When I saw Old a couple years ago, I commented on the fact that M. Night Shyamalan had a solid idea on his hands that could have been insanely compelling, but that almost all of the fun and suspense of the film was lost because of his over-reliance on twist endings. As I said back … Continue reading A Plague on this House – Knock at the Cabin
Man this is going to be a busy month. Between my work, the Oscar Blitz, and any number of other side projects, it'll be any wonder if I sleep at all over the next four weeks. Imagine if I had a girlfriend right now. She'd be so neglected. But hey, I love what I do, … Continue reading This Film is Not Yet Watchable – February 2023
The key to the giddy fun of the first Knives Out movie was in Rian Johnson's ability to play with genre conventions and whodunit tropes. Already established as the type of filmmaker willing to subvert even the most precious of fan expectations with The Last Jedi, Johnson used his pen and his lens to poke … Continue reading Still Incredibly Sharp – Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
As I mentioned in October's edition of "This Film is Not Yet Watchable," the new version of Dune is that ultra-rare film that not only clears the bar to pass my personal "Remake Rule," it offered multiple reasons to outright endorse the effort, at least from what I could see in the trailer. You have … Continue reading Grand Scale, Small Voices – Dune
I apologize if that headline is not grammatically correct. My knowledge of Spanish is comprised entirely of what I remember from Sesame Street and the Taco Bell menu, so I'm relying on Google Translate and hoping the conjugation is right. Anyhoo, after a surprisingly kick-ass trailer for this movie, as noted in the May edition … Continue reading Morir Las Vegas! – Army of the Dead
It's basically been a year since I've gotten to do this. In June 2020 I fell behind by two weeks, with the intent of doing a column in July, because that's when theatre chains were initially planning to open back up. But then everything went even further into the shit, reopening schedules were completely scrapped, … Continue reading This Film is Not Yet Watchable – May 2021
Top o'the mornin' ta ye! It's yer friendly neighborhood Irish back row film fanatic idiot. And yes, I'm totally actually Irish, and I have the tattoos to prove it. No, I don't have the DNA tests to prove it, because I absolutely dread the idea of potentially having to alter/remove my tattoos if I'm wrong. … Continue reading This Film is Not Yet Watchable – March 2020
If you're a regular reader of my blog, you're probably wondering why I bothered to see Stuber, after listing it in the July edition of "This Film is Not Yet Watchable." And I'll admit, my hopes were not high. But there are some things to consider. One, I said in that column that there was a … Continue reading Lyft Me to a Better Film – Stuber
The summer is normally a time for massive blockbusters, but in all honesty, it's been pretty light this year. Never mind that this hasn't been the strongest year for cinema, but we've had two consecutive months with almost nothing to watch as far as mainstream studio output. There were only 15 major releases in June, … Continue reading This Film is Not Yet Watchable – July 2019
Of the major movies released this past weekend, only one ended up with that dreaded splat on Rotten Tomatoes, and even then, just barely, at 59%. So before I take a look at the critical darlings of the weekend, I figured I'd give a little bit of attention to Hotel Artemis, an ambitious siege thriller that … Continue reading A Pastiche Siege That Aims to Please – Hotel Artemis
I Actually Paid To See This 