"Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery" was another win for the franchise! While I thoroughly enjoyed the newest "Knives Out" movie, I don't think it was the best one, that distinction still belongs to the first movie in my opinion. I do, however, feel like this is both thematically and visually the darkest "Knives Out" movie to date, which I feel works in its favor. As the movie’s main mystery unravels, we explore the challenge of people’s faith in the modern day which is a plot device that greatly separates this movie from the other 2 movies. If I were to fault this movie for anything, the big mystery revelation at the end was a bit weak and predictable, at least compared to the first 2 movies big revelations, but it was at least still exciting to get to that point. Another strong point for the third "Knives Out" movie was its main cast. The casting for these movies never ceases to impress me. From familiar faces like Jeremy Renner and Glenn Close (Who had the best performance) to not so familiar faces like Cailee Spaeny and Josh O'Connor, everyone did an amazing job in their respective roles and worked off of each other very well. Now, it's my understanding that Rian Johnson wants to keep making "Knives Out" movies indefinitely. I think that's great news. Having a whole bunch of "Knives Out" movies gives this whole franchise a fun sort of mystery book series vibe. I can’t wait for more “Knives Out” movies.
"Knives Out" was amazing! It was a spot-on homage on old school murder mysteries and all the actors were hilarious in their respective roles. It was also fun to hear Daniel Craig speak in a southern drole. The mysteries and the way they where discovered was all very satisfying. If you need a good laugh, go watch this movie!
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair almost felt like a whole new experience. All I can really say is This truly feels like the definitive edition of the story, with MANY interesting changes to the movies: - 7 minutes of new footage during "The Origin of O-Ren," which was AMAZING. - The way O-Ren kills Boss Matsumoto is a little different. - At beginning of the fight against the Crazy 88s, The Bride has an initial encounter with the cowardly kid. - During the fight against the Crazy 88s, after The Bride pulls out someone’s eye, she throws the eye into someone else’s mouth - The dismemberment of Sofie Fatale's second arm - Omission of the cliff hanger line at the end of Vol.1 - Omission of the opening monolog at the beginning of Vol.2 By themselves, Vol.1 is a 9/10 and Vol.2 is an 8/10, but "The Whole Bloody Affair" is a 10/10. I REALLY hope we get a home release of The Whole Bloody Affair.
It's commonly said that the second act of a Broadway musical is not as good as the first act. This seems to be the case for the "Wicked" Broadway musical. I'll have to take the word of people who have seen it, as I have never had the privilege of seeing the musical. However, the second act sentiment definitely applies to the Wicked movies. While "Wicked: For Good" isn't completely bad, it's a noticeable downgrade from the first movie. Everything from the sets, to the stories pacing, to the musical numbers had some kind of glaring issue, with the film’s main saving grace being the performances from its powerhouse cast. With the settings everything felt small and condensed with strange lighting choices. Although I did like Elphaba’s lair, that set had an interesting atmosphere. As for the story, it seems like "Wicked: For Good" relied too heavily on call backs and not focusing on meaningful character development. And let’s not forget the pacing issues, with the movie having a very slow start, then a shift into hyper-turbo mode and then back to a slower pace for the last portion of the film. However, I did enjoy the ending, which I am to understand is different from the musical’s ending. As for the musical numbers, the important ones felt good, but Some of them felt like filler and left almost no impression. Big examples are “The Girl in the Bubble,” which felt very tacked on and forgettable while “For Good” was spectacularly emotional and the best song in the movie. Now, the acting… What a treat! Everybody played their parts magnificently, with veterans Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Yeoh giving their usual strong performances, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande and their magical chemistry, Jonathan Bailey living up to his “Sexiest Man Alive” title, looking charming in every shot he’s in and Ethan Slater and Marissa Bode giving great supporting performances. This movie might not be as dynamic as it’s predecessor, it still manages to be entertaining, and a satisfying conclusion to the story. ""Wicked: For Good," a bit messy, but still kind of fun.
"Him" was... Weird. And while I'm all for weird movies, I feel like this one doesn't really hit the mark all that hard. "Him" has an interesting hook, a football horror movie, and all the necessary pieces for a good movie where there... But they were all put in strange places. Relying on jump cuts and heavy visual effects, the movie is style over substance and completely forgets about good dialog and real story structure. And, while the ending was pretty cool, it just didn't really hit that hard, much like the rest of the movie. Some of the acting in the movie was fine, with Marlon Wayans being especially good, easily being the standout performance, which was VERY needed, as the “lead” actor, Tyriq Withers, simply doesn’t deliver and seemed to only be in the movie to look pretty. And right behind the acting would be the visuals, with some very shot cool even if they felt a bit over **** far as horror movies that are produced/directed by Jordan Peele go, "Him" isn't the worst. My ranking of said films goes a little something like: 1. Nope
2. Get Out
3. Him
4. Us With "Him" being only a little bit better than "Us" 5/10, The movie had a cool concept that just didn't really stick the landing.
"Weapons," completely lived up to the hype! I don't watch a whole lot of horror/thriller films, but this one stands out by delivering mostly thrills, some horror and a very subtle amount of humor, all mixed with nonlinear storytelling creating a unique experience making this 2H8M movie fly by. This movie’s cast does wonders for the narrative. We see the story play out through the perspective of 6 characters, each adding their own flair of thespianism to the narrative. Julia Garner gives a great performance as the quiet teacher being used as a scapegoat in the overall plot and Josh Brolin’s character, who I believe was initially supposed to be played by Pedro Pascal, was great as the pissed off father looking for answers. While the crux of the story is compelling and fun to watch, it all pales in comparison to the ending of the film. My GOD, this must be one of the most satisfying (and somehow hilarious) endings I've seen since "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." If you end up not caring for the movie as a whole, you should at least be able to appreciate the ending. I was going to give “Weapons” a 7/10, but the sheer amazingness of the ending bumps it up to an 8/10. I think I might watch “Barbarian,” now that I’ve seen what Zach Cregger can do with Horror.
