By Elias Savada. A lackluster affair, sporting cardboard characters and gag-worthy clichés.” Just a few months ago Liam Neeson was fumbling around the generic wasteland of his usual escapist entertainment with Honest Thief. Easily forgotten stuff. He’s back in the same doldrums with a new film, in a new year […]
Chloë Grace Moretz Kicks Ass in Roseanne Liang’s Shadow in the Cloud
By Elias Savada. A small, fierce gem…. Moretz lets it all out with a thrilling performance.” This movie reminds me of the intense, claustrophobic approach to air travel that 7500 did earlier this year. For me, Shadow in the Cloud is a more frantic and enjoyable effort. The action moves […]
Trouble in the DC Universe (the City and the Comics): Wonder Woman 1984
By Elias Savada. Like so many presents found under the tree this Christmas Day, there might be a lot of folks asking for a refund after viewing this sad excuse for a sequel. It’s a wonder that Warner Bros. has let its prized new female-empowerment franchise slide off the rails […]
A Smash in the Face: Greenland
Another Clarke (the Comet) arrives for the Christmas movie season. By Elias Savada. Greenland, the latest comet disaster flick to smash into our planet, will be one easily forgotten. Comets and meteors and asteroids, oh my! These bits of interstellar debris have been attacking our audio-visual senses for ages, fictionally […]
Too Long in the Saddle: Paul Greengrass and News of the World
By Elias Savada. News of the World ambles from scene to scene with an occasional spectacular landscape….Tom Hanks, front and center again, isn’t enough to carry the film.” It’s hard to believe that over the course of his well-worn career that Tom Hanks has never been in a western (although he […]
Nostalgia Falls Flat: Sylas Dall’s They Reach
By Elias Savada. They Reach offers slow build up and small jump scares. Too much music, not enough imagination, although the direction is adequate.” They Reach starts like a low-budget road trip reboot of the sadly departed Supernatural tv series (well, two guys in a station wagon, with a gun […]
Embracing the Imbecility of Life: Stuart Ashen Returns with Ashens and the Polybius Heist
By Elias Savada. All hail the group’s second silly caper that will undoubtedly engross some of you. It does have a certain intoxicating charm to it.” Recently I’ve been listening to a lot of Jerry Jeff Walker, the American country music troubadour who died last month. His rendition of Gary […]
Let’s Go to the Videotape: Foulness Afoot in Alexander Nanau’s Collective
By Elias Savada. Horrific footage of the inferno casts an eerie light as Nanau’s film begins, and, with a surgeon’s precision, he peels away the scab hiding an immoral national health-care system at home, one that had been secretly festering for a decade.” It took a Romanian sports journalist to […]
Babadook Move Over, There’s a New Monster in Town: Jacob Chase’s Come Play
By Elias Savada. “It’s a fascinating concept, not that it’s terribly original…but one that constantly put me on edge.” I’ve been a fan of Jacob Chase since the Spooky Movie International Horror Film Festival played his short film Copycat five years ago. He also wrote and directed the 5-minute dread-inducing […]
Wo Wo We Wa!: Pranks, Satire, and Bathroom Humor Endure in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
By Elias Savada. Forget the news about the Russians doing their worst to screw up the coming election, because we have Uzbekistan’s secret weapon. And there’s nothing Trump, Putin, or all those conservative, right-wing Yankees can do about it. Borat‘s back in town.” Mockumentarians make way for another gatecrashing excursion […]