flicklover Reviews

Jodorowsky's Dune (2013)

Entertaining, but ultimately self indulgent, like Jodorowsky himself....

[6/10 · 1 April 2024]

I had never kniwn that Alejandro Jodorowsky was trying to make Dune into a film in the mid 70's until I heard a podcast about Denis Villeneuve's Dune film. The documentary of how Jodorowsky was putting the film together was recommended so I decided to watch.

The documentary is entertaining and shows Jodorowsky's passion for art but it also shows why I do t think his Dune would have tanked just like David Lynch's version did in the 80's. I have to say that I am not a huge fan of Alejandro Jodorowsky films. I've seen a couple and even though I admire that he has a unique voice as a filmmaker, his work is too esoteric and weird for my taste.

The doc has interviews with Jodorowsky and some of the people he hired to realize his vision for Dune. Even though the film feels like an enthusiastic tribute to the creative process it feels more like Jodorowsky and his pals partying themselves in the back for how great the Dune film would have been if stupid Hollywood studios would have bankrolled it. There really is hardly any time spent on the book Dune itself. I agree that as a filmmaker a dure tor can present a vision different from the source material but Jodorowsky doesn't seem to care about Frank Herbert 's legendary book.

There is even a section where the couple of directors in the doc and others state that even though Jodorowsky's Dune did not get made it influenced some of the greatest science fiction and adventure films of all time. What? I agree that maybe some ideas that were in Jodorowsky's huge shot by shot book which he gave the studios when trying to get the financing for the film but a film that never got made is so influencial? Please....

I do think that Alejandro Jodorowsky was able to get some talented people to work on his failed project, but he's not nearly the filmmaker he thinks he is....

This documentary was a chance for Alejandro Jodorowsky to talk about his favorite subject.

Himself...

Grade: C.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

Unfocused mess with to many characters ....

[6/10 · 25 March 2024]

When Ghostbusters: Afterlife came out I was surprised how much I liked it. I really like the 1984 original and the sequel was pretty good. The reboot in 2016 was ok but I thought the franchise was dead. Afterlife revived the franchise. It was a great mix of new characters and had enough well placed nostalgia. Frozen Empire is unfocused and relies way to much on nostalgia that just dies land as well and seems more desperate and is all over the place.

The story is set in New York with the Spengler family living and ghostbusting there. The cast from Afterlife is back. The focus again is on Phoebe played by Mckenna Grace which is good because she is the best a part of the film. The problem here is that the other characters are almost there just to appear. Paul Rudd is the biggest star here but really dies nothing other than have a couple of decent funny lines. But the rest of the family is just barely there. The nostalgia feels so racked on. Yes, three of the original cast members and a coupme if supporting characters are back but it all feels forced. Where Afterlife earned it's nostalgic moments. This film has them and it feels forced.

There are sone funny moments and sone good special effects and it's not bad but it just feels that they wanted to stuff the film with so much that it is a total mess....

Grade: C.

Halloween II (2009)

Not quite the worst Halloween film, but 2nd worst...

[3/10 · 8 February 2024]

Even though I wasn't a huge fan of Rob Zombie's 2007 it had it's moments. I had not liked that he'd demystified Michael Myers with showing a pretty extensive backstory explaining why Michael because a psycho killer. He didn't get that not knowing Michael's motivation, having him be just a force of evil made him the slasher icon he is. Overall though the 2007 film was effective. It was a lot more brutal than the 1978 original and the final hour was pretty intense.

Now with Halloween II, it seems that Rob Zombie's intention to destroy Michael Myers is complete. I think he was allowed to pretty much do what he wanted in H2 because this film is so all over the place it doesn't even feel like a Halloween film. There is Michael going around like a hooded hobo Jedi. The ghost of Michael's mom who appears with a vision of Michael as a kid. And a white horse appears to Michael also!!! What? It's supposedly Michael's motivation to finish his sister. It is truly a mess. But it's a Rob Zombie mess. Chock full of unlikable, mostly weirdos that we care absolutely nothing about. It is brutal and yes, there are scenes that are visually effective but there is no real tension. Some of this comes off as unintentionally funny.

As much as Zombie has said that he's a fan of Halloween. It seems he was hell bent on destroying the franchise.

Bad film

Grade: D.

Light of Day (1987)

Very underrated, forgotten 80's gem....

