Caro the Movie Critic

Three kids against one blind man.  Looking back at 2016, I said many times that it has been a disappointing year. However, looking at the year so far for a horror genre, it has kind of been a banner year with solid horror/slasher films: The Conjuring 2 , Lights Out , Green Room , etc. And, I am not a horror fan. In the end of August, we expect basically leftovers from the blockbuster buffet: note, an underwhelming blockbuster buffet. But, it seems to me, that this latest horror movie is a leftover that may be better than most of its main courses because it is crafted real well story-wise and it is creepily disturbing. This may be the best horror movie of the year. We follow three Detroit friends - Rocky (Jane Levy), Alex (Dylan Minnette) and Money (Daniel Zovatto) - who are burglars breaking into homes of wealthy owners, retrieving money or any valuable objects that could potentially be worth big to benefit their families or themselves. Rocky lives with his little sister, Di...

Welcome to the Ben-Hur 500: Chariot Style. Mostly everybody who is familiar with Ben-Hur  is familiar with the Charlton Heston version in 1959 because it is established as a classical epic about a man's journey for vengeance and redemption intertwined with the tale of Jesus Christ. However, back in which Hollywood was more restrained and directors have more creative control, legendary director William Wyler had eye into what the story can factor with support from some great performances and an epic scope. Ok, when I heard about a remake about this movie, I was rolling my eyes and saying that this will be a bomb, which it will be because nobody will care about this remake. Regarding my instinctive expectations, this movie had me for about 30 minutes, but then dives into monstrosity into balancing the emotional, religious aspect with such distracting special-effects extravaganza that it adds to the plot's conclusion with such laziness. The movie has a more different structu...

I have to confess...I almost forgot that it was almost three years since my first published review on the blog and this third year has been crazy with some weeks especially during the summer where numbers skyrocketed as to how many is reading my reviews and also what a rollercoaster year this is had been regarding a few great movies, good movies and bad movies. But, again, I want to say thank you to everybody who has been reading my movie reviews, in-depth discussions, great selections (classic films) and some lists. It is you all that strive me to push forward as to what movies I recommend and share and why I did like or hate the overall project. Plus, sometimes, I sacrifice myself for sharing my pain with y'all after a bad movie experience so that you will not have to suffer. Hahaha! However, please...go ahead and read some past reviews and GREAT SELECTIONS. Let's hope for another year. (By the way, I actually made that image above. I'm getting better little by l...

Two brothers chilling in Texas.  I have been to West Texas before and it is so different than other places I have been to. I am more familiar with urban life, so I do not want to downgrade rural life because it is not fair. But, when living or exploring the territory or territories, it does not become only a different region, but feels like a different country. Ever since No Country for Old Men , it has been a while since a great story has come about regarding the situation about lives in dangerous territories. With Sicario last year, we had a keen interest by exploring the criminal activity in Mexico and it was chilling. Now here, this is a more personal story regarding the Old West and New West meeting for a showdown to collide the predicaments of what may happen with each character. And, this is both a fascinating outlook of a portrait of lower-class people attempting to relive their dangerous situation and a character study of three interesting players in the game. Two me...

Here's the deal... Right off the bat, coming out the theater, I had fun watching the movie half of the time but then I got tired of the formulaic music choices and did not balance the comedy with the drama which the latter conquered the film because of it is a true story about two young guys impersonating arms dealers to make shady business deals with shady businessmen. The two young guys are jerks that you want to punch well, mostly Jonah Hill's character, because I started to feel dour thinking about the experience. Director Todd Phillips has a particularly interesting story to tell to persuasively tell us what's going on in the arms business with satire, however, ever since The Hangover Part II , his creativity has gone astray and interfered with the overall feeling of being tonally confused and mostly, not having a fun experience. In 2005, David Packouz (Miles Teller) is a massage therapist who is living with his girlfriend, Liz (Ana De Armas). On the side, David ...

The feeling I had when I look at great animation. I have to admit...despite a disappointing year so far, it has been a solid year for animated films financially and critically. To wrap up the summer movie season, I wanted a fresh story that can persuade me to come out of the theater and say, "Wow!" Now, granted with LAIKA Studios, they have made two of the most vibrant animated films of recent years, Coraline  and ParaNorman , and I knew going into this, I would get something special. And after my experience with Kubo and the Two Strings , I got something out of that movie, maybe even better. Kubo (voiced by Art Parkinson) has been caring for his ill mother (voiced by Charlize Theron) for some years. His mother suffered an accident, as with her child, as one of his eyes has been taken away by his grandfather. Kubo heads to the village with several origami figures he created. He usually tells villagers some stories while he strums his magical guitar, getting them to be i...

2016 has been an underwhelming year, unfortunately, with the summer movie season having a disappointing string of films but ended with a glimmer of hope. The only saving grace by capping the year as a good year at the most is the Fall Movie Season where studios release directors' best work that can inspire and/or surprise you. Despite the crummy summer, I am actually looking forward to most of the movies in the Fall/Winter lineup than the summer, honestly, because there is a wide range of true stories, mysteries, comedies and entertaining sci-fi flicks especially one, in particular. #1 and #2 were easy to establish but the rest were a bit difficult to place to be honest because there are a lot that are particularly interesting and also, I'm looking forward to. Note : Silence, from my favorite director, Martin Scorsese, is not on the list because I have heard very little about that movie and there's not much material posted regarding that project but I'm very much...