V/H/S: Viral (2014) – Marcel Sarmiento, Gregg Bishop, Nacho Vigalondo, Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, and Todd Lincoln

The anthology horror series, V/H/S is a bit hit and miss, but the great thing about anthology films is if you don’t like one story, just hold on and see what comes along next. The third entry in the series is no different, there are some that could have been executed a little better, some…

Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016) – Mike Flanagan

Mike Flanagan has quickly become one of my favorite writer/directors and I realized that there were still a number of his titles that I hadn’t written about for the blog. So color me happy as I dig into some other examples of his work. Ouija: Origin of Evil is, in fact, a sequel to a…

The Raid 2 (2014) – Gareth Evans

Picking up shortly after the first film, The Raid 2 sees Rama (Iko Uwais) recruited into a secret, and small division of the police to go undercover in the hopes of securing tangible and undeniable proof of police corruption. The only way for it to be believable is if Rama breaks the law, and can…

Predestination (2014) – Michael & Peter Spierig

Somehow this little sci-fi, time travel, paradox embracing film never hit my radar when it first came out. It would occasionally pop up in my recommended lists, and I would think yeah, I should check that out, and then promptly forget about it. But the wait was worth it, because when I finally did settle…

Panic (2014) – Lauren Oliver

Lauren Oliver’s Panic is a page-turner on a monumental scale. I can’t remember the last time I was so swept up in the narrative of a story. I had to find out what happened next. As much as I have been enjoying my foray into the tales of Ian Fleming’s 007, and the writings of…

The Expendables 3 (2014) – Patrick Hughes

Dropping their hard R rating, The Expendables are back for a third go round, and Sylvester Stallone returns with a star studded cast that kind of makes up for the lack of gore, but you still find yourself wishing for it anyway. This time it’s personal when Barney Ross (Stallone) leads his mercenary team on…

Ex Machina (2014) – Alex Garland

Alex Garland wrote and directed this stunning film, his first feature, that explores the concepts of Artificial Intelligence and the desire to live and survive. When a young programmer, Caleb (Domhall Gleeson) wins a contest to spend a week at his boss, Nathan’s (Oscar Isaac), remote estate, he loves the idea, when Nathan reveals that…

Edge of Tomorrow (2014) – Doug Liman

Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Brendan Gleeson and Bill Paxton star in this fun sci-fi action film that plays like an alien war version of Groundhog Day. Cruise stars as Cage, a major in the American army, working as a media adviser, following the beginnings of an alien attack that has taken over most of Europe….

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014) – Alejandro G. Inarritu

Micheal Keaton shines in Alejandro Innarritu’s Birdman. He brings a level to his performance that you know is based on personal experience, and delivers an Oscar-nominated virtuoso performance as Riggan Thompson, an actor who walked away from a billion dollar superhero franchise and is now worried about his relevance while being haunted by his past….