Color Out of Space Lays Down Freaky Sci-Fi Horror On a Freaked Out Family

Families always change over time. It's only natural. The sun rises and sets, leaves turn brown and families evolve, it's all a part of life. But rarely has a family changed so significantly in such a short period of time as the Gardner family. Once upon a time, Nathan (Nicolas Cage), Theresa (Joely Richardson), Lavinia (Madeleine Arthur), Brenny (Brendan Meyer), and Jack (Julian Hillard) were just a happy family living on an isolated farm with their alpaca's. But ever since a meteorite plopped into their front yard, strange things have been happening. Strange lights keep flashing on and off. Nathan's been acting so irrational. Strange plants keep popping up. Could it all just be a bunch of peculiar coincidences? Or is something much more sinister happening here?

Bringing Out the Dead Is Another Spiritually-Conscious Winner From Martin Scorsese

Death haunts Frank Pierce (Nicolas Cage). That's to be expected given that he works as an ambulance driver in New York City. But for Pierce, it goes deeper than that. During his graveyard shifts, he's constantly plagued by hallucinations of a young woman he couldn't save. Every sidewalk he glances at or stores he wanders into, there she is, reminding him of how he failed her. His entire job is dedicated to helping people & saving lives yet here's a reminder that he failed at that job. Over the course of Bringing Out the Dead, Pierce grapples with the state of his life while interacting with a host of characters who have their own relationship with the fine line between life & death.

Con Air Is Anything-Goes Ridiculousness, Which Is A Good Thing

Con Air begins and ends as a music video for How Do I Live by Trisha Yearwood. In between, a lot of recognizable actors dodge explosions. This is the aptest summary for the directorial debut of Simon West, which might be the epitome of the 1990's American action movie filmmaking if Face/Off didn't exist. That doesn't mean Con Air is the absolute best American action movie made in this era, but it does embody a number of the traits found in abundance in this era. A plot clearly aping Die Hard. Lots of R-rated action. Dialogue that runs the gamut from cornball to unbelievably hokey. Recognizable landmarks going boom. Oh, and it's also pretty fun to watch.

Love, Antosha Is A Poignant Reminder of the Finite Nature of Life

We all get a finite amount of time on this Earth. It's not something we like to think about (I'm very much including myself in that "we"), but it's the truth. Realizing that, one begins to wonder how we'll use whatever amount of days on this Earth. Will we hold grudges? Will we look out for ourselves? What careers will we dedicate ourselves to? The mind reels at all the questions pouring out from contemplating our own mortality, perhaps that's why we prefer to push the idea that we have a limited amount of life to live to the back of our minds. But there's no getting around such an idea while watching the documentary Love, Antosha, which chronicles the life of the late great actor Anton Yelchin.

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse Is Pure Cinematic Joy

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse feels like a movie just made for me. The heavy usage of hand-drawn animation, its specific style of humor that's both extremely self-referential yet avoids becoming arrogantly snarky, the various actors in its voice cast and its heartfelt attitude towards its characters, it's all just like catnip for me. No wonder then that I fell head over heels for Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, a movie that allows the animation studio behind (shudder) The Emoji Movie the chance to step up their game to the next level and deliver something special both in terms of actual story and in terms of animation.

Mandy Is The Best Kind of Cinematic Madness

SPOILERS FOR MANDY FOLLOW

I feel like Scrat from Ice Age would love Mandy because this movie is absolutely nuts. The newest directorial effort from filmmaker Panos Cosmatos, Mandy can be best summed up as being the demented spawn of Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall Past Lives and John Wick. Though it may echo two other recent features, and its editing and atmosphere certainly evoke past auteurs of dream-like motion pictures like David Lynch, make no mistake about it, Mandy is very much a one-of-a-kind creation that constantly had me either questioning what the hell I was even watching or cheering on the mayhem transpiring on-screen. It's two hours of the most excellent kind of madness, the kind that was tailor-made for Nicolas Cage's gifts as an actor.

There's Just Enough Gusto Goofiness In Mom And Dad To Make It Reasonably Diverting

Mom And Dad is kind of like an episode of The Twilight Zone. A really demented disgusting episode of The Twilight Zone, but an episode of The Twilight Zone nonetheless. One can practically hear Rod Sterling provide the introduction to said episode as he lays out how something has gone awry in the world and is leading parents to kill their own children ("They say it takes a village to raise a child, but today, these parents will learn it takes only one person to end a child."). Of course such an unhinged vision would emerge from writer/director Brian Taylor, the man who helped bring to life the two well-liked Crank movies and who also helped bring to life the widely-despised Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.

