I fought it as long as I could.

I am not a fan of Disney + releasing these movies on Disney + as a Premium premier film. Charging the customers an extra fee (especially the large fee of 30 dollars) to watch a movie on a streaming service that they already pay for is really Capitalism at its worst. While I paid for Mulan, I wanted to ignore the latest film Disney released in this manner.

It lasted about a day and a half.

Although I do not believe any movie would be worth spending that much money to view, Raya and the Last Dragon comes pretty dang close.

Years ago, humans and dragons lived together in the land of Kumandra. That time of peace would not last. When the monstrous creatures called Druun arrived, the dragons sacrificed themselves to save humanity, leaving behind one gem of the dragon power. The lands of humans fractured apart and fought over the gem, ending the time of Kumandra.

Benja (Daniel Dae Kim) and his daughter Raya (Kelly Marie Tran)were the gem’s guardians, but Benja had a hope to bring the land back together and reached out to reclaim Kumandra. Unfortunately, betrayal would be the order of the day as Namaari (Gemma Chan), the daughter of one of the separate lands, pretended to befriend Raya, by sharing the connection they had over the rumor of the last dragon, Sisu (Awkwafina), to get her hands on the gem. In the battle, the gem was shattered and the different pieces went to members of different lands. This also saw the return of the dangerous Druun. which would turn to the humans to stone.

When Raya’s father turned to stone, she set off on a quest to reclaim the shards of the gem and find the last dragon to save the world from the Druun.

This film was immensely beautiful and featured spectacular animation. Disney continues its amazing animated work with this artistic masterpiece. The character designs and the settings are a master class of animation.

The voice cast was every bit as wonderful. There was subtlety in the voices that both inform and create character. Awkwafina’s work is extra special and both Tran and Chan play their parts perfectly. Add to the impressive voice cast Benedict Wong, Sandra Oh, Izaac Wang, Alan Tudyk, and Jona Xiao. The voice cast brought their top game to help tell this emotional story.

Now, the story itself certainly had some familiar beats to it. However, that was not necessarily a bad thing. It depends on what you do with the story that matters and the creators of Raya and the Last Dragon do a wonderful job of tugging at the emotions of the audience and creating new steps among the recognizable tale.

I believe the theme of this movie is one that is vital in today’s world. The shattering of the Kumandra society over material items and the loss of trust among the people led directly to the divisive nature of the land. The true magic only comes from trust and having the people of the world, despite their differences, work together for a common goal. This is a warning to the world that we currently live in that our separation can rob the world of the magic.

I am happy I decided to go ahead and pay the money that the execs of Disney deemed necessary for me to see this movie at home. I wish they would make such a fee a little more affordable so that the strength of this beautifully positive message could be seen by more people of the world.

4.5 stars

It seems like every other week now, we are getting a new film that falls into the sub-genre of Groundhog Day/repeating the day films. Just within the last couple of years there has been Happy Death Day, Palm Springs, Before I Fall, The Map of Tiny Little Things and I am sure that there are some that I did not see. We could go back even further if we had to. And now we have the newest entry into the sub-genre: Boss Level.

Frank Grillo is Roy Pulver, a man who is being pursued by a group of assassins and who have died multiple times so far. Roy kept reawakening in his bed on the same day. He has no idea what or why this is happening, but as he is learning about the events, he continues to press through the day, in trial and error, to discover the truth.

Naomi Watts is here as Roy’s former girlfriend Jemma and Mel Gibson is her boss Colonel Clive Ventor. Gibson is not actually that important to the story, which is fun.

Boss Level, which is a reference to video games, is funny, fairly clever and entertainingly violent. The assassins that are chasing Roy are all just excellent and are such an awesome piece. One of the best was Guan Yin (Selina Yo) who has a Chinese sword that she uses to decapitate Roy several times, in which she responds, “I am Guan Yo and Guan Yo has done this.” LOL.

The story went in different directions as it progressed and it had some real heart, especially with Roy and his son Joe, which makes perfect sense as Joe is played by Frank Grillo’s real life son, Rio. Rio Grillo may not have had a huge role in the film, but what I saw I really liked. He seemed to have a calm presence and a natural aura about him. I really liked his performance.

This feels like the perfect vehicle for Frank Grillo and the type of character that he has played up until this point. I will say that I am unsure how I felt at the very end of the movie as they left the last scene on a bit of a cliffhanger. The more I think about it, the more I think this is a great way to wrap up a movie like this. I can see some people being unsatisfied by this result.

This time loop sub-genre has been a pretty successful one as there have been more positive movies in it than ones that failed. Boss Level was a lot of fun and had me on the edge of my seat for much of the run time. It debuted on Hulu this weekend.

