Michael Phillips

1 week ago | bnd.com | Michael Phillips

Every movie franchise has its worker bees, the supporting players working somewhere along the bit-part spectrum. Three, maybe four lines of dialogue. Lines such as: "Such as?" or "Here, I got you these," spoken to the more dynamic and prominent characters we're supposed to be watching. Statistically speaking, these bit-part mayflies of the movie world have next-to-zero odds of returning for a sequel. But next to zero is not zero. And a faintly absurd long shot just came in for the actor Rolf Saxon.

1 week ago | chicagotribune.com | Michael Phillips

Every movie franchise has its worker bees, the supporting players working somewhere along the bit-part spectrum. Three, maybe four lines of dialogue. Lines such as: “Such as?” or “Here, I got you these,” spoken to the more dynamic and prominent characters we’re supposed to be watching. Statistically speaking, these bit-part mayflies of the movie world have next-to-zero odds of returning for a sequel. But next to zero is not zero. And a faintly absurd long shot just came in for the actor Rolf Saxon.

3 weeks ago | yahoo.com | Michael Phillips

Death doesn’t exactly take a holiday in “Final Destination: Bloodlines,” the sixth in the “Final Destination” series and the first after a 14-year break. It’s more of a busman’s holiday, enjoyed to the fullest by an entity truly in love with a particular line of work. The film works likewise. It’s a welcome tonal shift for this 25-year-old franchise, which is built not on any one character or actor, but on death as a fact of life.

1 month ago | hastingstribune.com | Michael Phillips

"Sinners" is all over the place yet somehow all of a piece. Its themes aren't new, but the variations feel fresh. Telling a fantastical tale of dark forces in plain sight, fed by the seductive power of music, "Sinners" also feels like apt timing for 2025 America, where the only thing we have to fear is no longer fear itself. It's also a movie made for movie theaters. Shooting in 65mm IMAX and Ultra Panavision 70, Coogler hands his steady collaborator Michael B.

1 month ago | chicagotribune.com | Michael Phillips

There’s enough nervous, life-and-death texting afoot in “Drop,” now in theaters, to make you swear off smartphones. Director Christopher Landon does everything under the sun to vary the visual depiction of these messages. As digitally dropped threats from an unknown predator grow increasingly sinister during the protagonist’s big date at a swank Chicago restaurant, the messages blast across the big screen in huge letters, or plaster an entire wall of the ladies’ restroom.