[8/10 · 1 February 2024]

I saw Light of Day when it came out in the late 80's and really liked it. But it didn't get great reviews and wasn't a hit but I think it is a very underappreciated film. It stars Michael J. Fox and Joan Jett as siblings Joe and Patti. They live in Cleveland and lead a local rock band called The Barbusters. It was Joan Jett's first and only role in a film. Even though many may say that she was just playing herself, her performance is very good. Fox was very popular after the success of Back to the Future so I'm sure he was cast because of that. I will say that he was miscast. That he just didn't look the part of a rock musician. I kind of agree but his performance is really good and I think it makes up for him not "looking" the part. Of course, it's about a brother and sister in a band going around and playing local dive bars but the film deals with much more than that. Gena Rowlands plays Joe and Patti's mother. She doesn't get along with her daughter at all. Especially, because Patti got pregnant as a teenager and won't tell who the father of son is. They are both very stubborn and strong women. Joe is caught in between of them. Being the good son, but also worshipping his rocker sister. The film is very grounded, it goes for drama without resorting to high melodrama but has some really powerful moments.

Light of Day is not a great film, but it is a solid little drama with worthwhile performances and some really good music.

Grade: B.

Wonka (2023)

Boring and uninspired.....

[5/10 · 28 December 2023]

I am the first one to admit that I am not a fan of musicals so when I see one it already has a big strike against it. Also I absolutely love the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory film starring Gene Wilder. It was the type of film that is no longer made successfullybthese days. A musical with great central performance and great supporting characters. And most of all a whimsical quality that is endearing and memorable. This new film Wonka had none of that....

It is the backstory of Willy Wonka. Wonka is played by Timothée Chalamet. His performance is not a bad one but he dies not embody the character like I wish he would. There is nothing distinctive about his performance. I understand that he's playing a young Wonka but this character seems completely different from the one played by Gene Wilder. The story is basically about Wonka arriving in Europe to open his chocolate shop. The owners of the the big chocolate factories want to destroy him. Along the way there is a collection of completely forgettable songs and characters that are also forgettable. I get that this is a musical and not high drama but nothing that happens is not at all involving. The production values are good but the film has no sense of wonder and whimsy that this story requires. I was mostly bored. There are a couple decent moments but it just a film without inspiration....

Grade: C-

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

The best Godzilla film since the original....

[10/10 · 7 December 2023]

I can't say that I am a huge Godzilla fan but I used to watch these films as a kid and liked them alot. They were great fun on Saturday afternoons. In the last couple of decades, Hollywood has tried to make Godzilla into huge budgeted blockbusters but with extravagant visual effects but characters that were si bland and boring that the films were pretty forgettable. Godzilla Minus One was made with 10% of the budget of the last 3 or 4 Hollywood versions of Godzilla and is better than any of them.

This new film is made by Toho Studios. The Japanese studio that has made most of the Godzilla films. This is not a remake of the 1954 original. Technically it's a prequel. The best thing about this film is that not only does it give what everyone wants in a Godzilla film, great action scenes with awesome Godzilla destruction. It has characters that we as an audience care for. Even though this film is not a remake of the 1854 classic in many ways it uses the monster to comment on how Japan suffered after the atomic bombs were detonated in WW2 and the effect it had on the Japanese people. This film dues a great job at creating characters that we care for. That makes what happens even more compelling. Also This Godzillas look is great. It obviously is based on the look we are used to but this version of the creature is more mebacing than in other films. This isn't the good Godzilla that helps, he is just is definitely the threat and the human characters are bent on defending themselves.

The visual effects of this film are on par at times with what has been done in the Hollywood $200 million blockbuster films. There are moments that look a little cheaper but I think that's on purpose. The film paying homage to the old Godzilla films that were really cheap looking. The action scenes are fun and even very intense. But they are made even better by a story and characters that we are invested in.

Best Godzilla film since the 1954 original!!!

Grade: A.

The Marvels (2023)

The MCU has hit rock bottom.....

[1/10 · 17 November 2023]

I don't follow the Internet for all of the news about trouble production and reshoots etc...Bur when I saw the first trailer of The Marvels I had absolutely no desire to see it. Trailers usually are put together by marketing to make a film look as good as possible but I think in the case of this film they could not hide how utterly awful this film would be. I don't believe in criticizing a film if I do r see it so I went expecting the worst with the desire to at least be entertained. This was the worst 105 minutes I have spent in a movie theater in a long time. The MCU has gone from being a franchise that had so e great films but mostly solid, reliable and memorable films. Since Avengers: Endgame, only with a couple of exceptions, the MCU has gone completely downhill. With every film, they feel so generic, so done without the care that used to be made them so popular. Now, the difference is like night and day. They have become aggressively lazy and average films. Forgettable. But none of them had been complete failures on every level until The Marvels.

There really is no story to talk about here. It is a sequel to Captain Marvel that i admit is one of the pre-Endgame films I liked the least. I didn't think Brie Larson was particularly bad as Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel but there was nothing special about her in the role. Here it's obvious she wasn't right for the role. She has no charisma as the character, it felt like she was phoning in the performance. In fact that is the case for everyone in this film. It's a phoned in film. There is not a single character or situation to care about. A villain that is probably the worst ever in the MCU. It's just a series of mediocre action scenes put together with so e exposition dialogue thrown in to pad the runtime. At 105 mi it's it's short by MCU standards but it felt like 3 hours!!!

