Netflix movies

Tag Archive: Netflix movies

Spiderhead–Netflix gets the classic science fiction story genre just right

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June 20, 2022

Review by C.J. Bunce

With hits Tron: Legacy, Oblivion, The Dig, Only the Brave, and Top Gun: Maverick, director Joseph Kosinski seems to be batting a thousand, and his best work may be his new science fiction movie, Spiderhead. Now streaming on Netflix, it should remind you of the days before sci-fi blockbusters, when science fiction tales by great futurists became the next amazing story you’d see on the big screen. It also has the genre world’s best actors, with Chris Hemsworth as a pharma genius slash mad scientist running a penitentiary in the vein of A Clockwork Orange, and Miles Teller as his chief inmate, test subject and guinea pig. Fresh off of The Offer, and co-starring in Top Gun: Maverick, Teller’s career trajectory seems to only be going up. Compared to the usual direct-to-Netflix fare, especially compared to its record of sci-fi genre films (basically that’s ARQ, iBOY, The Cloverfield Paradox, Extinction, I Am Mother, The Midnight Sky, and IO), Spiderhead is in a different league entirely. Think THX-1138, Minority Report, Ex Machina, and Orbiter 9—Spiderhead is a movie you’ll wish you were able to catch in the movie theater.

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Fistful of Vengeance–Netflix’s Wu Assassins movie falls short of the series

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February 21, 2022

Review by C.J. Bunce

It’s tough to review something you’ve been waiting for that doesn’t meet your expectations, especially a sequel to a great, original story. Unfortunately that’s the case with Fistful of Vengeance, Netflix’s newest action movie that forms a sequel to its 2019 streaming wuxia TV series Wu Assassins, one of the Top 10 fantasy television series of the past decade. As with Firefly, another property that went from series to movie, the movie just doesn’t capture the magic that made the series so well received. Fistful of Vengeance isn’t horrible if you really liked the relationship of the three male leads of the series. But in the series they were secondary to the fresh, new world of magic users it created. And aside from international martial arts headliner Iko Uwais and his supporting actor, Mortal Kombat star Lewis Tan, the best parts of the series were left behind.

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Army of the Dead: The Making of the Film–How to make a zombie and more

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June 18, 2021

Review by C.J. Bunce

Moviegoers either love or hate Zack Snyder movies. His latest, Netflix’s Army of the Dead (reviewed here), is very different from the typical movie he directs, which includes 300, Watchmen, Sucker Punch, Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and Justice League. Despite taking on a heist movie and a zombie picture in a major action movie, he wrote, directed, and took over the camera for Army of the Dead. The result was a mash-up that may appeal to regular Snyder fans or anyone else. This month to accompany the film, Titan Books released Army of the Dead: The Making of the Film. If you liked the movie, and especially if you’re a fan of the horror genre and zombie films, you will want to check it out.

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Army of the Dead–Zack Snyder delivers his best work in Netflix zombie genre mash-up

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May 29, 2021

Review by C.J. Bunce

Zack Snyder finally did it. Despite taking on a heist movie and a zombie picture in a major action movie, he wrote a script and delivered the type of action blockbuster he has not yet been able to create. Army of the Dead is his first movie to get it right, a load of tropes, a mash-up of genre ideas, a tightly written story with a great cast, and wall-to-wall fun. Not a comedy like Shaun of the Dead or iZombie, Army of the Dead features the right amount of humor for this story, while incorporating all the expectations of any fan of the father of the genre, George A. Romero. Rivaling the incredible action and effects in 6 Underground, it also rises to become one of Netflix’s most promising productions.

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The Art of The Mitchells vs. The Machines–Go behind the scenes of the hit Netflix sci-fi comedy

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May 14, 2021

Review by C.J. Bunce

Sony Pictures Animation, the studio that made Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse and the LEGO movies brought its latest and greatest animated film to Netflix earlier this month with The Mitchells vs. The Machines–a sci-fi, apocalypse, coming of age story (reviewed here) about a normal but weird family that tries to dodge a planet-wide extermination resulting from the very technologies humans are so addicted to. Much of the action takes place during a cross-country trip, and it’s that imagery that is underplayed on the big screen, but really comes to life as incredible art in The Art of The Mitchells vs. The Machines, a behind the scenes book of exploration coming to Amazon here and a bookstore near you next week. Gravity Falls creators Michael Rianda and Jeff Rowe wrote and directed the film, a visually stunning spectacle, with contributions by the Academy Award winning duo of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (both known for the LEGO movies and Into the Spider-verse). Author Ramin Zahed interviews those creators and more and shares hundreds of concept art images for this next look into the development of cutting edge animation.

