TV Show or Movie: Movie
Where to Watch: Theaters
Genre: Horror
Writer: James DeMonaco, Adam Cantor
Directors: James DeMonaco
Cast: Pete Davidson, John Glover, Bruce Altman
Premise: Follows Max, who realizes that the residents and caretakers in the retirement home he started working at hide sinister secrets.
Review:
Trailer:
TV Show or Movie: Movie
Where to Watch: Theaters
Genre: Superhero, adventure, action
What It Reminds Me Of:
Writer: James Gunn, Jerry Sigel, Jerry Shushter
Directors: James Gunn
Cast: David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced.
Premise: 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.
Review: I saw an advanced screening of this movie on Tuesday thanks to Prime and Fandango. The theater was packed. People excited for the new direction of DC with James Gunn not only as President, but also co-writing and directing the first film.
The film is fantastic. It is funny, it is fun, it is filled with great cameos. I only really have two critiques: There are some cheesy parts and the way that midwestern people are conveyed is wild. I am not a midwesterner but the way that Clark’s parents are portrayed is crazy.
Any, Nathan Fillion is a great addition. I hope we get 10 Green Lantern movies and five seasons of a show starring him as this character that has not done well in the cinematic world before.
Nicholas Hoult plays a great billionaire piece of shit who will use all of his resources to get what he wants. The cast of The Daily Planet always has to be strong in the Super Man universe and it executed it well here.
Trailer:
TV Show or Movie: Movie
Where to Watch: Theaters
Genre: Action, adventure, comedy, children
What It Reminds Me Of:
Writer: Dean DeBlois
Directors: Dean DeBlois
Cast: Mason Thames, Nico Parker, Gabriel Howell
Julian Dennison, Bronwyn James, Harry Trevaldwyn. Peter Serafinowicz, Nick Frost,
Gerard Butler.
Premise: As an ancient threat endangers both Vikings and dragons alike on the isle of Berk, the friendship between Hiccup, an inventive Viking, and Toothless, a Night Fury dragon, becomes the key to both species forging a new future together.
Review: This movie really had to get down the cinematography and the setting and it sure did. It’s a very beautiful movie with great set designs and characters. It sticks very much to the original, animated film. The flying scenes were very well done and reminded me of Avatar.
Toothless is adorable and really grows on you to the point where you want a pet dragon after leaving the theater. The story line and morals to the movie, along with the character developer, are all really great.
Nick Frost and Gerard Butler were perfect for their roles. Peter Serafinowicz seemed under utilized and I feel Julian Dennison was also underutilized as a comedic relief.
The movie is pretty intense. I haven’t seen the new Jurassic Park movie yet, but I imagine they are pretty close in intensively and action. Not that it’s a bad thing. It just might be a little scary for children.
I hope that we get more live-action How to Train Your Dragon films. I know the franchise isn’t going anywhere as there is now a massive park in Universal for it.
I wish the live-action version had Jónsi’s music in it, but that is only because I am a massive fan of Jón Þór Birgisson and his music fit the whole animated film so well.
Trailer:
TV Show or Movie: Movie
Where to Watch: Theaters
Genre: Post apocalyptic, horror, thriller
What It Reminds Me Of:
Writer: Alex Garland
Directors: Danny Boyle
Cast: Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams, Ralph Fiennes.
Premise: A group of survivors of the rage virus live on a small island. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors.
Review: Film reviews are often split between critics and audience. If you go on Rotten Tomatoes right now you will see many movies are split. It could be 60% audience and 97% critics. Maybe 92% audience and 38% critics. Meghan 2.0 is currently at 57% and 82%. The new Karate Kid Legends is 59% and 91%. A Minecraft Movie is 48% and 85%. It’s typical for audience and reviewers to be split. But I feel that 28 Years Later really split the audience.
I saw it on opening night on a Thursday, but of course, people saw earlier advanced screenings. So I had already started to see mixed reviews.
Trailer:
TV Show or Movie: Movie
Where to Watch: Theaters
Genre: Science-fiction,
What It Reminds Me Of:
Writer: Mike Flanagan, based on the short story by Stephen King
Directors: Mike Flanagan
Cast: Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor,
Karen Gillan, Mia Sara, Carl Lumbly, Benjamin Pajak, Jacob Tremblay, Mark Hamill.
