There have not been enough comedically tinged murder mysteries as big screen movies. Films such as Clue, Knives Out, Confess Fletch, and Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang are a lot of fun to watch, not just for the comedy, but also for the mystery.

One of the queens of the murder mystery is Agatha Christie and she was involved in one of the biggest successes on the stage in Mouse Trap, a play based on Christie’s work. The ending of which has been a closely guarded secret for years, In fact, the movie rights have been held up for years because there was a contract where a clause said that a movie could not be done until the play ended its theatrical run, and it has been going strong since.

That is one of the key points behind the latest murder mystery See How They Run, starring Sam Rockwell as Inspector Stoppard, who comes in to the theater to investigate after one of the key people involved in the movie adaptation is murdered. Stoppard is joined by inexperienced and gung-ho Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan), who is as much of a hinderance for Stoppard as an aid.

The cast is great. Along with Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan, there are plenty of talented actors including David Oyelowo, Adrien Brody, Ruth Wilson, Charlie Cooper, Harris Dickinson, Reece Shearsmith, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Sian Clifford, Maggie McCarthy, Ania Marson, Shirley Henderson and Tim Key.

Rockwell and Ronan are great together and both actors have a deft comic timing that really work in some of the more over-the-top moments of the film. They bring a sufficient energy to help carry a script that is okay, but not as clever as it thinks it is.

The beginning of the film is a little slow and does not truly take advantage of the comic situation that has been presented. However, when a second murder occurs, the film picks things up quite a bit, including a funny misunderstanding that pushes some characters in different directions.

I enjoyed this movie, but I have seen better murder mystery comedies than this one. The story could have been tighter and expand that initial murder more. The cast is top notch and elevates the material above where it would be without them. There is a meta-ness about the movie that I appreciated, since it is based around Mouse Trap and the real issues that went on with it. It is a quick and easy watch that is entertaining enough.

3.6 stars

Goodnight Mommy debuted on Prime Video this weekend as a new thriller/horror film. It was a remake of a 2014 Austrian film of the same name. I saw several reviews of the new film saying that it did not live up to the original and that it watered down the suspense and the tension of the first version.

But here’s the thing. I have not seen the original version, so I was not affected by the apparently lesser version. I watched Goodnight Mommy with fresh eyes, and I have to say that I liked most of what I saw.

Twin brothers Elias (Cameron Crovetti) and Lukas (Nicholas Crovetti) are dropped off at their mother’s isolated house by their father. Their mother had just had plastic surgery and was still recovering from it, wrapping her face with bandages.

However, as time passes and the boys see some strange behavior from their mother (Naomi Watts), they start to fear that something terrible has happened and that the woman was not truly their mother.

In the first part of the movie, they plant several pieces of evidence to make you feel as if the mother was doing something sinister and her interactions with the children was clearly off in some manner. The mystery of what was going on really started off strong and I wanted to know what the answer was.

The biggest problem I had was a certain CGI heavy scene about half way through the movie that was meant to give an answer in one specific manner, but turned out to be a huge red herring. I did not like the scene when it first was shown because I thought to took away the mystery and then later when I learned the truth, I liked it even less because it was meant to be such a manipulative scene that made no sense in the overall narrative and was not refenced again.

I will say though, the film delivered a twist at the end that I was not expecting and that I found very interesting. Sadly, the conclusion never really built on the psychological aspects of the reveal and it felt as if they missed an opportunity to really create a tension-filled scare.

The three lead actors in this version were really solid. Naomi Watts is always an excellent actor no matter what she is in and the twin brothers, Cameron (who plays Ryan in Amazon’s series, The Boys) and Nicholas Crovetti match her in intensity and effort. These performances make the flaws within the script lesser as they elevate the material.

There are some strange decisions in this film that are meant to manipulate, but I do think that I enjoyed the strong parts of Goodnight Mommy more than I was distracted by the weaker parts. Perhaps if I had seen the original, my opinion would have been more colored, but since I have not, I found this to be an interesting and flawed watch.

3 stars

What are my thoughts about House of Darkness?

Just not sure.

I like Justin Long. He has done some interesting work over the years. Of course, he was not playing a character here that is meant to be likeable. Unfortunately, Justin Long is very likeable, which played against the character’s type.

