I ran through several reasons in my mind why I felt compelled to include Mykelti "Bubba Gump" Williamson's role in The First Power on this site -- his status as the doomed partner of the heroic cop (Lou Diamond Phillips), or maybe his nervous superstition in the face of...
When I rented this film at the video store, the clerk looked at me and asked, "You know this isn't the Josh Hartnett movie, right?"
"Yeah," I muttered with an embarrassment normally reserved for KY Jelly and Hustler purchases. "I'm not expecting much."
You see, having recently sat through Zombie Nation,...
It should go without saying that portrayals of black characters in horror movies can stand to improve, but on the bright side, they aren't as bad as they've been in the past. Compare the original King Kong to 2017's Kong: Skull Island, for instance (acknowledging that films like these...
One of the most unjustly overlooked movies of 2018, Brazil’s Good Manners (As Boas Maneiras) is a bewitching blend of horror, fantasy and musical that veers from humorous to heartbreaking, romantic to tragic, all while maintaining the sort of childlike sense of wonder and storybook lore that could draw...
Party Day Massacre Stories is a movie in the same way that I would be a surgeon if I were to sneak into a hospital, steal some scrubs and haphazardly dig around a patient's chest cavity with a can opener. Yes, I'm technically performing an operation, but no one...
Hanah's Gift is an ambitious little film that pits a pair of age-old mortal enemies once more at each other's throat: angry black women and mute, autistic Hispanic girls. Yes, it's that tired formula AGAIN.
Hanah (Alina Herrera) is an autistic six year old who doesn't speak and lives in...
Having rewatched the original Jacob’s Ladder recently, I found that, although the whole “shaky head” effect has become something of a horror cliche over the years, it holds up well as a visually striking and narratively challenging -- but ultimately rewarding -- paranoid thriller with a poignant emotional core....
Hospitality is an unusually literate, restrained horror movie that, although written and directed by a black man (Tony Ducret), doesn't fall into any easy stereotypes -- unless you think that black guys are articulate, marginally prissy and like to make snuff films.
The movie has a great set-up: a spoiled,...
For a while, it seemed that the go-to move for an established film franchise that had reached a shark-jumping level of creative desperation was to shoot it into outer space -- the cinematic equivalent of a family sitcom adding a baby into the mix. James Bond, Hellraiser, Airplane, Leprechaun,...
The title alone should draw plenty of interest to Gold Digger Killer, but allow me to clarify that it doesn't refer to someone killing gold diggers (sorry, fellas), but rather an accused gold digger killing disrespectful men. Despite the campy title, GDK is a "deadly" serious film that's more...
