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The most meaningful response I had which I have yet to see in any reviews is the theme which jumped out at me is the anti-genocide, the theme of anti-human slaughter for any reason. Because we see Odysseus evolve over a 20-30 year period, for those with their eyes open, before the Trojan horse success, he starts out as a life-destructive attitude; or maybe, "to make an omlette, you have to break a few eggs" attitude. The third act of Nolan's Odyssey we see Odysseus wandering around aimlessly in Troy as the Greeks kill any and every Trojan, men, women, children. He says, "I saw ten years of lust unleashed on a hepless population." Crucially after the Trojan horsemen open the city gates to the Greek warriors, Odysseus wanders around observing but not taking part in the slaughter. Thematiclally he out-grows his life-destructive old skin and grows into a new-life-serving skin. Yes, at the end he kills all the suitors. This is FOR the life of Ithica. It is FOR Telemachus taking over as king. Odysseus does not stay to rule as king. The only time the cinematography stood out to me was in the Cyclops cave. The high quality of effects-heavy scenes like this are inevitably NOT due to the camera operator nor to any one person. Rather they are due to a think tank of director, cameraman on set and post production effects supervisors who all make contributions to make the visuals serve the story better.

Better than I expected. I expected action yet bought into the “lack of wonder” narrative of a fraction of reviewers. I found plenty of wonder in Disclosure Day. Wonder alone was not Spielberg’s goal (as it was in Close Encounters). Disclosure’s goal is a dialog between two opposed points of view: (A) Eight billion people deserve to know the truth about aliens; including, the power of empathy good aliens represent (here limited to only good Grays); vs (B) The cherished status quo, high stock market and endless war-time boom of Epstein elites cannot last if Disclosure succeeds massively. What I also haven’t seen in other reviews is this: Disclosure Day several times juxtaposes the yadda yadda news cycle distractions: wars, UFC fight on White House lawn stuff—with the deep human interest in evidence of human’s place in a living galaxy. We are not alone. God did not make an entire universe for humans alone. Disclosure has many shots of the public turning away from crappy yada-yadda news to learn something meaningful from Disclosure video evidence. Thee are over 100 VFX shots in this film, maybe a few hundred. Following the recent trend most impressively of Sinners (2025) 100% of the VFX are invisible, easy to miss altogether. There is wonder in this; as well as, in the never before seen physical gag seen a the end of a long car chase.

Despite plenty of worldclass invisible CGI and puppetry, after the first action set piece, this rarely rises above "product." Some positives and negatives. No overly famliar Star Wars music, all new music trying to set a new tone, good for them. Doug Chiang architecture and character production drawings brought to life. If unknown to you, watch a behind the scenes Youtube celebrating Doug Chiang. NEGATIVES ~ Despite what a pro critic claims, there is NO, ZERO character development of either Mandalorian or Grogu. They are flies caught in amber, inert, no character arc. If anything Mando looks more **** and robotic--tho--the stunt guy who plays Mando in action is terrific. CRIMINALLY TRITE dialogue is all too common. The "relationship" of Mando and Sigourney Weaver character is a dud, not believable for more than 30 seconds, very trite, The only good acting is the motional-capture+CGI version of the son of Jabba the Hutt. This will be good watchable on the level of TV streaming. Let's end on a positive. The first two thirds, the first story, is a perfect comic book script. In the 1930s, this script would have been lauded as. a textbook mousetrap for fans of Saturday cliffhanger episodes or today, for a graphic novel. Unless boxoffice is $600 million, I doubt any one involved here has the heart to make another one.

I see the low scores here. No one who likes action movies should be complaining about cliches and tropes. Impossible to escape them all. What you can help other potential viewers with is, "Is the presentation, acting, directing, supporting cast engaged and firing on all cylinders?" "Yes." from me. I'm unclear who to credit for the master class in pacing. My recall other John Singleton flicks don't always have the best pacing as Abduction does. This has better pacing than many more expensive actioners. The cinematography and editing here are also above average.

9.5/10 for me. This is not Star Wars, nor Star Trek. The story started with Andy Weir. So if you liked the Martian, or decades ago, Apollo 13 with Tom Hanks, you'll like this. If you didn't like The Martian, you'll be glad to hear the whole book section on creating common language is cut short. I liked the book. This script improves on the book to make it more cinematic. The theme of self-sacrifice is really well done and got to me. The end credits tell us a lot of talent was involved, not least of all Amy Pascal and the music and musical cue choices. Ryan Gosling was in First Man (2018) a similar space movie. I think what he learned and brings to Hail Mary is the wit to side-step as many space and sci-fi tropes as possible. The music is especially notable as a completely fresh take on music for sci-fi movies. The music adds a lot with virtually no familiar sci-fi music tropes

Better than I expected! If you liked Jason’s Jan 2024 Beekeeper, this is on the same level of quality. Seems to me film reviewers, both lay and pro, are not adapting to our cinematic times. There must be 1000 to 2000 action films similar to Jason Statham’s Jan 2026 Shelter. Seems to me, reviewers score movies like this based on originality. This is an error. Modern action movies are always going to recycle the same tropes. Who disputes this? The better metric is COMMITMENT. If an actioner like Shelter has committed a directing and acting, it should get a higher score than an actioner just “painting by the numbers.”Shelter is made with commitment. It’s directed with commitment. The actors are committed. The young girl is especially effective, an echo of the young Jennifer Lawrence here. She makes excellent use of her role and dialogue which are awfully familiar. Bill NIghy is effective in his supporting role. Shelter has one of the most effective soundtracks I’ve heard in a year or so, something like Tangerine Dream meets X-files (Michael Manring). Very appropriate and “pluses” plot points at every turn. Compare Shelter with the last few Aaron Eckhart actioners. I’m sad to say except for his first one or two actioners, Aaron’s films have been more “paint by number” with little commitment to distinguish them.

