Author: Mark Saldana

In the small South Korean community of Hope Harbor, the local police chief and a rookie officer must defend their home from a bizarre, seemingly monstrous threat they are clearly unprepared for. The movie starts solidly and impactfully for its first couple of acts; however, filmmaker Na Hong-jin fails to deliver a realistic ending, which… Continue reading HOPE: A South Korean “Monster” Thriller That Goes A Bit Too Far

Until last weekend, I had never watched 1998’s Practical Magic. For whatever reason, a horror/rom-com about witches just never interested me. However, when I did receive the screening invitation to Practical Magic 2, I knew I had some homework to do. After watching the sleek and lean 106-minute affair, I didn’t exactly feel like I… Continue reading PRACTICAL MAGIC 2: An Unnecessary Slog of a Sequel

Filmmaker Joe Swanberg, one of the founding fathers of Mumblecore, is back with another examination of love, sex, and relationships. In The Sun Never Sets, Swanberg and his wonderful cast present a story and characters whose romantic entanglements drive them mad and push them to do extreme things. Though the movie is labeled a drama,… Continue reading THE SUN NEVER SETS: Love and Relationship Insanity

Adam Wingard made a name for himself in genre filmmaking with his feature You’re Next and followed up with the also enjoyable The Guest. The director took on a few more movies before tackling a franchise feature, Godzilla vs. Kong, and then Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Though Wingard cut his teeth making genre… Continue reading ONSLAUGHT: A Grindhouse Return to Form For Adam Wingard

Written and directed by Macon Blair, Idiots presents an entertaining but slightly disturbing film that offers commentary on the wealthy’s entitlement and the state of influencer media today. Though I often laughed and was genuinely surprised and appalled, Idiots definitely drives its points hard. It definitely comes across as a slap to the face of… Continue reading IDIOTS: A Dark and Crazy Ride That Offers Commentary on Modern Media

I have seen my share of post-apocalyptic movies, and Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars does not bring anything new to the table. The movie features some moderately compelling characters, but it doesn’t do anything particularly exciting or dynamic with them. I have never read the novel by Peter Heller that inspired this adaptation. Still, I… Continue reading THE DOG STARS: A Very Derivative Post-apocalyptic Affair

Anthony Bourdain, a renowned chef and Food Network world traveler, had humble beginnings, and the new biopic about “Tony’s” background shows that everyone has to start somewhere. Director Matt Johnson’s film captures a pivotal moment in Anthony’s life, when the teen B.S. artist finds direction and the discipline to keep it. Actor Dominic Senna, who… Continue reading TONY: Anthony Bordain Biopic Depicts the World Renown Chef as having a Snot-nosed Background

I have said this previously, and I will say it again. I love an entertaining stoner comedy. I didn’t expect the latest stoner comedy to star both Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat. As much as I enjoy the acting of both actors, their roles as two major stoner friends are the least-likely scenario I ever… Continue reading THE WRONG GIRLS: A Wildly Imaginative Stoner Adventure

If Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven is an anti-western, then Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s The Samurai and the Prisoner is the anti-samurai movie. Though Kiyoshi has the same last name as Akira Kurosawa, the late,  legendary master of samurai films, Kiyoshi takes a very different approach to his storytelling and its presentation. With this latest entry, Kiyoshi deconstructs the… Continue reading THE SAMURAI AND THE PRISONER: The Unforgiven of Samurai Films

The central premise of the romantic comedy, One Night Only, is that the U.S government is regulating when single people can have premarital sex. The two protagonists of the film, a couple of single people who keep crossing paths on the one night that singles can have sex without criminal repercussions, is a very scary… Continue reading ONE NIGHT ONLY Is a Bizarre and Mostly Unamusing Exercise In Facism