ReelViews for R movies

Few working directors display the versatility of Richard Linklater. Equally comfortable making high-concept art films, experimental outings designed for mass consumption, and multiplex-friendly fare, Linklater has brought to the screen projects as...

1986's The Hitcher is not representative of a classic of the 1980s horror boom, so the decision by Michael Bay and company to re-make it is merely unnecessary, not sacrilegious. 20 years later, the original stands up well; there is no need to re-i...

The Hitman’s Bodyguard is a throwback to the mixed-race buddy films of the 1990s. Think Bruce Willis/Damon Wayans in The Last Boyscout or Willis (again)/Samuel L. Jackson in Die Hard with a Vengeance. Those movies, and others like them, emph...

Four years ago, when I reviewed The Hitman’s Bodyguard, I described it as a fun throwback to the mixed-race buddy pictures of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Due in large part to the combustible chemistry between lead actors Ryan Reynolds (w...

Hitman: Agent 47 is an adaptation of a popular video game. It's also a reboot of a 2007 film. One might reasonably ask what this production does that wasn't accomplished in either of its other incarnations. The answer is: nothing. But that...

In the tradition of Shattered Glass and Catch Me if You Can, The Hoax presents the anatomy of an audacious con artist and illustrates how the sin eventually catches up with the sinner. Due to an uneven tone, various unresolved plot threads, and a ...

Hokum is a claustrophobic horror movie that mixes supernatural elements with human immorality. Although not technically a murder mystery, aspects of that genre can be found in the bare bones of the narrative. The film's main driver is a sense of i...

At the heart of The Holdovers lies a cliché – something about life-lessons imparted and accepted from a mismatched companion – but the manner in which director Alexander Payne and writer David Hemingson approach this familiar trope imbues it ...

It is my fondest dream that some day filmmakers will realize that great visual effects do not by themselves equate to a worthwhile motion picture experience. However, until that state of cinematic utopia arrives, audiences will be forced to endure...

The question of whether actor George Reeves committed suicide or was murdered will go down in history as one of Hollywood's great unsolved mysteries. Allen Coulter's Hollywoodland, a fictionalized account (it uses both apocryphal stories and confi...