Category: 2022

REVIEW: ‘Blacklight’ lacks entertainment value

It’s time to spin the “what will Liam Neeson’s action character be?” wheel! We’ve had mob enforcer, air marshal and former Marine in recent years.

And it looks like this time it’s FBI agent!

Travis Block (Liam Neeson) is an extraction expert for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. When an agent’s cover is blown and they’re put in danger, Block is who the FBI calls to help them get out. While he’s great at his job, though, his work experience has caused friction with his family, notably with his daughter Amanda (Claire van der Boom).

Recent attempts to make things right with his daughter and granddaughter are interrupted, though, by his latest job, which is to bring in a rogue agent, Dusty (Taylor John Smith). However, when Block learns the FBI is actually after Dusty because he wants to leak information about the agency’s wrongdoings, the veteran agent turns his attention to what the bureau is hiding.

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REVIEW: ‘Death on the Nile’ isn’t a fit for the big screen

Trains are out and boats are in for this latest installment in the, um, Agatha Christie Cinematic Universe.

A follow-up to the 2017 film “Murder on the Orient Express,” “Death on the Nile” once again features the detective character Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh). After a brief opening showing Poirot’s experiences in World War I, the film picks up with the detective enjoying a vacation in Egypt. It’s there where he meets up with Bouc (Tom Bateman), a friend of Poirot’s who was also on the Orient Express.

After the two cross paths, Bouc introduces the detective to the newly married couple of Linnet (Gal Gadot) an Simon (Armie Hammer). Poirot is then invited to the honeymoon, which is taking place on a river cruise with several other characters. As the name suggests, a person dies onboard and it sets off another mystery for Poirot to solve.

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REVIEW: ‘Marry Me’ has enough rom-com magic to win viewers over

My ears definitely perked up when I heard this film was actually based on a graphic novel, which I now want to read.

Jennifer Lopez is Kat in “Marry Me,” a pop music super star who’s preparing for a concert like no other. She plans to get married on stage in front of a huge crowd to her fiance, Bastian, who’s also a singer.

However, before the show, she learns that Bastian cheated on her. Upset and wanting a quick fix, she decides to pick a stranger in the crowd to marry instead. That stranger is Charlie (Owen Wilson), a school teacher and single father. The two at first see it as an in the moment, reversible mistake, but soon grow closer.

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REVIEW: Despite making a mockery of science, ‘Moonfall’ entertains

There’s a cat in this movie named “Fuzz Aldrin.” I’m not saying that alone made the movie good, but it didn’t hurt.

Patrick Wilson plays Brian Harper in “Moonfall.” Once a decorated astronaut, the film picks up with Harper falling from grace as he appears to be responsible for a disaster in space. Harper attributes the calamity to a mysterious swarm of particles, but the heads of NASA don’t believe his story. That begins to change, though, when the Earth’s Moon moves off its course and on a crash trajectory with the planet, seemingly caused by the same swarm.

A man who predicted this would develop is KC Houseman (John Bradley), an unofficial scientist who’s been theorizing about the Moon for quite some time. Houseman and Harper eventually get into contact and decide that they need to take action, and they move forward in doing so with the help of Harper’s old colleague Jocinda Fowler (Halle Berry), who’s now a higher-up at NASA.

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REVIEW: ‘Scream’ doesn’t surpass recent horror counterparts, but still satisfies

Nearly a decade after Wes Craven directed his final “Scream” movie, the late filmmaker’s legacy lives on with a fifth installment for the franchise.

Audiences take a trip back to Woodsboro in “Scream,” set 25 years after the first movie that had the same title. This film starts out much like the original did, with a teenager, Tara (Jenna Ortega), being terrorized by a villainous character in a Ghostface mask.

Unlike the first movie, though, Tara survives and is hospitalized. This captures the attention of not only her sister Sam (Melissa Barrera), but the familiar trio of Sidney (Neve Campbell), Gale (Courteney Cox) and Dewey (David Arquette) as well. These characters converge on Woodsboro with the goal of uncovering who the new Ghostface is as attacks continue.

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REVIEW: Star cast unable to salvage below average ‘355’

If you like McGuffin hunts, then “The 355” might be the perfect movie for you.

Jessica Chastain stars as Mace in “The 355,” a CIA agent tracking the location of a device that can practically hack any computer system in the world, from transportation programs to weapon launches. After the death of her field partner, Mace doubles down on her efforts to recover the device.

Those efforts bring her in contact with other agents from several intelligence organizations. The agents include Graciela (Penelope Cruz) from Columbia, Lin (Fan Bingbing) from China, Marie (Diane Kruger) from Germany and Khadijah from England (Lupita Nyong’o). While they are at odds to begin, the agents eventually decide to work together.

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REVIEW: Don’t bother checking in to fourth ‘Hotel Transylvania’ film

The fourth and final “Hotel Transylvania” was initially set for a theatrical release, but this approach was later cancelled, with Sony Pictures instead taking a digital route.

It makes sense, because this has all the makings of a straight-to-home-video animated movie.

The installment takes place not long after the events of the third movie. Dracula (voiced now by Brian Hull), is still running the hotel and is now living there with his wife Erica Van Helsing (Kathryn Hahn). At the movie’s outset, Dracula is considering retiring, and in the process, handing the keys to his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) and son-in-law Johnny (Andy Samberg).

However, Dracula is nervous about doing so, as Johnny is not a monster. Johnny soon learns this and decides find  a way to turn himself into a monster. He succeeds, but this move accidentally turns other monsters, including Dracula, into humans. Determined to set things back to normal, Dracula and Johnny set off on an adventure.

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