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FlickFilosopher.com

film criticism by maryann johanson | handcrafted since 1997

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heist

Ocean’s Eight movie review: revenge of the women

Thu, Jun 14, 2018
26 comments

Breezy fun that sticks a shiv into Hollywood’s — and the larger culture’s — disdain for women. Wonderfully subtle comic performances from a great cast having a ball make for a perfectly suitable light diversion from the world right now.

| 26 Comments

Solo: A Star Wars Story movie review: where has our scoundrel gone?

Wed, May 23, 2018
89 comments

A Star Wars–flavored juice drink* of a movie (*contains 10% real juice) that tells us nothing of significance we didn’t already know about Han Solo, in an incarnation that lacks his essential charisma and precarious danger.

| 89 Comments

The Hurricane Heist movie review: ’tis an ill wind that blows no minds

Thu, Apr 05, 2018
5 comments

A peanut-butter-in-my-chocolate movie, this Die Hard meets Twister monster is so ludicrous it comes all the way back around to being awesome and hilarious.

| 5 Comments

The Vault movie review: where the money is haunted

Thu, Sep 07, 2017
1 comment

Psychologically risible and paranormally inconsistent heist horror gives us not a single character to like or root for, or even to cheer dying.

| 1 Comment

Logan Lucky movie review: a waste of a heist

Fri, Aug 25, 2017
5 comments

Fun enough and diverting enough while you’re in the middle of it, but hints of something much richer and more satisfying dangle just out of its reach.

| 5 Comments

Overdrive movie review: dumb and dubious

Tue, Aug 15, 2017
9 comments

More plot holes than plot, this overly convoluted, deeply stupid Fast and Furious wannabe is crammed with clichés and memorable only when it’s laughable.

| 9 Comments

Bad Santa 2 movie review: been there, done that, licked the candy cane lasciviously

Thu, Nov 24, 2016
no comments yet

Hard to believe it took 13 years to get a sequel to our screens and still have it show not a hint of Bad Santa’s inspiration or subversion.

| Leave a comment

Hell or High Water movie review: there will be blood

Tue, Sep 13, 2016
10 comments

Alongside plenty of heist-movie humor and suspense is a bleak fatalism grounded in depressing reality and resignation to the miserable necessity it demands.

| 10 Comments

Now You See Me 2 movie review: now you don’t

Fri, Jul 08, 2016
8 comments

The delicately balanced foolishness of Now You See Me gives way to impossibly supernatural magic tricks aimed at thwarting the least menacing villain ever.

| 8 Comments

Triple 9 movie review: ordinary criminals

Thu, Feb 18, 2016
no comments yet

How did a genre-smashing director make a heist thriller so generic, with characters too unlikable to be engaging but not twisted enough to be intriguing?

| Leave a comment
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