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‘Atomic Blonde’ Review: Chilly Neon Noir

Philip Brown — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 12:00:47 +0000

Cold War spy angst and goofy old-school physical action don’t exactly sound like comfortable bedfellows, but ‘John Wick’ co-director and future ‘Deadpool 2’ director David Leitch thought he’d give it a try with ‘Atomic Blonde’. While the action is spectacular, the chilly paranoia proves to be more of a weight around the film’s shoulders, keeping...

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‘Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets’ Review: The Fifth and a Half Element

Philip Brown — Thu, 20 Jul 2017 19:00:23 +0000

There used to be a thriving market of European filmmakers who made trashy exploitation movies for a global market. Sadly, Luc Besson is essentially the last man standing in this genre movie tradition. But he’s also one of the most successful of all time, producing and writing delightfully trashy action flicks like the ‘Transporter’ and...

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‘Kong: Skull Island’ Review: Apeocalypse Now

Philip Brown — Thu, 09 Mar 2017 18:00:32 +0000

After a bloated three-hour Peter Jackson epic failed to revive the monkey’s fortunes, the mighty King Kong has returned in the big, silly, popcorn-munching epic ‘Kong: Skull Island’. It’s certainly one of the most purely entertaining movies ever headlined by the great ape, if also one of the least emotionally or intellectually involving. This new...

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‘Patriots Day’ Review: Docu-phony

Philip Brown — Thu, 12 Jan 2017 20:00:31 +0000

Peter Berg’s latest feature, ‘Patriots Day’, does enough right that its flaws are easy enough to ignore, if not excuse. It’s likely as good a mainstream film about the Boston Marathon bombing as was likely to be made. The subject matter was tricky and Berg at least manages to end on the right side of...

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The Best of the Best in Film in 2016, Part 1

Philip Brown — Fri, 30 Dec 2016 13:00:24 +0000

All right, 2016. Yer done. At long last. Yesterday I looked back inside of you and pulled out the worst of the worst of the cinematic garbage that you shoved into my eye sockets and out my butthole. I didn’t appreciate that, 2016. That wasn’t nice. You know I like movies. Why you gotta make...

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’10 Cloverfield Lane’ Review: Twilight Zoned

Philip Brown — Thu, 10 Mar 2016 20:00:46 +0000

The worst thing about ’10 Cloverfield Lane’ is the title. It’s not just awkward; it’s a spoiler. Sadly, the realities of contemporary Hollywood filmmaking mean that the movie has to be marketed as a franchise entry and even the deliberately oblique trailer or the claims that this is merely a “blood relative” to the original...

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‘Trumbo’ Review: Entertaining Bio-Swill

Philip Brown — Wed, 25 Nov 2015 15:00:41 +0000

‘Trumbo’ attempts to dive into the complicated life of an important figure in Hollywood history, while also serving up easy-to-swallow drama for the award-bait crowd and qualifying as a comedy too. That’s quite a bit for a movie that ultimately lands as light entertainment to pull off. Indeed, ‘Trumbo’ frequently sags under the weight of...

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‘Love the Coopers’ Review: Crap, Actually

Philip Brown — Fri, 13 Nov 2015 15:00:49 +0000

The holiday season wouldn’t be complete with some sort of maudlin family special at the multiplex. This year, that pile of Christmas crap arrives in ‘Love the Coopers’, one of the most tediously dull and frustrating entries in the genre to arrive in quite some time. This is a movie for people who felt that...

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TIFF Journal: ‘Trumbo’

Philip Brown — Wed, 16 Sep 2015 19:00:00 +0000

Hey! Here’s a 2015 bio-pic about Hollywood overcoming adversity, so I guess we’re officially in awards season! Fortunately, this is actually a decent one thanks to a deft sense of humor from all involved. You just have to accept all the melodrama and cheese as inherent traits of the genre. Bryan Cranston stars as Dalton...

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‘The Gambler’ Review: Know When to Fold ‘Em

Philip Brown — Tue, 23 Dec 2014 18:00:21 +0000

Coming off the unexpected mass global success of ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’, director Rupert Wyatt could have done pretty much anything he wanted. For some reason, he decided to use that freedom to helm a remake of James Toback’s first autobiography of self-destruction, ‘The Gambler’. It’s a tale with a meaty premise...

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Now Playing: A Monumental Waste of Time

Philip Brown — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 14:00:07 +0000

It’s always a bad sign when a movie gets bumped from a prestigious awards-gobbling fall release into the January/February dumping ground. It’s an even worse sign when that movie is a Hollywood superstar packed affair and those stars aren’t seen flogging the project on every possible media venue. ‘The Monuments Men’ is a film starring,...

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Now Playing: Deep ‘Inside’

Jack Lilburn — Thu, 05 Dec 2013 20:00:16 +0000

I was recently speaking with a friend of mine who criticized the Coen brothers’ films for being too “on the nose.” “So what?” I said. “That’s the whole point!” Their new ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ is a case study example. The Coens themselves have said that the movie doesn’t have much of a plot. I guess...

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