John Wick Chapter 2 (2017)

Keanu Reeves. Love him or hate him…you HAVE to admit that the man absolutely commits to the physicality of the roles he’s been taking on recently. It’s like he knows that he has limited range as a dramatic actor, so he makes up for it by wholeheartedly throwing himself into the thick of the action. […]

Rogue One: A STAR WARS Story (2016)

In my humble opinion, ‘Rogue One’ makes ‘The Force Awakens’ look like REALLY high-budgeted fan fiction. Actually, as time has gone by, since it’s muchly ballyhoo’d release last year, my opinion of JJ Abrams opening ‘kick start’ to a new, nostalgia-driven franchise for Walt Disney Studios, hasn’t exactly dropped…but it has changed. I understand that […]

Spectral (2016)

Seriously, if James Cameron’s name had appeared at the end of this flick…I wouldn’t have been surprised in the slightest. It’s EXTREMELY clear to me that first-time feature director Nic Mathieu has seen My Favorite Movie EVER, ‘Aliens’ (1986) at least once, as the overall aesthetic struck me as pure ‘peak’ Cameron; VERY nicely replicating […]

Arrival (2016)

Admittedly, I’m not as familiar with director Denis Villeneuve’s filmography as I probably should be. Just on the merit of both of us being Canadian, I think his work deserves more attention from me. I’ve heard nothing but solid reviews for his 2013 one-two punch combo of ‘Prisoners’ and ‘Enemy’, both of which I fully […]

Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

Love him or hate him, it can’t be said that Mel Gibson is a talentless hack behind the camera. He may be a bigoted asshole and an alcoholic, but the man is no slouch as a director, as he’s proven several times before with films like ‘Braveheart’ (1995), ‘The Passion of The Christ’ (2004), and […]

Doctor Strange (2016)

I think, at this point, it can’t be denied that Marvel Studios has figured ‘it’ out. Ever since the first ‘Iron Man’, in 2008, they’ve churned out hit…after hit…after hit. Sure, some of the entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been on the slightly underwhelming side (looking at YOU, ‘Thor: The Dark World’), but […]

The Wave (2015)

So, on the day after our area was supposed to get walloped by the remnants of a Pacific cyclone, but didn’t…it seemed fitting to cozy up in a comfy sweatpants / hoodie get-up and take in a good ole Disaster movie. It just so happened that one I’d heard about, and was intrigued by when […]

Deepwater Horizon (2016)

As Actors Turned Directors go, it can’t be denied that Peter Berg is one of the better, more successful ones. He first came to my attention with the gallows humor-heavy flick ‘Very Bad Things’ (1998), a movie that I still find darkly and gruesomely hilarious. Judge me as you will. He followed that one up […]

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)

I’m a guy who lives comfortably inside a series of routines. Some may see that as a detriment…but I find comfort in it. Sue me. One of my routines is that I don’t consider my work day as finished until I’ve hit my rowing machine for 30 minutes…as soon as I get home. It’s been […]

Triple 9 (2016)

* A ‘999’ is apparently the police code for ‘Urgent / All Units Respond / Officer Down’. I had every intention of seeing this one in the theatres, due to the fact that I love me a good ‘cops n robbers’ drama, and the films that I’ve seen of Australian director John Hillcoat (2005’s ‘The […]