Justin Long played Hap, a guy who was out at the bar and met a lovely woman named Mina (Kate Bosworth) and offered to give her a ride to her secluded home. When arriving, they went inside for a drink and to see where the evening would go. Strange things began to happen as the night moved along and Hap learned that they were not alone and that everything might not be exactly what he expected.

I was both interested and bored at this movie. The first two-thirds of the film was spent talking and exchanging dialogue among the characters. Some of it was decent, but much of it felt repetitive and lacked any true cohesiveness.

Things picked up a bit when Mina’s sister Lucy (Gia Crovatin) showed up. Her monologue involving a story was probably the most intense part of the evening. Lucy Walters joined in as sister number three later.

I’m not sure who the film wanted me to root for. I was with Hap, even though he was a little slimy. He certainly was not as bad as he could have been.

The movie felt too long for what happened. It felt like this could have been done in 30-40 minutes and not lose much of what was here. It did a pretty decent job of setting a tone as Hap grew more and more uncomfortable with his situation.

House of Darkness was a movie that took a big chance and tried something different, which I liked, but it did not hit the mark enough to really love it. There are positive things, but they get lost in the slow burn of a tale.

2.75 stars

I had not heard about this reboot until very recently. I was never much of a fan of the original Fletch series. I just recently (during the DailyView, in fact) watched the original Chevy Chase Fletch for the first time. I did like it, but I did not think it was anything that would create such a cult following as it has.

So, I was intrigued when I heard Jon Hamm was cast as the new lead in a new Fletch movie. Jon Hamm has always had a pretty good comedic binge to him and I like him much more than Chevy Chase.

Based on a 1976 novel of the same name, Fletch comes to Boston to investigate his girlfriend Angela’s (Lorenza Izzo) missing father and stolen paintings. Once he arrived, he discovered a dead body in the townhouse where he was staying and, unfortunately for Fletch, he became the lead suspect.

I really enjoyed this movie. I found the murder mystery to be very entertaining and well done. The tone of this revisited the old murder mysteries that had a hero sneaking around trying to solve the case while the police were trying to catch him. There is a Beverly Hills Cop vibe to this though Fletch was nowhere near as cool as Axel Foley.

Roy Wood Jr. played Detective “Slo-Mo” Monroe and he brought a lot to the role. He had a strong comedic presence while being a competent character. Wood Jr and Hamm had some solid chemitry with each other as antagonistic forces to each other. Kyle MacLachlan, who I have always loved since his time on Twin Peaks, added to the cast as well.

The laid back nature of Jon Hamm really worked well in this film. He fit the shyster type well and I was easily bought into the movie in the early set up.

I would actually love to see another film with Jon Hamm in this role. Confess, Fletch was a lot of fun and very funny.

4.1 stars

George Miller’s latest film is a romantic fantasy featuring a djinn revealing his life story to the most recent person to take possession of his bottle.

The Djinn (Idris Elba) and the scholar Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton) find one another after Alithea purchases an antique bottle and discovers that it contained a djinn who had been alive for many years. However, Alithea was not intending for things to go awry as she tells the djinn that in every story about wishes being granted, it turns into a cautionary tale. Because of that, and because of not wanting for anything, Alithea refuses to make any wishes.

To try and convince her to make the wishes, the Djinn tells her three stories of his life and how he came to be trapped within the bottle that she had purchased.

Three Thousand Years of Longing is a beautifully shot and wonderfully looking film, but the center of the film, the relationship between Alithea and the Djinn, lacks a little oomph for me.

The three different stories, as narrated by Idris Elba, are fine and they are interesting, but I did not find them necessarily engaging enough to sway the mind of Alithea into making the wishes that she eventually makes. Because of this, the sacrifice made at the end of the movie ends up to be fairly lacking in emotional power.

Elba and Swinton are their usually excellent selves here as both do everything they can to make the lacking script work and they nearly pull it off.

There is no denying that the film is beautiful to look at and that the film takes some real swings. It is original and does keep the attention of the viewer. The issue I have is that the story does not truly come together. It is a decent watch, but not to the level that one would expect from George Miller.

