Ghosted (2023) - Movie Review

Films like this feel like practical jokes. Like, hey, there’s people out there who pay real close attention to the names attached to movies, so let’s bring a bunch of them together. We’ll get the guy who directed Rocketman, the writers of the Deadpool and MCU Spider-Man movies, and we’ll get Mindy Marin to work her usual magic and cast all kinds of hot acting talent for it, led by Chris Evans and Ana De Armas. Apparently, the strategy worked, as this set a new record for debut audience numbers on Apple TV+. Of course, first appearances aren’t everything, and it takes little more than a light breeze to scratch the paint off of this bafflingly awful product.

Zombieland: Double Tap (2019) - Movie Review

2009’s Zombieland was a pretty big turning point for both the people involved in its production and for its genre. As far as zombie cinema is concerned, its highly self-referential and tongue-in-cheek approach to the running dead makes for one of the bigger splashes the genre has seen this side of the new millennium. And for its production crew, it was the first big break that led to much bigger things: Jesse Eisenberg was on the cusp of his defining role in The Social Network, Emma Stone was on her way to becoming one of the best romantic leads of the modern era, writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick’s first collaboration here would lead to great success with Life and the Deadpool movies, and director Ruben Fleischer… well, I won’t hold Venom against him, but he got a big boost from it too.

Life (2017) - Movie Review

Just as time loop narratives are currently reaching the point of potential oversaturation, it seems that the same can be said for films involving isolation in space. The Martian, Approaching The Unknown, Star Trek Beyond to a certain extent, even Passengers from earlier this year; we’re certainly not want for stories about how the vastness of space can make the average human feel infinitesimally small. However, as I’ve been making a habit of saying over the last few reviews, preconceptions like “Ugh, another space movie? This is gonna suck.” are made to be broken. Of course, bear in mind that another preconception I had with this film is “With these people attached to it, please don’t suck” so you can see the weird place I’m in before I even watch the bloody thing. So, is this going to fall into the cracks of the sub-genre or is it going to make itself stand out (hopefully, for the right reasons)?

Deadpool (2016) - Movie Review

More so than any other comic book film that has been released during my lifetime, like The Avengers or X-Men or even The Dark Knight Rises, this is the one that I have been waiting for. Then again, given the character’s lauded reputation and fan base, I’m sure that that is true for most fanboys in the world. Deadpool is not only one of my favourite comic book characters, but might be one of my favourite fictional characters ever: His unique fourth-wall breaking personality probably gives the most freedom of any graphic novel character, almost like a living TARDIS in terms of story possibility. Just to be clear, this guy once mugged Queen Elizabeth for her clothing and teamed up with a group of robotic animals to take down an orca in a robot suit. Under regular circumstances, I’d say that this is that rare property that is impossible to screw up, but then again we all know far too well that someone managed to do just that. But, even with all the admittedly brilliant marketing behind it and the recognition it has already garnered from fans and newcomers alike, does this still hold up given how long we’ve been wanting this film to surface?