Author: Derrick Murray

It is not uncommon for prominent actors to explore other roles in the film industry. Plenty of actors have tried their hand at behind the camera work with varying results. On the god tier end of the spectrum you have Ben Affleck and Jordan Peele, performers who seem to excel in their craftsmanship of bringing the stories in their head to life on the big screen. Then there are others (and more recent) like Chris Pine and Ethan Hawke, who dip their toe in the directorial waters and don’t quite reach the critical acclaim and film history canon heights as…

“Kingdom” may look beautiful, but it simply cannot escape the pitfalls of soft reboot and franchise syndrome; the kind where the movie itself feels more like a trailer for the film they want to make in the future instead of a fully fleshed out film of its own.

It’s hard to imagine a more influential series in the cultural zeitgeist than “Star Wars.” We have literally dedicated May 4th as the seminal “May the Fourth Be With You” Star Wars day, something no other film franchise or film has ever been able to achieve. Regardless of how you feel about the universe’s current state or Disney’s plethora of streaming shows or even George Lucas going out of his way to make things worse (yes, I said what I said), Star Wars remains a staple of our cinematic existence. So, in honor of May the Fourth, I thought it…

“The Fall Guy” may overstay its welcome with plodding pacing and an incoherent narrative, but it is so much damn fun that those things don’t matter.

“The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” is the hottest people you’ve ever seen being the most charming they’ve ever been gleefully killing Nazis for 2 hours.

“Civil War” is a voiceless void of visceral visuals, a film constantly at odds with how well it is made juxtaposed by how disengaged it is from its own narrative

“Monkey Man” may not all come together in totality, but where it works it shines and where it falters it still shows incredible promise for what can come next.

Another week, another weekly movie round up. After such a lull in film releases, March and April seem to be starting the summer early, packing the theaters with a ton of releases, big and small. There’s probably even more films I could add here, but there just isn’t enough time in the week to get to them all even in review roundups. And I’m sorry, but after sitting through the first one, I have no interest in suffering through “Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey 2” no matter much of an improvement people said the sequel is. I’ve got trust…

I unapologetically enjoy a lot of Nickelback songs. They’re a band that exists in a very strange limbo of cultural relevance: they are a global sensation that everyone collectively despises. Their success (which is massive and more than you would ever think) is constantly juxtaposed by the vitriol the band gets for existing, and “Hate to Love: Nickelback” should be a great examination of that dichotomy. Instead, the documentary sticks to convention and strays away from the most interesting parts of their long standing career. It only briefly touches on their place in musical history, and fails to dig deeper…

There’s no getting around it: “The Beast” is a beast of a film. A cinematic journey that demands as much from the viewer as it does the vast vision of the director. Teaming with complex ideas, contrasting themes, and a plethora of genre mashups, “The Beast” is an amalgamation of inspiration pulled from some of the most auteur filmmakers to ever make films. And yet, for all its complexities its core is a rather simple story of love, longing, and Léa Seydoux (“Dune Part Two,” “Death Stranding”), who turns in a tour de force performance that carries the film from…