Another of Gerard Butler's decent if not spectacular films I consider his 2018 action-thriller submarine movie, Hunter Killer, a near perfect film. Greenland 2 has a decent script. I especially appreciate the well thought out and executed foreshadowings. The script handles the "long middle" problem with new characters we care about who move the story forward. The acting is decent including many minor characters done with commitment. The VFX are above average. The main negative for me is the over-use of shakey-cam cinematography. This is not Children of Men where shakey-cam fits with the story. Here it interferes with and detracts from the epic quality of G2. My eyes did not know where to focus too many times, could not focus on what was supposed to be seen. The third act is serviceable and more hopeful than most dystopia flicks.

This is one of those action movies more effective as a fable while its genre is action pic. This means Sisu 2 is closer to Life is Beautiful (1997) and All the Light We cannot See (2023 on Netflix). All three of these films use distancing elements so the gory violence is not so overwhelming. In this case, the main character says not one word! Unbelievable! We are in a fable! Fortunately we have Stephan Lang of Avatar 1&2; and, Don't Breathe 1&2 who does all the important talking and bring humanity to the villain. To learn why I follow Stephen, search online for: TEDxSwarthmore - “Stephen Lang - On Beyond Glory: The Architecture of Acting”Because the gore and violence in Sisu 2 is so over the top, found it enjoyably laugh at loud at all its high points. There’s no laughing at the genocide in Palestine. This is a fable, so okay to laugh at the blodshed. Sisu has several wonderful stunt gag set concepts. They are about as well as non-Hollywood teams can do them. There’s quite a bit of invisible CGI well done by the studio who did the first and second Troll films.

Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) Director: Barry Levinson Producers: Henry Winkler, Mark Johnson Screenplay: Chris Columbus The first and last Spielberg-Barry Levinson collaboration. Based on results, Levinson had no taste and no talent for this kind of imaginative material. The action sequences all look like first take footage, nothing added to make them come alive or seem authentic. If you can, imagine if the lax, by-the-numbers directing here had been applied to Raiders of the Lost Ark! The premise and script of Young Holmes has all the bones, all the bells and whistles, a striking leading man, and acting support of another early Spielberg success; yet, they are made into completely pedestrian storytelling footage by Levinson.

2025: 8/10 for me. Yes, on a second viewing, many parts of this hold up. Arnold gives his usual committed and engaged performance. It gets better in the last act. What's good in the last act is the unusual tonal variety. It begins with Robert Duvall once his wife is in trouble. Then the whole third act has a larger-than-life James Bond vibe to it, complete with Simon Crane-like demolitions stunts, with elaborate sets and locations, shooting in Vancouver. Finally, the when the main Steve Jobs-like villain's clone shows up, there are more tonal shifts which demonstrate better than any thousand words the unethical aspects of AI in general and human cloning in particular.

Review Super 8 (2011)Another JJ Abrams at his propulsive best. When it came out, we learned He made the script by converging what at first he thought were two different film ideas, a monster movie and a Spielbergian family drama. He put them together. This added narrative density and depth. Elle Fanning, she of Predator: Badlands; and, Joe Lamb give as good child acting as you will see anywhere. I always love Kyle Chandler; the rest of the kids and adults are very good too. JJ simply has a knack for coming up with good, engaging scenes. I’m not sure he always knows where each scene will go in a final cut. In editing I suspect there is a lot of moving scenes around. What else is good is the variety of emotional tones expressed. Each scene has a tone! This is what most B and C movies do not have; from scene to scene, the tone stays the same or changes very little. The key is it doesn’t really matter if two adjacent scenes are non-sequiturs, as long as both move the plot or character arcs forward in some way. A scriptwriting key!

9.5/10 for me Much better than expected! The most fun, inventive, purely entertaining, not-woke (sorry The Creator (2023) since Jim Cameron's Aliens (1986). Badlands has many--not too many--similarities to Aliens: good-looking girl faces off with an extremely negative environment and characters. Life-destructive corporation. Androids. Beoweulf-Grendel plot points. The trailers made we wonder where the very creative monsters were coming from. Once I saw WETA, ILM, Framestore and The Yard all collaborated, I said, "Oh this quality makes senses now!" What will be ignored by many reviewers is the script on the screen is terrific! Every new element introduced is later used to surprising effect. This is harder to do than you think! The main Predator and the android both have small yet significant character arcs. Badlands also has a now-common, under-reported benefit. Several effects houses collaborated here, WETA, ILM, Framestore and The Yard all had hands-on input on plot points. So what you say? What's so is you have a team of effects creators with, between them, 100 years of effects experience and movie experience in exactly this genre. This can improve a shooting script 10% to 22% by the time final cut is locked. This is undoubtedly the case with Predator: Badlands too.

