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A victim of its own lofty ambitions, William and Carlyle Eubanks’ The Signal is a visual impressively, occasionally inspired, and thoroughly surreal science fiction thriller that often stumbles under the weight of self-consciousness. It’s also a nicely stitched-together pastiche of genres, starting off as a college-kids road movie, veering briefly into Blair Witch country on the … Continue reading
It’s a rare sequel — animated or otherwise — that expands the story of its predecessor without rehashing it, and an even rarer family-oriented film that manages to be fun and mature without being condescending to its audience. How to Train Your Dragon 2 does both. Set five years after the first movie, a clunky prologue … Continue reading
Doug Liman had dropped the radar as a filmmaker for most of the past decade, but with the surprisingly smart and suitably bombastic science fiction thriller Edge of Tomorrow, he pops back up with more of the high-concept action beats and character development that made The Bourne Identity and Mr. and Mrs. Smith so much fun. More importantly, Liman takes … Continue reading
Returning as director to the franchise he put on the movie map after an absence of more than a decade, Bryan Singer has turned out what feels like the first true X-Men movie since, well, the last one he directed. Ambitious and epic in scale and intimate in execution, X-Men: Days of Future Past seal the … Continue reading
It’s been ten years since Toho Studios put the Godzilla franchise in mothballs after the release of the sub-par 50th anniversary feature Godzilla: Final Wars. The feeling was that everything that could be done with the world’s most famous giant monster had been done, and that a rest (and better special effects) was needed. Of … Continue reading
One of the most original, suspenseful, and surprising indies in the past few years, writer-director Jeremy Saulnier’s Blue Ruin is a mesmerizing exercise in style and character study. Granted, that last bit is enough to make many a movie-goers’ sphincters clinch with dread of ponderous, talky self-indulgence, oblique references to obscure film movements, and/or overblown visual flourishes; … Continue reading
Fledgling director Marc Webb displayed promise when the bumpy but enjoyable Amazing Spider-Man hit the big screen in 2012. It was rough around the edges — the tone was all over the place and the plot was not always a smooth ride — but the enthusiasm and creativity were there, and talent and chemistry of Andrew Garfield … Continue reading
He’s his own worst enemy and the kind of guy you love and hate in equal measure, a man you want to smack some bloody sense into but don’t because it’s likely a body part or two will get ripped off by him; and in Jude Law’s capable hands, Dom Hemingway is a lunatic bastard with the … Continue reading
Transcendence could have been a good movie — it certainly tries — but it’s chock full of ideas that are beyond first-time screenwriter Jack Paglen’s ability to explore and develop, and cinematographer-turned-director Wally Pfister doesn’t yet have the chops to compensate for such shortcomings. In the end, it comes across as a half-baked TED talk, and … Continue reading
An atypical horror movie that could have been great but instead settled for mediocrity and recycled tropes, Oculus is a frustrating near-miss. By focusing less on gore (though there’s still enough on display to meet minimum requirements) and more on its characters and intriguing premise, it sets up gripping tale — and then it runs … Continue reading
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