"The Fantastic Four: First Steps" was... Well...... Fantastic! As someone who was never big on The Fantastic Four series, I was very satisfied with this movie. It pulled me in with fun, engaging characters and lots of exciting action, rendering this movie the best F4 movie to date, easily. Yes, I'm aware that's not a very high bar, but it's still noteworthy as I feel like a lot was riding on this movie being good. This movies biggest strength would have to be it's cast/characters. Pedro Pascal proved me VERY wrong with his performance. At first, I was disappointed that they didn't cast John Krasinski for Reed Richards. But after watching Pedro Pascal in action, I forgot all about John Whats-His-Face. Both Joseph Quinn and Vanessa Kirby surprised me with their respective roles: I honestly didn't think Joseph Quinn could pull off Johnny Storm's ****, but I was proven very wrong. Admittedly, I'm not too familiar with Vanessa Kirby, but I think she did an excellent job as the surprise main character of the movie. Ebon Moss-Bachrach nailed his role as The Thing by being both a fun and vulnerable character. Julia Garner and Ralph Ineson were both excellent as the antagonists and complemented each other very well, creating a looming and villainous presence. And Paul Walter Hauser as Mole Man was a fun touch. It seemed like they prioritized character focus in this movie, over superhero fanservice. Our main cast didn't use their powers TOO much. I don't remember Reed stretching all that much. So, if you're looking for a ton of fire powers and stretching, you MIGHT be disappointed by this one. ButThose mid-credits had me wanting more SO BAD! I can't wait for whatever happens next!
“Superman” was surprisingly good! I think having James Gunn as the director of this movie was an excellent choice, as he offered a fun and refreshing take on a Superman film. If you can look past superficial and surface level things like “Temu Superman,” then you can appreciate this film. The overall tone and pace of “Superman” is fast and robust. It almost felt like watching the old school cartoon’s or one of the animated, straight to home release movies come to life. One of the big things that stood out for me was some respectable CG effects: The CG made everything look colorful and poppy, which was a relief to see, considering the CG effects in other DC movies. David Corenswet and Nicholas Hoult both nailed their debut roles as Superman and Lex Luther and Rachel Brosnahan MIGHT be my new favorite Lois Lane! All of the side characters were fantastic, with the standout being Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner! Hawkgirl wasn't a huge presence in this movie, but she still managed to be cool. Mister Terrific had a solid presence in the film, and I think he should be in more DC movies. Now, the very best supporting character was, by far, Krypto! He was a naughty boy, but he was the BEST naughty boy! But the one and only issue with this movie is there might have been too much cool stuff in it. That is to say, they weren’t able to fully/meaningfully explore all the plot points the movie had in place which ended up Sidelining a lot of important “elements” (Pun intended there.) For example, while The Justice Gang was cool, they felt like props. That, and it felt like Lex couldn’t fully commit to his “maniacal” role he achieved after the first half of the movie. It feels like DC started some momentum with this iteration of Superman, and I hope they continue it with the upcoming "Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow"
I saw "Jurassic World Rebirth," and unfortunately... Life did NOT find a way for this movie to be good. It seems that the "Jurassic World" movies have followed a very similar pattern as the original "Jurassic Park" movies: With the first few movies being very good, and the last one being terrible. It actually felt like "Rebirth" suffered from a lot of the same issues that "Jurassic Park III" suffered from. One of the major issues being, lame characters. It's safe to say that every character in this movie is extremely lame, with our "main" character played by Scarlett Johansson being particularly dull for a lead. Another lame aspect of this film is the plot changes. The end of “Fallen Kingdom” suggested that there would be dinosaur’s living amongst the general public, but this is not the case for “Rebirth.” Instead, they decided to scale down the original idea of having dinosaurs live in modern society. As it turns out, the dinosaurs can only live near the equator due to its abundance of oxygen. Which was disappointing for me, because I wanted to see dinosaur's reign havoc on neighborhoods and cities. And the overall narrative of the movie just felt dry. It was almost like watching someone do a fetch quest in a videogame. Also, the flow of the narrative almost plays out like a gameplay loop in a videogame, with our main cast going through the following steps: - Main cast sees a dinosaur.
- Main cast tries to tip-toe around dinosaur.
- Dinosaur spots the main cast and gives chase.
- Main cast just narrowly escapes the jaws of the dinosaur. rinse and repeat 3 more times... And then the movie just ends...... It was almost comical how abruptly this movie wraps everything up. the only thing this movie really nailed was the bare minimum and made all the dinosaur’s cool, fun and exciting. Also, the movie loses at least 1 point for only giving a light cameo to my favorite dinosaur, the ankylosaurus. I'm not even sure what I saw was even an ankylosaurus, now that I think about it.
"Karate Kid: Legends" felt forced, unnatural and wooden... This nostalgia bait movie comes jam-packed with: A rushed script, a cast with little to no synergy, a predictable protagonist, weak antagonists and irritating editing. While the movie does have an admittedly intriguing first half that SEEMS to set the main cast into their proper positions in the narrative, the second half unfortunately fumbles its own premise and devolves into a rushed mess with weird flashy editing… It almost felt like the first half of the movie was written as a regular film and the second half was written with the TikTok crowd in mind... Aside from the 50/50 split of quality, there isn't a single piece of natural dialog in 100% of this movie. Everyone acts like an NPC in an equally, soullessly made, AAA videogame. While the movie does have some fun fight choreography (Which was also bogged down by the bad editing), it was nowhere near enough to elevate the movie to a meaningful position. With all that said, "Karate Kid: Legends" is a lame and forgettable addition to the "Karate Kid" franchise that maybe shouldn’t have been made at all… 3/10, pretty bad, but still more enjoyable than "The Next Karate Kid"
"Thunderbolts*" was a bit better than I expected. It has a fair amount of exciting action with an even amount of forced dialogue and misplaced humor, resulting in a somewhat neutral experience. While the movie offers a smörgåsbord of fun Marvel characters, only some of our ragtag group of “heroes” actually bring something to the table: - Making Yelena the main character was sort of a predictable but safe choice
- Jonathan Walker being a sarcastic ass throughout the picture was fun
- Ghost was just kind of there…
- Bucky’s usual bran of badassery is always a welcome addition.
