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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SAG and PGA have cleared some things up, but it’s still an incredibly open race, though a few have broken ahead of the field. Here are my updated Oscar picks as nomination looms upon us. I’m only going to be predicting the major categories and skip all the techs. BEST PICTURE 1 – THE SHAPE OF WATER (Guillermo Del Toro) Most nominated film. Won PGA. Is beloved in all branches. …
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Blade Runner 2049 is a rare cinematic occurrence in that it is a long delayed sequel (30+ years) that exceeds the original by miles. Everything about Blade Runner 2049 is better than the 1982 original Ridley Scott film. This is a true sci-fi noir that features great performances, bold filmmaking, a twisty, captivating story, and some of the best visuals I have seen on screen in 2017. It is really hard to explain…
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October is here and it is now officially the fall movie season. This is the month where we start to get a clear picture of the Oscars and get some of the best movies of the year. We also get in the Halloween spirit and get our fair share of horror movies. Here are my picks for the best movies coming out in October. 5 – JIGSAW (Michael Spierig & Peter Spierig, October 27)…
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