Category: Reviews of Movies

The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz: Directed by Kirk R. Thatcher. With Ashanti, Jeffrey Tambor, Quentin Tarantino, David Alan Grier. This version of The Wizard of Oz is played by the Muppets. A remake of the 1939 film. I had no idea this was even a thing until I saw it come across a movies sale page. I do miss having Muppet adaptations of these classic stories and while this one starts off in a bumpy way that hasn’t aged very well, once they got to the Land of Oz the Muppets were as good as I’ve ever seen them. The...

Long Distance: Directed by Josh Gordon, Will Speck. With Anthony Ramos, Naomi Scott, Kristofer Hivju, Zachary Quinto. It follows an asteroid miner who, after crash-landing on an alien planet, must make his way across the harsh terrain, running out of oxygen, hunted by strange creatures, to the only other survivor. Other than some tik toks, I completely missed the marketing for “Long Distance”, which is a damned shame, this is a great movie! Anthony Ramos does great in a nearly single character story, there’s only one other face we see until the last 20 minutes of the film, and it...

Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult: Directed by Peter Segal. With Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, George Kennedy, O.J. Simpson. Frank Drebin comes out of retirement to help Police Squad infiltrate a gang of terrorists planning to detonate a bomb at the Academy Awards. The third movie in a series of extremely funny movies that never once overstayed their welcome. There’s a dance scene that I enjoyed. Buy On Amazon!

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: Directed by John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein. With Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith. A charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers embark on an epic quest to retrieve a lost relic, but things go dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people. I watched this again, but this time it was with my mother in law, so I got to explain a few of the jokes, she’s not aware of most of the D&D stuff. I found it comforting that she didn’t really need that explanation though, as...

The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear: Directed by David Zucker. With Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, George Kennedy, O.J. Simpson. Lieutenant Frank Drebin discovers that his ex-girlfriend’s new beau is involved in a plot to kidnap a scientist who advocates solar energy. So enjoyable, much funny. Buy On Amazon!

Johnny Eager: Directed by Mervyn LeRoy. With Robert Taylor, Lana Turner, Edward Arnold, Van Heflin. The step-daughter of a district attorney falls in love with a gangster on parole who her father originally imprisoned. They’re definitely dynamite in this story of a bad boy going to the races and getting even worse with an innocent young woman by his side. Glenda Farrell isn’t the main squeeze, much to my chagrin, but it was great to see her in the limited time she had on screen. The story of course is great with some really goofy but enjoyable twists and turns...

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!: Directed by David Zucker. With Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, Ricardo Montalban, George Kennedy. Incompetent police Detective Frank Drebin must foil an attempt to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II. I watched all three of these in preparation for a date with my wife at the movies to see the most recent entry, it was in the theaters! We ended up falling asleep and missing the new one, but this first one was great and I had forgotten just how great it was. Buy On Amazon!

Ballerina: Directed by Len Wiseman. With Ana de Armas, Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, Anjelica Huston. An assassin trained in the traditions of the Ruska Roma organization sets out to seek revenge after her father’s death. While the style of the movie fits pretty well into the existing John Wick films, I think they leaned a little too hard on John Wick themself to tell this story. I was still pretty happy with the end result! Buy On Amazon!

Civil War: Directed by Alex Garland. With Nick Offerman, Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Jefferson White. In a dystopian future, four journalists travel across the United States during a nation-wide conflict. While trying to survive, they aim to reach the White House to interview the president before he is overthrown. Now that I own this on disk I can rewatch that final scene as often as I want. Buy On Amazon!

Heat Lightning: Directed by Mervyn LeRoy. With Aline MacMahon, Ann Dvorak, Preston Foster, Lyle Talbot. Two killers stop at Olga’s gas station alongside a California highway. A funny yet mature glimpse into the lives of multiple intersecting groups of people in a tiny rest stop in the middle of nowhere, set against the backdrop of a distant storm. It’s a great story with some fun interactions among people that aren’t all exactly as they present themselves. This was on my radar because of the amazing Glenda Farrell, who plays a rich sister that flaunts her riches and body a little...

Thunderbolts*: Directed by Jake Schreier. With Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lewis Pullman. After finding themselves ensnared in a death trap, an unconventional team of antiheroes must go on a dangerous mission that will force them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts. Watching this at home means that I can re-view some of my favorite scenes over and over again, and boy howdy does this movie have a lot of them. There’s a ton of backstory for every character in the “Thunderbolts” team, with two tv shows and 3-4 movies as required viewing if you want to...

