Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planet boasts some strong visuals, but its muddled plot and lack of character stop it from taking off If I showed you an image from the colorful and bizarre world of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, you might guess it's one from Star Wars or Guardians of the Galaxy. You wouldn't…
Visually stunning and emotionally resonant, Deepwater Horizon is the kind of "based on a true story" movie that honors its subject, but is also eminently watchable. Disaster movies are already hard enough to pull off. But disaster movies based on a real event are even harder. You have to balance the expectations of the genre with reverence…
The Great Wall is well-made enough to forgive its narrative flaws and lackluster performance by Matt Damon Going into The Great Wall, expectations were both high and terribly low. Besides the whitewashing scandal — more on that later — the trailer wasn't well cut enough to truly ratchet up any excitement. However, the names behind the project were.…
Gareth Edwards' 2014 Godzilla is a darker, visually stunning version of the classic movie monster despite its issues With Kong: Skull Island out today, we thought it was the perfect opportunity to go back and review the first movie in the Legendary MonsterVerse, Gareth Edwards' Godzilla. Now, hopes weren't exactly high following the trainwreck that was the 1998 film. However, with Edwards in…
Kong: Skull Island doesn't live up to 2014's Godzilla or the 2005 version King Kong, but the central action set piece is reason enough to see it. You know your movie has a problem when the most emotional image in your movie is of John C. Reilly holding a hot dog and beer watching the Cubs. However, the problems in…
DC finally gets it right with Patty Jenkin's Wonder Woman thanks to its tight direction, lighter tone, and star affirming performance by Gal Gadot. Finally, after nearly ten years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and four years of the DC Extended Universe has a female superhero been featured as the lead. Not only that, they've…
With some of the most beautiful animations committed to film, Kubo and the Two Strings is a movie that prides itself on story and delivers on its promise “If you blink, do it now.” Some movies just remind you how much you love movies. These are the movies that transport you to a different world, dazzle you…
Chiwetel Ejiofor guides "12 Years a Slave" with a strong, adroit performance. The first time I went to watch 12 Years a Slave it was at the height of its acclaim, buzz, and frontrunner status for the Oscars. There were so many expectations for the film and that may have clouded my original…
Wild Tales is certainly crazy, but every single vignette is a unique take on revenge and the animalistic urges we all have. Unlike a lot of foreign language films, the English title for Argentina's "Relatos Salvajes" is a direct translation to "Wild Tales." I point this out because this, along with the opening title sequence (a montage of…
Weiner is one of the most satisfying and hilarious political films ever made, which makes the fact that it's a fly-on-the-wall documentary all the more impressive Where most documentaries often rely on style to tell a story, fly-on-the-wall documentaries have to rely on the subject. Thankfully for Weiner, the subject is a narcissistic politician that can’t…
