Category: video reviews
One of my favorite films of 2011, J.J. Abrams’ flashback/homage to the classic works of Spielberg taps into 4 essential components of his filmmaker’s late 70s to early 80s films:
- panoramic, storybook skylines
- extraterrestrials disrupting suburban, middle-class life
- relational struggles between parent/child
- excessive use of lens flare
You can just feel the entire film is a narrative expression of J.J. looking at Steven saying “I love you man!” However, the film isn’t just your typical, monster/alien-incursion-forces-coming-of-age-story…
When thrust into a violent Alaskan landscape where death seems almost certain, a formerly despondent man suddenly manifests an incredible will to survive, to fight, to lead a group of men through the wilderness and combat the wolves at their heels.
Less an action film and more an essay on naturalism, on what it looks like to truly build on Bertrand Russell’s firm foundation of unyielding despair. It evokes Solomon’s lament about the similarities and differences between man and beast in Ecclesiastes 3.
The film is an incredible treatise on why we choose life and fight to survive that demands conversation with a mixed crowd. Does the ending satisfy? Why or why not? Like it’s name, The Grey doesn’t give a black and white answer and crashes that plane across the landscape of conversation. Go deeper in our short video review…
Thor continues the string of connected MARVEL comics films that began with Iron Man. Although different in tone, it soars to similar heights thanks to director Kenneth Branagh and the cast. The film deals with some…
SALT is an enjoyable film, and though not on par with recent Bourne and Bond entries, it is a tight – if not plausible – thriller on par with the equally plot-holed but gripping TAKEN,…
In 1984, a scary movie debuted called A Nightmare on Elm Street, birthing a scarred maniac who would lead a genre with a killer franchise for years to come. A lesser known thriller starring Dennis…
BIG plans for Tony Stark: this first video review of Iron Man 2 (below) is just a taste of what’s to come at Cinemagogue. As an avid comic book reader since the 70s, it’s been fascinating…
I wasn’t allowed to watch “Freddy” or “Jason” movies growing up, and by the time I watched Krueger on television in the 90s he’d become less nightmarish and more of a self-parody. The 2010 remake…
When my friend and Redemption Group Pastor tweeted that this film was “EPIC,” his high-praise proclamation was even more intriguing to me than Martin Scorsese‘s trailer. Though I’m still not a DiCaprio fan, Shutter Island…
If someone told me it was possible to make a movie that was part Watchmen, part Superbad, and part Tarantino film, I’d have said they were more deranged than Rorschach. However, although the most tonally-eclectic…