Outlander: Directed by Howard McCain. With Jim Caviezel, Sophia Myles, Jack Huston, John Hurt. During the reign of the Vikings, Kainan, a man from a far-off world, crash lands on Earth, bringing with him an alien predator known as the Moorwen. Though both man and monster are seeking revenge for violence committed against them, Kainan leads the alliance to kill the Moorwen by fusing his advanced technology with the Viking’s Iron Age weaponry. I think I watched this all the way back when it originally came out in 2008, I remembered a couple of the big set pieces, but I...

Heads of State: Directed by Ilya Naishuller. With Idris Elba, John Cena, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Paddy Considine. When the U.K. Prime Minister and U.S. President become the targets of a foreign adversary, they’re forced to rely on one another to thwart a global conspiracy. Much more fun than I thought it was going to be, John Cena and Idris Elba are an odd pairing, but it works in every regard I care about. Buy On Amazon!

Deep Cover: Directed by Tom Kingsley. With Bryce Dallas Howard, Orlando Bloom, Nick Mohammed, Sean Bean. Three improv actors are asked to go undercover by the police in London’s criminal underworld. Hilarious and always abides by the first rule of improve of “Yes and…”. Buy On Amazon!

The Fantastic Four: First Steps: Directed by Matt Shakman. With Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn. Forced to balance their roles as heroes with the strength of their family bond, the Fantastic Four must defend Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus and his enigmatic Herald, Silver Surfer. This is one of the first Marvel movies in a long time that requires absolutely no knowledge of any other comic book film, no knowledge of the comics, and just an appreciation for a retro-futuristic take on a classic family of adventurers. There’s a perfect soundtrack that goes along...

Hellboy: The Crooked Man: Directed by Brian Taylor. With Jack Kesy, Jefferson White, Adeline Rudolph, Leah McNamara. Hellboy and a rookie B.P.R.D. agent in the 1950s are sent to the Appalachians, where they discover a remote community dominated by witches and led by the sinister local demon, the Crooked Man. I actually watched this …months ago? It might have even been last year, but I was so unaffected by the film that I forgot to even put it on a “to review” list. It’s not actually a terrible film, but it had such a limited budget that all it really...

Whisper of the Heart: Directed by Yoshifumi Kondô. With Yoko Honna, Issei Takahashi, Takashi Tachibana, Shigeru Muroi. A love story between a girl who loves reading books and a boy who has previously checked out all of the library books she chooses. This is another exceptionally well crafted look into the lives of normal yet captivating characters that are just living their lives in their normal manner, but through the fascinating lens of Studio Ghibli. I’m about 90% sure that this movie is the inspiration for the lo-fi girl youtube channel that got me through many long nights of studying...

Star Trek: Section 31: Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi. With Michelle Yeoh, Omari Hardwick, Sam Richardson, Robert Kazinsky. In Star Trek: Section 31, Emperor Philippa Georgiou joins a secret division of Starfleet tasked with protecting the United Federation of Planets, and must face the sins of her past. There’s a couple soundtrack elements that remind me of the Borg themes from First Contact, which was a vastly superior film. Also, quick question, at the beginning of the film, when the evil Terrans beam down, there’s like a thousand people there that stretch about a half mile back. can they even hear...

Captain America: Brave New World: Directed by Julius Onah. With Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas. Sam Wilson, the new Captain America, finds himself in the middle of an international incident and must discover the motive behind a nefarious global plan. I have it on blue rays now! It’s a pretty film that missed a couple cool opportunities to be cooler and didn’t stick the landing in the 3rd act. I was ultimately satisfied, but imagine what could have been! Buy On Amazon!

Sonic the Hedgehog 3: Directed by Jeff Fowler. With Jim Carrey, Ben Schwartz, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba. Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails reunite against a powerful new adversary, Shadow, a mysterious villain with powers unlike anything they have faced before. With their abilities outmatched, Team Sonic must seek out an unlikely alliance. I got this for free by signing up for a chicken nugget newsletter and they still haven’t sent me a single email yet. Sonic 3 isn’t as good as the first two, but is still good enough that I’m happy I own this due to my corporate spam sellout....

Pom Poko: Directed by Isao Takahata. With Shinchô Kokontei, Makoto Nonomura, Yuriko Ishida, Norihei Miki. A community of magical shape-shifting raccoon dogs struggle to prevent their forest home from being destroyed by urban development. “Raccoon dogs” are not “racoons” as I understand them, but after a quick wikipedia journey 15 links deep, I remembered that I was watching a movie and got back to this delightful yet depressing story of animals being killed in humanity’s quest for more space. This is mostly a cute story about loveable shapeshifting creature trying to find their way in an increasingly dangerous world, but...

