John Krasinski’s “A Quiet Place” is a nerve-shredder. It’s a movie designed to make you an active participant in a game of tension, not just a passive observer in an unfolding horror.
GREEN ROOM (2015)
Punk rock thriller “Green Room” focuses more on the intensity fostered by live punk music than it does the actual sound and feeling of being at a punk show. Writer/director Jeremy Saulnier (“Blue Ruin”) explains/apologizes for his general approach to the punk scene in…
THE ROAD (2009)
Note: I first saw “The Road” in September at the Toronto Film Festival, as one of eight films I saw in three days. I wrote a draft of a review at the time and sent it. That review accidentally found its…
Looking back at Terry Gilliam’s Twelve Monkeys
Terry Gilliam followed up 1991‘s The Fisher King with the even more successful sci-fi, Twelve Monkeys. Andrew takes a look back at a 90s classic… After 1991’s The Fisher King proved to be a relatively easy production and comfortably made its budget…
‘Bird Box’: Review
Susanne Bier’s dystopian drama for Netflix stars Sandra Bullock and John Malkovich The end of the world is plagued with a sense of déjà vu in Bird Box, a familiar dystopian thriller somewhat redeemed by Sandra Bullock’s emotional performance. Oscar-winning director…
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (2015)
When I wrote this review 3 years ago I had no idea how many people hate this movie and they are preferring Mad Max 3 over this film. Claming Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome the third film is better film than…
It Comes at Night Is a Slow-burning, Nerve-racking Horror Film
In Trey Edward Shults’s first feature, the remarkable 2016 home-for-Thanksgiving psychodrama Krisha, members of his own family played roles in the story of a barely recovered alcoholic woman who returns to the fold — only to succumb again and bring on chaos…
ZOMBIELAND (2009)
There’s no getting around it: Zombies are funny. I think they stopped being scary for me along toward the end of “Night of the Living Dead.” OK, maybe in a few others, like “28 Days Later.” They’re the Energizer Bunnies…
THE MATRIX (1999)
“The Matrix” is a visually dazzling cyberadventure, full of kinetic excitement, but it retreats to formula just when it’s getting interesting. It’s kind of a letdown when a movie begins by redefining the nature of reality, and ends with a…
I AM LEGEND (2007)
The opening scenes of “I Am Legend” have special effects so good that they just about compensate for some later special effects that are dicey. We see Manhattan three years after a deadly virus has killed every healthy human on…