When exactly did we decide Liam Neeson is the new paragon of action movies? I’m not even sure I can name the second biggest star in action movies right now in terms of output or cultural cachet. If someone anywhere in the world right now is making a joke about a hypothetical action movie I…
Chappie is an amazingly frustrating movie, perhaps singular in its ability to vex me. I enjoyed so much of it while I was watching it, director Neill Blomkamp is quite good at evoking an emotional response, but in the days since I’ve seen Chappie I have grown steadily angrier at it. It’s a movie that’s…
[[[Rosewater]]] is a movie that Jon Stewart basically had to make after The Daily Show played a major role in the imprisonments of Iranian journalist Maziar Bahari. It works really well as an apology and as an effort to further Bahari’s mission to increase the visibility of journalists who have become political prisoners. Unfortunately, it’s…
As a movie critic I believe I am obligated by law to review Focus through the lens of what it means for Will Smith’s career: if we have finally reached the end of the dark ages after almost eight years of films that were both critical and financial mixed bags. I might even tell you…
There’s a certain amount of bravery in making a movie like Hot Tub Time Machine 2. Not, you know, actual bravery because making a sequel is usually an admission that the studio would rather take the money than make a clever new film but comedy sequels are almost always terrible. In a sequel you’re selling…
Kingsman: The Secret Service is, hopefully, a watershed moment for spy action movies. Much in the way The Bourne Identity did in 2002, Kingsman has such a fresh new take on the genre that it begs to be the new standard these films are compared to. Kingsman could have so easily been the lazy bit…
The Wachowskis might never reach the heights of The Matrix ever again and, as someone who was 15 when The Matrix was released, maybe it wasn’t that good to begin with—but the films are always wildly ambitious. While Jupiter Ascending fails on many levels, and the script would be generously called hot nonsense, I would…
Going in to Project Almanac I had a very clear idea of what I would be getting: Chronicle but with time travel instead of superheroes. To its credit that isn’t really what Project Almanac is, it isn’t as predictable or as overly dramatic. It doesn’t have a conclusion that’s drawn out too long. In fact,…
I spent all week trying to scheme for some angle to not have to see Mortdecai. Maybe this would be a good week to go see a couple Oscar contenders that we missed, maybe our readers would rather hear about The Boy Next Door and see if there’s any chance of a J. Lo comeback,…
It’s easier to write bad reviews than good reviews, this is the secret of all criticism. Things that are good tend to be good in the same ways, in film it’s usually good acting, writing, directing, those kind of things. Things can fail in a seemingly unlimited number of ways. The movies that make up…
With the 2014 cinematic year in the books it’s time to do the time-honored tradition of the film reviewer, making a list of the top movies of the year. It makes us feel important and it’s an easy ay to fill space during the dreadful early January period for movies. Here are my top six…
Blackhat has a germ of a good movie buried in it; I was very interested to see how a director like Michael Mann would make a movie where most of the action happens in a virtual world. Hacking is perhaps the least visually interesting thing there is you’re probably doing something very similar to it…
