Nicolas Cage plays Robin, a truffle hunter who lives with his pet pig in the Oregonian wilderness. When his pig is stolen, he enlists Amir, a business associate played by Alex Wolff, to help track down those responsible. Their journey takes them to a variety of locations in Portland, including restaurants and underground fighting rings in their quest to retrieve Robin's beloved pig. You would not be faulted for thinking those locations are non-sequiturs and don't belong in the film's universe.

But that's not really what the film Pig is about. In a refreshing diversion from remakes, reboots, and superhero movies, Pig starts off very strong and tries to tackle the many concepts of loss and grief, but it loses much of its personality when the search for the pig becomes a long and strange criss-crossing of Portland. Cage's subdued performance is a great contrast to his recent works, but Wolff's Amir is where the movie is most interesting.

• Release Year: 2021
• Genre: Thriller
• Starring: Nicolas Cage, Alex Wolff, Adam Arkin.
• Trailer
• Summary: A truffle hunter who lives alone in the Oregonian wilderness must return to his past in Portland in search of his beloved foraging pig after she is kidnapped.

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A young programmer (Domhnall Gleeson) is selected by his company's CEO, Nathan (Oscar Isaac) to participate in a ground-breaking experiment in synthetic intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of Ava (Alicia Vikander), a highly advanced A.I.

Caleb and Ava increasingly bond during their conversational Turing tests. It's later learned that power outages at the facility are purposefully caused by Ava herself, so that she can confess her fears to Caleb without the watchful eye of Nathan. She warns Caleb that Nathan is to not be trusted and asks for his help against Nathan.

"Ex Machina," the directorial debut of screenwriter Alex Garland ("28 Days Later, "Sunshine"), perfectly builds tension slowly and carefully without ever letting the pace slacken. The visual effects are so well done and convincing that, even though you can clearly see Ava's robot gears and wires, she subconsciously becomes more and more human.

The actor performances of the three main cast members are absolutely outstanding. Even though she's just a robot, Vikander is able to bring out subtle humanistic facial expressions, so well that it makes one wonder if the film's audience was the true Turing test all along.

• Release Year: 2015
• Genre: Sci-Fi
• Starring: Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, and Oscar Isaac.
• Trailer
• Summary: A young programmer is selected to participate in a ground-breaking experiment in synthetic intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a highly advanced humanoid A.I.

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Here is your chance to tell us what movie we review for our season 3 finale!

At the end of each season, we put all of the genres back on the Wheel of Fate and give her a spin. After the genre is selected, each Screen Riot host will choose a movie from that genre to be added to the Season Finale Poll. Patreon members of the $5 and up tiers get to vote on which movie we review as the Season 3 Finale!

If you aren't a Patreon member, you can learn more about our membership tiers on our Support page: https://www.screenriot.net/support.

An undead teenage girl, Mina, haunts a remote forest known as The Devil's Den. She discovers Alex, a blind boy, hiding in the trunk of one of her victim's cars. Both have been victims of abuse and find comfort and solace in the company of each other.

Justin P. Lange's feature directorial debut, "The Dark," attempts to tackle hefty material, like physical and mental abuse. With so many forest-based horror films (not to mention the countless zombie movies and games of the last decade) it is refreshing to see a story told from the monster's perspective. Through gradual flashbacks, we get to see how this monster came to be.

The movie is competently shot, but the slow and plodding cut-and-paste scenes make for a less than entertaining watch. "The Dark" feels like it's best suited for a short film than a 95-minute feature, which it was, until funding from Austria recreated it into the longer narrative.

• Release Year: 2018
• Genre: Fantasy
• Starring: Nadia Alexander, Toby Nichols, Karl Markovics.
• Trailer
• Summary: An undead teenage girl befriends a blind boy that she meets in a forest she haunts and hunts in. Both have been victims of unimaginable abuse, and each finds solace in the other. There may be a chance of light at the end of their tunnel, but it will come with a body count.

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Chris Pratt plays Dan Forester, a family man who is drafted to fight in a war against an alien species 30-years in the future. He leads a ragtag team of non-character characters through several overly familiar cliche situations.

The film borrows elements from a lot of big-hitter movies. The aliens make a staccato, clicking sound, reminiscent of "Predator." The reveal that the aliens have been here all along concept from "War of the Worlds" and "The Thing." The heavily-influenced "Alien" scene of the last 30-minutes.

