Out in Theaters: ‘THE CONJURING 2’

June 9, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Benjamin Haigh, Frances O’Connor, Horror, James Wan, Joseph Bishara, Lauren Esposito, Madison Wolfe, Out in Theaters, Patrick McAuley, Patrick Wilson, Reviews, Simon McBurney, The Conjuring 2, Vera Farmiga 1 Comment

Horror sequels have an unfortunate tendency to exude contempt for their audience. More often than not, the same formula is conscripted, wrangling selfsame plot lines (often in a new location or with new characters) that encompass similar beats and familiar frights. 9 Nightmare on Elm Street movies, 10 Halloween films and 12 Friday the 13th flicks can speak to the process. Rinse, repeat, rank in the cash. And while there’s nothing distinctively different to James Wan’s approach this second time around the Conjuring fairgrounds (save for a somewhat unnecessary additional 20 minutes pumped into the runtime), The Conjuring 2 remains a massively effective instrument for scaring the living shit out of oneself. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘WARCRAFT’

June 8, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Ben Foster, Ben Schnetzer, Charles Leavitt, Chris Metzen, Daniel Wu, Dominic Cooper, Duncan Jones, Out in Theaters, Paula Patton, Ramin Djawadi, Reviews, Toby Kebbell, Travis Fimmel, Warcraft, Worst of 2016 4 Comments

Warcraft, the uber-geeky, crazy-spendy passion project/live-action shart from director Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code) attempts to capitalize on a prodigious worldwide fandom by kowtowing to the nerdy needs of message board trolls and Mountain Dew guzzlers. In bending the knee, the once-great auteur has log-jammed his feature with a waterfall of meaningless (at least to non-World-of-Warcraft-gamers) exposition, allowing for a marble-mouthed plot that’s so dense, so busy and so blundering, one can only shudder at the thought of the echo chamber of dorks responsible for letting this 160-million dollar turkey come to fruition. But their foul cinematic foal has come home to roost in all its Avian-diseased glory and the symphony of ill-timed laughs and exasperated sighs shall serve as unbiased representation of what is in store for Warcraft viewers. Reckless fan servicing, harebrained plot devices and dramatically empty characterization all mash their meaty skulls to render a film that’s entirely inaccessible and subsequently snoozy as all hell for anyone without extreme existing affinity for the source material, making Warcraft, in effect, the world’s most expensive sleep aid. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: OUT OF THE SHADOWS’

June 2, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged André Nemec, Brad Garrett, Brian Tee, Dave Green, Gary Anthony Williams, Josh Appelbaum, Megan Fox, Michael Bay, Noel Fisher, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Stephen Amell, Stephen Farrelly, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows., Tyler Perry 3 Comments

I’ll preface this review with an admission: I am not nor have ever been amongst the Ninja Turtles fandom. If that disqualifies me from passing judgement on this film (fact: it does not) then please, be on your way. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. I have however eaten my fare share of Kraft Mac ’n’ Cheese out of a Donatello or Leonardo-fixtured bowl throughout my day – probably more recently than I would care to admit – and that ought to prove credential enough to talk about this mouthful of a dazzlingly busy kiddie sequel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘POPSTAR: NEVER STOP NEVER STOPPING’

June 1, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Akiva Schaffer, Andy Samberg, Bill Hader, Comedy, Jorma Taccone, Judd Apatow, Justin Timberlake, Mariah Carey, Michael Bolton, Out in Theaters, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, Reviews, RZA, Simon Cowell, The Lonely Island, Tim Meadows, Usher, Will Arnett 1 Comment

It was 2003 when I first stumbled across the The Lonely Island. Their rib-tickling send-up of soapy MTV teen dramas ‘The Bu’ played top billing on Channel 101, an off-color, online shorts fest where hungry filmmakers featured their work gratis for weirdos like myself to ingest. Credit Frazzles the Squirrel (and his unfaltering demand for removing and reapplying one’s 3D glasses) for inviting those curious few to investigate these Lonely Island boys down a certifiable rabbit hole of YouTube oddities starring Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer. Preeminently awkward shorts from the Lonely Island trio included such deadpan standouts as ‘Just 2 Guyz” (later adapted into ‘We Like Sports’ for their 2009 album Incredibad), ‘The Backseatsman’ and ‘Ka-Blamo!’. After a momentous run on SNL that saw the three breach viral numbers with just about every digital short they dropped, Sandberg, Taccone and Schaffer have reunited for their second feature film, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping and have demonstrated that though their production value may be more refined and expensive than ever and their cameo catalogue infinitely more vast, their comedic stylings have adamantly refused to mature, a tendency which proves to be both a gift and a curse for The Lonely Island and their creative offspring. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘THE LOBSTER’

May 26, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Angeliki Papoulia, Ben Whishaw, Colin Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Léa Seydoux, Out in Theaters, Rachel Weisz, Reviews, The Lobster, Yorgos Lanthimos Leave a comment

