When I first heard the title for the sixth film in the Tom Cruise action franchise, I thought how ingenious that would be for a documentary about Cruise and Nicole Kidman’s marriage, his obsession with cult Scientology or even the bizarre antics surrounding Katie Holmes. Alas, it’s another sequel comprised of over two hours where […]
“This is stupid”, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson says before jumping out the window of the world’s tallest building. He isn’t kidding, the highest paid actors’ latest action flick is brainless, predictable and worse than it looks. Universal has embraced the comparisons between “Skyscraper” and “Die Hard” or classic disaster film “Towering Inferno”. Writer/director Rawson Marshall
2015’s “Ant-Man” was an insignificant part Marvel universe, which isn’t entirely a bad thing. The character was better incorporated into the franchise, in “Captain America: Civil War” (2016) which is where this film picks up. So, if you haven’t seen that one, you’re already lost. Ant-Man has been absent from The Avengers films, including “Infinity War,” but
I’m tempted to copy and paste everything I wrote about the last Purge film onto this review, as it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between them. Despite its status as a prequel, “The First Purge” offers very little we haven’t seen before. The controversial franchise is basically a cinematic encouragement of violence as it pits
Trying to duplicate something that worked so well because it defied genre borders is exactly why the “Sicario” sequel sets itself up to fail. “Day of the Soldado” isn’t a bad movie, it certainly has its moments of suspense, but lacks the artistic vision of auteur Denis Villeneuve (“Arrival”) and the cinematic touch of Roger
You can officially stop wondering or hoping if the modern “Jurassic Park” franchise will ever re-capture what audiences felt in 1993. These desperate sequels will never have the effect on a current generation that Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster did on ours. That said, Colin Trevorrow’s 2015 “Jurassic World” came close. “Fallen Kingdom” unfortunately lives up to
Now here is an interesting movie. An American crime drama set in Massachusetts, filmed on location in Bulgaria. When Nicholas Cage is the best thing about your film, you know you are in trouble. There is morbidly bad acting from the very opening scene, which sets up the bad guys, to the very end. There
There are lots of survival films, many of them taking place in open water. “Adrift” is both similar to those before it, and strikingly different. Based on an incredible true story of a sailboat wrecked in the Pacific, Shailene Woodley (“The Descendants”) re-dons her bathing suit to give what’s easily her most ambitious and demanding
Another movie where highest paid “actor” Dwayne Johnson saves the world. “Rampage” is also the second video game adaptation we’ve seen this year. Director Brad Peyton and Johnson have become a team delivering spectacle film “Journey 2” and “San Andreas” (the sequel to that one coming soon). “Rampage” feels like a cross section of different
Joel Edgerton’s brother Nash is the director of Gringo, his sophomore effort behind the camera. Both Edgerton’s have found success in various roles of filmmaking, but Gringo doesn’t showcase either of their skills. The second consecutive miscast role for Joel Edgerton (Red Sparrow) who began as a poor man’s Aussie heartthrob but, but now quite