Category: Movie Reviews

Movie Review: ENEMY

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enemy-poster

The adjective “Lynchian” gets tossed around frequently, mostly by people who like to sound like they know what they’re talking about when it comes to movie reviews.  I don’t claim to be any great film critic or expert, but I can tell you that I am a huge fan of Lynch’s work.  He’s by far and away the director whose work I seek out above all others.  I don’t even claim to have any great insights into Lynch’s work either.  His work is something I consider to be as close as you can get to art-film without sliding into total subjectivism.  Continue reading “Movie Review: ENEMY” →

Movie Review: X-MEN: APOCALYPSE

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X Men apocalypse

Being honest, I’m not a big fan of the X-Men movies. I can’t deny that X-Men (2000) was a real game changer for superhero movies. Good actors, a decent script that didn’t attempt to water things down too much, and a good young director in Bryan Singer – and, of course, the breakout performance of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. 2003’s X2: X-Men United, the year after Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man built on that, and paved the way for the genre being the annual cinematic staple it now is. Continue reading “Movie Review: X-MEN: APOCALYPSE” →

Movie Review: THE WITCH

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the witch

As someone with a deep attachment to the horror genre I consistently find myself thrilled or disappointed by it – there’s rarely a middle ground for me.  Being a purist, that limits my options even more.  I have no patience for schlock horror, and over reliance on gore is a real turn off for me too, mostly because it eschews the need for strong writing.  I don’t shy away from sub genres, though.  It’s just that the piece itself needs to contain strong characters and a sense of internal logic – once those two boxes are ticked, I’m largely good. Continue reading “Movie Review: THE WITCH” →

Movie Review: HIGH RISE

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High RiseI haven’t read much J G Ballard in the last twenty-odd years, but as a teen and then young man, I gobbled up his more famous novels with gusto.  Crash (1973), Concrete Island (1974), and High Rise (1975),  remain three of my favourite novels.   Like many genre-enthusiasts, I have a strong interest in dystopian and post-apocalyptic literature, and reading High Rise when I was twelve or thirteen is certainly one of the fundamental building blocks of who I am today. Continue reading “Movie Review: HIGH RISE” →

Movie Review: CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR

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Civil War

Captain America: Civil War bears almost no resemblance to the comic book by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven from about 10 years ago, and when I heard about a cinematic attempt to do even a light adaptation of the book, I was dubious. On one hand, the Russos did tremendous work with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and that movie had almost nothing to do with any of those arcs either, but then I heard the increasing cast count for this one, and got more than just a little wary. The sign that a superhero movie like this is going to hit the skids is when the cast begins to overwhelm the archplot – but when you are ostensibly making even a light adaptation of a character-dense, universe-changing plot like Civil War, you can’t avoid a giant cast. Continue reading “Movie Review: CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR” →