Category: Movies at Home

‘Thunder Force’ doesn’t push the cinematic needle

Jeff Mitchell

“Thunder Force” – Marvel Studios made 20 feature films that eventually led to directors Anthony and Joe Russo’s beyond-massive two-movie epic, “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018) and “Avengers: Endgame” (2019) with a combined 5 ½ hours of screen time.  The cosmic storyline needed every single one of those 330 minutes because Thanos (Josh Brolin) – the chief antagonist – wiped out half of the universe’s population, and The Avengers attempted to bring trillions of living creatures back from oblivion. Talk about big stakes! Well, “Thunder Force” is a superhero comedy set…

Movie of the Week: ‘The Florida Project’

Jeff Mitchell

With the Oscars arriving this month (April 25), we’re looking back at films and performances that the Academy missed.  Director Sean Baker’s “The Florida Project” was our #1 film of 2017, but it sadly wasn’t nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.  Thankfully, the Academy nominated Willem Dafoe for Best Supporting Actor, however, he lost the gold statue to Sam Rockwell in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”.   We love Rockwell in that film but feel that Dafoe’s restrained performance – as a manager of a budget apartment complex called The Magic…

‘Godzilla vs. Kong’: Ignore the brutal plot mechanics. Stay for the brutality.

Jeff Mitchell

“Godzilla vs. Kong” – The world has battled COVID-19 for over a year now, but in March 2021, Legendary Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, and Toho offer another fight, a monumental one to distract us from our torturous pandemic-troubles.  On celluloid-paper, “Godzilla vs. Kong” is the most significant cinematic clash since “Alien vs. Predator” (2004), Rocky Balboa vs. Ivan Drago in “Rocky IV” (1985), “Kramer vs. Kramer” (1979), and hey, “King Kong vs. Godzilla” (1963). Well, director Adam Wingard – who helmed the effectively creepy murder-spree horror film “You’re Next” (2011)…