‘Salem’s Lot (2024) | REVIEW

Ben Mears (played by Lewis Pullman) looks out at the vampires in his hometown in ‘SALEM’S LOT — PHOTO: New Line Cinema/Max (Still image from trailer).

Directed by Gary Dauberman (Annabelle Comes Home) — Screenplay by Gary Dauberman.

This long-awaited Stephen King adaptation has gone through what many would describe as development hell. The film started principal photography in late 2021 and was originally slated to be released theatrically in 2022, but it was shelved or delayed due to a variety of circumstances including COVID-19-related post-production issues. Despite there having been talk about releasing it a year ago around the time of the SAG-AFTRA strikes, it remained shelved for quite some time, which led many to fear that, like Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah’s Batgirl or Dave Green’s Coyote vs. Acme, it could be yet another finished but unreleased and permanently shelved Warner Bros. Pictures product. Earlier this year, Stephen King even got involved and questioned its shelving, but, eventually, it was finally released straight to Max almost two weeks ago. Though not exactly a gem in its current state, there are definitely things to like about this adaptation that has, thankfully, finally seen the light of day.

Continue reading “‘Salem’s Lot (2024) | REVIEW”

‘The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,’ ‘The Burial,’ and More | Bite-Sized Reviews

(Clockwise from top left): The Burial (Amazon Prime Video); Merry Little Batman (Amazon Prime Video); Timeless Heroes: Indiana Jones and Harrison Ford (Disney+); Underverden II (Nordisk Film); The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (Republic Pictures).

For this edition of Additional Bite-Sized Reviews, I have highlighted five films that I saw in the past few months, these include a Danish action-crime sequel, a remake from a filmmaking master, a tribute to a big screen legend, a great animated comic book movie surprise, and, finally, an underseen courtroom drama with some really strong performances from Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones.


Continue reading “‘The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,’ ‘The Burial,’ and More | Bite-Sized Reviews”

REVIEW: Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

Theatrical Release Poster – 20th Century Fox

The following is a review of Bad Times at the El Royale — Directed by Drew Goddard.

There are some films that you can only recommend with a very specific caveat — that the movie felt as if it had been designed and made for you. This feeling can happen all the time, and when this happens I almost always find myself saying that “I absolutely loved it,” and then I limit my statement with a “but.” In the case of Bad Times at the El Royale, that sentence would probably look something like this: “I absolutely loved it, but there is a very real chance that its length and pace will annoy the hell out of you.”  Continue reading “REVIEW: Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)”