Director: Mike Flanagan Stars: Rebecca Ferguson, Kyliegh Curran, Ewan McGregor Redefining for yourself what constitutes family is a large part of Doctor Sleep. the belated follow-up to both Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. Those two precursors are famously divergent. King hated Kubrick's film, which is widely regarded as one of the horror masterpieces. Kubrick altered the … Continue reading Review: Doctor Sleep
Director: Tim Miller Stars: Mackenzie Davis, Linda Hamilton, Natalia Reyes In hindsight, perhaps we ought to be thankful for just how dire Terminator Genisys turned out to be. That movie - which pissed all over a pretty well sodden franchise - ended with the threat of further sequels. Fortunately, those plans have been terminated (ha!). Dark Fate … Continue reading Review: Terminator Dark Fate
Director: Andy Muschietti Stars: Bill Hader, Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy Andy Muschietti's IT felt like a culmination of everything popular horror had been trying to do in the cinema for the past 10 years. It was a grandiose, nostalgia-laced funhouse of jump scares. It moved sleekly, it looked gorgeous and - as with King's doorstop source … Continue reading Review: IT Chapter Two
Director: Ric Roman Waugh Stars: Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman, Jada Pinkett Smith Seemingly made for the six people left who still think that 24 ought to be a thing, but with half the budget of a standard episode, Angel Has Fallen is the second sequel to silly but harmless action thriller Olympus Has Fallen. Industrial … Continue reading Review: Angel Has Fallen
This isn't a contrary piece arguing in favour of Jaws 2 being anywhere near comparable to Steven Spielberg's original blockbuster. It's quite in vogue for certain publications to float such edgelord opinions. These articles make for juicy clickbait, but often serve little purpose beyond that. No, Jeannot Szwarc's obligatory 1978 sequel to the monster smash … Continue reading How Jaws 2 Addresses The Vietnam War
Director: Tim Story Stars: Samuel L Jackson, Jessie T. Usher, Regina Hall Gordon Parks' 1971 film Shaft is probably the mainstream's flagship title from the blaxploitation run of the era, but it - and its sequels - are also outliers in the subgenre. The majority of the pictures that fall into this bracket were about vigilantes, … Continue reading Review: Shaft (2019)
Director: Christopher Landon Stars: Jessica Rothe, Phi Vu, Israel Broussard One of the many things that Christopher Landon did right with 2017's super-fun surprise Happy Death Day was keep it (relatively) simple. A girl, Tree (Jessica Rothe), finds herself in a time loop after being stalked and killed by a masked slasher. To break the loop … Continue reading Review: Happy Death Day 2U
Directors: Mike Mitchell, Trisha Gum Stars: Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett Remember 5 years ago, when everything was awesome? Before Trump got elected? Before Brexit? It was a time of such utopian simplicity that none of us could possibly have appreciated it. Do you know happiness when it's happening? Back in the halcyon days … Continue reading Review: The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part
Director: David Gordon Green Stars: Jamie Lee Curtis, Will Patton, Andi Matichak One of the creepiest things about Halloween (2018), right out of the gate, is the appearance of the Miramax logo, which hasn't been seen in many a year, and certainly not since the expulsion of the Weinsteins. Ballsy/deluded of someone to hold on to … Continue reading Review: Halloween (2018)
Director: Antoine Fuqua Stars: Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Ashton Sanders Back when I was a teenager I had a VHS copy of U.S. Marshals, the also-ran sequel to The Fugitive. That film's star Harrison Ford had bolted the fledgling franchise. Instead it was Tommy Lee Jones who reprised his role, hunting down Wesley Snipes with … Continue reading Review: The Equalizer 2
Director: Peyton Reed Stars: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Peña Ant-Man And The Wasp doesn't feature any crossover characters from any other quadrant of the MCU. After the "everybody in!" maximalism of Avengers: Infinity War there's actually something nice about a pit-stop this insular. Peyton Reed's follow-up to his 2015 underdog is pleasingly small-scale, but it lands … Continue reading Review: Ant-Man And The Wasp
Director: Stephen C Miller Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Xiaoming Huang, Dave Bautista This review was written while in the grip of both a fever and a migraine and, like the film, probably shouldn't have been attempted at all. Reader discretion is advised. Escape Plan was an enjoyable enough pile of crap, five years ago, which saw … Continue reading Review: Escape Plan 2: Hades
The following review contains a brief overview of the plot and is otherwise spoiler-free, however key points from the first Sicario film are discussed. Director: Stefano Sollima Stars: Benecio del Toro, Josh Brolin, Isabela Moner Sicario 2: Soldado is truly a film of its era, something which comes to feel like an accusation as the dust … Continue reading Review: Sicario 2: Soldado
Director: J. A. Bayona Stars: Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt, Daniella Pineda 2015's Jurassic World may have grossed colossal box office (5th highest worldwide), but in terms of creativity and ingenuity, it found the series on the wane, and represented something of a low. This despite the injection of some new blood into the series. … Continue reading Review: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Director: David Leitch Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Zazie Beetz Maybe its simply Marvel fatigue (even if Deadpool is kinda tangential; not part of the 'MCU', whatever). Maybe its the lasting shadow of the two triumphs we've already received in this overstuffed year; the heavyweight Black Panther and the still-fresh Avengers: Infinity War. Or maybe it's that aggressive … Continue reading Review: Deadpool 2
