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Disney’s “Jungle Cruise” a Ride Worth Taking (Review)

27Jul

By Matt ShiverdeckerNo Comments

Film, Reviews

Disney’s “Jungle Cruise” a Ride Worth Taking (Review)

After the wild success of five movies based on the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride that collectively earned over $4.5 billion at the global box office, it shouldn't be surprising that Disney would adapt more of their famous theme park attractions for the big screen. When I first heard that they were going to make a movie out of the Jungle Cruise ride that began in Disneyland back in 1955, I was extraordinarily skeptical. It wasn't until I saw the first trailer that I started to get intrigued at what they had done. It all starts with director Jaume Collet-Serra, who has previously made several horror and suspense films like "House Of Wax" and "The Shallows." He's managed to take what could have been a rather boring idea and infused it with the kind of wild adventure spirit that hark...

Sundance Hit ‘How It Ends’ Brings The Apocalypse Home (Review)

13Aug

By Matt ShiverdeckerNo Comments

Film, Reviews

Sundance Hit ‘How It Ends’ Brings The Apocalypse Home (Review)

When the end credits began to roll on its brisk 82-minute running time, I said to my partner how much I enjoyed "How It Ends" and that it reminded me of the glory days of American independent film in the 90s. He laughed and noted that the whole time he was thinking about Richard Linklater's 1990 classic, "Slacker." There is a shared cinematic universe between the two - both features offer a meandering "day in the life" scenario giving the viewer a series of characters who float in and out of the film and give us a handful of perfect moments. While "Slacker" showed us a random day in late 1980s Austin, Texas, this literal doomsday comedy has us on the streets of Los Angeles in the 24 hours before a giant meteor makes contact with Earth and kills us all. Zoe Lister-Jones and her hu...

“Fear Street” Trilogy Brings The Thrills (Review)

20Jul

By Matt ShiverdeckerNo Comments

Film, Reviews

“Fear Street” Trilogy Brings The Thrills (Review)

R.L. Stine's original "Fear Street" book series was a step up from his "Goosebumps" books that offered age-appropriate scares for young readers. Director Leigh Janiak has taken things a lot further, accelerating the "Fear Street" series into full-blown R-rated territory with a captivating trilogy that recently launched on Netflix. Originally conceived as a theatrical play for Fox before Disney's acquisition, these would have certainly been fun to watch on the big screen with an audience, but play excellently at home as a fun summer escape. All three films are centered around the legend of Sarah Fier, a young woman in 1666 who was accused of being a witch and died after a man in her village named Solomon Goode (Ashley Zukerman) made a deal with the devil to provide his family wi...

‘Gunpowder Milkshake’ is Filled With Candy-Colored Carnage (Review)

13Aug

By Matt ShiverdeckerNo Comments

Film, Reviews

‘Gunpowder Milkshake’ is Filled With Candy-Colored Carnage (Review)

Director Navot Papushado made a splash at genre festivals worldwide when he co-directed his first movie "Rabies" in 2010, which was pushed as the "first feature-length Israeli horror film." His third feature also marks his English-language debut and he rounded up an incredible cast of kick-ass women for an ultraviolent tale of revenge. "Guardians of the Galaxy" and "Jumanji" star Karen Gillan takes the lead as Sam, a top-notch assassin who has followed in her mother's footsteps. She works for "The Firm" (led by a wonderfully grumpy Paul Giamatti) and is hired to kill a man who has stolen from them. Shortly after shooting him in the stomach, she discovers he has an 8-year-old daughter named Emily who has been kidnapped (hence, the stolen goods to get her back). This gives Sam a ...

Young Poets Shine in “Summertime” (Review)

9Jul

By Matt ShiverdeckerNo Comments

Art, Film, Reviews

Young Poets Shine in “Summertime” (Review)

In the spring of 2019, Carlos López Estrada ("Blindspotting") attended a poetry showcase hosted by a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization called Get Lit: Words Ignite. He was so inspired by the young poets who performed that he rounded up all of them and worked with some of his closest filmmaking friends to put to a project together that would incorporate their words into a functional feature film to serve as a love letter to the city. The end result effortlessly manages to merge spoken word poetry with occasionally bombastic musical numbers featuring a host of intersecting characters into a cohesive timeline over the course of one summer day. I can't say enough good things about these performances, all from high school poets who were not professional actors. You would nev...

Take a Wild “First Date” This Holiday Weekend (Review)

2Jul

By Matt ShiverdeckerNo Comments

Film, Reviews

Take a Wild “First Date” This Holiday Weekend (Review)

A debut film can often act as a calling card in the industry. Even if it doesn't find a huge audience, the right buzz can earn enough of a following to become a cult classic and lay the groundwork for bigger things. That, in a nutshell, is exactly what I anticipate will happen for Manuel Crosby and Darren Knapp, who wrote and directed "First Date," an incredibly fun and totally bonkers movie that premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. https://youtu.be/EDNarSyQEcc Tyson Brown plays Mike, a shy high-schooler who has had a crush on a girl at school named Kelsey (Shelby Duclos) for a long time and finally decides to work up the nerve to ask her out. The only problem? He doesn't have a car. All he needs to do is get a decent ride and pick her up for a date. If it...

Questlove Takes Us Back to the “Summer Of Soul” (Review)

29Jun

By Matt ShiverdeckerNo Comments

Film, Music, Reviews

Questlove Takes Us Back to the “Summer Of Soul” (Review)

Winner of the U.S. Documentary Competition's Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at this year's Sundance Film Festival, "Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)" is the filmmaking debut from Roots drummer extraordinaire Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson and one of the year's most exhilarating films. https://youtu.be/k99XO-UE5AQ In the summer of 1969, over 400,000 attended the Woodstock festival in New York State. That event is well documented in every respect, with a legendary film, album releases, and books to dissect every aspect of the cultural revolution. But that same summer, a series of music concerts were held in Mount Morris Park in Harlem, New York, that became known as "Black Woodstock." The Harlem Cultural Festival occurred every Sunday from late Ju...