- Red Guardian in the comic relief role was appropriate.
- Taskmaster, LMAO…- And Bob was just, plain, the MAN! All the aforementioned characters mixed with 1 goofy antagonist and 1 underdeveloped antagonist, and an anticlimactic ending still shakes the movie out to a neutral experience. When all is said and done it was fun to watch this film’s characters fumble through their objective while having a subtle message about depression. 5/10… A decent MCU film Which, by the MCU's current standards, is a triumph…
I saw "The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie," and I think it's a shame the way this movie is being treated. First and foremost, it's so refreshing to see a 2-D animated movie in theaters! Technically, we haven't had one of those since "The Bob's Burgers Movie" (2022). And while this movie does feel like the sort of thing that would go straight to streaming, it's still a fun theatrical experience. "The Day the Earth Blew Up" does a fantastic job of paying homage to and capturing the essence of Old School Looney Tunes while having very crisp, energetic and modern animation, it truly felt like a modern version of an old school Looney Tunes cartoon. That said, the way "The Day the Earth Blew Up" was handled ultimately ended up being its main problem: With little to no marketing, the absolute minimum of theatrical releases and having a completely different film production company release the movie, it almost felt like Warner Bros. wanted to make this film a tax write-off. With the way this movie was treated and the fate of “MultiVersus,” it’s become evident that WB simply does not know what to do with a good thing when it’s in their grasp. If you're a big Looney Tunes fan, then this is a must watch and it is your duty to support this mishandled GEM of a film. Maybe if this movie does somewhat well, "Coyote vs. Acme" can have at least some chance of being released!
I can totally see why "Anora" won five Oscars. Not only does the film take a hard look at sex work, but it does so while maintaining a very entertaining tone. The whole movie entices you with a snappy beginning, a lot of well-executed humor in the middle and a very well-considered ending, potentially humanizing sex work in its overall message. Not a single actor had a poor performance, and all the actors worked off each other exquisitely, my favorite characters being Igor and Anora herself. If I have one complaint about the film, some of the scenes ran on for a bit too long.
"Love Hurts" was fun... But forgettable. The cast was competent and fun, it's always a treat to see Ke Huy Quan in a film but the movie was sort of a One-Trick Pony, mostly relying on its amazing fight choreography to create any sort of real impression. That said, everything else in the movie falls flat. The main plot felt like it was written with AI, the romances weren't believable at all, and the humor was barely there… If ya like a lot of crazy fight scenes in your movie, this one is for you. If you like structured plots, give this one a skip.
"Better Man" was a surprisingly good jukebox musical with even more surprisingly good CGI effects. It's a shame the movie didn't catch on. But to be fair, I don't know what they were thinking with a Christmas day release. If you like musicals, this one is for you!
"Mufasa: The Lion King" was bad, but not as bad as the 2019 film. One thing this movie has over the 2019 movie is that the CGI is better, and the characters emote a lot more. But those things don’t make up for all the movies’ shortcomings: "Mufasa: The Lion King" is littered with horrid audio issues, choppy pacing, lame musical numbers and clunky awkward nods to the original source material that Disney is nostalgia-baiting off of. Unfortunately, there’s not much more to say about "Mufasa: The Lion King." This movie was sort of a "monkey's paw wish" for me, as I've always wanted to see a movie about Mufasa's origins but not in this “live action” (quotation marks used, as this movie and the 2019 movie aren’t actually live action) shlock format Disney is peddling for the past decade or so. 3/10, this would have been SO much better if it were hand drawn and tried to recapture the essence of the 1994 movie…
Nosferatu was surprisingly good. It hit all the notes a gothic horror movie should hit, creating a truly suspenseful, horrifying, disturbing and thrilling experience. The Cinematography was easily the best part of the movie, whit scene transitions that are so seamless, the whole film feels like one big nightmare. The score was amazing and elevated all the scenes to their scariest. On top of all of that, the cast was lush, and every actor fits their respective roles perfectly. If you like horror films, this one is a MUST! 9/10, one of the best movies of 2024!
"Kraven the Hunter" was just as silly as I thought it would be. The common consensus is that this movie is worse than "Madame Web"... This is not true, at all. However, "Kraven the Hunter" suffers from a few of the same issues as Madame Web: For starters, this movie is littered with noticeably bad ADR and horrendous CGI. All the CGI animals stick out like sore thumbs and there are moments where someone is talking, and their mouth isn't even moving... On top of that, the movie’s first act felt very sluggish, spending way too much time on Kraven as a teenager and then moving at a breakneck speed and not giving its bloated cast any time to breathe, which leads me to my next issue. I feel one of the biggest problems for this movie was the overabundance of antagonists: Kraven's dad was one note. Foreigner didn't need to be in the film at all. To be honest, I was shocked to discover that the character in this movie was supposed to be Foreigner from the graphic novels, because Foreigner isn't supposed to have superhuman abilities. And Rhino... He was just plain silly. Honestly, this movie’s main saving grace is its action scenes. They were exciting and adrenaline fueled with enough gore for the movie to earn its R-rating. 4/10, Most of the points come from fun/solid action scenes, but I'm giving the movie one extremely generous bonus point for Aaron Taylor-Johnson lookin' fine as **** throughout the duration of the film. I'm glad this is Sony's last little project for the Spider-Man Universe, because I don't think my mind, body or spirit could handle it if they made a “Mister Negative” movie or something...
