Even when I don’t like his films (which is rare), I’m always glad writer-director Nicolas Winding Refn is out there in the world making movies. He’s something of a button pusher, sometimes a little too obviously so, but going back to his PUSHER trilogy, BRONSON, VALHALLA RISING, and his breakthrough work DRIVE, Refn remains as solid a visual artist as anyone working today. I consider him a modern day Stanley Kubrick, even if his themes of violence amid a certain amount of serenity don’t always hold together. Again, the fact that a filmmaker is even thinking in these terms and challenging the norm (of both big-budget and indie films) is just a sight to behold.
Read moreX-Men Apocalypse: AKA How To "KILL" A Franchise
smh
At the beginning of this movie is a scene in the 80’s set X-Men: Apocalypse where a young Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) and Scott Summers (Tye Sheridan) exit a showing of Return of the Jedi and argue the merits of the various Star Wars films. The participants discuss “Empire Strikes Back was better” versus “Star Wars started it all” before coming to a consensus that the third films always stink. It’s intended as a jab at X-Men: The Last Stand, but it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy...
Read moreCaptain America: Civil War Review (spoiler free)
Functioning as both a sequel to Captain America: The Winter Solider andThe Avengers: Age of Ultron, the film is the most comprehensive Marvel Cinematic Universe chapter to date, and while that put a great deal on the plate of writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the movie soars because the challenge is accepted and responded to in brilliant and entertaining fashion. Bringing together tremendous character dynamics; bold structure; an emotional narrative earned after years of story work; and spellbinding, fun action sequences, it’s everything a blockbuster should be.
Read moreBATMAN VS. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE REVIEW (spoiler free)
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is one of the most visually beautiful comic book movies you have ever seen. The picture is filled with moments of visual poetry and pure cinema in a way that resembles one glorious splash page after another. If you have any interest in seeing it, I beg of you to see it on the biggest IMAX screen you can find. It is every bit as big and spectacular as you might hope...
Read moreThe Witch: A Love Letter
If you happened to read my Best Films of 2015 list, you would have noticed near the top of that list sat this film that I was lucky enough to see at Fantastic Fest last year. With its official wide release coming this Friday, I felt it appropriate to expand more on my love for this film, and give you all a more in-depth look at what I feel a “true” horror film is...
Read moreDeadpool Movie Review
I said something similar to last year when Fury Road came out, which after seeing this movie begs repeating: “The fact that this movie even exists is a triumph.” Not to get lost in the history of the project, but I’m very confident some of you may not even remember the fact that Ryan Reynolds has played the foul-mouthed, psychotic, Marvel comics mercenary Wade Wilson/Deadpool before - in 2009’s X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE. The main problem there was that the geniuses behind that film took a character whose most evil weapon is his mouth and literally sewed it shut… Then poor Reynolds had another shot at superhero stardom a couple years later with GREEN LANTERN, and the less said about that the better. (Yes, he acknowledges both of those movies in Deadpool.)...
Read moreThe Worst Films of 2015
First, the good news: 2015 was a fantastic year at the movies. There were great original stories, sequels done right, adaptations that match their source material, and more. But for every great movie, there are a ton of bad ones too. For those of you with short memories, 2015 was also when we watched Ed Helms (The Office, The Hangover) bathe in raw sewage, the Entourage crew prove their alpha-douche toxicity could not be contained to the small screen, and a recent Oscar winner giving such an over the top, hammy performance while at the same time wearing such a sparkly costume, that I reckon he’s been taking wardrobe inspiration from Jareth the Goblin King (if you haven’t seen Labyrinth, you really should).
Read moreThe 15 Best Films of 2015
I'm often able to squeeze in a dozen or more films in the last couple weeks of December - mostly stuff that others have told me is worth checking out that I either missed when it came out in Chicago or titles that simply never came out locally. I hope you dig the list and that it gives you some ideas for purchases, streaming, rentals, and most importantly, going to the theater and checking them out on the big screen (a few of these are still in theaters). I saw a lot of good movies this year, so condensing this to 15 was not easy...
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