Released in 1985 during the height of Steven Spielberg's influence on Hollywood filmmakers. The best part is really the first hour. This is exactly one of the movies Stranger Things first season tried to emulate and did so so successfully. Scriptwriters, this script suffers from from a common problem which has a name I learned from Barry Diller's 2025 autobiography: "the long middle." It happens when your thematic material runs out of gas and the writer just fills time as they have no third act. A few years later, this is likely the film which convinced Dead Poets Society to cast Ethan Hawke in the main children's role.

Good production values. Fine for streaming while doing mindless tasks. The pitch was likely: Spy Kids meet 2010s Marvel superhero movie. It's even made in Georgia, USA probably in the same studios as Marvel uses. Narratively, the movie plays against audience expectations. The first 30 minutes shows a lot of directing talent. Then the first 4/5ths completely skips all Green Lantern tropes it began with; with, has no superhero antics at all. Unfortunately despite a good cast and upbeat on-set morale, there is almost no character-building; and, no character has an arc we care about. When so one behind the camera cares that much for the characters--it's challenging for audiences to care about the characters either. Want to see kid-actor movies done right? Stranger Things and Spielberg's kid-starring movies. One thing I did love was the portal gags with the school locker. Perhaps the movie was green-lit at the height of Marvel's success with movies.

Tron Ares is like "Godzilla vs. Kong." Either you enjoy the imaginative spectacle. Or if only machismo satisfies you, for you it has too little testosterone so you complain by review bombing it. “Though it may sound like a fascinating sci-fi rumination on the intersection of technology and human life, "Ares" works best as a rollicking action picture with some strong visuals and incredible soundscapes. It lacks the acting acumen and depth of writing to achieve much more” - Looper review.

This is Luc Besson with Robert Kamen again. They invented the Transporter franchise with Jason Statham; which, is a genuine milestone in action pics given it also has elaborate stunt work by the Asian master who designed stunts for The Matrix. Columbiana is not as good despite its considerable star power. I came away feeling dirty. This happens when the protagonist has few or no scruples, redeeming qualities or redeeming morals. Columbiana consistently behaves like a psychopath or narcissist. Such characters are hard to love. It occurs to me a large sub-genre of movies, both Hollywood and Asian exist, where the protagonist behaves like a psychopath—and yet—the audience is supposed to engage with them and root for them. I can’t think of a single lovable psychopath movie which has worked for me emotionally and narratively. Even if they succeed as action pics, they stink of moral failure.

To a high degree, Superman 2025 continues the character; and, how he fits into the modern world, of the first 1978 Richard Donner Christopher Reeve Superman film. Let's pause for a Superman Hollywood history refresher. The 1978 film is more about building a contemporary world Superman makes sense in; and, how he's a humble, honest, sincere man of few words (this is the “zinc man” as opposed to the “Iron Man” of Dark **** second Donner-Reeves film, with Terence Stamp's General Zod, is way darker and dramatic. It throws forward closely to the Snyderverse Superman. The 1978 Donner film was a prayer for a kinder-gentler world where our heroes are no longer grandiose and wear their brutality as a badge of masculinity.Then comes the Dark Batman films, ten of them, if you include the Justice League movie and The Flash (2023). Starting with the Tim Burton films, (with the Jack Nicholson Joker predicting Trump) Dark Batman predicted Jan 6, 2020, MAGA culture; and, the current pro-chaos oligarch scene. The world was not yet ready for another Christopher Reeve Superman--until--James Gunn picked up the 1978 Donner Superman banner and carried it forward. The Superman of Reeves and Corenswet is humble, honest and a man of few words (Supe is not like this as much in the comics, but onscreen it works well). Another good thing going for Superman 2025 is the handful of super-others. As the IGN critic noted, this takes away the need to be wowed by Supe's too-well- known powers. Instead we see new miracles. Yet the positioning Supe in the middle with crazy characters all around, harks back to the Jerry Seinfeld TV series. Superman 2025 is the Jerry Seinfeld of super heroes, the calm, less reactive foil for all the other more extreme, reactive characters.Kindness as the new punk ~ If you've looked at social media on the 2025 movie, you’ve seen scores of posts about how refreshing the kindness is, how "kindness is the new punk" and so on. It's not "corny optimism." Neither was the 1978 Christopher Reeve Superman corny. It's honest, sincere kindness, optimism and "do what I can to make a positive difference." Finally I quote from Jake Coles's review in SlantMagazine:"Gunn . . . never slides into the self-conscious sarcasm which has weighed down so many Marvel movies. This is Superman as he should be: the Big Blue Boy Scout. He sticks out like a sore thumb . . . After [the Snyderverse] efforts to transplant the character to the modern era, this Superman finally admits the character has been a mainstay for nearly a century precisely because he stands for [truly human values] outside of faddish trends."

9/10 if you are serious about advances in special effects and CGI for storytelling.Sadly none of the freshness of Gareth Edwards' The Creator (2023). What Rebirth does have is King Kong size competence and craftsmanship in front of and behind the camera.I'm reminded of Steven Spielberg's remark to Shia LeBouf, "[In filmmaking] sometimes you are making art; sometimes you are just making shoes." Spielberg's oversight of Transformers movies has produced more "shoe" movies yet only two "art" installments (#1 and BubbleBee). If he keeps making Jurassic movies on the level of Rebirth, I'll be there for installment #10. It surprised me how little any of the characters "popped" and stood out. It may be the script has few heroic moments where the actors can break thru into a character we want to see for two more installments. For fans of Jurassic's horror elements, the horror moments are few and kept at a PG level. If you have checked out the two seasons of Camp Cretaceous on Netflix, executive produced, by Spielberg, Frank Marshall and Colin Treverow--intended as TV fare for the whole family to watch together--Rebirth is is this vein. This is not a slight. The action plotting and character development of Camp Cretaceous is unusually creative and innovative.

