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

Colossal (2017) Movie Review

June 20, 2017 Alex Brannan

Colossal masquerades itself as a certain type of movie. It opens on the ominous, lingering image of a Kaiju-like monster. Then, sweeping shots of the New York skyline play out over a driving, Dark Knight trilogy-esque score. Then, Gloria (Anne Hathaway) enters, hungover and rambling thinly-veiled excuses to her boyfriend (Dan Stevens) about where she has been.

It doesn’t quite match the previously set tone, does it?

When her boyfriend leaves her due to her drinking problem, Gloria moves back to her hometown, where she falls in with an old friend named Oscar (Jason Sudeikis). An old friend who just so happens to own his father’s bar.

Remember that Kaiju that I mentioned earlier? Whelp…turns out it pantomimes the actions of Gloria when she sets foot on a playground she knew once as a child. It pantomimes everything, including Continue reading Colossal (2017) Movie Review →

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

All Eyez On Me (2017) Movie Review

June 17, 2017 Alex Brannan

At first, All Eyez On Me, the new biopic on rap sensation Tupac Shakur (Demetrius Shipp Jr.), comes off as a film trying to be efficiently synoptic, if not a bit rushed in getting to the point.

Within 15 minutes, we watch Tupac’s pregnant mother (played with a tenacious vigor by Danai Gurira) being released from prison, Tupac growing up in a family being watched by the FBI for Black Panther and perhaps criminal affiliations, and moving to Baltimore where his love of poetry and Shakespeare eventually leads to his rap career (once he moves again, this time to Oakland).

This is the first half of the first act. The film runs rampant with Continue reading All Eyez On Me (2017) Movie Review →

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

Rough Night (2017) Movie Review

June 16, 2017 Alex Brannan

10 years after their senior year of college, Jess (Scarlett Johansson) is running for Senator. She is also getting married to an awkwardly twee guy named Peter (Paul W. Downs, who also co-wrote the film). To celebrate, her college friends bring her to Florida for a crazy bachelorette party weekend full of partying, drinking, and perhaps some illicit drugs.

Oh, and did I mention the dead stripper?

The first half hour of Rough Night plays like a female version of the Hangover films. Then, the break into the second act comes with its twist—the aforementioned dead stripper, of course—and the film becomes something more Continue reading Rough Night (2017) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Horror, Leave it

47 Meters Down (2017) Movie Review

June 16, 2017 Alex Brannan

In 1975, Steven Spielberg’s Jaws changed the way people viewed sharks. Seemingly, he changed that perception forever, as every so often a movie like 47 Meters Down comes out to remind us just how bloodthirsty these giant sea monsters can be.

Now, there is nothing wrong with Continue reading 47 Meters Down (2017) Movie Review →

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

Cars 3 (2017) Movie Review

June 15, 2017 Alex Brannan

Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) isn’t the youthful race car he once was. In fact, Cars 3 makes it a point to reiterate again and again that McQueen is quite old. Given the age of sentient cars is an abstract, hard-to-track concept, I guess this is acceptable.

Technology has advanced (somehow…who builds these cars?) to the point where new rookie racers are optimized for high percentage wins (then again, if antagonist Jackson Storm (Armie Hammer) is the next big thing, wouldn’t all the new cars optimize to the same level of racing, thus making all races even again? And if McQueen can be given those advancements as well, what exactly is stopping him from Continue reading Cars 3 (2017) Movie Review →

Box Office Predictions, Movie News

Weekend Box Office Predictions: June 16 – June 18

June 13, 2017 Alex Brannan

Mid-June 2017 sees the release of four new wide release films at the domestic box office, all in various genres. The Tupac biopic All Eyez on Me, releasing in 2,400 theaters, will look to bank off of the success of 2015’s similar Straight Outta Compton. Shark thriller 47 Meters Down—3,500 theaters—will look to bank off of the minor success of last year’s The Shallows.

Then there is Disney-Pixar’s Summer effort Cars 3. The first sequel in the series made about $50 million less than the original, which itself is only the 10th highest grossing film in the Pixar family.

Along with these new films, potential flops like The Mummy and runaway successes like Wonder Woman continue their box office runs this weekend.

With all of these films competing, let’s try to maneuver a box office top five for this weekend. Shall we?

Box Office Predictions: Weekend of 6/16

Continue reading Weekend Box Office Predictions: June 16 – June 18 →

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

Megan Leavey (2017) Movie Review

June 12, 2017 Alex Brannan

Megan Leavey is your basic determination story. A short, scrawny U.S. Marine recruit (Kate Mara) struggles her way to a position as a bomb-sniffing dog handler. After she does that she has to train the most ornery Marine dog in the camp. After she does that she has to fight to bring that dog home.

While this narrative shows little signs of originality, it does provide Continue reading Megan Leavey (2017) Movie Review →

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

The Mummy (2017) Movie Review

June 10, 2017 Alex Brannan

In the 1930s and the 1940s, Universal made a name for itself creating monster movies. Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Wolfman, among others, were hugely popular intellectual properties in Hollywood. They made household names of Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. They were undoubtedly iconic films.

Now, Universal is rebooting the franchise. They first attempted this interconnected horror universe with Continue reading The Mummy (2017) Movie Review →

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

It Comes At Night (2017) Movie Review

June 8, 2017 Alex Brannan

It Comes At Night is a terse family drama disguising itself as a horror film. Still, it remains the scariest filmgoing experience of 2017 thus far.

The film takes place in an idyllic cabin hideaway in the woods. It is the sort of place that you would run off to on a lazy Summer weekend. But this house also has wood boarding up its windows. It has a pair of doors—one prominently red—locking itself off from the outside world.

This is no vacation. It is survival.

This contrast that director Trey Edward Shults plays with is crucial to the thematic understanding of It Comes At Night. In the film, a family of three have just buried Continue reading It Comes At Night (2017) Movie Review →

Box Office Predictions, Movie News

Weekend Box Office Predictions: June 9 – June 11

June 7, 2017 Alex Brannan

June has a lot going for it at the domestic box office. Following Wonder Woman‘s record breaking opening weekend ($103 million), this weekend is going to impress with the added release of Universal’s The Mummy. Two other new releases—A24’s It Comes At Night and Bleecker Street’s Megan Leavey—look to compete against the impressive lineup of current releases that also includes Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie.

With all of this competition, who comes out on top?

Box Office Predictions: Weekend of 6/9

Continue reading Weekend Box Office Predictions: June 9 – June 11 →

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