Category Archives: Like It

Movies I liked but likely won’t watch again. Something was off that I wish had been done differently.

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016) Movie Review

July 7, 2016 Alex Brannan

After a string of boisterous, and often dangerous, benders at family gatherings, brothers Mike (Adam Devine) and Dave (Zac Efron) Stangle are asked by their family to bring respectable dates to their sister Jeanie’s (Sugar Lyn Beard) wedding in Hawaii. Who they find, however, may prove to be even more boisterous than the Stangle brothers themselves.

As is common with most comedy films, Mike and Dave features characters who are Continue reading Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Comedy, Like It, Quickie Reviews (<400 Words)

Central Intelligence (2016) Movie Review

June 19, 2016 Alex Brannan

Two high school peers: one, Calvin (Kevin Hart), is destined for greatness, and the other, Robert (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) is relentlessly bullied into submission. 20 years later, Calvin is at a dead end job with no hope of upward mobility and Robert is looking to reconnect. Only, this seemingly innocent encounter promises to be something much more impactful on Calvin’s life.

This is the basic setup. Hart plays the straight man and Johnson plays the odd man. Johnson here plays a character with Continue reading Central Intelligence (2016) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Animation, Like It, Quickie Reviews (<400 Words)

Finding Dory (2016) Movie Review

June 16, 2016 Alex Brannan

In this sequel to 2003’s Finding Nemo, an infant Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) is separated from her parents (Diane Keaton and Eugene Levy) and aimlessly searches for them throughout her life until…the narrative of Finding Nemo begins.

A year after the events of that film, Continue reading Finding Dory (2016) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) Movie Review

May 29, 2016 Alex Brannan

In Ancient Egypt, a god is buried. But it is not a god, it is a mutant. Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac). Apocalypse can unlock the true potential in any other mutant, and then use those powers for his own design. That, and he can turn people to dust. After his resurfacing in the 1980s, mutants must band together and reform the X-Men in order to take down Apocalypse and his Four Horsemen.

The first act of the film sets up strong characters and their motivations. We get to see a young Scott Summers (Tye Sheridan) as a teen growing up with uncontrolled powers. Magneto (Michael Fassbender) gets a strong emotional arc to once again Continue reading X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Documentary, Indie Films, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Holy Hell (2016) Movie Review

May 27, 2016 Alex Brannan

A film studies student such as myself often views for analysis only those documentary films that are radical, experimental, or genre defining. This neglects the more commonplace documentary of speculation, event dissection, or character study.

Holy Hell, in film studies rhetoric, could be considered a “synthetic documentary” not in that it is fabricated, but in that it, from scene one, incorporates Continue reading Holy Hell (2016) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Comedy, Like It, Quickie Reviews (<400 Words)

Darkman (1990) Movie Review

May 15, 2016 Alex Brannan

Sam Raimi’s Darkman is an early superhero film in which scientist Peyton Westlake (Liam Neeson) is brutally attacked and left for dead by the mob. Heavily scarred and bandaged, the faceless Westlake becomes the Darkman, and, using his scientific research on artificial skin, assumes others’ identities in order to exact revenge on his attackers.

This film, in spite of being inescapably ’90s in aesthetic, is an Continue reading Darkman (1990) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Like It, Quickie Reviews (<400 Words)

Money Monster (2016) Movie Review

May 12, 2016 Alex Brannan

Stock company IBIS Clear Capital loses $800 million dollars when a trading algorithm “glitches” inexplicably. Lee Gates (George Clooney) hosts a gimmicky, Mad Money-style stock show that gets hijacked by a gunman (Jack O’Connell) as a result of this stock collapse. Our hijacking criminal is trying to reveal the real criminals: the Wall Street bigwigs. How topical.

The film is littered with logical pitfalls and narrative conveniences, but we can let these slide, because Continue reading Money Monster (2016) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Horror, Like It, Quickie Reviews (<400 Words)

Demons (1985) Movie Review

May 12, 2016 Alex Brannan

In Demons (aka Demoni), the 1985 B-movie horror film from Lamberto Bava and Dario Argento, a mysterious film screening is suddenly infested with infectious demons, with the helpless audience trapped inside the theater.

The ’80s horror movie uses dated B-movie effects work. This said, a lot of the practical effects are well-staged, on top of being Continue reading Demons (1985) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Horror, Indie Films, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Hush (2016) Movie Review

May 10, 2016 Alex Brannan

Sound is a vital part of any horror film. Perhaps the most vital. What happens, then, when you insert a protagonist into a horror-thriller narrative who is deaf. This is exactly the case with Hush, which pits novelist Maddie Young (Kate Siegal), who lives conveniently in the middle of the woods with few people within screaming distance (if she could scream, that is, as she is also mute), against a masked intruder (John Gallagher Jr.).

This premise, in its early stages of execution, makes for a very Continue reading Hush (2016) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Comedy, Drama, Indie Films, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Entertainment (2015) Movie Review

May 6, 2016 Alex Brannan

The opening shots of Entertainment are largely static. The Comedian (Gregg Turkington, essentially playing in this film a fictionalized version of himself and his comedic alter-ego Neil Hamburger), stands in an airplane fuselage, looking down. He watches as a clown, Eddie the Opener (Tye Sheridan), prepares for a set at a prison. He looks on dour-faced as the clown “wows” the crowd of prisoners by simply bouncing a ball and clapping his hands.

The first spoken dialogue in the film comes from a tour operator who encourages The Comedian and others to “by all means, go ahead and wander.” Yet the film does the opposite. Continue reading Entertainment (2015) Movie Review →

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