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Box Office Weekend: Revenant Comes Back to Take the Top Spot
Fortunes are reviving for The Revenant. After a stint in second, it bypassed the competition to hold the top spot of the weekend with an estimated $16 million. While it is a rough victory (this weekend is the slowest weekend of 2016 so far), Oscar buzz and word of mouth are giving the film some much-needed revenue here and abroad. In second this week, Star Wars: The Force Awakens needs no help as ...[Read More]
Movie Review: Ip Man 3
To the uninitiated, Donnie Yen is a cast member in the upcoming Rogue One Star Wars spin-off, but for those in the know, he’s one of the great martial artists of Asian cinema. It’s safe to say that he’s on the Mt. Rushmore of martial arts superstars, and based on his body of work, Donnie Yen is more consistent then counterparts Jet Li and Jackie Chan. With Ip Man 3, Yen gets to s...[Read More]
Movie Review: The 5th Wave
A lot of film trends can be found in Hollywood nowadays but films set in dystopian societies that are based on young adult novels are something else. First, you had The Hunger Games in 2012 setting the standard for these films. Next, and both coming out in 2014, were Divergent and The Maze Runner to add to the trend. Both very similar films, even though The Maze Runner was a bit more original. Thi...[Read More]
Movie Review: Mojave
A disaffected celebrity incurs the wrath of a menacing drifter in Mojave, a rote psycho thriller that wears its Shakespearian influences on its tattered sleeves before clumsily morphing into Come at Me Bro: The Movie as each of the two determined adversaries engage in a relentless battle of wills. The sophomore directorial effort from Academy Award-winning screenwriter William Monahan (The Departe...[Read More]
Trailer Trashin’: What’s Happening in the 10 Cloverfield Lane Trailer?
Hello again, dear readers. We’re in the middle of January, and it’s still slim pickings in terms of new movies, although I plan on checking out the new horror movie The Boy this weekend. But there are still cool new trailers for me to watch and analyze. This week’s column takes a look at the first trailer for the upcoming science-fiction mystery thriller 10 Cloverfield Lane. Premise: Waking up fro...[Read More]
Movie Review: The Big Short
Default swaps, synthetic CDO, and subprime loans are not the first things that come to mind when watching a star-studded Hollywood drama. In fact, unless one happens to be a Wall Street stock advisor, these terms sound like nothing more than a superfluous runaround to ensure that the men in charge stay in charge – at least, that’s how narrator Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) sells it. As the eyes, ea...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Ride Along 2 Finally Derails Star Wars Juggernaut
It took the weekend, but not the hearts of critics. Ride Along 2, the sequel to the surprise comedy hit of 2014 (though equally lambasted by critics), opened to lower numbers than the previous film with an estimated $34 million, enough to keep away The Revenant (estimated $29.5 million), which still flags behind its costs despite getting good business here and overseas. However, Star Wars: The For...[Read More]
Movie Review: The Hateful Eight
Quentin Tarantino can do whatever he wants. At this point in his career, twenty-two years removed from the pop-culture milestone Pulp Fiction (1994), the lowbrow aficionado has dabbled in everything from Kung Fu (Kill Bill, Vol. 1 & 2 [2003/04]) and Blaxploitation (Jackie Brown [1997]) to world war (Inglorious Basterds [2009]) and revisionist westerns (Django Unchained [2012]). Each crucially ...[Read More]
Interview with Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson, Co-directors of Anomalisa
The Academy Award-nominated Anomalisa (Best Animated Feature) tells the story of Michael Stone (David Thewlis), husband, father, respected author, and a man crippled by what he considers a mundane life. On a business trip to Cincinnati, where he’s scheduled to speak at a convention of customer service professionals, he checks into the Fregoli Hotel. There, he is amazed to discover a possible...[Read More]
Ten Reactions to the 2016 Academy Award Nominations
The 88th annual Academy Award nominations were announced Thursday morning and just about everyone has an opinion. Although most of the nominations are what we expected, there were still some surprises and a few snubs that got the internet chatting. Here is a list of our ten biggest reactions to the 2016 Academy Award nominations. [divider] 10. Inside Out Is both Snubbed and Surprised Disney/Pixar’...[Read More]
Movie Review: Anomalisa
For a film that, in many ways, embraces its own imperfections, Anomalisa (which enjoys a wide release this week) is nearly flawless in what it sets out to achieve: Using the under-utilized medium of stop-motion animation to tell a story more human than most live action films. The film follows middle-aged customer service expert Michael Stone (voiced by David Thewlis) who, after arriving in Cincinn...[Read More]
Trailer Trashin’: More Fact-Based Period Horror in The Conjuring 2 Teaser Trailer
Hello again, dear readers. I hope the year is off to a good start for all of you. It’s coming to you later than I intended, but here’s the first Trailer Trashin’ column of 2016. Now let’s take a look at the teaser trailer for director James Wan’s upcoming horror sequel The Conjuring 2. Premise: Husband and wife paranormal investigators Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) travel ...[Read More]