The 2018 novel, "The Woman in the Window," by author A.J. Finn, was a hot property in Hollywood and almost immediately after its release, was green-lit as a feature film. It attracted Oscar-caliber talent, like Amy Adams, Julianne Moore and Gary Oldman, with an adapted screenplay by Tracy Letts and Scott Rudin. Esteemed director Joe Wright ("Darkest Hour," "Atonement") was brought on board and "The Woman in the Window" looked like a surefire hit.
That is, until disastrous test screenings with audiences sent the movie back into post-production and delayed it from its original October 2019 release date. The pandemic put it out even farther, and 20th Century Studios was more than happy to sell it off to Netflix, who purchased the rights to the film and then unceremoniously dumped it as a mid-May release (Netflix, a PR powerhouse, did little to promote it and doesn't seem to have much confidence in its performance). It's never a good sign when a movie goes through so much, but even in knowing the film's journey, it still lands as a massive disappointment when it arrives and is ever worse than you expect. With Adams, Oldman, Moore and also featuring Brian Tyree Henry, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Wyatt Russell and Anthony Mackie (the latter two of whom were recent co-stars in "The Falcon & The Winter Soldier"), you expect something great, and "The Woman in the Window" is not great...even if glimpsed through a window from across the street would one never reach that conclusion.
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The "Saw" franchise is one of the most successful horror franchises of all-time, having grossed over a billion - with a "b" - since the first film hit theaters back in 2004. "Spiral: From the Book of Saw" is now the ninth film in the series and the first since the 2017 release, "Jigsaw."
The first two films in the series were fresh, unique and clever despite being labeled, perhaps correctly, as "torture porn." But the further we get away from that original pair of films, the more pointless the movies have become. Consequently "Spiral," feels like a copy of of a copy of a copy...an inauthentic wanna-be, much like the new killer it features who is yet again out for some twisted form of vengeance. It's "Groundhog's Day" meets "John Wick," in one of the most entertaining, surprisingly funny action films you'll ever see.
"Boss Level" is not based on any particular video game, but it just may be the very best video game movie ever made. Not technically a re-make of Alfred Hitchcock's first American film in 1940, "Rebecca" is based on the same 1938 Gothic novel by Dame Daphne du Maurier. Fans of the Hitchcock movie will quickly realize that A) Director Ben Wheatley is no Alfred Hitchcock, B) Lily James is good, but is no Joan Fontaine, and C) Armie Hammer is definitely no Laurence Olivier.
So if you're familiar with the film, it will fall short as an unworthy copy of the movie you know...and for everyone else who just learned a paragraph ago about Hitchcock's version, this "Rebecca" won't register as more than an empty drama. Indy, eery sci-fi flick, "The Vast of Night" wants to pull you in to its very own Twilight Zone, and yet it never fully grabs a hold.
After successfully teaming up for "Patriots Day," "Deepwater Horizon" and "Lone Survivor" (we'll forget about "Mile 22" for now), actor/producer Mark Wahlberg and director Peter Berg finally release a dud with the Netflix action-comedy, "Spenser Confidential."
A horror-film re-make hitting theaters in late February? Nothing about this movie demands that you should go in with elevated expectations, but "The Invisible Man" surprisingly has more meat on its bones than you'd ever imagine. In fact, it's 2020's first, dare I say, great film.
Blake Lively does her best, but her best is not nearly enough to save "The Rhythm Section," a movie that throws its hat into the ring early on as one of the biggest duds of 2020.
New on Netflix is the mystery/thriller, "Earthquake Bird," starring Alicia Vikander, Riley Keough and Naoki Kobayashi.
NETFLIX Review: 'In the Shadow of the Moon' a genre-bending mystery that may make your head explode9/26/2019 NETFLIX has surprisingly been putting out some of this year's best films, from "Triple Frontier" to "The Dirt," to "See You Yesterday." With the trippy, mind-screwing sci-fi/mystery/crime/thriller "In the Shadow of the Moon," it adds another entry into the fold that deserves serious consideration.
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