3.3 stars

I have been looing forward to watching Marcel the Shell With Shoes on for some time now. I missed it while it was in its limited run in theaters and I have been waiting patiently for it to arrive on streaming. It finally arrived on Vudu and, although it was not yet available to rent, I decided to add it to my list as a purchased film.

It was worth the wait.

Marcel the Shell With Shoes On in based on a series of shorts that appeared on the internet in 2010. The film is shot as a mockumentary that followed the life of Marcel (Jenny Slate) an anthropomorphic shell that lived with his grandmother Connie (Isabella Rossellini). They lived alone in an old Airbnb that Dean (Dean Fleischer Camp), the documentarian, moved into after breaking up with his wife. Dean discovered Marcel, the talking shell, and decided to start filming him, putting the shorts on the internet.

The film was extremely sweet and filled with life. It included several very adult themes such as being isolated and alone, the effects of aging, and the power of connection as well as being funny and kid friendly.

Jenny Slate’s voice work is powerful and poignant at the same time. Marcel is surprisingly world weary and yet filled with such a zest for life. Marcel may be a shell with shoes on, but he is absolutely dealing with emotions and feelings that any human being can relate to and provides a connection beyond its stop motion animation.

Marcel the Shell With Shoes avoids becoming too melodramatic or wishy-washy, maintaining a tone that can give us both the sweetness of the character and the potential heart-break that comes from life.

Dean Fleischer Camp was the director o this film, as well as the documentarian who befriends Marcel. This was Camp’s feature film debut and there are some wonderful shots, in particular, when Connie was reading some poetry.

You would not expect a film like this to have the emotional balance that it does and to exceed the trappings of a kids movie, and yet it does. The movie might be stretched a little long, but it was an excellent piece of cinema.

4 stars

I have been a huge fan of Kevin Smith for years, but, for me, most of his movie filmography is hit-and-miss. I love listening to Kevin Smith talk as he is one of the best storytellers around. I love his podcast, but his movies are split. I loved Dogma, Red State, and Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. I liked Tusk, but I disliked Yoga Hosers.

As for Clerks, I enjoyed the original film, but I disliked Clerks 2 a great deal, so when I heard Smith was working on a Clerks 3, I was torn.

I caught a showing of Clerks 3 through a Fathom events presentation last night as the film is not opening wide. Instead, Kevin Smith is taking it on tour, as he did with Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.

We returned to the Quick Stop to reunite with Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randall (Jeff Anderson), who continue to work at the convenience store that they co-own. Randall survived a massive heart attack and the trauma lead him to try and make a change of his life. He decided to make his life into a movie, in a hugely meta way, which looks very much like the first Clerks film.

This first act of the film was really hard for me because I have a tendency toward hypochondria, the scenes with the heart attack and at the emergency room was rough for me. I was extremely uncomfortable during it and I was desperately hoping to get through that section. Thankfully, it moved along soon after that. The film is clearly telling the story of Kevin Smith’s real life survival of the Widowmaker heart attack from a few years ago.

I liked a lot of the humor in this. I found the amount of drug humor, which I have never been a huge fan of, was kept at a reasonable amount here.

And there was a surprising arc throughout with Dante still dealing with the death of his wife Becky (Rosario Dawson) and their unborn daughter from years ago. This was some of my favorite parts of the movie and it showed some real levels of acting from Brian O’Halloran that I do not think we have seen before. The scene with Dante and the spirit of Becky at the graveyard was great and was odd in this film. This was some of the best work done by Kevin Smith.

The third act of this movie was sensational and really changed the tone of the film and it did it in character bits. I will not spoil anything that happened here, but I found it to be an unexpected surprise. As the first part of the movie was funny and enjoyable, but the finale really brought it home in an emotional manner.

Clerks III provided a sufficient and enjoyable way to conclude the Clerks trilogy with an emotional wallop while maintaining the characters from the previous films.

3.6 stars

I had not intended on heading to the theatre this weekend. Then, I saw a Twitter review of the new film Barbarian which said that it was a lot of fun and that you should approach it with as little knowledge as you could (I believe it was a Dan Murrell Tweet). I had no idea about what Barbarian was and I am not sure I had ever seen anything about it, so I decided that this would be a good opportunity to check it out.

