqua (“Olympus Has Fallen,” “Shooter”), he’s given the opportunity to do it again in the pair’s latest project, The Equalizer. As Robert McCall,…
It’s no secret that the phenomenon commonly referred to as “young adult” has taken over the movies, and it’s also no secret that the girls are kicking butt and taking names in the genre’s linchpin franchises like “Divergent” and “The Hunger Games.” Well, ladies, the boys are back front and center in The Maze Runner,…
Entering the theater to see A Walk Among the Tombstones, one might stumble and feel trapped in another cliché-ridden “Taken” in which Bryan Mills sternly promises, “I will find you, and I will kill you.” It’s an honest initial thought to have, however, once the film starts rolling, the stylish cinematography on the bleak streets…
In The Drop, Tom Hardy offers a subdued performance as a bartender in a two-bit dive that gets held up by crooks who apparently don’t realize that they’re stealing mob money. The subsequent investigation slowly stirs up old neighborhood stories and tragic secrets. Hardy’s Bob Saginowski is an area lifer; he and his cousin Marv…
