Rampage

May 1, 2018May 28, 2020 Kevin Fentress Movie Reviews 2010s, 2018, action, adaptation, animals, creature feature, dwayne johnson, jeffrey dean morgan, malin akerman, monster, naomie harris, rampage, the rock, Video Games

rampage

Video game film adaptations haven’t had the best track record. They’ve been historically maligned by critics; some justly (Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is, in fact, that bad), others unjustly (Mortal Kombat remains a 90s camp classic). Now we have Rampage, based on the classic giant monster arcade game, being marketed as “the best-reviewed video game movie of all time.” But despite this dubious designation, Rampage can barely be called an adaptation. It deviates from and adds so much to its narratively sparse source material that it’s essentially its own beast. Continue reading →

Movie Review: The Fate of the Furious

April 20, 2017April 11, 2020 Kevin Fentress Movie Reviews 2010s, 2017, action, cars, charlize theron, Fast and Furious, The Fate of the Furious, the rock, Vin Diesel

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Watching The Fate of the Furious, I found myself wondering (not for the first time), how did we get here? How did a straightforward street racing movie morph into an eight-film behemoth whose action sequences’ sheer scale put other blockbusters to shame? But for the first time, I found myself a little bored of asking that question, since the series has now been doing it for six years or so. But inevitable repetition aside, how does The Fate of the Furious stack up in the series hierarchy? Continue reading →

A Definitive Guide to the Fast and Furious Movies, Part 2

July 23, 2015August 18, 2017 Kevin Fentress Lists, Movie Reviews action, cars, dwayne johnson, Fast and Furious, Fast Five, Furious 7, list, movie review, movies, Paul Walker, The Fast and the Furious, the rock, Tokyo Drift, Vin Diesel

We’ve finally arrived at the cream of the Fast and Furious crop. I think each of these next four movies is exceptional, and deciding their order was a real challenge. Continue reading →

A Definitive Guide to the Fast and Furious Movies, Part 1

July 20, 2015August 18, 2017 Kevin Fentress Lists, Movie Reviews 2 Fast 2 Furious, action, cars, dwayne johnson, Fast & Furious, Fast and Furious, list, movie review, movies, Paul Walker, the rock, Torque, Vin Diesel

As you may have guessed from the title of my blog, I’m a fan of the Fast and Furious movies. So when my cousin Zack proposed a marathon, I accepted right away, especially since his only prior exposure to the series was having seen “about half” of Tokyo Drift. I couldn’t wait to introduce him to the series, which would also allow me a chance to rethink my initial ranking.

The marathon took place over three nights, clocking in at nine hours and fifteen minutes. Here are my rankings and reviews of the movies, along with Zack’s immediate reactions. Continue reading →

Movie Review: San Andreas

July 10, 2015April 25, 2020 Kevin Fentress Movie Reviews 2010s, 2015, alexandra daddario, carla gugino, disaster movie, dwayne johnson, earthquake, ioan gruffud, movie review, paul giamatti, san andreas, the rock

San Andreas enjoyed an excellent opening weekend, and it’s easy to see why. The only wide-release movie it went up against was Aloha, a critical failure on its way to becoming a commercial one. Plus, San Andreas is one of the summer’s first big-scale, big-budget movies, a straightforward disaster flick with a likeable cast and visual spectacle in spades. The movie has no problem delivering on these fronts, but the story is shaky at best. Continue reading →