Superman: Directed by James Gunn. With David Corenswet, Alan Tudyk, Grace Chan, Bradley Cooper. Superman must reconcile his alien Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing as reporter Clark Kent. As the embodiment of truth, justice and the human way he soon finds himself in a world that views these as old-fashioned. I got to experience this the same day that I traveled from Florida to Pennsylvania with a day that started at 3am and this showing was at 10pm at an AMC PRIME theater, which was a first for me. The seats were heated, they reclined all the way down...

Lilo & Stitch: Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp. With Maia Kealoha, Sydney Agudong, Chris Sanders, Zach Galifianakis. A lonely Hawaiian girl befriends a runaway alien, helping to mend her fragmented family. A live action version of a movie that meant a whole lot to me and much like their past efforts there’s no real reason for this remake and it adds nothing of value to the franchise. It’s cute and is a perfectly fine movie, but it’s definitely not as good as the animated film. Buy On Amazon!

Predator: Killer of Killers: Directed by Dan Trachtenberg, Joshua Wassung. With Michael Biehn, Doug Cockle, Rick Gonzalez, Damien C. Haas. Three of the fiercest warriors in human history become prey to the ultimate killer of killers. About as good as you can get for science fiction, I’m super happy to see that the Predator franchise is back in good hands and they seem to have a handle on what makes the Predatorverse so appealing to so many people. There’s a lot of world building here and some obvious sequel breadcrumbs, but the three stories here are fantastic. Buy On Amazon!

Wicked: Directed by Jon M. Chu. With Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh. Elphaba, a young woman ridiculed for her green skin, and Galinda, a popular girl, become friends at Shiz University in the Land of Oz. After an encounter with the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, their friendship reaches a crossroads. I don’t like to slander well liked movies, but I honestly have no idea what anyone saw in this film. The music is flat, everyone is mean to each other, and the story doesn’t actually start until they get to Oz, which is in the last 30...

Thunderbolts*: Directed by Jake Schreier. With Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lewis Pullman. After finding themselves ensnared in a death trap, an unconventional team of antiheroes must go on a dangerous mission that will force them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts. The MCU is back baby! It also never left! I was somewhat disappointed that they didn’t go with the golden age origin story, but the one they had for the movie works in context of the wider universe that’s been rolling for nearly 20 years now. Buy On Amazon!

Venom: The Last Dance: Directed by Kelly Marcel. With Tom Hardy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans. Eddie Brock and Venom must make a devastating decision as they’re pursued by a mysterious military man and alien monsters from Venom’s home world. Watched again with my wife. This was indeed a movie with a character named “Venom” in it. I have no memories of dancing though. Buy On Amazon!

Kraven the Hunter: Directed by J.C. Chandor. With Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola. Kraven’s complex relationship with his ruthless father, Nikolai Kravinoff, starts him down a path of vengeance with brutal consequences, motivating him to become not only the greatest hunter in the world, but also one of its most feared. This is a much better film than I was expecting and would have been even better if it had no connection whatsoever to the Spider-man universe, but alas, Kraven is a well known Spider-man villain that isn’t as interesting as he could be when the movie...

Sinners: Directed by Ryan Coogler. With Miles Caton, Saul Williams, Andrene Ward-Hammond, Jack O’Connell. Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back. I finally got around to watching this in an AMC, but sadly missed the Dolby Digital release. I actually tried to see it a few weeks ago, but it had already shifted from the DD theater to the 10 seater and I gave up on seeing it in a theater, but it’s been doing so well...

The 4:30 Movie: Directed by Kevin Smith. With Siena Agudong, Austin Zajur, Kate Micucci, Ming Chen. A group of teens in the 1980s spend the day theater-hopping. I don’t remember seeing a single advertisement for this being in theaters and only caught wind of it on the Amazon “new movies on 4k” page. It likely would not have been a great theater movie, but it was a perfectly fun coming of age movie about movie theaters and the shenanigans that movie fans used to get up to whilst hanging out at the movie theater. Buy On Amazon!

Starchaser: The Legend of Orin: Directed by Steven Hahn. With Joe Colligan, Carmen Argenziano, Noelle North, Anthony De Longis. Set on the subterranean Mine-World, a band of human worker are treated like slaves under the power of the evil overlord Zygon until one, Orin, unearths the hilt of a mythical sword that only he can master. Escaping the planet, he runs into the rogue smuggler Dagg and a pair of helpful droids and the princess, who all team up to return to the Mine-World with a plan to defeat Zygon and free Orin’s enslaved people. Starchaser: The Legend of Orin...