Disney princess girl-power meets Asian sword action movie One of the best YouTube movies I've seen! I give it a 7.5/10. Tho 20th Century Fox is the studio, this has much more of the feel of a Disney+ movie, a rougher, more action oriented Disney Princess tale. The pitch-tagline for this was likely, Disney Princess meets Asian sword-action movie. The talent in front of and behind the camera all understand this is familiar territory, a mash--up of familiar tropes. The only solution to this is--as always--conviction, commitment and excellent craftsmanship in every department. The Princess has all of these. I'm curious where the castle set or real castle was. Most of the crew is Bulgarian. Google AI says the main castle and castle sets were shot in Sofia, Bulgaria. It's common to see multi-million dollar sets made for much less in studios in this part of the **** the villain, Dominic Cooper looks familiar, he plays Tony Stark in the Marvel Universe. Joey King was the unexpected action villain in Bullet Train the same year this was released.

Best tagline of the year: "Not super, not heroes, not giving up." Another Marvel movie 20 years ahead of its time. The other two are the Marvels and Madam Web. Those two were pro-female with bad timing to launch into a zeitgeist dominated by Project 2025, pro-misogyny, anti-equality, white nationalist fantasies in corporate media and corporate social media. Thunderbolts is pro-mental health, pro-empathy and pro-kindness. Florence Pugh especially demonstrates courage dealing with our own dark interior stories. I expect for male ticket buyers who are not into personal growth, Thunderbolts' themes will be over their heads. Prove me wrong! Related to the above I also liked how the Thunderbolts story didn't feel like a bunch of commercial super hero tropes thrown together, designed by suits who don't make films I'm looking at you, "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" (2023) and Kraven the Hunter (2024). Scripting is coherent and accomplished, no slow parts for me. Cheers to Eric Pearson! I liked Florence Pugh in this better than any other film I've seen her in. I also liked Lewis Pullman as Bob the mental patient (he's Bill Pullman's son). His character harks back to Ezra Miller's amazing feat of bringing the interior shame of Credence Barebone to life in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022). Here's another user-reviewer who gets Thunderbolts the way I do: Thesoulspain: Sincerity ~ For a long time I've wanted marvel to allow the characters to truly feel the weight of their actions and come to grips with everything they do without some joke undercutting any and every emotional moment. The movie trusts us to accept seeing pain and handling it is a good thing. This movie does not avoid depression, suicidal ideation, apathy, or loneliness. All of it is forefront without trying to make you turn away or think it funny.They make you sit with the agony on Yelena’s face. Everyone has past regrets affect us today; don’t shove them under the rug. Thunderbolts gave me the emotional sincerity that's always been missing in the majority of mcu projects. This is the most human Marvel has felt in a long time. Solid 8/10.

This updates heist movies sof the 1980s-1990s set in Europe. How? More and better world-building. More and better character building. Avoiding as many heist film tropes and antique dialog as possible; show not tell the story. Competent, cinematic direction. Keep the pace up. Takes its execution seriously, not the tropes. A good example of a script probably 95% completed before shooting began. Better than most Gerard Butler films?

8/10 for meDon't watch the trailer! Much skill and accomplishment displayed here. Many good B movies emerge from the same template. Take an original, simple premise; hire a bunch of new faces, then, develop each character as much as possible. A subtle, key difference separates lousy Grade B movies from good ones. The good ones have actors who shine in their roles and there are no wasted characters. The female lead, villains, supporting cop characters and the comic relief character (Jacob Batalon, take a bow!)--all exceeded my expectations. This does not happen by accident. It take script changes, good directing and committed acting. One critic called the violence Looney Tune-esque, another compred it to the Three Stooges. No. The correct comparison is the Saw horror movies. This is a "Taken movie" with some humor and overtones of Saw.

9.5/10 for me. This is easily as well-written and well-crafted as the second Capn America movie by the Russo Bros. It's even a bit more coherent than the Disney Falcon-Capn America series, which I also liked. Anthony Mackie, whom I always like, is as good as you can get to replace Chris Evans, as an actor, stunt performer and holder of authentic human values. So why all the hate? We really need to talk about young film reviewers, volunteer unschooled reviewers and the like. Within this group, there is too much willingness to trash films which don't push your personal orgasm buzzer. What will support younger reviewers to mature up is to consider--and offer in their review--alternate script beats they felt were missing. This will bring in much-needed humility. This movie is Kevin Feige's A Game and it shows. What I can agree to is CA: Brave New World feels like it was made 5-10 years ago--which is close to literally true. 5-10 years ago skating close to directly accusing the US of creating international espionage and chaos would have felt bold. In the Trump 2 era, its seems like a rear guard insight. I also appreciated there were no distracting cameos by other Marvel heroes.

I imagine this project arose because the recent remake of Mr and Mrs Smith (originally Doug Liman 1990s) was getting good buzz. The pitch for this was "Mr and Mrs Smith with kids."What This corporate vehicle has going for it is the two leads and Glenn Close who all appear to be having fun and keeping on-set morale high. Other than that, it feels like expensive 1980s TV movie of the week. Better than nothing for sure.I'm a big fan of all the movies and series Skydance has done. I consider Heart of Stone with Gal Godot the best female James Bnd movie ever made. Action movies without any meaningful character arcs are pretty ho-hum. Back in Action has echoes of Skydance, Mission Impossible especially--yet nothing more except trope after trope after trope.I suggest the makers of Back in Action study Heart of Stone more and try to imagine something less leaden, more character-driven for their next project.

