The superhero genre has become a staple in today’s film and television industry. It’s become the driving force of contemporary blockbusters, with many of them becoming the highest-grossing movies every summer. Marvel and DC comics have headlined movie theaters across the world with characters like Iron Man, Superman, Batman and Captain America, as they have come to life from...
“13th” tells the harrowing tale of modern day slavery in America’s prison industry. From the beginning, powerful imagery traces the roots of inequality back to the antebellum South. Filmmaker Ava DuVernay does a brilliant job of conveying this systematic injustice in an easy-to-comprehend format by focusing on the money-making machine that is the current prison system.
The title of...
Generally, film reviews are pretty standard: A writer gives an argument for why a certain film is worth watching or not, and then rates said film on a scale from one to 10. However, sometimes this format becomes problematic, especially when it comes to films such as “Birth of a Nation” — this film is many things: Overly sentimental,...
For a psychological thriller, “The Girl on the Train” isn’t at all psychologically mind-boggling or thrilling. Sure, the book, written by Paula Hawkins, might have been great in its own respect, but I don’t think it was really meant to be adapted into a cinematic piece. Rather, the film version transformed the original mystery story into a banal, whodunit...
Over the last few decades, German director Werner Herzog has been making some of the most compelling documentaries of our era — documentaries which probe and explore the many facets of the current human condition. His previous documentary, “Into the Abyss” explored the intersection of mass incarceration and the death penalty. In his new film, “Lo and Behold: Reveries...
Remember when Pixar released “Inside Out?” Remember how it was an original film premise that everyone loved? Remember when Disney got incredibly lucky with the surprisingly good “Zootopia,” which was about Donald Trump’s America, or something?
Well, scrap any expectations of originality because Pixar has released “Finding Dory,” (sequel to 2003’s “Finding Nemo”), a film whose focus is set on...
Let’s get straight to the point: “X-Men: Apocalypse” is good, but not great. In the franchise’s ninth installment, the all powerful mutant, En Sabah Nur aka Apocalypse, has only one thing on his mind (you guessed it), to bring upon the end of the world.
The movie opens with the origin story of En Sabah Nur (Oscar Isaac), which takes...
In the comic version of “Civil War,” Captain America (Chris Evans) ends up imprisoned and the Avengers are disbanded. While a polarizing storyline at the time, I remember thinking around the time of the first “Avengers” movie that it would make for a great film adaptation. Now that it has come to fruition, however, I can’t say I’m that...
I walked into “Mother’s Day” expecting a two-hour soap opera, which was a little true, but there were also some unexpected aspects. The refreshing components were the acting and the high level of diverse representation in the film. As is traditional for director Gary Marshall, the film is reminiscent of “Valentine’s Day” and “New Year’s Eve” through creating a...
This movie is a promotion for the 2016 “Ratchet and Clank” game, and both the movie and 2016 game are loosely based off the plot of the original 2002 3D action-platformer game. Despite enjoying the games, I adjusted my expectations, knowing it’d be catered toward a generation of younger audiences instead of the older fans. But between the constant...