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1 month ago | 
thatshelf.com | Colin Biggs
Evil clowns are back, baby! After the success of Terrifier, Hollywood is gearing up for more killer clowns. Based on Adam Cesare’s popular YA series (three books published and just waiting for sequels), Clown in a Cornfield hit a sweet spot with readers looking for throwback horror similar to R.L. Stine’s Fear Street books and Christopher Pike’s novels. In this case, a new kid moves to a small town where something doesn’t feel right. Terror ensues.
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1 month ago | 
thatshelf.com | Colin Biggs
“Born in a storm way out to sea. Brewing and churning for days, weeks, months, sometimes even years, and it’s all building to this breaking point – short sharp shock of violence on the shore – and you either surf it or you get wiped out.” Thus, Nicolas Cage‘s unnamed surfer character tells his unnamed teenage son (Finn Little) in The Surfer. Cage can’t believe his son’s apathetic reaction.
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2 months ago | 
thatshelf.com | Colin Biggs
The prevailing feeling throughout The Alto Knights‘ is that it should’ve been made 20 years ago. While mob figures like Vito Genovese and Frank Costello used to be in the public lexicon, those names have faded into the pages of history. Even Jimmy Hoffa, a man whose mysterious death was a source of tabloid fodder for years, barely registered with the public when The Irishman debuted in 2019. These are the forgotten names from a bygone era.
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2 months ago | 
thatshelf.com | Colin Biggs
Since Charles Bronson first did shooty-gun fingers, Hollywood has served us many variations on a theme. Old man turns bad-ass, nerd turns bad-ass, character actor turns bad-ass, etc. It succeeds more often than not, judging from the many Death Wish sequels, the current popularity of John Wick, and this week’s release, Novocaine.
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Feb 27, 2025 | 
thatshelf.com | Colin Biggs
“Based on a true story.” The label pops up so often at the beginning of a film that we gloss over it. The phrase, thanks to Fargo-esque cutesiness and omnipresence, is meaningless. Yet, with this story, the authenticity is the draw. Last Breath tells the extraordinary rescue mission of diver Chris Lemons, a man trapped underwater for 29 minutes without oxygen, who survived against unimaginable odds. The film doesn’t require any embellishment. The thrills are built into the story already.
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Jan 24, 2025 | 
thatshelf.com | Colin Biggs
The real story around Flight Risk has been about its odd marketing. First, it didn’t mention Mel Gibson by name. Early TV spots only mentioned “the award-winning director of Braveheart, Apocalypto, and Hacksaw Ridge.” Then we got a promo with Gibson in Braveheart makeup shouting at Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Dockery to “go bigger.” After several straight-faced promotions, I don’t know why they went in that direction.
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Nov 19, 2024 | 
thatshelf.com | Colin Biggs
For years, movies have celebrated fraternities. Rambunctious films like Animal House and Old School lionized the slobs who made up such institutions, poking fun at the buttoned-up poindexters who opposed them. You’ll find legacy names making up frat rosters because, after all, frats don’t let in people like Homer Simpson, they trade in famous sons like Succession‘s Kendall Roy.
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Nov 15, 2024 | 
thatshelf.com | Colin Biggs
Christmas-themed hits like Elf, Jingle All the Way, and The Polar Express were the norm for this time of year, but recent releases have withered in theatres. Sensing an opportunity to jump into the marketplace like Netflix and Apple, Amazon pushed out one of the biggest movie stars in the world, Dwayne Johnson, into a holiday flick. After years of watching streamers hoard films that should be in theatres, they released the wrong film into cineplexes with Red One.
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Nov 1, 2024 | 
thatshelf.com | Colin Biggs
With 36 films at Warner Bros., four Academy Awards, and several iconic performances to his name, there is nothing more that Clint Eastwood could do to burgeon his resume. Surprisingly, the director came across this screenplay by writer Jonathan A. Abrams and said, “I’m not done yet.” The 94-year-old filmmaker’s latest film, Juror #2, is a handsomely crafted thriller that would fit right in with the heyday of ’90s filmmaking. Unfortunately, Juror #2 was released in 2024.
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Sep 13, 2024 | 
thatshelf.com | Colin Biggs
With the arrival of Speak No Evil, the list of English language horror remakes grows longer. The company is already suspect at best: The Grudge, Martyrs, Dark Water, and Quarantine all headline a growing list of mediocrity. Too often, a studio will take a concept, add a recognizable name, and then lean back into genre cliche. The results are creatively unsatisfying, and viewers are often frustrated with the final product because they don’t have the spark of the original.