Hands down, the worst MCU film ever!!!

Grade: F.

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

Not quite a masterpiece, but a great film.....

[9/10 · 22 October 2023]

Whenever Martin Scorsese directs a film, I and most anyone who knows his work expects greatness. He is arguably, the greatest working American director. So expectations for me were very high going into Killers of the Flower Moon. Like is common these days, the film was very hyped and the running time was also given alit of discussion. I have never been a big complainer about running time but some films these days do feel like they run too long. This film is almost 3 and a half hours long and I have to say that as good as this film is it dies feel like it could have used some trimming.

The film is based on a true story set in the 1920s where members of the Osage Native American tribe of Osage County, Oklahoma, are murdered after oil is found on their land. The main character is Ernest Burkhart, played by Leonardo DiCaprio in one of his best performances. In 1918, Ernest Burkhart returns from World War I to his rancher uncle William "King" Hale, who lives with Ernest's brother Byron on the reservation. Hale is played by Robert DeNiri in his best performances in a very long time. Hale is a well regarded figure in Osage, especially by the members of the Osage tribe. Hale tried to influence Ernest by telling him to get close to Molly Kyle, who's family owns much of the oil land headlights in Osage. Molly is played by Lily Gladstone in a performance that is surely to get a lot of praise. She is the heart of film. Ernest and Molly fall in love and marry but Ernest is working with his uncle the whole time scheming to take advantage of getting the headlights for his uncle from planning the deaths of many in Molly's family.

To say that Ernest is likeable it would be an overstatement but Dicaprio plays him with a certain charm and even stupidity that we as an audience don't totally hate him. Scorsese has dealt with evil people in his films many times before but the difference here is that the violence is not as prevalent as his other films. There are so e jarring scenes of violence but what this film has is a real sense of dread. Molly has diabetes and is sick most of the film but us a victim of the scheme to steal from her people. She is a very sympathetic character and if I have a complaint is that I would have liked the film to be told a.littkr more fro.her perspective. Eventually the Osage tribe get the BOI to investigate the murders. The main agent, Tom White is played very well by Jesse Plemons..

The film is really not a mystery because we know who is involved in the murders but it is very involving anyway. I would say that the running to e is justified but I would have wanted a little more focus on Molly and her family. Is it a film that you need to invest some time and patience into it? Yes. Is is a little too long? Yes. But is great that there is a filmmaker like Martin Scorsese out there that wants to to tell stories like this.

Not quite on the level of some of his masterpieces, but close ...

Grade: A-

The Exorcist: Believer (2023)

I should have stayed away......

[1/10 · 12 October 2023]

When it was announced that David Gordon Green and Blumhouse were going to do a sequel to The Exorcist I was cautiously optimistic. After all, Green had done a good job reviving the Halloween franchise. Halloween 2018 was a solid sequel to Halloween and I liked Halloween Kills. Halloween Ends is another story. The Exorcist is the greatest horror film ever made in my opinion. It's greatness lies in that even though it's in the horror slgebre it was very much an intense drama with mother witnessing the horrific possession and exorcism of her daughter. It was a film about the loss and regaining of faith. Yes, it did have intense horror elements that gave now turned into tropes that horror films gave copied now for decades, but it stands as a horror masterpiece. The sequels to The Exorcists had been mostly pathetic. The only one that is solid is The Exorcist III. But the rest, especially Exorcist III: The Heretic which is one of the worst films ever let alone a bad sequel. It would not take a lot fir The Exorcist: Believer to improve on the other sequels. Even though this new film is not the embarrassment that The Heretic is, it's very mediocre. It is really only a sequel in name. And the connection to the original film feel tacked on and are not even necessary to this film.

The film does start off with a decent setup. It focuses on a widowed father and his relationship with his daughter. He lost his wife and was left to raise his daughter and is very protective of her. There is another girl who we barely get to know and her story is given much less attention. Her parents aren't are not given much to do. The girls are friends. They go off to the woods to perform a ceremony because one of the girls wants to contact her dead mother. The girls disappear. The scenes where the girls are missing and their parents look fir them are done fairly well but the performances are not as involving as they should be. Victor, the father of Angela is played by Leslie Odom Jr. In a performance that is not a bad one but I never felt for him. The parents are also given hardly anything to do. They are church going people, but the film doesn't flesh them out at all. Again, u didn't care fir these characters.

The worst part of this film is the blatant tacking on of a character from the original film to connect these events to the ones in first film. Ellen Burstyn comes back as Chris MacNeil. The mother of the girl Regan that was possessed decades earlier. The trailer fir this film made it seems like Chris was going to be a bigger part of this film be she's not. It's really just a cameo that is completely unnecessary to this new film. Ellen Burstyn looks uncomfortable in her role, like she didn't even want to be there. There are other ancillary characters that just seem to be there to pad running time. We don't really care fir any of them.

