’JOHN WICK 3 – PARABELLUM’ Is Like Dipping Your Eyes in Pop Rocks

May 15, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Asia Kate Dillon, Chris Collins, Derek Kolstad, Halle Berry, Ian McShane, John Wick, Keanu Reeves, Lance Reddick, Laurence Fishburne, Marc Abrams, Mark Dacascos, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Shay Hatten Leave a comment

When you buy your ticket for John Wick 3, prepare for war. The third (and evidently not final) installment in Keanu Reeves’ increasingly trendy no-fuss no-frills action franchise is an idyllic distillation of the draw of the series, amped up to the Nth degree, slurping down a snifter of brandy, armed with Schubert on vinyl, locked, stocked, loaded, ready to tango. There’s someone to kill around every corner, alongside a brain cell or two, if you fancy buying into all the bloody mayhem. The weapons are more plentiful, the armor is thicker, the violence is more violent. Hell, even the blood is bloodier. As the criminal underworld puts the titular invincible assassin squarely in its seemingly ubiquitous crosshairs, it’s John Wick versus the world. The odds are less than even. Read More

‘DETECTIVE PIKACHU’ Solves Mystery: Video Game Adaptations Still Not Great

May 7, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Bill Nighy, Justice Smith, Kathryn Newton, Out in Theaters, Pokémon, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, Reviews, Rob Letterman, Ryan Reynolds Leave a comment

Did you know that Pokémon is already the highest grossing media franchise of all time? At 90 billion dollars in total franchise revenue, its total haul triples that of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, eclipsing the net worth of Winnie the Pooh, Hello Kitty, Mickey Mouse & Friends, Mario, and the entire Disney Princess collection. To say it’s an international sensation is to put it mildly. After the recent resurgence of the pocket monsters in the form of the popular augmented reality game Pokémon Go, Pokémon fever has been at a new all-time high and for the first time in nearly 20 years, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu marks the long-awaited return of Pokémon, Pokémon trainers, and their pokéballs of steel to the big screen. Read More

Hammy Quaid Almost Makes Trashy Thriller ‘THE INTRUDER’ Worthwhile

May 1, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged David Loughery, Dennis Quaid, Deon Taylor, Meagan Good, Michael Ealy, Out in Theaters, Reviews, The Intruder Leave a comment

Self-taught director Deon Taylor, who directed the embarrassing Mike Epps spoof movie Meet the Blacks, has a familiar way of staging a scene. That is to say, at the Christmas potluck that is Hollywood, he’s brought nothing new to the table. Despite modern trappings, this is a movie that feels trapped in the 90s, both in story and storytelling technique. From the totally awkward over-use of R&B music on the soundtrack to the sleek but rarely suspenseful camerawork, Taylor’s creation feels like a product released after its expiration date, but one that lives and dies by its unintentionally ironic and campy sense of uncool. Fittingly, The Intruder is the dad bod of psychosexual thrillers, past its prime and flailing for relevance, maintaining its rangy charm by sheer force of will. It’s the Dennis Quaid of movies. Read More

Politically Tinted ‘LONG SHOT’ a Rogen-Theron Rom-Com Hit

May 1, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Charlize Theron, Dan Sterling, Jonathan Levine, Liz Hannah, Long Shot, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Rom-Com, Seth Rogen Leave a comment

God bless Seth Rogen. The Canadian-born comedian and Freaks and Geeks alum has made a career playing lovably disheveled stoners, his public persona often aligning with the characters he plays, if reliably less successful. In Long Shot, Rogen’s third collaboration with director Jonathan Levine (50/50, The Night Before), Rogen steps into familiarly stoney, snarky shoes as a left-leaning journalist named Fred Flarsky who rekindles a relationship with his old babysitter Charlotte Field (Charlize Theron), who is currently running for president. Read More

Awesomely Poisonous ‘HER SMELL’ Turns Elisabeth Moss’ Punk-Rock Stardom into Horror Show

April 26, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged Agyness Deyn, Amber Heard, Ashley Benson, Cara Delevigne, Dan Stevens, Elisabeth Moss, Eric Stoltz, Her Smell, Musical, Out in Theaters Leave a comment

There’s a heartbeat cadence throbbing in the background of Her Smell. Racing like a speed addict’s BPM, undulating and omnipresence, it thrums. Maybe it’s the pulsing cry of the expectant crowd. Or the muted surge of an opening act bleeding through thick subterranean walls. But it’s there, subtly informing the uneasy tension and amplifying the sense that things could go desperately wrong at any given moment. With Becky Something, disaster – in the form of a looming overdose, public implosion, or full mental break – lurks in every corner. Read More

