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Weekend Roundtable: Just the Two of Us

Josh Zyber — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 16:00:02 +0000

The technology for doing it keeps improving, but casting one actor to play multiple characters in the same movie is a trick that goes back at least as far as the days of Lon Chaney and Douglas Fairbanks. This week’s Roundtable looks at some of our favorite examples that pulled it off. TV shows are...

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Weekend Roundtable: From Indie to Payday

Josh Zyber — Fri, 08 Mar 2019 18:00:03 +0000

After her Oscar win for Room, Brie Larson jumped right into the gargantuan Kong: Skull Island and is now headlining a mega-budget Marvel superhero flick. Our Roundtable this week looks at other actors who’ve made the leap from indie acclaim to blockbuster stardom. David Krauss Though opportunities for black actresses are growing (it’s about frickin’...

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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Review – A Swing and a Hit!

Jason Gorber — Fri, 14 Dec 2018 13:00:33 +0000

As that token non-comic book guy, the thought of some metaverse with oodles of differing Spidey-people seemed more tedious than thrilling to me. Within moments, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse does what so few comic book movies manage to do – provide a pleasant surprise. This film, with all its kinetic and visual trumpeting, brilliantly translates...

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Fantastic Fest Journal: Between Worlds

Deirdre Crimmins — Thu, 27 Sep 2018 17:00:08 +0000

With the recent explosion of Mandy on social media and the big screen, the cult of Nic Cage has been given new life. With these “Rage Cage” flicks, it just makes sense to give the actor a character and a rough plot, and let him loose. Between Worlds fails its audiences on all fronts. It...

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‘Mom and Dad’ Review: Sick Fun

Philip Brown — Wed, 31 Jan 2018 20:00:25 +0000

If you’re going to make an exploitation movie, you should at least stick to your guns. That’s never a problem for Brian Taylor, one half of the two-headed directing monster behind the batshit insane ‘Crank’ franchise, who’s going solo these days with the equally wild TV series ‘Happy!‘ and now ‘Mom and Dad’. The movie...

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TIFF Journal: ‘Mom and Dad’

Philip Brown — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 19:00:41 +0000

Here’s a good idea for a sicko horror comedy: The world is suddenly stricken by a plague that forces parents to kill their children. The rest kind of fills in itself, in a good way. It’s the sort of thing that has to be gleefully tasteless and over the top. Thankfully, ‘Mom and Dad’ comes...

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TIFF Journal: ‘Dog Eat Dog’

Philip Brown — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 18:00:22 +0000

When some movies end, the only rational response is to wonder what the hell you just watched. ‘Dog Eat Dog’ is one of those movies. This bizarre romp from Paul Schrader is a dumpster fire of bad taste and competing tones. Often, it feels like two or three different versions of the exact same movie...

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‘Snowden’ Review: It’s Not Paranoia If They’re Really Out to Get You

Philip Brown — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 19:00:30 +0000

Even though Edward Snowden already got his best possible movie in Laura Poitras’ tense documentary ‘Citizenfour‘, that doesn’t count in Hollywood terms. Unless it’s a bio-pic with a celebrity impersonation, the studio system hasn’t done its job. So now we have the appropriately titled ‘Snowden’, in which none other than Oliver Stone strives to make...

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Weekend Roundtable: Slumming It

Josh Zyber — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 20:00:26 +0000

What is THAT actor doing in such an obviously stupid movie? Surely you’ve asked that question after watching a trailer for a dumb (often big-budget) movie featuring otherwise respectable actors slumming in a project beneath their talents. Perhaps it even came to mind when you noticed Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore in this week’s fantasy...

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‘Outcast’ Review: A Medieval Mess

Philip Brown — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 16:00:45 +0000

If it’s 2015 and you’ve made a movie starring Nicolas Cage and Hayden Christensen, it’s either a parody or something went horribly wrong. While ‘Outcast’ definitely has a handful of laughs, none of them are deliberate. Make no mistake, this movie is absolute garbage. It’s not even worth a look for irony lovers except for...

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‘Left Behind’ Review: Cage’s Crazy Christian Catastrophe

Philip Brown — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 15:00:05 +0000

The Christian film industry has burst out of church basements and into the multiplexes over the past few years. It was only a matter of time before that expanding market got a semi-blockbuster, and one has finally arrived in a reboot of the inexplicably popular ‘Left Behind’ series. Thankfully, that movie also stars Nicolas Cage,...

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‘Joe’ Review: Cage Plays It Straight

Philip Brown — Fri, 02 May 2014 15:00:11 +0000

‘Joe’ might be a moving and impressive film, but its primary achievement lies in rehabilitating its director and star. David Gordon Green drifted from his arthouse roots to comedies like ‘Pineapple Express’ and ‘Your Highness’, but has finally reclaimed his distinct indie voice here. As for Nicolas Cage, we’ve all seen the GIFs. Fortunately, ‘Joe’...

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