Fantasia 2025: All You Need is Kill

★★★ Japanese sci-fi novel All You Need is Kill has already been adapted into a famous manga and an arguably even more famous blockbuster action flick starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt entitled Edge of Tomorrow. This take lives in the world of anime, punctuated by gorgeous animation and mesmerizing visuals. By this point, the … Continue reading Fantasia 2025: All You Need is Kill

4K Blu-Ray Film Review: Small Soldiers

★★★★★ Far more than just a Gremlins clone from director Joe Dante, Small Soldiers left an indelible mark on the millennials who obsessively rewatched it. Its brand of dark humor and violent action with touches of horror certainly took some cues from Child's Play. Whether you were Team Commando Elite or Team Gorgonites, there was … Continue reading 4K Blu-Ray Film Review: Small Soldiers

Fantasia 2025: Hi-Five

★★★★★ The best movie screening at 2025's Fantasia International Film Festival is... a slapstick Korean superhero flick? Color me surprised, but Hi-Five truly delivers the goods in a way that many modern superhero origin stories simply do not. Of course, it all starts from the ground up. A ridiculous script from writer/director Kang Hyung-chul lampoons … Continue reading Fantasia 2025: Hi-Five

TV Review: The Institute – Season 1

Stephen King, children in peril, and powers/psychic connections... if any of these elements sound familiar together, they have harmoniously found a perfect frequency in titles such as Carrie, It, Dreamcatcher, Rose Red, and Firestarter. Even Stranger Things owes a hell of a debt to King's iconic prose and MKUltra. The Institute is the latest in … Continue reading TV Review: The Institute – Season 1

Tribeca 2025: How to Train Your Dragon

★★★★★ Despite having only seen the Dreamworks originals once each in theaters, I was still optimistic for the company’s first foray into the live action remake arena. Seeing dragons interact with humans in the real world, built off identical mythology, has a certain appeal to it. Would Hiccup and Toothless live up to the lofty … Continue reading Tribeca 2025: How to Train Your Dragon

Blu-Ray Film Review: The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie

★★★★★ In the aftermath of WB’s chaotic mishandling of Coyote vs. Acme, the first full-length Looney Tunes animated theatrical movie quietly released. Distributed by Ketchup Entertainment, this gem was sadly overlooked when it hit theaters earlier this year. Now, it comes to Blu-Ray in all its colorful, over-the-top silly glory. As someone who grew up … Continue reading Blu-Ray Film Review: The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie

Film Review: The Assessment

★★★★ (Written by Intern, Miranda Zampogna) Bubbling to the surface, The Assessment examines how the suffocating weight of parental expectation can warp even the most well-intentioned nurturers. Director Fleur Fortuné's remarkable feature debut plunges into a meticulously crafted near-future dystopia where parenthood is a privilege, not a right. Under strict supervision, a couple's seven-day assessment … Continue reading Film Review: The Assessment