Review: “Fast X”

Nine movies and a trilogy? That’s the direction the Fast and Furious franchise is turning toward, as it begins heading down the long road to wrapping up the series that began 22 years ago as a thriller about street racing. We’ve heard this before; the series’ supposed tenth and final film was soon announced to […]

Review: “Shazam: Fury of the Gods”

I’m in an optimistic mood, so let’s begin with something good: Shazam: Fury of the Gods improves on a major hang-up I had with its 2019 series-starter, Shazam! The film, a superhero origin story based on the DC comic, starred Asher Angel as Billy Batson, a troubled teen in the foster care system who is […]

Review: “65”

Tales that bridge the many-million-years time span between when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and when human technology became advanced enough to allow for exploration beyond the boundaries of the planet to occur have been staples of the science fiction genre for decades. Think of the adventure novels by the likes of Jules Verne (Journey to […]

Review: “John Wick: Chapter 4”

In the opening minutes of John Wick: Chapter 4, the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) and assassin John Wick (Keanu Reeves) are seen in an underground lair, preparing their revenge against the High Table, the powerful league of hit men that screwed them both over. And as the final shot of 2019’s John Wick: Chapter 3—Parabellum […]

Review: “Prey”

This weekend, I was really jonesing to watch “Prey,” director Dan Trachtenberg’s prequel to/reboot of the “Predator” franchise featuring a female Comanche warrior as the main protagonist that was released on Hulu last Friday. And then I realized something: I actually hadn’t seen a “Predator” movie before. Not any of the sequels or Alien team-ups, […]

Review: “Bullet Train”

The Shinkansen, or bullet train, is a network of railway lines in Japan that connect areas across the country to Tokyo, and can reach operating speeds of up to 200 miles per hour. The pacing of the movie “Bullet Train,” set on one of these commuter trains, is about as fast, but far less focused. […]

Review: “Top Gun: Maverick”

I have to admit, I initially wasn’t all that excited for “Top Gun: Maverick,” long-awaited (both in terms of the 36 year distance between it and its predecessor, and multiple delays, first to shoot more complex action scenes, and later due to the COVID-19 pandemic, repeatedly pushing it from its initial summer 2019 release date) […]

Review: “Ambulance”

In a world where most action movies are associated with an existing franchise and thrive on computer-generated effects and characters, “Ambulance”— with its confined setting and small cast and mostly practical effects, a film that is constantly going so fast and so hard it feels like everyone involved must have been snorting coke behind the […]

Review: “The Batman”

The disillusioned hero. The femme fatale. The corrupt officials and the ruthless gang leaders who circle each other in a never-ending game of give and take. The city, with its grimy alleys and dark shadows where anything or anybody could be hiding just around the corner. These are all hallmarks of the not-so-easily defined film […]

Review: “Uncharted”

The conversation surrounding the translation of video games to film has been had many a time; they frequently sacrifice story in favor of action scenes that don’t play as well when you’re watching them as opposed to, well, actually playing through them. The thing with the “Uncharted” series, though, is that you can see the […]