When we finally get to the exorcism of the girls it the film gets even worse. I get that horror films have done this so many times that it would be almost impossible to create anything original or disturbing but this film's exorcism scene ranges from average to actually unintentionally funny. There is a sort of religious rage team element that is just terrible. The original film took the situation seriously, that is whyy it worked and was so harrowing. This film doesn't, it is just an excuse for loud voices and special effects. No impact whatsoever. The whole film feels like it's just another one of the countless copies of the film that this is a sequel to. And there is a short moment in this film so unearned and tacked on that I was angry about it.

The story could have been interesting if the script would have been more interested in having us care about the characters than just being a setup for an exorcism that has no tension or sense of dread or intensity. The film is technically well made and shot but has not even an ounce of the feeling of the original. This film is no better as the countless other films that incessantly copied the original and didn't come close to being even in the same league.

A really bad film.

Grade: F.

When Evil Lurks (2023)

The best horror film of 2023....

[10/10 · 12 October 2023]

I had not heard of this film even days before I saw it but when I read that it was directed by Argentinan filmmaker Demián Rugna. He directed the 2017 film Aterrados (Terrified). I saw it on streaming and remember being very impressed. It was a very intense horror film. Now with this new film Demián Rugna proves again that he is a very talented horror filmmaker.

When Evil Lurks is technically a possession film but it's different that the usual of this kind. The story is about the residents of a small rural town discover that a demon is about to be born among them. The morning after hearing gunshots in nearby woods, brothers Jaime and Pedro, investigate and discover half the body of a man sliced straight through. The arrive at a home of an older lady that lives with her sons. One of them, Uriel is horrible obese and deformed. She says, he's "rotten". A conduit fir the birth of a demon. The brothers ask the landowner Ruiz to help them dispose of Uriel and because of a huge mistake they make the entity begins reaking havoc on the town.

This film is very intense. There are so e s ended that are very brutal and there is a real sense of dread. What is great about the film is that the main characters are seriously flawed people. Especially Pedro, that tries to deal with this situation and make a lot of bad decisions along the way that make things worse. This is the horror film that is very intense and the violence is not fun to watch. There are sone really disturbing scenes that are very jarring. If there is a weakness in the film is that it takes time to list some rules about dealing with the demon bit never really follows alot of them. But what the film lacks in tight story it makes up in intensity.

The best horror film I've seen this year and one of the best of the last decade.

Grade: A-

The Exorcist: Believer (2023)

As cynical a sequel as I've ever seen.....

[1/10 · 11 October 2023]

When it was announced that David Gordon Green and company was going to do a sequel to The Exorcist I was kind of interested. They did a very good job with Halloween 2018 and I may be in the minority but I liked Halloween Kills. Halloween Ends was bad but overall Gordon Green did a good job with reviving Halloween. So the idea of The Exorcist reboot was kind of cool because it really isn't a successful franchise. The sequels have been awful except The Exorcist 3. So it would not take much fir this new film to be better than the previous sequels.

To say that this new film is just another cynical cash grab. It is really only a "sequel" because of The Exorcist name and they brought back Ellen Burstyn as Chris MacNeil, the mother of Regan, the pissed girl from the first film. It's not a spoiler because the trailers featured her pretty prominently. Other than that The Exorcist: Believer is just another generic possession films that have been copying the original for 50 years. I do not expect this type of film to have an incredible amount of originality but the story and the execution is just generic.

The story is about 2 girls that disappear fir a couple days and are found and it turns out that they are possessed. The problem is I didn't care at all due the characters. When the exorcism comes it is again been there seen that with a couple of variations on the trope are at times laughable. This film is so transparent in it's attempt to cash in on the reputation of the original film that it becomes annoying. The inclusion of a legacy character that has nothing to do with the actual story of the film proves it further.

A completely cynical cash grab that doesn't even try to be scary, disturbing or much less interesting.

Grade: F.

Oppenheimer (I) (2023)

An epic character piece.....

[10/10 · 26 July 2023]

Christopher Nolan is the only filmmaker these days that can have a historical biopic open big in the summer movie season. This film is usually saved for an end of the year release to give it the best chance for Oscar consideration. It has been heavily marketed as an event film that needs to be seen in IMAX because Nolan filmed it with IMAX cameras. Even though I agree that the film seems big because of it's director and huge cast but as great as this film is it is much more a character driven film than it's being marketed as and that a good thing.

