MoVTie Critic

You may remember from an earlier post when I was just posting on blogspot about the movie "Trafficked" and what happens to those unfortunate to be taken into that world. This time, we see it from the point of view of the loved ones searching for their lost loved one and the links one might go to find them and those responsible for taking them. Starting off in 1981, we learn how a civil war tore El Salvador apart forcing many to flee and how many that fled to the U.S. would go on to form one of the largest human trafficking rings, just as the main character Holly who is only a child at the time watches her mother leave with a man in a car never to return. Now an adult, Holly Drew (Lauren Shaw) runs a coffee shop having learned much about it first hand from visits to El Salvador. Now her daughter Ally (Sydney Sweeney) is staying with a family in El Salvador as part of a course to get into college where she can learn the business. One night, the house is invaded by ...

These days we have seen a rise in superheroes and superhero groups hitting the big screen and for many Marvel fans we've all been patiently watching and waiting for the big moment for all of them to come together which will be arriving this summer, but before they go to "Infinite War", a newcomer must have his story told. Learning of how the country of Wakanda came to be with is rich source of metal Vibranium and how four out of five tribes merged under the first black panther's leadership, we find ourselves in Oakland, California in 1992 where two men are prepping an arson for a black market sale, when the current black panther, a young T'Chaka (Atandwa Kani) of the time arrives and we learn one is his brother, Prince N'Jobu (Sterling K. Brown) and that he has betrayed Wakanda by stealing Vibranium for an arms dealer Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis). Uncertain of what occurs in Oakland, we flash-forward to present day just after the events of "Civi...

When people think of Florida, they think of palm trees, beaches, Disney World, etc. Yet we usually don't look past the palm leaves to notice the real life that goes on around there. The average person making ends meet and children with very little using their imaginations to pass the time. Moonee (Brooklynn Kimberly Prince) is a six-year-old girl who live in a budget motel along with her mother Halley (Bria Vinaite) who mostly gets by on welfare among other things. While Halley loves Moonee, her lack of good judgement, little respect for others and short temper often leads her to lashing out at those who cross her usually in the form of swearing, giving the middle finger and immature acts which Moonee imitates regularly. Most days, she spends playing with her friends Scooty (Christopher Rivera), Dickey (Aiden Malik) and her newest friend Jancey (Valeria Cotto) as they spend their summer days daydreaming, wandering around the neighboring budget motels and commercial strips tha...

In this world today, we are well familiar with the good and the bad that comes from it and how much hypocrisy plays into it, letting good people suffer more than they deserve and not being just to those who've done wrong. Yet every now and again, there is someone who defies this and tries to make a change, but they are still human and face the same temptations that can make good men go bad. Roman J. Israel (Denzel Washington) plays an idealistic lawyer who up until three weeks ago worked behind the scenes as a partner in a law firm, but when his partner suffers a heart attack that puts him in a vegetative state, he must step up his game and enter the court system where he sees a flawed system in need of someone that fights for those who need it rather than playing it safe and giving in to a system that is quick to punish.  During that time, he is recruited by George Pierce (Colin Farrell) an ambitious lawyer willing to give Roman a chance to execute his ideas by bringing...

  Enter a unique world apart from ours where the sun and the moon give balance to the world and that a guardian watches over one of them as they are pulled across the world giving everyone daylight and nighttime and where the realm of dreams is a magical place that exist just beyond. Mune (Joshua J. Ballard) is a young timid fawn is for the most part overlooked and has no great expectations from anyone, but when the time comes for the Sun Guardian and the Moon Guardian to choose successors, Mune finds himself being chosen over hopeful Leeyon (Michael Dobson). Meanwhile, an evil being named Necross (Davey Grant) uses the transition of guardianship to his advantage in order to steal the Sun for himself.  Unprepared for the job, Mune accidently causes a mishap that results in the Sun being taken and the Moon beginning to die. In order to set the balance back, he must journey to find Necross and the Sun with the help of Glim (Nicole Provost) a brave, knowledgeable, yet ...

You've probably heard this story before, boy meets girl, girl likes boy, girl and boy get torn apart because she's a cheerleader and he's a zombie. Okay, maybe not quite that part, but the rest is true in this new Disney Channel Original Movie that takes a page out of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" and brings a little bit of school spirit. Fifty years ago in an ideal little Stepford-like town called Seabrook, an incident created a green haze that turned many into brain-eating zombies. Building a wall between them, the people of Seabrook and the zombies of what would become zombie town became two different worlds. Now in present day, zombies no longer crave brains because of a wristband device that sends signals to the brain making them more human-like in order to live more normal lives, but the distrust and prejudice from humans is still strong, even when offered the chance to go to Seabrook High School. On the first day there, Zed (Milo Manheim) a...

Long before the gory Saw movies, fans flocked to the thrilling horrific graphics of Clive Barker's "Hellraiser" featuring Pinhead and his Cenobites. Since then, ten films have joined the franchise including the latest "Hellraiser: Judgement".  Featuring Paul T. Taylor as Pinhead, they continue their hellish work of punishing and cleansing the souls of sinners with the assistance of Cenobites such as The Auditor (Gary J. Tunnicliffe). Meanwhile in our world, to detectives/brothers Sean and David Carter (Damon Carney and Randy Wayne) are on the hunt for a serial killer that goes by the name, "The Preceptor" who is murdering people in horrific manners based on the ten commandments. Joined by a new detective to give them a fresh set of eyes Christine Egerton (Alexandra Harris), they work off of what they know and the letters The Preceptor leaves behind to find his identity before another dead body is found.  During the search for a potential vic...

