#REVIEW: “IT”
Review by David Baldwin for Mr. Will Wong
If you were in elementary school in the early 1990s, you remember IT. The television mini-series starring the immortal Tim Curry as Pennywise the Dancing Clown scarred many children who have vivid memories to this very day. My parents knew better, so my experience with Pennywise has been limited to YouTube clips and the first 90 pages of Stephen King’s gargantuan novel. But when the petrifying first trailer for the theatrical remake dropped earlier ...
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#REVIEW: “DEAD ON ARRIVAL”
We will begin with the fact that we've never seen the original Film on which Dead on Arrival is based, but the 2017 reimagining of 1950 Film Noir D.O.A., holds its own as a thrilling Hitchcockian standalone piece that is well aware of its modest ambition.
The Film written and directed by multi-talented Stephen Cyrus Sepher (Heist), is set in modern day Louisiana, where an unassuming pharmaceutical sales rep named Sam Collins (Billy Flynn) whom while dealing with his own troubled marriage, ...
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#REVIEW: “TULIP FEVER”
Review by Siobhán Rich for Mr. Will Wong
In 17th century Amsterdam tulip bulbs are worth their weight in gold. The rarest of these gilded flowers is the Breaker whose pure white petals are touched with a single stripe of red. The mania for these beautiful flowers is the backdrop for the period drama Tulip Fever.
Three years after marrying, Cornelis (Christoph Waltz) and Sophia Sandvoort (Alicia Vikander) are still unsuccessful at producing an heir. Unable to find immortality the traditional ...
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#REVIEW: “PATTI CAKE$”
The praise for Patti Cake$ coming out of Sundance earlier this year was deafening and it stamped itself as one we simply couldn't ignore. Although we had dreams of it doing the festival rounds at TIFF this fall, our emotions went high, low and then high again once we learned that it actually will get a summer release via distributor, Fox Searchlight, meaning we get to see it sooner.
The Drama from Writer/Director Geremy Gasper, in the same vein as 8 Mile and Hustle & Flow, centers on an ...
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#REVIEW: “LOGAN LUCKY”
Review by David Baldwin for Mr. Will Wong
Legendary Oscar-winning Director Steven Soderbergh “retired” from directing after 2013’s twisted Side Effects. After dabbling with television for a few years, he has returned to feature films with this weekend’s Logan Lucky. And while many predicted he would eventually return, I doubt anyone would thought it would be with this Film.
The Logan brothers, Jimmy (Channing Tatum) and Clyde (Adam Driver), never fulfilled the potential of their ...
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#REVIEW: “GOOD TIME”
Review by Siobhán Rich for Mr. Will Wong
A common thread in films this year has been the importance of family. After debuting to critical praise at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the Safdie Brothers’ latest outing explores this theme by looking at the lengths brothers will go to for one another. With the bulk of the Film taking place over the course of a single night, Good Time is the well-paced story of a hustler, a bank robbery, and a series of very unfortunate events.
Despite ...
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#REVIEW: “THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD”
Review by Justin Waldman for Mr. Will Wong
This summer has been lacking something that most moviegoers crave in the summer months, and that is a popcorn blockbuster. Now it’s a stretch to call the R-rated Action Comedy, The Hitman’s Bodyguard a ‘blockbuster’ but it certainly is a Popcorn Flick and an incredibly entertaining one at that. With the leads of Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L Jackson along with Salma Hayek the Movie provides the action, the laughs, and even a little bit of ...
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#REVIEW: “WIND RIVER”
Review by Siobhán Rich for Mr. Will Wong
Inspired by actual events, Writer/Director Taylor Sheridan brings us Wind River, the story of Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner) and Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) trying to solve the murder of a girl on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. From vast open spaces to claustrophobic trailers Wind River’s tone is perhaps best captured in the Movie’s opening minutes when a girl is seen running barefoot through snow covered fields fleeing a menace the ...
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#REVIEW: “ANNABELLE: CREATION”
Review by David Baldwin for Mr. Will Wong
Annabelle: Creation is a rather unique Film in theory. It works as a Prequel to 2014’s Annabelle, which was a Prequel to The Conjuring as well as a spin-off in its own right, and is now being marketed heavily as the next chapter in a so-called Conjuring universe of Films. Still with me? Complicated connections aside, Creation is a Prequel/Sequel very few of us were clamouring for – but to my surprise, may be one of the best horror films we have ...
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#REVIEW: “THE NUT JOB 2: NUTTY BY NATURE”
Review by Amanda Gilmore for Mr. Will Wong
The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature is a sequel that’s better than its predecessor.
Since The Nut Job, Surly (Will Arnett) and his animal friends have been living extravagant lifestyle - eating colossal amounts of a wide variety of nuts - in the basement of an abandoned nut shop. When the shop accidentally explodes the gang are forced to return to their previous home, the Oakton City park. When they learn that the Mayor of Oakton is destroying the ...
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