Premise: A life-affirming, genre-bending story based on Stephen King’s novella about three chapters in the life of an ordinary man named Charles Krantz.
Review: I really wanted to read the short story before I saw the movie. I did that a few years back before seeing The Black Phone; an Ethan Hawke supernatural horror movie based off of Joe Hill’s short story. If you don’t know already, Hill is the son of Stephen King.
I feel like reading the short story before might have been a mistake because the movie is almost a word-for-word adaptation. I, of course, like a movie that sticks to the book but I felt like this one was almost a literal too literal. I guess it just made the movie not much of a surprise to me as I could quote the next coming line.
That being said, I am a huge Flanagan fan. And a huge Stephen King fan. And I love how much Flanagan is taking on King adaptations. First Doctor Sleep, The Life of Chuck, and he just shared that the production for his Carrie television series has begun.
Once I got comfortable with the movie I just kind of settled in and enjoyed the ride. The movie is a beautifully told story about a man’s life in three parts, told in reverse order. It is billed as a science fiction film. I don’t know if I’d lean fully into that genre. It’s more of a drama, but there are some cool science fiction and paranormal elements to the film that are pretty cool. In fact, the science fiction part of the first act was pretty cool to see done on the big screen.
Go see the movies in theaters. It’s a beautiful story. The acting is great. The eerily beautiful scenes are striking on the big screen.
Trailer:
TV Show or Movie: Movie
Where to Watch: Theaters
Genre: Horror, Survival horror
What It Reminds Me Of: Shark Knight, Saw
Writer: Nick Lepard
Directors: Sean Byrne
Cast: Hassie Harrison, Josh Heuston,
Rob Carlton, Ella Newton, Liam Greinke
Jai Courtney
Premise: When Zephyr, a savvy and free-spirited surfer, is abducted by a shark-obsessed serial killer and held captive on his boat, she must figure out how to escape before he carries out a ritualistic feeding to the sharks below.
Review:
Trailer:
TV Show or Movie: Movie
Where to Watch: Theaters
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Supernatural
What It Reminds Me Of: Talk to Me, Hereditary
Writer: Danny Philippou, Bill Hinzman
Directors: Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou
Cast: Billy Barratt, Sora Wong, Sally Hawkins
Premise: A brother and sister uncover a terrifying ritual at the secluded home of their new foster mother.
Review: I enjoy this movie. Some of the early reviews I saw said that it was the feel bad movie of the year and I agree with that. It’s a very heavy movie dealing with grief and what a mother will go through to be with their child once again.
I liked it more than Talk to Me. That was the Philippou’s first movie and it came out last year. While Talk to Me was more original and innovative, I just didn’t like where the second half of the film went. All of Bring Her Back seemed to make sense in the direction it went in.
A lot of of the other earlier reviews were saying things like how some of the scenes made people want to vomit or pass out. I really can’t stand this type of marketing as I’ve mentioned before. If you’ve never seen a horror movie before then maybe. Not to say that this movie doesn’t have its grosser moments. The fruit eating scene was one of the grocer things I’ve seen in a horror movie in quite some time.
Sally Hawkins is fantastic in this movie and you really watch her descent into madness and her going the furthest steps imaginable just to get what she wants.
The movie is slow at first, but then really picks up and a lot happens in the second half.
Trailer:
TV Show or Movie: Movie
Where to Watch: Theaters
Genre: Action Epic, Adventure Epic, Spy, Action, Adventure, Thriller
What It Reminds Me Of: The other films in the franchise!
Writer: Bruce Geller, Erik Jendresen, Christopher McQuarrie
Directors: Christopher McQuarrie
Cast: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Henry Czerny, Angela Bassett.
Premise: Ethan Hunt and the IMF team race against time to find the Entity, a rogue artificial intelligence that can destroy mankind.
Review: if I could give this movie six Ray Liotta’s, I would. And you know what, I could if I wanted to. Because this is my damn website and I make the rules. But then I would have to draft up a whole other image with the sixth head and that just seems like too much work right now.
This movie was one of the best movies I’ve seen in a while. I nerd out over this franchise. I watched the big stunt for months and months and then when I go see in the theaters, I point and cheer like a child.
