With its first scene set at a little league baseball game in a small town on the outskirts of 1978 Colorado (knowing that some frightful elements will emerge throughout the film), The Black Phone may feel eerily similar to one of your favorite Stephen King novels. And if it does, it should, as the movie is based upon a novel by King’s son, Joe Hill. In addition, director Scott Derrickson (Doctor Strange, The Exorcism of Emily Rose) reunites Ethan Hawke for the first time since 2012’s well-received horror Sinister.
It feels rare when the same person likes an original movie and its remake. Often, it seems like if a person likes the original, they are resistant, even disgruntled, to giving the remake a chance. I am the first to say that I fall into this group. Two of the biggest ones are the remakes of Point Break (2015 – 11% critics, 29% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and Flatliners (2017 – 4%, 32%), two of my all-time favorite movies. Likewise, there are times when we watch the remake without ever having seen the original. We like the remake so much that we don’t want to see the original because we either don’t feel the need or think it can be compared.
A Rotten Tomatoes 39% critics score and a 95% audience score. That seems about right for the optimistic yet somber, audience-pleasing A Journal for Jordan, Denzel Washington’s (Antwone Fisher, Fences) fourth directed movie and first collaboration with fan-favorite Michael B. Jordan (Creed, Black Panther). This movie felt flat and disjointed, yet I could easily understand the enjoyment some might feel if they were interested in watching an evolving love story. Unfortunately, this film would have been better suited as a made-for-television movie than a movie with aspirations of anything more.
I love a good survival film. Before starting a recent movie, the trailer for Małgorzata Szumowska’s (Never Gonna Snow Again) Infinite Storm instantly caught my attention. After watching the first half of the adrenaline-inducing preview, I closed my eyes and plugged my ears for the rest. I had seen enough to know that this was a movie that I wanted to see, and I didn’t want anything more to spoil that future experience. Infinite Storm surprised me. While it didn’t have nearly the extended intensity that the preview suggested, it also didn’t follow a predictable formula that would have left this movie lost in the shuffle compared to other survival movies. While a decent film with heartfelt ambition, Infinite Storm failed to wow and was doomed by a lousy script.
La La Land 2021? With 2021? With half a dozen ways different ways to start this review swirling through my head, I decided to best refer to La La Land, my favorite movie musical of all time. Because there is a new runner-up. While Joe Wright’s (Anna Karenina, Atonement) Cyrano doesn’t entirely leave that pit in your heart when it concludes, it comes pretty darn close. Both breathtakingly beautiful and painstakingly heartwrenching, Peter Dinklage (Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri, I Care A Lot) is astounding as Cyrano de Bergerac, a role he was destined to play.
With its first scene set at a little league baseball game in a small town on the outskirts of 1978 Colorado (knowing that some frightful elements will emerge throughout the film), The Black Phone may feel eerily similar to one of your favorite Stephen King novels. And if it does, it should, as the movie is based upon a novel by King’s son, Joe Hill. In addition, director Scott Derrickson (Doctor Strange, The Exorcism of Emily Rose) reunites Ethan Hawke for the first time since 2012’s well-received horror Sinister.
It feels rare when the same person likes an original movie and its remake. Often, it seems like if a person likes the original, they are resistant, even disgruntled, to giving the remake a chance. I am the first to say that I fall into this group. Two of the biggest ones are the remakes of Point Break (2015 – 
I love a good survival film. Before starting a recent movie, the trailer for Małgorzata Szumowska’s (Never Gonna Snow Again) Infinite Storm instantly caught my attention. After watching the first half of the adrenaline-inducing preview, I closed my eyes and plugged my ears for the rest. I had seen enough to know that this was a movie that I wanted to see, and I didn’t want anything more to spoil that future experience. Infinite Storm surprised me. While it didn’t have nearly the extended intensity that the preview suggested, it also didn’t follow a predictable formula that would have left this movie lost in the shuffle compared to other survival movies. While a decent film with heartfelt ambition, Infinite Storm failed to wow and was doomed by a lousy script.
