Review: “Thunderbolts*”

There’s a string of scenes in the final stretch of Thunderbolts*— the final installment of Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, for those still keeping track— that’s as stirring and soulful as anything across the franchise’s 36 (and counting) film history. But like it’s title, the movie comes with an asterisk: any story element […]

Fantastic Fest Dispatch: “What Happened to Dorothy Bell?”, “The Draft!”, “Ghost Killer”

Ghosts and supernatural entities are common threads weaving together these three films that premiered at Fantastic Fest 2024— the annual festival in Austin, Texas highlighting genre films— but those horror trappings also give way to character studies that are accomplished with varying degrees of success. Read on for my reviews of the found footage horror […]

Review: “Deadpool & Wolverine”

As I stretch my fingers in preparation for typing up a response to Deadpool & Wolverine, I almost feel guilty about how badly I plan to savage it. The 34th entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the first appearance for the raunchy Deadpool character there following Disney’s purchase of 20th Century Fox in 2019, […]

Review: “Twisters”

From the jump, it’s clear that Twisters— whose cold open introduces a personable young cast, throws in some science-y gobbledygook, and culminates in a visceral, effects-laden action sequence—is straining to resurrect the good-old-fashioned summer blockbuster. For the most part, it succeeds, although a lot of that success is dependent on its continuing a legacy. Jan […]

Review: “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga”

“Do you have what it takes to make it epic?” Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) asks this question of Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) toward the end of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. But it might just as well be a challenge offered to director George Miller. To say that Miller’s 2015 action movie Mad Max: Fury Road came […]

Review: “The Fall Guy”

It started at the Oscars. When Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt teamed up to present a salute to the stunt community at this year’s Academy Awards (an odd bit of promotion considering that no Oscar for stunt work currently exists and there’s no evidence of it coming on the horizon), their playful ribbing of each […]

Review: “Monkey Man”

That Dev Patel’s Monkey Man— not only the actor’s directorial debut, but his brainchild, having also conceived the story, co-written the screenplay, and produced it in addition to starring in it— would be compared to the John Wick series was inevitable, even if all they share in common is their centering on a lone man […]

Review: “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire”

Any new Godzilla movie always has my expectations working somewhat against it. My younger brother watched and rewatched Roland Emmerich’s 1998 Godzilla so many times after it was released— almost daily— I’m surprised he didn’t ruin the VHS tape. But he also went back and watched several of Toho Co.’s original films (albeit the horribly […]

Review: “Road House” (2024)

If there’s one thing Rowdy Herrington’s 1989 sleaze-fest Road House understood, it was how best to utilize Patrick Swayze’s appeal as an object of desire. The morning after Swayze’s cool bouncer James Dalton blows into town, having taken a job at a rough-and-tumble bar called the Double Deuce in Jasper, Missouri (a tiny town that […]

Review: “Argylle”

“This was our song,” a man murmurs to a woman as they tenderly sway to the music across the dance floor. The song in question is “Now and Then,” a “new” song by the “Beatles” that was released in November 2023— nearly two years after principal photography wrapped on Matthew Vaughn’s Argylle. The song, in […]