Adam Selvidge's Website Blog
Fast X: Directed by Louis Leterrier. With Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Jason Statham, Jordana Brewster. Dom Toretto and his family are targeted by the vengeful son of drug kingpin Hernan Reyes. Things move very fast in this, the 11th movie in the franchise (don’t forget to remember to not forget about Hobbes and Shaw!) and is the start of a trilogy of movies that might could possibly finish up this furious story that they’ve been telling for over 20 years. Jason Momoa is a breath of fresh air in terms of bad guys for these films, we’ve seen many mustache...
A Civil Action: Directed by Steven Zaillian. With John Travolta, Robert Duvall, Tony Shalhoub, William H. Macy. A tenacious lawyer takes on a case involving two companies responsible for causing several children to be diagnosed with leukemia due to the town’s water supply being contaminated, at the risk of bankrupting his firm and career. “A Civil Action” was released in 1998, directed by Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List, Money Ball), and stars John Travolta, Robert Duvall, William H. Macy, Tony Shalhoub, John Lithgow, James Gandolfini, and has an appearance by world renowned comedian Stephen Fry. The plot follows a hot shot...
Transfusion: Directed by Matt Nable. With Sam Worthington, Phoebe Tonkin, Matt Nable, Susie Porter. A former Special Forces operative thrust into the criminal underworld to keep his only son from being taken from him. There’s something to be said for the formula that they’re trying to do here, but this film didn’t stick the landing and they left something ineffable out of the story. The synopsis above is wrong of course, he was having a perfectly fine life before an incident happened to his pregnant wife that left him and his middle school son without a mother or wife. There’s...
The heroes are on vacation. Really. The wedding of Dane and Annabeth (Danabeth) is over, the team has caught their villain-of-the-month, and Hope thinks everyone deserves a break from the cycle of training and public-relations appearances. So except for Ozma and Grendel (who’ve decided to return to adventures in Oz) they’re all enjoying the sand and the sun in Littleton, the safest secret community in the world.But then Shell vanishes—her quantum-neural link with Hope and Shelly severed—and Ozma and Grendel return with ominous warnings that something is happening back in Chicago. As the Young Sentinels race to return home, the...
Eugenie: Directed by Jesús Franco. With Maria Rohm, Marie Liljedahl, Jack Taylor, Christopher Lee. An innocent girl goes to spend the weekend on an island with a woman and her brother, but soon finds herself entangled in a web of sexual experiments. Undeservedly rated “X”, which I think is largely from both the lesbian kissin’ and the satanic rituals, other than that, this is a sometime out of focus suspense film set to a soundtrack that sounds like the cousin of Tinto Brass, which isn’t a good fit for what they’re trying to do here. While they’re being all spooky...
In the 11th millennium of the rule of the Eternal Empress a squad of planet-smashing super soldiers find their routine mission to be anything but. These are the Set in a universe that reminds me GREATLY of the Warhammer 40k universe with a Eternal Empress on the throne and “Forged” soldiers based off her DNA that has abilities and mech suits out fighting the filth of the galaxy. Don’t get me wrong though, this is a GOOD series that I highly suggest to anyone that wants to read some large format comics that really kick into high gear in the...
Deep Water: Directed by Adrian Lyne. With Ben Affleck, Ana de Armas, Tracy Letts, Grace Jenkins. A well-to-do husband who allows his wife to have affairs in order to avoid a divorce becomes a prime suspect in the disappearance of her lovers. The description of the film up there is completely wrong, there’s absolutely no “understanding” and Affleck’s character is very much aware of his wife’s infidelity and is very much not ok with what’s going on. It’s a story by numbers movie right up until the third act in which absolutely everything gets flipped upside down and there’s a...
Inside: Directed by Vasilis Katsoupis. With Willem Dafoe, Gene Bervoets, Eliza Stuyck, Andrew Blumenthal. Nemo, a high-end art thief, is trapped in a New York penthouse after his heist doesn’t go as planned. Locked inside with nothing but priceless works of art, he must use all his cunning and ingenuity to survive. I feel like this is a good movie. But I didn’t like it. There’s a lot to like, but I think the end result isn’t something that I like. I WANT to like it, but alas, I do not. Is this art? Buy On Amazon!
The Portable Door: Directed by Jeffrey Walker. With Christoph Waltz, Patrick Gibson, Damon Herriman, Sophie Wilde. Paul Carpenter is an intern at a mysterious London firm with unconventional employers, including a CEO who wants to disrupt the ancient magical world with modern corporate practices. An adorable and loveable movie about a guy finding his place in the world and just going with the flow when it turns out that his place is in a magical….place? It was a pleasure to see Sam Neill an Christopher Waltz again, I’m not sure if I’ve seen Sophie Wilde or Patrick Gibson before, but...
65: Directed by Scott Beck, Bryan Woods. With Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt, Chloe Coleman, Nika King. An astronaut crash lands on a mysterious planet only to discover he’s not alone. A well done but completely forgettable story of a man and a child running to a rescue spaceship while dodging dinosaurs. I have no complaints about the film at all but there’s not much that’s truly memorable about it, other than the final “impact” of the third act, which is sorta a 20 million year old spoiler, but I think in context of the movie, it’s best to leave that...
