Wang! Bang! Pow!
Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), framed by the magician-Robin Hoods The Horsemen and now behind bars, is looking for revenge. Meanwhile, The Horsemen are given orders by the mysterious magician activism syndicate The Eye to engage in their next caper.
This initialization of the plan is sequenced with wonderful pacing and wit. The plan itself is logical nonsense, but it sure is Continue reading Now You See Me 2 (2016) Movie Review
There has been a war between Orcs and Humans as long as anyone can remember. Thus is the world of Warcraft (pun. apologies.). We follow an Orc warrior in tow with his warring clan as well as his wife and child to be. We also follow a band of humans who are combating the oncoming onslaught of Orcs using the magical guidance of the Guardian (Ben Foster). There is also a Halfling (Paula Patton) (which is to say, half Orc, half human) who is caught in the middle of these warring races.
The film throws you into a narrative already in motion, in medias res as is the fantasy genre standard. The problem with this in this particular instance is Continue reading Warcraft (2016) Movie Review
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows opens on a gorgeous establishing shot of the New York skyline. It is one of the few shots in the film not tightly framing partial faces engaging in reaction shots.
In the aftermath of Shredder (Brian Tee) terrorizing NYC, Vern “The Falcon” (Will Arnett) has taken all of the credit, and the Turtles have returned to the shadows. That is, until Shredder and two bumbling goons Continue reading Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016) Movie Review
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
In The Nice Guys, two private investigators, one licensed (Ryan Gosling) and one unlicensed (Russell Crowe), go after the same lost woman who has strange ties with the adult film industry.
Shane Black directs this 1970s crime noir comedy. The film visually feels like a Continue reading The Nice Guys (2016) Movie Review
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
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
Two couples move in to a quaint duplex and, coincidentally, both are expecting. Kate and Justin (Clemence Poesy and Stephen Campbell Moore) are unassuming and innocently critical. Theresa and Jon (Laura Birn and David Morrissey) are welcoming and intolerably tidy. Their lives initially appear like mirrors with only the slightest light refracted, but the light starts to bend more and more when they sit down for dinner together. And this light can only hope to continue bending away from center as the film progresses.
The first act, culminating in this dinner scene, is structured with precision. The editing may be standard shot-reverse shots, but the compositions are Continue reading The Ones Below (2016) Movie Review
The premise of Captain America: Civil War is exactly what it sounds like: a legislation called the Sokovia Accords will put restrictions on the power of superheroes, and it threatens to tear the Avengers in two. Divided, faction leaders Cap (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) face off in a heated battle for the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
Narratively, the film juggles many balls, but few of them get dropped. Sure, they are Continue reading Captain America: Civil War (2016) Movie Review
In Green Room, a group of young and conceited punk rockers travel to one last unscheduled gig after their tour bottoms out. The White Supremacist punk scene of the club proves to be more shady than it first appears. The mosh pit is slowed to a balletic chaos as they perform. The atmosphere of the audience is unforgiving. And the green room backstage is an environment of violent undoing.
The film, like the music it portrays, is unrefined, but it is a purposefully stylized unrefined. The low key lighting and grimy aesthetic is what has become “torture porn chic.”
What writer-director Jeremy Saulnier, whose 2013 microbudget indie thriller Blue Ruin received critical success, does differently than torture porn is deliver a Continue reading Green Room (2016) Movie Review
CineFiles Movie Reviews 