Category: Reviews of Movies
The evil Empire has fallen, and Imperial warlords remain scattered throughout the galaxy. As the fledgling New Republic works to protect everything the Rebellion fought for, they have enlisted the help of legendary Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin and his young apprentice Grogu. I’m excited to report this movie was everything I could have possibly hoped for in a Mandalorian movie and is essentially two episodes of the tv series sandwiched together in the most perfect way. No notes. Buy On Amazon!
As Frank Castle searches for meaning beyond revenge, an unexpected force pulls him back into the fight. I feel like this was based off one of the more ambition comic book stories, but I’ve done no research and refuse to spend another second thinking about this waste of time. The comic maybe had a lady getting eaten by a polar bear at the end of the story arc? Maybe! This made for TV movie was lower quality that I though the MCU was aiming for, featuring bad fight scenes, bad cgi, and a story that bored me. Buy On Amazon!
After Kevin finds a ghost named Ernest haunting his new home, he becomes an overnight social media sensation. But when Kevin and Ernest go rogue to investigate the mystery of the latter’s past, they become targets of the CIA. Watched again with my wife, I enjoyed it again, and she enjoyed it for the first time! Buy On Amazon!
A widowed new dad copes with doubts, fears, heartache and dirty diapers as he sets out to raise his daughter on his own. Inspired by a true story. Netflix really did me dirty with this great movie. The trailer they played was pure comedy, but this has only a few truly light hearted moments, it’s mostly a heavy and emotion film about the exceptionally tragic death of a woman immediately after she gives birth, then the women that express their believe that the new widowed father is going to be unable to raise the kid. It’s a great movie that...
Matilda Wormwood is an brilliant and intelligent little girl. Unfortunately, her parents, Harry and Zinnia, fail to see that fact. As time passes, she finally starts school and has a kind teacher, loyal friends, and a terrifying, sadistic headmistress. As she becomes fed up with the constant cruelty, she discovers she has a special gift that she just might be able to use to outwit the unruly adults around her. I have no memory of seeing this before and when I said as such to my wife while she was endlessly scrolling through thousands of movies and television episodes. I’m...
A group of college students go downstairs to their dorm lobby to get a delivery pizza. There’s only one issue: They’re insanely high on a homemade drug, turning their simple journey down two sets of stairs into a mind-bendingly transformative quest. A fun drug filled adventure that takes our team of college druggies from their dorm to the far away lobby. There’s plenty of psychedelic moments, some fun body transfer moments, moments of legal peril, and a pizza delivery drone that will certainly pull at your heart strings. I lol’d several times and I’m completely sober these days, I can...
When a downtrodden janitor, Winston Gooze, is exposed to a catastrophic toxic accident, he’s transformed into a new kind of hero: The Toxic Avenger. Now, Toxie must rise from outcast to savior, taking on ruthless corporate overlords and corrupt forces who threaten his son, his friends, and his community. A surprisingly great retelling of a classic story with a modern sensibility and budget of this classically sensible and low budget movie from the 80s. I found it to be as entertaining as the original version of the story that spawned several sequels, but unfortunately I’m not sure we’re ever going...
Two gangsters and the woman they love try to survive the most dangerous night of their lives. As if that wasn’t enough, there’s one wild ingredient added to the mix: a time machine. A rather fun adventure in time travel, as experience by a mob guy who unwittingly sends himself back in time to stop a murder. Everyone seems to be having fun with the settings and script and the 2 hour run time goes quickly. Buy On Amazon!
After his life is turned upside down when his wife is killed in a London terrorist attack, a brilliant but introverted CIA decoder takes matters into his own hands when his supervisors refuse to take action. A spy craft movie like many others, with the significant and interesting twist that our main spy character really has no clue what he’s doing and it’s play seriously throughout the entire flick. There’s been humorous versions of this like Get Smart or Austin Powers, but this is the first in my recent memory where there’s a matter of vengeance to be settled, the...
A burned-out paramedic tries to survive his last 24 hours on the job while training a new recruit. I’ve been seeing this all over Tik Tok and as luck would have it, it’s on Hulu/Disney, so it was readily available for me when I needed something to watch at 1am while my son was having a midnight wake session and refused to go back to sleep. “Code 3” is at times hilarious and fun, then at other times a series look behind the lives of nearly minimum wage ambulance jockeys and the lives they impact during their shifts. The humor...
