Category Archives: Leave it

Movies I wish I had skipped. This could be for any number of reasons: the film was made sloppily, the narrative didn’t engage me, or I simply could not connect with the film in any way for whatever reason.

All Movie Reviews, Drama, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Fifty Shades Freed (2018) Movie Review

Congratulations, everyone. We are now officially living in a post-Fifty Shades world. It’s over. We made it.

Listen, the Fifty Shades trilogy has received its guff. We all know what the critical consensus is on these films. Why bother with yet another review of yet another film of this trilogy? Because, at the risk of losing any credibility I may have accrued as a critic, Fifty Shades Freed is the best of the trilogy.

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Does that make it a good film? No. Is it a film with a better message than the other Fifty Shades movies? Not at all. But it has Continue reading Fifty Shades Freed (2018) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Horror, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Sci-Fi/Fantasy

The Cloverfield Paradox (2018) Movie Review

The Cloverfield franchise continued its adept surprise-marketing technique during Super Bowl LII. With a brief teaser trailer dropping for The Cloverfield Paradox (once entitled God Particle), the Netflix-acquired film from Bad Robot announced that the film would be coming very soon. Opening up the Netflix app revealed further that the film would be available to stream immediately following the big game.

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This essentially unprecedented marketing move is sure to pay big dividends for Netflix, at least in the film’s first Continue reading The Cloverfield Paradox (2018) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Horror, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Winchester (2018) Movie Review

Sarah Winchester (Helen Mirren), owner of the Winchester repeating rifle company, lives in an elaborate, labyrinthine mansion of an estate. “There are almost 100 rooms in the house,” Sarah Snook’s character says early in the film. “It is easy to get lost.”

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She says this to doctor Eric Price (Jason Clarke), who is called on to judge the state of Sarah Winchester’s mental health. This is due to concern that other Winchester stock holders have over Sarah’s obsession with the idea that her house is haunted by Continue reading Winchester (2018) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Horror, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Leatherface (2017) Movie Review

Now, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise has never been the stuff of legends, not like its antagonist-turned-protagonist-turned-antagonist-etcetera, Leatherface. (Well, maybe not protagonist, but it seems like every other sequel wants to make us sympathize with the chainsaw-wielding serial killer). None of the sequels have received positive reception (although I hear the Viggo Mortensen-starring third film is underrated).

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Why, then, should we bother with the 2017 prequel, Leatherface? It is directed by Continue reading Leatherface (2017) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Proud Mary (2018) Movie Review

Stop me if this sounds familiar. A hired gun is looking to get out of the game. She kills the wrong person. She finds herself in a relationship that adds empathy to a job that requires apathy. Based on circumstances outside of her control, her own crew turns against her. Now on her own, she has to leave a trail of bodies behind if she wants to get out and make a better life for herself.

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Yeah, Proud Mary is that movie. Taraji P. Henson plays Mary, a hitwoman who has been following a kid, a young boy named Danny (Jahi Di’Allo Winston) whose father she assassinated a year earlier. She works for a Continue reading Proud Mary (2018) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

The Commuter (2018) Movie Review

The Commuter, the next installment in the Liam Neeson Taken-on-vehicle-x series, begins with a barrage montage of his character’s daily routine. Michael MacCauley (Neeson) bangs off his alarm, is given a book to read by his son, is dropped off at the train by his wife, etc. etc., again and again over the course of days and weeks.

It is not an entirely shabby way of opening the movie—it introduces us to our central character and his way of life, as well as the routine that will define his central conflict later on—but it is edited in a jarring way over the opening credits in a manner that is off-putting.

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The film co-stars Vera Farmiga—mostly via voiceover—as the instigator of a psychological game on MacCauley’s daily commuter train. She tells MacCauley that someone on the train does not belong, and if he can find that person Continue reading The Commuter (2018) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words), musical

The Greatest Showman (2017) Movie Review

One benefit a musical is afforded is narrative efficiency. As we see at the beginning of The Greatest Showman, entire backstories and a character’s drives and goals can be distilled into a single song. But narrative efficiency should not replace depth of characterization, storytelling, nor theme.

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The themes at the heart of the songs in The Greatest Showman are not particularly deep or insightful. The power of dreams and acting on them. The power of individuality and being comfortable in one’s own skin. Tolerance of those different than yourself. A general distaste for upper class snobbishness. None of these concepts are Continue reading The Greatest Showman (2017) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Drama, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Bright (2017) Movie Review

So get this: it’s a buddy cop movie starring Will Smith. Yeah, sure, it reminds one of Bad Boys, only Smith’s partner Jakoby (Joel Edgerton) is an Orc. And Smith’s character, Ward, is racist against Orcs like the rest of the police force. In this universe, pretty much everyone is racist against Orcs, and Elves, and Fairies. At one point, Smith swings a broom at a Fairy, trying to kill it, and says: “Fairy lives don’t matter today.”

So, you know, the film’s subtle.

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Ward and Jakoby find themselves in the middle of a war between the police, various gangs, and some assassin Elves. It is a war over a misplaced wand, which, based on what people are willing to do for it, seems to have an equivalent power to Continue reading Bright (2017) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Comedy, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Downsizing (2017) Movie Review

Alexander Payne’s latest is a sci-fi comic drama about a man named Paul Safranek (Matt Damon) who decides to engage in the biggest scientific innovation since the Apollo space program: Downsizing.

Downsizing, or “going small,” is the process of shrinking one’s body down to five inches and moving to one of many small communities, a “magical” place where everything is cheaper because the quantity the consumer requires is smaller (although, economy isn’t all about quantity…if there’s a demand for small diamonds, wouldn’t the price of small diamonds go up regardless? But I digress).

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Downsizing has a sprawling plot. For a film about shrinking a person and putting them under a glass dome, there is a lot of movement. Too much, to be frank. The first act of the film is firmly planted in Continue reading Downsizing (2017) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Justice League (2017) Movie Review

The headline way to start this review is to say something along the lines of “Justice League is a garbled mess of a film with no notion of subtlety.” It wouldn’t be a false statement.

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But there are redeeming qualities to the latest DC film, coming to us by way of Zack Snyder with some re-shoots done by Joss Whedon. There is a Continue reading Justice League (2017) Movie Review →