Jurassic World: Rebirth Life is full of surprises, and you gotta be open to letting them happen. That breakfast sandwich you never cared for can somehow suddenly hit the spot. That album you never understood can suddenly resonate. My Hollywood surprise of the year is Jurassic World: Rebirth. The Jurassic Park IP has been squalid for decades. The best it could do was that Chris Pratt meme where he holds his hands open towards the raptors. What was he...
Sinners I can’t help but blame myself for watching these kinds of movies. And by “these movies” I mean movies that are highly acclaimed, and I don’t do my homework to figure out where my expectations should be. I’m so disappointed in this movie, but who I really should be disappointed in is myself. Do I even have the energy for a “long” review about Sinners? Let me start rambling and see where it takes me. Sinners was the...
Sean ConneryJames Bond 0076-Film Collection Life’s always interesting when you’re married to a feminist. You have to pick your battles, you know? One of them was the battle of whether or not we could watch James Bon movies in the household. The feedback I got was that we weren’t. I wasn’t going to fight that battle because I knew it was only a matter of time before my wife (ahem…partner) would change their mind…as they often do about most...
A Minecraft Movie I’m a fan of Jared Hess and his Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre movies. Yes, they’re polarizing, but there’s a sense of G-rated fun that comes with them. Also, they’ve given us some pretty memorable characters. But, remember when the Minecraft Movie trailer came out and people were super upset at Jack Black? Probably because he was playing “the Jack Black character” which, again, is polarizing. I like him too (and his band) and didn’t expect people...
Dirty Harry Honest question: are Clint Eastwood’s cop movies better than his westerns? It might seem so. I haven’t seen his spaghetti stuff (yet!), but Pale Rider and Outlaw Josey Wales are pretty respected and didn’t do much for me. Maybe Pale Rider was good. Unforgiven is great, of course. But Dirty Harry is just cool, man. I don’t know if it’s because Eastwood brings that cowboy swagger to the role, but there’s something about Dirty Harry’s whole attitude...
The Outlaw Josey Wales Look, I’m no Clint Eastwood fan, but I wanna be. I really do. His catalog is celebrated, both as an actor and a director. He’s old, he’s grumpy, and he’s still out there doing it. As far as I know, he’s not a “bad guy,” so the impact he has on Hollywood is admirable. Good for you, Clin! I wanna be a Clint Eastwood fan, and after watching Unforgiven and Dirty Harry I might be....
Companion There’s only one group of movie fans more annoying than musical fans and that’s horror fans. They’re almost exclusively the same people who are overly obsessed with Halloween. A sad lot, really, because you’re basically reducing a movie to jump scares, or tropes within tropes. What’s the best scary movie released in recent years? Midsommar? Give me a break. Give YOURSELF a break and read a book. Which is why, I gotta say, bravo, Companion. You did it....
Amadeus: Theatrical Cut Remember that movie Last Action Hero? If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you should check it out. It’s a smart action movie parodying the big action/comedy movies of the 80s and 90s. Some say Last Action Hero also killed that genre of movies, but they’re wrong. Just look at the Fast & Furious franchise. There will always be a market for big dumb movies. But anyway, I loved Last Action Hero when I saw...
The Terminator40th Anniversary I remember seeing Terminator as a kid and being terrified of it. I think I wasn’t even ten, yet. To be honest, I’m surprised I remember so much about it. The one thing that stuck with me, for sure, is how terrifying Arnold Schwarzenegger looked in the movie. He was the scariest thing in the world to me, and I kept that feeling with me all these years. Later when I saw T2, I was convinced...
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga We can all agree that Mad Max Fury Road was a pleasant surprise, right? It was good, some of us thought I’d be great, some of us thought it actually WAS great, and some people consider it one of the greatest movies of the past 10 or 20 years. I’m cool with that. I think the first 2 Mad Maxes are SUPER overrated, anyhow, and I don’t care who knows it. But, there’s a...