For a completely goofy, “Clash of the Titans” throwback, “Gods of Egypt” is drawing a lot of controversy over the apparent whitewashing of the cast. There are a ton of white people in this movie, but there are also a few people of color in prominent roles, but the central Egyptian gods are mostly white […]
Film
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Killing Them Softly
“Triple 9” shoots straight
Picture a crime thriller where every character is like Denzel Washington in “Training Day” and “Triple 9” will start to come into focus. Even our heroes have rough edges and their motivations stay rooted in the shadows. Even our villains have moments of goodness they try to grasp occasionally while holding a gun to the […]
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“Race” Comes in For a Bronze
Gutless bio-epic falls short
A movie can’t be successful artistically just on good intentions. If that were the case then “Race” would be the best picture of the year (or of many years). Alas, a modern telling of the story of Jesse Owens with a good-sized budget to hire a few great actors and recreate the Olympics will have […]
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Beware “The Witch”
A quiet creeper that will disappoint most
“The Witch” premiered to great acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival, with critical quotes providing unrestrained buildup, such as Stephen King saying it scared the hell out of him. Once it took the Best Director award at the festival, the hype accelerated. The movie is being marketed as the scariest horror film in decades, but […]
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Make ‘Em Laugh
Deadpool wisecracks his way straight to the heart
In the Marvel Universe, there really isn’t anyone like Deadpool. Created in 1991 by extremely terrible comic book artist Rob Liefeld, Deadpool (real name, Wade Wilson), began his comics career as a villainous killer-for-hire in X-titles like “The New Mutants” and “X-Force.” He’s a ripoff of DC Comics’ villain Slade Wilson, also known as Deathstroke, […]
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Yawn of the Dead
Jane Austen’s Zombieland
“Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” is exactly what it sounds like. Maybe a little better than it sounds for some and a little worse for others. For most of the population, just the word “zombies” in a title will put them in the seats as the continued stratospheric ratings of “The Walking Dead” keeps proving. […]
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Hail, Coen!
The smartest filmmakers on Earth return
Reviewing a new Coen Brothers film is an exercise in futility, especially only after one viewing. Their work is never as simple as it first seems on the surface and, regardless the genre they’re dabbling in, there are always multiple layers to unpack. “Hail, Caesar!” is the latest in their almost unbroken string of classics […]
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Freedom’s Just Another Word
“Mustang” asks important questions
A group of boys and girls play in the sea. They eventually start playing a game of chicken where the girls sit on the boys’ shoulders and try to knock one another off. When the girls return home, their grandmother starts swatting them and disciplining them for being obscene. A nosy neighbor told the grandmother […]
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Teenage Dystopian Apocalypse Blues
Meet the 5th Wave, same as the 4th Wave
It shouldn’t be so hard to do dystopia right, but the young adult genre seems to struggle with it. For every excellent YA post-apocalyptic series (e.g. “The Chaos Walking Trilogy” or “The Red Rising Trilogy”), there are a dozen bad ones ( “Divergent” comes to mind). With the success of “The Hunger Games” films, all […]
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Six Men Down
“13 Hours” is intense and exhausting
When a military film like “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi” comes out, based on how far left or right a military film leans, the box office receipts can usually be predicted. Left gets the film Oscar nominations, critical acclaim and a healthy return, while right means the film makes a ton at the […]
