Over the course of the last several weeks, I’ve been going back through all the previous Saw stories. Across eight films, the series told of everyday people who found themselves caught in tortuous games of life and death that were all orchestrated by the infamous Jigsaw killer. Only a few are worth watching as the series steadily declined into being more and more unnecessarily convoluted to keep the story running past where it should have ended. It is a shame as the first, even with its flaws, remains a standout that left a mark on the horror genre as a well-constructed and inventive film.
The fourth wall gets mowed down in the new action/comedy In Action
How hard can it really be to write the script for a big budget action movie? The dialogue doesn’t have to be good and the real magic happens when shit blows up or there’s fighting. It might not be something any idiot could do, but if you got two idiots together, you just might have something.
The Paper Tigers is even more than the sum of its parts
The best local Seattle film production of 2021 has arrived.
Jason Statham kicks ass and takes names in Wrath of Man. I hope you weren’t looking for anything more.
Jason Statham’s character in Guy Ritchie’s new movie Wrath of Man gets the nickname ‘H,’ presumably because anything longer would be a waste of the man-of-few-words’s time.
In Limbo, a Syrian refugee tries to make a home in Scotland
Ben Sharrock’s delicate and sensitive sophomore effort looks for beauty under tough circumstances.
Phoebe’s Father was a hidden gem in 2015, and it’s being re-released now. You should see it immediately.
Released previously in 2015, Seattle filmmaker John Helde is bringing his film Phoebe’s Father back to the Northwest Film Forum to play in its virtual cinema and then become available on streaming formats. This is all good news because Phoebe’s Father is a hidden gem of a movie that affected me deeply.
Without Remorse expands Amazon’s Clancyverse
Having previously transformed Jim from The Office into a globe-trotting action hero, Amazon Studios has now turned their attention to a much easier lift: expanding their Clancyverse to include Michael B. Jordan as a score-settling former Navy SEAL John Clark.
Roundtable: Oscar Pre-Party!
After a year of virtual film festivals, shuttered theaters, and Covid-delays, it’s finally time for Hollywood to crown the best movies of 2020(ish) via handing out Academy Awards at the 93rd Oscars. On Sunday at 5 pm, Steven Soderbergh will produce a real live actual in-person awards ceremony in Los Angeles (and maybe a few satellite locations for those unable to cross the pond and quarantine). Below, we prognosticate on who will win the major awards and opine on who would get our votes if we were magically granted membership in the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
Shoreline Short Film Fest Goes Drive-In
The first thing that I should tell you about this weekend’s Shoreline’s drive-in film festival is that, as of this writing, there …
Mortal Kombat is the best adaptation of the game one could hope for
Film adaptations of video games remain a fraught landscape. I’ve come to approach their arrival with a high degree of skepticism given how frequently the screen adaptations can lose sight of the fun by taking themselves too seriously. It is a joy to report that my doubts largely melted away in the face of the newest Mortal Kombat’s absurdity and commitment to having a lot of fun with the story.