FlickDirect Movie Reviews

Movie / Film Reviews by Marco Chacon

Browse reviews written by Marco Chacon, including critical takes on films, home entertainment releases, and television series.

All Reviews Theatrical 4K / Blu-ray TV / Streaming

Exposed to radioactive films early on, Marco Chacon has gained proportional strength and agility, though it hasn't been useful. On the internet, opinions hold sway over facts, and Marco is no exception, often possessing multiple, conflicting views. Marco is also the author of the JAGS Roleplaying Gaming System.

Horton Hears a Who

Mar 24, 2008

The live-action Dr. Seuss movies have not been kind to his legacy. I think that this isn't for lack of trying, I think it's because of the medium as much as anything. Dr. Seuss's locations aren't mean...

Full Review | Grade: B

The Bank Job

Mar 21, 2008

A year or so ago I watched a TV show about the daylight Los Angeles bank robbery where two psychopaths, carrying AK-47's with armor-piercing ammo in giant 50-round drums and clothed head-to-toe in cus...

Full Review | Grade: B

Vantage Point

Mar 19, 2008

There are tricks you can use in film. You can show us re-winds, fast-forward, jump-cuts, and so on. You can use tricky camera angles to give us odd points of view on a situation. You can use framing t...

Full Review | Grade: D

10,000 B.C.

Mar 19, 2008

Roland Emmerich knows how to make a big film, I'll give him that. 10,000 clocks in at almost 1.3 million dollars per minute for its entire 109 minutes (this isn't absurd: Comparatively Pirates of the...

Full Review | Grade: C

Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope

Feb 27, 2008

In 1977 I walked out of the Mall 6 theaters (back when 6 theaters was huge) in a daze. I'd just had my 9yr-old brains blown out the back of my head: I didn't want the experience to end. Luke Skywalker...

Full Review | Grade: A

Rambo

Feb 19, 2008

The goal of every action movie since 1985 has been to even try to approximate the "scene" in That Movie Where Chuck Norris Comes Out Of The Water. If you grew up in the 80's, you know which...

Full Review | Grade: B

Jumper

Feb 16, 2008

I read the 1992 Steven Gould novel which was fairly streamlined science fiction: take a precept that a young man can teleport and then play the game of figuring out how things might evolve from there....

Full Review | Grade: B

Juno

Feb 14, 2008

Teen pregnancy in, fiction (as well as real life), has some absolutely defining features. The most prominent is the moral atmosphere around abortion. The second is around the social consequences both...

Full Review | Grade: A

Charlie Wilson's War

Jan 15, 2008

It's fashionable today to talk about how "we" created the Taliban--our own present-day Frankenstein-Monster come back to haunt us. It's less common to hear people discuss the context...

Full Review | Grade: B

A Christmas Story

Dec 27, 2007

The Christmas movie can get away with sappiness in a way that most other family-friendly movies can't. It's okay to have peace-on-earth and goodwill to all men as your message if you also have a Chris...

Full Review | Grade: A