So I had not intended on seeing this today. I had my tickets to The Crow and Blink Twice and I went to Cinemark to go to a 10 o’clock IMAX showing of the Crow. However, when I go there, I realized that my ticket was for 10 PM. I was there about 9:45 AM so I had messed this up. I looked at The Crow schedule and could not find one that would work for Blink Twice, and I had to readjust everything. Strange Darling, which had interested me, but did not fit with the original schedule was showing at 10 AM and that meant I had to substitute The Crow later for Blink Twice (though I may have chosen poorly after seeing The Crow). With my new ticket, I went to Strange Darling and I was so pleased that all this mess happened, because I loved this movie.

It is difficult to give a synopsis for this film. I’ll say this… there is a serial killer out there and a woman from a one night stand was being chased.

I can’t go into anything more without spoiling the movie and this was very original and well done.

The film was split into a six chapter format, but the story was told jumping around the chapters (I think it started in chapter four). This allowed the story to unfold in a most intriguing manner, keeping everyone on their toes for what was actually going on and pays off in a big way. The film is able to play with expectation and perspective amazingly well.

It was extremely violent and bloody, but none of it felt gratuitous. Inf act, I would go as far as to say that the violence worked so well that it created an artistic flare of gore.

Willa Fitzgerald starred as “The Lady” with Kyle Gallner, who was listed as “The Demon” and both of them give remarkable performances and carry most of the movie on their shoulders.

I was engaged with this story from the opening scene and it never faltered with every surprise and scene switch. The script is tight and effective. The direction, from director (and writer) JT Mollner, is excellent. Top line performances fill the moments. I had no idea what was coming next and I found myself completely thrilled. One of my favorite thriller/horror movies of the yea.

4.6 stars

My expectations were very low for this remake of the 1994 cult classic film The Crow. I was not sure why they remade the film and it did not look like it had a purpose to exist. However, I was hoping to be wrong about my low expectations.

Unfortunately, the film did not reach my low expectations.

According to IMDB, “Soulmates Eric (Skarsgård) and Shelly (FKA twigs) are brutally murdered when the demons of Shelly’s dark past catch up with them. Given the chance to save his true love by sacrificing himself, Eric sets out to seek merciless revenge on their killers, traversing the worlds of the living and the dead to put the wrong things right.“

There are a ton of problems with this movie. I did like Bill Skarsgård in the role of Eric (even though the short hair/mullet felt wrong). He certainly brought his abs to the screen. He was fine with what he was given so I would not say that Skarsgård was one of the problems.

The first hour of the movie was slow and kind of boring. They spend time introducing the characters, which normally I like, but this just did not seem to work. The writing on these characters was just weak and I was not invested at all.

This is also a major problem because I just did not get into the pairing of Eric and Shelly. They did not feel like soulmates to me and that truly hurts the story since the power of love is meant to be the key to Eric’s resurrection.

There is plenty of violence, especially in the third act. However there was a scene in that third act that took place at an opera house that just did not make much sense (because of the noise of the gunfire) and it was taking me out of the story.

Speaking of the story, it felt very much of a slog throughout the film and needlessly messy with the rules of what was going on.

There is not a way to do a review of a remake of The crow without comparing it to the original movie. It may not be fair, but it is unavoidable. This film is just so much worse than that film from 1994, there really was no reason to do a remake. There was nothing new or exciting added to the 2024 film to justify the remake or to have it stand on its own. I can’t imagine why, if given a choice, anyone would decide to watch the new film over the Brandon Lee film.

I do not think that this film will break into the group of movies competing for the worst movie of the year (I think it is up to 6 now), but it is not too far off from it. The Crow was unnecessary and more boring than it should have been.

1.4 stars

The Purge meets Running Man, but as a comedy. This is how I would describe the new film which debuted on Amazon Prime this weekend, Jackpot, starring Awkwafina and John Cena.

The film is set in the near future where California had passed a law saying that their lottery jackpot winners could be hunted and killed within a day and whoever killed them would receive the jackpot instead. This is a bizarre premise, but it certainly speaks to the selfishness and greed of the human race.

Struggling actor Katie Kim (Awkwafina) accidentally wound up in the lotto drawing and won the largest jackpot in the state’s history, 3.6 billion dollars. She did not even realize that she had won and she was unaware of the strange rules associated with the win. So when people started trying to kill her, Katie was shaken.

That is when Noel (John Cena) arrived and offered his help, for 10% of the winnings, to keep her alive until the bell rang, signaling that the chance to kill her and collect the winnings had passed.

This was really stupid. The premise is slightly interesting and yet this felt way too easy for everyone to be involved. Some of the dialogue was atrocious and they were forcing humor into the film at times.

And yet, I did not hate this movie. I do not know why, but I found myself reasonably entertained by this mess.

I think the biggest part that I liked was the presence of Awkwafina and John Cena. They were really funny and had great timing, taking the admittedly weak writing and making it considerably better. Their interactions were great and I was willing to put up with what the movie had going on because I enjoyed their comradery.

I also enjoyed the appearance of Simu Liu, who appeared as a rival Lottery Protector of Noel, just at an apparently larger level. It was a Shang Chi reunion with Simu Liu and Awkwafina.

I am not saying that this is a great movie. It clearly is not. I am saying that I had fun watching it and that it will probably fall into my guilty pleasure category. As for the rating, I am not recommending it to anyone, but if you are a John Cena fan, there is a lot that you will find to enjoy.

2.8 stars

Based on a true story, My Penguin Friend is a sweet tale of a penguin that befriends a man who had save him after being covered with oil.

The penguin, nicknamed Dindim by another character in the movie, has bridged the gap between humans and penguins, spending part of the time with the penguins and then a chunk of the time miles away with Joao (Jean Reno).

The film started out with a tragedy from the past for Joao and his wife Maria (Adriana Barraza). The tragedy darkened the lives of the couple for years before the little penguin showed up to give them purpose once again.

I have to say that a couple of the kids in this movie are just charming as could be. In particular, Juan José Garnica, who played Miguel, was remarkably bright and had a smile worth a million dollars. He shone through the early scenes of the film.

Yes, some of this film was cheesy and silly, but what did you expect with a protagonist that was a penguin? The really silly parts did not detract from the film for me and helped build that relationship between Dindim and Joao, inspired from the tragedy of his past.

The film looked great and many of the scenes of the penguins felt real. I am not sure if this was CGI or if they had shots of real penguins, but the fact that I was not sure tells you how effective the effects were.

The story was also surprisingly emotional at times, as I found myself nearly tearing up during a few moments.

While the film is not overly deep or complex, there are some solid themes in it about friendship and loss that make this more than just a funny animal story. This was a decent film that, at just over 90 minutes, does not overstay its welcome.

3.5 stars

One of last week’s big hit film made my schedule this week with the Blake Lively film, It Ends With Us.

According to IMDB, “IT ENDS WITH US, the first Colleen Hoover novel adapted for the big screen, tells the compelling story of Lily Bloom (Blake Lively), a woman who overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life in Boston and chase a lifelong dream of opening her own business. A chance meeting with charming neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni) sparks an intense connection, but as the two fall deeply in love, Lily begins to see sides of Ryle that remind her of her parents’ relationship. When Lily’s first love, Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar), suddenly reenters her life, her relationship with Ryle is upended, and Lily realizes she must learn to rely on her own strength to make an impossible choice for her future“

I am very much on the fence about this movie. I am not sure how I felt about it. I found this to be a tough watch, making me feel uncomfortable and sordid. The whole fact about domestic abuse is a challenging subject to weave into the storyline, but this film does a decent job with it. The abuse is shown to be done by real people, not just one-dimensional villains. It is by real people who have problems in their lives. It is even true that when the abuser swears that they will never do it again, they mean it. They are just unable to keep the promise because their own issues overwhelm themselves.

Blake Lively does a good job as the lead protagonist. You can see the relationship between her and Ryle and there are some of the understanding why abused women try to make it work.

Jenny Slate, who played Lily’s best friend Allysa, stole every scene she was in. I thought she was the best part of the film.

There was a long time that they spent on a flashback that we did not know why or how it played into the story. It did come back eventually, but it was quite a while before we understood why these flashbacks were relevant to the current story.

I feel that this movie needed some rework, adjusting the story and making it tighter. The flashbacks were plenty, but it took too long to show us the reason for their inclusion. Good performances are here and it had its moments. I am still unsure how I feel fully, but I think I lean toward positive.

3 stars

It has been awhile since a film from the Alien franchise has really hit. Alien: Romulus, directed by Fete Alvarez, is the film that has broken that streak.

The best Alien film since the original two films with Sigourney Weaver, Alien and Aliens, Alien: Romulus is tense, frightening, full of action and amazing to look at.

Planning to escape their nowhere jobs, a group try and convince Rain (Cailee Spaeny) to come with them to salvage cryogenic pods from a derelict space station floating above the planet’s surface. With these pods installed in their own ship, they could afford to take the nine-year journey to find a new life.

Rain has a “brother” named Andy (David Jonsson) who was actually an android and the group needs him to override security aboard the space station.

Of course, they find more aboard the space station than they expected and it leads to some awesome action sequences, some of the most creative of the franchise. And it has a surprise connection to the past that is a wonderful bit.

I was unfamiliar with the entire cast of Alien: Romulus, however, I found they all did a really great job. A couple of the characters did not have much depth to them, but it did seem as if the film did its best with the time it had to give each character a hook in which the audience could relate to them.

The film does start a little slowly, but it picks up the pace extremely well and the third act is just completely thrilling and unbelievable. The third act is bonkers and filled with amazing scary imagery and situations.

The special effects are fantastic and the alien creatures look beautifully horrifying.

When this was first announced, I was not sure this was a film I needed. It felt like this franchise has runs its course. Then, a master filmmaker like Fete Alvarez gets his hands on the franchise and breathes life into it, bringing it back to the forefront of monster movies.

I will admit that some of the trailers may have given away too much. If you can avoid those before going in, the experience may be a richer one. Either way, this is a great film.

4.8 stars