Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is Too Much, Too Little. For all the bombast and activity in this movie, the film feels strangely empty, a story in search of thematic meaning and spiritual resonance. This movie isn’t really about anything, while the first one, though smaller in scale, has more on its mind….
Once upon a time, there was a brilliant new animation company striving to bring new life and feeling — not to mention dollars — to feature animation. And there was DreamWorks Animation, which was supposed to become that company and didn’t. What it did become was the strange other brand to Disney / Pixar, creating…
In a world of superheroes, cinematic universes, sequels, prequels, sidequels, and reboots, Nicolas Cage is his own intellectual property. Constantly working, making an on-the-cheap genre film one month and a sensitive actor showcase the next, one cannot say that Cage hasn’t kept it interesting these 40 years since he burst on the film scene. He’s…
Equal parts beautiful and desolate like a part of Iceland’s own volcanic countryside, The Northman is auteur Robert Eggers’ most straightforward film, making up in style what it gives up in the complexity of his previous films. Grabbing relentlessly from the tales of Hamlet and Beowulf, Eggers delves back into his continued curiosity about the…
Critics (and I’ve been guilty of this myself) historically dismiss Michael Bay movies. The humor is lowbrow, the noise is cacophonic, the editing feels like the film reels (when they were shot on film) are being sliced up with a razor like a pile of cocaine on Scarface’s desk, and there are more explosions than…
I don’t normally write my reviews with too much personal reflection; I tend to talk about a film’s emotional resonance, whether the filmmakers succeed in their intentions, or if they fall short. I’ll get into a bit of plot synopsis, and I normally wrap it up with examinations of the performances and the film’s overall…
Focusing on a strong performance from Chris Pine and the reality of the trauma of war and betrayal, Tamrik Saleh’s The Contractor rises above its contemporaries by doing less instead of more. We all revel in an original take on old material and devalue routine plots for the same reason, but that misses out on…
Today, Disney+ is launching their new version of the family comedy Cheaper by the Dozen on the streaming service, and we got to hear from the talented cast and crew, including actors Gabrielle Union (“Zoey Baker”), Zach Braff (“Paul Baker”), Erika Christensen (“Kate”), Timon Kyle Durrett (“Dom”), and director Gail Lerner. Check out what they…
With the new Pixar film arriving on the Disney+ streaming service on Friday, March 11, Vital Thrills got a chance to talk to the Turning Red cast and crew. Participating in the press day were writer/director Domee Shi, writer Julia Cho, and producer Lindsey Collins, as well as Turning Red cast members Sandra Oh (Ming),…
Matt Reeves’ The Batman is bold, operatic, and swings for the fences. It is huge in scope and goes as big as it needs to be to tell its story. This is not a subtle film, nor does it want to be. Reeves directs this film like it will be his one and only chance…
Gotham City is overrun with crime, corruption, and violence. But the recent arrival of Batman has given the criminal elements of the city pause. Batman can’t be everywhere, but he can make the robbers, thugs, and villains fear every shadow he may be lurking in. Things change when a new serial killer murders the Mayor…
Vital Thrills talked to No Exit director Damien Power and cast members Dennis Haysbert, Danny Ramirez, David Rysdahl, and Havana Rose Liu. The chilling suspense thriller will start streaming exclusively on Hulu on February 25. No Exit is the story of Darby Thorne (Havana Rose Liu), a young woman en route to a family emergency,…
“Sometimes what doesn’t kill you doesn’t make you stronger. Sometimes, it just should have killed you.” Will Ferrell wrote that eleven years ago, and while it was about President George W. Bush at the time, they may as well have been Uncharted, which started its long, tortuous assent to the big screen at the same…
The meet-cute has been a staple of romantic comedy since at least Clara Bow bumped into Antonio Moreno. After 100 years of cinema, though, enough variations of it have been tried that even the many worlds map of the romcom multiverse has become a flat circle. The options for most filmmakers now are either to…
Everything about Hercule Poirot is fake. That is a good thing. It’s true of the man — from the mustache he wears but lies about why to his reasons for doing things — and true of his latest celluloid adventure. Kenneth Branagh‘s adaptation of Death on the Nile puts on as much of a false…
Vital Thrills got a chance to attend an early preview of Turning Red and learned all about the upcoming Disney/Pixar film from director Domee Shi, producer Lindsey Collins, and some of the production team. Turning Red introduces Mei Lee (voice of Rosalie Chiang), a confident, dorky 13-year-old torn between staying her mother’s dutiful daughter and the chaos…
As one does not simply walk into Mordor, one does not simply review Jackass Forever without context. These movies and television shows are the definition of “Not for everyone.” If there’s any story arc that links these films, it’s all that has happened offscreen. One of the members has passed away. Another was involved with…
While on a routine Space Shuttle mission in 2011, NASA astronauts Jocinda Fowl and Brian Harper experience a disaster that kills one of their crewmembers and disables their spacecraft. Amidst the chaos, Harper is the only one to see the cause – a strange alien cloud. After destroying their shuttle, the alien entity heads for…
Vital Thrills got a chance to chat with the cast and crew of the upcoming Disney+ animated adventure film, The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild. The original movie premieres exclusively on Disney+ on January 28. The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild continues the hilarious escapades of the sub-zero heroes as they create more prehistoric…
So what, exactly, is The Matrix Resurrections? Is it a reboot, a remake, or a sequel? Well, it’s all three. After almost twenty years, we get both a progression of the story from The Matrix Revolutions and a new beginning of sorts, where everything gets wiped clean. It’s both a continuation and a commentary –…