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.

Movie Review: ‘Sicario: Day of the Soldado’

2015’s nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat thriller Sicario didn’t need a sequel. The story of a young FBI agent getting a firsthand look at the conflict ...

By Brent HankinsJune 29, 20180

DVD & Blu-Ray Reviews

Blu-Ray Review: ‘Peter Pan: Anniversary Edition’

Peter Pan is one of Disney’s most beloved classics, and it arrives on Blu-ray this week as the seventh entry into the Walt Disney ...

By Brent HankinsJune 6, 20180

DVD & Blu-Ray Reviews

Blu-Ray Review: ‘A Wrinkle in Time’

After helming the somber civil rights drama Selma and the harrowing prison documentary 13th, Ava DuVernay is shifting gears in a big way, making the leap ...

By Brent HankinsJune 6, 20180

DVD & Blu-Ray Reviews

Blu-Ray Review: ‘Black Panther’

The first Marvel film headlined by a black superhero is a remarkably entertaining superhero origin story. The home video release looks and sounds ...

By Brent HankinsMay 15, 20180

What We Learned at the ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Press Conference

Avengers: Infinity War is already burning up the box office, but before anyone – even the heroes themselves – had seen a completed ...

By Brent HankinsApril 27, 20180

Movie Review: ‘Super Troopers 2’

Sixteen years after the Vermont Highway Patrol first endeared themselves to comedy fans and stoners across the globe, the Super Troopers are finally ...

By Brent HankinsApril 20, 20180

Movie Review: ‘Rampage’

To say that Rampage is based upon the 1980s arcade machine of the same name would be accurate – the film does feature ...

By Brent HankinsApril 12, 20180

Movie Review: ‘Blockers’

On its face, the premise of Blockers is troubling: upon discovering their teenage daughters have entered into a pact to lose their virginity ...

By Brent HankinsApril 5, 20180

Movie Review: ‘Ready Player One’

Before Ready Player One was first published in 2011, the film rights to Ernest Cline’s geek-themed fantasy epic had already been purchased by ...

By Brent HankinsMarch 28, 20180

‘Deadpool 2’ Trailer: Isn’t That a Little Derivative?

So far, the plot of Deadpool 2 has been kept mostly under wraps (unless you’re inclined to believe the absurd synopsis released by ...

By Brent HankinsMarch 22, 20180

Movie Review: ‘The New Romantic’ [SXSW 2018]

“Romance is dead,” proclaims Blake Conway (Jessica Barden), a college senior and aspiring journalist who writes an anonymous romance column for the school’s ...

By Brent HankinsMarch 11, 20180

Movie Review: ‘Wobble Palace’ [SXSW 2018]

Wobble Palace, premiering at the 2018 SXSW Film Festival, is one of the most uncomfortable films I’ve ever sat through, an examination of ...

By Brent HankinsMarch 11, 20180

Movie Review: ‘Heavy Trip’ [SXSW 2018]

Anguished screams can be heard emanating from the basement of a slaughterhouse in a small Finnish village, but it’s not the resident reindeer ...

By Brent HankinsMarch 11, 20180

Movie Review: ‘The Vanishing of Sidney Hall’

When we first meet Sidney Hall (Logan Lerman), he’s standing at the front of his English class, reciting an essay on the meaning ...

By Brent HankinsMarch 1, 20180

Movie Review: ‘Mute’

As Netflix continues to expand its library of original content, the streaming network’s executive team seems uniquely focused on attracting top-tier Hollywood talent, ...

By Brent HankinsFebruary 27, 20180

DVD & Blu-Ray Reviews

Blu-Ray Review: ‘Coco’

Coco is one of Pixar's most original and inspiring projects in years, and this fully loaded Blu-ray is yet another example of Disney ...

By Brent HankinsFebruary 27, 20180

Movie Review: ‘Black Panther’

Despite the overwhelming success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (a collective gross of more than $5 billion domestically), the studio has oft been ...

By Brent HankinsFebruary 15, 20180

‘Deadpool 2’ Trailer: Well, That’s Just Lazy Writing

Ryan Reynolds is bringing his foul-mouthed mutant mercenary back to the big screen in just a few shorts months, and the Deadpool 2 ...

By Brent HankinsFebruary 7, 20180

Phoenix Critics Circle Announces 2017 Award Nominations

The Phoenix Critics Circle proudly announces nominees for its annual awards. Members have narrowed the films from 2017 to the top nominees in ...

By Brent HankinsDecember 12, 20170

Movie Review: ‘Darkest Hour’

Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk provided audiences with a gripping look at one of the most harrowing moments of World War II, told from the ...

By Brent HankinsDecember 7, 20170

Movie Review: ‘The Disaster Artist’

Ed Wood’s Plan 9 From Outer Space is often regarded as the worst film in the history of cinema, but if you set ...

By Brent HankinsDecember 6, 20170

‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Trailer: This Does Put a Smile on My Face

Even since the first Avengers film (and arguably, even before that), the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been building toward a showdown between the ...

By Brent HankinsNovember 29, 20170

Movie Review: ‘Coco’

Pixar’s 19th animated feature starts from a familiar place, centered around a young boy named Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez) with only one passion: to ...

By Brent HankinsNovember 20, 20170

Movie Review: ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’

On a lonely stretch of road in the Midwest, Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) drives a beat-up station wagon past a trio of dilapidated ...

By Brent HankinsNovember 19, 20170

Movie Review: ‘Murder on the Orient Express’

It’s been 43 years since the release of Sidney Lumet’s star-studded adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express – not to mention more ...

By Brent HankinsNovember 10, 20170

Movie Review: ‘Lady Bird’

“The only exciting thing about 2002 is that it’s a palindrome,” bemoans Christine McPherson (Saoirse Ronan), a high school senior at an all-girls ...

By Brent HankinsNovember 10, 20170

Movie Review: ‘Thor: Ragnarok’

Of the various franchises which make up the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Thor series was probably the top candidate for a new vision, ...

By Brent HankinsNovember 3, 20170

Movie Review: ‘The Killing of a Sacred Deer’

Opening with images of a still-beating heart and blood-stained surgical scrubs before cutting abruptly to a conversation in which two hospital employees discuss ...

By Brent HankinsOctober 26, 20170

Movie Review: ‘Goodbye Christopher Robin’

On the surface, Goodbye Christopher Robin – about author A.A. Milne’s creation of the Winnie-the-Pooh stories which would become a worldwide phenomenon – ...

By Brent HankinsOctober 23, 20170

Movie Review: ‘Marshall’

Before he became the first African-American to serve on the Supreme Court, and before he successfully argued a landmark civil rights case in Brown ...

By Brent HankinsOctober 12, 20170

Movie Review: ‘Professor Marston and the Wonder Women’

With a long-overdue big screen adventure for Wonder Woman generating huge box office returns earlier this summer, casual fans who find themselves curious ...

By Brent HankinsOctober 11, 20170

Movie Review: ‘Blade Runner 2049’

In an age where Hollywood seems hell-bent on remaking, rebooting and sequelizing nearly every property with a recognizable name, Denis Villeneuve’s stunning Blade ...

By Brent HankinsOctober 3, 20170

Movie Review: ‘Battle of the Sexes’

One of the most important tennis matches in history – and one of the sport’s most iconic and influential figures – finally gets ...

By Brent HankinsSeptember 20, 20170

Movie Review: ‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’

Kingsman: The Golden Circle is the second movie in as many months to boast Channing Tatum affecting a good ol’ boy Southern drawl ...

By Brent HankinsSeptember 19, 20170

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