'Braven' (2018) Movie Review

He’s a big-time cinematic superhero, playing Aquaman in the DC movie universe, but I have to say, I think Jason Momoa is best suited to low-budget, direct-to-video-style action fare. Sure, he’s a ripped Adonis of a human being, but he also has a relatable, everyman quality. And this is on full display in Braven, a solid, reasonably entertaining, if unremarkable new noir-inspired Canadian thriller. It scratches a very particular itch for those longing for the types of beefy-father-protects-his-brood pictures Schwarzenegger and Stallone turned out in the ‘80s.

'Scorched Earth' (2018) Movie Review

If you’re in the mood for a direct-to-video post-apocalyptic bounty hunter saga starring a former female MMA champ and helmed by the director of Sliding Doors, and I know there are some of you out there, Scorched Earth is 100% your shit. For the rest of you, it may not have a place on your must-watch list. Unless you fall into that first category, the Gina Carano-starring, Peter Howitt-directed sci-fi actioner probably isn’t for you. Then again, I’m squarely in that camp, so, hell yeah.

'Hereditary' Trailer: Sundance Horror Favorite Gets Tense And Unnerving

Navigating festival hype is a tricky business. Folks see a movie in the film festival bubble, with film festival goggles, and before you know it, there’s a swirling eddy of buzz and hyperbole calling a particular offering one of the greats. That happens all the time, especially at Sundance, which may or may not still be happening, I don’t know. All too often, the hype either subsides, we never hear from the film again, or when it does hit, it’s straight dookie. I can’t count how many times that’s happened. This year, one of the next best biggest greatest was Ari Aster’s horror mystery Hereditary, and while I’m wary or the hype monster, hot damn this first trailer. This is fire, both literally and figuratively.

Steven Soderbergh's 'Unsane' Trailer Messes With Claire Foy's Head

Steven Soderbergh is busier in retirement than I will ever be. Then again, so are my parents—I thought the whole point of retiring was to kick back and enjoy not working, but what do I know, I’ll never have the chance to do it anyway. I’m getting off topic. I’m into Soderbergh’s version of retirement, however, because it means we keep getting things like The Knick, Logan Lucky, and his latest film, and first straight horror movie, Unsane, which just dropped this fantastic new trailer.

I Have Questions About 'Annihilation'

I try as best I can, and for the most part I’m successful, to keep books and their cinematic adaptations in separate compartments. They’re drastically different mediums. You can do things in a book that you can’t in a movie; novels have space to spool out and expand, while movies have a more rigid time structure. No movie is ever going to ruin a book, no matter how much it changes. And though I don’t expect that to happen in this instance, I have questions about Alex Garland’s adaptation of Jeff VanerMeer’s Annihilation.

'Dirtbag: The Legend Of Fred Beckey' (2017) Movie Review

Fred Beckey is something of a myth, a celebrated “dirtbag”—think a vagabond ski bum for the mountaineering set—who sacrifices everything to climbing. Normal people don’t know his name, but the hardcore speak of him with reverence and awe. It’s difficult to live up to such hype, but when we meet the man himself in Dave O’Leske’s documentary, Dirtbag: The Legend of Fred Beckey, he more than lives up to the billing.

'Pacific Rim Uprising' Final Trailer Is Big, Dumb, And Loud

I love Guillermo del Toro’s monsters-fighting-robots opus Pacific Rim. Sorry, Oscar-nominee Guillermo del Toro’s monsters-fighting-robots opus Pacific Rim. Yeah, I know, it’s dumber than a box of really, really dumb rocks. But it’s got monsters fighting robots and the enthusiasm of a sugar-addled child smashing toys together on a playground and making explody noises.