An amazing film for the beginning of Trump years, 2nd edition. Any great film needs a great theme and this one has it. The starkly black and white choice the activists among an invaded country like Norway feel between freedom--or death. This theme is ever-present in the unspoken fear and anxiety on the faces of all the **** film also has a solid script with a apparently true third act conflict which exposes the character of the most decorated Norwegian of WWII.Highly recommended by me.Also refreshing here is the absence of Tom Cruise Mission Impossible malarky, and all Hollywood/Bollywood malarky. Any yet it's not a documentary. A young girl in the present day portions provides a crucial yet realistic counterpoint in the third act.

Another uplifting slice of true WWII historyStarting with Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks made a long series of WWII history-book movies. This is one of the better ones. The best of the American spirit is again honored in show-not-tell manner. The WHAT HAPPENED is made clear; as well, there is no shying away from the racism, helping younger audiences understand what racism was and how many women endured it with nobility. Written and directed by Tyler Perry; it's heartfelt, non-stereotyped writing and acting, honoring both the will and competency of black women who served in WWII and their individual experiences as WACs. Also starring the wonderful state of Georgia. On the negative side, for younger males in the audience, the plotting is likely to seem just short of sappy. This a common problem with WWII material. For me as a white male, I enjoyed how they brought the emotions of the WACs into the foreground, not to dwell on them; rather, using them to move the story forward. This kind of screenwriting and moviemaking is easy for arm-chair critics to lash out at. Anyone who has tried to write something like this knows the challenges. When the emotions need to be the foreground, you can't please every segment of the audience.

DEFT. Extremely watchable. The best submarine movie I know of. My second favorite is Johnathan Mostow's film and after that Das Boot. This has deft writing (from a novel) five leading men all perfectly cast, terrific male role models (not just violent animals), deft VFX work and messages for global non-violence and mutual respect. It's far ahead of US political reality in 2024. Gerald has never been better as an effective, world-weary, still compAssionate leader. I think this is in large part due to the script and director's vision of this as a film about how to get along in a crazy, confusing geopolitical world. Congrats to all involvied in making this.

Kate is a master class in how to make a girl-power, woman-power revenge-porn flick which also appeals to males. What's really unusual and good here is the stunt work and how it's balanced between other narrative needs. We have a word for this hologram: pacing. The pacing is excellent. If you don't mind fight scenes with a lot of blood, this is a good actioner.

Deadpool 3 tries to normalize ugly, brutish, sexualized online trolls as legitimate or at least tolerable characters. Based on box office, apparently a big audience exists for normalizing anti-social trolling. Not for me. I loved Free Guy and enjoyed the first two Deadpool films. Shawn Levy improved amazingly on the book of All The Light We Cannot See. The two earlier DP movies both had stories to tell. DP3 does not. The movie DP3 is most similar to is The Flash (2023). That movie was Flash: Multiverse. Flash has 4-5 times the narrative coherency and emotional engagement. The Flash is an artful and original tragedy built surprisingly around superheroes; I gave it 10/10. DP3 is primarily "Deadpool: Multiverse Shenanigans and Insults." haven't seen so much talent and money wasted since Argyle (early 2024).

Better than I expected. Completely watchable. Solid, engaging entertainment. 'Twister' meets 'Romancing the Stone.' What won't be obvious to many viewers is this is a very solid script with very solid characters. Stereotyping is at an absolute minimum. Also not obvious is these twisters are far LESS photogenic than the 1996 ones. By comparison 1996 twisters were a little cartoony. These are as close to "invisible effects" as you can get now. Funny thing is, the slightly cartoony twisters were much more fun. For me what's memorable afterwards from this film is the realism of the characters. The girl is the "analyst." The guy is an "artist-explorer" and she saves the day. The two leads never kiss, realism almost unheard of in boy-meets-girl stories. Glen Powell plays a believably masculine character with as much nuance as the script gives him to work with. Here is nothing like the highly feminized Gary in the recent Netflix movie, Hitman. Known to only VFX nerds like me, Twisters has done VFX "sky replacement" for almost every exterior shot. That's 2,000 shots or more. I bet you couldn't even tell. Stay for the still images during the credits, they tell the story of what happens to the three main characters.

Catnip for Studio Ghibli fans. Studio Ghibli 2.0. The best hand-drawn animation I can recall anywhere since Spirited Away. Like many fantasy movies, this one gets tied up in making many new logical rules, then breaking them, leading to viewer confusion. Fortunately the gorgeous hand-drawn animation is delicious, the character models and discrete use of computer imaging of cars moving and so on is endlessly delightful no matter how the plot gets tangled in its own confusion. If you want to see this theme handled the best it has ever been handled, look at Disney's Return to Oz (1985). It's the movie most coherent and psychologiclaly accurate depiction of a child healing thru use of her own imagination. #2 movie on this theme is perhaps The Neverending Story.