Being single is illegal. Those unfortunate enough to remain unspoken for are forced into unbecoming ponchos to hide out in perpetually drizzly U.K. forests, dodging trigger happy hunters locked, stocked and loaded with tranquiler guns, motivated to track them down and capture them. The remaining option for singletons comes in the form of a one-way ticket to a matchmaker hotel where they’ll endure 45 days of punishing “romance” seminars in hopes of finding a mate. Those who “don’t make it” are turned into an animal of their choosing. David’s (Colin Ferrell) desired animal is a lobster. And such is Yorgos Lanthimos’ demented lifecycle in his fifth feature film The Lobster. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘LOVE & FRIENDSHIP’

May 25, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Chloë Sevigny, Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh, Emma Greenwell, Jane Austen, Kate Beckinsale, Love & Friendship, Morfydd Clark, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Stephen Fry, Tom Bennett, Whit Stillman, Xavier Samuel 1 Comment

In Whit Stillman’s sprightly and effervescently comical Love & Friendship, the Victorian era gets an uproarious facelift. Based on Jane Austen’s novella ‘Lady Susan’ (but going by the moniker of yet another Austen title), Love & Friendship is a frilly costume drama plump with acidic joviality and atypically boiling over with meaty guffaws. For those who typically avoid hifalutin, period piece fare, which Stillman’s picture appears to be from an arm’s length, expect to rather entreat with a tongue-in-cheek send up; a welcome vacation from formality and frivolity. His one-of-kind character piece is injected with barbed zingers, sharp witticisms and a tangy, irreverent touch, like a creampuff fluffed full with key lime paste but still absolutely delicious. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘THE NICE GUYS’

May 18, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged David Buckley, John Ottman, Kym Barrett, Margaret Qualley, Out in Theaters, Philippe Rousselot, Reviews, Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Shane Black, The Nice Guys, Yaya DaCosta 5 Comments

Shane Black has been defining and redefining the buddy cop movie since 1987, a year that saw his script for Lethal Weapon green lit under the tutelage of director Richard Donner. It took Black almost 20 years to step behind the directorial chair himself, debuting Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in 2005 and bringing along with him the rebirth of the buddy cop flick and the resurgence of Robert Downey Jr’s career. Now another decade on, Black has returned to the sub-genre that he – like some primordial catalyzing agent – helped evolve throughout the years to present The Nice Guys, 2016’s fly-in-the-face-of-tradition response to the 21st century buddy cop crisis. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘MONEY MONSTER’

May 12, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Alan DiFiore, George Clooney, Jack O'Connell, Jamie Linden, Jim Kouf, Jodie Foster, Julia Roberts, Money Monster, Out in Theaters, Reviews Leave a comment

From breaking out as a teenage prostitute in Martin Scorsese’s seminal Taxi Driver to becoming a household name to snatching a pair of Academy Awards to her semi-retirement from acting to focus on directing, Jodie Foster’s career has seen many evolutions. As a director, The Silence of the Lambs actress has sharpened her craft exponentially over the years, veering from such trite family-friendly material as Little Man Tate and Home for the Holidays to more adult-oriented material such as Mel Gibson-starring drama The Beaver, itself a horrendous victim of terrible timing. Her latest feature is another confident step forward, its incisive themes and hard-R sensibilities informed by her tenure as a guest director for Netflix’s two biggest and most mature hits: House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. With Money Monster, Foster finally sheds the skin of an actress experimenting with the format and actualizes as an genuine director of note. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘LAST DAYS IN THE DESERT’

May 11, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Ciarán Hinds, Emmanuel Lubezki, Ewan McGregor, Last Days in the Desert, Out in Theaters Rodrigo García, Reviews Sundance 2015, Tye Sheridan Leave a comment

Director Rodrigo García claimed two themes interested him most in his articulation of Jesus’ untold 40 day fast in the desert. The first: the primordial idea of how a boy becomes a man, a step that Garcia contents happens “with or without his father’s help of permission.” The second theme surrounds the notion of creationism, both in a spiritual and storyteller’s sense. García himself underwent a creation process in the construction of Last Days in the Desert, weaving a fictitious narrative out of a notable absence in Jesus’ origin story – only mentioned in passing in the Gospels but entirely bereft of detail. This absence of a story drew García to the project, offering him an entrance into a narrative that felt to him inspired, fresh and wildly important. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘X-MEN: APOCALYPSE’

May 9, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Alexandra Shipp, Bryan Singer, Evan Peters, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Lana Condor, Lucas Till, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Oscar Isaac, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Simon Kinberg, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, X-Men: Apocalypse 7 Comments

“Everyone knows the third one is always the worst,” a young Jean Grey (Game of Throne’s Sophie Turner) ironically reports, exiting a 1983 screening of Return of the Jedi. She’s right of course: Jedi is the lesser of the original Star Wars trilogy. But to her larger point: the culmination of trilogies often results in some degree of disappointment, sometimes even sullying the good name of that whence came before it. Take Godfather: Part III, The Dark Knight Rises, The Matrix Revolutions, Spiderman 3, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, ALIEN3, Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome, Terminator: Rise of the Machines and of course, Brett Ratner’s quite bad X-Men: The Last Stand. Jean’s remark, planted as it is in what is the third film of this newfangled X-Men trilogy, is meant to be tongue-in-cheek, perhaps both a potshot at Ratner’s derided 2006 entry to the franchise and a preemptive snarky parlay to the film’s inevitable detractors, because believe me when I say, X-Men: Apocalypse proves Jean Grey’s point. Read More