Before I dive into this review of the documentary simply titled Stan Lee, I just want to make a little bit of a note on myself and who I was as a child. It is particularly interesting that I always… Read More ›
Reviews
Dramatic thriller “The Other Side of Darkness” battles itself in an effort to serve two genre masters.
What lies on the other side of darkness? The most obvious answer is “light.” But there’s a big difference between the knowing of something and the actual experience of the thing. So while one might presume to find light on… Read More ›
Before you explore “The Red Door,” go back to the first “Insidious” tale with Sony’s limited-edition 4K Blu-ray.
PG-13 horror gets a bad rap. Sure, there have been some films that were so clearly supposed to be full-fledged R-rated scare-fests toned down to a more commercially viable PG-13 rating in their early years (for me, I think of… Read More ›
“Extraction 2” goes harder and further than before in an action-packed thrill ride where the stakes are not only higher, but far more personal.
“Into every generation a slayer is born …” – Buffy the Vampire Slayer intro Steve McQueen. Carl Weathers. Michelle Yeoh. Sigourney Weaver. Danny Trejo. Jet Li. Gerard Butler. Milla Jovovich. Bruce Willis. Keanu Reeves. These are but a few of… Read More ›
“Elemental” is a predictable tale with expectedly stunning visuals.
When a film from Pixar is coming to theaters, it is a topic of conversation. Movies like Inside Out (2015), WALL-E (2008), Coco (2017), and Toy Story (1995), were emotionally moving adventures. Those films and several others set the bar… Read More ›
CGI weighs down a rather light-on-its-feet superhero story in “The Flash.”
No film in the summer of 2023 has the same level of anticipation as The Flash. Audiences are eager to see this “reset” of the DC universe as soon as possible. The addition of characters like Michael Keaton’s Batman and… Read More ›
Liberation Hall’s home release of “Project: ALF” will be the cat’s meow for fans of our favorite Melmacian.
September 22nd, 1986, television changed forever when the fuzzy, wise-cracking, cat-eating alien from the planet Melmac crash-landed through the roof of the Tanner Family garage. The ‘80s were a wild time when odd couple comedy in sitcoms couldn’t go with… Read More ›
John Slattery’s “Maggie Moore(s)” pulls off a blending of sweet rom-com and devilish murder mystery. [Tribeca Film Festival]
“Some of this actually happened…” This is the message that greets audiences after a rather tense opening in actor John Slattery’s (Mad Men/Iron Man 2) second feature film, the darkly comic mystery Maggie Moore(s). No matter how weird or wild… Read More ›
“The Space Race” empowers a long-buried piece of NASA’s history. [Tribeca Film Festival]
“Black history is American history. We forget it at our peril.” – Charlie Bolden, former NASA astronaut and administrator October 1st, 1958, NASA officially began operations working to break free from Earth and into orbit. It would be nearly 25… Read More ›
Space drama “I.S.S.” is a tense thriller never takes its foot off the gas pedal. [Tribeca Film Festival]
There is always something inherently interesting to see what someone’s first made screenplay actually ends up being, and for Nick Shafir, that ended up being I.S.S., directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite (Our Friend), and it certainly sets Nick up to be… Read More ›
Director Joe Lynch’s Lovecraft adaptation “Suitable Flesh” will terrify and titillate. [Tribeca Film Festival]
For all the nasty, horrible parts of author H.P. Lovecraft’s legacy, there’s no denying the lasting impression his stories have made on tales of occult and horror. Using the unknown elements of the natural and spiritual worlds, colliding them together… Read More ›
“Catching Dust” fails to capture the attention of the audience. [Tribeca Film Festival]
There is nothing more disheartening that reading what a movie is about and it under-delivering on what the movie could possibly be. The only thing that makes that feeling worse is when that movie is a festival title that someone… Read More ›
“The Listener” enthralls with Steve Buscemi’s direction and Tessa Thompson’s performance. [Tribeca Film Festival]
Steve Buscemi (Interview) directs his first feature in 15 years (originally played Venice 2022) and somehow, without ever having seen anything Buscemi has directed, The Listener was not at all what I was expecting, but something much more grounded and… Read More ›
Noam Kaplan’s “The Future” challenges its audience to reconsider how it sees the world. [Tribeca Film Festival]
Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity. ― George Carlin At some point in a colonizer’s life, they look back on the choices they’ve made. For many, they’ll see the civilizations they’ve liberated, the cultures they’ve enlightened, and the… Read More ›
With delicacy and care, Jane M. Wagner’s “Break the Game” presents a tale of an adventurer on one last quest. [Tribeca Film Festival]
February 21st, 1986, an action/fantasy RPG-like game released on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) called The Legend of Zelda. Unlike the console’s mascot, the Italian plumber Mario, who jumped, stomped, and power-uped his way through one obstacle or another on… Read More ›
Billy Porter and Luke Evans deliver landmark performances in “Our Son.” [Tribeca Film Festival]
In 2019, everyone was going mad for Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, and after watching it, I was utterly dumbfounded. I mean, the movie is a whole lot of fine and doesn’t really say anything new. Sure, both Adam Driver and… Read More ›
Once Stewart Thorndike’s “Bad Things” checks you in, you may never leave. [Tribeca Film Festival]
A movie relies on a lot of things to be successful, but one thing it relies on to capture audiences that does not get talked about nearly enough is the atmosphere. A movie can be the most horrifying thing ever… Read More ›
“Scarlet” soars on red romantic wings.
The hope found in love is the only hope we have, or at least, that’s what Pietro Marcello‘s Scarlet (2023) seems to be saying. This French period piece is firmly rooted in the cynical positivity of the meta-modernist era. Everything… Read More ›
“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” does more world building than character building.
I was almost 11 years old when Michael Bay’s first Transformers film came out in the summer of 2007, and while I was never a fan of the toys (I was severely gay, and therefore loved my sister’s Barbies), I… Read More ›
“Somewhere Quiet” is predictable but Jennifer Kim stands out. [Tribeca Film Festival]
There is always something exciting about a thriller, it is in the name after all. But when there is a distinct lack of either performance or development of a character, any and almost all that excitement dissipates as intentions are… Read More ›