Karen Gillan leads an all-star cast of veteran actresses in a highly stylized, but surprisingly boring actioner. Gunpowder Milkshake is a neon lit jumble of bloody beatdowns and choreographed gunplay. A near invincible assassin protects a young girl with the help of her mentors. Bad guys have nifty names like Dracula and work for a
Anthony Bourdain is remembered fondly in a heartbreaking retrospective of a great adventurer. Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain takes an intimate look at a complex individual. Award-winning documentarian Morgan Neville explores his life from meteoric stardom to shocking 2018 suicide in provincial France. Bourdain’s friends, colleagues, production team, and second wife, Ottavia Busia, speak
An unhappy wife is given a brutal and diabolically twisted anniversary present. Till Death is a cat and mouse thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat. Megan Fox, in her career best film, is chained to a dead body. Drumroll please, while trying to outwit a pair of attackers in a
In October 2015, A’Ziah “Zola” King, a Detroit Hooters waitress and part-time stripper, unleashed a 150 tweet thread that became a viral sensation. The tweetstorm, now infamously known as the “The Story“, was a bonkers account of a road trip with a brazen young woman she’d served at work. Zola, actually titled @Zola, is adapted
Natasha Romanoff gets an action-packed origin story that sets up a raft of new MCU characters. Black Widow can best be described as The Americans meets 007 in a James Bond-styled adventure. A fantastic supporting cast adds much more humor and likeability than expected. Black Widow also tackles the serious themes of human trafficking and
In the summer of 1969, the musical world had its spotlight on “3 Days of Peace & Music” at the Woodstock festival in Bethel, New York. During that same period, one hundred miles south in Harlem’s Mount Morris Park, another series of concerts inspired a generation and helped to define a tidal shift in Black
Hungry aliens make mincemeat of future humans in an action-packed, but nonsensical sci-fi blockbuster. The Tomorrow War has Chris Pratt conscripted into a temporal conflict. Mankind is getting decimated, so a time portal is invented to get reinforcements from the past. The high concept plot is easily picked apart by common sense and logic. What
The Purge franchise ends on a dismal note with a ham-fisted and brainless fifth installment. The Forever Purge has white supremacist militias running amok to claim America for its true Christian citizens. All immigrants, the wealthy ruling class, and pretty much every non-caucasian, are targets for bloody slaughter. Social media drives the carnage in a
Steven Soderbergh returns to peak crime drama form with an outstanding all-star cast. No Sudden Move is a riveting tale of theft, murder, and betrayal. What begins as a simple job for three career criminals spirals into a big money score with serious ramifications. The fifties period setting adds fascinating social, racial, and sexual dynamics.
A shy teen gets in big trouble while trying to go out with his acerbic neighbor. First Date has the pieces of a zany adolescent action comedy, but never puts the puzzle together in an interesting way. Amateurish direction and a significant lack of chemistry from the young leads doom the film from the start.