Anthologization needs to make a comeback. In this era, franchises choose one of two paths: becoming overwhelmingly serialized, assembly line products that by design perpetually keep the wheels turning with ever-diminishing returns. Or, they get…
Warner Bros.
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The Rocky franchise has left an indelible mark on cinema history. It created the blueprint for the modern sports movie that had audiences passionately cheering for the underdog and making them want to get up and…
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ReviewsThriller
‘Don’t Worry Darling’: A Tired Retread Down Paranoid Roads Well Traveled
by Sean Coatesby Sean CoatesThey say all publicity is good publicity, and Olivia Wilde’s much-anticipated directorial follow-up to Booksmart has brought with it a cascading deluge of behind-the-scenes gossip. From conflicting reports on Shia LaBeouf’s departure from the project, Wilde’s affair…
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Most musical biopics are forgettable, generic fare. They rarely resemble nothing more than a fond tribute to the artists, but as historical films or character studies, they are extremely lacking. They usually take a simplified…
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Streaming DramaStreaming Reviews
‘King Richard’: The Fresh Prince Becomes King
by Blake Isonby Blake IsonSports dramas have been a staple of cinema for many years. Whether they be fictional or biographical, audiences love seeing stories of the trials and tribulations of sports. It could be an off-field drama in…
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As a cynical film reviewer with a chronic case of cape fatigue frustrated and concerned with the current state of Hollywood cinema, it takes a lot for me to muster up any excitement for superhero…
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Streaming ReviewsStreaming Science Fiction
‘The Matrix Resurrections’ Is a Meta Swing for the Fences
Almost twenty years since the last film, Lana Wachowski has once again, entered the Matrix with the fourth entry into the prolific science fiction series, The Matrix Resurrections. As a massive fan of these films,…
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The production background of Cry Macho spans nearly five decades. The screenplay had been kicking around in the early seventies. After numerous studio rejections, screenwriter N. Richard Nash revamped the script into novel form. The…
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“The past can haunt a man,” that’s what Hugh Jackman’s Nick Bannister utters as Reminiscence — Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy’s feature directorial debut — sets itself in motion in its opening scene, soaring above a water-drowned, near-future…
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Streaming ReviewsStreaming Superhero
‘The Suicide Squad’: A Ridiculously Entertaining Course Correction
by Sean Coatesby Sean CoatesCast your minds back five years ago to August of 2016. After two successive movies of superhero allies fighting each other over clashing ideologies with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Captain America: Civil…
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Streaming AnimationStreaming Reviews
‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’ Is a Despicable Display of Studio Marketing
by Nick Kushby Nick KushIn the never-ending LeBron James-Michael Jordan debate, it always comes back to counting championships. For many, LeBron will never surpass Jordan until he at least earns his sixth NBA title. Sitting at four currently, that…
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MusicalsReviews
‘In The Heights’ Takes the Modern Movie Musical to New, Well, Heights
by Jack Edgarby Jack EdgarOnce scheduled for a mid-2020 release, In the Heights was one of last year’s summer blockbusters to fall victim to a delayed launch due to the pandemic and the shuttered theater industry. And after a…
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HorrorReviews
The Warrens Are Back in Action in ‘The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It’
by Bethany Lolaby Bethany LolaEd and Lorraine Warren are back on our screens yet again, this time to tackle a supernatural court case based on the true story of the Trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson. In The Conjuring: The Devil Made…
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Top 10 Lists
Predicting the Top 10 Movies at the 2021 Summer Box Office
by Brennan Dubéby Brennan DubéFor almost all of 2020, and a good portion of 2021 so far, cinemas across the World were shuttered. While a few markets were able to avoid the long struggles of the pandemic and thrive…
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Action/AdventureReviews
‘Mortal Kombat’ Is Far From a Flawless Victory, But a Little Win for Video Game Adaptations
by Sean Coatesby Sean CoatesAs far as I am concerned, there are three certainties in life; death, taxes, and film adaptations of video game franchises always being bitterly disappointing or just plain bad. Over the years, so many great…
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Action/AdventureReviews
‘Godzilla vs. Kong’: An Outlandish Battle for the Ages
by Blake Isonby Blake IsonFrom director Adam Wingard, Godzilla vs. Kong is the next epic installment in the Warner Bros. MonsterVerse that has been crafted over the past seven years. Kicking it off with Godzilla in 2014 and following…
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The 15th of February marked the 30th anniversary of Nothing but Trouble, which to date, is Dan Aykroyd’s only directorial feature. Hailed as both a critical and commercial flop at the time, I do have…
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DramaReviews
‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ Redefines the Black Panther Party
by Aubrey McKayby Aubrey McKayAdmitting you don’t know something is hard. Especially in a time when so much information is readily available. Admitting your ignorance can leave you feeling on the outside of the pseudointellectual social media landscape. An…
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PodcastsThe MovieBabble Podcast
Warner Bros.’ 2021 Slate Goes Digital, ‘Mank’ Fails to Crack the Top Ten, and ‘The Godfather Coda’ Is Still Horrendous
In a shocking announcement earlier this week, Warner Bros made it clear that their 2021 slate of releases would all drop simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max. Brennan and I talk about which films…
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An artificial intelligence studies someone who is apparently the most average human on Earth to learn more about humanity as a whole. At the end of this guinea pig session, the artificial intelligence will take…
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HBO Max is here, and it is loaded to the brim with classic and contemporary content. Between Warner Bros’ century-old library, Turner Classic Movies, Studio Ghibli, and more, it is a real contender with Netflix…
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The internet (or at least the specific corners of it) finally got what it wanted: The Snyder Cut is coming to HBO Max in 2021. Zack Snyder will go back to the editing bay and…
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Much has changed since the beginning of the DCEU. Gone is Zack Snyder’s dour aesthetic for something very different, something that varies from movie to movie. As such, the DCEU now has a colorful, all-over-the-place…
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Conducting a therapy session by way of moviemaking is something I’m intensely interested in…if done correctly. It feeds into our fascination with celebrity, and the films themselves take on deeper meanings than what’s on the…
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A few years after whatever the hell Suicide Squad was released, Harley Quinn has her very own movie in Birds of Prey. Or, the actual title, Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One…
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Similar to its leading lady, Cathy Yan’s Birds of Prey (2020) was dealt a shit hand. David Ayer’s Suicide Squad (2016) is a music video masquerading as a feature film, a two-hour movie trailer full of undeliverable promises. And…
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PodcastsThe MovieBabble Podcast
‘Birds of Prey’ Struggles in Its Opening Weekend, But is It a Flop?
by Nick Kushby Nick KushBirds of Prey came in well below studio and industry expectations, battling a slew of Oscar-nominated movies as well as other popular movies in their latest weeks of release. Was it the quality of the…
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DramaReviews
An Injustice in Storytelling: ‘Just Mercy’ Drowns Its Urgent Message in Superficiality
by Nick Kushby Nick KushThe last bit of text before the credits come over the screen in Just Mercy reads “For every 9 people who have been executed in the U.S., one person on death row has been proven…
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Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is still going strong in its third weekend at the box office, though still below its predecessor’s gross. It’s followed by Jumanji: The Next Level in its fourth weekend. Little…
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HorrorReviews
‘Doctor Sleep’ is at Its Worst When Calling Back to ‘The Shining’
by Nick Kushby Nick KushI don’t envy the nearly impossible task that director Mike Flanagan had in developing Doctor Sleep. Not only would he have to successfully adapt what is, by all accounts, a fairly sprawling work by Stephen…