Movie Reviews

                                                                                By Tom Pacak 10 years ago, a home invasion horror film called “ The Strangers ” was released on a summer weekend. It wasn’t well received with critics or viewers but still made a boatload of money. Grossing over $82.4 million against its $9 million budget. The whole premise of the film was a group of sociopaths who wear doll masks stalk and murder a couple at a vacation home because the couple was there. Lazy screenwriting or terrifying motive? You decide!! I thought the movie was mostly fun but it didn’t change my life. “ The Strangers ” had its flaws with its script and unnecessary jump scares.   Now 10 year later, a sequel titled “ The Strangers: Prey at Night ” has been released. The sequel is a step down from the original (which isn’t saying much) and the home invasion genre in general. Dumb, lazy, and uninspiring, the sequel takes the same premise of the first one and moves it to

                                                                        By Tom Pacak               One movie that moved me is Call Me By Your Name . For a year, the film has been a hit at most film festivals. Critics and audiences alike have been praising the recent LGBTQ movie. Respected writer James Ivory just won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.             Set in Northern Italy in the summer of 1983; the location is very dream like and makes you want to fall in love. Elio Perlman (Timothee Chalamet) is a teen that is very intelligent, gifted at playing music, and a real keeper with the ladies. He even has a casual on and off girlfriend relationship with Marzia (Esther Garrel), a French teen who is up in Italy studying as well. Things heat up when Elio’s father (Michael Stuhlbarg) brings a grad student named Oliver (Armie Hammer) to help him do research. Immediately, Elio has a crush on Oliver. Elio tries to brush off his crush by acting annoyed at how

                                    By Tom Pacak Alex Garland’s "Annihilation" based off the book by Jeff VanderMeer, is a new addition to the great sci-fi films of the 2010s. Whether it’s an ambitious film “Blade Runner 2049” or a small-time movie “The Cloverfield Paradox” the sci-fi genre has been busting out film after film that keep trying to change the game. A lot of the directors doing these films owe their blood and sweat to the great Stanley Kubrick “2001: A Space Odyssey” or Ridley Scott “Blade Runner.” “Annihilation” was a film so big Paramount had no idea what to do with it. They kept critics away from it until the final week and released it on Netflix internationally due to fear of being a box office failure.   Alex Garland intended to have this movie viewed on the big screen and I strongly agree that’s how it should be viewed. “Annihilation” opens up with Lena (Natalie Portman) a biologist and former soldier being interrogated by men in hazmat suits

                                         By Tom Pacak Opening up in 1992 Oakland California, the first scene in “Black Panther” consists of an African American kid staring up at the sky. In the sky, is a beam of flashing lights. What we later learn in the film is that those flashing lights were a flying machine that takes leaders of Wakanda back to its respected land. This view gave the young kid a sense of lost hope. A country where the sunsets are beautiful and there is respect among community. The kid was always told when he was little that he would soon visit Wakanda. That vision of Wakanda changed once the young kid grew up to become a man and lost everything. “Black Panther” (which just joined the billion dollar club today) is one exhilarating ride. A new peak in the Marvel cinematic universe and one of the year’s best films!! Director Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station, Creed) is three for three with Black Panther. Ryan Coogler comes in strong with the amazin