8.5/10 for me. Less of a horror movie, less of an action movie, this is a tale of three people snatching meaningful personal victories out of a worldwide catastrophe. Djimon's Hounsou's character is #3. Day One therefore has much resonance with John Krasinski's Some Good News (2020) Episode one has 19 million views on Youtube. What was it? A focus on the good, the positive and the true in the midst of a very real worldwide catastrophe. I have yet to see any pro or lay critics mention either of the above points, a comment perhaps on the state of popular movie criticism the last five years. Too many critics wanting what they expect? If too little bro action, it's always bad? Too few willing to consider some originality and some authentic humanity might be intended and accomplished? The other striking asset is the sets. The NYC exteriors are fine; yet, it's the moody, half lit interiors and subterranean sets and locations which add the most, places we have never seen before ever.

8/10 Completely serviceable, watchable good TV. As with many Netflix offerings, way better than broadcast TV drama-action fare was 1960s-1990s. Lots of fighting action but no gore for gore's sake. Nice to see Jessica Alba working. She's no Jennifer Lopez yet is quite workable here. She was also a producer. I wonder if she had input into the script, which has some nice tweaks and variations on the usual revenge-action plot; including, some people actually taking care of each other. Congrats to all involved making this.

10/10 I was far more engaged and astonished by this Apes than by Avatar 2. Where narratively Avatar 2 was a remake of Avatar 1, This Apes is something new at every turn. Impossible for me to say if this movie was intended to comment on our possible 2025 Trumpian future. As the film stands, it inevitably, inescapably bears on a potential Trumpian future. You can ignore critics claiming this Apes has no strong characters, no Andy Sirkis, blah, blah, blah. Kevin Durand as Proximus Caesar and Peter Macon as Roka knock their roles out of the ball park. Noa can't start off as a strong character; he needs an arc to grow into a leader. The human girl character, Mae/Nova, artfully embodies both humanity as a whole; and the instincts of our 2024 crop of celebrity billionaire monopolists. I've never seen this done before anywhere. I did like Wes Ball's Maze Runner. This is a 100% successful hand-off from prior series helmer Matt Reeves to Wes Ball. It's also Weta doing its usual multi-leveled best.

8.5/10 from me ~ I think you can ignore the bad reviews. If you liked other Netflix anime-to-film adaptations, this is one of the better ones in my opinion. I have NOT seen the earlier anime nor read the comics. I probably have seen the Jackie Chan filmed version yet remember nothing from it. This is VERY GOOD Netflix television. The first act especially is non-stop crazy, stylish action in every way, plot, acting, shot-framing, action scenes and lots of girls. I did like Parasite Gray and the Netflix filmed version of Avatar Air Bender. I could NOT get thru Netflix One Piece. I recognize the new One Piece has a ton of talent behind and on the screen. When I put on my film critic hat, there is one big problem these anime-to-film adaptations struggle with. Their source material is from comics which came out 1985-1995. If nothing else, this means these shows have little to no relevance to the world of the 2020s, For example the cos-play (costume dress up) convention scene seems a bit dated; and yet, the expressions of the extras and how the scene plays out dramatically is wonderful--unless you already know it from the comics and in the anime. Netflix's City Hunter takes DNA from Jame Bond, comic books, anime, and other 20th century pop culture. Fortunately as in the best of Netflix's anime-to-film adaptations, the commitment behind and on the screen is 100%. In film dedication counts for much. As you undoubtedly expect, this is more well-produced, mindless, fun distraction, artfully made.

Agree Skull Island and and Godzilla King of Monsters are far superior. Two things not mentioned by anyone else yet. One is the red-haired smaller giant ape in the trailer plays very much like the boy, Atreus, in Sony Santa Monica Playstation games, God Of War. It's a useful addition to the narrative. Second is this is by far the biggest and loudest Monsterverse film; and, it's a box-office hit. Why? I suspect this is what the MAGA crowd and other male segments of the audience wanted Hulk films to be. This is, "Hulk smash!" taken to 11--over and over again. What does it say to you if a movie full of fantasy rage is a box-office smash? What this entry has going for it is lyrical VFX. Many monster sequences play out without any spoken dialogue at all. The young girl Kaylee Hottle is the heart of the film and the most engaging character.

8.5/10 ~ What's fun about this is a writer's room took the gangster's hotel from John Wick, the Continental, moved to Paris, wrote a whole story around it. They grafted on a bunch of telly-novela tropes. They do it so well, with color, verve and humor, it's' hard not to watch. Another great find in the Netflix international TV treasure hunt.

The broadly drawn tropes and characters are more for kids age 8 to 18. For adults who like imaginative fantasy, it's classic, handsomely produced Netflix TV. The narrative is a 100% inversion of the damsel in distress trope. Thanks god it's not overly feminist. Glorious to watch Millie-Bobbie go thru a very physical performance and triumph in the end. This handsome, watchable mounting an visual storytelling is benefitted by previs by Third Story. Dozens of many difficult, challenging CGI compositing shots are handled with grace and ease, by 4-5 VFX houses. As usual when 3-5 effects houses collaborate on a project, the visual storytelling keeps improving until the end of editing. Even if not an oscar-winning film, everyone involvled can be proud of this effort. Cheers!

