I can still remember seeing Pan’s Labyrinth for the first time. Sitting in the darkened theater, Guillermo del Toro’s visual masterpiece was stunning, and I temporarily forgot I was watching a film in Spanish. The lyrical nature of the story splashed all around me, with the special effects, scenery, actions, soundtrack, and expressive nature of…
Tell Me a Story Seeing the name Kevin Williamson attached to Tell Me a Story might bring to mind images of North Carolina’s Dawson’s Creek, but Williamson has also helped create the horrific and the supernatural in Scream, Dawson’s Creek, The Faculty, and The Vampire Diaries. On CBS All-Access’ real-world fairy tale drama, the bite…
In a throwback to the 1980s, when humor and horror were colliding, Warner Bros. presents Gremlins (1984) in 4K Ultra HD as Steven Spielberg presented Joe Dante’s film about mogwai. A mashup of comedic overtures and threatening horrific undertones, the film follows Zach Galligan’s Billy, a young bank employee who receives a mogwai (little furry…
Sure, your shows are coming back, but here are a few DVD seasons that might fill in the gaps while you wait. The Good Fight: The Third Season Robert and Michelle King’s other “Good” series may have wrapped before they turned to “Evil,” but their run in the courtrooms with Lockhart & Co. will continue,…
In the latest iteration of Shaft, three generations of the crimefighter appear onscreen, bantering and bullying their way through every shade of danger, while struggling to emotionally adapt to their interactions with love. Directed by Tim Story, with a script by Blackish’s Kenya Barris, Richard Roundtree, Samuel L. Jackson, and Jessie T. Usher represent the…
What Death Leaves Behind showed up in my inbox, a strange indie horror/thriller that I’d never heard of before. Now, it’s not infrequent for an indie to arrive in my box, but it is strange when a movie shows up – and it’s thought-provoking. In this case, the story of a man who has an…
At Trial Analysis Corporation (TAC), Dr. Jason Bull (Anthony DiNozzo, I mean, Michael Weatherly) leads a crack team of trial experts through the psychology and evaluation of potential jurors. He’s surrounded by people who are good at what they do but who have varying degrees of personal connection to him, like his ex-brother-in-law Benny Colon…
In the sixteenth season of CBS’/Paramount’s long-running criminal investigation series NCIS, the likes of Mark Harmon, Sean Murray, and Rocky Carroll continue to lead the way as Gibbs, McGee, and NCIS Director Leon Vance. Of course, more recently, they’ve been joined by Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderamma), Ellie Bishop (Emily Wickersham), Dr. Jack Sloane (Maria Bello),…
Is Ma a revenge flick like Taken or Cold Pursuit, or is it a slasher film like Saw? Is it about vengeance or lust, and does it matter whether this obsession has a category or not? In director Tate Taylor’s weird thriller-horror-slasher flick, Octavia Spencer plays Sue Ann “Ma” Ellington, a woman who gets twisted…
In the sequel to 2014’s Godzilla, writer/director Michael Dougherty pits the giant reptile against the three-headed, winged monster Ghidorah who wants to recreate the world in his image. With a cast including Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown, Bradley Whitford, Charles Dance, Ken Watanabe, and Aisha Hinds, the film is loaded with…
