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

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) Movie Review

July 9, 2017 Alex Brannan

2002. B-Movie horror crowd-pleaser Sam Raimi brings the iconic friendly neighborhood Spider-Man to the big screen.

2012. Following two Raimi Spider-Man sequels—one to great acclaim and one ill-fated—Sony revamps their comic book property with Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man.

2015. It becomes public knowledge that Sony and Marvel Studios reached an agreement to bring the red spandex, arachnid-based superhero into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Now, 15 years after his first big screen appearance, Spider-Man (Tom Holland, in this instance) makes Continue reading Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) Movie Review →

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

2:22 (2017) Movie Review

July 4, 2017 Alex Brannan

Dylan (Michiel Huisman) likes the stability of life. He sees patterns in everything. It fits perfectly with his air traffic control gig, even when he almost kills 900 people in a nearly botched landing.

On this plane is his new love interest Sarah (Teresa Palmer). They meet at the hilariously-named air ballet “Beginnings,” in which they Continue reading 2:22 (2017) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Love It, Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Okja (2017) Movie Review

July 4, 2017 Alex Brannan

Okja is an elephant-sized genetically modified pig, raised for 10 years by Mija (Seo-Hyun Ahn) and her grandfather in the Korean mountains. To one, Okja is a giant teddy bear of a pet. To another, namely the head of the company that created him Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton), it is a massive money-making food commodity.

Okja is, once it gets going, a chase film involving three (eventually two) parties. This chase cuts through a narrative with tropes of coming of age and satire, neither of which reach their full potential.

If the indelible adorableness of Okja does not get to your heart, then this story may Continue reading Okja (2017) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Drama, Like It

Win it All (2017) Movie Review

July 3, 2017 Alex Brannan

The setup to Win it All, the new film from director Joe Swanberg who co-wrote the film with its star Jake Johnson, is an anticipatory slippery slope. Compulsive gambler Eddie (Johnson) is left with a shady bag of cash. We know what is about to happen. He knows it too, repeating “Oh, no” with a nervous dread.

Eddie starts on an uptick. An on-screen counter shows us as he Continue reading Win it All (2017) Movie Review →

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

The Beguiled (2017) Movie Review

June 30, 2017 Alex Brannan

In a wooded hideaway in Virginia is a school for girls led by Miss Martha (Nicole Kidman). Three years deep into the Civil War, Confederate patrols make their way through the area frequently, but Martha and the girls also lie in fear of potential Yankee parties. They whisper stories of Union soldiers raping Southern women, painting uncivilized pictures of the unseen army.

It is understandable, then, that the inhabitants of the plantation take to wounded soldier Cpl. John McBurney (Colin Farrell) with Continue reading The Beguiled (2017) Movie Review →

Love It, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Television Reviews, TV Drama

Black Mirror: The National Anthem (2011) Television Review

June 30, 2017 Alex Brannan

The Princess (Lydia Wilson) has been kidnapped. Held for ransom. For Prime Minister Michael Callow (Rory Kinnear), the only way to save her: have “full unsimulated sexual intercourse with a pig” on live television.

Thus is our introduction to the callous, cruel universe of Black Mirror, the anthology drama series that takes aim at

Continue reading Black Mirror: The National Anthem (2011) Television Review →

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

The House (2017) Movie Review

June 29, 2017 Alex Brannan

Scott (Will Ferrell) and Kate (Amy Poehler) Johansen need money for their daughter’s (Ryan Simpkins) college tuition. The city council-sponsored scholarship she was supposed to earn was pulled due to budget cuts. Scott and Kate fail to get raises at their respective workplaces.

Then there’s Frank (Jason Mantzoukas), the gambling and internet porn addict best friend of Scott whose wife has left him. In shambles, all Frank wants is to Continue reading The House (2017) Movie Review →

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

Baby Driver (2017) Movie Review

June 27, 2017 Alex Brannan

Baby (Ansel Elgort) is a getaway driver. He works under Kevin Spacey’s Doc, a heist mastermind who never works with the same crew twice but who considers Baby his lucky charm. A lucky charm that he has under his thumb thanks to a juvenile mistake that Baby pulled on him at a young age.

Baby is the eccentric protagonist and your archetypal “mysterious quiet type” character. After an accident left him both orphaned and ailed by tinnitus, Baby lives Continue reading Baby Driver (2017) Movie Review →

Box Office Predictions, Movie News

Weekend Box Office Predictions: June 30 – July 2

June 27, 2017 Alex Brannan

Last weekend, the fifth installment in the Michael Bay Transformers franchise, The Last Knight, drastically under-performed. Coming in at $44.6 million, the film has received the lowest grossing opening weekend in the franchise.

With that knowledge, the introductory weekend to July will prove interesting at the box office. Transformers will likely see a significant drop, and three other wide releases look to take its place at number one.

Box Office Predictions: Weekend of 6/30

Continue reading Weekend Box Office Predictions: June 30 – July 2 →

All Movie Reviews, Drama, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Romance, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Western

The Bad Batch (2017) Movie Review

June 26, 2017 Alex Brannan

Ana Lily Amirpour’s debut as a feature director came in the form of the genre-bending vampire romance film A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. The film, shot in supple black and white over a soundtrack of trance-inducing electronica and angsty punk, was a beautiful piece about maintaining relationships in an environment rife with isolation.

On paper, Amirpour’s second film The Bad Batch exists in a similar world. Arlen (Suki Waterhouse) is released from “Bad Batch” prison into the desert wilderness of the Texas-Mexico border.

A dystopian world in which cannibalism is a viable form of survivable (viable to the point of being morally questionable as opposed to morally intolerable), isolation is all Arlen has. Especially after she is captured by a family of cannibals and Continue reading The Bad Batch (2017) Movie Review →

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