ReelViews for R movies

With each new outing, the Final Destination movies are getting better. At this rate, by the fifth or sixth entry in the series, one of them will finish the year in my Top 10. Or maybe the films' relentless pursuit of creative mayhem and murder is...

The Final Destination movies represent a kind of comfort food for horror fans. Although it has been 14 years since Final Destination 5, the newest franchise entry, Final Destination: Bloodlines, picks up right where its predecessor left off with i...

Saban Films is to action what Blumhouse is to horror. They buy low-to-mid budget productions and put them out into the marketplace (usually with a small theatrical release to complement a wider VOD footprint) with an eye toward a profit. Most ...

Vin Diesel as a Joisey mobster? As improbable as it might sound, Diesel offers a credible turn as Giacomo 'Jackie D' DiNorscio, one of about 20 members of the Lucchese crime family to go on trial for violation of the RICO (Racketeering Influenced ...

Fingernails, the English-language debut of Greek director Christos Nikou, boasts some intriguing ideas but the execution is (at best) uneven. With an uncertain screenplay and poor world-building, the film relies almost exclusively on the performan...

Firestarter, one of Stephen King’s most recognizable titles, reached bookstores in 1980 and was subsequently nominated for several prestigious awards. However, as has often been the case with King’s novels, the movie regurgitation, released in...

February thrillers often get a bad rap, and deservedly so. Most of them are plodding retreads with little star power and less plot. So it's a surprise to see something as (relatively) well-crafted as Firewall showing up in theaters this month. Th...

Mitchell Y. McDeere (Tom Cruise) has just graduated in the top five of his class from Harvard Law School. With a record like his, there are understandably a lot of people interested in employing him. Offers abound from the large, the prestigious,...

When one thinks about Sylvester Stallone, two characters come to mind: Rocky and Rambo. However, while the underdog pugilist is the Italian Stallion's best-loved screen alter-ego, during the '80s, Stallone was more strongly identified with the ex-...

I feel pretty safe saying The First Purge isn’t going to be a big hit with Donald Trump’s base. With a script that feels more like an anti-Administration screed than a fully fleshed out film, this movie is so overtly “progressive” as t...