Bill Watters

After 2018's biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody, about Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, it seems that it's time for retrospectives looking into the lives and careers of some of the late 20th-century musical icons. However where  Rhapsody was a super-sanitized and wildly fictionalized account of Mercury's career, the new Rocketman, starring Taron Egerton as the similarly unique Elton John, is a fantasy-laced full-bore musical that carries far more truth and energy than it's predecessor. 

So, Godzilla: King of the Monsters is one of those movies that every genre fan wishes would come along. Unfortunately, as every Dungeons & Dragons player knows who came across a way to get a wish – it needs to be carefully spelled out, otherwise you're likely to get something that's not quite what you'd […]

I've been often asked about what my review rating scores mean. What's a 6 vs a 7? Is a 5 a recommend thing or not? Why are critics so negative all the time? I wanted to take some time this holiday weekend to come up with some of my own answers to the questions. One […]

It's become clear with the changing of the content landscape that Disney has long since abandoned hope of doing what'd it had done for nearly a century – re-releasing their classic films every few years to bring in another round of box office revenues. So instead of still having the originals, we're stuck with their […]

Leave it to Guardians of the Galaxy's James Gunn to produce a tight little thriller like 'Brightburn'. Written by James' brother Mark and cousin Brian, they take the classic origin story of Clark Kent/Superman, and throw it into a spin that would make Quentin Tarantino proud. It's wicked, graphically violent, and perfectly solid way to […]

Heading into the third film in the John Wick franchise, it's a refreshing kind of sequel – one that knows exactly what is expected out of it, and it takes a perverse relish serving it up the same way that Wick himself serves up point blank headshots.  John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, hits the […]

For as much as popular culture loves the classic fantasy works of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, such as The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, and so many others, little focus have ever been placed on the author behind the worlds that has captivated readers (and viewers) for nearly a […]

It's been with trepidation that fans of Pokémon have been awaiting the arrival of the first live-action adaptation of the mega-franchise to the big screen. From the first images of Pokémon: Detective Pikachu's screen-version of Pikachu as a furry and learning that it would be Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds giving the little yellow guy his […]

Whether Avengers: Endgame wound up being the best superhero film of all time, or something as horrid as Age of Ultron, there is no debating that this crowning entry into the 22-film franchise is an event. There's few other entries in cinematic history that are as awaited with this much anticipation – Star Wars: The […]

Any horror fan has seen at least one or two films where a possessed human fights against monsters to keep them under control and contained within them (it's that whole good vs. evil within us metaphor for beginners); unfortunately it's also a perfect analog to the new reboot of 'Hellboy'. Somewhere inside is a really […]

Every year it seems we're faced with the premise that some studio is going to drop an adaptation of one or more of Stephen King's stories. This time it's back to a new version of his 1983 novel Pet Sematary with a script by authors Jeff Buhler (Nightflyers) and David Kajganich (Suspiria) from a story by […]

It was back in 2014 that Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi brought their small-budget indie film, What We Do In The Shadows, to Sundance. Their unique spin on a spoof of MTV's venerable Real World format of a documentary crew following around a set of housemates and chronicling their mundane dramas was novel by its […]

With each generation of horror films, there are different levers that filmmakers pull on to make us cringe and jump. Jordan Peele's newest film, Us, leans further into the horror genre than his freshman directorial outing, 2017's Get Out. As with Get Out, Peele's ability to craft a scene that looks like a normal, upper-middle […]

Over the past 11 years, we've all sat through twenty films which together make up Marvel's Cinematic Universe. However for as many of these films as we've seen, they're just as often able to make an audience feel like there's something new being explored. It's hard to imagine that it was only a year ago […]

Fighting With My Family, the new origin-story chronicling the real-life rise of Saraya-Jade Bevis to become WWE superstar Paige, is something entirely unexpected – a wonderful, well-performed, self-assured, success. Drawing a direct parallel to the film from professional wrestling isn't entirely off-base: it tells a story that's not entirely true (things are embellished and over-emphasized for […]

Sure, traditional superheroes have successfully  made the leap from comics to  the big screen, however when it comes to manga, the success rate has been more subdued. I'm thrilled to say that while Alita: Battle Angel is unlikely to threaten Blade Runner on anyone's top films list- it's a vibrant universe, well-paced, action-filled, and a fine […]

I have a guilty pleasure when it comes to romantic comedies, I'll admit it. I've seen 50 First Dates, My Best Friend's Wedding, and Bridget Jones's Diary more times than I'd like to admit. I've largely enjoyed Rebel Wilson's performance across the 1st and 3rd Pitch Perfect movies (let's all ignore the second one even existed). […]

While settling into to watch Netflix's latest limited-series Russian Doll, we didn't have a lot of advance knowledge about it. We'd heard something about it being a suitable watch for the Groundhog Day weekend, but it'd actually snuck in under the radar until it landed on our Netflix home screen. The lead, Natasha Lyonne(being one of our favorite […]

There's nothing at all wrong with moderate-budget/limited-cast science fiction films that are more thought experiments than robots and explosions. So stepping into Netflix's latest entry IO–with a total cast of three, and a trailer that looks like a variation on the Last Person on Earth theme–there wasn't any particular reason for trepidation. Unfortunately, it feels like […]

Netflix's latest feature film release, Polar, is an enjoyable carnival ride of violence and mayhem that will directly appeal to fans of the Smokin' Aces and John Wick family of films about assassins/agents who wind up being marked for "retirement" by their friendly local governments/crime bosses and they choose not to go down without a […]