The Bad Guys (2022) - Movie Review

Time for another unorthodox heist film, so soon after the anti-heist of The Duke, and I was quite torn initially going into this. On one hand, it’s the latest DreamWorks animated release, and if nothing else, they also manage to provide interesting material to dig into, even if it doesn’t always hold up alongside its competition. But on the other hand, we have writer Etan Cohen, whose rather inconsistent track record reached a serious nadir a few years back with his work on the unbearably smug Holmes & Watson. As much as I love heist films, this really could go either way and… well, it kinda goes for both of them?

In The Heights (2021) - Movie Review

It’s kind of astounding just how much progress director Jon M. Chu has made in just a few short years. Not that long ago, he was making shit like Jem And The Holograms and adding to the increasingly diminished returns of the Step Up sequels. But then Crazy Rich Asians happened and… something must’ve just clicked in his head. I bring this up because his latest has a fair bit in common with CRA, namely in how it’s drenched in a very specific cultural aesthetic and identity; I’m guessing he’s sticking with what he now knows he can work with. But where it gets really crazy is that he has somehow managed to get past even CRA’s genuine visual splendour, and made an even greater film in the process.

Honest Thief (2020) - Movie Review

A Neesonsploitation flick making it to cinemas, at a time when cinema turnout is lower than it’s been in years, might be the least surprising thing to happen in 2020. But quite frankly… well, I’ve been spending all day on festival detail for FilmInk, and I’m in the mood for something simple. Something to get me out of the house (with a mask and adhering to social distancing; I’m a workaholic, not an idiot) and away from my computer for a couple hours. Now, I'm going to try and be fair with this, and judge it on the same metric as all the other Neeson flicks I've reviewed, but as I'll get into, even that isn't going to do this film any favours.