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Dark Phoenix Review: X-Men Flame Out

Jason Gorber — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 16:00:03 +0000

The X-Men series has felt like a bit of a misfire from the very start. Even by the convoluted standards of comic book fare, the ensemble pieces never quite managed to thread the needle between world-building and giving each member of the team time to shine. In what’s alleged to be the last of the...

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‘The Snowman’ Review: He’s No Jolly Happy Soul

Philip Brown — Thu, 19 Oct 2017 19:00:27 +0000

‘The Snowman’ is filled with promise that it never delivers. Based on the obscenely popular novels by Joe Nesbø, directed by Tomas Alfredson (‘Let the Right One In’), and starring Michael Fassbender, the film has a pedigree for something special. Unfortunately, what we get is a beautifully shot and confusingly constructed crime thriller that frustrates...

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‘Alien: Covenant’ Review: Prometheus, Now with More Aliens

Philip Brown — Tue, 16 May 2017 17:00:04 +0000

‘Prometheus’, Ridley Scott’s return to the ‘Alien’ franchise, was supposed to reignite excitement and deepen the series’ mythology. Instead, it was beautiful to look at but stumbled through failed grasps at profound themes and irritatingly stupid writing. The long-delayed sequel, ‘Alien: Covenant’, at least improves and expands on what ‘Prometheus’ hoped to accomplish, even though...

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‘Song to Song’ Review: More Mediocre Malick

Philip Brown — Fri, 07 Apr 2017 17:00:35 +0000

Terrence Malick used to disappear for decades between movies and then return with something magical that was worth the wait. Sadly, he no longer seems interested in taking his time planning a film or even having much of an idea of what he’ll produce until he’s halfway through it. That’s painfully evident in his latest,...

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‘Trespass Against Us’ Review: Lead Us Not into Mediocrity

Philip Brown — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 17:00:34 +0000

Were it not for the fact that so many better movies have covered every inch of its running time so thoroughly, ‘Trespass Against Us’ would be a worthy indie sleeper. The trouble is that the package takes the form of a British crime movie, and good lord have there ever been a ton of those....

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‘Assassin’s Creed’ Review: A Masterfully Murky Mess

Philip Brown — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 15:00:20 +0000

They say that if at first you don’t succeed, you should try, try again. That seems to be Hollywood’s motto for videogame movies. There’s yet to be a great one, or even a particularly good one. Now we have ‘Assassin’s Creed’. An annual gaming franchise that most players have gotten sick of has finally come...

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TIFF Journal: ‘Trespass Against Us’

Philip Brown — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 15:00:53 +0000

Crime movies can be tough. There have been so many that sometimes it feels like there are no themes left to explore. Music video director Adam Smith’s feature debut ‘Trespass Against Us’ attempts something new by diving into an untapped world for his tale of robbers dodging cops. Unfortunately, the ways he uses that to...

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‘The Light Between Oceans’ Review: Sappy, Silly, Sincere

Philip Brown — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 16:00:46 +0000

‘The Light Between Oceans’ is pure unadulterated soap opera, and weirdly that’s both its greatest strength and fatal flaw. When it works, the larger than life story pulls enormous emotions out of audiences barely able to contain their gooey feelings. When it fails, that exact same overblown drama doesn’t quite have the same effect on...

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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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‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ Review: It’s the End of the World As We Know It

Philip Brown — Wed, 25 May 2016 12:00:23 +0000

It’s odd that the ‘X-Men’ series is by far the longest-running film franchise of the 2000s comic book blockbuster boom and yet it’s also somehow an also-ran in the superhero race. Bryan Singer technically kicked off the Marvel movie revolution back in 2000 with the first ‘X-Men’ movie, so the fact that he’s now helming...

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‘Macbeth’ (2015) Review: Game of Shakespeare

Philip Brown — Wed, 09 Dec 2015 20:00:38 +0000

Of all of William Shakespeare’s beloved works, few translate to the screen as well as ‘Macbeth’. It helps that the play was one the Bard’s shortest and it’s also the closest thing Shakespeare ever came to delivering an exploitation movie. The best cinematic adaptations of the tale have come from filmmakers working halfway between art...

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‘Steve Jobs’ Review: Citizen Jobs

Philip Brown — Fri, 16 Oct 2015 15:00:22 +0000

A spiritual sequel to ‘The Social Network’, ‘Steve Jobs’ sees screenwriter Aaron Sorkin deliver another tale of a troubled genius who helped create a world of computer communications yet couldn’t figure out his own interpersonal communications. Sorkin being Sorkin, it’s also another talk-fest in which egomaniacs toss out well-crafted barbs. This time, however, a partnership...

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