High-Def Digest: The Bonus ViewSusan Sarandon Archives - High-Def Digest: The Bonus View

Viper Club Review: No Bite

Deirdre Crimmins — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 17:00:09 +0000

Even in our current state of near-constant wartime, many victims of war still haven’t had their stories told on screen. We got a hint of what it’s like to be a modern war correspondent in 2016’s Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, but Viper Club takes a different angle. This is not the tale of a reporter on...

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‘Survivors Guide to Prison’ Review: Painful Jailhouse Confessions

Philip Brown — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 16:00:57 +0000

Prison isn’t a great place. We know this. Prison is also a business, and that business is booming, so it’s not as if things are going to change. Director Matthew Cooke’s sensationalistic and celebrity-filled (starring Danny Trejo!) new documentary attempts to unpack everything that’s wrong with the U.S. penal system. He uses many manipulative techniques...

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‘A Bad Moms Christmas’ Review: Unnecessary but Amusing

Philip Brown — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 16:00:31 +0000

Last year’s ‘Bad Moms’ felt like a joke pitch that went too far and somehow became a movie. Yet, thanks to a perfectly assembled cast and a script that had enough laughs to overcome a parade of clichés, the comedy was somehow a massive hit. Now the team behind that film has doubled down for...

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‘3 Generations’ Review: Manipulative Times Three

Philip Brown — Fri, 05 May 2017 15:00:18 +0000

‘3 Generations’ played at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2015 under the title ‘About Ray’ with a planned release just days after its premiere. It was pulled and now it’s being reluctantly released opposite a Marvel blockbuster to quietly disappear and die a death the Weinsteins decided it deserved long ago. Watching the trans...

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A Divine Feud: Susan and Jessica Brought ‘Bette and Joan’ to Life

David Krauss — Mon, 01 May 2017 19:00:21 +0000

Bette Davis and Joan Crawford faced massive resistance from movie moguls when they shopped around ‘What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?‘ in 1961. “I wouldn’t give you a dime for those two old broads,” Jack Warner reportedly quipped. Well, more than a half century later in the surprisingly good ‘Feud: Bette and Joan’, Jessica Lange...

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‘Spark: A Space Tail’ Review: Scraping the Bottom of a Barrel of Monkeys

Philip Brown — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 17:00:08 +0000

The first sign that something might be wrong with ‘Spark: A Space Tail’ is that subtitle. Did you see how they swapped in “tail” for “tale”? That’s because this is about monkeys and it’s a tall tale. Get it? Good. That’s about the level of intelligence and ambition you can expect from the rest of...

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‘Feud: Bette and Joan’ Pilot Recap: “There’s Only Room for One Goddess at a Time”

Josh Zyber — Wed, 08 Mar 2017 13:00:28 +0000

I guess ‘American Feud Story’ wouldn’t have sounded right as a title. Producer Ryan Murphy’s latest anthology drama combines a little bit of horror with a little true crime to detail some of history’s most scandalous rivalries. The first season of ‘Feud’ centers on the notorious grudge match between Hollywood icons Joan Crawford and Bette...

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‘The Meddler’ Review: Whining Made Charming

Philip Brown — Fri, 06 May 2016 13:00:29 +0000

‘The Meddler’ gives that special cheesy genre about overbearing mothers a good name. You know the type – those movies where a well-meaning but impossibly pushy mother gradually learns to give her children control of their lives, while also learning that she can have a rich and full life outside of them. Generally these are...

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‘Tammy’ Review: A Crack in McCarthy’s Armor

Philip Brown — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 15:00:41 +0000

The success streak that Melissa McCarthy has enjoyed since ‘Bridesmaides’ couldn’t last forever. ‘Tammy’ may be her first outright failure as a star vehicle. The comedy isn’t a complete disaster, though. At least its failings are due to an overreaching ambition rather than just lazily strumming out the hits once more. It’s safe to say...

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Weekend Box Office: ‘Identity Thief’ Steals Again

Luke Hickman — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 17:00:37 +0000

This weekend’s box office results were all over the place. Only two movies finished where they were predicted to, notably ‘Identity Thief’, which climbed back into the top spot after being dethroned by ‘Die Hard’ last weekend. With the help of a $14 million weekend, the poorly-reviewed comedy has made $93.6 million in 17 days....

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Now Playing: Capture the ‘Snitch’

Bryan Kluger — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 16:00:41 +0000

I was thoroughly impressed with Ric Roman Waugh’s ‘Snitch’, but for different reasons than you might expect. Inspired by true events, the film produces a sense of fear and hopelessness rather than the cheesy, light-hearted inspirational stories that we tend to see in these “Based on a True Story” movies. And Dwayne Johnson leaves his...

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Weekend Movies: A Great Time for Oscar Catch-Up

Luke Hickman — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 14:00:41 +0000

After a loaded holiday weekend, this one seems pretty dismal in comparison. Perhaps you might want to play some last-minute Oscar catch-up instead of seeing any of this week’s mild releases. My guess is that the allegedly “Based on a True Story” ‘Snitch‘ accurately depicts the truth behind its source material just about as much...

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