04 October
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VENOM Director: Ruben Fleischer Starring: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Jenny Slate, Reid Scott, Ron Cephas Jones, Melora Walters Tom Hardy takes on another comic book villain with Sony/Marvel’s Venom. He stars alongside Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, and Jenny Slate. Is this a wasted origin story or a promising start for a new Tom Hardy franchise? Here’s my review. Don’t forget to head over to my YouTube channel and click SUBSCRIBE for more reviews, celeb interviews, and my appearances on KSTP’s Twin Cities LiveRead More →

20 July
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DUNKIRK Writer/Director: Christopher Nolan Starring: Fionn Whitehead, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Kenneth Branagh, Harry Styles, Jack Lowden Dunkirk is yet another example of how Christopher Nolan can masterfully tackle any genre. Over the past decade, we’ve seen him go through space and time continuums with Interstellar, a superhero saga with The Dark Knight Trilogy, and dive deep into our dreams and subconscious with Inception. All of his films tell vastly different stories, yet are unmistakably his movies. With Dunkirk, he turns to the harrowing World War II battle in France between the Allies and the Germans. The British and French armies have beenRead More →

07 January
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THE REVENANT Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson, Will Poulter, Lukas Haas, Forrest Goodluck Keep breathing. When all hope is lost, just keep breathing. That’s the lesson Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) is trying to ingrain in his son, Hawk (Goodluck). Along with John Fitzgerald (Hardy) and Jim Bridger (Poulter), they are part of a fur-hunting group led by Andrew Henry (Gleeson). They find themselves under attack by a group of Native Americans. Members of their group perish, but thankfully they are able to escape. They must leave their boat and many of the pelts aside to lighten their load and keepRead More →

30 December
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In Special Series

2015: A YEAR IN REVIEW It’s that time of the year again when critics post their best and worst of the year lists. The beginning of 2015 was a big doozy to the point where I thought it was going to be a bad year at the movies. It was one lousy movie after another (Get Hard, Chappie). The summer hit and the year seemed to be turning around especially after long running franchises were brought back to life to thunderous applause (Jurassic World, Mad Max Fury Road). The year ended with some wonderful smaller films packing a punch (Spotlight, Carol) and big studio filmsRead More →

28 November
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LEGEND Writer/Director: Brian Helgeland Starring: Tom Hardy, Emily Browning, Taron Egerton, David Thewlis, Chazz Palminteri Tom Hardy continues to push himself as an actor with every role. This year he’s embarked on multiple projects from the phenomenal Mad Max Fury Road to The Revenant that comes out around Christmas. In Legend, he’s pulling double duty by starring as twin brothers Ronnie and Reggie Kray. The Krays made their way up the rankings of the London gangster scene in the early 1960s. Reggie was married and was a stoic businessman who owned various nightclubs. Ronnie, on the other hand, was openly gay, led a very flamboyantRead More →

15 May
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MAD MAX: FURY ROAD Director: George Miller Starring: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Zoë Kravitz, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough I first heard about Mad Max: Fury Road years ago when it first went into production. The big Mel Gibson franchise was getting a reboot without its star. Where have we seen that before? A couple of years passed as we patiently waited for any updates. What was taking writer/director George Miller so long to finish the film? After seeing the final product in 2D, rest assured that it was well worth the wait. Tom Hardy takes over Mel’s role as Max Rockatansky.Read More →

Twin Cities Live
13 September
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In Twin Cities Live

TWIN CITIES LIVE September 12, 2014         I have three new reviews for Twin Cities Live this week. Even though the summer blockbuster season is over and the fall movies haven’t started ramping up yet, there a couple of movies in theaters worth checking out. Plus, I’ve got a home release that is guaranteed to make you laugh. 1. THE DROP, Starring: Tom Hardy, James Gandolfini, Noomi Rapace 2. THE TRIP TO ITALY, Starring: Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon 3. JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK, Starring: Joan Rivers, Melissa Rivers, Kathy Griffin Here’s the video: Video courtesy of Twin Cities Live/KSTPRead More →

12 September
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In Movie Reviews

THE DROP Director: Michaël R. Roskam Starring: Tom Hardy, James Gandolfini, Noomi Rapace, Matthias Schoenaerts, John Ortiz How can you go wrong when James Gandolfini and Tom Hardy star in a Dennis Lehane story? Bob (Hardy) has an innocence about him despite the fact that he works at a Brooklyn bar known in the underworld for being a drop location as money is handed off to local Chechen gangsters. There is a whole system in place for the covert operation that goes unseen by the general bar clientele. He works for his cousin Marv (Gandolfini) who is fully aware of the operations that take placeRead More →

23 July
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In Movie Reviews

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Director: Christopher Nolan Starring: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson, Matthew Modine All good things must come to end. Finding the proper send off to a beloved trilogy is tricky. The audience has spent the last two movies invested in classic characters and rich storytelling and you do not want to be let down by some lackluster finale. Audiences will not remember The Return of the Jedi or The Godfather Part III as the best in the series. However, I firmly believe The Lord of the Rings: The ReturnRead More →