Tag: Movie Review

REVIEW: ‘The Lighthouse’ is a captivating film creation

While “The Lighthouse” is simply centered on two men and a maritime structure, it also happens to be one of the best films of the year.

Director Robert Eggers returns with “Lighthouse,” his follow up to his feature debut, 2015’s “The Witch,” which earned a lot of acclaim. This time around, his latest movie follows Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe) and Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson), two lighthouse workers who’re tasked with operating an Atlantic coast facility for about a month.

The experienced worker, Thomas, takes the night shifts and operates the tower to guide ships, while Ephraim is given mostly maintenance work. The labor is tough but appears fairly routinely. However, strange occurrences start taking place and Ephraim begins questioning what’s real and what’s not.

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REVIEW: ‘Terminator: Dark Fate’ excels where it counts: the action

So this is a “Terminator” film where a person or machine from the future has to fight off a far more deadly machine also from the future in order to protect someone.

Sound familiar?

This time around, the movie is more focused on a new character, rather than Connor family like previous installments. Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes) is the main protagonist in “Dark Fate” and is being hunted by a terminator. Because of the action taken by Sarah Connor in “Terminator 2,” though, the terminator hunting Dani is from an AI program in the future called Legion, rather than Skynet.

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REVIEW: ‘Countdown’ is generic, hollow horror

What can’t movie demons possess at this point? In “Truth or Dare” one could possess a thought-process game among friends, and now one possesses an app.

The latest horror movie to hit the PG-13 market features a number of people discovering an app that can tell when a person is going to die, counting down everything from the years to the seconds. The app is a simple running clock, and many laugh it off as a joke.

However, that is until a few look at the phone and see they only have a few days or hours left. Sure enough, those people end up dying. After some deaths from the app early on, the character Quinn enters the mix. Played by Elizabeth Lail, Quinn is the main character and apparently is set to die in the next several days. Deciding to take action, she and another character, Matt (Jordan Calloway), try to figure out how to change fate.

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REVIEW: ‘Maleficent 2’ is more mediocre than marvelous

That mouse just can’t quit with this live action train, huh. Can’t really blame Disney when the first “Sleeping Beauty” story adaptation made nearly $70 million in its opening weekend and grossed $758 million worldwide.

In this follow-up to the 2014 hit, Angelina Jolie returns to the role of Maleficent, a powerful fairy who now looks after her goddaughter and acts as the main defender of the Moors Kingdom. Queen of that kingdom is Maleficent’s goddaughter Aurora (Elle Fanning), who now rules a united kingdom including both humans and mystical creatures.

Along with leading a nation, Aurora has fallen in love with Prince Phillip (Harris Dickinson), who’s from another kingdom. The two are looking to get married, and with some convincing, Maleficent becomes at least open to the idea. However, Phillip’s parents, especially his mother Queen Ingrith (Michelle Pfeiffer), are less than welcoming, viewing the mystical residents of Aurora’s kingdom, including Maleficent as a threat. Her prejudice eventually causes a strain between Aurora and Maleficent.

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REVIEW: A return to ‘Zombieland’ is fun, but also forgettable

It took a decade but audiences have finally been invited back to Zombieland. Unfortunately, it’s lost some luster.

The movie picks up with the protagonists of the 2009 horror comedy, Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). The four have been surviving across the United States since joining together as a makeshift family in California.

At the beginning of the movie, the four have made it to Washington D.C. and decide to take up residency in the still intact White House. The presidential mansion is a great place to live, but like all families, there can be growing pains and stress. Eventually, it causes Little Rock to go out on her own. The remaining trio decide to go after Little Rock to ensure her safety and encounter some new faces along the way.

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REVIEW: Technically ambitious ‘Gemini Man’ fails in other areas

Young Will Smith returns in “Gemini Man” but unfortunately, he hasn’t made a rap song to compliment his latest movie like he used to.

The movie stars Smith as Henry Brogan, an aging government operative and assassin who’s looking to retire from his career in combat. His dreams of retirement are dashed, though, as he becomes a target by higher-ups just as he’s leaving the business. An attempt on his life forces him to go on the run, with the help of another government agent named Danny (Mary Elizabeth Winstead).

The problem though, is the person they sent after Brogan is exceptionally skilled and is also relentless. On top of being a force to be reckoned with, though, Brogan soon learns that the one hunting him is actually a younger clone of himself.

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REVIEW: ‘Abominable’ looks great but suffers from poor characters

Dreamworks’ animated features have had their ups and downs, and “Abominable” comes in at about the middle.

The movie follows Yi (voiced by Chloe Bennet), a teenage girl who’s motivated to work several jobs to save money in order to go on a trip across China. Her motivation comes from her late father, who wanted to take Yi on the trip himself before he passed away.

One night when she’s on the roof of her apartment putting away her saved money and to play her violin, though, Yi is greeted by an abominable snowman. While frightened at first, Yi eventually befriends the yeti. The problem, though, is that the yeti is being chased by goons from a billionaire who collects exotic creatures. Determined to keep the yeti safe, Yi and a few friends decide to help it get back to its home on Mount Everest.

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REVIEW: ‘Abbey’ is a good watch for fans and those unfamiliar

I walked into the theater blind with this one. I never watched an episode of the television series “Downton Abbey,” and despite my attempts at research, I was still a bit lost. With that said, though, it was a pretty enjoyable time.

From what I could pick up, the film takes place following the events of the show, featuring stories of both the Crawley family and those who work at their estate. In this film, the family is welcoming King George and Queen Mary to stay at Downton Abbey as part of a royal tour along the country-side.

Over the course of the visit, the Crawleys have moments of inter-family drama mixed with trying to make a good impression for the Royal Family. The staff, meanwhile, have their own sub-plot where they compete to maintain their service in spite of being pushed aside by the Royal Family’s staff.

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REVIEW: ‘Ad Astra’ is in the upper echelon of the space adventure genre

A star studded cast like this deserves to be on a grand scale film across the stars. That’s what we get with the new sci-fi “Ad Astra.”

The movie takes place in the fairly distant future, with mankind now able travel to the Solar System’s inner planets regularly and launch long range expeditions beyond the asteroid belt. The film follows Roy McBride, an experienced and fearless astronaut working for the United States’ Space Com.

However, Roy still lives in the shadow of his father Clifford (Tommy Lee Jones), a great, accomplished American space explorer who went on a venture to the outer reaches of the solar system near Neptune. The expedition was lost, though, decades ago, with the crew written off as dead. When power surges begin hitting the earth generated from a powerful space ship engine, Roy is tasked with finding out if his father is still alive and if so, if it’s the lost ship starting these power surges.

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REVIEW: ‘Hustlers’ is a flashy, fun crime story

Hustlin’ aint easy, but the main characters in this flick sure seemed good at it.

“Hustlers” follows the character Destiny (Constance Wu), a woman trying to make a living in New York City by working at a gentlemen’s club. On top of making a living for herself, she’s also working to support her grandmother. While she’s making some money with the job, she doesn’t hit her stride until she meets Ramona (Jennifer Lopez), who acts as a sort of mentor.

Things appear to be going well with more money coming in. However, the film is set around 2008 and as many may remember, Wall Street tanked and pulled the rest of the world economy down with it. In the ensuing years, with more financial strains, Destiny decides to join Ramona in a scheme of getting wealthy wall street clients drunk and then over-charging their credit cards.

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