‘TOP GUN: MAVERICK’ Offers Peak Blockbuster Thrills, Exceeding Original On Every Front

May 24, 2022 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged Claudio Miranda, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Joseph Kosinski, Justin Marks, Lorne Balfe, Miles Teller, Peter Craig, Reviews, tom cruise, Top Gun: Maverick 3 Comments

Cruise. Control.

A legacy sequel that could have easily been nothing more than unnecessary nostalgia bait, Top Gun: Maverick is instead a tour de force blockbuster that reminds us of the joys of watching movies at the theater. After two years of wondering what the future of in-person cinema would look like in a post-Covid era, the high-flying feature from director Joseph Kosinski (Oblivion, Only the Brave) recalls the aspirational magic of the theatrical experience by looking back at what came before while also graciously paving the path forward. Read More

Noirish ‘THE BATMAN’ Reveals Man Swallowed By Mask

March 1, 2022 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Movie Reviews Tagged Andy Serkis, Colin Farrell, Greig Fraser, Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro, Matt Reeves, Michael Giacchino, Movie Reviews, Paul Dano, Peter Craig, Robert Pattinson, The Batman, Zoë Kravitz 1 Comment

We’ve seen the man become the bat plenty of times. In Matt Reeves’ The Batman, we see the bat become a man again. The Batman, a singularly gloomy noir caper that feels stylistically more akin to Se7en than The Dark Knight, presents one of the most distinctive versions of the iconic “superhero” (that term is used very loosely here) to ever grace the screen. Reeves’ vision is a far cry from the rinse-repeat superhero fare that so frequently pummels their way through the multiplexes. There’s sparse humor or frivolity and even less charm. As much as Batman can be grounded, stripped down to his essence as a character, and seen for the disturbed outsider that he truly is, this is what Reeves seeks to accomplish. And he largely does just that. Read More

Out in Theaters: ’12 STRONG’

January 18, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Chris Hemsworth, Michael Pena, Michael Shannon, Navid Negahban, Nicolai Fuglsig, Out in Theaters, Peter Craig, Reviews, Taylor Sheridan, Ted Tally, Trevante Rhodes Leave a comment

12 Strong calls in the cavalry on Al-Qaeda in Nicolai Fuglsig’s “declassified true story of the horse soldiers”. Spurred by the 9/11 terror attacks, Captain Mitch Nelson (Chris Hemsworth) leaves behind a safe, cushy military desk job to lead a team of special forces to the sandy front lines of the War on Terror. There, he must earn the trust of an Afghan warlord to take down a critical Taliban position. We’re told repeatedly that the fate of the War rests on this mission’s success and, well, we all know how that one turned out. Generic on most accounts, 12 Strong is an inoffensive American war movie relying on offensive war-mongering tactics. The semi-sturdy if mostly unremarkable acting and blasé set pieces lack the praise-worthy or memorable accents to set 12 Strong aside from the harras. Read More