“Wicked” blew me AWAY! It always seems like a HUGE gamble to take a musical and adapt it to the big screen… But this stage-to-screen gamble absolutely paid off, and this is coming from someone who has never even seen the musical! The overall Pacing was nice ‘n’ smooth and those final 5 minutes gave me more goosebumps than I can handle! Making this story a 2 parter was also a smart and fun surprise. Every actor cast in this movie was spot on: Cynthia Erivo could not have been any better as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda was hilarious, being a downright show-stealer (FFS, give her an Oscar for this movie!). Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Yeoh filled their roles with absolute perfection and everyone else in the supporting cast helped elevate the movie in every capacity. I think, If I read the book first, and/or saw the musical first… I might have given this movie an 8 or a 9. However, this is my first time seeing anything “Wicked” related and I loved every second of it! 10/10, I can’t find anything wrong with this movie.
"Venom: The Last Dance" is the happy medium between the first movies bonkers fun and the second movies mediocrity. While Tom Hardy and most of the supporting cast create a fun and exciting framework for the film, most of the movie kind of drags its feet to a somewhat predictable conclusion, with some of the supporting cast severely overstaying their welcome in the narrative (see hippie family). Knull's presence in the movie was cool, but a bit lacking, having his Xenophages do almost all the work. Also, this movie had a very strange obsession with showing off Tom Hardy's feet... I wasn't 100% sure at first, but after mister Hardy's foot get's PEED ON I was convinced that someone was projecting their fetish into the movie. 5/10, this whole trilogy would have been significantly better if it was an R-rated series…
"Venom: Let There Be Carnage," was... A lot like the first movie...... Which means it was just O.K.: They definitely delivered on the Venom vs Carnage fight, but that was about it. Shriek felt nonexistent throughout most of the film, and Woody Harrelson playing the role of Carnage felt like a waste of his talents. Tom Hardy breathed tons of life into this film and it would have **** without him (much like the first one). This is another “meh” Marvel movie that exists almost exclusively for the mid-credits reveal (Which was pretty cool)
I don't think critics should even acknowledge super hero movies: They just don't seem to realize that these movies are intended for the fans and not their snobby sensibilities. "Venom" was a perfectly fine movie and I feel like they did him justice. I think my only gripe is that it tried to be a Dark/edgy movie and a Fun superhero movie at the time... Oh, and the post credits scene was the most predictable post credits scene in any Marvel movie I've ever seen (Saw it coming from the moment I saw the teaser for Venom)
"Joker: Folie à Deux" was a confused and messy movie that should have never been made. One of the big “selling points” for this movie was that it is a musical, but they fumbled that aspect big time. I’m not a big expert on musicals, but it felt like there were WAY too many musical segments to the point where I was getting bombarded with song after song after song and finding myself zoning out during a lot of the musical portions. Out of the 15 musical numbers in this movie, maybe 5 of them felt important or necessary. It almost felt like they HAD to include as many musical segments as possible simply because Lady Gaga is in the movie. Not to take anything away from Gaga, of course, she might have been the best part of the whole film. Sloppy musical execution aside, the next big problem with this movie is its overall story. Arthur seems to have backpedaled to how he was at the beginning of the first movie for some reason. In addition, his character is completely overshadowed by the character of Lee. This movie may be titled “JOKER: Folie à Deux,” but MAN, does this feel more like a Harley Quinn movie than a Joker movie. There was a tremendous imbalance between these two roles. The main portion of the story, the court drama, could have been a great story element, but it was undercut and washed out by the aforementioned overabundance of musical segments. It was very weakly executed and explored, and it wrapped up with completely random events. While this movie fails as a musical and fails as a court drama, "Joker: Folie à Deux" succeeds in one department, it's visuals. The musicals did feel tacked on, but they looked VERY nice. Impressive visuals and cinematography in just about every musical and non-musical scene. 3/10, such a disappointment, especially when compared to the original film.
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” was a serviceable sequel with only one tiny flaw. the long-awaited sequel contains a fun and robust cast with Michael Keaton being the best part of the entire film, of course and has an impressive blend of both practical effects and CG effects that manage to somewhat emulate the visual aesthetics of the original film. While the movie wins in those departments it somewhat fumbles its narrative structure: There may be a few too many plot threads that don’t really go anywhere or get resolved. I would even go as far to say that all the scattered plot points bog down the humor to some extent. However, that doesn’t stop this movie from being a fun watch for any fan of the Beetlejuice franchise. It seems like this movie was pretty well received, so If they end up making “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” I’m sure it will be just as fun as the first 2 movies. 7/10, If you’re a big Beetlejuice fan, you SHOULD like this movie!
“Deadpool & Wolverine” was... Fun, but it feels like they had to sacrifice structure to achieve said fun. This R-rated Disney/MCU approved DeadPool film turned out better than I could have hoped. It had MARVELous fight scenes and some of the most well executed cameos I’ve ever seen in any superhero movie. There is so much for a Marvel fan to enjoy in those regards. And, while the film has a strong first and third act it has a flimsy, meandering middle portion that doesn’t allow the viewer to truly get a grip on the stakes of the narrative. Also, the humor is a tad stale, IMO. It has that all too familiar quippy/quirky humor that is so DAMN common in Marvel movies as of recent, leaning way too heavily on over-the-top profanity for laughs. In the end, “Deadpool & Wolverine” delivers as the only Marvel movie for 2024 and is a HUGE W for director Shawn Levy.
