Image: Universal Pictures
Chris Luckett
I’m the guy who hated Furious 7.
You knew there was someone in the world, right? After all, the seventh movie in the action racing franchise earned $1.5 billion, making it the sixth-highest grossing film in global history, so clearly a vast number of people loved what the series did with its new evolution. It felt like a huge fall backward to me, though.
Image: Focus Features
Chris Luckett
Animated masterpieces are few and far between. There are a lot of really good animated films, but the truly brilliant works come along so rarely, they make you sit up and take notice, in a way only the best of cinema can. Kubo and the Two Strings, the latest stop-motion movie from animation studio Laika, is one such achievement.
Photo: Universal Pictures
Chris Luckett
How do you solve a problem like Snow White?
In 2012, a pair of Snow White adaptations hit theatres, one of which being the best-forgotten mess Mirror Mirror. Snow White and the Huntsman, on the other hand, was starkly different from other any existing adaptations, both in bold tone and visual orchestration. With strong reviews and box office success, a sequel was all but assured.
Just after its opening, though, Snow White and the Huntsman’s director Rupert Sanders was publicly exposed in an affair with his star, Kristen Stewart. Both have moved past the incident, but neither was invited back this time, leading to the follow-up having to narratively dance around gaping chunks of time and to sacrifice style for action. One doesn’t really hurt The Huntsman: Winter’s War; the other very much does. Continue reading
Photo: Warner Bros.
Chris Luckett
In NASCAR races, there are times when a driver in first place has to make a judgment call: do they keep going without making a pit stop but retaining their lead, or make a pit stop, get cleaned up, and then race to gain back lost momentum? Mad Max: Fury Road is a twisted, brilliant action vehicle that attains the kind of gonzo genius and mind-blowing spectacle other movies only dream to aspire to, but takes a poorly chosen pit stop halfway through that kills the inimitable brilliance of its first hour, which the movie can’t wholly get back afterward.
It comes damned close, though.
Photo: Universal Pictures
Chris Luckett
Western comedies have a spotty track record. It’s always tricky blending two movie genres, but Westerns and comedies in particular generally don’t work well together. Blazing Saddles, City Slickers, and Back to the Future, Part III may have pulled it off, but more often than not, the end result is more Wagons East! than Three Amigos!. A Million Ways to Die in the West unleashes a barrage of shots at its tricky target; the ones that hit the mark are brilliant in their comedy, but the ones that miss fall painfully flat.
The Apple Box 