Popcorn Zombies

By Michael Momper It's a rare art form nowadays for an action movie to be both viscerally entertaining and intelligently crafted. But I knew that The Gentlemen would deliver the goods just based upon writer/director Guy Ritchie's name on the poster. Some writers just have that kind of power. Ritchie is a master craftsman in the cockney action genre, but this is only his third movie in the genre. His masterpiece Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, burst onto the scene in 1997 and immediately garnered him a reputation. Snatch followed in 2000 to similar acclaim, but since then he hasn't returned to the genre with any original entries. He wrote and directed both of these movies, and his signature stylistic violence, hilarious and profane dialogue, and swaggering goofy characters were on full display. We have been waiting twenty years for his return to the genre. Like the John Wick franchise, his cockney gangster flicks are a welcome reprieve from every day life...

Graham Craycraft Circles is rapper Mac Miller’s sixth studio album and his only posthumous album. Miller died from an accidental overdose of various drugs in September of 2018 and left the rap world reeling. Miller has on multiple occasions risen above the shackles of his drug addiction only to fall back in. His 2015 album GO:OD AM spoke openly about his drug addiction and how he was scrounging for his place in the world without the use of dangerous substances. There is a reason we have a full and completely recorded album from Miller after death. Miller’s estate says that he was working on Swimming and Circles side by side to create a package of albums with a “swimming in circles” concept. From what we know about Miller’s aforementioned drug use, addiction, rehabilitation and relapse, this is an appropriate and meaningful sentiment. Check out a short documentary on Mac’s rise out of drug use from Fader titled Stopped Making Excuses for more information on his battle ...

By Michael Momper I had the distinct pleasure of writing about one of my favorite directors, Quentin Tarantino, in a review earlier this year. Great filmmakers like him labor for years over their projects and put their full creative weight behind their ideas. Big names like his command respect, and through the years gather the adulation and even friendship of a multitude of extremely talented actors (for Tarantino, this would be people like Samuel L. Jackson, Harvey Kietel, Tim Roth, Brad Pitt etc). I can’t help but to feel extremely lucky to review a brand new Martin Scorsese movie within only a few months of the release of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood . Scorsese is a masterful artist and likely my favorite director of all time. Perhaps just a brief discussion on what he does so well would be appropriate before diving into a specific breakdown of his latest, The Irishman - a movie that showcases almost every single one of his strengths and none of his weaknesses, indeed a tr...

Graham Craycraft El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie is the story of Jesse Pinkman’s escape from captivity and journey of out miasma to the final frontier of his life. Aaron Paul and Breaking Bad’s creator Vince Giligan return to create the last leg in the story of Jesse Pinkman. The audience is opened to a brief recap of Breaking Bad and then thrown right into the story of Pinkman’s torture by his captors and run from authorties.  In the aftermath of the death of Walter White, the police are going to extreme lengths to capture with what they see as the last piece of the puzzle of America’s largest drug empire. Pinkman moves from place to place with his eyes set on true freedom. Returns from characters such as Badger and Skinny Pete help Jesse reach this goal. This film is dark and gritty while still maintaining a little humor of which fans are familiar. Not much however, because Pinkman has been locked up and brutalized for six months and continues to carry those memories...

By Michael Momper If you have seen any of Joaquin Phoenix's performances, you know what to expect from him. He brings his all to every single movie. Whether he's playing an almost note-perfect rendition of Johnny Cash in Walk the Line , the brooding and dark villain Commodus in Gladiator , or a disillusioned cultist alongside Phillip Seymour Hoffman in The Master, he's essentially a home-run hitter with every role. If you've seen the trailer for his newest movie, Joker , you probably got the same feeling that he had yet another incredible performance up his sleeve. Thus, I had absolutely zero worries about the caliber of his work going into this film- he's just too good and committed to drop the ball on a character with this much of a colorful history. My curiosity was founded in whether or not the script and direction were going to be up to par. Some of my fears were quelled by the R-rating. This is rare in superhero movies, and I love the fact that ...

Graham Craycraft Top Boy is a 2019 Netflix original spawning from two previous seasons of a 2011 show called Top Boy: Summerhouse. All three seasons were created by Ronan Bennett and have many of the same main characters. This review, however, is here to talk about the 2019 reboot. The show follows two rival drug gangs fighting for territorial control in a section of London, England. Jamie, played by Micheal Ward, leads the Zero Tolerance gang while Dushane and Sully, played by Ashley Walters and Kane Robinson respectively, lead the Summerhouse gang named for the territory they occupy.  The show is filled with violence, thick London accents and slang, and a large emphasis on family. As the episodes progress we see that each prominent member of the gangs has some family baggage they carry around. I say baggage only because it is heavy and often gets in the way of a clear path to the top, but the characters prove time and again that they will do anything in their power to ...

By Michael Momper There's a reason why Quentin Tarantino's name alone drives throngs of excited moviegoers to the theater when it is associated with any movie. He is certainly on the highest echelon of creative geniuses in Hollywood, writing and directing his own crazy concoctions of violence, kooky characters and twisty action plotlines. Classic movies like Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Inglorious Basterds have firmly cemented his place as one of the most well-respected directors alive today, and almost every one of his movies has a large cult following due to the general goofiness and cartoony characters that the man creates. His penchant for witty, wisecracking dialogue is nearly unmatched, and after finishing his latest creation, it is with a heavy heart that I inform you that he plans to only make one more movie after this, bringing his total to ten full-length movies. In the meantime, he has given us 2.5+ hour movie to digest while he gets cracking on a tent...