It is abot J. Robert Oppenheimer and his world on the top secret Manhattan Project that produced the worlds first nuclear explosion this changing the course of history. The basic story is well known but because the film focuses on character Oppenheimer is presented in a very three dimensional way in a great performance by Cillian Murphy. The film doesn't shy away from showing Oppenheimer as a very flawed but brilliant man. The cast is uniformly great. Especially Robert Downey Jr. As Lewis Strauss, a friend than nemesis of Oppenheimer The cast is so full of known names in small but pivotal roles that they are too many to count. But as big as this movie looks and feels at times it's a very harrowing and riveting character driven drama about a complicated man. The film is 3 hours long but never feels slow. There is a moment that we all waited for in the film that is played more subtly than I thought it would be played.

Of course there are things about this film that will leave us to think about but Christopher Nolan doesn't ram anything down the viewers throat. The significance, good or bad about the existence of nuclear weapons is of course part of the film but it gives no easy answers.

Another complex film from a director that is one of the best working today

Grade: A.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

The last true movie star.......

[9/10 · 18 July 2023]

Whatever you think of Tom Cruise off screen it is undeniable that he knows how to put together a great summer blockbuster!!! The Mission Impossible franchise with Tom Cruise started in 1996 and was entertaining but it really wasn't what it is today. Tim Cruise and company have made it bigger and better with almost every movie. Not only is the action great but it the character within the films themselves are ones we care about. A big deal is made about Cruise doing these incredible stunts in each film but if thevcharacter if Ethan Hunt and his team and even the villains in the films sucked they would be instantly forgettable.

Dead Reckoning is just as good as any of the new batch of MI films. What it has against it is that it's a Part One, so there is no resolution to this film. This film has some great supporting character and that makes the action spectacule even more entertaining.

Tom Cruise is prettyuch the last true movie star!!!

Can't wait for Part Two!

Grade: A-

Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)

Some great moments and some questionable ones. But unfairly hated.

[8/10 · 15 July 2023]

The Last Jedi is probably the most divisive Star Wars film ever. It got some good critical acclaim but there are die hard Star Ward fans that despise it. I love Star Ward but I don't consider myself a fanboy but I try very hard to lime these films. Director Rian Johnson came in and did so e thing that so many people complained The Force Awakens didnt do. He took chances. Force Awakens was very entertaining, but it was very safe in many ways but so e accused it of being a retread of A New Hope. In many ways it was but Star Ward was back after the prequels were so badly reviewed. This film is very different from other films in the series. It is very character driven, bit has at times a very elegant look and goes against the grain of other films in the franchise. There are choices in this film I really liked but there are ones that I hated. Especially the ones dealing with Luke Skywalker but I admire that Johnson tried to do something different. It has so e great visual moments and all the performances are strong. There is a 30 munute detour the film takes that I wish could be completely out of the film but overall I like it. I think that the strong moments outweigh the bad story decisions.

Even though I really liked The Force Awakens, it is a safe Star Wars film. The Least Jedi takes so e chances and I admire Rian Johnson for trying to shake things up even though some things just don't work

Grade: B.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

Only slightly better than than the last Indy film.....

[6/10 · 6 July 2023]

This is the film I wanted to see theost this summer. Since Dual of Destiny was announced I was hoping that this new Indiana Jones film would succeed where the last film failed. I love the first three Indiana Jones films. Even though the one I love the mostis Raiders but Temple of Doom and Last Crusade are just as good. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was a huge disappointment. I have seen it only a couple of times because I disliked it so much. I was hoping that this new film would be the send off that Indiana Jones deserved.

Well after seeing it the best thing I can say is that it is better than Crystal Skull but not by much. The film is well directed by James Mangold and certainly has some very good moments but it all feels like it does belong with the other three. I realize that when you grow up with a film series it is hard to accept a new installment that doesn't meet the expectations of the audience. The film starts of extremely well with a terrific action scene that is better than any action that comes after it. The only problem is that the dealing of Harrison Ford. There are shots that look great, realistic but they use the dealing CGI so much that it becomes distracting and there moments that it looks just plain bad. I don't get why filmmakers just refuse to do it like before. Stunt people in angles that hide faces. If the scene is good, no oneinds that there are stunt doubles doing the hard stunts. It was done fir decades, why do they insist on the CGI that looks bad? The film starts off really well though. The film has Phoebe Walker Bridge as Helena. Indy's goddaughter from a character we meet in the beginning of the film. What ensues is an adventure with some decent action scenes but nothing that compares with the first three films. The problem with the relationship between Indiana and Helena's relationship die not seem natural. It's there because it's in the script. Harrison Ford is good again as Indy and I get that he's 8p years old and the film doesn't shy away from the fact that he's too old to do the stuff he did in other films but it seems that Indiana Jones takes too much of a backseat in his own film. The film looks good but it is missing the heart of the first three films. I did not go into this film with the huge expectations I did when I first saw Crystal Skull and I did enjoy some of Dial of Destiny, but it isn't in the same league as the first three films. As much as I wanted to like this film more because I love the character, and think it's better than Crystal Skull. It can't hold a candle to the first three classic Indiana Jones films.

