For their 151st episode, two muy thai film critics, two buns-baring dads, and two bouncer teachers, Will Johnson and Don Shanahan, have set the table to talk about Doug Liman's 2024 remake of Road House, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. While comparisons are there to be made between this one and Patrick Swayze's from 1989, we've got two guys who know how to compartmentalize their film history. They know full well no remake erases an original. The fun part is we now get multiplied fun.
Read MoreIf you’re “Crazy for Swayze,” there’s no beating the mullet-ed original, no matter how ripped the 43-year-old, six-foot tall blue-eyed Californian looks before us. On the other hand, if you’re the garish action junkie, you are the larger majority targeted for this new incarnation. This Road House trades outdoor tai chi and sloppy barroom brawling for lightning-quick and bone-cracking mixed martial arts panache. Apply that doubled brutality to Gyllenhaal’s charisma, and one hand washes the other in sweat, sea water, and blood.
Read MoreYou’ve seen bits and pieces of this human buffet and interstellar peril before in the likes of superior films like “Alien,” “Gravity,” and more. To its credit, the dour tone frames “Life” as a straight-shooting creature feature trading camp for tension and thrills, plenty of which elicit sly pleasures. Nonetheless, what separates the spectacular from the mediocre in this science fiction subgenre is the monster and the creative uses by which it is employed. This one goes derivative.
Read MoreThe leap for every filmmaker is translating their creative eye to the cinematic medium. Hitchcock’s feverish writing fed his mise-en-scene and attention to detail. Spielberg grew his outdoor sense of adventure to the highest possibilities and beyond. With an eye for the cultured human form and colorful finery, Tom Ford saturates every edge of his films with ornate style. The man is never boring and neither is one iota of “Nocturnal Animals,” Ford’s second feature film and a cage-rattling psychological thriller.
Read MoreMarketed like a thrilling disaster film yet playing like a respectful drama, "Everest" is still carries the sheen of every other Hollywood mountain climbing movie while offering enough of a eulogistic history lesson to be respectful of its true story. Based on the real 1996 events documented in Jon Krakauer's massively best-selling novel "Into Thin Air," astute viewers who know how it will all end will still be engaged and entertained through the cliches. Director Baltasar Kormakur veils the seams of Hollywood dramatization enough to not sour the experience.
Read MoreIf you've seen one boxing movie, you've seen them all. They are their own formula, cliche, and sub-genre of sports movies. If you've seen one rags-to-riches triumph or riches-to-rags-back-to-riches redemption, you've seen them all. If you've heard one trash talking villain or one sage mentor/trainer/coach jaw on their own, you've heard them all. If you've seen one smoothly-edited training montage that leads to the big, loud and predictable ending fight, you've seen the all. "Southpaw" sadly brings nothing new to the table.
Read MoreThe Oscar nominations for the 87th Academy Awards were announced this morning. Directors J.J. Abrams and Alfonso Cuaron mapped out the little categories and then actor Chris Pine and Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs drops some bombs this morning. As always, there are plenty of surprises and plenty of snubs. Through it all, the frontrunners have already emerged and this race is taking shape, so much so that I could probably name the eventual winners already today.
Read MoreWith the 87th Academy Award nominations being announced tomorrow morning, I'm cutting it close with my predictions of who and what names will hear their named called. I've been following the full awards season over on my Awards Tracker page, where I've been following the trends and reading the tea leaves. Using that data and a batch of hunches, here are my savvy predictions for tomorrow's nominations in the eleven major categories.
Read MoreMore and more each year, the Golden Globes have become more an a popularity contest than a true precursor to the Academy Awards. What you're watching on TV is a party thrown by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in an effort to be loved and share some love. To its credit, the awards show still garners legitimate attention and ratings. The winners do get a pretty positive rub and the marketers gain a few more "Winner of..." graphics to put in the newspapers next to their films. Let's take a look at the film categories and pick some winners.
Read More"Nightcrawler" is the cinematic equivalent of not being able to look away from an impending accident. This is the movie on that test that stops and watches for even more peril. In a movie like this, our own voyeurism and curiosity takes over and we find ourselves enraptured in what we see, even if it is wrong and against our usual likes, dislikes, morals, or beliefs. Movies that do that and still entertain are rare.
Read More
