Movie Reviews

        A “blank check” is a check that can be written for any amount of money.  Someone who receives a blank check is given a check with no specific amount, but has complete freedom to write however much they want on it.  In the film world, directors, actors, and producers can receive their own version of a blank check.  This could be because of a successful movie or a series of successful…

My review of Quentin Tarantino’s ninth feature film ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD.

      The opening credits for Lulu Wang’s The Farewell act as a sort of symbolism for one the film’s central theme.  There isn’t anything extravagant here, just simple, opening credit text.  But the text that Wang uses is both in Chinese and English.  The texts are incredibly different, showing how two cultures from opposite sides of the world see one specific thing totally different.  The Farewell is a film that looks at the difference in cultures,…

        Stuber is the dumb person’s version of Michael Mann’s Collateral.  It’s a movie about two men who are bad at their jobs who randomly meet to solve each other’s issues.  It’s incoherent, dumb, really messy and really violent.  It does have the saving grace of its two leads, though they aren’t served properly for how talented the two men are. L.A.P.D. officer Vic Manning (Dave Bautista) has been after Oka Tedjo (Iko…

        I went into Crawl with limited expectations.  All I wanted was some cheap jump scares and some gator mayhem and I got just that.  But Crawl is a horror movie that is focused on far more than just cheap scares and alligators.  This is a relentless, claustrophobic thriller that deals with family drama and believing in yourself. Crawl takes us to Florida as a Category 5 hurricane is about to hit.  Haley (Kaya…

        The opening sequence of Jon Favreau’s The Lion King, Disney’s latest reimagining of one of their animated classics, is a shot-for-shot recreation of the opening number from the original 1994 film.  We open to a rising sun and hear the loud, iconic opening to “Circle of Life” and see the animals all reacting.  This sequence is truly breathtaking and an incredible way to start the film.  The photo-realistic animals and the way…

      Leaving the theater after seeing Midsommar, you would have thought that I just went five rounds with Mike Tyson.  I was sweating, out of breath, and exhausted.  My head was spinning and my heart-rate was jacked.  Writer/director Ari Aster has created yet another incredible feature film.  It is a film that you cannot shake and one of the best movies of 2019. After a horrific event, Dani (Florence Pugh) is empty and…

        In Spider-Man: Far From Home, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) goes on a school trip with his classmates to Europe, a vacation Parked undoubtedly needed after going to space, disappearing into a cloud of dust, coming back to life, defeating a galaxy-threatening Thanos with dozens of other superheroes, watching his mentor and father-figure die, and trying readjust to a normal life after all of this.  Before Parker heads to Europe, Happy Hogan (Jon…

      The Conjuring franchise can be broken down into three segments.  The strongest segment features The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2, James Wan’s horror masterpieces.  The weakest segment belongs to The Nun, a scare-less movie that was the product of hype from The Conjuring 2’s main villain.  The middle segment, and most interesting, are the Annabelle movies, Annabelle and Annabelle Creation.  The first Annabelle was awful, a boring movie that added nothing to…

        In director Danny Boyle’s latest film, Yesterday, a world-wide blackout occurs and causes everyone in the world except for one man to forget The Beatles ever existed.  After the film was finished, I wish a rolling blackout occurred so I could forget this entire movie existed.  Though the film has an original and unique idea, screenwriter Richard Curtis and Boyle have no idea what to do with. Jack Malik (Himesh Patel,…