Science teacher Ryland Grace wakes up on a spaceship light years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission: solve the riddle of the mysterious substance causing the sun to die out. He must call on his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save everything on Earth from extinction… but an unexpected friendship means he may not have to do it alone. The first movie that my wife and I went to see after my son was born, his grandmother was over and offered...
After cracking the biggest case in Zootopia’s history, rookie cops Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde find themselves on the twisting trail of a great mystery when Gary De’Snake arrives and turns the animal metropolis upside down. To crack the case, Judy and Nick must go undercover to unexpected new parts of town, where their growing partnership is tested like never before. This was definitely a movie that I had on in my house, but I’m struggling to remember much about it. I watched it just a few days ago, but other than knowing it was way over packed with adorable...
Four misfits find themselves struggling with ordinary problems when they are suddenly pulled through a mysterious portal into the Overworld: a bizarre, cubic wonderland that thrives on imagination. To get back home, they’ll have to master this world while embarking on a magical quest with an unexpected, expert crafter, Steve. I truly did not expect to enjoy this film as much as I did, fully expecting it to be just like every other video game adaptation: fully full of itself and missing the heart of what made the originating video game worth a movie adaptation. I was entertained from the...
On one last grueling mission during Army Ranger training, a combat engineer must lead his unit in a fight against a giant otherworldly killing machine. Alan Richson is quickly becoming a modern go to muscle man with a great acting range and a great taste in role selection. This movie reminds me of a game I played named “Generation Zero” crossed with a Ranger specific patriotic film that you would expect from director Michael Bay. If you’re even remotely interested in either of those concepts or really enjoy over the top military science fiction, this should be on your watch...
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning: Directed by Christopher McQuarrie. With Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg. Hunt and the IMF pursue a dangerous AI called the Entity that’s infiltrated global intelligence. With governments and a figure from his past in pursuit, Hunt races to stop it from forever changing the world. The missions were certainly impossible in this, the possibly final Mission: Impossible movie, the latest entry in a multi-billion dollar franchise. It’s much better than the previous film but continues the rather silly Terminator storyline in which an artificial intelligence is taking over the world’s nuclear...
Knock Knock: Directed by Eli Roth. With Keanu Reeves, Lorenza Izzo, Ana de Armas, Aaron Burns. A devoted husband and father helps two stranded young women who knock on his door, but his kind gesture turns into a dangerous seduction and a deadly game of cat and mouse. I thought this was going to be a totally different movie than it actually turned out to be, which is weird “all women are crazy and can’t be trusted” kind of psychological horror film that makes little sense if you think about any one part of it for more than a couple...
Wild: Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée. With Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Gaby Hoffmann, Thomas Sadoski. A chronicle of one woman’s 1,100-mile solo hike undertaken as a way to recover from a recent personal tragedy. My wife hadn’t seen it and she wanted to watch something interesting. I warned her this was going to be much more extreme than she was likely looking for, but I think she still enjoyed herself. Buy On Amazon!
Muppets Treasure Island: Directed by Brian Henson, Mark Loparco. With Bill Barretta, Kevin Bishop, Kevin Clash, Billy Connolly. This game is played by Jim Hawkins from a first person view, as he finds the map as you go to four places, first at “The Benbow Inn”. “The port town Bristol”, on “The Hispaniola Ship”, and on “Treasure Island”. My sister came to visit my son and we put this on while we were up way too late with the new born child. He slept through the entire movie, but the mildly awake adults enjoyed the film. Buy On Amazon!
Star Trek: The Motion Picture: Directed by Robert Wise. With William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan. When an alien spacecraft of enormous power is spotted approaching Earth, Admiral James T. Kirk resumes command of the overhauled USS Enterprise in order to intercept it. I watched this with my son, he slept through all of it and has no concept of the final frontier, but I believe this was his first film. Buy On Amazon!
I Swear: Directed by Kirk Jones. With Robert Aramayo, Peter Mullan, Maxine Peake, Shirley Henderson. John Davidson: diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome at a young age which alienated him from his peers, he struggled with a condition few people had witnessed. A remarkable true story with an absolute shit ton of cursing. I think this fantastically told story has the record for the most uses of the word “cunt” in a modern film. It’s great to watch, particularly the final act in which he finds his place in the world. Buy On Amazon!