The thing about this movie is that the big stunt wasn’t even my favorite part of the movie. The stunt was awesome. That all scene was great. But there’s a good 30 minutes of this almost 3 hour movie where Tom Cruise is alone in a submarine. There is no dialogue. There is music. Honestly, I give this movie a 99.9, With my only hesitation being I wish that some of the submarine scenes had no volume. Or maybe some of the underwater scenes had no sound to make the audience feel like the character did. Anyway, forget, I said anything to critique this movie.
The opening of the movie catches you up on the last movie, which was great. I needed the refresher. And throughout the movie, you are given flashbacks to earlier films in the franchise that just really help wrap it all up with the bow. But they aren’t thrown in randomly. There’s even a giant throwback to the very first movie and the famous stunt from that one. I won’t say anything else about that.
As always, the movie is packed with action, some humor, and some very attractive people. But what I appreciated about this movie is that there wasn’t really much of a love story. It is very, very rare at any movie, television show, book exist without a love story or a love interest at the least.Z
Trailer:
TV Show or Movie: Movie
Where to Watch: Theaters, On Demand
Genre: Kids & Family, Comedy, Adventure, Action
What It Reminds Me Of:
Writer: Chris Kekaniokalani Bright, Mike Van Waes
Directors: Dean Fleischer Camp
Cast: Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Billy Magnussen, Hannah Waddingham, Chris Sanders, Courtney B. Vance, Zach Galifianakis, Maia Kealoha.
Premise: A lonely Hawaiian girl befriends a runaway alien, helping to mend her fragmented family.
Review: I don’t think I had ever seen the animated Lilo & Stitch. I know, I know. I have been saying, “Blue punch buggy” for decades, though. I went to see this with the family and it was an absolute blast. I have read a lot of people complaining about things they changed, including making the two aliens played by humans instead of being aliens the whole tie. But I must say, Billy Magnuson completely stood out in this movie. I loved him in Black Mirror and the canceled-too-soon Made for Love. For this movie, it seems that he studied every Alan Tudyk performance in his long career because Magnuson put on a fantastic Tudyk performance. And I mean this as the highest compliment.
The movie is a ton of fun, very, very funny, and has a ton of heart. People are complaining about a decision that the sister makes at the end of the movie, but if you actually watch the movie it makes sense.
Disney doesn’t have a great track record of remaking their animated movies as live-action. The Lion King was, unfortunately, not strong. I haven’t seen the newest and I can’t tell you why Disney is planning a whole big franchise and world-building off of these movies, but they are. I didn’t see the live-action Aladdin, because who did? Lady and Tramp was fine enough, because of puppies!
Trailer:
TV Show or Movie: Movie
Where to Watch: Theaters, On Demand
Genre: Drama/Thriller/Biographical
What It Reminds Me Of: Slumdog Millionaire
Writer: Maggie Briggs, Samir Olivero
Directors: Samir Olivero
Cast: Paul Walter Hauser, Walton Goggins, Shamier Anderson, Brian Geraghty, Patti Harrison, Haley Bennett, Damian Young, Lilli Kay, James Wolk, Shaunette Renée Wilson, David Rysdahl, Ricky Russert, David Strathairn, Johnny Knoxville, Maisie Williams.
Premise: May 1984. An unemployed ice cream truck driver steps onto the game show Press Your Luck harboring a secret: the key to endless money. But his winning streak is threatened when the bewildered executives uncover his real motivations.
Review: I will watch anything with Paul Walter Hauser. He is, easily, one of the best actors we have today. And this is another entry to his resume that proves this. And this movie is another entry to Walton Goggins’ incredible last two years. I wouldn’t have found this movie that interesting if it weren’t with these two leads, but I knew I had to watch it. The trailer also did a great job at making the movie feel tense.
The movie a true story about a contestant on Press Your Luck in 1984 who learned a pattern in the show to be able to win the highest amount possible in the history of the show. As he keeps adding to his winnings, the producers behind the show fumble trying to figure out how to get hi to lose it all and find out which staff member is behind it.
The movie is a an hour and a half long movie. Which more movies need to move back to this timing. I liked how the movie didn’t drag out. It still covered what it needed to.
Some of the other standout cast members include Masiee Williams, Johnny Knoxville, and David Strathaim.
Trailer: