Movie Reviews

Film Review: Low Budget Thriller “Dark Asset”

Film Review: Low Budget Thriller “Dark Asset”

John (Byron Mann) is a handsome, self-confident man of action who finds himself in a hotel bar, trying to pick up the beautiful Jane (Helena Mattsson). To get her attention he hands her the keys to his Lamborghini, insisting that it's now her car, not his, which she...

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Film Review: Confusing Action Adventure “Wolf Pack”

Film Review: Confusing Action Adventure “Wolf Pack”

If you're a naysayer who believes that it's only Hollywood that can produce big-budget action nonsense, you'll be surprised by Wolf Pack (Lang qun). It's jam-packed with exciting stunts and action sequences that are barely tied together with a rather banal plot. The...

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Film Review: Tense Korean Sci-Fi Thriller “The Moon”

Film Review: Tense Korean Sci-Fi Thriller “The Moon”

It's the near future and most of the major powers are working together to expand the exploration and exploitation of space, including an international station orbiting the moon. South Korea has decided to go its own path, however, pulling its top scientists back home...

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Film Review: Ghostly, Entertaining “Haunted Mansion”

Film Review: Ghostly, Entertaining “Haunted Mansion”

I visited Disneyland dozens of times while growing up in Southern California. It was the #1 destination for our visitors, school trips, and even my high school marching band. While the park has grown and evolved over the years, two rides at the amusement park have...

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Film Review: Violent, Amusing “Night of the Assassin”

Film Review: Violent, Amusing “Night of the Assassin”

There's a certain vibe that seems to be the foundation of most all Asian martial arts movies. They're set in an unspecified historic era where there are no guns and no electricity and it's generally a sullen martial arts hero stepping up to protect an innocent peasant...

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Film Review: Epic and Complex Biopic “Oppenheimer”

Film Review: Epic and Complex Biopic “Oppenheimer”

The history of humanity has been all too intertwined with us inventing bigger and more efficient ways to kill each other. Spears beget bows and arrows, gunpowder begets cannonballs and artillery, along with rifles and pistols. Knives became swords, and little bombs...

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Hands On With The New “MoviePass” Theater Subscription

Hands On With The New “MoviePass” Theater Subscription

I subscribed to MoviePass when it first showed up and found it a fantastic deal. For $35 I could literally go see up to 30 movies each month. Catch one each week and it was paying for itself! I wrote about it back in 2014 in glowing terms: MoviePass, A Film Lover's...

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Film Review: Twisty Sci-Fi “Hypnotic”

Film Review: Twisty Sci-Fi “Hypnotic”

Imagine a film that's a mashup of Scanners, Memento, and Inception, where things are endlessly unwrapped to be shown as other than what you - and the protagonist - thinks is going on. Those are the main inspirations for the twisty, entertaining sci-fi thriller...

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Film Review: Gorgeous Wuxia “Code of the Assassins”

Film Review: Gorgeous Wuxia “Code of the Assassins”

Like too many modern movies, there are so many characters in the fantastic and highly entertaining Chinese action film Code of the Assassins (also known as Song of the Assassins, or, if you prefer Chinese, Qing mian Xiuluo) that it's best if you just assume you'll...

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Film Review: Audacious, Silly “The Wandering Earth II”

Film Review: Audacious, Silly “The Wandering Earth II”

Four years ago the Chinese film industry released one of its first big budget sci-fi thrillers, The Wandering Earth, to great acclaim and strong global box office results. When I reviewed it back in 2019, I found it interesting and exciting, partially because of its...

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dave taylor vertigo film swirl backgroundPlanet Dave is run by Dave Taylor, who has been writing about film, cars, games, and his lifestyle for many years. He's based in Boulder, Colorado and assures readers he's only occasionally falling into a gravity well or temporal distortion field.

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