DVD Reviews

Nothing in Bad Times at the El Royale is as it seems. Not the story, not the characters, not even the hotel itself as it sits astraddle the Nevada-California state line and wears the duality of its colliding worlds of past and present as a cherished badge of honor. ...

Perhaps the only task more difficult than putting a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth is making an interesting film about the rather uninteresting man who first set foot on the lunar surface. Yet Damien Chazelle (La La Land) does just that with his First  ...

While it can be argued whether or not John Carpenter’s 1978 thriller Halloween was the birth-giver to the modern slasher sub-genre, one thing that is not even up for discussion is the influence the film has had on an entire generation of filmmakers and horror fans alike ...

There’s no grand message in Mid90s, the heartfelt new film written and directed by actor Jonah Hill who takes his first turn at bat behind the camera. And there’s really not much of a story either. This sincere little coming of age film is perfectly content to simply sit back and ...

When successful New York photographer Ronit (Rachel Weisz) finds out that her rabbi father died, she flies home to London and stays with her married friends, Dovid (Alessandro Nivola) and Esti (Rachel McAdams). The rest of the Orthodox Jewish community is  ...

There are few people in the world who don’t know the name Freddie Mercury, whether you’re a fan of Queen, born after he died, or have lived in a cave forever. As someone born the same year as one of Queen’s greatest hits, the title of this movie, it’s seems impossible  ...

In film, mass audience appeal and brains rarely ever go together. Just ask Paul Blart. Yet, with his heist thriller Widows, filmmaker Steve McQueen proves that it is actually possible to make an intelligent film that is also appealing to a wide audience ...

Yo!  Creed II, after a three year wait, has arrived and fans of Creed and the ongoing Rocky series will certainly be pleased with the final product.  Its physical brutality is matched with each and every emotion presented on the screen.  You will pump your fists and get teary  ...

This country’s opioid crisis is hitting Hollywood in a big way of late as a couple of new films dealing with opioid addiction have released in cinemas recently. It is sad – and a bit ironic – that a devastating societal meltdown has become such lucrative fodder for the industry’s  ...

To this day, there remains something insanely special about director Brian De Palma’s Carrie.  It is based on the once-discarded novel by Stephen King, but was painstakingly adapted for the screen by Lawrence D. Cohen.  Cohen got everything about King’s first novel right  ...

Long thought untouchable for theatrical adaptation due to its tenuous structure and ethereal nature, author James Baldwin’s novel If Beale Street Could Talk gets the big screen treatment from Moonlight writer/director Barry Jenkins. And what a perfect combination ...

There is something very honorable in modesty and not needing to always take credit for the joy one gives to those we love. The gallantry of self-sacrifice and doing for others quite often speaks for itself and doesn’t need the “hey, look at me” arrogance so prevalent in today’s  ...

“Wow.  I have a parasite,” says Eddie to the clerk.  He just ATE a man threatening her with a gun.  She's speechless.  What better words could there be to describe Eddie Brock’s transformative condition?   “I am NOT a parasite,” roars the raging monster within him.  We hear  ...

The greatest thing that ever happened to the Transformers movie franchise was Michael Bay’s departure.  Fact.  Let the reboot begin!  Bumblebee has arrived and it, operating as a prequel (or as like to consider it: THE ONLY TRANSFORMERS LIVE-ACTION FILM), ushers in a  ...

Nancy Drew knows too much.  There is an elegance to the mystery that surrounds A Simple Favor.  It is made so much richer thanks to the performance from Anna Kendrick who, once again, nails her character with her quirky energy and down to earth nature.  With ...

Fortunately, the Tide Pods Challenge went untouched by Hollywood. The same can’t be said about the escape room craze however, as Sony’s latest, called Escape Room is a clever little high-concept psychological horror film that plays off the raging escape room phenomenon  ...

Once again, I do NOT get the critical backlash against this Amblin-esque tale of a boy and his dog.  A-X-L rocks.  I mean, for those teens out there that are forever the outcast or picked on by the assholes of the world out there then this movie   ...

The Upside is a remake of the 2011 French film called The Intouchables which was about the real life story of a wealthy quadriplegic and the man hired to take care of him. Despite its lazy storytelling and corny sentimentality, that film went on to bring in  ...

With his latest film called Glass, filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan, has actually managed to pull the rug out from under us yet again with one of his biggest and most amazing twists to date. I’m not kidding here, folks. This one is a doozy. ...

M. Night Shyamalan is responsible for one of the most brilliant supernatural thrillers, and one of the most impressive cinematic twists in film history: The Sixth Sense. That film established him as a wunderkind filmmaker and immediately  ...

Hollywood used to make fun movies like this one all of the time. They stopped when the 1990s ran up on us. Hitting my stride in the 1980s as a fat kid with a bag of popcorn in one hand and a sack of gummy bears in the other, my days were filled with Monster Squad memories ...

Slaughterhouse.  Four Eyes.  Know those names.  Clocking in at 86-minutes of sweat- inducing space madness, Crossbreed will straight up kick your ass.  No, it isn’t another exercise craze with fancy names for pull-ups and squat thrusts.  Crossbreed, directed by Brandon  ...

There is a darkness beneath the sky here.  Two figures are sleeping next to a campfire.  One snores and the other, with his mouth open, finds himself prey to something far more than loud noises.  A spider.  After sneaking up his body, this big bodied arachnoid falls into the sleeping  ...

Beware! The Baby Mask Killer is back. If 2017’s surprise time-loop slasher Happy Death Day was rightfully called a mash-up of Groundhog Day and Scream, then its follow-up, Happy Death Day 2U can be called a strange combination of Weird Science, The Butterfly Effect ...

Fighting With My Family is the heartwarming new comedy based on the incredible true story of one of WWE’s biggest female wrestling superstars, Paige. Wait! This isn’t a wrestling movie. And before you click away to dismiss the film as a ridiculously silly, amped-up, ...

So here we are, staring down the tail end of the MCU’s Phase 3, with only Avengers: End Game remaining. Marvel had already triumphantly pumped us for the inevitable finale, but in an interesting move, they have made the penultimate film in Phase 3 a somewhat new ...

If you like Tyler Perry’s Madea movies, then more power to you. Go see his latest, A Madea Family Funeral. It is not the best in the series, but neither is it the worst. If you’ve never seen a Madea movie, prepare yourself for a disjointed comedic romp packed with cringe-worthy  ...

This film has been a revelation for this reviewer. I am always banging on about product coming out of Hollywood being just remakes and sequels these days. I pine and whine about the fact that they just don’t take risks anymore. This film has proved to me I am part of the problem ...

The American Ministry of Magic just got stronger.  It had to, of course.  The dark magic of Gellert Grindelwald (a fantastically evil Johnny Depp) is that powerful.  Opening with a flying stagecoach sequence, complete with winged horses and a sky-high jailbreak sequence ...

Like the trojan horse at the heart of its central allusion, Captive State isn’t what it initially appears to be. Perhaps due to its dour subject matter, its refusal to kowtow to mass appeal, or maybe even because Focus Features didn’t truly know what to do with it, the film is  ...