Documentarian Ann Shin risks arrest by Chinese authorities by entering the extraordinary, secret world of a broker, Dragon, who has smuggled dozens of North Korean defectors out of China, this particular mission coinciding with the 2011 death of dictator Kim Jong Il. The film tracks the defectors’ nerve wracking journey across China (where the vast […]
From the first few minutes of this gritty sci-fi thriller, you know you are in for one bizarre road trip. Michael Shannon (who also starred in director Jeff Nichols’ three other films Mud, Take Shelter and Shotgun Stories) is the father of a young boy with mysterious powers, being hotly pursued by federal agents wanting […]
A ridiculously flimsy story and embarrassingly unrealistic dialogue will have you rooting for the aliens in this super lame “teenage girl saves the planet from an alien invasion” young adult film. I hope they paid Chloe a lot to star in this garbage – it was way beneath her acting ability.
An artist discovers his high-rise condo has been cordoned off and surrounded by people in hazmat suits. As the freak out factor among he and his neighbors escalates, human frailties bubble to the surface, making a dire situation even worse. The low budget British thriller, while believable, isn’t very thrilling and is a bit of […]
The premise of this strange, straight-to-DVD horror/comedy is wonderfully topical – the crew for an American home improvement TV show returns to a remote village in Moldova to check on their new homeowner after six months, to discover things have gotten super weird. The story, however, by writers of SpongeBob SquarePants (take a minute to […]
An amateurish script and even more amateurish directing completely destroys would could have been a competent tearjerker about a lifelong friendship that endures when one of them is diagnosed with cancer. Toni Collette’s performance is spot on, but even it fails to overcome the cloying, manipulative, by-the-numbers feel of this completely unbelievable film, which you […]
The latest outing by director David O. Russell and his muse Jennifer Lawrence is loosely based on the life of Miracle Mop inventor Joy Mangano, a creative go-getter who overcomes an unsupportive, dysfunctional family and legal challenges to invent the revolutionary mop that flipped her humdrum life into a roller coaster ride of highs and […]
Do you carry out an airstrike on a terrorist hangout where suicide bombers are strapping on their bombs, knowing it will likely kill the sweet little girl hanging out nearby? Such is the moral dilemma facing Helen Mirren and the late Alan Rickman (in one of his final roles) in this taut modern warfare thriller […]
This political drama/comedy is a noble effort to expose the manipulative, Machiavellian awfulness associated with political campaigns, but its execution, with Sandra Bullock as the dysfunctional campaign advisor to a Bolivian presidential candidate, falls flat and feels phony way more often than it connects.
Melissa McCarthy fans rejoice! This comedy – a raunchy, over the top James Bond spoof – is loaded with a slew of piss-yourself-from-laughing moments, when McCarthy, a CIA desk officer, goes into the field undercover, donning various kooky cat lady disguises to stop a nuclear arms sale. While some of the comic gags early on […]