Category: Film Reviews

By Liz Lopez Rating: B-/C+ “Maze Runner: The Death Cure” is the third of the sci-fi movie franchise that began with “The Maze Runner” that premiered in 2014, followed by “Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials” (2015). They are based on the James Dashner’s YA novels and this third movie in the series is best viewed… Continue reading Review: MAZE RUNNER: THE DEATH CURE

By Mark Saldana Rating: 2.5 (Out of 4 Stars) 2014’s The Maze Runner adaptation offers audiences a tense and mysterious dystopian story that ends with a cliffhanger leaving them wanting more.  The sequel (titled The Scorch Trials), on the other hand, greatly disappoints, as it staggers and nearly fails to move the story to even greater… Continue reading Review: MAZE RUNNER: THE DEATH CURE

Gerard Butler and Pablo Schreiber star in “Den of Thieves”   By Liz Lopez Rating: B-/C+ There are only so many ways to tell a story about robbers pulling off a heist without it going into territory where it is compared to other great heist films from the past. Many times an audience will then… Continue reading Review: DEN OF THIEVES

By Mark Saldana Rating: 4 (Out of 4 Stars) From the first frame to its very last, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread is an aesthetically elegant affair.  The production design, the exquisite costumes, the fantastic score by Jonny Greenwood, and the gorgeous cinematography done by Anderson, himself, all play their part in bringing a breath-taking… Continue reading Review: PHANTOM THREAD

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) Between 1972 and 1973, Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward covered the Watergate break-in and the subsequent scandal and their investigative reporting helped uncover a conspiracy within the White House.   This actually wasn’t the first time that the reporting of the Washington Post would… Continue reading Review: THE POST

By Mark Saldana Rating: 4 (Out of 4 Stars) Paddington is love.  Paddington represents an ideal that all humanity should try to achieve.  To quote The Room‘s Tommy Wiseau, “If a lot of people love each other, the world will be a better place to live.” I know that quoting the enigmatic filmmaker, who made… Continue reading Review: PADDINGTON 2

By Liz Lopez Rating: B – During the last quarter of the year, many films are offered in theaters and with several so exceptional in story or performances that they are sure to garner film award nominations, if not the statue itself. As we enter a new year, we can expect the guilty pleasure of… Continue reading Review: THE COMMUTER

Austin Film Festival’s “I, Tonya” biopic features Margot Robbie as Tonya Harding   By Liz Lopez Rating: B+ Not everyone is a sports fan, nor follows the Olympics, but more than twenty years ago, there was a scandal in the figure skating world. Two names from the United States that became known worldwide, Tonya Harding… Continue reading Austin Film Festival 2017 Review: I, TONYA

Source: CBS Films Inspired by true events. On an isolated stretch of land 50 miles outside of San Francisco sits the most haunted house in the world. Built by Sarah Winchester, (Academy Award®-winner Helen Mirren) heiress to the Winchester fortune, it is a house that knows no end. Constructed in an incessant twenty-four hour a… Continue reading Movie Trailer: WINCHESTER

By Mark Saldana Rating: 2 (Out of 4 Stars) After the first Insidious left me unimpressed and the second and prequel installments moderately entertained me, the sequel-to-the-prequel movie not only tries to bring everything full circle, but once again falls short.  Insidious: The Last Key more or less picks up where Insidious: Chapter 3 ends… Continue reading Review: INSIDIOUS: THE LAST KEY