Author Archive
Film Review – Mulan (2020)
The Disney money train rolls on. After numerous delays due to the Covid pandemic, Disney’s live action Mulan (2020) has finally rolled out through their streaming platform, Disney+. The troubled release schedule along with the company’s pricing decision (currently, you can only watch it by…
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Film Review – Bill & Ted Face the Music
The premise of the Bill & Ted films has always been absurd, but that’s precisely what made them so charming. William “Bill” Preston, Esq. (Alex Winter) and Theodore “Ted” Logan (Keanu Reeves) are two unlikely heroes – simple but good-natured best friends who are more…
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Film Review – Sputnik
On the surface, Sputnik (2020) has similarities with other science fiction films involving humans coming into contact with non-Earth beings. Hailing out of Russia, its approach will call to mind Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) or maybe Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival (2016). What the writing (Oleg Malovichko,…
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Film Review – Project Power
Project Power (2020) has a lot of things going for it – superhero story, revenge tale, police procedural, social commentary, etc. It doesn’t really hit any of those topics in a meaningful way, but it has a relentless energy trying to get there. Like a…
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Film Review – An American Pickle
There has always been a sweetness to Seth Rogen that makes him easy to root for. That quality allows us to follow him through many different kinds of characters – there’s a down-to-earth, everyman sense about him that we can attach to. That works in…
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Film Review – The Tax Collector
The Tax Collector (2020) is a reprehensible film. It is vile, ugly, and populated by racial stereotypes. The characters offer little depth, standing around with their macho-posturing trying to be the baddest dude in the room. The story depicts a section of the L.A. Latinx…
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Film Review – The Hater
Tomasz (Maciej Musialowski) is an enigma. On the outside he seems like a polite and well-adjusted young man. He dresses in a buttoned-up shirt, tie, vest, and overcoat. At dinner parties he’ll bring a gift and will ask about people in a way that doesn’t…
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Film Review – The Rental
The premise is all too familiar. A group of people travel out to a remote location for a weekend getaway, only to fall prey to an unknown danger stalking them from the shadows. There have been countless horror films that have utilized this set up:…
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