The Incredible Mr. Write

Though this review is a little late to the party, it's just not my style to let an action flick like  John Wick: Chapter 4  go by without giving you my two cents about it! The franchise has cemented itself as a pop culture icon; to ignore it would seem, well, totally uncool. And since yours truly has serious pop culture FOMO, allow me to slide into the cool kids' table and geek out over another hit movie. Much like the popular film franchise itself, I'm just going to grab you by the goods, jump right into this one, and hope you can hold on for the ride!  WARNING: Massive nut-kicking spoilers ahead!   Any action-loving moviegoer who hasn't been living under a rock these past few years knows the iconic name John Wick and all the bone-breaking, face-punching, quick-drawing, blood-spattering, revenge-taking that goes with it. From our introduction to Mr. Wick in the first installment of this action-packed saga, it was clear the ex-hit man's retirement would be short-liv...

Welcome, CineFreaks, to my latest literary concoction! Introducing: Movie Morsels, where I break down some of the box office’s recents hits and misses into easy-to-swallow bite-sized portions. As always, I slap a grade onto the end of these bad boys so you can decide for yourselves if they’re worth the popcorn and ticket price. Feel free to take these reviews with a grain of salt and a little pepper as you sink your teeth into these fun-sized synopsis. Let’s dive into this cinematic charcuterie board, shall we?  WARNING: A FEW FUN-SIZED SPOILERS AND CHOKING HAZARDS AHEAD!   A Man Called Otto Tom Hanks stars as Otto, a curmudgeon who’s given up on living following the death of his wife in this adaptation of the Swedish film, A Man Called Ove. After meeting a young family who’ve moved in across the street, Otto quickly meets his match in the form of the quick-witted and warm-hearted Marisol. Before long, Otto comes to learn how to live again as friendships are formed and a ...

If you're one of the happy few who've been to the movies over the last few years, you've no doubt noticed a few changes: higher prices on everything, an eerily quiet lobby, and a distinct lack of, well, audience. The days of an enthusiastic crowd filling the velvet and leather seats of a darkened theater are now seemingly but a distant popcorn-scented memory. You could blame any number of culprits for this mass exodus from the movie house: inflation, lingering COVID fears, countless streaming services playing new releases from the comfort of one’s living room, but the cinema ghost town's raison d'être is a bit closer to home, and frustratingly commonplace in the industry today.  You see, kids, Hollywood has forgotten how to make good films. As a screenwriter and lifelong cinephile, it pains me to see movies and the  theaters that show them reduced to a shell of their former shining selves. This tragedy could have easily been avoided, had studio executives been more...

Author's Note : As a lifelong Disney fan, this post admittedly comes from a selfish place. As an admirer of the Disney brand and all that it stands for, I want to see it thrive and succeed while remaining true to its core values. Recently, however, the company and its brand of "magic" I fell in love with has become unrecognizable under the pursuit of profit and the affliction of politics. This post is not Disney hate mail, but rather a love letter of a bygone era and a plea to remember what made it magical.           My earliest memory of Disney magic was formed in a darkened movie theater, where the flickering lights on the silver screen brought to life images of a far-away land, incredible magical powers, and a life-altering glass slipper. It was 1987, Cinderella had been re-released for the last time (at least globally), but to my young eyes, it was the first step into a whole new world of magic – pun totally intended!   I have to take a momen...

Having been locked away from a worldwide pandemic for the last two years, I emerged from my house like a slumbering grizzly bear in a Cheetos-induced coma. Once I remembered my blog, my password (and exactly where my office was), I quickly fired up my computer with some stories to tell -- and an axe to grind. If there's one thing we weren't in short supply of during our exile from the real world, it was television and movies -- streamed to us non-stop, courtesy of studios and streaming services that had suddenly found themselves with a captive audience. Like many of us, I anticipated a couple weeks of free time and some good entertainment with which to while away the potential boredom. Unfortunately, like the rest of us, I quickly realized 1) this wasn't to be a simple two-week vacation and 2) there was some serious lack of storytelling in the storm of entertainment we were weathering.  Don't get me wrong, there was plenty of mind-numbing Netflix fare like Tiger King a...

Though its origins can be traced back to comic book lore, this wonderfully crafted origin story is by no means your average comic book flick! Submitted for your approval: my unabridged review of  Joker . WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS AND PSYCHOTIC CLOWN LAUGHTER AHEAD! While many of us movie-goers are still reeling from one demented clown bent on destroying the world, along comes a film about another all-too-familiar cinematic and literary villain that proves once and for all who has earned the title of Clown Prince of Crime! As a colleague of mine (and fellow cinephile) so aptly put it, this film may prove to be "the Taxi Driver of our generation." It definitely has the same weight, realism, grit, raw emotion, and fractured psychosis that made that film so strikingly memorable. Much like Taxi Driver , Joker is a cautionary tale that brings us over the threshold from put-upon everyman to villain. Joker introduces us to Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), an aspiring stand...