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The Mitchells vs. The Machines–Good storytelling highlights Sony Pictures Animation’s latest visual spectacle

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May 2, 2021

Review by C.J. Bunce

Surprisingly great, surprisingly real, and surprisingly… current? Sony Pictures Animation, the studio that brought you Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse brings its latest and greatest animated film to Netflix this weekend. It’s The Mitchells vs. The Machines–a sci-fi, apocalypse, coming of age, story about a weird family that ends up being the last family on the planet to be exterminated from the planet by the very technologies humans are so addicted to. Gravity Falls creators Michael Rianda and Jeff Rowe wrote and directed this story, a visually stunning spectacle reflecting life as we knew it in 2020… and may know it again, with contributions by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (both known for the LEGO movies and Into the Spider-verse). The themes are influenced by Tron and Tron: Legacy, National Lampoon’s Vacation, and the Terminator movies, leaning hard on the plot of Terminator: Genisys. It’s loud, colorful, crazy, and it gets family relationships just right, at least of the 21st century variety. It’s also the movie I was hoping for with The Incredibles 2.

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Things Heard & Seen–Amanda Seyfried stars in thriller arriving on Netflix this weekend

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May 1, 2021

Review by Elizabeth C. Bunce

The setup for Netflix’s new ghost story, Things Heard & Seen, is as classic as they come: a young family buys their dream home in the country, and it turns out to be haunted. Building on these classic bones, Things Heard & Seen is elevated by timely themes and a strong cast. The supernatural creepiness is only the surface of this disturbing tale of haunted houses and the people who inhabit them.

That strong cast includes Oscar-nominated actor Amanda Seyfried (Veronica Mars, Mama Mia, Ted 2) starring as the supportive wife of up-and-coming art history professor James Norton (Doctor Who, Black Mirror), with terrific supporting roles by F. Murray Abraham (Star Trek: Insurrection, Amadeus), and Rhea Seehorn (Better Call Saul, American Dad). Even the small players are stellar: Karen Allen (Raiders of the Lost Arc) and Michael O’Keefe (Caddyshack) play the local real estate agent and sheriff, and Natalia Dyer (Stranger Things) is a refreshing and layered addition to the cast. Keep an eye out for one of the best animal performances of the year.

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Tags: All Things Cease to Appear, Amanda Seyfried, Elizabeth Brundage, F. Murray Abraham, ghost stories, I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, James Norton, Karen Allen, Malice, Michael O'Keefe, Natalia Dyer, Netflix, Netflix movies, Now streaming, Rhea Seehorn, Skeleton Key, Things Heard & Seen, Things Heard & Seen review, thrillers

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A remake and update of The Goonies arrives in Netflix’s Finding ‘Ohana

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February 5, 2021

Review by C.J. Bunce

If Chris Columbus and Steven Spielberg didn’t get paid for the screenplay for the new Netflix kids’ adventure movie Finding ‘Ohana, they should. Usually an homage borrows bits and pieces from the source material. Finding ‘Ohana is different–it is a remake (albeit unofficial remake) of the 1985 classic coming of age adventure The Goonies, updated to bring it into the 21st century and change the setting from Oregon to Hawaii. ‘Ohana, which you’ll know from previous Hawaii-themed series and movies, means family, which reflects the film’s theme of Hawaiian culture and families reunited. Ultimately the effort is a mixed bag–a movie that could be great fun for younger kids, but will make everyone else crave the movies it pulls its ideas from.

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Mank–Meandering script and technical flaws plague Netflix’s latest black and white drama

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December 10, 2020

Review by C.J. Bunce

It’s one thing to make a film about a notably B-level filmmaker and arrive at a success like the 1994 acclaimed black and white biopic Ed Wood. But when you try the same thing about one of the best films ever made, you’re practically set up for failure. It would take some kind of miracle to take Jack Fincher’s clunky, meandering script for the new Netflix film Mank and make it work. A hodgepodge of character study and Hollywood quotes, plucking half-truths and grand real-life names of Hollywood’s past, Mank misfires from poor directing decisions and camera work, a lack of understanding or attention to re-creating the magic of black and white film in the color era. What could have been a love letter to one of America’s greatest celebrated films paints a picture of a screenwriter who, rightly or wrongly, comes off as an unlikeable drunk who couldn’t possibly deserve our attention.

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Now streaming–Creepy twists don’t disappoint in House at the End of the Street

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October 9, 2020

Review by C.J. Bunce

If you’re asked to zip off a list of the best Jennifer Lawrence movies, it’s probable you’re not going to include the 2012 teen suspense-thriller, House at the End of the Street. And yet, as modern efforts at PG-13 teen horror are concerned, director Mark Tonderai (Doctor Who, The Five, Locke & Key) will keep viewers guessing which trope the film will hang its genre hat on. What’s exactly up with the guy in the house where his sister murdered the rest of the family years ago? One constant for the Academy Award-winning Lawrence is she rarely disappoints, whether as a bow-wielding survivor (The Hunger Games series) or a shape-shifting X-Woman (X-Men: The Days of Future Past, etc.). Even back to young Allison on Medium, Lawrence delivers, and this time she takes viewers for a ride into that terrible place called teen angst–near a creepy house in the woods. And its streaming for your Halloween month pleasure on Netflix.

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