Fort Worth Weekly
The Paper Tigers (PG-13) This martial-arts comedy is about three middle-aged former kung fu prodigies (Alain Uy, Ron Yuan, and Mykel Shannon Jenkins) who are forced to revive their talents to solve the murder of their master. Also with Yuji Okumoto, Jae Suh Park, Roger Yuan, Peter Adrian Sudarso, Yoshi Sudarso, and Matthew Page. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
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OPENING
Above Suspicion (R) This thriller based on the first American conviction for the murder of a federal agent stars Jack Huston as an FBI man who has an illicit affair with his informant (Emilia Clarke). Also with Sophie Lowe, Austin Hébert, Thora Birch, Omar Benson Miller, and Johnny Knoxville. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
OUT: May 17
Reimagining Beatrix Potter s charming Edwardian vegetable thief as a cocky 21st-century arsehole seemed to do no harm at the 2018 box office, so here s more of same. Peter feels like he doesn t fit with his new family, so runs off to find other friends. But, he soon learns, different isn t necessarily better. After hopping around different release dates, the sequel is finally ready to leave the hutch.
Spiral: From The Book Of Saw
OUT: May 17
Saw franchise – the ninth
Saw to date –
Spiral is masterminded by and stars Chris Rock, who, it turns out, is a long-term fan. He plays a cop on the trail of a serial killer responsible for a string of gnarly murders. Max Minghella plays Rock s partner on the force, Marisol Nichols is their captain, and Samuel L. Jackson stars as Rock s father. Darren Lynn Bousman, who directed Saws II through IV, returns to handle the movie.
Hi gang, Hakim from Los Angeles writing in. I’m curious:
what current/historical event or subculture would you all want to be explored in a film that hasn’t been (doc or narrative)? Love the show. Keep up the awesome work! All the best, Hakim
Hey guys, love the show and appreciate the work that you do as well as the different perspectives everybody brings. My question is this:
what is a movie that you feel you could do a one person reenactment of? Mine would be
School of Rock. While it is not necessarily my favorite movie, I pretty much know it by heart and I feel that I could perform most of the movie by myself if I had to. Anyway keep up the great work! – Matt, New Jersey P.S. Today’s podcast discussed the best opening credits sequences and I just wanted to add Men in Black as an opening that deserves some love.
I
was just thinking the other day about how overblown and overwritten so many blockbuster movies are these days, filled with too many stock characters and needless exposition. Then along comes the new thriller
Nobody, which clocks in at about 80 minutes and is so unconcerned with backstory and context that its propulsive narrative drive is almost pathological. In fact, the movie s murderous antihero, played by Bob Odenkirk, keeps trying to explain his origins to his enemies, but they keep dying on him before he can finish. Yes,
Breaking Bad and its spinoff
Better Call Saul but is here playing against type as an unstoppable killing machine. And yet he s somehow weirdly convincing in that mode, a so-called former auditor whose old job involved taking out the bad guys that other assassins wouldn t touch. Now he has settled into a life of suburban ennui, presumably as a cover.
Film Shorts // April 28-May 4, 2021
OPENING
Cliff Walkers (NR) This Chinese spy thriller by Zhang Yimou (
Hero) is about a group of agents (Qin Hailu, Yu Hewei, Zhang Yi, and Zhu Yawen) who return to their Japanese-occupied country in the 1930s to find that they’ve been betrayed by persons unknown. Also with Liu Haocun, Li Naiwen, and Ni Dahong. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Four Good Days (R) Rodrigo Garcia delivers yet another dull, earnest drama about white people living on the West Coast. Glenn Close stars as a mother who takes in her estranged, opioid-addicted daughter (Mila Kunis, looking emaciated with bleached-blonde hair and blackened teeth) to help her stay clean for four days prior to receiving a shot of naltrexone that will prevent her from getting high. The film doesn’t drag, but every argument in this movie feels like something you’ve heard from a thousand other movies about drug addiction. The performances here aren’t enough to lift the film above t