Happy Valentine's Day everyone. I hope you're enjoying this special day with your loved ones whoever they may be. Normally most people would do a romance movie but since I did an earlier post on the ever anticipated "Fifty Shades Freed" movie, I thought I'd choose a different kind of love, the love of family. We don't always get along, but if you think your family can be a bunch of monsters at times, how about a family that is literally monsters? Emma Wishbone (Emily Watson) and her family are far from the ideal happy family. Frank her husband (Nick Frost) is overworked and zonks out when Emma needs him most. Their daughter Fay (Jessica Brown Fidlay) is in a hurry to grow up and is easily frustrated with her mother while their son Max (Ethan Rouse) an intelligent, but bullied boy gets little respect at school and at home around his sister. In an effort to reconnect, Emma decides to get the family to dress up for a monster costume party, but while in s...

 I wasn't planning on doing another verses so soon, but when I saw these two dog movies at the box this past week, I knew I'd have to watch them both and see who came out as top dog. Let's start off with "The Stray". This movie is based off of an event that occurred that is directed and written by the real life Mitch Davis who is portrayed in the story (Parker Davis also co-wrote the story). The movie starts off showing a man with three boys and a dog out hiking in the wild and setting up a tent to wait out a storm when a bolt of lightning strikes the tent. Flashing back to 1990, we are introduced to the Davis family. Mitch Davis (Michael Cassidy) a screenwriter in California is hardworking, but a distant family man which takes its strains on his wife Michelle (Sarah Lancaster) and their three children's relationships. That's when Christian (Connor Corum) their 9 year old son brings home a stray dog who defended him from some bullies and an instant...

  Since the late sixties with the classic "Night of the Living Dead", the idea of a virus or plague that can bring the dead back to life to feast on our flesh has both haunted us and fascinated us as more and more films portray these rotting cannibalistic corpses, each trying to outdo the previous one with zombie animals, zombies that talk, even zombies giving birth to zombie babies. Yet each one has one thing in common, the drive to survive. Zoe Parker (Sophie Skelton) a former med student lives in a military bunker along with other survivors of a virus that has turned most of the world's population into the undead or "Rotters" as they refer to them as. Zoe tells her story of how five years prior while attending med school of how the outbreak began with a cadaver that had been brought in to the morgue and the events that transpired involving a psychotic man named Max (Johnathon Schaech) who becomes obsessed with Zoe and attacks her in the morgue during a ...

 I am very excited to be posting my first animated movie to the blog. While this is not a cute little flick for the kids, it is featuring a character that you've loved since you were a kid, the one and only, The Dark Knight, Batman. Yet before you think this is going to be another one of those fighting the mean streets of modern day Gotham with all the must have gadgets, think again. This time, he's taking a page into the past. Taking place in a 19th century Gotham City, we find the masked crusader in the midst of a crime spree by the legendary serial killer "Jack the Ripper" Leaving messages with bodily organs, the vows to cleanse the city of Gotham from the sinners and impure that tarnish the city's streets. Armed with a few primitive gadgets than we are use to seeing, his ever brilliant mind worthy of Sherlock Holmes and the assistance of the actress and very outspoken modern woman of her time Selina Kyle, they will narrow down the suspects and get eve...

I would first like to apologize for the lack of post. I've had a very busy schedule. Rest assure, there are more post to come in the coming days, but I had to give you this exclusive post for the much anticipated "Fifty Shades Freed" that I just viewed during a special premiere party on behalf of the popular local radio station Star 92.9 in all my Anastasia Steele glory. For those who've been following the trilogy, Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) and Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) reach another milestone in their relationship, their wedding day. Beautiful white lace dress, all their friends and family present and a honeymoon traveling around the world on a private jet that would be a dream come true.  Yet just as they are learning to be man and wife and become comfortable with their new life, dark shadows of the past start to loom over threatening to destroy their happiness. As the threat becomes greater, it puts their relationship to the ultimate test, ...

  In this society, we hear all these horrible stories of violence towards women and how they are sold and used like property. It's a taboo subject that we would rather sweep under the rug and never talk about, yet it still happens to thousands of women every day of every year and brings in more money than most multi-million dollar businesses. Yet despite it all, some manage to escape and tell their stories. In this film inspired by real events, we follow three women, Mali (Jessica Obilom) a Nigerian who has been in the sex slave world the longest and acts like a mother to the others. Amba (Alpa Banker) an Indian girl from a good family who was kidnapped by a rejected lover and sold off and Sara (Kelly Washington) a Californian girl who aged out of foster care and was deceptively sold off. Each of them wind up at a ranch in Texas run by a man named Simon (Sean Patrick Flanery) and are told that they must pay their debt with 500 men in order to be set free. Yet with each man th...

 As I had discussed in an earlier post about the movie "9/11", the day changed us forever. We lost innocent lives, two well known building crumbled to the ground never to rise again and our country sought to hold those responsible accountable which sent us to war. Since then, we've lost more Americans that have bravely served our country and have been shown that we can ban together in a time where we need it most. Taking place in 2003, Larry "Doc" Shepherd (Steve Carrell) who recently lost his son Larry Jr. who was serving a tour in Iraq with the Marine Corp. and seeks out his two friends he served with in Vietnam. Sal Nealon (Bryan Cranston) a former Marine turned bar owner with a foul mouth and a love of the drink and Richard Mueller (Laurence Fishburne) another former Marine who after recovering from an injury to his leg found religion and became a pastor. Doc convinces them to come with him since he has no one to be there with him to go to Dover and...