4.25 stars

Dropping a night early on Amazon Prime, Coming 2 America was trying to do something that is really difficult to do: be a good sequel to a comedy movie 30 years later. There are way more sequels that were terrible (Zoolander 2, Dumb and Dumber 2, Anchorman 2 etc) than those that are good. Coming 2 America had a huge hurdle to get over to avoid falling into the same club.

Sadly, it could not do it.

I was disappointed with Coming 2 America. I had been excited for this project and was anticipating watching this movie. When it dropped early, it was so unexpected that it felt special, and, while I would not put it in the same category as some of those other sequels I mentioned, this was nowhere near what I had hoped it would be.

Prince Akeem (Eddie Murphy) is still in Zamunda with his princess Lisa (Shari Headley) and his three daughter. As Akeem’s father King Jaffe Joffer (James Earl Jones) is on his deathbed, a neighboring despot General Izzi (Wesley Snipes) is looking to grab some power, either by marrying off his son to one of the daughters of Akeem or by something more violent.

Trying to look strong, Akeem discovered that he had a bastard son Lavelle (Jermaine Fowler) when he went to America to “sow his royal oats.” Apparently, Lavelle’s mother Mary (Leslie Jones) had been a set up by Semmi (Arsenio Hall) and she wound up drugging Akeem and having sex with him. She wound up pregnant, and Akeem did not know it had happened.

Ignoring that date rape part, Akeem came back to Queens to find his illegitimate son, which he does easily, thanks to the same old barbers that were there thirty years ago (without changing one bit). He brings Lavelle back to Zamunda to attempt and make him into a prince which includes a pre-arranged marriage.

One of the biggest problems with this movie is that it plays on the nostalgia of the original Coming to America so hard that large sections of the movie feels like a repeat of what we saw before. They even replay several scenes from the first movie in the sequel. Why do we need to see the same bits over again in 2021?

There are some strong parts to the film as well. It is not a total failure. Westley Snipes is tremendous as General Izzi, continuing his revitalized career with such interesting choices. Snipes was surprisingly funnier than many of the comedians in the movie. Jermaine Fowler developed Lavelle into a decent character, though he started out as an obnoxious kid. There were some definitely funny moments as well. My favorite scene may have been Akeem and Cleo (John Amos) having a heart to heart talk in the back of the Zamunda version of McDowells.

Unfortunately, parts of this did not work either. Lavelle’s “true love” story with the royal hair dressed felt forced and unrealistic. There was not enough scenes between the two of them to really find the investment in their relationship. There were too many characters who were there to just scream. Not only was there Murphy, Arsenio, Leslie Jones, but also there was Tracy Morgan. Historically, I have not been a fan of that style of comedy.

There were a ton of cameos here too including Morgan Freeman, Salt-N-Pepa, En Vogue, Colin Jost, Gladys Knight, Dikembe Mutombo, and Louie Anderson. These were fun and kept you on your toes while watching.

It is just such a Xerox copy of so much of Coming to America, with just a few little tweaks, that it did not feel new or original. In fact, I found a good chunk of the movie to be boring because I knew what was going to happen. I like al these actors, but there just felt as if there was to much. This version did not take its time like the original and it did not have the same amount of heart or innocence.

I had seen a trailer and it made me nervous because I did not find it funny. Sadly, for me, the trailer did display the movie as I saw it. While I did not hate this, I was absolutely disappointed.

2.75 stars

Based on the novel Guantánamo Diary, The Mauritanian tells a tragic and painful story about a man in Guantánamo under suspicion that he was involved as the organizer of the 9/11 Attacks.

I had not heard anything about this movie until I was watching Collider’s FYI with Scott Mantz, Perri Nemiroff and Jeff Sneider and they were talking about award nominations and they came across a nomination for Jodie Foster. None of them were familiar with the movie, The Mauritanian, which intrigued me.

When this came across the streaming services, I had learned that it was a thriller and had some court elements to it, both of which appealed to me. I rented it.

It was a difficult watch at times, but the performances were outstanding and the story was one that struck at the heart of the United States and the policies of torture that engulfed the foreign policy of our country from the days following the fall of the Twin Towers. It was ugly. It was difficult to wrap my mind around it.

In this true story, Tahar Rahim played Mohamedou Ould Slahi, the man who was captured and held in prison for years because of a apparent connection between him and Osama Bin Laden. Defense attorney Nancy Hollander (Jodie Foster) and her associate Teri Duncan (Shailene Woodley) wound up on his case, despite not being sure, at first, that he was innocent.

Rahim, in particular, delivers a knockout performance and dominates his screen presence./ He creates such a character that an audience could root for. The building relationship between Rahim and Nancy Hollander is another strong point of the movie.

Benedict Cumberbatch is Stuart Couch, the military man who was supposed to prosecute the case against Rahim. His American accent was a little iffy.

