Imagine the nerds from “The Big Bang Theory” stumbling into the plot of “Taken,” or pretty much any Liam Neeson out-for-revenge thriller. Now imagine them Danish. That’s “Riders of Justice,” the dark, bloody, sweet and sometimes hilarious comic thriller from Anders Thomas Jensen. He scripted the Oscar-winning “In a Better World,” which had similar messaging […]
Movie Review: Danish, Dark, Bloody and…Sweet? “Riders of Justice”
During the war, a titled family object to their squadron leader son’s engagement to the daughter of a factory worker. This is a film I watched due to the desire to expand my repertoire of films. Amazon Prime certainly is the place to find the sorts of films people forget. It’s also quite an obscure […]
I always like to have a variety in this blind spot series, so for April I decided to watch the 1967 romantic comedy Two for the Road. As a huge Audrey Hepburn fan this is one I had heard about but never seen and was excited to check off my list. It’s interesting because this […]
Blind Spot 64: Two for the Road
The phrase “sullen teen” doesn’t know borders and has symptoms one can recognize anywhere on Earth. The frown is there just to break up the monotony of the omnipresent scowl. “Please” and “thank you” are the hardest words in any language to master. Smoking? Sure. But only if it infuriates adults. And even those who […]
Movie Review: A Polish teen in Ireland, “I Never Cry”
Hi folks and welcome to the The Friday Film Club where both myself and Elwood will be highlighting a film which we feel is worth checking out. At the same time we would love to hear your own selections whether you’re choosing to just name them in the comments section or join us in arguing […]
Friday Film Club: Jojo Rabbit (2019) & Better Days (2019)
Flash Review The Great Outdoors (1988) Released: June 17th, 1988 Genre: Comedy Director: Howard Deutch Writer: John Hughes Cast: John Candy, Dan Aykroyd Opening Thoughts: The Great Outdoors is one of those films I’ve always liked, but each time I watch it I realize how it is even more fantastic than I remembered. I’ve been […]
Candy Comedy: The Great Outdoors (1988)
Sure, I’m as done with vampire movies as anybody. But a Bram Stoker riff in thick Irish brogues? Let’s have it, then. “Boys from County Hell” is about an outbreak of the undead in the homeland of “Dracula” author Stoker. It’s slangy and profane, bloody and bloody funny, as well. “Most people don’t even know […]
Movie Review: Irish Bloodsuckers face the “Boys from County Hell”
I think it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that Soul is going to win the Oscar for Best Animated Film. I’m not complaining because I really, really liked Soul. (I also really liked Farmageddon but, sadly, there can only be one winner.) That said, if Soul needed a boost, it certainly got one from the […]
Hi folks and welcome to the The Friday Film Club where both myself and Elwood will be highlighting a film which we feel is worth checking out. At the same time we would love to hear your own selections whether you’re choosing to just name them in the comments section or join us in arguing […]
Friday Film Club: Baby Driver (2017) & Tramps (2016)
Mads Mikkelsen? Sold! That’s all I needed to be interested in the upcoming film “Riders of Justice”. This Danish action-black comedy mix comes from writer-director Anders Thomas Jensen who previously worked with Mikkelsen on the underrated Western “The Salvation” and the astutely titled “Men & Chicken”. With “Riders” Jensen looks to be pulling from both […]
First Glance: “Riders of Justice”
“YouthMin” is a cute mockumentary in “The Office” mold — “The Office” at Church Camp. It’s got the same “cringeworthy” comedy dynamic as the dysfunctional Scranton paper supply sitcom, a similarly clueless “leader,” but with teen hormones in comic conflict with “wholesomeness” as a new wrinkle. It could use a few more laughs and another […]
Movie Review: Molding Young Minds the Michael Scott way — “YouthMin”
The Farrelly brothers arguably peaked with There’s Something About Mary, a caustic slice of anti-80s nostalgia that marked the precise moment when grossout comedy started to give way to cringe comedy. We start with a parody of the 80s fetish for the 50s – a bucolic neighbourhood, where Ted Stroehman, played by Ben Stiller, is […]
Farrelly: There’s Something About Mary (1998)
Melissa McCarthy’s collaborations with writer-director and husband Ben Falcone have been pretty brutal. Falcone has directed McCarthy in four previous movies. Of those, 2018’s abysmal “Life of the Party” has the highest Rotten Tomatoes score at 38%. Yes I know, review aggregators aren’t infallible and they don’t always represent the quality of a movie. I […]
REVIEW: “Thunder Force” (2021)
Director Evgeny Ruman Staring Mariya Belkina, Vladimir Friedman, Evelin Hagoel Rated M Score 4/6 Victor and Raya Frenkel were the golden voices of the Soviet film dubbing for decades. All the western movies that reached Soviet screens were dubbed by them. In 1990, with the collapse of Soviet Union, the Frenkels decided to do Aliyah […]
In retrospect, the genuinely great moments of Sex and the City were very few and far between. At its core, the series provided an electrifying vision of female friendship and, on the rare occasions when it genuinely embraced that project, it stood in a league of its own. We saw it in the last minute […]
If Hollywood is going to give screenwriting Oscar nominations to “Borat” movies, brace yourself for pranks, pranks and more pranks pictures. “Bad Trip” is more at the “Bad Grandpa” with Johnny Knoxville end of the practical joke pictures spectrum. A little edge, a few confrontations with angry rural America, waaaay too many bodily function/bodily fluid […]
Netflixable? A “Bad Trip” that goes a prank or two too far
I stumbled into “detectorists” when it hit Netflix some years back. But the streaming service had just the first two seasons of it, and while I binged it and absolutely adored it, I never got around to writing about it. Coming back to the series, after a third season of it brought things to a […]
Series Review: Return to “detectorists”
Steven Soderbergh’s latest film may not have been shot on an iPhone, but it cut down production fuss in other ways. Over three-quarters of the screenplay was shot on the Queen Mary 2, in a crossing from New York to London, and the cast almost entirely improvised their lines, taking their cues from a rough […]
Soderbergh: Let Them All Talk (2020)
In the States it seems like “Stan & Ollie” came and went with barely a peep. Yes John C. Reilly earned a Golden Globe nomination and the film received a warm reception from critics, but otherwise it’s a film that got no real attention. I don’t remember it hitting any theater around me and the […]
So what if I told you Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer were set to play a crime-fighting superhero duo? Well get ready because that’s exactly what we’re getting in the upcoming action comedy “Thunder Force”. Streaming giant Netflix has dropped the first trailer and I have to say it looks a lot like what you […]
