Tag Archives: 2016

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

Mascots (2016) Movie Review

October 13, 2016 Alex Brannan

Christopher Guest has made a career out of droll, talking-head mockumentary films that satirize naive, self-centered hopefuls in one career or another. While the formula has certainly worked for Guest in the past, there is a precipitous threshold over which the deadpan ensemble piece becomes reductive.

Mascots is Best in Show with people in costumes. The ensemble of eccentric sports mascots travel to the annual mascot competition to compete for the Golden Fluffy award. Many of Guest’s go-to players return: Continue reading Mascots (2016) Movie Review →

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

Shin Godzilla (2016) Movie Review

October 12, 2016 Alex Brannan

Off the coast of Japan, a massive “anomalous” underwater volcano causes damage to the underground tunnel system and arouses the attention of the Prime Minister and his cabinet. But is it really a volcano…

Of course, it is really the most famous of all kaiju: Godzilla. Shin Godzilla (or Godzilla Resurgence as it is being dubbed in the West) is the first Continue reading Shin Godzilla (2016) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Halloween Horror, Horror, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Krampus (2015) Movie Review

October 10, 2016 Alex Brannan

It’s Christmas in October at CineFiles, as we watch last year’s Krampus, a film about the eponymous antithesis of Santa Claus, a half-goat, half-demon who punishes naughty children during the holiday season.

In Krampus, we meet a strained nuclear family: the workaholic father who Continue reading Krampus (2015) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Drama, Like It

The Birth of a Nation (2016) Movie Review

October 7, 2016 Alex Brannan

Nate Parker’s directorial debut has been steeped in conversation since its premiere at Sundance. First it was a conversation of high praise: standing ovations and the timely antidote to #OscarsSoWhite controversy. Then, it became a conversation of divisive controversy involving the personal life of the director himself. What is most important in this roller coaster conversation should be the film itself. So let’s talk about that.

Nat Turner (Parker) is a slave in 19th century Virginia. The film, however, is more readily powerful when it Continue reading The Birth of a Nation (2016) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Like It

The Girl on the Train (2016) Movie Review

October 7, 2016 Alex Brannan

Rachel (Emily Blunt) has an overactive imagination, living vicariously in her mind through the fantasy lives of strangers that she sees from her daily train commute. In particular, she is fascinated by a couple whose true lives are far less glamorous than the sex appeal that is seen as a blip on the passing train.

The Girl on the Train is a mystery of sorts, but it is more akin to Continue reading The Girl on the Train (2016) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Drama, Leave it, Quickie Reviews (<400 Words)

The Accountant (2016) Movie Review

October 5, 2016 Alex Brannan

Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck), once an army brat raised under the strict militaristic rule of his father, is a crackpot accountant whose Asperger’s syndrome and radical upbringing create an eccentric skill set.

Armed with a poorly-motivated narrative deadline—do the job in time or go to jail—Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) is an analyst in the Treasury Department tasked with finding a “black money” operator who has worked with numerous terrorist cells, a man who is none other than Christian Wolff.

The narrative of The Accountant weaves in and out of chronologies, perhaps needlessly, in order to Continue reading The Accountant (2016) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Halloween Horror, Horror, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

The Flop House Trilogy: Castle Freak (1995) Movie Review

October 3, 2016 Alex Brannan

Caution: minor plot spoilers (for this 20 year old movie) below.

It is October once again, and that means it is time for some Halloween Horror. In this iteration, we discuss one of three B-movie horror films that are oft-recommended on The Flop House podcast by Stuart Wellington. Castle Freak may not actually feature a man who rips his own ding-dong off (spoilers?), but that does not mean it isn’t a B-movie classic by B-movie master Stuart Gordon.

Writer-director Stuart Gordon is perhaps most well known as the director of the B-movie classic Re-Animator, his first feature film, or From Beyond. But Gordon also made a little direct-to-video movie entitled Continue reading The Flop House Trilogy: Castle Freak (1995) Movie Review →

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

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016) Movie Review

September 29, 2016 Alex Brannan

The preamble to Tim Burton’s latest, a fantasy novel adaptation, introduces a multi-faceted allegorical fable that mixes grief, childhood imagination, and Holocaust fears into a hideaway fantasy realm. Miss Peregrine’s (Eva Green) children’s home remains perpetually in September 3, 1943, the day when a German air raid bombed the building out.

Jake (Asa Butterfield), a lonely boy in his own right, travels to find the home (in 2016) following the death of his grandfather (Terence Stamp), a former resident of the home. Through way of the cavernous entrance into a Continue reading Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016) Movie Review →

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

Goat (2016) Movie Review

September 28, 2016 Alex Brannan

Brad (Ben Schnetzer) is a college-student-to-be. His brother Brett (Nick Jonas) already attends the college he is accepted to, and Brett is a member of an elite fraternity on campus as well. Brad, still recovering from a brutal physical assault, is convinced to join the frat, where his ethical patience is severely tested.

Goat has an introduction that is evocative of other movies of its ilk. The “wild life” is in full effect, portrayals of Continue reading Goat (2016) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Leave it, Sci-Fi/Fantasy

ARQ (2016) Movie Review

September 24, 2016 Alex Brannan

ARQ, the new original movie from OTT service Netflix, is woefully standard. Not only is it woefully standard, but it is a blatant premise ripoff of the criminally under-seen Edge of Tomorrow. Renton (Robbie Amell), or, as he is affectionately referred to by his compatriot Hannah (Rachael Taylor), Ren, finds himself stuck in a time loop paradox in which the same infiltration of his hidden compound occurs over and over again.

The world of ARQ is the typical post-apocalyptic science fiction: savages and raiders rule, food is a scarce resource, random technological innovations litter the screen. This said, the world of ARQ is not Continue reading ARQ (2016) Movie Review →

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