Tag: Movie Review

REVIEW: ‘Ready Player One’ Is Heavy On Nostalgia, Low On Heart

There’s a section from 2012’s “Avengers” where Captain America very loudly tells the rest of the team that he understood a reference. That’s, more or less, how “Ready Player One” operates.

“Ready Player One” takes place in a rather depressed future. Picking up in 2045, the film is set in a world of mass poverty, with humanity facing numerous problems. However, much of the population gets away from these matters by way of a virtual reality gaming platform called the OASIS.

Not only do many people, escape their problems by way of the OASIS, they also search for a hidden treasure. That treasure is a massive ownership share of the OASIS company, which is valued at several billion dollars. In order to find it, the gamers, and entire companies, dig for clues related to the program’s late developer, Halliday (Mark Rylance).

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REVIEW: ‘Pacific Rim Uprising’ Is A Monster Sized Disappointment

Get rid of/kill off the main characters from the first one? Check. Create plot holes that invalidate the first one? Check. Feel less impact from the action despite being technically more on screen? Check. “Pacific Rim: Uprising” is officially a bad movie sequel.

The film takes place 10 years after the events of the 2013 film. Peace has largely returned to the Earth after mankind stopped an interdimensional invasion of giant monsters. However, the Jaeger program, which built the giant robots to fight monsters is still active, for some reason. Also, new candidates are being trained to pilot those robots, for some reason.

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REVIEW: Despite Unlikable Characters, ‘Don’t Breathe’ Has Edge Of Your Seat Thrills

Take note horror characters, never go in a creepy looking house.

“Don’t Breathe” tells the tale of three home robbers trying to make enough money to get out of a dilapidated area of Detroit. The trio, including Rocky (Jane Levy), Alex (Dylan Minnette) and Money (Daniel Zovatto), get a major opportunity for a big score when they are tipped off about a blind man who is sitting on hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The three eventually begin their plan to break in and pull off the heist, but they don’t get very far. It’s not long before the would-be robbers find out that the person their stealing from, despite being blind, has complete control over his senses. On top of this, they also find out that the Blind Man (Stephen Lang) is aggressive and ready to kill all of the trespassers without mercy.

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REVIEW: ‘Independence Day’ Sequel Doesn’t Capture First Film’s Magic

Talk about jumping the shark.

“Resurgence,” the follow-up to the 1996 mega-blockbuster, takes place 20 years after the events of the first film. By reverse-engineering alien technology, the human race has created new defensive machinery and the nations of the world have united to defend against another attack.

The story picks up around the time of the 20 year anniversary of the first war and audiences are immediately introduced to a new cast of fighter pilots who help Earth’s defenses. At the same time, though, characters from the previous film are featured, like David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), the tech genius who helped upload a virus on the mother ship and now serves as the expert on all things aliens.

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REVIEW: ‘Central Intelligence’ Starts Strong But Loses Energy As It Goes On

It’s another team up movie for Kevin Hart and this time around he’s joined by one of the biggest action stars in Hollywood.

In “Central Intelligence,” Hart plays a man who was once the most popular and active kid in high school, but is now stuck at a rather dead-end job as an accountant. His situation makes him less than eager to attend his upcoming 20 year high school reunion, but one day at work, he gets a message from Bob Stone (Dwayne Johnson).

Bob, who was also a senior when Calvin was in school, was bullied for much of his time there. However, that has turned around as Bob has become a jacked up super agent for the CIA. Calvin, unfortunately, finds this out the hard way as he’s dragged into an international operation by Bob to help him accomplish his mission.

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REVIEW: ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ Strengthened By Character Arcs, Except The Villain’s

After 2014’s “X-Men: Days of Future Past” that jumped around with time travel, Director Bryan Singer has returned to a more linear concept for the latest mutant adventure.

In the new “X-Men” story, audiences get introduced to En Sabah Nur, better known as Apocalypse. Labeled the first mutant in history, Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) is a man who considers himself a god and survived through the ages by transferring his consciousness to a new body. The last time this occurred, though, was in ancient Egypt and Apocalypse ended up getting betrayed and trapped in rubble.

Fast forward to the 1980s, the film starts up with Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) now running a fully functional school with multiple students. Through contact with a character from one of the previous films, Xavier finds out that Apocalypse could be returning, and in doing so, bring his friend Magneto (Michael Fassbender) out of the shadows.

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REVIEW: Triple 9 Squanders Talented Cast With Disastrous Story

The cast of “Triple 9” includes Oscar winner Kate Winslet, Academy Award nominees Chiwetel Ejiofor, Casey Affleck and Woodey Harrelson, Golden Globe Nominee Aaron Paul and Independent Spirit Award nominee Anthony Mackie.

Simply put, this film was loaded with talent, and unfortunately it squanders it. The film follows a group of criminals who also happen to be corrupt police officers in Atlanta. The gang, which includes Michael (Ejiofor) and Marcus (Mackie) seem like they want to get out of the lifestyle they’ve fallen into, yet because they’re on the hook for the Russian mafia, led by Irina Vlaslov (Winslet), they’re forced into more heists.

Meanwhile Detective Jeffrey Allen (Harrelson) is investigating the recent heists and trying to solve who on the police force may be crooked.

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REVIEW: Coens’ ‘Hail Caesar’ Is A Fun Love Letter To Old Hollywood

George Clooney plays Baird Whitlock in “Hail, Caesar!,” the latest dramedy from writers/directors The Coen Brothers. Whitlock is a star Hollywood actor and is working on the set of a 1950s Hollywood mega production for the studio Capitol Pictures. After shooting one of the scenes for the picture, though, Whitlock is drugged and kidnapped.

That’s where the real star of the film enters, Eddie Mannix, played by Josh Brolin. Mannix is the head of production at Capitol and manages everything that goes on, whether it be angry directors or the social life of the contracted actors. Mannix is seemingly everywhere and if he didn’t seem overworked before, the kidnapping puts him over the top.

As most Coen Bros. movies go, “Hail Caesar!” doesn’t play by the conventional rules and they have once again made a rather oddball comedy. While this does provide for some solid laughs, especially directed toward the industry, it does make the movie a bit too disjointed in how it handles the main conflict.

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REVIEW: ‘The Finest Hours’ Is Worth A Watch Thanks To The Thrills

“The Finest Hours” takes audiences back to the days of the 1950s and follows the story of U.S. Coast Guard Officer Bernie Webber (played by Chris Pine) who is stationed on the coast of Massachusetts. The film’s main conflict comes when an oil tanker gets torn in half by a monster blizzard in the Atlantic Ocean resulting in Webber and a Coast Guard crew having to make a daring rescue.

Meanwhile, aboard the remaining section of the tanker, Ray Sybert (Casey Affleck) is part of the crew that has to keep the ship afloat until help arrives.

The rescue-centric film is based on the true story of the actual Coast Guard mission and the flick certainly does capture a lot of intensity by portraying the grand moments of the epic tale. When the SS Pendleton is torn apart, the film breathtakingly displays the gravity of the situation.

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REVIEW: ‘Kung Fu Panda 3’ Lags Behind Its Predecessors

Whenever someone says they have problems with excessive sequels, I always bring up “Kung Fu Panda 2” (2011) as an example of how a sequel can surpass the original. The first film, released in 2008 was good, but “Kung Fu Panda 2” was even better and is one of my favorite animated films ever.

So does part 3 live up to its predecessor? Unfortunately, no.

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