Thursday, September 5, 2019
Angel Has Fallen (2019)
I saw Olympus Has Fallen (2013) with my father, I skipped London Has Fallen (2016), and I saw Angel Has Fallen with a friend. The third installment is full of references that most people over 40 would get. There were some chuckles in the mostly-empty theater. A bunch of things went boom.
The only thing that impressed me more than the action scenes was how little the film tried to be different or original. Ignoring the latest superhero crossover crap, this is cinema at its most mainstream. Eh, it’s not bad.
Monday, September 2, 2019
Zardoz (1974)
Fresh from directing Deliverance (1972), John Boorman wrote, directed, and produced a sci-fi classic that is without a doubt his most unconventional film.
The movie takes place so far in the future that the location could only be described as specifically as that it’s in a temperate zone. There seem to be parallel realities, and a giant flying head travels between dimensions and orders around Sean Connery until Connery hitches a ride across the dimensional divide and ends up in a high-tech hippie commune. If that sounds like your thing, you may have a few screws loose.
Monday, August 19, 2019
The Machine (2013)
Still reeling from the catastrophe that was Alita: Battle Angel, I decided to revisit a festival darling from 2013. Like Alita, The Machine stars a sexy robochick, and like Chappie, it pulls no punches. Unlike Alita and Chappie, this movie doesn’t suck.
Thursday, August 15, 2019
A Perfect Getaway (2009)
A certain auteur has made so many masterpieces, none of them particularly obscure, that it’s hard to pick just one to cover. The choice was made for me when Adam Nayman posted a 10-year anniversary retrospective of David Twohy’s A Perfect Getaway. They don’t make ‘em like they used to, and this twister of an action thriller certainly helps one to appreciate the good old days.
Warning: This review contains spoilers.
Sunday, August 4, 2019
The Tangle (2019)
I recently had the pleasure of viewing The Tangle at a film festival several times. It’s a near-future post-singularity murder mystery. Beyond the logline, it’s a deep examination of mankind.