Out in Theaters: ‘VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN’

November 24, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Andrew Scott, Daniel Radcliffe, James McAvoy, Jessica Brown Findlay, Mary Shelley, Max Landis, Out in Theaters, Paul McGuigan, Reviews, Victor Frankenstein 1 Comment

There was never any hope that Victor Frankenstein, the latest in a string of hastily-produced re-imaginings of royalty free properties, would garner much critical acclaim, which meant that in order for it to have any real box office potency, it would need to play a very specific game of kowtowing to fans of this somewhat still existent genre. Look no further than the (relative) success of the Resident Evil movies to get an idea of what that should look like: buttloads of glossy, second-rate CGI, neck-break action that doesn’t usually feel the need to stop to think, limitless kills with limited blood. It’s no so much a formula for success so much as it is a formula for not failing miserably. Read More

THE LEFTOVERS Season 2 Episode 8 “International Assassin”

November 24, 2015 by Eric Brown Posted in Frontpage Articles, Reviews, TV Reviews Tagged Ann Dowd, Jovan Adepo, Justin Theroux, Scott Glenn Leave a comment

Purgatory as a hotel makes sense in The Leftovers because it’s a transient place where souls are coming and departing. Kevin is stuck in a Hilton version of Hotel California without the pink champagne and colitas but where water erases former identities prepping new tabula rasa souls for the next life to come. But it also serves as a recognizable plot device seen in other shows such as the “Sopranos,” “Mad Men,” and “Boardwalk Empire” to name a few, when characters need a reality check usually framed within some sort of alternate sphere. They inhabit another life role as a reflection of their current one. But faith versus empiricism or spirituality versus cognition continue to dual in The Leftovers, setting up Kevin (Justin Theroux) with an introspective nightmare—staged as a spiritual trial or psychological dream? Let’s just call it a perga-dream. But it still sets him up in a world where he still possesses free will. Read More

‘NO ESCAPE’ Blu-Ray Review

November 24, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Blu-Ray/DVD Reviews Tagged DVD/Blu-Ray Review, Lake Bell, No Escape, Owen Wilson, Pierce Brosnan 1 Comment

Synopsis: “American businessman Jack Dwyer (Owen Wilson), wife Annie (Lake Bell) and their two young daughters arrive in Southeast Asia to begin a new life. As his company plans to improve the region’s water quality, the family quickly learns that they’re right in the middle of a political uprising. Armed rebels attack the hotel where they’re staying, ordered to kill any foreigners that they encounter. Amid utter chaos, Jack must find a way to save himself and his loved ones from the violence erupting all around them.” Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘CREED’

November 23, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Aaron Covington, Creed, Ludwig Göransson, Maryse Alberti, Michael B. Jordan, Out in Theaters, Phylicia Rashad, Reviews, Ryan Coogler, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson 2 Comments

The Rocky series has a long and storied history that I will cautiously admit that I’m not too familiar with. I know Dolph Lundgren played a Russian adversary at the height of the Gorbachev-era Cold War. Sylvester Stallone’s wolf-like howl for Adrian after his first heavy-weight fight is as burned into my eardrums as Marlon Brando’s wailing “Stella!!!” in the sleepy French Quarter streets. The poster-worthy shot of Rocky’s fists pumped victorious above his head atop the Philadelphia Museum of Arts stairs (today known as the “Rocky Steps”) is as iconic to me as Sgt. Elias’ Hail Mary death throes in Platoon. I know the name Apollo Creed and have a vague recollection of his relative importance within the Rocky franchise but I couldn’t tell you much aside from the fact that he was played by Carl Weathers at the height of his beefiness and that he died in the ring. That is to say, I know the iconography of Rocky, but very little else. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘TRUMBO’

November 20, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Alan Tudyk, Bryan Cranston, Helen Mirren, Jay Roach, John Goodman, John McNamara, Louie C.K., Michael Stuhlbarg, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Trumbo 3 Comments

Bryan Cranston is a treasure. Don’t forget that fact. As blacklisted Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, he whirls his cigarette (like him, a captive in an ornate holder), sitting in still bathwater, raving about the inadequacies of American political structures in that manic brilliance that he so finely honed playing Walter White. That Trumbo is the brand of all-inclusive biopic that’ll leave you pining for less is disappointing but it doesn’t discount Cranston leading man prowess or make his performance any less tasty. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘BROOKYLN’

November 20, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Brooklyn, Domhnall Gleeson, Emory Cohen, Jane Brennan, Jim Broadbent, John Crowley, Julie Walters, Nick Hornsby, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Saoirse Ronan 3 Comments