“A Quiet Place: Day One” was very basic but entertaining. When I say basic, I mean the whole move has a “been there, done that” feel to it. The film treads a lot of the same waters that the first 2 movie did and I think they might have been better off just making a threequel instead of a prequel. That aside, all the actors were excellent with Lupita Nyong'o delivering on a very compelling new hook for this film. I didn’t even know Joseph Quinn was in this movie but he was also excellent. But the best character in the whole movie was the cat! **** was holdin’ **** DOWN throughout! 6/10, the weakest movie in the series, but still acceptable for a suspense/horror film.
"Monkey Man" is a revenge story, with lush culture and very strong direction that keeps it from being your bog-standard revenge story! A popular observation of this film is that it's "Indian John Wick," which is only kinda true (hell, they even make an on the nose reference to “John Wick” in the early portions of the movie): "Monkey Man" is a bit more unique than “John Wick” in its narrative execution. I really think the only true comparison is that they are both revenge stories with lots of action. That said, "Monkey Man" delivers on its revenge premises with a rich cast, an intense soundtrack and plenty of action that manages to be simultaneously grungy and graceful. If there is one critique I would make about "Monkey Man," it would be the overuse of shaky-cam. Which is a shame, considering how cool the fights in this movie were, all that shaky-cam wasn’t doing the beautiful fight choreography any favors. But when there wasn't shaky cam, the camera work was very crisp and did a good job with close ups to create a tense, claustrophobic atmosphere. All in all, Dev Patel has given us a cinematic treat with all of his hard work on display for the audience. And a MASSIVE amount of praise should be given to Jordan Peele for acquiring the rights to this film so it could be in theaters and not be a Netflix exclusive as originally intended. 8/10, go see "Monkey Man" if you like revenge films and/or violent action films.
“Madame Web” was a smelly, diarrhea, poo-poo movie: Though, I can’t say I’m surprised… I remember seeing the original trailers and thinking it looked like some sort of fan-made project. After actually viewing the movie, I can confirm that it is a boring, poorly handled, cluster of events that can barely hold itself together and almost turning into mush by the end of the film while trying and failing to be some sort of psychological thriller/action hybrid. Cassandra Webb (Madam Web herself) is an absolute snore of a main character with her actor seemingly getting through her part via somnambulism. She mostly just meanders around and has her future vision literally shoving her to the important parts of the movie. The guy playing Ezekiel Sims can’t even attempt to make his character interesting possibly due to rewrites and suffers from the most ADR I’ve ever noticed from a movie character. The teen-trio, who I swear are literally duct-taped to each other through 90% of the runtime, just felt like plot devices for Cassandra Webb to have something to do… Also, it sort of felt like the original idea for the teen-trio was for them to obtain their superhero forms DURING the movie, but didn’t have the time to work it into the main story and had to resort to showing them through exposition (future vision). And to top it all off, the Ben Parker and Mary Parker stuff has 0 impact on anything that goes on in this film rendering Adam Scott’s existence pointless and wasted. I’ve read that some people are saying that this movie makes “Morbius” look good… I don’t know if I’m ready to say that “Madame Web” is worse than “Morbius” but rather, it’s a different kind of bad? Either way, this is another stinker that Sony/Marvel have squeezed out of their butt cheeks with little to no understanding of how to make these interesting side characters from the Spider-Man universe work in live action film. That said, I have nothing but fear and pity for the upcoming “Kraven the Hunter” film. I’ll be completely flabbergasted if that movie is even halfway decent. 3/10, While not technically an official Marvel film, it’s the worst Marvel film of the year. NOT EVEN MEMEABLE!
“Wonka” was slightly better than I initially anticipated. As a musical with a lot of fun and slightly campy acting, the whole film pans out like a stage play that I felt was a bit less about the narrative and more about the “vibe.” That said all the performances were serviceable. Timothée Chalamet wasn’t trying to be the next Gene Wilder or Johnny Depp (how could he) but he still delivered in giving a compelling performance as a young Willy Wonka and Hugh Grant was hilarious as the titular Oompa-Loompa. The songs were lighthearted and fun, though most of them were saturated with autotune. I would say the movie’s biggest issue was the CGI. Some of the CG effects were noticeably bad, namely a chocolate fountain that looked like something out of the year **** the end of the day, “Wonka” Works as a nice, simple film to take the whole family to during the holiday season. 5/10, Fun but not really a true view of paradise.
I went into “Godzilla Minus One” expecting your typical, run-of-the-mill Godzilla movie… Boy, was I wrong. Admittedly, I am not a huge Godzilla fan. I’ve seen a handful of the older films and all the modern Hollywood films. That said, my opinion on “Godzilla Minus One” might be a bit ignorant, but I think this might be one of the best Godzilla movies ever. Not only does this film display amazing visuals at only a $15 million budget (My guy's atomic breath has never looked cooler), but it also manages to achieve something most Godzilla movies don’t even bother to attempt: There is an even distribution of exciting action scenes and storytelling, making the audience actually care about the human characters in a Kaiju film.
