Review: THE LAST MERCENARY
The Last Mercenary is a workmanlike comedy, carried by a fun Jean-Claude Van Damme performance.
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Posts byH.M. Flores
Review: WATCH DOGS: LEGION – BLOODLINE
“Some fights are worth losing.”
Aiden Pearce and Wrench return to WATCH DOGS in a story about reconnecting with the people we care about and overcoming dark memories.
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Review: THE SNOOPY SHOW
“Thanks for the inspiration, Snoopy!”
THE SNOOPY SHOW has the humor, imagination and thoughtfulness fans have come to expect from Peanuts.
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Review: WATCH DOGS: LEGION
Welcome to the Resistance
WATCH DOGS: LEGION goes to dark places in a dystopian London while also being endlessly fun and cool.
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Off The Beaten Path: WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS
“Are we ever going to be better than this?”
WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS is a refreshingly sincere and energetic portrayal of millennial life and show business.
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THE PEANUTS MOVIE: The Power of the Underdog
Thank you for everything, Charlie Brown
THE PEANUTS MOVIE is a heartwarming portrayal of failure and anxiety that perfectly encapsulates the essence of Charles M. Schulz’s comic strips.
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Off the Beaten Path: THE FAN
“Baseball is better than life, it’s fair.”
THE FAN dissects the dangers of letting the things we like define the entirety of your identity and life.
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Off the Beaten Path: THE VOICES
THE VOICES subverts expectations around the Nice Guy archetype and indicts the rationalizations for male abuse.
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TIGERLAND and the Importance of Healthy Leadership
A bold visual style and a star-making performance from Colin Farrell helped to turn TIGERLAND into one of Joel Schumacher’s best films.
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Off the Beaten Path: LOOK WHO’S BACK
“People were not fooled by propaganda. They elected a leader who openly disclosed his plans in great clarity.”
LOOK WHO’S BACK is a shockingly prescient satire about the insidious ways in which fascism is normalized in society.
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Off The Beaten Path: CONSTANTINE: CITY OF DEMONS
“I’m alive, and that’s got to count for something, right?”
A stellar performance from Matt Ryan and a dark sense of fun make CONSTANTINE: CITY OF DEMONS one of the best DC adaptations in recent years.
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20 Years of AMERICAN PSYCHO
“I want my pain to be inflicted on others. I want no one to escape.”
Two decades after its release, AMERICAN PSYCHO has acquired new layers as a character study about misogyny and social pretense.
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Off the Beaten Path: DEATH TO SMOOCHY
DEATH TO SMOOCHY came out in 2002, but it’s a prescient portrayal of the so called “cancel culture” we live in today.
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Off the Beaten Path: EQUILIBRIUM
EQUILIBRIUM is a riff on George Orwell that’s elevated by a unique action style, as well as a nuanced central performance from Christian Bale.
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Off the Beaten Path: The UNFRIENDED Films
UNFRIENDED is a highly entertaining series that uses the internet’s features to comment on the dangers that come with it and convey fear.
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Review: THE DRAGON PRINCE, BOOK 3: SUN
THE DRAGON PRINCE’s third season aims higher than ever before, landing some of the most rounded character dynamics in the show.
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Review: FORD V FERRARI
An old-fashioned crowd pleaser through and through, FORD V FERRARI offers nail-biting set pieces from director James Mangold as well as effortlessly cool performances from its cast.
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Review: SNOOPY IN SPACE
The collaboration between Peanuts and Apple TV+ is off to a great start.
SNOOPY IN SPACE is an endlessly entertaining celebration of friendship, knowledge and our capacity for wonder.
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Review: EL CAMINO: A BREAKING BAD MOVIE
Jesse Pinkman’s goodbye letter doesn’t live up to its legendary predecessor
EL CAMINO, the BREAKING BAD epilogue, is not without its charms, but its thin story and characterization make it underwhelming in comparison to the series.
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BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHT – The Faces of the Caped Crusader
The stories between BATMAN BEGINS and THE DARK KNIGHT deserve more recognition
A look at Batman: Gotham Knight, which dissects all the elements that make the superhero a legendary figure.
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Off the Beaten Path: DOUBLE TEAM
A random, but delightfully goofy buddy actioner
Jean-Claude Van Damme’s collaboration with Dennis Rodman and Mickey Rourke is not afraid to embrace absurdity, and it’s one of his best movies because of it.
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Off The Beaten Path: LAKE PLACID
“Crocodiles have been more worshipped than Jesus.”
Twenty years after its release, it’s a good moment to sing the praises for LAKE PLACID, a criminally underappreciated killer animal romp written by David E. Kelley.
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Review: THE RED SEA DIVING RESORT
A tone-deaf combo of white saviorism and lukewarm craftsmanship
“Despite laudable efforts from Chris Evans and Michael Kenneth Williams, this workmanlike escape thriller misses the mark due to its stereotypical portrayal of Ethiopia and Sudan.”
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Off The Beaten Path: THE DIRT
Not quite the same old situation
The Motley Crue movie transcends its attachment to music biopic tropes and analyzes its subject matter with sheer honesty, but without leaving empathy aside
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Off The Beaten Path: A DOG YEAR
A lovely little meditation about the highs and lows of life with a dog.
Jeff Bridges shines in A DOG YEAR, an overlooked Emmy-nominated movie about the highs and lows in life with a dog, as well as dealing with loneliness and boredom.
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Off The Beaten Path: MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN
It lives!
Kenneth Branagh’s first big-budget production aims for the stars with energetic performances, a compelling conflict, and an immersive horror atmosphere.
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James Bond’s War Against Himself
A franchise’s quest to maintain traditions and stay relevant
For the last thirty years, the 007 series has wrestled with finding a balance between questioning its most insidious traits and celebrating James Bond’s classic appeal and status as an icon of masculinity in film.
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Fleet Week: ASSASSIN’S CREED III
ASSASSIN’s CREED’s take on the Revolutionary War introduced the series to naval combat mechanics, which proved to be a rich compliment for its gameplay and themes of liberty versus control.
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AVENGERS: ENDGAME: The Marvel Cinematic Universe Looks Back at Itself
Using a legacy to construct fate
H.M. Flores evaluates AVENGERS: ENDGAME as a new perspective on the arcs of its characters over the years, as well as the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole.
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DUMBO: Encountering Purpose as an Outsider
DUMBO could have used some polish, but its pro-animal rights messaging and unapologetic sincerity combined with Burton’s knack for fantasy spectacle are worth the price of admission.
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The Influence of BATMAN BEGINS
To impact the sensibilities in others, you must first master your own
For the 80th anniversary of Batman, HM Flores discusses the lasting legacy of his most thematically coherent and effective cinematic outing, BATMAN BEGINS
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OFF THE BEATEN PATH: WATCH DOGS
Ubisoft’s thematically rich WATCH DOGS series introduced an intriguing world that was a playground full of possibilities.
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Atmospheric Storytelling in BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM
"As Gotham's veins slowly filled with pain and suffering, the effects were felt everywhere."
Rocksteady’s classic, BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM, masterfully utilizes its haunting scenario to inform about its characters and their relationship with their world.
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Dad Media Month: THE INTERNATIONAL
"Sometimes a man can meet his destiny on the road he took to avoid it."
Tom Tywker’s globetrotting procedural is a cynical indictment of banks and their influence in global politics.
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Dad Media Month: The BOURNE Trilogy
The Bourne movies redefined action movies in the 21st century
Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass took the world by storm with this masterfully crafted saga, which marked a before and after in blockbuster entertainment.
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Dad Media Month: SPLINTER CELL and the Idealization of Espionage
Bring the battle closer
Ubisoft’s techno-thriller series took an honest and compelling dive into the emotional toll black ops can take on its agents.
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Fleet Week: ASSASSIN’S CREED IV: BLACK FLAG
"In a world without gold, we might have been heroes!"
Assassin’s Creed asks “is a pirate’s life really for me?”
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AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR: Finding Power in Loss and Destruction
"I'm only alive because fate wants me alive."
Marvel’s biggest crossover event is all about the importance of marking new beginnings after death.
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There Was An Idea… Captain America: Staying a Good Man
"It is your duty to plant yourself like a tree, look them in the eye and say ‘No! You move.’”
This week in THERE WAS AN IDEA… A look at the way the CAPTAIN AMERICA movies track the character of Steve Rogers through the MCU
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RISE OF THE TOMB RAIDER: The Path to Agency
Lara Croft’s adventure into the depths of Siberia asks “are you really listening to your own voice?”
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THERE WAS AN IDEA… THOR and the Bittersweet Embrace of Insecurity
This week on THERE WAS AN IDEA: Kenneth Branagh’s take on the Prince of Asgard has some of the most splendid characterization in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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Review: ASSASSIN’S CREED: ORIGINS
Where you fight among gods.
The latest entry in Ubisoft’s stealth series takes us to Ancient Egypt, and it’s an absolute blast.
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Review: AMERICAN MADE
A Martin Scorsese wannabe with no bite
Not even Tom Cruise can save this lifeless take on the life of Barry Seal.
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Review: WHAT HAPPENED TO MONDAY
Paul Verhoeven by the way of Jaume Collet-Serra
Noomi Rapace shines in this entertaining, but uneven dystopian movie.
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Review: THE DEFENDERS
Marvel Netflix's crossover sticks the landing
The street-level superhero team-up is a heartfelt and thrilling exploration of the power to heal.
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Does It Look Like It’s Our First Time? LICENCE TO KILL
A bonkers, but nuanced experience
This underappreciated Bond entry was ahead of its time.
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Does it Look Like It’s Our First Time? THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS
A promising start to an unfortunately short-lived period
A bold reinvention at a time that the franchise desperately needed it The Living Daylights charted a bold, if brief new course for Bond.
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