Pratt sells his ex-military career just fine, recalling his earlier role in "Zero Dark Thirty," but doesn't quite feel right as a nerdy, high school biology teacher. When Pratt is left alone to wise-crack in the "Guardians of the Galaxy" universe, he's magnetic; but when he's the straight man, it's bland and dull.

• Release Year: 2021
• Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama
• Starring: Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski, J.K. Simmons
• Trailer
• Summary: A family man is drafted to fight in a future war where the fate of humanity relies on his ability to confront the past.
• Commissioned By: Rowan G.

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John Wayne plays rancher Will Anderson who wants to sell his cattle in Belle Frouche, a town some 400 miles away. He typically gets help from local ranch hands, but they've left town to pursue gold mining. What's "The Duke" to do?

Hire the local schoolboys, that's what.

The movie follows a predictable pattern of montages where Will trains the dozen or so boys in the arts of horse riding and cattle wrangling. However, the movie starts to pick up and become more interesting when Asa Watts, the leader of a fresh-out-of-jail gang played by Bruce Dern, makes their intentions known that they want to steal the cattle for themselves.

The ending is a little preposterous, but it's the solid performances of Wayne, Dern, and Roscoe Lee Browne as the trail cook, that makes this movie enjoyable.

• Release Year: 1972
• Genre: Western
• Starring: John Wayne, Roscoe Lee Browne, and Bruce Dern.
• Trailer
• Summary: Rancher Will Andersen is forced to hire inexperienced boys as cowhands in order to get his herd to market on time but the rough drive is full of dangers and a gang of cattle rustlers is trailing them.

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Shin'ichiro Ueda's One Cut of the Dead is about a low-budget Japanese film crew making a zombie horror movie. For authenticity, they are filming in a factory where legend has it that government experiments have resulted in the dead rising from their graves. Suffice to say, the crew are interrupted by real zombies and the struggle for life begins.

A viewer would not be slighted one bit for shutting off the TV within 15-minutes of the 2017 zombie-comedy. The movie features terrible camerawork and atrocious acting.

Then it all changes.

To discuss more about this film would ruin the great plot twist to come. Stick it out past the first 37-minutes and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

• Release Year: 2017
• Genre: Comedy, Horror
• Starring: Takayuki Hamatsu, Yuzuki Akiyama, and Harami Shuhama.
• Trailer
• Summary: Things go badly for a hack director and film crew shooting a low budget zombie movie in an abandoned WWII Japanese facility, when they are attacked by real zombies.
• Commissioned By: Arthur P.

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British writer-director Richard Curtis poses the question: how would you handle having the ability to go back in time? Obviously this question isn't anything new and we've seen it in countless other films. But, the sci-fi infused romance story that is "About Time" brings some new ideas and interesting predicaments to the table.

Even though the film is centered around the young couple, the true romance lies between the relationship of a father and son. As a matter of fact, bring a tissue for the film's third act.

The film is exquisitely crafted, though some moments it seems though it's perhaps too pleasant for its own good. In the end, what matters the most isn't the time-traveling superpower, but to celebrate life for its basic pleasures.

If you enjoyed this episode, check out our Extended Thoughts blog on this movie.

• Release Year: 2013
• Genre: Romance
• Starring: Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, and Bill Nighy.
• Trailer
• Summary: At the age of 21, Tim discovers he can travel in time and change what happens and has happened in his own life. His decision to make his world a better place by getting a girlfriend turns out not to be as easy as you might think.

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The film starts as a potentially introspective look into the mind of a superhero, but devolves into bogged-down exposition and a montage of slapstick comedy, which feels super (pardon the pun) out of place. The resolution is an extended action sequence, which was rumored to be near disastrous during test audience screenings.

The script was originally written in 1996, was titled "Tonight, He Comes," and dealt with more darker and taboo subjects. This resulted in the script being passed around from studio to studio for a decade. When Sony picked up the script in 2005, they hired "Breaking Bad" creator and writer, Vince Gilligan, to do a rewrite for PG-13 audiences.

Even though the director and script don't seem up to the challenge, Will Smith does appear to give it his all and rise above the mediocrity.

• Release Year: 2008
• Genre: Action, Drama, Fantasy
• Starring: Will Smith, Charlize Theron, and Jason Bateman.
• Trailer
• Summary: Hancock is a superhero whose ill-considered behavior regularly causes damage in the millions. He changes when the person he saves helps him improve his public image.
• Commissioned By: Brian C.

Would you like to have us review one of your favorite films? Or do you just want to make Eddy suffer through some cinema trash? Go ahead and commission your very own personalized movie review from the hosts: www.screenriot.net/support#commission

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