Porco Rosso: Directed by Hayao Miyazaki. With Shûichirô Moriyama, Tokiko Katô, Bunshi Katsura VI, Tsunehiko Kamijô. In 1930s Italy, a veteran World War I pilot is cursed to look like an anthropomorphic pig. I went into Porco Rosso with modest expectations, not entirely sure what to make of a film about a World War I fighter pilot who, as part of the story, is cursed to live in the body of a pig. What I found, though, was a surprisingly rich and layered experience—one that blended whimsical fantasy with poignant historical context, and mixed lighthearted action with a deeper emotional...

Kiki’s Delivery Service: Directed by Hayao Miyazaki. With Minami Takayama, Rei Sakuma, Kappei Yamaguchi, Keiko Toda. Along with her black cat Jiji, Kiki settles in a seaside town and starts a high-flying delivery service. Here begins her magical encounter with independence and responsibility, making lifelong friends and finding her place in the world. This is the movie that actually got the ball rolling on my desire to watch all the Studio Ghibli films, as one of my coworkers had a stain glass mural in her window that features Jiji all over the place, which I thought was cute and whimsical...

Robot Carnival: Directed by Atsuko Fukushima, Hiroyuki Kitakubo, Hiroyuki Kitazume, Kôji Morimoto, Takashi Nakamura, Yasuomi Umetsu, Manabu Ôhashi, Hidetoshi Ômori, Katsuhiro Ôtomo. With Kôji Moritsugu, Yayoi Maki, Keiko Hanagata, Kumiko Takizawa. A collection of short stories, made by different animators with “robot” as the working title. This is on Amazon Prime and I fully have no idea how it ended up in front of me, but it was such a fantastic experience that I’m happy it was in my queue, or suggestion list or whatever the mess of Prime lists actually is. It’s a collection of short stories that range...

My Neighbor Totoro: Directed by Hayao Miyazaki. With Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto, Shigesato Itoi, Sumi Shimamoto. When two girls move to the country to be near their ailing mother, they have adventures with the wondrous forest spirits who live nearby. Decidedly lighter fair in comparison to Grave of the Fireflies or even Valley of the Wind, there’s still some extremely emotionally charged moments that really had my heart getting ready to break. I was luckily saved from that sad fate by a well timed catbus, for which I’m grateful that were introduced to earlier in the film, because as a...

Grave of the Fireflies: Directed by Isao Takahata. With Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi, Yoshiko Shinohara, Akemi Yamaguchi. A young boy and his little sister struggle to survive in Japan during World War II. I already knew what this movie was about, so when it came time to watch it on my journey to see all of Studio Ghibli, I hesitated for a moment. Was I ready for a beautiful, yet heavy film about the final days of World War 2? I thought I was, but I was honestly expecting it to be told through allegory, much like the first two...

Ash: Directed by Flying Lotus. With Eiza González, Aaron Paul, Iko Uwais, Kate Elliott. A woman wakes up on a distant planet and finds the crew of her space station viciously killed. Her investigation into what happened sets in motion a terrifying chain of events. There’s a few big names and familiar faces in “Ash” that I had limitedly high hopes for it, perhaps I trusted the trailer a bit too much, but the final product didn’t do it for me. The story has been done many times before where your POV character wakes up with no memory of what’s...

Castle in the Sky: Directed by Hayao Miyazaki. With Mayumi Tanaka, Keiko Yokozawa, Kotoe Hatsui, Minori Terada. Pazu’s life changes when he meets Sheeta, a girl whom pirates are chasing for her crystal amulet, which has the potential to locate Laputa, a legendary castle floating in the sky. My favorite quote from this movie: “All good pirates listen to their mom!” Another post apocalyptic tale from Studio Ghibli, this one is much more whimsical, but none the less captivating with a strong soundtrack, a story that really works well, and characters that feel as real as it gets. I’m sad...

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind: Directed by Hayao Miyazaki. With Sumi Shimamoto, Mahito Tsujimura, Hisako Kyôda, Gorô Naya. Warrior and pacifist Princess Nausicaä desperately struggles to prevent two warring nations from destroying themselves and their dying planet. I’ve never watched a Studio Ghibli film before, at least not to my knowledge. One of my co-workers had an adorable stainglass thing with a cat on it and she said that it was from one of their films (Kiki’s Delivery Service iirc), and this company has been constantly on the periphery of many different genres that I love, but I...

The Electric State: Directed by Anthony Russo, Joe Russo. With Woody Norman, Millie Bobby Brown, Ann Russo, Greg Cromer. An orphaned teen hits the road with a mysterious robot to find her long-lost brother, teaming up with a smuggler and his wisecracking sidekick. The trailers for this looked amazing, but what we got was less than amazing and more bland Netflix straight to vhs than I was really hoping for. A few people have said that the film was made for kids and that might explain how mediocre and unchallenging the dialogue was, but that trailer made me feel this...

