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GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 Writer/Director: James Gunn Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Kurt Russell, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Elizabeth Debicki, Chris Sullivan, Sean Gunn In 2014, Marvel took a chance at a fairly unknown series in their canon named Guardians of the Galaxy and unleashed it as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It felt fresh and exciting for the superhero genre and made star Chris Pratt a bona fide action star. Three years later, the sequel is here to make fans laugh all over again. Chris Pratt leads our group of Guardians as PeterRead More →

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“THE GODFATHER” REUNION AT TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL Director Taylor Hackford moderated the reunion of all reunions as the cast of The Godfather came together at the Tribeca Film Festival to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the film’s release. The Festival showed back to back screenings of the 1972 classic and the 1974 sequel, The Godfather Part II, which many argue is better than its predecessor Led by the maestro himself, Francis Ford Coppola, the panel consisted of Al Pacino (Michael), James Caan (Sonny), Talia Shire (Connie), Robert De Niro (Young Vito), Diane Keaton (Kay), and Robert Duvall (Tom) as they reminisced about making two ofRead More →

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ALL THINGS STREAMING Back in February I launched my brand new podcast “All Things Streaming” in partnership with My Talk 107.1. Three episodes have been released so far with more on the way! In each episode I have one or two guests and we check in on what we’re currently streaming on Netflix, HBO Go/Now, Hulu, and Amazon and then do a deep dive on a show or movie we’re obsessing over. We also discuss the business of streaming and what’s coming ahead. Here’s a little look into the three episodes. EPISODE 1: The Pilot Join film critic Paul McGuire Grimes and his guest, MyRead More →

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THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS Director: F. Gary Gray Starring: Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Kurt Russell, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Charlize Theron, Ludacris, Tyrese Gibson, Helen Mirren, Scott Eastwood Who would have thought that a street racing movie from 2001 starring Vin Diesel and Paul Walker would still be going strong and onto its eighth movie in the franchise. It picks up with Dom (Diesel) and Letty (Rodriguez) vacationing in Havana where his cousin lives. It only makes sense in a movie like this that their vacation comes to an abrupt end when he attempts to help a stranded woman on the side of theRead More →

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STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Director: Rian Johnson Starring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Laura Dern, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, Andy Serkis, Benicio Del Toro The time has finally come to feast your eyes on the very first trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. It feels very delayed compared to how early we saw a trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The Last Jedi, aka Episode VIII, will pick up where The Force Awakens ended, and I assume will prominently feature Mark Hamill and his return as Luke Skywalker. Is he the title character or isRead More →

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GOING IN STYLE Director: Zach Braff Starring: Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Alan Arkin, Ann-Margaret, Christopher Lloyd, Matt Dillon, John Ortiz, Joey King, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Kenan Thompson Between Alan Arkin, Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman, they have a combined fifteen Oscar nominations and four wins. At this stage in their career, they’ve lightened up and are taking on the goofy, bumbling, senior guy roles. The movie opens with Joe (Caine) meeting with a banker to discuss the envelopes he’s receiving from the bank stating that his house is in jeopardy. They’ll seize it from him if he doesn’t pay his mortgage. Right then and there,Read More →

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GHOST IN THE SHELL Director: Rupert Sanders Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Pilou Asbæk, Takeshi Kitano, Michael Pitt, Juliette Binoche Let me state right up front that I went into Ghost in the Shell with no previous knowledge of this material. It’s based on the wildly popular 1989 Japanese manga comic series by Masamune Shirow. I’ve never read the books or watched the 1995 animated movie of the same name. Nor have I seen any of the franchise films that came after that. I went into this with an open palette and no preconceived notions of what to expect outside of the rumblings of Scarlett Johansson beingRead More →

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IT Director: Andrés Muschietti Starring: Bill Skarsgård, Finn Wolfhard, Jaeden Lieberher, Sophia Lillis, Wyatt Oleff, Jack Dylan Grazer, Chosen Jacobs I’ll come right out and say it that IT is not only my favorite from Stephen King’s lofty canon, but it is also one of the scariest books from the master of horror. If you haven’t read the 1000+ page book, you’re really missing out if you’re only knowledge stems from the TV mini-series starring Richard Thomas, Annette O’Toole, John Ritter, and Tim Curry. Curry gives the performance of his career as the absolutely frightening clown, Pennywise who spent centuries killing members of the smallRead More →

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T2 TRAINSPOTTING Director: Danny Boyle Starring: Ewan McGregor, Johnny Lee Miller, Ewen Bremner, Robert Carlyle, Kelly McDonald, Shirley Henderson Trainspotting was a low budget film about five friends with a massive drug addiction that became a wacky cult classic. Twenty years later, the cast has reunited to see where these troubled men are at in life. Ewan McGregor is front and center as Mark Renton who returns home to Edinburgh after his mother dies. He’s led a clean and sober life in Amsterdam since the events of the first film, which ended with him stealing thousands of dollars from his friends. His other three friends,Read More →

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LIFE Director: David Espinosa Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds, Ariyon Bakare, Olga Dihovichnaya, Hiroyuki Sanada Space exploration movies feel like they’re all the rage right now. Unfortunately, they can’t all be as great as 2013’s Gravity. With Passengers last year and now Life, I’m wondering if they’ve run their course for the time being or if we can’t figure out a new story to tell. Maybe the ambiguous one word titles have something to do with it. Life boasts a fun crew with Jake Gyllenhaal and Rebecca Ferguson leading the team on an international space station. They’re returning from a mission to MarsRead More →