Not even close.

Grade: C+

The Flash (I) (2023)

Another bloated, painfully average superhero film....

[6/10 · 22 June 2023]

The Flash had a pretty hard road for years before it finally was released. The marketing on the film made it look like it was going to be the end all be all of superhero films. It is far from it. I am not a fan of The Flash but I do think that Ezra Miller was a good fit as Barry Allen/ Flash as part of a ensemble cast as in Justice League. Ezra Miller is not bad in this film but his character is so jokey and and annoying that it gets tiring. The premise of this film is that The Flash goes back in time to fix an event in the past but causes an alternative reality without metahumans. That's it. If course the selling point if this film is the appearance of both Ben Affleck and Michal Keaton as Batman/Bruce Wayne. This really isn't a spoiler because all of the trailers showed them. I was not a fan of Ben Aleck's Batman, but here he is pretty good but it's really just a cameo. Michal Keaton dies get more screen time and his performance is probably the best element in the film. The truth is that it is pure nostalgia and Keaton does a good job with what he's given. The problem is that it works only as nostalgia, nothing more. The film is called The Flash, you would think that the secondary character wouldn't overshadow the main character but Batman dies overshadow The Flash. The character is too annoying to care very much for him. Another problem is that with the whole multiverse tripe the story isn't as compelling as it should be. Michael Shannon returns as General Zod and is a completely weak villain this time. Not menacing at all.

There are so many callbacks and nostalgia moments that the story takes a backseat. I have no problem with nostalgia and fan service, but when it's the best part of a film,The problem with this film and so many films in comic book hero films these days is that they are big, loud but completely forgettable. Its incredible that a film with such a large budget could be so average

Not horrible, but painfully average.

Grade: C.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

Finally, a really good Marvel film ...

[9/10 · 6 May 2023]

Other than Spider-Man: No Way Home, and a couple of average films, the 4 years since Avengers: Endgame have been pretty weak fir Marvel. Though watchable, the films have been almost completely forgettable. What made Marvel films great in the first couple of phases was al.ost gone. They weren't even films anymore. Not special, just the continuation of a formula.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 is mostly what made Marvel films so popular. Entertaining action films but with enough heart and characters that we care about to make them memorable. When Guardians Vol. 1 came out no one new that it would become as popular as it did. It was a very funny, energetic film that gained a great following. Vol.2 wasnt as good but the cast and director James Gunn and the willing cast made it entertaining. With Vol.3 we have supposedly the last Guardians film. And after seeing it it just might be better than even rblhe first one. Everyone is back, including director Gunn. Everyone knows that now he will be in charge of the DC universe and if he can bring his energy to those films it would be a good thing.

The focus of this film is Rocket. He has been captured and on the verge of death so his friends go to save him. The film focuses veryuch on Rocket's origin story. The villain this time is the High Evolutionary. A highly intelligent being that wants to create the perfect society. He experiments on animals but destroys them as soon as they don't meet his perfect standards. Rocket was one of his experiments. He showed great intelligence. He was able to escape and become a Guardian but High Evolutionary wants to study his brain so that he could again, create the perfect beings for his next society.

All of the cast is really good. The tone of this film is more darker than the other two entries but there is still the great banter between the characters and the film has some great laughs. But this film has a lot heart. There some really good dramatic moments and feels like there are some stakes here. So we care about what happens on the screen. That has been lacking in most Marvel films lately.

A really enjoyable, and endearing 3rd film in one of Marvel's most surprising stand alone films.

Grade: B+

Speed (1994)

A great ride. Period.....

[10/10 · 29 April 2023]

This film is one of the best action thrillers ever made. The premise, as outrageous as it is, is very simple. A madman places a bomb on a bus that as itself at 50 miles per hour and will blow up if it goes below 50. Keanu Reeves stars as cop Jack Traven in a performance that may not be Oscar worthy but started his very successful career as an action star. He is the target of the villain, played with great ham and bravado by Dennis Hopper. Also, it was a star making performance by Sandra Bullock that plays Annie. A passenger on the doomed bus and is very funny and endearing in her role. After a great beginning most of the action takes place after Jack gets on the bus as it moves through Los Angeles. Even though the script isn't Shakespeare the casting is really good. Reeves and Bullock have great chemistry. Director Jan De Bont kreis the pace of the film at a fever pitch. The action is very well done but because the cast dies a good job at creating relatable characters the action becomes more involving. They don't make films lime this anymore!!! Of course Spoed is considered by many to be the prototypical 90's action film. And it is.

But it's a classic action film.

Grade: A-

Evil Dead Rise (2023)

A good combination of old and new!!!

