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Showing posts with the label vincent d'onofrio

DEATH WISH (2018) - REVIEW

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Review available on the new website .

CHIPS - REVIEW

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Along with Baywatch , another dated TV series that got the movie remake treatment in 2017 was CHiPs , starring Michael Peña and Dax Shepard as two California Highway Patrol cops who take on a mysterious gang of thieves and corrupt police officers. When FBI Agent Castillo (Peña) is sent undercover to help solve the aforementioned case, he finds that getting along with his partner Jon Baker (Shepard) might prove to be the real challenge. The latter is a down-and-out ex-motocross champion with a crumbling marriage and metal plates keeping most of his limbs in place and Castillo is a playboy with little patience so they obviously can't stand each other initially but eventually learn to work together and make a great team. This is pretty standard cop story stuff complete with the obligatory yelling chief, epic car chases and obvious bad guys so don't expect anything ground-breaking or completely unpredictable. The film was universally trashed by critics who seemed to be disappo

ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING - REVIEW

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Adventures In Babysitting was a 1987 comedy directed by Chris Columbus about a babysitter who is forced to drag the kids she was meant to be watching to downtown Chicago in order to help out a friend thereby having to deal with more chaos than she bargained for. Elisabeth Shue is Chris Parker, the babysitter in question who we first meet dancing around her bedroom as she gets ready for a date. She is unfortunately then told by her boyfriend, played by a young Bradley Whitford, that the date is a no-go so she reluctantly agrees to babysit someone's kids: the rather geeky Brad (Keith Coogan), who has a crush on her, and his Thor-obsessed little sister Sara (Maia Brewton). When Chris' friend Brenda (Penelope Ann Miller) runs away from home then promptly regrets it, Chris now has to go and pick her up downtown with the kids, including Brad's goofy friend Daryl (Athony Rapp) who decides to tag along. After their car loses a tire, it all goes downhill from there are they mee

ESCAPE PLAN - REVIEW

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After finally joining forces on The Expendables and its sequels, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger collaborated again on Escape Plan . Originally titled "The Tomb", this prison escape actioner from 2013 failed to wow critics and audiences alike upon its release. The concept is very much a Tango & Cash meets Escape From Alcatraz meets Fortress type of deal as Ray Breslin (Stallone), an expert who can break out of any prison, is dragged to a state-of-the-art facility that's seemingly unescapable where he befriends fellow inmate Emil Rottmayer (Schwarzenegger). Of course, they decide to help each other out and plan an elaborate escape. The film's concept is instantly ridiculous as the first time we meet Breslin, he breaks out of a jail in the least convincing way possible: think MacGuyver meets Keyser Söze. That said, it's a solid setup for a good old-fashioned, tongue-in-cheek action movie the likes of which both leads would have no doubt bee

JURASSIC WORLD - REVIEW

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At first, Jurassic "anything" sure didn't sound like the best idea seeing how unpopular both sequels to Steven Spielberg's genial 90's blockbuster Jurassic Park were. Then the idea of a Jurassic World popped up and, suddenly, we all perked up about the project a little. The trailers had a lukewarm flavour to them, though, so who knew if this reboot/sequel was going to be any good. Especially sans Goldblum! Having the doors of the Park actually open and allowing guests to go on (mostly unsupervised) prehistoric rides certainly offered a lot of opportunities for mindless dino-destruction and an unparalleled body count for the franchise. In that sense, Jurassic World delivers exactly what we needed: pure Summer blockbuster chaos complete with people getting chewed-up by fab-looking CGI dinosaurs, tons of suspense and that iconic John Williams score (arranged by Michael Giacchino) punctuating the show throughout. The plot sees two kids whose parents are go