Iron Man 3: Directed by Shane Black. With Robert Downey Jr., Guy Pearce, Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle. When Tony Stark’s world is torn apart by a formidable terrorist called the Mandarin, he starts an odyssey of rebuilding and retribution. Solidly the worst Iron Man film of them all, it’s taken a long time and several other films and tv products to fix some of the weird decisions that were made behind the scenes here. I’m still salty about the way they treated The Mandarin, still salty about the billions of dollars of wasted Iron Man suits, and still salty about...
Thor: The Dark World: Directed by Alan Taylor. With Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins. When the Dark Elves attempt to plunge the universe into darkness, Thor must embark on a perilous and personal journey that will reunite him with doctor Jane Foster. Not the strongest Thor film, but still not the worst Thor film, it’s solidly mediocre, which is a sad place to be for a god of thunder. Buy On Amazon!
The Avengers: Directed by Joss Whedon. With Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo. Earth’s mightiest heroes must come together and learn to fight as a team if they are going to stop the mischievous Loki and his alien army from enslaving humanity. Such an amazingly solid film that brings together all the pieces that had been put into play by previous films. Buy On Amazon!
Thor: Directed by Kenneth Branagh. With Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston. The powerful but arrogant god Thor is cast out of Asgard to live amongst humans in Midgard (Earth), where he soon becomes one of their finest defenders. A great continuation of my marathon of the MCU movies, as mandated by my wife. The best part of this is the Bifrost! It’s such a fantastic implementation of a goofy sounding concept: a rainbow bridge. Buy On Amazon!
Iron Man 2: Directed by Jon Favreau. With Robert Downey Jr., Mickey Rourke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle. With the world now aware of his identity as Iron Man, Tony Stark must contend with both his declining health and a vengeful mad man with ties to his father’s legacy. IMHO, this is still the best MCU stand alone character films with some of the best action scenes in the entire MCU. Two scenes in particular get me every time I see them: the racing scene with the suitcase suit, then the “kill zone” battle with Iron Man and War Machine just...
Captain Marvel: Directed by Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck. With Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Jude Law. Carol Danvers becomes one of the universe’s most powerful heroes when Earth is caught in the middle of a galactic war between two alien races. As part of of my wife’s mandated MCU rewatch, Captain Marvel is a pretty ok film, but it could have been so much better. The bones of a trilogy are here but they’re not used, which is something we’ll see repeatedly with this character. Buy On Amazon!
The Wrecking Crew: Directed by Angel Manuel Soto. With Dave Bautista, Jason Momoa, Temuera Morrison, Roimata Fox. Estranged half-brothers Jonny and James reunite after their father’s mysterious death. As they search for the truth, buried secrets reveal a conspiracy threatening to tear their family apart. A pretty solid movie about family, set it Hawai’i, and includes and excessive amount of computer generated violence that’s only just barely acceptable in a live action film. The plot is a familiar and safe one but it’s entertaining enough. One thing I was surprised about those was that Bautista allowed himself to be portrayed...
Iron Man: Directed by Jon Favreau. With Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges. After being held captive in an Afghan cave, billionaire engineer Tony Stark creates a unique weaponized suit of armor to fight evil. On my wife mandated MCU rewatch, we’re skipping around a little bit to Iron Man, which remains one of my favorite characters in the MCU, which isn’t exactly a unique opinion to have. Buy On Amazon!
Captain America: The First Avenger: Directed by Joe Johnston. With Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Samuel L. Jackson, Hayley Atwell. Steve Rogers, a rejected military soldier, transforms into Captain America after taking a dose of a “Super-Soldier serum”. But being Captain America comes at a price as he attempts to take down a warmonger and a terrorist organization. My wife has demanded that we do a full MCU rewatch, sans television shows, so here we are, sorta at the beginning. Turns out that the order we’re watching them in is a “in universe” chronology. The First Avenger is still by far...
Dogma: Directed by Kevin Smith. With Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Linda Fiorentino, Bud Cort. An abortion clinic worker with a special heritage is called upon to save the existence of humanity from being negated by two renegade angels trying to exploit a loop-hole and reenter Heaven. Finally out on physical media again! It’s still one of Kevin Smith’s more solid films from a narrative perspective and the cast is just absolutely loaded with great actors giving great performances. Buy On Amazon!
