Songbirds
Similar2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), 2046 (2004),
Blade Runner (1982) Brazil (1985), Desert Hearts (1985), Die Hard (1988), I Am Not a Serial Killer (2016), Mars Attacks! (1996), Metropolis (1927), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006), Random Harvest (1942), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Strange Days (1995), The Art of Racing in the Rain (2019), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Twelve Monkeys (1995),
Watch afterAquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023), Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), Napoleon (2023),
Oppenheimer (2023) Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023), Thanksgiving (2023), The Marvels (2023), The Nun II (2023), Wonka (2023),
StudioLionsgate,
Despite a challenging premise and an overlong runtime, the Hunger Games prequel makes the most of the hand it’s been dealt.
The character of Coriolanus Snow is an odd choice for a Hunger Games hero. In the original books and films, as played by screen giant Donald Sutherland, Snow was a cold-hearted, cruel dictator clearly meant to echo real world fascist leaders. Here, in the prequel story The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (say that five times fast), Coriolanus (Tom Blyth) is just a sensitive, emotional teen dreamboat whose main goal is to provide for his family in the wake of the violent revolution that tore apart Panem, the country formerly known as the United States of America.
It’s difficult to understand why author Suzanne Collins, who wrote the novel Songbirds is based on, made the decision to try to humanize a violent authoritarian when a core theme of the original Hunger Games books and movies was lashing back at systemic oppression. Nonetheless, director Francis Lawrence (Catching Fire, I Am Legend) and his enthusiastic cast of talented performers make the best of the rather thematically confused story arc they’ve been given, turning in one of the most exciting, emotionally arresting entries in the franchise. Continue Reading →
The Exorcist: Believer
SimilarCarrie (1976), Constantine (2005), Die Hard (1988), Godzilla Raids Again (1955), Happy Death Day 2U (2019), I Stand Alone (1998), Jaws: The Revenge (1987), Klute (1971), Minority Report (2002), Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), Rosemary's Baby (1968), Silent Hill (2006), The 39 Steps (1935), The Devil's Rejects (2005), The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999), The Shining (1980), We Own the Night (2007),
Watch afterAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), Evil Dead Rise (2023), Five Nights at Freddy's (2023), John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023), Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023), Saw X (2023), The Equalizer 3 (2023), The Nun II (2023), The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023),
If you like loud noise jump scares, you’re going to love The Exorcist: Believer. Continue Reading →
The Pope's Exorcist
Welcome back to Filmmaker of the Month. In honor of the film, and in its spirit, we sent in a young writer, Megan Sunday, and another young writer, Gena Radcliffe, to do spiritual battle with The Exorcist. Continue Reading →
Strays
SimilarArmageddon (1998), Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Bring It On (2000), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), From Russia with Love (1963), Ghostbusters (1984), Goldfinger (1964), Night at the Museum (2006), Ocean's Eleven (1960), Shrek the Third (2007), Snakes on a Plane (2006), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005),
Watch afterBarbie (2023) Blue Beetle (2023), Elemental (2023), Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023), Meg 2: The Trench (2023),
Oppenheimer (2023) Talk to Me (2023), The Nun II (2023),
Talking animals have been an entertainment staple for practically as long as movies have been around. Most classics of the genre, like 1993’s Homeward Bound, aim squarely at children in the audience. Director Josh Greenbaum’s Strays seeks to subvert that approach by weaving dirty jokes and curse words into familiar genre tropes. The result is considerably more grating and unpleasant to watch. Continue Reading →
The Last Voyage of the Demeter
SimilarBlade Runner (1982) Carrie (1976), Die Hard (1988), Dr. No (1962), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), I Am Not a Serial Killer (2016),
Jackie Brown (1997) King Kong (1933),
Live and Let Die (1973) Mystic River (2003), Poseidon (2006),
Rebecca (1940) Shaft (2000) Shooter (2007), The 39 Steps (1935),
The Name of the Rose (1986) The Poseidon Adventure (1972), The Silent Partner (1978), War of the Worlds (2005), Wild at Heart (1990), You Only Live Twice (1967),
Watch afterAmerican Fiction (2023),
Barbie (2023) Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023), Meg 2: The Trench (2023), Talk to Me (2023), The Nun II (2023),
The Last Voyage of the Demeter feels like a movie from a different era. To a point, it is—writer Bragi Schut first drafted his adaptation of the 'Log of the "Demeter"' sequence in Bram Stoker's Dracula in the early 2000s. It's a capital letters Hollywood Creature Feature—a grimmer straight horror cousin to 2004's action/horror hybrid Van Helsing. At its best, it's an admirably gnarly monster flick—bolstered by sturdy craft from director André Øvredal and consistently good performances from a game ensemble. At its worst, it loses confidence and resorts to bumbling attempts to guide its audience by the hand—most notably in its prologue and epilogue. Continue Reading →
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Despite their hue, not all TMNT films deserved to be greenlit.
Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird created The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles back in 1984. Now almost 40 years later, what started as a comic book has inspired seven movies, five television series, and countless amounts of merchandise. This week the four ninja tortoises return in a new animated incarnation, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. Considering I’ve been a fan of the Turtles since six years old, this seems like the perfect time to put an official rating on four decades of movies. Some are gnarly, some tubular, and there’s always a whole lot of cowabunga.
Writers Note: This list doesn’t include the recent Netflix installment Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie, a TV-movie crossover Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or the live recording of the 1990 Coming Out of Their Shells stage show. That one you can catch on YouTube, although I don’t know why you would. Continue Reading →
Talk to Me
SimilarA Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Carrie (1976), On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999), The Shining (1980),
Watch afterBarbie (2023) Blue Beetle (2023), Five Nights at Freddy's (2023), Meg 2: The Trench (2023), Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023),
Oppenheimer (2023) Saw X (2023), The Equalizer 3 (2023), The Nun II (2023),
Things have been very bad for much of the world for a very long time, and they won’t improve any time soon. I don’t mean to start things off on a bummer note, but to point out that from such dire circumstances comes one benefit: the horror movie renaissance that started in the late 2010s only seems to be getting better. Just this year we’ve gotten the low-fi nightmares Skinamarink and The Outwaters, horror comedy with M3GAN and Cocaine Bear, another mostly solid entry in the Scream franchise, too many indie horror films to list here (Bad Girl Boogey and Brooklyn 45 are but a couple), and the roaring return of the Evil Dead series. Even if there weren’t another release for the rest of the year, it’d still be a great year for horror. Continue Reading →
Cobweb
SimilarA Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Constantine (2005), Silent Hill (2006),
Watch afterBarbie (2023) Meg 2: The Trench (2023), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), Talk to Me (2023), The Nun II (2023),
StudioLionsgate,
As horror movies fans, we (and I’m very much including myself here) talk a good game about wanting to see something new and different in the genre, but there are plenty of old reliable tropes that still work with us. Zombies, kaiju, masked killers, all of those have a better than good chance of drawing in audiences, without trying too hard to bring a fresh new angle to anything. We also love child in peril and creepy kid movies, and Samuel Bodin’s Cobweb manages to incorporate both, to mixed results. Continue Reading →
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
SimilarArmageddon (1998), Beverly Hills Cop (1984), Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), Beverly Hills Cop III (1994), Die Hard 2 (1990), Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995), Godzilla Raids Again (1955),
Jackie Brown (1997) Jaws: The Revenge (1987),
Live and Let Die (1973) Live Free or Die Hard (2007), Ocean's Twelve (2004), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Spider-Man 3 (2007), Superman Returns (2006), The Matrix Reloaded (2003), The Matrix Revolutions (2003),
Watch afterBarbie (2023) Five Nights at Freddy's (2023), Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023),
Oppenheimer (2023) The Equalizer 3 (2023), The Flash (2023), The Nun II (2023),
One of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One's earliest pieces of marketing was a trailer-by-way-of-behind-the-scenes featurette. In that clip, Tom Cruise, strapped to a motorcycle, rockets off the edge of a cliff in the Swiss Alps. He lets the bike drop away before popping his parachute and sailing into the horizon. It's one of the most death-defying sequences ever captured on film and, as we now know, it's one Cruise himself did again and again and again. The sequence, even devoid of context, sums up exactly what director Chris McQuarrie and Cruise (the two are also co-producers) hoped to achieve in Dead Reckoning: grade A movie spectacle. Continue Reading →
El hombre del saco
Similar2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Anatomy of a Murder (1959),
Blade Runner (1982) War of the Worlds (2005),
Watch afterMeg 2: The Trench (2023), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), Talk to Me (2023), The Nun II (2023),
Studio20th Century Studios,
What did your boogeyman look like? Continue Reading →
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
"What do you get for the man who has... everything?" Continue Reading →