James Remar | www.jaredmobarak.com

REVIEW: The Blackcoat’s Daughter [2017]

2017/03/262017/03/27 Jared Mobarak

“I look for Him in the unlikely things that happen” It maybe but a dream, yet it feels so real. Fifteen-year old Katherine (Kiernan Shipka), readying for a week’s vacation from her Jesuit boarding school, experiences one sparking a sense of foreboding. Parents will be arriving on Thursday to watch the children’s talent show before everyone—students, nuns, priests, and the headmaster himself—leaves for home. Kat has been preparing a vocal performance at the piano for this year’s engagement, but the dream has distracted her enough to grow distant and odd.…

REVIEW: 2 Fast 2 Furious [2003]

2015/02/252015/02/26 Jared Mobarak

“I’m not going back to Barstow” It would appear that we have Michael Brandt and Derek Haas to blame (thank?) for the sudden change from overwrought melodrama to self-aware comedy I would attribute to giving the Fast and the Furious franchise its longevity. Being that I had only ever seen the first, fifth, and sixth installments, I wasn’t quite sure what happened in between because, while I enjoyed the latter two, I simply couldn’t get into the original. Not only was it riffing on Point Break the wrong way by…

REVIEW: Django Unchained [2012]

2012/12/192016/01/02 Jared Mobarak

“Are the bags on or off?” I’m not sure Quentin Tarantino could ever be mistaken for someone subtle, but even he may have gone too far with his latest, Django Unchained. A revenge flick drenched in blood, America’s tarnished history, and a surprising wealth of humor, what starts as a film I would have been hard-pressed to deny as being one of his best quickly buckles under its own weight towards an overblown, farcical finale that completely derails any momentum its climax builds. The auteur is a master of the…

REVIEW: The Unborn [2009]

2009/07/072011/08/24 Jared Mobarak

“Keep looking” Does David S. Goyer not read the scripts he writes before choosing to direct them? This guy has been in the horror genre for almost two decades and has had names like Del Toro, Nolan, and Proyas direct his words. Why then does he pick the worst of his lot to put in front of the camera himself? If everyone else is passing, maybe he should take that as a sign to scrap it and start anew. Instead, the world is given drivel like The Unborn, which I…