Fans of the Toy Story series have long been apprehensive about the notion of a fourth installment. The series had seemingly wrapped up on such a…
Author: Brent Hankins
Brent Hankins
Brent Hankins has been blogging and writing film reviews online since 2011. He joined the Phoenix Film Critics Society in 2013, and was a founding member of the Phoenix Critics Circle the following year, where he currently serves as President. Brent also hosted the weekly Drinks and Discourse podcast for nearly 5 years, and is currently the editor-in-chief at The Lamplight Review. He resides in Tempe, AZ with his wife and son.
If you had told me the onscreen pairing of Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth, who showcased tremendous comedic chemistry in Thor: Ragnarok, would scarcely elicit a…
When Emmy Award-winning talk show host Katherine Newbury (Emma Thompson) finds herself on the verge of being replaced by a smug young standup (Ike Barinholtz) whose…
When 20th Century Fox first plucked the X-Men from the pages of Marvel comic books and thrust them onto theater screens around the world, no one…
The notion of condensing Elton John’s storied 50-year career into a two-hour film seems like an insurmountable task, one that could only lead to failure. Thankfully,…
I was largely a fan of the 2014 Godzilla reboot, thanks in no small part to the efforts of director Gareth Edwards, who eschewed the big-budget…
When HBO’s acclaimed Western drama Deadwood signed off in 2006 at the end of its third season, the cliffhanger ending seemed to promise plenty of bloodshed…
Let’s get this out of the way right from the beginning: as the exuberant magic wielder in Disney’s live-action remake of Aladdin, Will Smith is perfectly…
A hilarious story about a pair of overachievers trying to party with the cool kids at the end of their senior year, Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart is…
The three key elements of the John Wick franchise are bullets, bloodshed and badassery, a simple yet effective recipe that generated a considerable amount of box…
Confession: I’ve never really been a Pokemon fan. Sure, I got caught up in the Pokemon Go craze a few years back, just like pretty much…
A period drama about the early years of the celebrated author who penned The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien stars Nicholas Hoult as…
When we first encounter Joan Stanley (Judi Dench), she seems like a run-of-the-mill octogenarian, pruning rose bushes in her front yard or pausing to stare wistfully…
One year ago, Avengers: Infinity War accomplished the unthinkable as a decade of storytelling in the Marvel Cinematic Universe coalesced into a thrilling, action-packed climax. In…
“This is a fossil created during Noah’s flood,” says Doug Henderson, lead exhibit designer at the Creation Museum. He’s referencing a complete Allosaurus skeleton recently donated…
New musical Stuck, directed by Michael Berry and adapted from the stage production of the stage name, purports to teach us that we should look beyond…
Louise Brooks was an icon of the Jazz Age, a trendsetting star of the silent screen whose bob hairstyle and short skirts became synonymous with the…
Like the other residents of Little Woods, North Dakota, Oleander “Ollie” King (Tessa Thompson) does what she needs to survive. In the past, this has included…
You’d be hard-pressed to find a bigger fan of William Shakespeare than Academy Award nominee Kenneth Branagh: for thirty years, he’s been directing (and occasionally starring…
Stephen King is arguably the most well-known horror writer of all time, and certainly the most successful, but Hollywood adaptations of his work have been hit-or-miss…
The 2019 Phoenix Festival gets underway this week, kicking off ten days of programming with a lineup that includes a few Sundance hits, some old favorites…
“I don’t know how to be a grownup” laments Kit (Brie Larson) about halfway through Unicorn Store, a candy-coated comedy whose central character’s sense of childlike…
TEMPE — Less than five months after their last appearance, Crown the Empire returned to the Marquee Theater on Friday for a co-headlining show with We…
TEMPE — Post-hardcore outfit We Came as Romans returned to Arizona on Friday night, performing at the Marquee Theater as part of their co-headlining tour with…
Over the past few years, Walt Disney Studios has taken a number of characters and stories from their animated classics and updated them for modern audiences…
Country music superstar Garth Brooks returned to the Valley on Saturday night with a sold-out show at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, AZ. The capacity crowd…
The doom and gloom of the DC Extended Universe’s first few efforts is beginning to feel like a distant memory, and the course correction that began…
The past few years have sparked something of a resurgence in music biopics, with Hollywood tackling subjects ranging from Beach Boys genius Brian Wilson (Love and…
Sketch comedy star Jordan Peele shocked the world with his 2017 directorial debut Get Out, a brilliant undertaking that was equal parts thriller, comedy and social…
Making an engaging film about the mundane details of Wall Street trading is no easy feat. Adam McKay managed to pull it off with 2015’s The…
Taking a break from its ongoing quest to update each of its classic animated films into live-action/CG hybrids, Walt Disney Studios dusts off another iconic character…
“I don’t have many secrets,” says Elizabeth Holmes in the opening moments of Alex Gibney’s riveting new documentary, The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley.…
In a crowded, dimly lit Tokyo club, a guitarist rips through nearly three hours of Led Zeppelin covers. But the versions of “Stairway to Heaven” and…
Despite a whopping twenty films under its banner, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a bit late to the party when it comes to showcasing their female…