THIS IS NOT A BRO-MOVIE. It's NOT crass, profane, or ugly. If you want a good Bro-Movie, go see The Beekeeper. I address the deluge of negative reviews further below. I liked The Marvels (2024), a celebration of healthy girl power, the power of female friendship. Mr. Google says most pages for these search terms are overwhelmingly pre-Covid, pre Ukraine, pre-Gaza. Marvel celebrating girl power in a big way was rare and delightful to me. Madame Web is an ever rarer animal, a celebration of healthy WOMAN POWER, healthy feminine intuition; and, nurturant-protective parenting. Madame Web goes all the way to celebrating healthy psychotherapy, how it can lead to dissolving abandonment issues you thought you had with parents. I dare you to name even one other movie portraying this in a positive light. I hope and pray children growing up in 2024, have role models for these positive qualities. Not incidentally, the script is EXCELLENT, a writerly concoction which drew me in (even better if you avoid trailers for this film). The script is clearly the work of many talented hands on the difficult theme of seeing the future; and, then having the balls to change the future, if you dislike what you see. The future-seeing power is introduced with both subtlety and conviction. Contrary to a negative professional review I heard before going, there is no deus ex machina contrivances. Character choices and outcomes all made sense to me (and I'm a writer). ABOUT THOSE NEGATIVE REVIEWS Based on the negativity of professional reviews towards The Marvels, my guess was Madama Web would get the same treatment. I was not disappointed. How can we understand an outpouring of hostility towards a film dedicated to positive themes and archetypes? If you ask me, here's what I say. It's easy to give lip-service to a positive future for the 99% of people and especially to children. It's easy to say, "We want nice things; and, we deserve nice things." However in addition to our wishes for a positive future, there is another force who has authority to test our intentions and good wishes. We can call it the Tester. Some readers of this may now the fledgling discussion among film goes and critics about how the most positive and uplifting movies often attract the most negative reviews--especially from male reviewers. It's like a tug-of-war on the level of the collective choice we are making whether the physical-material future is a dystopia or Nature and child-friendly. Given this tug-of-war I invite you to think for yourself and support those films which even in small ways describe the kind of future you want for yourself and your kids.

Watchable TV if you have already seen Attraction (2017) The top three pro Metacritic reviews get it right also. The must-see movie of this genre is Fyodor Bondachuk's 2017 Russian movie, Attraction. It's on many streaming platforms. The 2022 Korean Alienoid seems inspired by Attraction. What Alienoid has going for it is very good on-set morale; it's fun. Its verve, snappy dialogue, committed acting and stunts and lots of creative scenes make it watchable TV. The VFX are stellar. The middle part of Alienoid is a Terminator vs. Terminator battle in a city with impeccable post-production values. There's also a Mission Impossible stunt **** with many foreign sci-fi and fantasy movies, even with very committed acting as you have here, a series of action scenes strung together, does not add up to a blockbuster. To really pop, the characters have to have an arc of development which fuels their passion. There's a 2024 Part 2 I plan to watch.

Not for kids. This is closer to a parody of Mission Impossible films than to a serious action film. This is a: - gifted director, - gifted stunt crew, - gifted drone pilot cameraman, and - gifted green screen VFX compositors ...... riffing on and improvising on the theme of ONE SHOT ACTION TAKES. NO MORE NOR LESS. For this reason the film will be of more interest to filmmakers and fans of how films are made, not so much to action film fans. The same thing happened with Hardcore Henry. If you liked the bus fight scene in Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings--this is an entire film of similar action with cars, motorcycles, zip lines, trains, helicopters, you name it. Better than Hardcore Henry (2015)! This is not a movie in the usual sense. All complaints about the plot are irrelevant. I found it possible to ignore the few scenes especially at the beginning in poor taste. Be warned the body count is in the hundreds but all the blood has been put in in post, just like John Wick. Both Henry and Carter take video-game gun and fighting violence to 11 in a succession of stunt team fantasies. It's often mayhem. The plot and characters are negligible; yet, way better than Henry. The lead, Joo Won, is especially deeply invested in his character and therefore very watchable. This is by far the best drone camerawork I can recall seeing. Never done better in my experience.

David Ayer redeems himself from 2016's Suicide SquadThe Beekeeper's theme and moral ambition is a thousand per-cent clearer than 2016's Suicide Squad. Many of the same themes here, all much more clear-cut. This gives Japan Stratham strong moral momentum which wasn't possible in Squad. Perhaps the best Jason movie since Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw? This is a movie where you can and you do cheer when the bad guys get their just desserts. The audience I saw it with cheered out loud at the end. Since the 1980s, screenwriters have mostly beat up on international drug cartel lords. The Beekeeper suggests a better target. Beat up on internet hackers who prey on the public, amoral Tech Bros and anyone higher, whose allegiances are not "for the good of the hive," translation: for the highest good of the 99% of working families, not just for elite interests. Jeremy Irons provides a valuable counterpoint to Jason. Jeremy is the older voice of reason; yet also, of the olf elite status quo. Jeremy is not the main villain. He represents the older generation who enable younger villains because it pays well. I especially liked how the motivations driving five or six supporting characters were fleshed out; and, how their varied motivators came into conflict. This made all the characters more believable. I’m ready for Beekeeper #2.

