Sinners review
Have you ever been watching a classic vampire movie like “Fright Night” or “The Lost Boys” and thought, “This is good, but this could be great with two of the guy who played Apollo Creed’s kid in those ‘Creed’ movies as well as some blues music and a dash of racial commentary!”? Well, put up your black square on Instagram and clutch your George Floyd bobblehead in celebration because a celebration is a comin’! Your reason for celebrating is the movie “Sinners” from director Ryan Coogler. He directed the Black Panther movies and the first two Creed movies and sinks his teeth into the vampire genre with his latest movie. No “Wakanda Forever” in this. More like “Live Forever” in this southern-fried take on vampire movies. Coogler’s favorite leading man, Michael B. Jordan plays both Smoke and Stacks (Get it. Smokestack!), identical twins who’ve made a name and some money in the criminal game. Now they’re coming home back down south from Chicago to open up their own juke joint for dancing, drinking and gambling. Their own little taste of Vegas in the Deep South. Along the way they pick up their younger cousin, Preacher Boy Sammie, who is very talented with a guitar and a blues voice from the heavens. He’s played by the impressive Miles Caton. Before long, some vampires show up to try to make the good times last forever but in a blood-sucking evil way and the movie goes from bluesy crime drama to stakes in the heart and burning vampires. Is it worth your time at the theater? Check out this episode to find out! “Sinners” also stars Delroy Lindo, Jack O’Connell, Hailee Steinfeld, Yao, Saul Williams and Omar Miller.
Warfare review
“War is hell” is a common phrase, but as we live our peacetime lives, it can be hard to visualize what that phrase really means. The movie “Warfare” provides a way to see and comprehend that phrase. The movie is directed by “Civil War” and “Ex Machina” director Alex Garland and Iraq War veteran Ray Mendoza. Mendoza was one of the soldiers in the middle of the real-life battle that this movie shows. Garland and Mendoza don’t hold back on showing the shocking, brutal and bloody side of war. If you know someone with PTSD and you want to understand, at least a little bit better what would cause something like that, this movie is for you. In this movie, Navy SEALs are sent out into Ramadi, Iraq where they gather in a multi-story home to surveil insurgents. The team settles in and goes through the tedium of just sitting and observing. Their sniper starts noticing a build-up of men getting closer to their position and soon that quiet tedium is over as the explosions start and the bullets start flying. The team does all they can to fight off the insurgents and call in to get evacuated out but what happens next just ratchets things up to a whole other level. Is it worth finding out what that is in theaters? Check out this episode to find out! “Warfare” stars Will Poulter, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Cosmo Jarvis, Joseph Quinn, Aaron Mackenzie, Alex Brockdorff, Finn Bennett, Evan Holtzman, Michael Gandolfini, Joe Macaulay, Laurie Duncan, Noah Centineo, Taylor John Smith and Charles Melton.
The Salton Sea review
Val Kilmer was one of the most eclectic and enthralling actors of his generation and one of the movies that heavily showcased this is this week’s movie, “The Salton Sea.” Kilmer showed he could be wacky, like in “Top Secret!” and “Real Genius” or deadly serious like in “Spartan” and “The Doors.” In “The Salton Sea” he sort of combines those two and it makes for an entertaining and captivating performance. If you want a movie that leads you down one path, en route to setting an expectation, just to subvert it, and does it multiple times, “The Salton Sea” just might be for you. Kilmer plays Danny Parker, a trumpet player, who has a faithful marriage to a beautiful wife until that all comes to an end. Afterwards, his life becomes a drug-filled downward spiral as he joins the perpetual night party of the tweaker to cope, or is that why he’s really doing it? We don’t know. He’s also a confidential informant for a couple of L.A. detectives who want him to set up a maniacally, murderous drug dealer named Pooh Bear. This is a drug dealer known for killing people suddenly just because he doesn’t like the tone of their voice. Also, Danny is told that he’s been marked for death for something he didn’t do, so things went from beautiful and romantic to pitiful and manic really quick. Is Danny Parker for real, or is he someone else? Will he survive the vortex of violence he finds himself in? Is it worth finding out in this lesser known Val Kilmer movie? Check out my spoiler-free review on this episode to find out! “The Salton Sea” also stars Vincent D’Onofrio, Adam Goldberg, Luiz Guzman, Doug Hutchison, Anthony LaPaglia, Glenn Plummer, Peter Sarsgaard, Deborah Kara Unger, Chandra West, BD Wong, R. Lee Ermey, Shalom Harlow, Sherry Knight, Meat Loaf, Azura Skye, Josh Todd and Danny Trejo.
A Working Man review
There are a few thing certainties you can count on in movies. If it’s an Adam Sandler movie, there’ll be at least one fart joke. If it’s a Jason Statham movie, there’ll be at least one dude getting a limb broken and plenty of punching. This week’s movie “A Working Man” that bill. Statham plays Levon Cade, who used to be an elite military operator, but now tries to make an honest living as a working man in construction. He works for land developer Joe Garcia, played by Michael Pena, who knows what he used to do. When Joe’s daughter is kidnapped, he pleads to Levon to find and return her. Levon has a young daughter himself, so he can feel this father’s pain and agrees. That decision lights the fuse on a bloody mission to find the girl. The human traffickers responsible for taking her, have no idea who is on their trail. Levon makes them very aware of who’s hunting them, one by one. Levon has to intimidate, go undercover and just plain go on all-out frontal assaults as part of his quest. Is it worth going to the theater to find out how it all ends? Watch this episode to find out. “A Working Man” also stars Jason Flemyng, Merab Ninidze, Maximilian Osinski, Cokey Falkow, David Harbour, Noemi Gonzalez, Arianna Rivas, Isla Gie, Emmett J Scanlan and Eve Mauro.
Novocaine review
I’ll admit it. All us guys, at one point or another, have fantasized about being some one-man action hero that kicks a bunch of bad guy butt to rescue a beautiful woman. It’s a great fantasy until reality kicks in and you start thinking “I don’t wanna do that! I could experience pain!!!” The main character in this week’s movie, “Novocaine”, doesn’t have to worry about the pain part AND he reluctantly has to be a one-man action hero. “Novocaine” stars Jack Quaid as Nate Caine, a young bank assistant manager who has a condition that prevents him from feeling any pain. He lives a solitary, boring, uneventful life as a soft-spoken, gentle guy until one day a beautiful co-worker named Sherry, played by Amber Midthunder, asks him to lunch. This takes the movie into cutesy-pie rom-com territory where Nate and Sherry just click as a couple and all of a sudden Nate is walking on sunshine. That is until the bank robbery. Nate’s bank is hit by some no-good bad guy bank robbers and wouldn’t you know it, they take Sherry as a hostage to get away from the cops. Well Nate isn’t going to let some baddies just take his new lady love away from him without him doing something about it. Gone is the fantasy and enter reality. Nate is on a mission to rescue HIS beautiful woman and he’s got the advantage of feeling no pain. This of course makes for so many great scene possibilities and writer Lars Jacobson digs in and takes full advantage. Does Nate succeed and save his damsel in distress? Of course he does! However, is it worth going to the theater to see it? Check out this episode to find out! “Novocaine” also stars Ray Nicholson, Jacob Batalon, Betty Gabriel, Matt Walsh, Conrad Kemp, Evan Hengst, Craig Jackson, Lou Beatty Jr., Garth Collins and Tristan de Beer.