Cinefiles: Movie Reviews

  RT - 🍅 95% My Score - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Who knew that a Netflix movie about logging would move me? I'll be honest: I had very low expectations for this movie. Sure, I knew that the cinematography was going to be brilliant (and it was). But, I expected this to be nothing more than a vehicle for beautiful scenery of the American Northwest.  What I watched instead was a beautiful tale of love, loss, and a man's journey through pain and torture as he tries to find his way out of the dark wilderness of grief. Nominated for 4 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Cinematography, Best Original Song, and Best Adapted Screenplay , the film is a timeless piece of Americana that will leave you in awe of the scope of the scenery, and in the emotional depth of the tragically beautiful performances by the entire cast. The film's main protagonist, Robert Grainier, is marvelously portrayed by Joel Edgerton. Edgerton gives life to a role that doesn't have much to go on. From the outside, h...

RT - 🍅 93% METASCORE - 80 MY SCORE - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I'll just start by saying this: it is extremely rare to see a movie be this good when it is the fourth film in the franchise. Usually, by this point, you would think that they have explored all they can explore in this world. But, they proved us all wrong. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is the 4th installment in the 28 Days Later film franchise, and honestly, might be it's best. Ralph Fiennes puts up what I believe to be an Oscar-worthy performance. ***SPOILERS AHEAD*** This film picks up where the first 28 Years Later left off. We find our hero, Spike (Alfie Williams), being initiated into the Fingers gang, led by the enigmatic and self-proclaimed son of Sir Nick, Jimmy Crystal (Jack 'Connell). Once Spike wins the fight to the death against one of the other Jimmies by stabbing him in the leg, he becomes the next member in the seven person cult. On the other side of the island, we see the infected Alpha (Chi Lewis-Parry) eating hi...

   - RT - 🍅 81% METASCORE - 64 MY SCORE - ⭐⭐⭐ The boys from Beantown strike again! This time as Miami-Dade PD Tactical Narcotics officers in the new Netflix crime thriller, The Rip. ***SPOILERS AHEAD*** The story picks up after the mysterious murder of Miami-Dade TNT (Tactical Narcotics Team) Captain Jackie Valez (Lina Esco) by two mysterious men wearing ski masks. Dana Dumars (Damon), now lieutenant of the despondent team, along with longtime friend Detective Sergeant J.D. Byrne (Affleck), are being questioned along with the rest of the team by the FBI, who strongly believe that Jackie was a dirty cop. If news of her being dirty gets out, this might spell the end of the TNT for good with the new budget cuts to the department. After hours of questioning, Dana gets a tip on his phone about a possible drophouse location suspected to have lots of cash. He rallies his team to go and investigate, where they discover that there is quite a lot more money than they had anticipated. N...