[8/10 · 23 April 2023]

I am a fan of the first two original Evil Dead films. They are classic forest comedies. Especially Evil Dead 2. I am not a big fan of remakes so i resisted seeing the Fede Alvarez remake/reboot in 2013. Waited a while but finally saw it and was blown away. That film was more gory, and less campy as the Sam Raimi films. I really liked that film so i had high hopes for Evil Dead Rise.

For the most part this new film meets and exceeds expectations. The new film takes place mostly in a rundown apartment building. Also the dynamic in this film is about a family which makes the stakes more compelling. A single mother gets possessed by a demon unleashed by the Book of Death from previous films. She has 3 kids and a sister who comes to visit her after being estranged fir a time. The film creates a family that we care about. Once Ellie, played by Alyssa Sutherland gets possessed the film becomes the gorefest weve come to expect from this series. It is extremely gory but I will say that the 2013 film was more gory and intense.

Very gory and creepy film!!!

Grade: B.

How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022)

Shallow disguised as deep......

[5/10 · 22 April 2023]

How To Blow Up A Pipeline is sold as a crackling environmental thriller with a message. The fact that it presents the message it has with a hammer doesn't hide the fact that as a film it is just shallow. It is exactly what the title says. It's about a group of climate change activists that plan and carry out the disabling of an oil pipeline in Texas. The problem is that the characters are paper thin. They are just a collection of grievances and slogans, not three dimensional people. I have watched many films like this where I may not agree with the cause or politics of the characters but at least in better movies of this kind I can relate or at least empathize with at least one or some of them. Even though this film uses flashbacks to set up the characters you don't get to know any of them. Those scenes are used to set up and justify their actions which we know is the blowing up of the pipeline. There is no suspense because I didn't care for characters. They are just stereotypes as opposed to fleshed out characters. Each character seems like a bumper sticker representing a particular grievance. This film wants the audience to think about how deep the message is but fails to create compelling characters to support the ambitions of their message.

The film is well made but is content with not really delving into the subject it wants to represent. The filmmakers sabotage their own message by being so superficial.

Grade: C-

The Pope's Exorcist (2023)

Completely below average and uninspired collection of tropes....

[4/10 · 20 April 2023]

When u saw the trailer for this film I was like here we go again. Another demon possession film that will use the tropes that every film of this kind have used since The Exorcist. I understand that they are tropes that are necessary fur this type of film. There have been some, very few films about demonic possession that have been good. It is a tired sub genre that is just run out of good ideas.

The Pope's Exorcist supposedly has two things going for it. It has Russell Crowe as Father Gabriele Amorth. This priest was a real exorcist at The Vatican so the trailer says the film is based on a true story. I had heard of Father Amourth and it would have been interesting to see a film that was about this man's pretty unique life. What we get is a very hammy performance by Crowe. But a bad performance but he seemed to be playing this with a wink. The story is about a widowed mother and her two kids that move into an abbey in Spain that was left to them by her husband. The son gets possessed by a demon so the Pope asks Father Amourth to go and investigate and perform an exorcism if needed. No more plot explanation needed. The family is just there to be victimized by the demon. We do not really get any time to care about this family so what happens to the boy is just plays as a checklist of every visual trope that has ever been put in one these films. There is no atmosphere, no tension, no sense of dread. Just a been there done that series of scenes that we've seen hundreds of times. Another arrives and of course starts the exorcism and we get a CGI filled, uninspired mid budget special effects battle. The film is not bad as much as it is lazy. Russel Crowe does his best to bring some value to the film but he can't save it.

An uninspired, lazy, completely forgettable film.

Grade: D.

Nefarious (2023)

Much better than I thought it would be....

[8/10 · 16 April 2023]

When i saw the trailer for this Nefarious I also saw the trailer for The Pope's Exorcist. The other demon possession film that has come out the same day as this one. I chose to see Nefarious.

It would seem that on the surface just another demon possession film but it takes a much different approach than most of the hundreds of films of it's kind. This film relies more on dialogue than jump scares or special.effects. Also it is clearly a morality play.

Nefarious is set in a prison in Oklahoma on the day of execution of a serial killer. A psychiatrist is called in to interview the killer to determine if he is mentally competent to be executed. Almost the whole film takes place in the prison in one room. The killer claimes to be a demon that has possessed Edward's body and wants to be executed. The killer is named Edward and is played by Sean Patrick Flanerry. The psychiatrist is named James and is played by Jordan Belfi. Edward claims to be possessed by a demon. The psychiatrist obviously thinks it's a personality disorder but the two men spend most of film in a great back and forth. Flanerry as Edward is terrific. He embodies both the demon side and the Edward side perfectly. The tension in the film comes from his great performance. No special effects just some really great dialogue performed well by both actors. The film is more a psychological thriller than a horror film but it has great tension and does ask questions about good and evil that can create some great discussion.

