REVIEW: 'Da 5 Bloods' is a powerful but fragmented war story

But it’s not the presence of middle-aged actors in the period combat scenes that smothers the tension in Da 5 Bloods. It’s a list of smaller choices, subtle details that might be chalked up to style but took me out of the experience. Several characters’ deaths seem to share Tropic Thunder’s taste for comedic violence, applied to moments that are pitched as drama. The soundtrack alternates between patriotic orchestral anthems and R&B, though the tracks often don’t match the expected tone of the scene.

Film, New ReleasesRobert SnowJune 18, 2020da 5 bloods, spike lee, delroy lindo, vietnam, war, clarke peters, chadwick boseman, netflix, review, movies, filmComment

TV REVIEW: Fittingly, 'Space Force' has a lot of dead air

It feels oddly disjointed; unlike The Office or Community in which any episode could take place on any weekday, Space Force has to follow a linear timeline of events, but at times it’s difficult to make heads or tails of what is actually going on and it never really focuses on one conflict long enough before moving on.

TVJason ChenJune 4, 2020space force, the office, comedy, tv, netflix, steve carell, ben schwartz, jane lynch, diana silvers, john malkovich, reviewComment

TV REVIEW: Sorry, your 'Love Life' isn't that interesting

I can live with all of these things, if only to watch Kendrick charismatically tumble through her love life, but meaningful relationships condensed into 30-minute episodes feel like a disservice to such supposedly seminal points in Darby’s life.

TVJason ChenMay 29, 2020tv, hbo max, anna kendrick, jin ha, zoe chao, comedy, review, romanticComment

TV REVIEW: 'Snowpiercer' is dead like winter

First introduced to audiences as a graphic novel in 1982 as Le Transperceneige, it was adapted into a feature film in 2013 as Snowpiercer to near-universal acclaim. Fast forward to 2020, and we now have a TV iteration that, so far, struggles to answer the unenviable question of… why?

TVJason ChenMay 28, 2020snowpiercer, bong joon-ho, daveed diggs, jennifer connelly, sci-fi, society, class, review, tvComment

$REVIEW: Like the real thing, 'Capone' feels fractured and inconclusive$

REVIEW: Like the real thing, 'Capone' feels fractured and inconclusive

What keeps Trank coming back, however, is his ability to craft some really great scenes. Dark, moody and – at times – self-destructive, it feels like Capone’s material speaks to Trank’s personality and career in a personal way, but much like his other projects, it never quite comes together with an overarching big idea.

Film, New ReleasesJason ChenMay 27, 2020capone, vod, on demand, josh trank, tom hardy, linda cardellini, matt dillon, gangster, crime, review, 2020Comment

REVIEW: ‘The Trip to Greece’ quests bravely for a series finale

We’ve seen both Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon - or rather, the amplified versions of themselves that they play in this series - struggle with satisfaction in their careers, happiness in their romantic relationships, and bonds with their children. Now The Trip to Greece pits Coogan against one the toughest challenges a man of his age could face: the illness of an elderly parent.

REVIEW: ‘The Lovebirds’ find some chemistry, but not the right words

However, where Game Night featured a memorable network of supporting characters and some surprising kinks in the plot, everything (even the leads) in The Lovebirds is noticeably underwritten. Other than the onscreen presence of Nanjiani and Rae, the movie doesn’t give us much else to work with.

Film, New ReleasesRobert SnowMay 24, 2020the lovebirds, kumail nanjiani, issa rae, anna camp, kyle bornheimer, comedy, netflix, 2020, review, datingComment

REVIEW: 'All Day and a Night' leaves a deeper impression

He’s powerless from the start, and it’s a dangerous fuel to Jahkor’s pride and short fuse, both of which end up consuming him. The film constantly reminds you about institutionalized racism; “they teach you how to survive, but they don’t teach you how to live” is a common refrain.

REVIEW: 'Extraction' highlights action, the rest is just distraction

t’s a heavy-handed action film, with each cliché delivered to you hand over fist. When we meet Tyler, he casually jumps off a big cliff and into the water, where he stays submerged. He’s drowning himself with the heavy memories of a troubled past, which the film is all too eager to remind you any time there’s a quiet moment.

Film, New ReleasesJason ChenApril 27, 2020extraction, chris hemsworth, action, movies, film, review, netflix, sam hargrave, 2020, david harbour, Golshifteh FarahaniComment

Watching ‘The Expanse’ in quarantine: is the show scarier during the COVID-19 pandemic?

There’s plenty of moments that, in the era of COVID-19, seem all too familiar. The characters are hypervigilant around sources of infection, frantically double-checking their suits and disinfecting everything. They soon develop an effective blood-based test for the virus, and in the fourth season, part of an episode revolves around performing community-wide tests to determine if someone’s been exposed.

TV REVIEW: ‘Tales from the Loop’, where wonder becomes ordinary

A character glimpsed briefly in one episode will eventually get an installment of her own. The high-tech discoveries at the Loop figure into each one, but we’re never left with the sense that the show is trying to sound dire warnings about its viewers’ relationship with their phones or social media.

REVIEW: 'Tigertail' and generic Asian-ness

My internet research tells me Yang was born in California to parents who emigrated from Taiwan, so it’s not exactly clear if the film is biographical. If it is rooted in real-life experience, then the historical and cultural inconsistencies and inaccuracies are rather odd.

Film, New ReleasesJason ChenApril 15, 2020tigertail, taiwan, taiwanese, alan yang, tzi ma, hong chi-lee, christine ko, drama, immigrant, netflix, movie, reviewComment

TV REVIEW: The chaotic reign of the ‘Tiger King’ brings us together in isolation

Tiger King is a cross-section of so many genres that its impact on the zeitgeist was perhaps a foregone conclusion.

TVRobert SnowMarch 29, 2020tiger king, murder, mayhem, madness, netflix, joe exotic, doc antle, carole baskin, jeff lowe, documentary, tv, reviewComment

TV REVIEW: 'Hunters' just misses the spot

It’s a good-enough premise, but the moral question it posits is far more interesting. There’s a lot of torture, and a lot of it to good end. Important plot information is revealed usually when Nazis are tortured, and when the situation is flipped and the Nazis do the torturing, it’s usually to show the strength of Jews. I don’t think Hunters endorses torture, but simply by tolerating torture we may not be as progressive as we thought, especially given all the scientific advances made during the war years.

TVJason ChenMarch 21, 2020hunters, tv, amazon prime, holocaust, nazi hunter, al pacino, logan lerman, josh radnor, crime, thriller, reviewComment

REVIEW: ‘Run This Town’ chases the wrong part of the Rob Ford story

Lewis is not glimpsed in character for an asphyxiating amount of time. Tollman seems to want to save his reveal like Spielberg teased the shark from Jaws. In the meantime, instead of building a tense cat-and-mouse game between Bram (Platt) and the people protecting Ford, the characters stay in their own bubbles, never crossing paths or ever giving the sense that they’re doing anything to outmaneuver each other.

Film, New ReleasesKinetoscope StaffMarch 14, 2020run this town, rob ford, 2020, ben platt, mena massoud, nina dobrev, scott speedman, damian lewis, review, movies, filmComment

DISCLAIMER

ALL NAMES, TRADEMARKS AND IMAGES ARE COPYRIGHT THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.