Movie Review: Insidious Chapter 2
Director James Wan (Saw, The Conjuring) is back to work thoroughly creeping out audiences everywhere once again in Insidious: Chapter 2, the follow up to his low-budget Insidious (2011). The original film was made for $1.5 million and made $100 million, making it one of the most profitable films of that year. You would probably assume that due to the overwhelming success of the first film, the sec...[Read More]
Movie Review: Starbuck
It has been a while since a film this unique has come out. Starbuck is a French film set in Quebec about a character named David Wozniak who is in his forties and is being haunted by a past decision that he made to donate sperm while in his twenties. It is a story that is very well done and extremely relatable, especially if you are no longer in your twenties and have some wisdom by way of 20/20 h...[Read More]
Movie Review: Safe Haven
A young woman seeks refuge in a Southern coastal town in the new movie Safe Haven, based on a Nicholas Sparks novel. Though the film is marketed as an intense love story, I would say that it is only 50% love story and 50% mystery. This is good news for the guys who are forced to see the film by their other half. The film stars Julianne Hough as Katie, the girl with an alleged troubled past who mov...[Read More]
Movie Review: Side Effects
A suspenseful thriller with political undertones would best describe Steven Soderbergh’s film, Side Effects. The film centers on psychiatrist Dr. Jonathan Banks (Jude Law) and his moral and legal dilemma after his patient Emily (Rooney Mara) has a severe and life changing reaction to a new anti-depressant that he prescribed for her. Dr. Banks finds himself in quite a predicament that costs h...[Read More]
Movie Review: Mama
Imagine becoming a foster parent for the first time and your task is to raise two small children who have lived isolated in an abandoned cabin for five years. And as if that isn’t challenging enough, the girls are also being haunted by a spirit that has followed them from the cabin. This is the scenario in the new horror film Mama. The story begins with disturbing events in which the girls&#...[Read More]
Movie Review: Not Fade Away
Okay if you lived through the 1960s and/or you have a love for classic rock. That just about sums up David Chase’s debut film, Not Fade Away. The film, which takes its title from an early Rolling Stones song (which is, in fact, a cover of a Buddy Holly song), is the coming of age story of three high school kids with musical aspirations fueled by a Rolling Stones’ 1964 television appear...[Read More]
Interview with David Chase, writer/director/producer of Not Fade Away
With all of David Chase’s monstrous success from creating, producing, and writing the disturbingly popular show The Sopranos, I expected to meet someone larger than life. With his first feature film, Not Fade Away, which he also wrote, produced, and directed being released across the nationwide, I am ready for David Chase to jump out of his skin at any given second. Instead, I find a quiet humble ...[Read More]
Interview with RZA, writer/director/star of The Man with the Iron Fists
“I said to [Quentin] Tarantino, I want to do what you do.” That is what the acclaimed music producer and leader of the Wu-Tang Clan turned director RZA said when asked how his new project movie The Man with the Iron Fists came to be. RZA (aka, Robert Diggs) studied Tarantino for two years on set to learn from the man he affectionately refers to as the “Godfather” of the sam...[Read More]
Movie Review: House at the End of the Street
House at the End of the Street is the perfect jump start to the scary movie season! This movie does not disappoint as far as the horror/suspense genre goes. There were lots of “jump out of your seat” moments, and some legitimate suspense, which makes for the best kind of thriller. The story starts out with Elissa (Jennifer Lawrence) and her mother Sarah (Elisabeth Shue) moving into a new house tha...[Read More]
Movie Review: Hope Springs
What happens after thirty-one years of marriage resulting in two grown children? Your marriage can get a bit stale, which is the issue at hand in the new movie Hope Springs which stars Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones. Kay (Streep) and Arnold (Jones) are sadly functioning as mere roommates – even sleeping in separate rooms at the start of the film. Just as we audience members have run out of pity ...[Read More]
Movie Review: The Watch
Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller are their typical comedic selves, with help from Jonah Hill and Richard Ayoade, in the new comedy The Watch. In the tradition of Old School, Dodgeball, and Wedding Crashers, The Watch appears to be a typical guys movie with a slightly different comedic ensemble (i.e. swap Owen Wilson for Jonah Hill and Will Ferrell for Richard Ayoade or something like that), but it act...[Read More]
Movie Review: Magic Mike
I’m sure everyone has heard, or has seen trailers for the film Magic Mike. I’m also confident that everyone has calculated an opinion based on what they’ve seen or heard. For those of you still in the dark (though I don’t know how that is possible), let me break it down for you – Magic Mike is basically Channing Tatum and Matthew McConaughey performing nearly naked on stage...[Read More]