Moana 2: Directed by David G. Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, Dana Ledoux Miller. With Auli’i Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Hualalai Chung, Rose Matafeo. After receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors, Moana must journey to the far seas of Oceania and into dangerous, long-lost waters for an adventure unlike anything she’s ever faced. While I enjoyed the film, it didn’t rise to the same level of appreciation as the first film, and felt like a much smaller adventure than what I think was intended. It’s still an exceptionally enjoyable adventure! Buy On Amazon!

Piece by Piece: Directed by Morgan Neville. With Pharrell Williams, Morgan Neville, Kendrick Lamar, Gwen Stefani. A vibrant journey through the life of Pharrell Williams, told through the lens of LEGO animation. A visual feast of a movie that I knew was going to be a biographical story, but my wife had no clue and I’m not sure how I would have liked to have had it. It’s a great film and the soundtrack is as rich as you can get, but as a well done biographical story, there’s no real action to it. I enjoyed it for what it...

Constantine: Directed by Francis Lawrence. With Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Shia LaBeouf, Djimon Hounsou. Detective Angela approaches Constantine, a demon hunter, to help her investigate her twin sister’s mysterious death. As he digs deeper, he realizes that demons are trying to enter the human world. Still a solid movie, there’s been constant talk of a possible sequel, and while I’ll watch it if it happens, I’m happy with this being a stand alone film. It’s not the most faithful adaptation in terms of character specifics, but it gets the fundamentals right, so the lack of blonde hair and british accent...

Warning Sign: Directed by Hal Barwood. With Sam Waterston, Kathleen Quinlan, Yaphet Kotto, Jeffrey DeMunn. A timid security guard, her ailing supervisor-mentor, her sheriff husband and an alcoholic former scientist team up to stop a viral outbreak in a rural biological weapons lab, while a government agent grapples with the political outcome. This is another tiktok influenced film, the scene I saw was the initial lockdown, and the ret of the film was just as good as the teaser scene suggested it would be. The crux of it is that there’s a bioweapons research company doing business under the guise...

The Gorge: Directed by Scott Derrickson. With Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy, Sigourney Weaver, Sope Dirisu. Two highly-trained operatives become close after being sent to protect opposite sides of a mysterious gorge. When an evil emerges, they must work together to survive what lies within. While this is a much more serious film than I initially thought it was going to be, there’s still some of the stupid idiots doing stupid things in a situation that everyone involved should known better. The Gorge (the location in the movie) is a wonderfully novel concept with a great execution that I fully applaud....

This Is the Tom Green Documentary: Directed by Tom Green. With Tom Green, Mary Jane Green, Phil Giroux, Howard Wagman. Comedian Tom Green’s journey takes unexpected turns as he shifts from wild MTV stunts to confronting serious health challenges, ultimately finding peace away from Hollywood on his Canadian farm. Tom Green was ever present while I was in high school, but I never found myself enjoying his efforts, they seemed too intentionally random and felt inauthentic. There’s an entire genre of comedy based around that type of humor that I just don’t go for, but enough people do that it...

Earth Abides: Created by Todd Komarnicki. With Alexander Ludwig, Jessica Frances Dukes, Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll, Elyse Levesque. After months of isolation, Isherwood “Ish” Williams, learns that most of the world has fallen to a mysterious illness. Yet, despite his instincts to further isolate, Ish leads the charge to develop a new civilization. I’ve seen a ton of post-apocalyptic stories in so many different variations, and not many of them are able to make me feel good about the story by the end of it, feeling hopeful and open to the idea that humanity will do better than it did before. Mind...

The Wild Robot: Directed by Chris Sanders. With Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Bill Nighy. After a shipwreck, an intelligent robot called Roz is stranded on an uninhabited island. To survive the harsh environment, Roz bonds with the island’s animals and cares for an orphaned baby goose. As good as I was expecting, and I was expecting a good movie considering the stupid trailer made me cry stupid tears. They hit all the notes required to pull the strings of the heart and have all the plot elements to make it all a wonderful experience. It’s also pretty good...

Captain America: Brave New World: Directed by Julius Onah. With Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas. Sam Wilson, the new Captain America, finds himself in the middle of an international incident and must discover the motive behind a nefarious global plan. We’re not necessarily back to the amazing level of story and effort that the original Captain America movie had, but we’re no where near the lows of recent MCU movies. There’s still some unfortunate CGI in the third act and a few scenes that look like they were filmed in both The Volume and a bluescreen at...