The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It might break the formula a bit but I found myself a little disconnected and the primary saving grace is once again with Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, both still great together and gives the film the necessary heart.
Annabelle Comes Home is the finale in what can only be described a poor and clichéd spin-off series, despite some of the more technical accomplishments, thwarted by bad, lazy scripts.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a movie I had little expectations for considering, at least from memory, not caring a whole lot for the previous entry, but even then, the film feels every bit of its 2+ hour running time and features paper-thin characters.
, The Front Runner from a technical and acting standpoint is a perfectly fine movie. But the issue comes from the fact it’s not all that important, or at least as important as the filmmakers want it to be, with the ideas presented.
Autumn in New York is your run-of-the-mill romance-drama that you’ve seen before and has been done over the years since and although both Richard Gere and Winona Ryder give solid performances, neither shared great chemistry with the other.
Despite only having a relatively short 94-minute running time, Source Code is a far more impactful film than others that are a good 40-50 minutes longer, the reason in part is the efficiency of director Duncan Jones.
James Wan’s The Conjuring 2 is the rare horror-sequel that at least matches the quality of the original with some genuine scares and well written character development for the Warrens in conjunction with fine performances by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga.
Closer to the Moon chronicles one of the more unusual heists in history and for the most part, it is a well made drama with two fine performances by Vera Farmiga and Mark Strong. The DVD released by MPI offers good video/audio transfers but falls flat in the bonus material department.
Running Scared showed me two things: 1) style and substance can co-exist; 2) Wayne Kramer is a hell of a filmmaker even if the script didn’t completely grab me; and 3) Paul Walker shows he does have acting skills.
Safe House may not offer anything new in the spy-thriller genre but it’s at least entertaining primarily because of Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds, both of whom turn in respectable performances.
Despite only having a relatively short 97-minute running time, Source Code is a far more impactful film than others that are a good 40-50 minutes longer. The reason in part to this is the efficiency of director Duncan Jones who jumps in to the mainstream after the success of indie hit Moon and makes a splash.