A confused teen finds himself trapped at the center of a massive maze with no memory of who he is or his life before in The Maze Runner. Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) is jolted awake from a foggy haze, unsure of everything he sees around him. He’s encircled by dozens of grizzled, suspicious boys who forcefully introduce him into […]
Movies are all about manipulation. Filmmakers have been using tricks to manipulate audiences since the very earliest recorded films that include a train coming directly at the audience and a magician disappearing repeatedly in flashes of smoke. These were simple matters of forced perspective and clever editing, but at the time, the audiences were fooled. […]
A small entourage joins a determined explorer in her latest adventure below the streets of Paris in As Above/So Below. A young Lara Croft-like adventurer, Scarlett (Perdita Weeks), has spent years in search of the elusive Philosopher’s Stone — a chemical substance that can turn lead into gold and bestow eternal life on its owner. […]
A resourceful CIA operative is brought out of retirement to protect a valuable witness in The November Man. Peter Devereaux (Pierce Brosnan) was making the most of his retirement from the CIA, living the good life in quiet obscurity and surrounded by the calming beauty of Switzerland. When a critical witness to a major Russian plot […]
I especially love comic books and graphic novels that take chances or push the limits of the medium. Frank Miller’s Sin City graphic novels wowed fans of comics with their art, storytelling and noir style and feel. Those elements carried over to the film adaptation, still one of my favorite comic book ports to date. […]
As I get older, I find that it’s more difficult to get up the energy to even mow the lawn, let alone go off into battle or fight someone younger. I have immense respect for anyone who somehow pulls off these stunts in their golden years. Sylvester Stallone and crew face those kinds of challenges […]
A small Midwestern town finds itself at the mercy of several catastrophic tornadoes in Into the Storm. Silverton High School is preparing for the graduation of its latest senior class. For the moment, the skies are clear, but rain looms on the horizon, threatening to dampen both the ground and the festive audience. Meanwhile, two […]
A reluctant drug mule gains incredible superpowers when she’s inadvertently exposed to the effects of a new drug in Lucy. An American woman living in Taiwan runs into an exasperated recent acquaintance. He implores Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) to deliver a mysterious briefcase to a third party at a nearby hotel. The hand off goes horribly wrong, ending with her abduction […]
A German intelligence officer searches for a Chechen immigrant whom he’s certain will lead him to a deeper terrorist network in A Most Wanted Man. The world’s intelligence communities are dominated by both reality and paranoia concerning future potential terrorist actions. Günther Bachmann (Philip Seymour Hoffman) heads up a secret anti-terrorism unit in Hamburg. His main task […]
Four hapless citizens try to survive a single night of government-sanctioned lawlessness in The Purge: Anarchy. In the near future, the weight of a growing population threatens the stability of the United States and its capacity to provide services to its citizens. In response, its leaders approved an annual 12-hour period of complete mayhem where anything goes, […]
Possessed individuals and their exorcisms resurface every now and then in the horror genre. For many reasons, nothing tops The Exorcist for me. It was so expertly done — even for its time — that it tapped into the primal fear of evil and added simple special effects for a chilling experience that has not been matched […]
The poorest survivors of a global meltdown fight an oppressive class system aboard a perpetual-motion train in Snowpiercer. The year is 2031. With global warming growing worse 17 years ago, the people of Earth conceived a grand plan to restore the world’s climate. They sprayed the atmosphere with a chemical that, instead of solving the […]