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Hobbs & Shaw Review: Between a Rock and a Hard Case

Jason Gorber — Thu, 01 Aug 2019 16:00:29 +0000

There’s a strong sense of “How did we get here?” with Hobbs & Shaw, the spinoff from the Fast & Furious series. Mathematically, the film takes two series addendum characters – Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), who was introduced as an avenging agent in 2011’s Fast Five, and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), who was, uh, an...

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Now Streaming: Turn Up Charlie

Josh Zyber — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 12:00:27 +0000

You may find it difficult to picture someone as physically endowed and dreamily handsome as Idris Elba playing a has-been loser (albeit a charming one), but Netflix’s recent comedy series Turn Up Charlie proves that a good actor can sell any role. In addition to starring, Elba also co-created the half-hour comedy with producer Gary...

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‘Molly’s Game’ Review: Sorkin at His Sorkiniest

Philip Brown — Thu, 04 Jan 2018 17:00:31 +0000

After writing a few good screenplays that were tamed by a few good directors (‘The Social Network’, ‘Steve Jobs’, ‘A Few Good Men’, etc.) Aaron Sorkin has finally gone ahead and directed a movie himself. It’s called ‘Molly’s Game’, based on the secret-spewing biography by underground poker goddess Molly Bloom. The subject is ripe for...

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‘Thor: Ragnarok’ Review: A Hilarious Hulking Blockbuster

Philip Brown — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 16:00:42 +0000

Of all the characters to clog up screens during Marvel Studios’ reign of box office dominance, Thor has always been the trickiest to get right. The last two ‘Thor’ movies were among Marvel’s worst, so it comes as a relief that ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ is possibly the studio’s funniest film. Oddball indie comedy specialist Taika Waititi...

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‘The Mountain Between Us’ Review: Love Is a Plane Crash

Philip Brown — Fri, 06 Oct 2017 12:00:06 +0000

There are so many ways that couples meet-cute in big screen romances. It can happen between knowing glances in a food court, on the first day of school, at someone else’s wedding, and apparently following a plane crash. ‘The Mountain Between Us’ initially appears to be a survival story about a pair of unlucky souls...

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TIFF Journal: ‘Molly’s Game’

Philip Brown — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 19:00:20 +0000

Aaron Sorkin finally directed one of his screenplays and the results are pretty much what you’d expect. That snappy, Sorkiny dialogue explodes out of characters’ mouths at a fever pitch. Rat-a-tat snark and smarm slowly tease out a plot and ram themes down viewers’ throats. ‘Molly’s Game’ is fairly fun and rather funny. After all,...

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‘The Dark Tower’ Review: Epic Mediocrity

Philip Brown — Thu, 03 Aug 2017 17:00:37 +0000

Another summer, another batch of popular pre-existing fantasy franchises turned into blockbuster hopefuls. It’s so common now that it’s rarely exciting. There was a time when transforming Stephen King’s cultish epic ‘The Dark Tower’ into a film franchise would have felt like a film nerd’s wet dream. Now, its just business as usual. As developed...

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‘Star Trek Beyond’ Review: Boldly Dumber than Before

Philip Brown — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 16:00:04 +0000

‘Star Trek Beyond’ is essentially an elaborate single episode of the original 1960s TV series, with the crew visiting a distant planet, getting in trouble, and eventually kicking some alien butt. There’s very little to it other than that. But with Simon Pegg on script duties, the quips run high. And with ‘Fast Five’ action...

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‘Finding Dory’ Review: A Strong Sequel, But No Equal

Philip Brown — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 19:00:13 +0000

It’s been sad to watch Pixar dive into its sequel period to fulfill the commercial requirements of its corporate overlords. The studio that once prided itself on being the most consistently original in La-La-land now needs to alternate between franchise fare and original work. Sadly, unless the words “Toy” or “Story” are involved, the follow-ups...

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Weekend Roundtable: Casting the Next James Bond

Josh Zyber — Fri, 27 May 2016 19:00:56 +0000

Daniel Craig swears that he’s done playing James Bond, and just turned down a huge payday to return as secret agent 007. Who should replace him? Shannon Nutt While I still think that Craig will re-up for one more Bond adventure, my vote for the new James Bond is Chiwetel Ejiofor. I think we can...

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‘The Jungle Book’ (2016) Review: Unexpectedly Remarkable

Philip Brown — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 19:00:24 +0000

Disney’s recent trend of digging into its vaults and remaking its animated classics in live action has mostly been a frustrating endeavor. Movies like ‘Maleficent’ and ‘Cinderella’ felt forced and woefully inferior to their predecessors. The prospect of a live action ‘Jungle Book’ seemed particularly dire. Not only does the 1967 animated version hold up...

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‘Zootopia’ Review: A Disney Delight

Philip Brown — Wed, 02 Mar 2016 20:00:22 +0000

With the notable exception of last year’s downright masterful ‘Inside Out’, Disney’s namesake animation label has been cranking out movies with more consistent quality and ambition than Pixar in recent years. That’s undoubtedly because Pixar founder John Lasseter took over the Disney ship right around the same time that his own studio started cranking out...

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