'The Gray Man' (2022) Movie Review

Do you like empty posturing and stylistics, faux clever banter, saccharine emotional manipulation, dubious (meaning nonexistent) character motivation, wannabe cool needle drops, and a series of exhausting set pieces? How about muddy visuals, hollow action, and an overreliance on camera tricks due to a lack of ability to shoot a fight scene? Just for kicks, why not throw in a stacked cast of actors you like but wish were all in a better movie? And all for a bloated price tag of $200 million? If that sounds like fun, it’s not, but it all adds to Netflix’s latest vapid action offering, The Gray Man, from Marvel alums the Russo Brothers. 

'Blade Runner 2049' Trailer: Guess What? This Movie Still Looks Incredible

As much as belong to the camp that Ridley Scott’s 1982 sci-fi classic Blade Runner doesn’t need a sequel—it’s a goddamned masterpiece—I’ll cop to being all kinds of jazzed for Blade Runner 2049. It looks weird and mysterious and like an extension of the original atmospherically, aesthetically, and tonally. Hell, even the score sounds like an inevitable evolution of what came before. We have to wait until October to actually see it, but this majestic new trailer should keep us occupied for a few minutes.

'Blade Runner 2049' Trailer: Ryan Gosling Wants To Ask Harrison Ford Some Questions

I’m admittedly skeptical about things like sequels to game-changing classics that arrive, I don’t know, let’s say 35 years after the original. In most cases, I’d rather Hollywood leave well enough alone, but since that’s never going to happen, at least we can hope these movies are good. And holy shit, does Blade Runner 2049 look good. Check out the new trailer below. Any lingering skepticism (very little at this point) I had just got blown to dust.

The First 'Blade Runner 2049' Trailer Is Spectacular

Okay, I’m going to come right out and say this: Denis Villeneuve should only make science fiction movies from now on. Arrival is going to land very near the apex of my top movies of 2016 list, and though it’s less than two-minutes-long, the first trailer for the long-in-the-works Blade Runner 2049 looks spectacular.

'La La Land' (2016) Movie Review

After Whiplash whipped up a frenzy, writer/director Damien Chazelle could do damn near anything he wanted. Helm a superhero movie? Probably could have done that. Tackle a big-budget summer blockbuster or weighty Oscar-bait drama? So many others have followed that path. But what does he do? He makes La La Land, a full-on throwback musical. And he absolutely kills it.

'La La Land' Belts Out A Dreamy New Trailer

I’m a sucker for musicals, and I love, love, love the fact that, after the massive critical success of Whiplash, when he could have done damn near anything he wanted, Damien Chazelle made a goddamn musical. And a musical starring the tag team of charm Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling to boot. La La Land hits theaters in December, and though it’s a few months off in the distance, it just delivered a dreamy new trailer.

'The Nice Guys' (2016) Movie Review

If you’re a fan of Shane Black’s movies, especially Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Lethal Weapon, and The Last Boy Scout, his latest, The Nice Guys, is exactly the movie you hoped for. It never deviates from the formula, but it’s certainly Black doing what he does, as well as he’s ever done it. This is the kind mismatched buddy action comedy that, every time one does roll around, we collectively say, “Hollywood doesn’t make this kind of movie anymore.”

Blu-Ray/DVD Review: 'Only God Forgives'

Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Only God Forgives” took a critical drubbing when the film debuted at the Cannes Film Festival last May. People seriously hated on this movie. During the wide release the stance softened a few degrees, and the film garnered some much-deserved praise. Perhaps “Only GodForgives” isn’t the masterpiece “Drive” is, but it’s still a damn fine motion picture, full of stoic outlaws, sudden eruptions of violence, and gorgeous cinematography. Now out on Blu-ray and DVD, if you’re a fan of Refn’s previous work, you should definitely pick this one up and give the disc a couple plays.

'Only God Forgives' Movie Review

 

With films like “Drive,” “Bronson,” and “Valhalla Rising” on his resume, anything Nicolas Winding Refn does immediately leap frogs to the top of my must see list, especially when it involves teaming up with his handsome man muse Ryan Gosling. You can imagine that as soon as I heard about their new collaboration, “Only God Forgives,” described as a Muay Thai spaghetti western, my anticipation meter went through the roof. The trailers, posters, and pictures, all indicate a quiet, tense film, punctuated by sharp bursts of brutal violence.

'Gangster Squad' Movie Review

“Gangster Squad” is a film a lot of people may take the wrong way. Most of us thought we were in store for a gritty, violent gangster pic, and while there is plenty of brutality—one of the first things you see is a pair of cars rip a guy in half, and coyotes feasting on his innards—that’s not exactly what you get. What director Ruben Fleisher (“Zombieland”) delivers is more of a period melodrama that just happens to tell a gangster story. Full of action, it’s also a damn lot of cartoonish fun for a while, like a blood soaked “Dick Tracy”. “Gangster Squad” plays out like a light movie serial, but at the end of the day, however, you want there to be something more.