Category: Movie Reviews
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Predator: Badlands
4 outta 5 Predator films have been going through many installments, with the latest Predator: Badlands taking the series into the future and featuring some light crossover with the Alien franchise. It actually takes one of the meanest villains in sci-fi and makes him a likeable protagonist, which is probably helped by giving him a…
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Ballad of a Small Player
3 outta 5 Ballad of a Small Player seems to be about a degenerate gambler, lost in a nation that isn’t his own but then it starts throwing out ghosts and so forth. But another fantastic performance by Colin Farrell makes the odd turns endurable. It is like Farrell’s performance as the Penguin as he…
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Tron: Ares
4 outta 5 Every decade or two, Disney diligently tries to make Tron a thing. The 1982 original tried to capture the Star Wars audience, then 2010’s Tron: Legacy expanded the visuals and lore of Tron. Now there’s Tron: Ares which doesn’t really build off what happened in Legacy, but this is more about moving…
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Tron: Legacy (2010 review)
4 out of 5 Generally, movies that are considered failures don’t get sequels almost 30 years afterwards. Yet such is the legacy of Tron, which came out in 1982, gained a fanatical cult following, and now there’s the 200 million dollar Tron: Legacy. Like the original, it has stunning FX for its time. Probably also…
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Play Dirty
3 outta 5 Writer and director Shane Black makes generally zippy, pop entertainment like Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, The Nice Guys, Iron Man Three and The Predator. His latest film, Play Dirty, isn’t quite as zippy as Black’s previous films have been, but it is still a fun caper flick with quippy dialogue and gunfire.…
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The Nice Guys (2016 review)
4 outta 5 Written and directed by Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Iron Man Three), The Nice Guys is a hilarious and entreatingly zippy piece of ‘70s noir detective buddy action comedy. As with noir detective stories sometimes a very simple whodunit plot gets overtly complicated but this is really an excuse to have…
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Iron Man Three (2013 review)
4 outta 5 The thing with Marvel’s The Avengers was that it was an uber-superhero movie that blew the genre wide open by being 6 superhero flicks. Iron Man 3 is singular but ambitious since this is kind of indie action thriller with flying robot suits. At times the movie’s determination to strip Iron Man…
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One Battle After Another
5 outta 5 One Battle After Another by writer and director Paul Thomas Anderson is a visceral action thriller that delivers PTA’s distinctive quirky style. There are fun asides, drawn out moments and unexpected random bits of weirdness. There’s also tension, some chases and a few big explosions and some good gunfire. It’s also incredibly…
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Spinal Tap II: The End Continues
4 outta 5 Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is a decent legacy sequel inasmuch that it doesn’t tarnish the classic film, 1984’s This Is Spinal Tap. Is it as funny or have as many interesting things to say about the music business? Definitely not. But this is still very funny with constant quips, hilarious…
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The Long Walk
4 outta 5 The Long Walk is a gritty grind of a movie. Directed by Francis Lawrence, who specializes in dystopian grind having directed multiple Hunger Games movies and I Am Legend, this is one of his better entries in that genre due to extreme violence giving it bite. This isn’t exactly hopeful; it’s of…
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