Author Archive
An Appreciation – Drunken Master 2
My earliest memory of Drunken Master 2 (1994, released in the U.S. as The Legend of Drunken Master) came from a friend who purchased a bootleg VHS copy at a local swap meet. As kids, we were already fans of Jackie Chan before he made…
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Film Review – The Darkest Minds
Another day, another Y.A. adaptation. The Darkest Minds (2018) highlights something I’ve found increasingly troubling with Y.A. novels brought to the big screen: future adults hate kids. In The Hunger Games series, kids are randomly chosen to participate in a murder contest as a form…
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Film Review – Mission: Impossible – Fallout
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) is the best entry into the Mission: Impossible series and is the best action film since Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). Throughout this latest adventure, we hear super agent Ethan Hunt utter the phrase, “I won’t let you down.” While…
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An Appreciation – Jaws
“You’re gonna need a bigger boat” Here is the moment that would forever change how movies are made, marketed, and watched. It’s hard to fathom – all these decades later – how much of an impact Jaws (1975) would have in popular culture. With its…
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Film Review – Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
I’ll start off this review with something positive. Walking out of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) – the aptly titled sequel to the musical Mamma Mia! (2008) – I saw plenty of people with smiles on their faces. They had a bounce to…
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Film Review – Skyscraper
Duct tape plays a prominent role throughout Skyscraper (2018). When Dwayne Johnson’s character suffers a brutal gash from shrapnel, he closes the wound off by wrapping it in tape. When he has to scale the side of a three thousand foot tall building, he wraps…
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Film Review – Sicario: Day of the Soldado
Sicario (2015) was a masterful thriller made in a post 9/11 world. With Denis Villeneuve’s keen direction, Taylor Sheridan’s focused writing, and Roger Deakins’ impeccable cinematography, the film was a white-knuckled suspense ride. It examined the blurred lines of morality, where characters compromised their beliefs…
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Film Review – Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Each sequel of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park (1993) – including the spin-offs Jurassic World (2015) and now Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) – have failed to answer the same lingering question: Why on Earth would anyone want to go back to a place where man-eating…
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