"The Marvels" is a disappointing MCU film that requires actual homework from its viewers. In order to fully understand this one, the minimum amount of required watching is: - Captain Marvel
- WandaVision
- Ms. MarvelCouple The required watching coupled with the fact that this movie obviously went through massive reshoots, and you have nothing but a tedious mess of sequences loosely stitched together that falls apart narratively as you watch. A large portion of this film could have just been Season 2 of Ms. Marvel both narratively and in quality. I did like the mid-credits scene though, interesting stuff. 2023 started with "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" and ended with "The Marvels". We started 2023 with mediocrity, and we ended 2023 with mediocrity. 3.5/10, The MCU (and superhero movies in general) is in such a downward spiral that I have nothing but fear and dread for the rest of “The Multiverse Saga”
"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" was a fun and sweet movie for kids: It's a unique an interesting take on our beloved reptilian heroes, having them be actual teenagers and not the usual 20 something designs that we are TOLD are teens. April O'Neil also benefits from a new spin on her character, making her a highschooler and aspiring journalist. I wasn’t crazy about splinter having more of a protective father role and less of a wise sensei role, but the movie makes it work. While the movie is mostly a comedy, there are notes of unity, trust, friendship and family. “Mutant Mayhem” really shines in the animation department! This films art/animation is unique and stylized creating a rough and sketchy atmosphere almost like doodles from a kids sketchbook. The impact that “The Spiderverse” movies have made on animation in film has become quite apparent, notes had to have been taken from those movies. However, the aforementioned rough/sketchy animation style was a bit much at times: A lot of scenes felt VERY busy and sometimes it was hard to make out what was going on. Another minor gripe was the bloated cast of the film. Even for a movie with the phrase “Mutant Mayhem” maybe had too many mutants. The trailers boasted a robust cast, but some of those cast members were lucky to get 3 lines. Having Giancarlo Esposito as Baxter but barely be in the movie feels like a waste of that actors efforts. This is an excellent film to take your kids to see, if they are TMNT fans or even if you want to introduce your kids to the TMNT series. If you’re an adult type person, your opinion may very, as not everyone will appreciate this new unique take on our turtles and your nostalgia for the older iterations might interfere. 7/10, I would say that this is one of the better TMNT movies. Maybe not as good as the 1990 film, but nowhere NEAR as bad as the 2014 Michael Bay film. AND DON’T FORGET THE POST CREDITS! What’s revealed is pretty obvious, but it’s still cool!
"The Barbra Movie," as intellectuals such as myself will be calling this film going forward, is an all-out explosive piece of satire with a powerful cast and important lessons that certain types of people maybe NEED to hear. While Margot Robbie was fantastic as Barbie, I feel like Ryan Gosling did most of the heavy lifting as Ken. Everyone else (especially Kate McKinnon) was excellent as the supporting cast and elevated the whole dynamic of the film. The overall message of the film was not only impactful, but well executed. It didn’t feel forced, and not once did it feel like I was being preached to. A few of the jokes didn’t necessarily “land,” but most of the humor was clever and thoughtful. Some folks might feel that they’re not the “target audience” for this film but I say “fooey” and “pshaw” to that! Go and see this movie for a good time and a good laugh. 8/10, C’mon Barbies, let’s discover existentialism and have a few laughs along the way!
If you are to watch "The Flash," do not watch it for that sniveling little gremlin who stars in it... Watch it for its noticeably horrendous CGI… My GOD, it’s like Warner Bros. Pictures want’s people to point ‘n’ laugh at them.
The live-action adaptation of “The Little Mermaid” was a delight and stands as one of the best in this ongoing set of live-action remakes that Disney has been treating us to. While the film is far from perfect, it makes a lot of fun and interesting changes to the source material. A few things of note are: Improving and expanding the character of Prince Eric, improving and expanding the dynamic between Triton and Ursula, improving and expanding the romance between Ariel and Eric, they removed Louis, the crazy chef guy. Yes, I consider this an improvement… Dude creeped me out as a kid, and they sort of “fixed” a plot hole with Ariel’s contract to Ursula. With all of the positives out of the way, there were a few negatives about this film. It suffers from the same issues that most of these Disney live action adaptation films suffer from… It just sort of felt like a formality or something for Disney to mark off of a check list. I mentioned that they made some fun adjustments to the original source material, but at the same time, there is a lot of elements of the film that follow the original “beat for beat,” and some of the actors’ performances suffer from this. Javier Bardem (King Triton) felt like he was struggling to find something new to do with his role but just couldn’t seem to make it happen because he was restricted by having to do an almost word-for-word performance of the original character.
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” went above and beyond! Everything was cranked up a notch from “Into the Spider-Verse.” The writing was compelling and hilarious, the animation was breathtaking (I can’t believe how much more of a spectacle this movie is compared to the first). Top all of that with an ending that manages to be both amazing and infuriating at the same time and you have a recipe for a sequel that completely surpasses its predecessor. If you enjoyed the first one, the sequel will blow you away, guaranteed! “Beyond the Spider-Verse” is gonna be a 10/10!
"Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" was an amazing surprise and surprisingly dark! After viewing the epitome of mid known as “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” I was very worried going into GotGV3. I am very relieved to say that my worries were superfluous. Not only is GotGV3 an excellent farewell to the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, but it also dives into arguably the best character in the series’ back story. Rocket's back story was the standout portion of the film in terms of tone and delivery. This had to be one of the darkest portions of the MCU, in recent memory at least. At times I found myself more eager to see Rocket's backstory over the main plot of the film. That said, the main portion of the film was great too! Containing one of the Slimiest antagonists in the MCU, portrayed brilliantly by Chukwudi Iwuji, both the main plot and backstory blend together in an exciting, funny, emotional and shockingly gory (for a Marvel film) way. However, I feel the character of Adam Warlock was tragically and disappointingly fumbled: There simply wasn't enough of him, which is a shame, considering how good of an actor Will Poulter is. But despite the underutilization of the character, Adam Warlock still manages to be somewhat cool and a tad funny. While GotGV3 doesn’t break new ground in any capacity, it succeeds in doing everything very well. I liked that it wasn’t overly saturated with forced humor, I liked that they didn’t make the main antagonist sympathetic, I liked the cheeky “Among Us” reference… Hell, I liked that they dropped the F-bomb! There are only 2 phase five movies out currently, but "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" is the best one so far. 8/10, Edgy done RIGHT!
