“Zombieland: Double Tap” opens today in theaters. Right from the opening credits, you know you’re in for more  irreverent humor a la 2009’s “Zombieland”. It starts with the Columbia lady on her pedestal using the torch to beat down two zombies attacking her. There is also a voice-over from Jesse Eisenberg, thanking audiences for choosing this form of zombie viewing from all those available. The bar is set low enough in this sequel, as one critic put it, to step over it handily. This is a continuation of the fearsome foursome that roamed the Apocalyptic land in 2009, with Woody Harrelson... Read More

In March 2018, national film writer Connie Corcoran Wilson had the opportunity to interview former Quad-Cities filmmakers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods for her blog, http://www.weeklywilson.com. Connie currently regularly contributes to QuadCities.com and has offered us the chance to run her interview with them here. Two Q-C natives, Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, won over the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas, this weekend as the film they wrote, “A Quiet Place,” opened the festival and wowed audiences. The duo began making films as teenagers in Bettendorf, moved on to create a number of short films... Read More

“Office Space” is that rare film that grew from a less-than-stellar opening to become one of the most loved (and rented) films in history. It has gained fans around the world, its popularity spreading via word-of-mouth, since the unfortunate “Big Bird” poster advertising the film was considered a major faux pas at the time. (It depicted the character Milton with yellow post-it notes all over his body.)   On the occasion of “Office Space’s” twentieth anniversary and also in conjunction with inducting Director Mike Judge (“Beavis & Butthead” creator) into the Texas Hall... Read More

Two Q-C natives, Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, won over the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas, this weekend as the film they wrote, “A Quiet Place,” opened the festival and wowed audiences. The duo began making films as teenagers in Bettendorf, moved on to create a number of short films that won regional acclaim and worked on a number of projects around the area (including short films with QuadCities.com co-owner Sean Leary and columnist Tristan Tapscott) before heading to Hollywood. After a decade on the coast, things have started to break in a huge way for them, and we were happy to meet up with... Read More

‘Split’ Genre:  Horror, Thriller Running time: 157 minutes Stars:  James Mcavoy, Anya Taylor-Joy Night Shymalan burst onto the scene in 1999 with the blockbuster “The Sixth Sense” and followed that up with “Unbreakable” in 2000. Then some not-so-hot movies began. Recently, he was responsible for executive producing the television series “Wayward Pines,” but loser films like 2006’s “Lady in the Water” or “The Village: caused some of us to stop waiting for the next big M. Night Shymalan film. Those days are over and it’s a pleasure to welcome this Philadelphia-born Spielberg... Read More

NOTE: Nationally known film critic Connie Corcoran Wilson is providing coverage of this year’s Chicago International Film Festival for QuadCities.com. The closing film of this year’s Chicago International Film Festival, “Arrival” is a great alien sci-fi film in the tradition of such classics as “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “Contact,” and fans of those films should enjoy it when it hits theaters nationwide on Nov. 11. Amy Adams plays a linguist named Louise Banks who is drafted by the military to figure out how to communicate with aliens who land in 12 locations around... Read More

NOTE: Nationally known film critic Connie Corcoran Wilson is providing coverage of this year’s Chicago International Film Festival for QuadCities.com. “Olympic Pride, American Prejudice”: The Untold Story of the 1936 Olympics is a gripping film. This film from Director Deborah Riley Draper examined the 28 athletes who traveled to Berlin in 1936 for the Olympic games held when Hitler was in power. Everyone remembers the name Jesse Owens from those games. But there were 17 other African American or Jewish athletes who participated as part of the U.S. team of 400 who remain largely forgotten,... Read More

NOTE: Nationally known film critic Connie Corcoran Wilson is providing coverage of this year’s Chicago International Film Festival for QuadCities.com. When you tell me that Michael Fassbender is starring opposite veteran UK actor Brendan Gleeson in a film, I’m there. I’m expecting good things. These are two great actors and the plot, set across 3 generations of the Cutler family of criminals, sounds exciting. THE GOOD The Cutler family live as outlaws in their own anarchic corner of Britain’s richest countryside. (At one point the patriarch of the clan suggests they move on to Kent, where... Read More

NOTE: Nationally known film critic Connie Corcoran Wilson is providing coverage of this year’s Chicago International Film Festival for QuadCities.com. The new Gael Garcia Bernal film, based on the Spanish novel “Deserted Cities” by Jose Agustin explores the changing nature of male-female relationships in Mexico and the world. This entire concept of the changing nature of female roles in the world has been a big topic in this year’s films, including “The Eagle Huntress” (from Mongolia) and documentaries “Girls Don’t Fly” and “The Swedish Theory of Love,” (in which we learn... Read More

NOTE: Nationally known film critic Connie Corcoran Wilson is providing coverage of this year’s Chicago International Film Festival for QuadCities.com. Kaleidoscope is a taut, psychological thriller that explores the inescapability of a destructive relationship between a middle-aged man and his mother. At the heart of this modern-day “Psycho” are some unsettling questions:  Can we ever escape the role in which we are cast by early circumstances? Is a perpetrator first a victim? The film starred Toby Jones, the well-known actor who portrayed Truman Capote and, more recently, portrayed the... Read More