Raising Arizona Was An Early Hilarious Coen Brothers Effort

Sometimes, diving into the early parts of a well-known filmmakers catalog reveals movies far different from later efforts. Perhaps themes explored in a director's early work contrast with ideas presented in said director's newer pieces of cinema. For the Coen Brothers, Raising Arizona (their second feature film effort ever) certainly fits snuggly into their body of work. Oh sure, the duo would certainly go on to investigate heftier themes and concepts in far darker modern-day classics like No Country For Old Men and A Serious Man.

"A Good Actor Is A Terrible Thing To Waste": 6 Perfectly Cast Actors Wasted In Subpar Superhero Movies

Ryan Reynolds may not have been all that memorable in the 2009 movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but this past weekend's box office juggernaut Deadpool proves that was no fault of his. Nope, sometimes really talented actors get stuck in garbage movies, and today, I'll be examining six actors perfectly cast for notable comic book characters in movies that ended up being....well, let's just say less than perfect.

First up, an actor from another failed Ryan Reynolds superhero movie...

The Wicker Man Review (Classic Write-Up)

Allow me to say it once again; Nicolas Cage is a great actor. Films like Adaptation demonstrate the sort of acting accomplishments the man can achieve, making his transition into the laughingstock of the internet in recent years sort of befuddling. Yes, he's been popping up in a number of low-quality films since 2010, but really, it feels weird to boil down the entirety of Nicolas Cages career down to just some memes of him yelling "HOW'D IT GET BURNED???" That line of dialogue comes courtesy of The Wicker Man, a film released over Labor Day weekend nine years ago and one which provides....well, let's call it an interesting experience for now, shall we?

Adaptation Review (Classic Write-Up)

Adaptation Is The Sincerest Form of Flattery

A meta approach to a film or TV show or any piece of media is not uncommon, but it is unique for it to be embraced as heartily as it is by Adaptation, a 2002 Spike Jonze directed feature that goes absolutely all in when it comes to utilizing this style of storytelling. How exactly does the movie engage in a meta narrative you ask? Why, by focusing on an exaggerated version of the films screenwriter, Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage). 

The Rock Review (Classic Write-Up)

Rock N' Roll All Night

Watching The Rock is like stepping into some kind of super warped time machine, one that takes it's viewer into the wonderful world of 1996. Here is an age where Michael Bay was a promising director coming off the previous years hit Bad Boys, and was making easily his most audacious project yet; The Rock, an action feature that has Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery teaming up to take down Ed Harris, who has taken the entire facility of Alcatraz (it's also referred to as, cue dramatic music, THE ROCK) hostage. Oh, and did I mention the villain has numerous deadly bombs with him?

Ben Affleck And An Evil Doll Compete For Your Money (Box Office Predictions)

A busy, busy, busy weekend at the box office this weekend, with three new wide releases and a limited release shaking things up. Shall we start with the newest film from David Fincher? I think yes!

The List!!!: Five Actors I Want In The Next Expendables Movie

In The List!!!, I do a list that just reeks of being click-bait, analyzing a particular topic or subject that pertains to something major occurring in pop-culture. This week, in honor of those elderly action stars kicking butt and not chewing bubble gum in The Expendables 3, I look at five actors that need to be in the next installment. 

In Trailer For Left Behind, Nicolas Cage Takes On The Apocalypse, Not THE BEEEEEEESSSS!!!!

As I said in my review of The Frozen Ground, I like Nicolas Cage a whole lot, but I'm not gonna sit here and tell you many of his recent films weren't God-awful. It looks like that trend will, unfortunately, continue with this dreadful looking new movie Left Behind, which from the studio that brought you God's Not Dead, an easy contender for one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Check out the new trailer for Left Behind below.

So, I Was On Netflix: The Frozen Ground

There's few other actors that I pity more than Nicolas Cage. I really wish he could make a comeback from the rut he's been stuck in since 2010, when The Sorcerers Apprentice signaled the start of a dark period for the actor that's been chock full of box office and critical flops. Which is a shame, because the dudes actually a really talented actor. His devotion to any role is to be admired, as even in abysmal movies like Ghost Rider 2, Nicolas Cage just commits. Sometimes that delivers good acting, sometimes acting that's lacking, but most of his work displays some noticeable level of craftsmanship that is to be admired.