The Mauritanian was a tough watch and had one of the best go-to-black moments at the end of the movie ever. Great performances and a heartbreaking story carries this film. There may be other films more powerful, but that takes nothing away from this.

3.8 stars

Found this new animated movie on Netflix last night and it found its way onto the list to watch this weekend. I have always been a big fan of bigfoot and this premise intrigued me. Unfortunately, the actual execution of the premise was lacking.

I did not know that this was a sequel to another animated movie from 2017 called Son of Bigfoot, and that might actually have helped the viewing of this film since much of the backstory with Bigfoot and his family felt crammed in to this. Understanding that it is more of a synopsis of a previous material helps.

Bigfoot (Alexis Victor) has decided to use his 15 minutes of fame to help protest against an oil company’s planned drilling of Alaskan land when he goes missing. His son Adam (Kylian Trouillard), his wife Shelly (Marie Chevalot), Wilbur the grizzly bear (Frederic Souterelle) and the raccoon Trapper (Sébastien Desjours) take off to help him.

This was a below average animated movie that might appeal to the children since there are some funny, cute talking animals involved. Wilbur had a couple of funny moments and I seen worse.

However, as an adult, even an adult who loves animation, this was not for me. The story was simple and stereotypical. The messages were over-the-top and obvious. The animation was fine and the voice work was okay. Nothing really stood out on either of those areas.

The villain was the head of the drilling company, Connor Mandrake (Pierre Tessier) pretended to be a friend of the environment but. in truth, was a typically boring oil executive. And he was not a smart one either as there were several moments where I thought to myself, “Why is he doing this?” or “Why didn’t he just ____?”

The film also overused the tiresome phrase of “fake news” which is a comment that has its own connotation to in this day and age. The use of it is meant as a joke, but it was anything but.

If you need a movie to put on for the kiddies, then you could do worse than Bigfoot Family. However, have something for you to do while its on.

2.6 stars

Director Lee Daniels has taken a section of the life of a jazz legend, Billie Holiday, and brought to life a new biopic on the singer. Originally scheduled to be released in December, the movie wound up being sold to Hulu, where it was released this weekend.

The film follows Billie Holiday during a period of her life that she was being pursued by the Federal Department of Narcotics. The feds claimed they were looking at Holiday because of her heroin use (Billie Holiday did spend a year in prison because of this), but the movie and book this was based on, claimed that another of the fed’s purposes for their dogged pursuit of Holiday was to prevent her from singing a song called “Strange Fruit.” “Strange Fruit” was a controversial song that dealt with the topic of lynching and helped lead into the era of civil rights.

However, the fed’s had some inner issues as Agent Jimmy Fletcher (Trevante Rhodes), who had been assigned to keep track of Holiday, ended up in an affair with her.

Andra Day played Billie Holiday and she was tremendous. Day was easily the best part of the movie. While much of the movie was slower and a bit muddled, Day’s performance elevated the film to a much higher level. This is an especially impressive trick as Day has not had any major movie acting experience. She also did much of the singing in the film as well and she was wonderful. The music of the movie was another strength.

Many of the scenes felt disjointed as the complexity of Billie Holiday’s life did not seem to come together here well. There were sections of the movie that dragged along, but any time Day was there, there was a new life to the scenes. The inclusion of “Strange Fruit” is one of those examples as it did not seem to be woven into the story arc effectively. They leave it and come back at other moments and it did not blend well with the drug abuse of her life.

In the end, the reason to see this movie is Andra Day in the lead role. She does an admirable job both as a singer and an actor.

3 stars

A24 has been a bastion of light among the world of independent cinema for several years now. They have consistently released some of the best films of the year, while not losing focus on the ideals of the independent theater. Minari is another triumphant success for the movie company.

Minari follows the life experiences of a Korean family that has moved to a small farm in Arkansas. Steven Yeun played Jacob Yi, a highly successful chick sexer who decided that a change of lifestyle was necessary for his family. His wife, Monica (Yeri Han) was not enthused with the move and this caused some friction among the couple. Adding to the worries was the health of their youngest of two children David (Alan S. Kim), whose heart flutter was a concern for the family.

In order to help out with the family, Monica’s mother, Soonja (Yuh-Jung Youn) comes from Korea, but she was not quite the grandmotherly-type. Soonja clashed with David’s expectations of what a grandmother was supposed to be like.

As with many independent movies, the film is more of a series of scenes from the characters’ lives than a structured story narrative. In this case, the performances from this group of actors really standout from the calm and quiet storytelling. Steven Yeun, best known for his role as Glenn from the Walking Dead, carries his character with such a pride and determination despite the struggles and the problems facing him from his choice for his family. The relationship between Jacob and Monica was strained seriously, but there was always the feeling of love with them.