I've seen reviews ratings on aggregator sites and the critics are destroying this film. I feel that is totally unfair. This film has a certain point of view and it seems some critics let their political views determine whether a film is worthy. That's an unfair way to review a film. This may not be a classic but it is a well acted, dialogue driven film that is well worth seeing...

Grade: B.

John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)

Just. Wow ....

[10/10 · 25 March 2023]

I have to say that the only John Wick film that I've really liked before this one is the original. The two sequels that followed we're good but 8 wasn't as impressed as I was with the first one. Also, the 3rd one felt to bloated. It was all over the place.

So what about John Wick 4? It is no doubt the best since the original. I would say even better. When I saw the long runtime u thought it would be too long and dragged out but what Keanu Reeves and durector Chad Staheski have put together one of the most exciting action movies to come out in a very long time. They went for broke here. As far as story, that has never been the strong suit of this franchise anyway but again John Wick wants his freedom from The High Table and everyone is out to stop him. What makes this film so enjoyable is how comfortable Keanu Reeves is in the role and ll8ndont know how much of the stunt work he actually died but he goes all out here. The fight and gun choreography is on a level that is now the new standard. These days action films are so full 9f CGI that they feel.like animation really. I'm sure that this film has CGI in many spots but there is a great amount of terrific stunt work done here. The action is fast, and somewhat exhausting at times but done in a way that has you glued to the screen!!!

Best action film in a long time!

Grade: A-

Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)

Not great but more entertaining than the at other superhero film that came out last month!!!

[7/10 · 18 March 2023]

When the first Shazam! Film came out in 2019 I went into see it with very low expectations. It seemed to jokey and I thought I wouldn't like it much. After see it, I was really surprised how much I liked the film. It was a very funny and pretty endearing origin story of a character that is considered a B list character in the DCU. It didn't take itself seriously but the characters were very likeable. Especially Zachary Levi and Asher Angel as Billy Batson/ Shazam!. That film had the advantage of being the introduction to the characters and it spent a good amount of time on Billy and his family. When the superhero stuff came, it had stakes because we liked the characters. It workedvasva comedy and a superhero story.

Shazam! Fury Of The Gods is a sequel so of course it's bigger than it's predecessor but the story suffers a bit because we are already familiar with the characters. This sequel has the same tone as the first film in that it goes for jokes first and foremost. It's very funny at times but some it does get a little tedious at times. The good thing is that the cast is really likeable again so it's easy to root for them. A weakness are the villains. Hellen Moreen and Lucy Liu play daughters of the Titan Atlas. They come to the Acropolis in Greece to steal a staff that can help retain their powers. Both are great actresses bit because of the tone of the film they are not given much to so they come off as generic villains. Djimon Hounsou is back and is very entertaining as The Wizard. He gets some great laughs.

So Shazam! And his super family fight the sisters and some CGI battles ensue. Again the charm of the actors are what make this film enjoyable. The action is adequate but this film is just about the comedy and fun. It really doesn't want to be taken too seriously and on that level it works.

This sequel is not as good as the first film but I will say that I enjoyed it more than Ant-Man: Quantumania. That film was also very much about comedy but there was not much to care about in that film.

Had a good time with Shazam! Fury Of The Gods

Grade: B-

Scream VI (2023)

An improvement on Scream 5!!!

[8/10 · 12 March 2023]

I was pleasantly surprised last year by Scream 5. Even though I didn't love it I feel it was a solid return of the Scream franchise. Of course it was a request that mixed old characters and new ones with the same setting and it was actually pretty good. The positive thing about the Scream films is that it is totally self aware but it seems to get a little old after Scream 4. Scream 5 introduced two very good new main characters. Tara played by Jenna Ortega and Sam played by Melissa Barrera had great chemistry and were characters we could care about. There was a group of friends around them like all the Scream films. Some were effective so e weren't but the last film revived the franchise.

The new film takes what was introduced in Scream 5 and builds on it very well for the most part. The location this time is New York City and it works well as the setting. The twins Chad and Mindy played by Mason Goofing and Jasmin Savoy Brown are in New York also and round out the group as the main characters. They all have a great chemistry and it's fun to watch them. Courtney Cox is back as Gale Weathers and has so e effective moments but is not essential this time.

Of course there is Ghost Face. That iconic mask and costume was always very cool but it has grown kind of tired because it's always a different killer but this time the kills are much more brutal and there is more gore than other films in the franchise. There are some very tension filled scenes this time. The tension is rachetted up this time. The films final 20 minutes and reveal is kind of weak though. The slasher element in this film is done so well that when it's time for the Ghost Face reveal it's kind of is a letdown. But directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett have breathed so.e much needed energy to the scream franchise.

Even with this film's misses I really think it's the best sequel in the franchise since Scream 2!!!

Grade: B.