Paddington meets Harry Potter meets corporate animated features for kids age 3-9.Within the genre of corporate animated features for kids, I give it **** adults, I give it including Harry Potter fans, I give it 4/10--simply too little to keep adults engaged. Wonka is less PG-13 and more PG. Narratively I could easily imagine the entire production as an animated cartoon feature.There is great mastery in Wonka, starting with the script's plotting, pacing and dialogue. Masterful directing, acting and set design. HOWEVER as it primarily claims the genre of corporate animated features for kids age 3-9, there's little for us adults or even teens. I want to note the unusual capturing of hallucinations that happens repeatedly in Wonka, these are engaging and drive the story. The five hallucinatory villains also drive the story, the chocolate cartel and the innkeeper couple. The villainy is intense, hallucinatory and with much bravado. It may be too much for sensitive younger children. Before seeing it, I was imaging it would be more PG-13 like Harry Potter as a degree of narrative drama a tension is needed to sustain a movie series. I also note thanks to WWII, the generational trauma of Londoners sitting in subway tunnels during the German bombing of Britain, chocolate has more dear associations in the UK than in the US. In the US "apple pie" is the closest we come to the feeling Brits have for chocolate. I found Timothy Chalomet wonderful in his role. I even liked his singing.

Nowhere near as original as The Creator, this is the most rousing, imaginative sci-fi popcorn movie since Alita Battle Angel or the last Star Wars movie (and at a fraction of the cost). I do see the negative pro reviews. What I believe they miss is the need blockbuster movies work best by staying close to familiar archetypes and archetypal themes. The quality has to mostly come from the commitment and dedication, in front of and behind the camera. Nothing cheap here at all. Rebel Moon has mountains of commitment and dedication so it works to engage audiences. If you need authentic originality, go see The Creator or Luc Besson's Valerian (2017) or Jupiter Ascending (2015). See what I mean? None of these were very profitable.

Just saw it. If you liked Miyazaki's Ponyo (2008) (my favorite film of his) and, you wished he made a 100% dreamscape movie, then you'll like Boy-Heron. Heron also harks back to Spirited Away (2001), another child's hero's journey. Because Heron has far less narrative coherency than either of these films, I found my self bored on and off. Not only does it lack any strong narrative, it lacks an accessible theme; it lacks even story beats showing-telling us where we are going and why characters make the choices they make. In retrospect, I think the first act is mostly wasted. Reddit has discussion on why the boy hits himself with a rock. About six possible explanations are offered. No consensus. The boy begins and ends as a traumatized cipher, a blank. At the end, the only change is he earns a connection with his step-mother. It's not enuf narrative structure. On the plus side, the animation is lovely and non-corporate, a big plus.

It's Godzilla 1947 Japan, a period piece with AAA period detail thruout. It's also Godzilla-noir; The main character struggles over and over with survivor guilt from WWII. It's nothing like the more up-beat, Westernized Legendary Godzilla with the Monarch over-story. Where the Monarch Godzilla is more dramatic and imaginative, Godzilla 1947 is more about honoring Godzilla as an artistic Japanese creation. At the end, after Godzilla's takedown, all the sailors salute Godzilla. It's great filmmaking; the script took three years to write. The inevitable Godzilla takedown is a collaborative effort of de-commissioned Japanese naval sailors, a voluntary group of citizens working against impossible odds. (An even greater, positive, collaborative group effort can be seen in the great Chinese film, The Wandering Earth (Netflix). The script took three years to write. It's basically a non-ironic re-make of Godzilla (1954) re-imagined with better plot, better human characters and better VFX. It's too long (124 mins). Cutting 20-25 minutes would have helped it do better at the box office. It's also a Toho film Washington Post: "Top Gun Maverick and this Godzilla show us there’s an audience for movies which combine concise and creative action with emotionally resonant human characters." Yes as in the best of the Legendary Monarch Godzillas, the balance also works here.Film Stage: "It's willing to stay in the quiet anguish of several characters for uncomfortable lengths of time so the ultimate release is all the sweeter."Empire: "A refreshingly humanist and nostalgic reboot of the iconic monster franchise, Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One takes the atomic lizard back to his post-war roots, while making the most of the director’s background in animation and VFX direction through convincing, tactile and classic design work."

A savage, 1984 dystopian satire, on class inequality. Much of this comes from the grand, unfamiliar 1984 urban-scapes filmed in Poland and Germany.From another angle, it plays more like like a horror film; you wait for each young kid to be killed to find out how they die. Unlike the original Hunger Games trilogy or the first Mazerunner movie--It's dark. This is not a young adult action flick. Halloween release date would have increased box-office?Best acting is by an unrecognizable Viola Davis (The Woman King). She's a mad scientist supper-villain--yet, not over-done. If Donald Sutherland was 10/10 crazy, she takes "unhinged" to 11. Impressive. She commits to showing the ugliest and unpleasant aspect of dissociated economic elites.Using title cards, the movie is divided into three acts. The end of the second act is the highpoint of the film. DON'T MISS IT! Brilliant and amazing filmmaking! Afterwards, I was half ready for the credits to roll. Yet it goes on for another 45 minutes to show us how young Snow became old Snow in the trilogy. The King's Man (2021) had a similar problem. The film peaked at the end of the first act. For Hollywood blockbusters, both films are original and narratively unorthodox. I believe the average male movie ticket buyer often perceives "original" movies as "problematic." The Creator (2023) also had vast originality audiences did not appreciate.Joss Whedon's scripting maxim still applies, to be big hits, a movie has to announce its genre to audiences; and then, "stay within its lane," be creative with the tropes available to work with. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) took Joss's advice to good effect.

Kenneth Duran gets it: "American Made is a smart, nervy film, a very modern entertainment made with energy, style and a fine sense of humor that keeps us amused until gradually, almost imperceptibly, the laughter starts to stick in our throats." The movie is an American tragedy in the guise of a comedy of errors. Doug Limon's dad was in the CIA or NSA. It's impeccably crafted in all regards.