Category: MAIN

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) After receiving mixed critical and public reactions to some of their films, particularly Suicide Squad, Warner Bros’s DCEU has gone into clean-up/rebuilding mode. This new strategy hopes to capitalize on the strengths of their otherwise problematic previous entries and build on them without completely ignoring and… Continue reading Review: BIRDS OF PREY (AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN)

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) The Grimm fairy tale, Hansel & Gretel, has inpired multiple adaptations in various media. Often comedic or juvenile, most film adaptations have failed to explore the dark undertones that the Brothers Grimm brought to their bewitching story. Writer/director Oz Perkins and co-writer Rob Hayes have made… Continue reading Review: GRETEL & HANSEL

By Mark Saldana We have reached both the end of 2019, as well as the end of another decade. I have now watched my final screeners and attended my last screening of the year. 2019 got off to a bit of a slow start with most of the top films saved for the end. The… Continue reading Mark’s Best of 2019

By Laurie Coker Rating: A+ Nothing beats a good murder mystery and Knives Out starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Christopher Plumber, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, Chris Evans, Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas and a host of other awesome actors keeps the audience guessing like an old-style Agatha Christie novel.  Writer/director Rian Johnson plays every trick in… Continue reading Knives out

By Laurie Coker Rating: B From the trailers, the debut from the writer-director Paul Downs Colaizzo, Brittany Runs and Marathon looks like a goofy, body-shaming film in line with those by Amy Schumer, but it is far more.  Colaizzo gives a little film with a big heart and Jillian Bell serves up a subtly touching… Continue reading Review: BRITTANY RUNS A MARATHON

By Laurie Coker Rating: A+ My father raced cars – this was back in Model A cars and I wasn’t alive – but he taught me how to drive – fast. I love speed and I love the film Ford V. Ferrari, starring Christian Bale and Matt Damon.  Director James Mangold offers up the story… Continue reading Ford v Ferrari

By Laurie Coker Rating: A+ Admittedly, I prefer to watch films with no subtitles. I become extremely distracted by them and miss things happening on the screen, but the film Parasite holds interest so intensely, that, like seeing a train wreck, it is impossible to look away. Director/ co-writer Bong Joon Ho and writer Han… Continue reading Parasite

By Laurie Coker Rating: A Art is relative. Who would have thought that art, especially funny art came in black and white celluloid-style in the 21st century? The Lighthouse starring Willem Defoe and Robert Pattinson is a surprising mix of masterfully woven madness and manic melancholy. They are souls trapped in a tower of solitude.… Continue reading Review: THE LIGHTHOUSE

By Laurie Coker Rating: D+/C- Sequels, sequels and more sequels. Angelina Jolie reprises her role from the 2014 film Maleficent, a live-action twist on Sleeping Beauty, in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. Jolie along with Michelle Pfeiffer add class and charisma to an otherwise dull and predictable story of good versus evil. Disney, director Joachim Rønning,… Continue reading Review: MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF EVIL