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues: Directed by Adam McKay. With Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell. With the 1970s behind him, Ron Burgundy, San Diego’s former top-rated newsreader, returns to take New York City’s first twenty-four-hour news channel by storm. Not as great as the first movie and hasn’t aged very well, but as a fan of the character and of the actors involved I still enjoy 60% of the time every time. Buy On Amazon!
Quasi: Directed by Kevin Heffernan. With Brian Cox, Steve Lemme, Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan. Follow a hapless hunchback who yearns for love… The team that brought us all the Broken Lizard movies is back, but this time they’ve brought some of their friends from the TV shows they’ve been on lately. This is a goofy, low budget, low brow, low effort film with a decidedly specific audience that I happen to comfortably self identify as. I enjoyed everything about it and would suggest it to anyone that has enjoyed Broken Lizard’s past projects. Buy On Amazon!
Former London constable Nicholas Angel finds it difficult to adapt to his new assignment in the sleepy British village of Sandford. Not only does he miss the excitement of the big city, but he also has a well-meaning oaf for a partner. However, when a series of grisly accidents rocks Sandford, Angel smells something rotten in the idyllic village. I discovered a whole box of hd-dvds and blurays that I had forgotten I owned, so I’m going back through them. This is a great example of the quality of the films in that forgotten archive, but I had forgotten how...
Notting Hill: Directed by Roger Michell. With Hugh Grant, Julia Roberts, Richard McCabe, Rhys Ifans. A set of circumstances makes Anna Scott, a famous actress, fall in love with William Thacker, owner of a bookstore in Notting Hill. But the paparazzi’s fascination with her complicates their bond. A lovely romantic comedy that I’ve always enjoyed, so I decided to show it to my wife who declared it to be one of the most boring movies she’s ever seen. oopsy daisy! Buy On Amazon!
Batman and Harley Quinn: Directed by Sam Liu. With Kevin Conroy, Melissa Rauch, Paget Brewster, Loren Lester. Batman and Nightwing are forced to team with the Joker’s sometimes-girlfriend Harley Quinn to stop a global threat brought about by Poison Ivy and Jason Woodrue, the Floronic Man. I watched this while putting together a LEGO Batmobile, I’ve seen it before and had a low opinion of it, none of the main characters are the versions that I prefer and none of them act the way that I like the characters to act. Having seen the recent DC output though, it’s a...
Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero: Directed by Boyd Kirkland. With Kevin Conroy, Michael Ansara, Loren Lester, Efrem Zimbalist Jr.. When Mr. Freeze, desperate to save his dying wife, kidnaps Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) as an involuntary organ donor, Batman and Robin must find her before the operation can begin. I got the HD version of this film back when I bought the complete Animated boxset a few years ago and am just now getting around to watching it and only watching it because I had an Animated Series LEGO batmobile. Mind you, I’ve seen this one a few times in the...
Howl’s Moving Castle: Directed by Hayao Miyazaki. With Chieko Baishô, Takuya Kimura, Tatsuya Gashûin, Akihiro Miwa. When an unconfident young woman is cursed with an old body by a spiteful witch, her only chance of breaking the spell lies with a self-indulgent yet insecure young wizard and his companions in his legged, walking castle. Such a dark but ultimately enjoyable film. Buy On Amazon!
Being Eddie: Directed by Angus Wall. With Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappelle, Jerry Seinfeld, Charlie Murphy. Follows a comprehensive look at Eddie Murphy’s life and career. Much more shallow than I thought it was going to be, but it does include something akin to a tour of his castle mansion that he’s been hiding in for the last 20 years. They do not go into any of his more racy or controversial content, this was obviously one of Netflix’s many documentaries done for political reasons and not for an honest look at a subject. Buy On Amazon!
Honey Don’t!: Directed by Ethan Coen. With Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans, Lera Abova. A small-town private investigator delves into a series of strange deaths tied to a mysterious church. One of those rare movies in which I love everything about it but don’t like the final product. I think it’s worth checking out if you like any of the actors or if you’re into pulp detective noir stories. Buy On Amazon!
