sandwichjohnfilms

The competent but unremarkable Ghost in the Shell is nothing you haven't seen before. Review by Matt Cummings At what point do all movies feel like you've seen them before? When I look at some of my fellow reviewer colleagues, I see their fatigue on display and with good reason. In their decades-long evaluation of cinema, they've seen better versions of every film in theaters right now, including Director Rupert Sanders' big screen American adaptation of Ghost in the Shell , a competent but all-too-familiar Frankenstein of every important Sci-Fi film of the past 30 years. Set in a dystopian future in which everyone seems plugged into the Internet with enhancements, Ghost in the Shell introduces us to Major (Scarlett Johansson), a humanoid whose brain is real but whose body is totally synthetic. This gives Major incredible strength and intelligence, as demonstrated by the film's first ass-kicking sequence. Her boss Armaki (Takeshi Kitano) has surro

The LEGO Batman Movie – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack loves its Batman by upping the dramatic camp and delivering it in a black cowl. Review by Matt Cummings The LEGO Batman Movie was a hilarious tribute to the 75-year history of The Dark Knight, offering up heavy meta to every incarnation including the infamous Bat Nipple. While it's not as good as the fantastic The LEGO Movie , there's so much going on here that you need multiple viewings just to get all the jokes and to appreciate Actor Will Arnett's performance. An important component to my elevation of the film as one of the best of early 2017, The LEGO Batman Movie – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is also full of terrific tips-of-the-hat to previous Batman movies, blending heavy orchestrations, guitar rock, electronic drums, and interesting sound effects into a must-buy. Billionaire Bruce Wayne and his doppelganger Batman (voiced by Will Arnett) revel in the life each has created for himself.

The score goes a long way to prop up the film's central flaws. Review by Matt Cummings If you've read our review of the Michael Bay film 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi , you know our love for its performances was slightly outweighed by Bay's jingoistic sabre-rattling. One thing we forgot to mention in that assessment was Composer Lorne Balfe's score: it's certainly not what you'd expect from a siege film, but works quite well in shaking up our expectations for this kind of music. If you're used to the bombastic music belting from Bay's association with Hans Zimmer and Steve Jablonsky, 13 Hours is markedly different: it reminds us that there might be a deeper Director Michael Bay here than indistinguishable robots with giant balls and women who need to visit a clothing store. A lot of the 13 tracks have a distinct electronic personality, fed by a chorus of violins and pianos. Hero is a sullen start to things: filled with d