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” was fun and simple, just as it should be. I have no idea what the deal is with these ridiculous reviews, saying the movie is completely inaccessible for Non-Mario fans, one of the worst Illumination movies ever made and the film is inappropriate for children… Some of these pretentious reviewers need to go eat breakfast or something. I would actually go as far to say that this might be one of Illumination’s better films. Thankfully, there wasn't a lot of Illumination's... "Well, THAT just happened..." brand of humor you frequently see in their films. This movie feels a bit more controlled in that aspect, though that might be Nintendo keeping Illumination in check, so to speak. From beginning to end, it felt like I was watching someone else play a Mario game in the most entertaining way. Lot’s of snappy action and fight scenes with direct/to the point motives. If there is one portion of the movie where they lose major points, it would be some of the music choices. There were A lot of on-the-nose, 80’s music references (I can only assume these were Illumination’s choices) that didn’t really need to be in the movie. But the score itself was AMAZING. A lot of reverbed and re-orchestrated pieces from multiple Mario games that flow naturally and added so much to the spectacle of the film. Some of the voice acting was great, but some of the roles were a bit disappointing and I will now rank the big roles from my favorite to least favorite: 1. Charlie Day: Easily my favorite role of all. He did the whole fraidy-cat thing very well and felt like the spine of the whole movie. 2. Jack Black: This man portrayed Bowser as a simpy little incel and did so flawlessly. He even channeled his Tenacious D stuff, which was great! 3. Anya Taylor-Joy: Amazing as always and her portrayal of Princess Peach as a "Girl Boss" instead of her typical damsel in distress role really made her shine. 4. Keegan-Michael Key: Definitely the happy medium between the good and not so good roles. He was funny enough at times and sounded very refreshing compared to other iterations of Toad that I’ve had to listen to. (See old DIC cartoon series) 5. Chris Pratt: This kinda went as I thought it would. My dude just didn’t really sell it. It's pretty surprising that one of the weakest characters in a Super Mario Bros. Movie is Mario himself. 6. Seth Rogen: Surprisingly low energy as D.K., but he had some funny moments. 7. Fred Armisen: Cranky Kong just didn’t sound all that… Cranky to me. While “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is mostly a spectacle, it’s a fun spectacle that brings all the fun of playing a Super Mario game to the big screen with no immediate need for a deep plot, save all of that stuff for a “Metroid” or “Zelda” movie. This movie is a good lean into a potential Super Mario Bros. Cinematic Universe. And I REALLY hope that the potential comes to fruition, because I really wana see the Koopalings in a sequel! I always loved them as a group!
"Shazam! Fury of the Gods" was... Kind of a letdown. As a huge Shazam fan, I went into this movie with the utmost positivity, but my upbeat optimism was dashed by this films lack of focus. None of the events in this movie seemed to flow naturally and everything was just happening off of a conveyor belt. This, coupled with some VERY unthreatening, non-canon, movie exclusive antagonist's, made for an experience that seemed more like filler than anything else. Speaking of the antagonists of this film, Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu did an excellent job in their roles as Hespera and Kalypso and were definitely the stand outs, but even their combine powers of brilliant thespianism were no match for the evil that is DCEU's knack for fumbling their films. There was at least one scene at the end of the movie that was kinda cool, but it really doesn't make up for the rest of the movies inability to "wow" me. This was not what I would call a "worthy sequel" to the first Shazam movie. Not only does it pale in comparison to the original, but it will more than likely dissipate from most peoples memories shortly after they’ve watched it.
"Cocaine Bear" had everything! It had cocaine, it had a bear, it had gory deaths, it had laughs, it had poorly rendered CGI and it had action! Go see it if you like shlocky dark comedy films! I had more fun watching this than I did “Quantumania.”
"Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" was...... Mid. And I say that, going into this Marvel film with the utmost enthusiasm: I was hoping for an exciting start to phase 5 since we had such a dim and unfocused phase 4, but instead, we open with a whimper for this newest phase. Using Ant-Man to start off phase 5 seemed like a very interesting and safe choice as this was more of a “Marvel kick off” film than it was an actual “Ant-Man” film, if that makes sense. The first noticeable issue with this film was in the visual effects. While there were a lot of cool and fun ideas, it’s clear that the visual effects weren’t given ample time to be worked in properly. Like most Marvel films with this issue, the visuals reflect how rushed and overworked the VFX teams are for these movies, being given little time to work properly. We were given a new character who came out looking worse than Mr. Electric from 2005’s “Sharkboy and Lavagirl.” I don’t know if making them look like that was intentional, but even if it was intentional… It still looked terrible. It seems like the visual effects in Marvel films are showing more and more fatigue similar to my ever-growing MCU fatigue. Most of the performances were decent, though, said performances are weakened by the biggest most annoying issue with current Marvel movies which is the seemingly obsessive need to make every character a quippy-kooky-quirkster, and stuffing humor into scenes where humor doesn't belong. This phenomenon seems to be getting worse and worse with each piece of Marvel media that is released. I think “Quantumania” would have been better if there wasn’t so much forced, sitcomy humor undercutting all the action and drama… It just gets in the way. However, the main spot where this movie gets ANY real clean praise at all, would be with Jonathan Majors performance as Kang: My dude delivered in every aspect especially when compared to other performances (Kathryn Newton was lookin’ kinda stiff out there) and being this films saving grace. Kang was big and menacing and even a bit sympathetic at some points, establishing himself as a solid antagonist for the MCU. "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" isn’t a bad movie, but boy-howdy, is it underwhelming. Watching events unfold in this film was like watching someone play a videogame on easy mode for the first 2/3 until the last 1/3 of the film where the pause button is pushed, and the difficulty setting is switched to hard mode only because the steaks had to be higher because it was the end of the movie. If this is how we're starting a MCU phase, then I'm kinda worried for the rest of Phase 5 and Phase 6. Hopefully things pick up a bit in the next few shows/movies. 5/10, the score would be lower had it not been for Jonathan Majors’ performance as Kang.