I came into the film with zero knowledge. I do think I had seen a trailer once, but I barely remembered it. I wasn’t even sure that I knew the style or genre of the film before it came on screen. (Horror, by the way).

Having said that, I 100% agree with Dan Murrell. Going into this film without any pre-existing knowledge is absolutely the way to go. It keeps you off balance and things happen that you have no idea is coming. The unknown really helped out Barbarian for me.

Because of that, I am going to pass on the typical synopsis that I would normally place in my review to keep it as surprising as possible.

The film starred Georgina Campbell as Tess, our main protagonist. Bill Skarsgård played Keith. Justin Long appeared in the movie too, as a character named AJ. Georgina Campbell brought a great performance, leading the audience through the mysterious goings on of Barbarian. This was one of my favorite performances from Justin Long too. He had some of the more emotional and questionable moments in the film.

There were some amazing moments of suspense, built by the mood and the tone of the film. Combine the setting with the unknown aspect of what was happening and Barbarian did a great job of keeping the audience on the edge of their seats.

The film has a fantastic look to it and the effects are truly frightening.

That’s about all I can say about the movie without spoiling it, so all I can say is, if you are a horror fan, or if you enjoy a tense suspenseful thriller, give Barbarian a try and go in with as little info as you possibly can. It was worth it to me.

4 stars

It is Disney + Day and that meant we were going to be seeing a brand new “live-action” adaptation of a past Disney classic animated movie. We have seen Cinderella, Jungle Book, Aladdin, The Lion King, Dumbo, Mulan, Maleficent, 101 Dalmatians, Pete’s Dragon, and Beauty and the Beast. Now, it was time for the remake of the 1940 iconic Pinocchio.

Tom Hanks starred as Geppetto, the wood carver who created the puppet Pinocchio in response to his son and wife’s recent death. After Geppetto wished upon a star, the Blue Fairy (Cynthia Erivo) arrived and brought the wooden boy to life and appointed Jiminy Cricket (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) as his conscience.

Pinocchio (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) was told that he had a chance to become a real boy if he showed the ability of being brave, truthful and selfless. This leads to a series of weird adventures as Pinocchio heads out into the world.

There are several issues with this new version of Pinocchio. First, the design of Pinocchio is nearly identical to the original version and that makes Pinocchio a little creepy. The animation style also stood out against the rest of the film. Pinocchio did not look like it fit in the world.

A second problem I had was that this was a basic shot for shot remake with little new material. Some of the scenes were fine, but were not any better than the original. The scene where Pinocchio watches Lampwick (Lewin Lloyd) get turned into a donkey is not as scary as the animated version, but it was adequate. I liked the Monstro section but it was done too quickly.

Tom Hanks did not have much to do. Geppetto just kind of wandered around yelling for Pinocchio. The inclusion of the death son and wife was potentially a rich addition for the actor, but the scenes with his grief disappeared early.

I am not sure the reason for the remake outside of just making money. Not that making money is a bad thing, and all films are trying to make money, but there felt like little purpose.

The film is not the worst thing I have seen, but it was not very good and it didn’t reach the level of the 1940 film.

2.6 stars

Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul streamed live on Peacock this week while the film is still in the theater, which helped me be able to watch this.

The movie was written, directed, and produced by Adamma Ebo, which was her feature debut. This was based on her 2018 short film of the same name.

The story featured Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs (Sterling K. Brown) and his beautiful wife Trinitie Childs (Regina Hall), who were, at one point, running a highly successful congregation until Pastor Childs became enthralled in a scandal that led to the closing of their church. This movie had a documentary inside the film taping the attempt by Lee-Curtis and Trinitie to try and reclaim their past success.

The best part of this movie is clearly the two main leads, Sterling K. Brown and Regina Hall. The film only works because of the power of their performances. Both actors brought excellent energy and elevated the satire of the script wonderfully.

There are some definite moments where the satire of the organized religions. Some of these moments work well and others fell a little flat. The story never quite went into specific of what the scandal was, but there were some definite hints that the movie showed about what had happened.

This is a movie that I would not have seen if I had to watch it in the theatre. By having it streaming on Peacock, I got to see it and it was a decent time with two powerhouse performers.

3.5 stars