Blog — 3 Brothers Film

Review: F9: The Fast Saga (2021)

F9 escalates the series into the realm of pure spectacle and melodrama.

Review: Oxygen (2021)

Alexandre Aja’s confined-space thriller mines plenty of claustrophobic tension, but ultimately doesn’t trust the strength of its limited premise to hold the viewer’s interest.

Aren's Reviews, Reviews, The Current: At HomeAren BergstromJune 30, 2021Oxygen, Netflix, Alexandre Aja, Christie LeBlanc, Mélanie Laurent, Mathieu Amalric, Malik ZidiComment

Review: Unhinged (2020)

Unhinged is a trashy exploitation flick that uses a bloated and creepy Russell Crowe to fuel its blunt-force thrills.

Aren's Reviews, Reviews, The Current: At HomeAren BergstromJune 9, 2021Unhinged, Derrick Borte, Carl Ellsworth, Russell Crowe, Caren Pistorius, Gabriel Bateman, Jimmi Simpson, Austin P. McKenzieComment

Review: The Fast and the Furious (2001)

This rip-off of Point Break still coasts on the fumes of Vin Diesel’s star power 20 years after its release.

Review: The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

Ida Lupino’s tense film noir anticipates later horror movies in its portrait of uncompromising evil.

Aren's Reviews, Overlooked and Under-Appreciated, ReviewsAren BergstromMay 28, 2021The Hitch-Hiker, Ida Lupino, Collier Young, Edmond O'Brien, Frank Lovejoy, William TalmanComment

Review: The Woman in the Window (2021)

Joe Wright’s adaptation of the popular bestseller is baffling, cynical trash that wastes a good cast and crew.

Review: One False Move (1992)

Carl Franklin’s neo-noir is fast, tense, and quietly revealing about how people are and the way the world works.

Aren's Reviews, Overlooked and Under-Appreciated, ReviewsAren BergstromMay 14, 2021One False Move, Carl Franklin, Billy Bob Thornton, Tom Epperson, Bill Paxton, Cynda Williams, Michael Beach, Earl Billings, Jim MetzlerComment

Hot Docs 2021: Come Back Anytime

John Daschbach’s documentary about Masamoto Ueda and his ramen restaurant, Bizentei, is a gentle portrait of community.

Aren's Reviews, Reviews, The Festival CircuitAren BergstromMay 6, 2021Hot Docs 2021, John Daschbach, Masamoto Ueda, Come Back AnytimeComment

Review: Seconds (1966)

John Frankenheimer’s Seconds deconstructs America in the 1960s and exposes the paranoia and anxieties bubbling under the surface of American culture.

Aren's Reviews, Reviews, Overlooked and Under-AppreciatedAren BergstromMay 3, 2021John Frankenheimer, Lewis John Carlino, David Ely, Rock Hudson, Salome Jens, John Randolph, Will Geer, Jeff Corey, Richard Anderson, Murray Hamilton, Karl Swenson, Khigh Dhiegh, Frances Reid, SecondsComment

Zack Snyder: Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010)

For all its fantasy adventure tropes and CGI animation conventions, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole has all the formal tics and thematic obsessions of a Snyder film.

Review: The Father (2020)

Florian Zeller’s adaptation of his own stage play is a claustrophobic work of compassion with a great Anthony Hopkins performance.

Reviews, The Current: In Theatres, Aren's ReviewsAren BergstromApril 20, 2021The Father, Florian Zeller, Christopher Hampton, Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman, Mark Gatiss, Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell, Olivia WilliamsComment

Review: Coming 2 America (2021)

Coming 2 America fits Hollywood’s current template for legacy sequels, but its humour is very much a 1980s throwback.

Zack Snyder: 300 (2007)

Zack Snyder’s 300 is a heavy metal fever dream and a spellbinding work of comic book mythmaking.

Review: I Care a Lot (2020)

J Blakeson’s thriller starring Rosamund Pike wastes its appealing hook with muddled satire and contradictory characterizations.

Reviews, Aren's Reviews, The Current: At HomeAren BergstromMarch 23, 2021I Care a Lot, J Blakeson, Rosamund Pike, Peter Dinklage, Eiza González, Dianne Wiest, Chris Messina, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Macon Blair, Alicia Witt, Damian Young, Nicholas Logan Comments

Review: Con Air (1997)

Simon West’s action classic leans into every absurdity of 1990s filmmaking, defining its entertainment ethos, without capturing its art.

Review: The Little Things (2021)

John Lee Hancock’s serial killer drama gestures at the hallmarks of prestige cinema, but is mostly a bore.

Reviews, The Current: In Theatres, Aren's ReviewsAren BergstromMarch 10, 2021The Little Things, John Lee Hancock, Denzel Washington, Rami Malek, Jared Leto, Natalie Morales, Chris Bauer, Michael Hyatt, Terry KinneyComment

Review: Riddick (2013)

The third film in The Chronicles of Riddick series goes back to basics in its riff on survival movies and cat-and-mouse thrillers.

Flash Back, Reviews, Aren's ReviewsAren BergstromMarch 2, 2021Riddick, David Twohy, Jim Wheat, Ken Wheat, Vin Diesel, Jordi Molla, Matthew Nable, Katee Sackhoff, Dave Bautista, Bokeem Woodbine, Raoul Trujillo, Karl UrbanComment

Review: The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)

The sequel to Pitch Black takes a bizarre left turn into space opera, resulting in a deeply silly and kind of awesome epic.

Flash Back, Reviews, Aren's ReviewsAren BergstromFebruary 25, 2021The Chronicles of Riddick, David Twohy, Jim Wheat, Ken Wheat, Vin Diesel, Colm Feore, Keith David, Karl Urban, Thandie Newton, Alexa Davalos, Judi Dench, Linus Roache, Nick Chinlund, Yorick van WageningenComment

Review: Pitch Black (2000)

David Twohy’s first film about Vin Diesel’s antihero is a B-movie throwback.

Flash Back, Reviews, Aren's ReviewsAren BergstromFebruary 17, 2021Pitch Black, Riddick, David Twohy, Ken Wheat, Jim Wheat, Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, Keith David, Lewis Fitz-Gerald, Claudia Black, Rhiana Griffith, John MooreComment

Review: Den of Thieves (2018)

Christian Gudegast’s 2018 action thriller succeeds by blatantly ripping off Michael Mann’s Heat.

Reviews, Overlooked and Under-Appreciated, Aren's ReviewsAren BergstromFebruary 10, 2021Den of Thieves, Christian Gudegast, Paul Scheuring, Gerard Butler, Pablo Schreiber, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Curtis Jackson, Evan Jones, Cooper AndrewsComment