Tag: reviews
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Knives Out (’19 review)
5 outta 5 Writer and director Rian Johnson (Brick, The Last Jedi) returns with the peppy and hilarious murder mystery Knives Out. Like all his work, this takes a few genre conventions and then twists them on its head unexpectedly, sometimes doing exactly what a murder mystery would do and then swerving. It is sold…
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Sisu: Road to Revenge
4 outta 5 Sisu: Road to Revenge is fun theatrical counter-programing to Wicked for Good. It is probably accurate that Sisu features more bloody mutilations and gunfire. Sisu: Road to Revenge isn’t a film with much depth as this is basically just action and mayhem hung together. But the first Sisu film was basically that…
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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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Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc
5 outta 5 Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc is basically season 2 of the Chainsaw Man anime series but it works great as a single film experience. Reze Arc doesn’t rely much at all on the previous season continuity, one of Season 1’s best characters is sidelined but it doesn’t matter because this…
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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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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…