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Now Streaming: Too Old to Die Young

Josh Zyber — Tue, 18 Jun 2019 16:00:05 +0000

I would almost say that his new Amazon streaming series Too Old to Die Young plays like a parody of a bad Nicolas Winding Refn movie, except that the word “parody” might imply something funny about it. There’s nothing in any way entertaining here. This thing is just brutally boring. Also, the phrase “bad Nicolas...

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‘Thank You for Your Service’ Review: Imperfect Gratitude

Philip Brown — Thu, 26 Oct 2017 19:00:29 +0000

‘American Sniper’ screenwriter John Hall makes his directorial debut with strikingly similar material. Fortunately, his follow-up focuses on the best aspects of that troubled war epic. Gone are the disturbingly narrow-minded battle scenes, and in their place Hall has doubled down on the unsettling reflection of war through PTSD. Based on a nonfiction book about...

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‘Only the Brave’ Review: Firefighter Drama Not Quite a Blazing Success

Philip Brown — Fri, 20 Oct 2017 12:00:34 +0000

There’s a fine line between a contemporary movie harkening back to old-fashioned entertainment and feeling dated. ‘Only the Brave’ walks that tightrope and slips over to the latter side more often than not. The film wants to be a Howard Hawks-ian ode to the poetry of likable men under dire circumstances. Fair enough. However, this...

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‘Bleed for This’ Review: Better than Blood

Philip Brown — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 20:00:34 +0000

It’s time for another inspirational boxing movie. They never end. You know, “fighting for your life,” “putting it all in the ring,” etc. ‘Bleed for This’ is essentially the same old story, just a little different. It’s also a pretty good version of the ol’ routine in the ring, anchored by some solid work by...

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‘War Dogs’ Review: A Gun-Running Hangover

Philip Brown — Thu, 18 Aug 2016 19:00:42 +0000

It seems to be an unwritten law in Hollywood that if you’re successful as a comedy director for long enough, you’ll eventually try to make a dramatic movie in a bid to be taken seriously. That’s where Todd Phillips is at with ‘War Dogs’. Thankfully, like Adam McKay before him, he hasn’t gone full po-face...

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‘The Divergent Series: Allegiant’ Review: Mediocrity Minus an Ending

Philip Brown — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 19:00:36 +0000

The second ‘Divergent’ movie made slightly more money than the first in the global market, so now we have a third chapter. The main knock against the series thus far is that it feels rather redundant to ‘The Hunger Games’, and whoo-boy that sure hasn’t changed! If fact, now that the whole “faction” concept has...

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‘Fantastic Four’ (2015) Review: An Intriguing Mess

Philip Brown — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 19:00:08 +0000

If there’s one thing that can be said about the new ‘Fantastic Four’ reboot, ‘Chronicle’ director Josh Trank certainly had a unique take on the material. This isn’t the dysfunctional family superhero fun of the comics (‘The Incredibles’ remains the closest thing to a proper ‘Fantastic Four’ movie), and thankfully it’s not the tin-earned stupidity...

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‘The Divergent Series: Insurgent’ Review: The Unspectacular Now

Philip Brown — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 19:00:34 +0000

On a certain level, it makes sense that the explosion of Young Adult movie adaptations would follow a similar redundant track that YA novels always have. Anytime a YA novel hits, the Scholastic book order forms for a generation of school children are filled with knockoffs of that hit until the next unexpected phenomenon. So,...

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‘Whiplash’ Review: Musical Torture

Philip Brown — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 17:00:28 +0000

Generally speaking, movies about teacher/student relationships in the world of jazz music aren’t typically described by words like “incendiary,” “vicious” or “masterpiece.” ‘Whiplash’ is an exception and easily one of the best movies of the year. The film opens in a prestigious New York music school where Andrew (Miles Teller) has recently enrolled with the...

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TIFF Journal: ‘Whiplash’

Philip Brown — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 16:00:47 +0000

[Editor’s Note: New theatrical releases for the next couple of weeks look like pretty slim pickings. Fortunately, Phil is currently attending the Toronto International Film Festival to scope out some potentially interesting movies that may (or may not) eventually make their way to your local theater screens sometime in the future. -JZ] Inspirational teaching dramas...

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‘Divergent’ Review: Doesn’t Diverge Enough

Philip Brown — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 13:00:23 +0000

Despite its title, ‘Divergent’ is a perfect example of Hollywood’s desperate need for conformity: find an idea as similar as possible to the last success and get it in theaters before anyone notices the difference. The central concepts of the Young Adult novel the movie is based on are intriguing. The trouble is that they’re...

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Now Playing: That Crappy Comedy

Philip Brown — Fri, 31 Jan 2014 18:00:41 +0000

About fifteen years ago, ‘That Awkward Moment’ still would have been a bad movie, but at least it would have been a failed entry in a common ’90s genre. As it stands now, the film is dull, derivative and out of date. Most importantly, it’s a romantic comedy that’s neither funny nor romantic. It’s just...

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