Very standard action thriller that borrows heavily from films like Die Hard (mainly Die Hard 2), Non-Stop, The Commuter, and Phone Booth. The cast does an okay job and it’s entertaining for the most part, but having seen countless movies like this, it wasn’t all that new or surprising. Most will still enjoy this, but it didn’t really do all that much for me. Being just under two hours didn’t really help it much either. I did enjoy this brief one take fight scene in a moving car backed to Last Christmas though. Not bad, but super forgettable.
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The Man in the White Van 2023
The Man in the White Van took me massively by surprise. I never even expected our theater to get it, thinking it was going to be straight to digital. Going to it I expected something cheesy, but this turned out to be a lot more intense and suspenseful than I expected. It’s a fairly slow burn with moments of the titular “man in the white van” stalking this teenage girl like a shark stalks prey while her family doesn’t believe…
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Maria 2024
Far less interesting than Pablo Larrain’s previous works Jackie and Spencer, this film solely hinges on Angelina Jolie’s performance. I’m not an opera person at all and obviously had never heard of Maria Callas, but Jolie does an amazing job here and is absolutely magnetic while making you enamored with this character. Callas is shown to have different layers to her and Jolie nails all aspects. I especially love how subtly shady she is shown to have been (the best…
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AMP House Massacre 2024
An okay slasher that was Unfriended meets Real World with little bits of Scream 4. It was cool to see Brandon Perea in a slasher after seeing him in Nope and Twisters. Cassandra Scerbo (Nova from the Sharknado films) was fun as well. It’s a short and sweet slasher that’s a decent time killer.
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The Holiday Exchange 2024
This is very much just a gay version of The Holiday, but it was still cute to see that story told this way. The issues each of the characters have feel pretty realistic and they have their charms. The cast does a good job and have decent chemistry as well. I was kind of surprised how little screen time Kyle Richards had as one of the characters moms, but oh well. If you wanna watch something new (so to speak) during the holidays it’s worth a watch.
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Boy Kills World 2023
The fights and gore are great, and Bill and Jessica are solid, but woof, why did this have to be damn near two hours? On top of that, I got over the narration fast and the twist was pretty dumb.
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Fly Me to the Moon 2024
This wasn’t a bad movie per se, but it’s waaaay too long for the kind of movie it is. It’s also tonally all over the place. It’s a historical comedy one moment, a rom-com the next, and then there’s moments of like serious dramatic moments. Overall I think the general concept is solid. It toys with both sides of the moon landing being real and not being real. The rom-com aspect was the weakest for me, despite Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum having decent enough chemistry, but on their own, the two are great in their respective roles.
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Horror in the High Desert 3: Firewatch 2024
My personal favorite after the first. It kept me on edge and on the look out the whole time. The main character wasn’t annoying for an influencer, but at the same time, man, that was not worth risking your life over, lol. The ending reveal was not what I was hoping the franchise was going towards though.
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The Perfect Holiday 2007
This doesn’t deserve such low ratings, the cast is great and it’s just a harmless and sweet family Christmas movie.
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Sweethearts 2024
Kiernan Shipka and Nico Hiraga have great chemistry and deliver solid comedic performances. The script itself feels a little too all over the place. There’s a subplot involving the supporting gay best friend that I felt had no real purpose and felt more like filler. I also felt like the central plot of the pair wanting to explore life without significant others should have been more of the movie than about the leading to the actual break ups. However, the…