Frankenstein: Directed by Guillermo del Toro. With Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Christoph Waltz, Mia Goth. Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist, brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation. This is the best adaptation of the source novel that I’ve ever seen. Buy On Amazon!
The Thursday Murder Club: Directed by Chris Columbus. With Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie. Four irrepressible retirees spend their time solving cold case murders for fun, but their casual sleuthing takes a thrilling turn when they find themselves with a real whodunit on their hands. A fantastic story with some of the best actors in the business. Buy On Amazon!
Wake Up Dead Man: Directed by Rian Johnson. With Daniel Craig, Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin. Detective Benoit Blanc teams up with an earnest young priest to investigate a perfectly impossible crime at a small-town church with a dark history. Not as goofy as the second movie, but just as mediocre. My wife enjoyed it though! Buy On Amazon!
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy: Directed by Adam McKay. With Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Steve Carell, Paul Rudd. In the 1970s, an anchorman’s stint as San Diego’s top-rated newsreader is challenged when an ambitious newswoman becomes his co-anchor. I got to view the unrated version of the film, which honestly doesn’t work as well as the theatrical version. Buy On Amazon!
Greenland: Directed by Ric Roman Waugh. With Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin, Roger Dale Floyd, Scott Glenn. To save his family from a catastrophic end of times, a man embarks on a risky quest to locate the last hope for salvation and witness the worst of mankind in the battle for survival. There’s going to be a sequel, which my wife has told me that she will not be watching because of how terrible people are to each other in this first film. I’m happy to go by myself, but I disagree with her assessment of the film, as this is...
Avatar: Fire and Ash: Directed by James Cameron. With Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang. Jake and Neytiri’s family grapples with grief after Neteyam’s death, encountering a new, aggressive Na’vi tribe, the Ash People, who are led by the fiery Varang, as the conflict on Pandora escalates and a new moral focus emerges. The next entry in the Avatar television series that’s hilariously being shown in theaters, this time we get the same exact story from the second one, but this time with some really weird commentary on past American wars and some very tiny tiny world building....
Kumail Nanjiani: Night Thoughts: Directed by Bill Benz. With Kumail Nanjiani. After nearly a decade away, Kumail Nanjiani returns to Chicago, where he got his start in standup, in a special that tackles anxiety, the perils of buying drugs pre-legalization, and cat medication. A hilarious standup session with a mega movie star who decided to do stand up one day. This was a reference to a joke he made in this session. You see it’s funny because he was a stand up comedian before he was a big movie star and got all buff and muscled up. Worth your time...
The Cat Returns: Directed by Hiroyuki Morita. With Chizuru Ikewaki, Yoshihiko Hakamada, Aki Maeda, Takayuki Yamada. After helping a cat, a seventeen-year-old girl finds herself involuntarily engaged to a cat Prince in a magical world where her only hope of freedom lies with a dapper cat statuette come to life. Studio Ghibli released this back in 2002 and it hasn’t aged at all! The story is a fun and absolutely bonkers adventure that involves transdimensional travels to a cat kingdom and the journey a young woman goes through to find maturity. I’m very happy to have started this journey of...
The Muppet Christmas Carol: Directed by Brian Henson. With Michael Caine, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Jerry Nelson. The Muppets put their spin on the tale of an elder, Christmas-hating miser who is visited by spirits who foretell his future and share secrets from his past and present, which helps change his view on life. For your enjoyment: Buy On Amazon!
Toy Story: Directed by John Lasseter. With Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Jim Varney. A cowboy doll is profoundly jealous when a new spaceman action figure supplants him as the top toy in a boy’s bedroom. When circumstances separate them from their owner, the duo have to put aside their differences to return to him. Every year the animation in this film looks more and more rough, but the story and soundtrack still hit just as deeply. Buy On Amazon!
Elio: Directed by Adrian Molina, Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi. With Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldaña, Remy Edgerly, Brandon Moon. Elio, a space fanatic with an active imagination, finds himself on a cosmic misadventure where he must form new bonds with alien lifeforms, navigate a crisis of intergalactic proportions and somehow discover who he is truly meant to be. The marketing that came my way for this film really made it feel like a generic movie about a kid going on a wacky space adventure, and while it’s true that’s a thing that happens in the film, much like other Pixar films,...
