featured
Movie Review: The Visit
Over the course of his career, M. Night Shyamalan has shown a deft hand with horror and suspense, a major tone-deafness with interpersonal drama, and a slippery grasp on anything approaching humor. These attributes come out to varying degrees depending on which Shyamalan joint you’re watching, but never has the writer/director thrown himself at a little bit of everything with the perplexing abando...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Three Weeks In and Straight Outta Compton Is Still A Hit
Straight Outta Compton has proven itself box office champ again and, with an estimated $13.2 million this past week, a monetary winner as well. At $134.1 million in domestic earnings so far, it has blown away its $28 million costs. The closest contender was newcomer War Room, a faith-based film lambasted by critics, but at an estimated $11 million for the weekend more than made back its $3 million...[Read More]
Trailer for The Witch Reveals a New Vision of Horror Cinema
Writer/director Robert Eggers’ debut feature, The Witch, which premiered to great acclaim at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival (and won the Best Director Prize in the U.S. Narrative Competition), recently released a new trailer. It was also announced that the film will enjoy its international premiere at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival as a special presentation. Set in a painstaki...[Read More]
Trailer Trashin’: Matt Damon is Lost in Space in The Martian Official Trailer
It’s the last weekend of August, dear readers, and the summer movie season is at an end. But there’s still plenty of cool stuff coming to our theaters this year, from James Bond to Star Wars and everything in between. This week’s installment of Trailer Trashin’ takes a look at The Martian, the upcoming sci-fi film from director Ridley Scott. Premise: A manned mission to Mar...[Read More]
Movie Review: The Diary of a Teenage Girl
When was the last time you saw a cinematic sex scene that felt anything like real life? Movies can’t seem to help turning sex into a glossy fantasy, or else a joke – among recent releases, you can give Trainwreck some credit for realism in depicting intercourse, but never without a laugh to follow. So it’s particularly refreshing, to some degree even shocking, to see sex depicted with the kind of ...[Read More]
Are You Prepared for the New Red-Band Trailer for Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse?
For some time now, the horror films we’ve been subjected to around Halloween have been, for the most part terrible. This year there’s a film being released that looks like it might actually be a decent genre offering – the new horror-comedy Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse! The film follows three scouts and lifelong friends as they join forces with one badass cocktail waitress to become the w...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Straight Outta Compton Wins Again
Critics are raving about it, and audiences agree – Straight Outta Compton is a winner, with a second weekend in the first-place spot with an estimated $26.8 million. Domestically, it has made $111.5 million, gaining ground on Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, which took in an estimated $11.7 million in its fourth week and $157.8 million in domestic gross. While neither is a certified success (on...[Read More]
Trailer Trashin’: Breaking Down the Teaser for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight
We’re more than halfway through August, dear readers, and the summer movie season is almost over. But there are always new trailers for me to watch and analyze. This week’s installment of Trailer Trashin’ takes a look at the teaser for Quentin Tarantino’s next film The Hateful Eight. Premise: In post-Civil War Wyoming, eight strangers seek shelter in a haberdashery during a...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Straight Outta Compton Goes Straight Up the Chart
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation may still be doing decent enough business in its third week with an estimated $17 million, but the movie of the weekend is the critically acclaimed biopic Straight Outta Compton. With an estimated $56.1 million, the rise of rapping sensations N.W.A. led the weekend in a big way, much more so than the lackluster opening of the mildly acclaimed The Man from U.N.C.L...[Read More]
Trailer Trashin’: Breaking Down the Deadpool Red Band Trailer
Hello again, dear readers, and I hope you all avoided Fantastic Four like the plague this past weekend. On that topic, this is three weeks in a row that I’ve covered a comic book movie here on Trailer Trashin’. Now let’s dive into the new red band trailer for Deadpool. Premise: In an attempt to cure his terminal cancer, former special forces operative Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) ...[Read More]
Movie Review: The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
This late summer film, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is inspired by the 1964-68 television series. Director Guy Ritchie’s take on the international spy team is surprisingly great! This is a quick-witted, not without some well-timed sarcasm, blast back into the 1960s world of the secret agent. Henry Cavill is brilliant As CIA agent Napoleon Solo. Solo is a former thief that is paying his debt to the U.S....[Read More]
Angelina Jolie Pitt’s By the Sea Looks Disquieting, But Promising
Written, directed and produced by Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie Pitt, By the Sea serves as her directorial follow-up to Unbroken. The dramatic film stars Brad Pitt and Jolie Pitt, who are supported by an international ensemble led by Mélanie Laurent, Melvil Poupaud, Niels Arestrup, and Richard Bohringer. In its style, and its treatment of themes of the human experience, By the Sea is inspire...[Read More]