Category: The Twenty-First Century
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Deadpool 2 [2018] ★★★
Prepare your chimichanga, put on some R-Rated music, and get ready for another round of your favorite anti-superhero. It’s not Shakespeare, but Deadpool indeed belongs in history books for being one of the most entertaining heroes in this huge Marvel universe. Ryan Reynolds has a blast, once again, playing Wade Wilson, the cancer patient turned…
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Isle Of Dogs [2018] ★★★½
Anyone who’s been following this blog for the past few years probably knows that I love Wes Anderson and stop-motion animation. Anderson explored this territory before in 2009’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox”, and he’s at it again with the beautiful “Isle of Dogs”, a love letter to dogs and Japan. From “Rushmore” to “The Grand Budapest…
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Blockers [2018] ★★½
Funny, vulgar, raunchy. That’s “Blockers” in a nutshell. The film earns its R-Rating right from the start, as we meet three parents (John Cena, Leslie Mann and Ike Barinholtz) who are on a mission: to stop their daughters from having sex on prom night. It’s a silly set-up, and on paper, it doesn’t seem too…
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Ready Player One [2018] ★★★
Can a movie be set in 2045 and still feels straight out of the 80’s? The answer lies in Steven Spielberg’s CGI extravaganza “Ready Player One”, an ode to pop culture and…dare I say…the Atari 2600, which holds a special place in my heart. But good CGI doesn’t mean a damn thing if the movie…
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Avengers: Infinity War [2018] ★★★½
It’s finally here: the biggest, best superhero gathering of all time, and fans couldn’t ask for a better result. “Infinity War” is an epic in every sense of the word, a feast for the eyes and the senses, an exhilarating ride from start to finish. You name it. So much in fact that I had…
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Unsane [2018] ★★★
Looking for a solid thriller to get lost in? “Unsane” is the movie for you. Steven Soderbergh, a master when it comes to experimental filmmaking, takes it to a whole new level in his latest mind-bender. The movie was shot entirely with an iPhone 7 plus, but in true Soderbergh fashion, it never feels gimmicky.…
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I Feel Pretty [2018] ★★
I like Amy Schumer. She’s a fearless comedienne who can handle any type of situation. She can also carry a whole movie on her shoulder (see Judd Apatow’s “Trainwreck”), and “I Feel Pretty” is no exception. It would seem like a perfect setup to have her in this film, and though the result is less…
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Rampage [2018] ★★½
It wasn’t until I spotted an arcade cabinet that has “Rampage” written all over it that I realized that this movie is indeed based on the famous 1980’s game, in which giant monsters are trying to destroy an entire city. The game was fun and straightforward, and the movie is exactly like that. It doesn’t…
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A Quiet Place [2018] ★★★
This is the horror movie we’ve all been waiting for. Director John Krasinski (who would have thought) delivers the creepy goods, leaving us unnerved, terrified, and exhilarated. This is “A Quiet Place” in a nutshell, a tense and extremely well-crafted tale of survival. Krasinski himself plays a family man who must protect his family from…
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Midnight Sun [2018] ★★
It’s not Valentine, but we got a tearjerker that reminds us that Hollywood doesn’t know how to make good tearjerkers anymore. “Midnight Sun”, starring Bella Thorne as a teenager who can’t be exposed to sunlight due to a rare genetic disease, is manipulative, cheesy, and just downright generic. Yep, you guessed it, she’s about to…
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In Syria [2018] ★★★½
“In Syria” is a devastating drama that further reaffirms the fact that Diamand Bou Abboud is one of the best Lebanese actresses in the industry. Belgian director Philippe Van Leeuw shot the entire film in an apartment building to depict the lives of a group of Syrian people who try their very best to survive,…
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Tomb Raider [2018] ★★★
How you react to this fresh adaptation of “Tomb Raider” will have a lot to do with your expectations. I didn’t care much for the two movies starring Angelina Jolie (come to think of it, they were awful, despite a good performance from Jolie), so I was certainly looking forward to seeing Alicia Vikander as…
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Annihilation [2018] ★★★½
Behold. The best Science-Fiction film of the year so far is upon us. Writer-director Alex Garland follows up his ambitious first feature “Ex Machina” with a mind-bending film that defies the laws of Hollywood. Much like Denis Villeneuve’s masterful “Arrival”, “Annihilation” is a game-changer in the genre, a film deemed way too intellectual for regular…
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Veronica [2017] ★★
I’m calling bullshit on this film’s flashy marketing strategy. By telling people that “this Spanish original film is so terrifying that people can’t watch to the end”, Netflix got my attention. But now that I’ve finally seen the film, I can tell you that none of this is true. Sure, it’s an intriguing story about…
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Red Sparrow [2018] ★★½
Check your brain at the door. This tense, often confusing spy-thriller starring Jennifer Lawrence as a Bolshoi ballerina-turned-spy, gets a lot of things right, but also a lot of things wrong. My advice: go with the illogic or you’ll miss the fun. And there’s plenty of fun in seeing Lawrence kicking ass in Russian. OK,…
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The Cloverfield Paradox [2018] ★★
I don’t want to condemn Netflix for this misfire. It’s obvious that Paramount had no faith whatsoever in their product, so in order to avoid a box office disaster, they sold the rights to the people at Netflix, who, in turn, promoted the movie on Super Bowl night and released it a few hours later.…
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Mute [2018] ★½
Epic fails come in two forms: terrible blockbusters like “Transformers”, which no one really expects much from. And disasters like “Mute”, in which you can still feel the ambition and passion behind this unholy mess. I’ve been a huge Duncan Jones fan ever since he dazzled audiences with his 2009 masterpiece “Moon”, and I still…
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Game Night [2018] ★★½
Who doesn’t love game night? Now we finally have a raunchy comedy that takes everything we know about game night and makes it even better. Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams work well together as a couple who are good at almost every game. That is until Bateman’s brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler) “arranges” a murder mystery…
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Black Panther [2018] ★★★½
There’s been a lot of hype surrounding Marvel’s latest superhero movie “Black Panther”, and now that I’ve finally seen it, I can genuinely say that the hype is truly justified. This is one of the finest superhero films I’ve ever seen: visually stunning, sharply-written, and directed with a keen eye for detail by Ryan Coogler.…
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Wonder Wheel [2017] ★★½
While it doesn’t add anything new to Woody Allen’s fruitful career, it’s difficult to dismiss his latest film, “Wonder Wheel”, just because I had a good time watching it. It has an abundance of eye candy and an amusing cast, making it entertaining enough for any Allen fan. We’re in Coney Island this time around,…
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