"Avatar: The Way of Water" was beautiful but a bit by the books, in terms of the narrative. I'll get the obvious stuff outa the way quickly. This movie is visually breathtaking! All of the CGI and VFX felt seamless with any "real people" acting, there were points where I honestly could not decipher weather or not I was looking at a computer image or a real person. The 3-D was also amazing, normally, I don't care about 3-D at all, but it was a real treat in this movie. Definitely don't wait to stream "The Way of Water" home, watch it at the best movie screen you can watch it on. That said, the bulk of the story was very similar to the first movie. A lot of the same story beats, except Jake is doing everything with a family instead of by himself and in a water setting instead of a forest setting. Another issue I had with the story was the underutilization of Neytiri. It felt like she didn't exist for 2/3 of the movie up to a point where she was "needed" for specific events to unfold. This may be due to giving all the new characters plenty of spot light so they can flesh out properly, which I feel like the movie did well. While I feel "Avatar: The Way of Water" certainly doesn't live up to 13 years of expectations, it delivers in spectacle, immersion and emotion. You can really feel James Cameron's creativity and passion with this sequel. The world of Pandora has been expanded on just enough to make you hungry for the next movie.
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” was nothing short of amazing! It would take too long to talk about everything since there was so much going on in this film, so I’ll keep this brief. Tenoch Huerta was great as Namor and did an excellent job introducing this character to the MCU. Angela Bassett was a standout! Every scene she was in was full of emotion and power. And of course, Letitia Wright handled all of Shuri’s trials, tribulations and character development amazingly. All of the fight scenes were a blast to watch, but my favorite fight was Okoye's vs Attuma All that said, the movie maybe felt a bit TOO long and some of the scenes could have been tightened up a bit, namely all the CIA scenes, they just kind of dragged on a bit for my taste. If you were a fan of the first “Black Panther” movie, you’ll love this sequel.
"Till" was a brilliantly directed movie. It was very clear that the director, Chinonye Chukwu took the utmost care to tell this important story. Every element in this film felt like it had genuine purpose: from scene execution, to the score, to the actors performances, everything comes together perfectly to shed necessary light on this ugly portion of America's history. Danielle Deadwyler’s performance was especially outstanding in this movie and her portrayal of Mamie Till-Mobley might just be the strongest performance of 2022. And, while I feel that this is an important and powerful movie that people should watch, I also feel that it is very important to make sure you're prepared to watch a film like this: Anyone who knows of the horrifying event’s that occurred in 1955, knows that this movie will be a heartbreaking movie to sit through. Please make sure you are in a good place before seeing this movie.
"Hey, what's up?" "Bros" was a cute and serviceable rom-com film: While the movie isn’t anything I would call “groundbreaking,” it manages to set out and accomplish what it was aiming to do… Be a good, first gay romantic comedy from a major studio. I can feel there was a good faith effort to be as inclusive as possible with as much LGBTQ+ representation as possible and every joke was handled very thoughtfully and with care. All of the running gags about Hallmark Christmas films where amazing and I kind of wish some of them would become actual movies! Billy Eichner was hilarious and a surprisingly good singer and Luke Macfarlane might have been a bit TOO charming! The supporting cast was incredible as well, everybody brought a bit of something to the table to make this move as funny as it was. If I were to make a slight nitpick on "Bros," I did notice a lot of obvious dub overs before cuts when characters were speaking. All-in-all, “Bros” was a fun watch and a great film to watch in theaters with friends. 7/10
“Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero” was a fun watch. Just to get one thing out of the way: The CG animation isn’t that bad. Quite the contrary, it made for a lot of cool shots and dynamic camera angles. One of the best things about this movie, is the fact that they focus on other characters besides the two main hitters. It’s so refreshing to NOT see Goku and Vegeta front and center for a change, and have the rest of the gang take care of business! All that said, one problem I had with the movie was that it didn’t do much to pump me up the way the other movies did. This is BY FAR the weakest movie in the “Dragon Ball Super” series, feeling like a silly filler arc most of the time with very weak steaks that don’t really sell you on it’s premise. Also, the "Big Bad" is a mere shell of one of the best villain's in the whole series. As a non-canon movie, this movie isn’t necessarily required viewing, but if you’re a big “Dragon Ball” fan, this is a solid matinee movie.
"Thor: Love and Thunder" was pretty good: While it's not quite as good as "Thor: Ragnarok," it was a fun adventure film with lot's of (perhaps a bit TOO much) comedy. There were a lot of cool cameos but Natalie Portman killed it as Mighty Thor, Christian Bale as Goor might be one of my new favorite Marvel villains and didn't get enough screen time in my opinion. judging by the mid credits scene, they're setting up some exciting stuff for Phase 5 of the MCU. I can’t wait to see the ball roll some more!
"Lightyear" was... Mid. It just feels like your basic run-of-the-mill space adventure movie. You could remove any elements of "Toy Story" and the character Buzz Lightyear, and the movie would still work. On top of that, there’s not a whole lot going on in this movie: Everyone is just kind of shuffling around until the last third of the film and it undercuts all the things it's trying to do/say. It tries too hard to look realistic in it's animation when it could have gone for a more stylized approach (this movie could have taken notes from "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" in that department). The cat character was kinda fun but that’s to be expected from the usual silly/quirky character that is almost always included in Disney-Pixar movies. If you have young kids, they will probably like this movie, just make sure your phones light setting is low so you don’t disturb others when you decide to turn it on to kill time 5/10
