They Cloned Tyrone
They Cloned Tyrone is an unconventional sci-fi mystery infused with satire. The chronicle stars John Boyega, Teyonah Parris, and Jamie Foxx as a drug dealer, a sex worker, and a pimp. They’re an unlikely trio united to fight against a vast government conspiracy who are cloning members of their community known as the Glen. I […]
The Last Voyage of the Demeter
The Last Voyage of the Demeter takes the wispy thread of an interlude and stretches it out to a bloated 2-hour flick. “The Captain’s Log” is a series of recorded entries from the seventh chapter of the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. Screenwriters Bragi Schut Jr. and Zak Olkewicz adapt, and André Øvredal (Scary […]
Talk to Me
Talk to Me announces you’re in for an unsettling tale with a shocker of a prologue. Any details would ruin the surprise. After a disturbing intro, it introduces our lead protagonist, memorably played by Sophie Wilde. Mia is a 17-year-old struggling with the death of her mother (Alexandria Steffensen). She believes Rhea’s passing was the […]
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
The title Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is quite a tongue-twister. The seventh theatrical iteration featuring the crime-fighting team is a reboot of the series. I saw the first release back in 1990, but I had not seen any since…until now. * The chronicle is another origin story that recounts how these four turtle […]
Haunted Mansion
Haunted Mansion is not good. This is, in fact, the second theatrical adaptation of the iconic dark ride at Disneyland. I’d like to call for a moratorium on all future adaptations based on their theme park rides. The original 2003 Pirates of the Caribbean (The Curse of the Black Pearl) was indeed enjoyable. But does […]
Oppenheimer
Director Christopher Nolan has a preoccupation with time. As such, he eschews a linear chronology even when telling what could be a straightforward story. His biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) begins in 1954 at the start of a security hearing for the “father of the atomic bomb.” The renowned physicist is suspected of […]
Barbie
A group of young girls are playing with baby dolls. The toys are plump and round like newborns, and the girls ostensibly pretend to be their mothers. Suddenly a statuesque and shapely poseable figure in a bikini looms large in the distance like a monolith. The girls are inspired to smash their current playthings against […]
WHAM!
Filmmaker Chris Smith has built a career in documentaries. American Movie was awarded the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary in 1999 at Sundance. Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened is a compelling account of the Fyre Festival fraud, and as executive producer, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness is the 7-part series that hypnotized […]
Sound of Freedom
Tim Ballard (Jim Caviezel) is a special agent for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). As an undercover operative, he has successfully captured nearly 300 child predators. However, he wrestles with a moral conundrum. The inability to rescue the actual children themselves weighs heavily on him. He decides to do something about it. After […]
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
The panic over Artificial Intelligence (AI) has fluctuated in the public consciousness ever since Fritz Lang’s Metropolis in 1927. However, the current fixation with the technology has become a ridiculous obsession in the modern zeitgeist. The latest chapter in the Mission Impossible franchise capitalizes on that fear. Covert ops agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) finds […]