The Brooklyn of 2015 is associated with being hip and trendy; a once counterculture locale turned into one of the most desirable places to live on the planet. It’s home base for the American Dream; a hotspot where you can expect to spot Aziz Ansari drinking elderberry kombucha while jotting down scene notes in an artisanal moleskin; a fantasy land that environs the hottest up-and-comers and gives birth to the most in vogue fads while taking in loads of new arrivals by the truckload. John Crowley’s Brooklyn stands in stark opposition to many of the things that Brooklyn represents today. It’s not hip, it’s certainly not trendy and it bears its heart on its sleeve in a way that most of the millennials occupying the various boroughs would not dare display. Rather, the Nick Hornsby-penned immigrant romance is about as earnest as they come, forthright in its good intentions and ultimately charmed beyond compare. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY – PART 2’

November 19, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Donald Sutherland, Elden Hensen, Jo Willem, Josh Hutcherson, Julianne Moore, Liam Hemsworth, Mahershala Ali, Michelle Forbes, Natalie Dormer, Out in Theaters, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Reviews, Sam Claflin, Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 Leave a comment

Katniss Everdeen, the Girl on Fire, the Mother of Rebellion, the Mockingjay, admits in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 that she is but a slave to the dictatorial President of Panem (played to chilly perfection by Donald Sutherland). Pitted against those she has no desire to fight in what has brewed up into an all-out civil war, she with more nicknames than Daenerys Targaryen is but still a pawn in the battle between warring factions. Her burden as torch bearer of a revolution was as predetermined as Prim’s name being reaped from a turnstile. So too is The Hunger Games (the films) enslaved to Suzanne Collins‘ cheaper narrative instincts and predestined by the closing chapters of her best-selling novels. But just as Collins’ books have their hero, the Lionsgate franchise have their own saving graces in the frankly splendid set design, a remarkably top-shelf cast, a vivid, wonderfully realized sense of imagination and the series finest action set pieces to date. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘THE NIGHT BEFORE’

November 18, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Anthony Mackie, Evan Goldberg, Ilana Glazer, James Franco, Jason Mantzoukas, Jillian Bell, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lizzy Kaplan, Michael Shannon, Miley Cyrus, Mindy Kaling, Nathan Fielder, Out in Theaters, Randall Park, Reviews, Seth Rogen, The Night Before Leave a comment

Mix one part holiday sentiment, two parts 21st century bromance and a healthy teaspoon of bath salts and you’ll have cooked up Jonathan Levine‘s latest comedic vision quest. The Night Before is packaged as a drug-fueled Christmas romp starring such likable actors as Seth Rogen, Anthony Mackie and Joseph Gordon-Levitt and works from a script from Levine and frequent Rogen collaborator Evan Goldberg. When the formulaic cocktail of easy chemistry and easier laughs is working, The Night Before is funny bone-shaking good, a zesty melange of manic humor, gross out gags and breezy charisma. At one too many of its Santa’s sleigh stops though, the bromance is invaded by bromides, making for an uneven and inconsistent holiday farce with uncomfortably obvious pacing problems. But, being a comedy, the essential question really boils down to: is The Night Before funny? Read More

‘ZOOLANDER 2’ Trailer Features Ugly Benedict Cumberbatch and Murdered Bieber

November 18, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Trailers Tagged Ben Stiller, Benedict Cumberbatc, Christine Taylor, Kristen Wiig, Owen Wilson, Penélope Cruz, Trailer, Will Ferrell, Zoolander 2 Leave a comment

It’s been 15 years since Derek Zoolander shot his last Blue Steel at the camera and, for better or worse, he’s back in the first full trailer for Zoolander 2. Years retired and now thought of as a bit of a joke, Zoolander is recruited once more to stop the evil fashion designer Mugatu (Will Ferrell) from assassinating all the beautiful people in the world, including, of course, Justin Bieber and Kayne West. Read More

THE LEFTOVERS Season 2 Episode 7 “A Most Powerful Adversary” Review

November 17, 2015 by Eric Brown Posted in Frontpage Articles, Reviews, TV Reviews Tagged Amy Brenneman, Carrie Coon, Jovan Adepo, Justin Theroux Leave a comment

The leftovers are departing. Laurie’s (Amy Brenneman) analysis of Kevin’s (Justin Theroux) Patti (Ann Dowd) manifestations summarizes the premise of the show. Everyone’s in Miracle, but all that’s really left is “us.” Scientific and religious theories compete for answers, but people prefer to believe in divine speculations versus more down to earth truths because it’s easier. Kevin chooses Virgil’s back door over Laurie’s more empirical advice to seek psychiatric help. Before he slugs the Patti antidote, he frames up Garvey Sr.’s advice to listen to the voices. But Garvey Sr. meant that the answers aren’t in what the voices instructed but rather that they initiated the journey to healing, permitting him to face himself. Overt symbolism aside, Kevin frees himself from the cuffs because Patti wasn’t in the way. Laurie, a woman of science, admits she chose a faith-based alternative, all of which have been commoditized like a resource in a boom town—or like a Comic Con for L. Ron Hubbard’s. Read More