Tag: Kevin Bacon

Film Review: “MaXXXine”

Ti West completes his horror trilogy in devilishly fun ’80s fashion

First came X. Shortly after came the prequel, Pearl. And now, MaXXXine, writer/director Ti West’s end cap on a remarkably gory, provocative, homage-filled horror trilogy. Mia Goth is at the center of all three films, an actor who has transcended “scream queen” status to become a bona fide megastar of the genre. She deserved an Oscar nomination for her performance in Pearl, and arguably an earlier nomination for her dual roles in X. In MaXXXine, the creative pairing of West and Goth complete their trilogy in entertaining, if not spectacular, fashion. MaXXXine is an overt homage to the wide-ranging horror genre birthed from Hollywood between the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, from the prestigious to the grimy. Continue reading “Film Review: “MaXXXine””

Film Review: Patriots Day

Flawed but well executed, third Berg/Wahlberg collaboration is worth seeing

Boston police officer Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg, center) assists FBI Special Agent Rick DesLauriers (Kevin Bacon, l.) and Police Commissioner Ed Davis (John Goodman, r.) with their investigation.

The third time may be the charm for director Peter Berg and actor Mark Wahlberg, who collaborated on two previous films (Deepwater Horizon and Lone Survivor) with middling results. Patriots Day, their new film, is definitely the best of the trio, although it’s not without its problems. Another film based on a true story, Patriots Day recounts the Boston Marathon bombing of 2013 and the investigation and manhunt that immediately followed. Working from a script based on the 2015 book Boston Strong: A City’s Triumph Over Tragedy, Berg and a quartet of screenwriters manage to bring the recent and familiar story alive without glorifying or exploiting the tragedy or the bombers, who are secondary characters here, serving only the plot.
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Film Review: R.I.P.D.

R.I.P.D. is a good reminder of how similar movies used to be better.

Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds are ready for all terrible CGI creatures coming their way.
Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds are ready for all the terrible CG creatures coming their way.

– What do you call an undead police force?
– The R.I.P.D.  The Rest In Peace Department.
– Ha!
– They would be like the Men in Black.
– Yeah.  Except instead of aliens, they’d be fighting hell’s escapees.
(…to be continued)

Although R.I.P.D. is based on a comic book series of the same name, first published in 1999 (after Men in Black), I can easily imagine the concept for this movie arising in the above fashion.  I haven’t read the source material, and therefore can’t speak to it, but it’s a bit too easy to find the parallels between R.I.P.D. and MIB; every character, plot turn, and joke from the former has a close equivalent in the latter.  It’s surprising that we don’t see the MIB writers getting credited for the R.I.P.D. story or screenplay. Perhaps I’m being too harsh.  But for the sake of argument, perhaps extra time should’ve been spent polishing what ends up being a cheap clone of a concept already executed to a much more satisfying degree.  The characters in R.I.P.D. aren’t well developed, the special effects look gummy at best, and the plot doesn’t take any unexpected turns.

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Film Review: “X-Men: First Class”

Caleb Landry Jones, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Rose Byrne, Nicholas Hoult, James McAvoy, and Lucas Till in X-MEN: FIRST CLASS

starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, January Jones, Kevin Bacon, Lucas Till, Caleb Landry Jones, Zoe Kravitz, Oliver Platt, Jason Flemyng, Alex Gonzalez

written by: Ashley Miller, Zack Stentz, Jane Goldman, and Matthew Vaughn

directed by: Matthew Vaughn

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence, some sexual content including brief partial nudity, and language.

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