Movie Reviews

The summer 2016 movie season has been a solid one, but the one thing it has been missing is a great comedy.  The best one we got so far was The Nice Guys, but that movie had a body count as high as its laugh count.  It needed one that was as fun as it was funny.  With Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, we finally got the comedy that we needed this summer.  It is a…

The Secret Life of Pets just shows how brilliant Pixar is.  No, Pixar did not make the film.  Illumination Entertainment, the company behind the Despicable Me series, did, and you can tell they don’t have the same think tank Pixar has.  This isn’t to say The Secret Life of Pets is a bad movie, because it’s not.  But, after a great marketing campaign and a solid voice cast behind the film, the movie is cute and sometimes…

Here’s the great thing about Steven Spielberg:  No matter what genre he does, it’s always a Spielberg movie.  Whether he does a war movie, a science fiction movie, a kid friendly movie, or a holocaust movie, each film has the Spielberg touch.  Other directors struggle with this, but Spielberg does not.  His latest film, The BFG, is no different.  After making two historical, methodical films in Lincoln (2012) and Bridge of Spies (2015), Spielberg went a little lighter and a…

I absolutely hated The Purge (2013).  It was a unique idea, but it failed miserably on all fronts.  Never in my mind did I think it would get a sequel, let alone a trilogy, but here we are, because fuck it, why not?  The Purge: Anarchy took the series into a totally different direction, making it more of an action-horror film.  It was a better movie than the first, but that isn’t saying much.  That’s essentially…

Nothing screams summer movies quite like necrophilia and cannibalism, am I right?  No?  Well apparently it does to Nicolas Winding Refn.  The Neon Demon is a Tinseltown horror film.  It takes us deep into the underbelly of the modeling world and shows us a dark, twisted side that is filled with lies, deceit, blood, and glitter. When aspiring model Jesse (Elle Fanning) moves to Los Angeles searching for fame, her innocence and vitality disappears as she…

If Jaws (1975), 127 Hours (2010), and Sharknado (2013) had a messy threesome, the end result would be The Shallows.  This is a relentless, roller-coaster ride in the ocean that starts off very interesting and suspenseful but takes a wild left turn into absurdity and unintentional hilarity. Blake Lively stars as Nancy, a surfer who is attacked by a great white shark while ripping a wave.  She saves her self by swimming onto a rock 200 yards away from shore.  Nancy must use…

For a movie called Central Intelligence, the movie is incredibly stupid.  I understand that its intention is suppose to be a fun, mind-less action comedy, but it fails on all fronts.  It isn’t fun, it isn’t funny, and the plot far too complex for its own good and incredibly predictable. Kevin Hart stars as Calvin Joyner, a former high school hotshot who is now an unhappy accountant.  When former classmate, now C.I.A agent, Bob Stone (Dwayne…

Finding Dory is the best Pixar film since Toy Story 3 (2010).  It takes everything that was great about Finding Nemo (2003) and elevates it to new heights.  It’s a funny, exciting, captivating sequel featuring great characters, new and old, and will pull at the heartstrings as much as any other Pixar movie. Finding Dory takes place one year after the events of Finding Nemo.  This time, Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres) searches the entire ocean and an aquarium to find…

The Conjuring (2013) is one of my favorite horror movies of all-time, as well as one of the scariest.  Horror maestro James Wan created a horror film that was just as smart as it was scary.  I would have been satisfied with just one film, but, like most successful movies in Hollywood, we get a sequel.  However, in this case, making a sequel was a wise decision.  The Conjuring 2 is a true horror masterpiece.  It ups the…

Now You See Me 2 should really be called Now You See Coincidences.  This is a film that is based solely on one character predicting what another character will do.  And of course, everything goes according to plan.  From the placement of a cell phone to knowing how people will react in a particular situation, everything that every character wants works out. You know what doesn’t work out?  This movie.  Led by an all-star cast who…