Murder on the Orient Express is a Hollywood gloss-fest that is all show and no go. A who’s who of Hollywood A-listers have come together for a murder mystery that looks pretty, but lacks any real depth and suspense. While aboard a lavish train, one of the passengers is murdered and it is up to Detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh), the greatest detective in the world, to solve the crime. This biggest issue…
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No director understands the human condition better than Richard Linklater. He understands what makes us who we are. He knows that it isn’t always these dramatic, life changing events, but smaller moments that really make us who we are. Whether it’s a chance encounter with a stranger on a train, a high school night out with friends, or the first weekend of college, Linklater knows how to portray these moments. Last Flag Flying is another…
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Another month, another batch of movies and shows on Netflix. This month, however, is a little weaker than most. Still some good titles coming out, including one of the most under appreciated masterpieces of the 21st century. Here are my picks of the best movies coming to Netflix in November. You can see the full list of everything coming to Netflix this month right here. 5 – THE DETAILS (Jacob Estes, 2011) My…
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There was a time, around three years ago, where I was worried about the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I was worried that they were falling into a cookie-cutter format of sequels, where every single film is bigger, yet emptier. During what Marvel calls their Phase 2, films like Iron Man 3 (2013), Thor: The Dark World (2014), and the mildly overrated Captain America: The Winter Solider (2014) hit a creative low and didn’t look like they were going to…
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The 2017 year is almost, so you better believe there are a number of strong movies coming out this month, including some big studio films, indies, and some of the best movies of the year. Here are my picks for the best movies coming out in November. 5 – COCO (Lee Unkrich, November 22) I mean, it’s Pixar. This is one of the best studios in the world today and they have yet…
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It’s the Halloween season, which means it is horror movie season. This is the time of year where we want have our hearts racing, palms sweating, and get the crap scared out of us more than usual. With the recent Hollywood trend of remakes, horror movies are probably the most popular genre to remake, as they are inexpensive to make and it’s relatively easy to garner up a few scares to two. A lot of…
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The 53rd Chicago International Film Festival has come to a close. Throughout the two weeks of the festival, I saw 38 movies, 31 festival movies and seven regular release movies. It was an exhausting two weeks and I saw a plethora of movies from all genres and all parts of the world. In my ten years of attending this festival, this is easily the most movie I have seen but also the strongest year, including…
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The Florida Project is one of those movies that plants a seed in you and keeps growing long after you see it. I saw this movie a few weeks ago and I am still thinking about it. Whether it is the themes of the movie, moments in the movie, or even just a single shot or line of dialog, The Florida Project is something that I think about on a daily basis. Director…
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The Foreigner has been marketed as Jackie Chan’s Taken (2008), where an older, accomplished actor is cast in an action-focused film with a lot of hand-to-hand combat. They’ve tried to replicate this kind of film with a number of actors like Kevin Costner (Three Days to Kill), John Travolta (From Paris with Love), Sean Penn (The Gunman), and Pierce Brosnan (November Man). It also seems that this is the only kind of movie Liam Neeson…
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At this year’s Chicago International Film Festival, I have 36 movies picked out to see during the festival, with the possibility of a few more late additions as the festival goes on. This is easily the most movies I have seen during this festival and movies consist of foreign films, Oscar contenders, indies, and horror films. With the diversity in genre and the amount of movies I will be seeing (plus working and seeing regular…
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