The Predator series has always been willing to play with its formula, tweaking its setup with each new installment to varying degrees of success. The gimmick this time around is setting the movie in 1719, depicting the alien’s “first hunt on Earth” – this tidbit comes from the trailer, and feels somewhat lazy since it’s never mentioned in the movie.
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Nope isn’t a horror movie in the purest sense, but it contains one of the scariest sequences of the year so far – one that tops anything from Get Out in sheer nerve-fraying tension. The scene is unnecessary and borderline irrelevant to the plot, but it’s such a creepy, compelling horror short unto itself that the movie is better for its inclusion. There’s something about it that’s symbolic of Nope as a whole: sometimes confused, but gripping in the moment.
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In these dire times for movies, one has to be thankful for the mere existence of Tenet, a big-budget, big-screen experience in the age of direct-to-streaming. Though released well over a month ago, it remains in multiplexes simply due to the lack of any theatrical output to replace it.
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Jaws is the best shark movie; this is not up for debate. What is up for debate is the still-prestigious mantle of the second-best shark movie. While the oft-cited Open Water and The Shallows are formidable contenders, my pick for the true heir to the post-Jaws throne is 1999’s Deep Blue Sea. Continue reading
Despite its name, Sputnik is not a space-set horror movie. Most of it takes place on Earth, within the confines of a claustrophobic military laboratory. We open aboard a Russian satellite, with two Soviet cosmonauts preparing for their descent back to Earth. After technical trouble and a run-in with an unseen creature, the spacecraft crash lands on Earth, with Konstantin (Pyotr Fyodorov) the sole survivor. Continue reading
No Escape begins with a text crawl which informs us that in the then-distant future of 2022, all prisons are controlled by corporations. It’s a promising enough – though hardly original – basis for a movie, but it turns out to have little bearing on No Escape’s actual narrative, which turns out to be more Mad Max-light than the futuristic prison break movie it initially promises. Continue reading
One of Netflix’s latest film releases, Spanish sci-fi/horror movie The Platform is enjoying a minor splash on the streaming giant, which is the most one can hope for in the reign of Tiger King. Though never stated outright, the movie is presumably set in the future, where the shadowy “Administration” runs a sadistic institution that’s half prison, half social experiment. Continue reading
Bloodshot has the dubious honor of being the last movie I saw in theaters before the Coronavirus shutdown. I knew that theaters in my area were due to close the next day, and I was so desperate for one last classic moviegoing experience that even the blandest piece of trash would do. Continue reading
The best thing about the release of Captain Marvel is that it brings us one step closer to the end of the nonsensical internet drama surrounding it. I won’t be going into that here, chiefly out of self-preservation, but a quick Google search should inform the more masochistic among you. I’ll offer just one thought on the matter: things as trivial as superhero movies have no business being cultural battlegrounds. Consequently, this review will only cover my thoughts on the movie itself – not its “impact,” nor “what it means,” nor “why it matters.” Continue reading
Of all the cinematic trash I have a soft spot for, few genres are closer to my heart than the save-the-world disaster movie. Give me your Armageddons, your Day After Tomorrows, your Cores; I cherish them all. I suspect that’s because the genre is one that so readily lends itself to corniness; how can one be expected to tackle a premise as melodramatic as saving the world without, well, melodrama? Continue reading