‘AVENGERS: ENDGAME’’s Epic Stroll Down Memory Lane Makes for Best MCU Film Yet

April 24, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged Anthony Russo, Avengers: Endgame, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Christopher Markus, Joe Russo, Josh Brolin, Marvel, MCU, Paul Rudd, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Stephen McFeely 5 Comments

The Marvel Cinematic Universe began in earnest when Tony Stark proclaimed, “I am Iron Man.” Then Nick Fury stepped out of the shadows and assembled a team. The movie industry shook. It was the beginning of something new; an unchartered holistic approach to franchise filmmaking and the genesis of a box office monolith unlike any to have ever proceeded it. Over the course of 21 films, the MCU has become the equivalent of global Saturday morning cartoons; serialized superhero adventure stories that somehow most of the world has bought into. And all that comes to a head in Avengers: Endgame, a movie that is so momentous, it’s difficult to classify in and amongst other general releases. Empty out your pockets now folks, cuz you’re gonna need to strap into this ride a few times. Read More

‘TEEN SPIRIT’ Gives MTV Spin to Tale as Old as Time

April 18, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Automatik Entertainment, Autumn Durald, Elle Fanning, Max Minghella, Musical, Out in Theaters, Rebecca Hall, Reviews, Teen Spirit Leave a comment

In Max Minghella’s flashy debut Teen Spirit, Elle Fanning plays a modern-day immigrant dreaming of a greater existence. Blessed with a ripping set of pipes but stuck in the dead-end-ville that is the Isle of Wight, Fanning’s Violet is a Polack living in the far reaches of the UK who embarks down a well-trod rags-to-riches road, one that makes a point of name-checking iconic humble-beginnings-princess Cinderella. There is little novel that defines Violet’s underdog arc but Fanning’s magnetic turn and a sensitive approach to character development make this poppy toe-tapper an irresistible power ballad, if one you’ve definitely heard play on repeat since the advent of film. Read More

Punishing ’THE CURSE OF LA LLORONA’ Will Make You Cry Tears of Boredom

April 17, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Horror, Jaynee-Lynee Kinchen, Linda Cardellini, Michael Chaves, Mikki Daughtry, Out in Theaters, Patricia Velasquez, Raymond Cruz, Reviews, Roman Christou, The Conjuring Universe, Tobias Iaconis Leave a comment

The Curse of La Llorona is why people say they don’t like horror movies. In an age of Us, Hereditary, The Babadook, The Witch, Get Out, Raw, It Follows and so so many more outstanding horror movies, it’s why some still think they don’t like the genre. Why they falsely assume it’s inferior cinema. Sure, this particular movie isn’t retroactively responsible for the distaste of scary movie avoidant moviegoers en masse but this brand of slick, soulless sludge is. With nothing more than an anorexic concept held loosely together with poorly-telegraphed jump scares, children constantly screaming and countless scenes of creeping through creaking casas in the dark, The Curse of La Llorona is the laziest pedigree of studio horror fare, coasting on brand familiarity and age-old genre tropes to pass the minutes by with nothing in the way of inspiration to lift it up or differentiate it from the pack. Read More

Well-Acted ‘LITTLE WOODS’ a Dour Scene of Poverty-Inflicted Desperation

April 12, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged James Badge Dale, Lance Reddick, Lily James, Little Woods, Luke Kirby, Nia DaCosta, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Tessa Thompson Leave a comment

Little Woods is the kind of movie that makes you wonder about the backstory of writer-director Nia DaCosta (who is signed on to direct the Jordan Peele produced Candyman remake), who enriches the film with down-home specificity that it feels like much more than just a facsimile of authenticity. Her’s is the kind of movie that feels written from personal experience, that pulls from the specifics of a life harshly lived, that doesn’t wallow in its poverty porn setting, and though dour and depressing, never compromises its optimistic, full-spirited edge and push towards the light. It’s a neo-western in construction – the story of a good person doing a bad thing for good reasons, and DaCosta teases out the drive for self-preservation by any means by focusing on character first and foremost. Read More

Robert Pattinson Becomes An Astronaut Dad Aboard Spacey Psychosexual ‘HIGH LIFE’

April 10, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged Claire Denis, Geoff Cox, High Life, Jean-Pol Fargeau, Juliette Binoche, Mia Goth, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Robert Pattinson Leave a comment

Throughout the 1960s and 70s, United States prisoners became the victim of scientific research the country over. A new golden age of scientific progress demanded countless scores of human lab rats to test medications, creams, deodorants, etc. on and who better to experiment with than a captive population with rock bottom demands for their participation. The new film from French filmmaker Claire Denis is a response to the age of the Stanford Prison Experiment as High Life blasts a vessel loaded with death row criminals into the stratosphere to see what happens. But even that minimalist description can’t set the stage for what is in store with this hairy meditation on humanity and scientific progress. Read More