ReelViews for R movies

Thank god for Jake Gyllenhaal.  Absent his performance, Demolition would have been a more unbearable slog than it is. It’s rare when a good performance can save a bad movie but it can make some of the more tedious parts watchable. The problem with...

There’s little doubt that director Christian Gudegast’s primary intention in making Den of Thieves is to emulate Michael Mann’s classic 1995 thriller, Heat. The similarities – from the overall plot to individual story beats – are too...

Den of Thieves, a 2018 heist thriller from director Christian Gudegast, is not a movie I expected to be tapped for a sequel, despite being deserving of one if only for making the post-holiday season merry and bright. One of Gerard Butler�...

The Departed is a perfect example of why remakes shouldn't be dismissed out of hand. Director Martin Scorsese and screenwriter William Monahan have taken the B-grade Hong Kong crime flick Infernal Affairs and re-imagined it as an American epic tra...

Spoilers – sort of: Although this is not a spoiler-heavy review, there are implied spoilers. While specifics are not revealed, anyone good at reading between lines may learn more about the movie than they want to. Those in search of a "virgin" ...

The Descendants may be director Alexander Payne's finest outing to date. The man who began his career behind the camera with withering satires (Citizen Ruth, Election) has moved into dramatic comedies (About Schmidt, Sideways) that simultaneously ...

A film about spelunkers going where no sane man (or woman) has gone before and running afoul of things that lurk in the deep darkness… Sound familiar? If you're thinking of a misbegotten film called The Cave, put it from your mind. That movie w...

If you were bored by My Dinner with Andre, The Designated Mourner isn't for you. If Spalding Gray's monologues put you to sleep, prepare to snooze through The Designated Mourner. And if you think Twister is perfectly paced, give The Designated Mo...

I can easily see how the consensus reaction to Destination Wedding could be overwhelmingly negative. It’s not easy to spend 90 minutes in the company of two narcissistic, self-absorbed misanthropes. For Frank (Keanu Reeves) and Lindsay (Wino...

Destroyer could earn Nicole Kidman some consideration for an Oscar nomination and the gritty neo-noir storyline about obsession, guilt, and betrayal is worthwhile for those who appreciate the genre, but the movie seems destined to be lost in t...