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 …
Review
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 …
Let’s start with the bad stuff first: The 355 is a terrible movie that fails on almost every level. Let’s continue with the worst stuff: It didn’t have to be. Conceptually, The 355 is perfectly sound, if extremely conventional. It’s in the execution that it falls apart: an action film with bad action, inert editing, …
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 – …
The third film tends to be tough for Spider-Man. The third Sam Raimi film suffered from competing priorities between filmmaker and producers, resulting in multiple entries worth of story being crammed into one movie. The third Marc Webb Spider-Man topped that by never even happening after making the same mistake as the Raimi series, just …
After the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home, Peter Parker finds himself dealing with the fallout of his secret identity being revealed to the world by J. Jonah Jameson and Mysterio. The press harasses him. The FBI begins investigating him. The public starts taking sides on whether he is a murderer or a hero. Teachers …
Like a fly in amber or one of the doomed creatures in the formaldehyde jars in Clem’s (Willem Dafoe) cabinet of curiosities, the sepia tones of Nightmare Alley force us to examine, dispassionately, the destruction of a man. Like the original 1947 film, we watch the spiritual and moral decay spread across the face of …
West Side Story is spectacular. Steven Spielberg’s long-awaited musical is one of his finest films, and with a career like Spielberg’s, that is saying something. It all feels so effortless – the dazzling dance sequences, the passionate vocal performances from the actors, the marvelous camerawork from Janusz Kaminski, and through it all, you can feel …
As the young ones say, Licorice Pizza is a mood. Another phrase that applies: your mileage may vary. For some, especially those from the Valley area of Los Angeles, Licorice Pizza will be a warm blanket of nostalgia, evocative of its time and place, full of interesting but relatable characters from a specific era (in …