The standout performance though is clearly that of Yuh-Jung Youn. When she arrived as Grandma, a foul-mouthed, brash woman, everyone, especially David, are on their toes. Yuh-Jung Youn is amazing and you can not take your eyes off of her. You are never sure what she was going to do next and she brought a humor and a passion to the story. Her developing relationship with David is a strength of the film, and the results are human as can be.

Directed beautifully by Lee Isaac Chung, Minari is one of the leading candidates for Oscar glory this year. It was a film that I enjoyed very much. It provided a glance at the immigrant life and the attempt at the American dream.

4 stars

We have an early leader for worst movie of the year.

Tom & Jerry, the classic cartoon cat and mouse, debuted this weekend in some open theaters and on HBO Max and jumped to the lead in terribleness. Honestly, I would not feel right even saying the line, “This is a film that kids will like, but parents will not” because the fact of the matter is this… kids should not be exposed to stupidity of this caliber.

There is a plot, sort of, but it revolves around the human characters. Tom & Jerry are cartoon animals living in a real world with humans around. They find themselves in a hotel to cause shenanigans after our heroine Kayla (Chloë Grace Moretz) sabotaged another person’s job interview at the hotel, stole her resume and took the interview herself. Nice message to the little children watching.

There was a great cast in Tom & Jerry reduced to slapstick and a brain damaged script. Not only was there Moretz, but there was Michael Pena, Ken Jeong, Rob Delany (Peter from Deadpool 2), Colin Jost (of SNL fame) and Jordan Bolger. The cast was wasted, and yet seemed to take up a lot of screen time. Perhaps that is because Tom and Jerry do not speak and someone had to carry the narrative.

There was rapping pigeons too. In the first scene of the movie with the rapping pigeons, one of them let off a pigeon poop at the other. I knew what kind of movie this one would be. There was also a scene where poor Michael Pena had to stop to clean up the poop that the dog Spike (Bobby Cannavale, no really) took in the middle of the crosswalk. High brow comedy, for sure.

The poop jokes could be excused if they were actually funny, but they were only cringy. I was looking at the time after only a half hour (which felt like triple that time). This movie was long too. Over a hundred minutes is way longer than this movie had any right to be.

The plot surrounding a wedding of a rich couple was the main driving force of the film, but it made little to no sense and depended upon a bunch of stereotypes. There was no need for it.

Characters bounced around, changing characteristics depending on what the plot required them to have. No one in the film was smart or elevated the film above the words on the page. It was a painful watch, but I was proud of myself for finishing it because, since I was viewing it at home on HBO Max, it would have been very easy to shut it off and turn to something else. Minari is available on Vudu this weekend.

Tom & Jerry is an utter waste. Go watch some of the classic Tom & Jerry shorts instead. They’re much better.

1 star

I Care a Lot is the first movie ever that has made me want to root for the Russian drug dealing gangster.

Released this weekend on Netflix. I Care a Lot is a black comedy featuring a group of characters that are, simply put, the worst people around. It’s like Ruthless People and Horrible Bosses without the cartoonish moments.

Marla Grayson (Rosamund Pike) is a legal guardian who uses her court appointed position to drain the bank accounts of elderly people who are court-determined to be unable to take care of themselves. Her manipulation of the court system made me feel bad for the other lawyer. When her doctor friend sends her an older woman without family, friends, but a tone of money, Marla realizes that she has found a “cherry,” an absolute easy mark. Easy money.

However, the woman, Jennifer Peterson (Dianne West) was more than what she appeared. Turns out that Jennifer Peterson had her own dark secret that was coming into conflict with Marla’s plans. SPOILERS We discover that Jennifer Peterson was not her real name and the woman was the mother of the presumed dead Russian gangster Roma Lunyov (Peter Dinklage). END OF SPOILER.

Marla, along with her partner and lover Fran (Eliza Gonzalez), are such rotten people that I found myself openly rooting against them and hoping that they would pay to karma. Rosamund Pike does a fantastic job of making me hate her. Her performance was great as I never once thought of her as Rosamund Pike. Instead, she was the selfish manipulator of these helpless elderly people.

She was very much like a cockroach too since everything that happened to her would never get rid of her. Peter Dinklage was a frightening presence in the film and these two characters had some powerful scenes together.

What was keeping me watching the movie was the hope of seeing Marla get her comeuppance. Even when the film switches gears and wants you to support Marla and Fran, I did not want to do it. I wanted this character to face justice for her ill-gotten gains, and when it started to look as if she was not going to pay the price, I was getting upset with the film.

SPOILER Yet, when the ending arrived, I was very satisfied on the fate of Marla with a call back from the beginning of the movie. END OF SPOILER.

I can see where some audience members may be split by this movie. Still, I found it to be very entertaining and I was pleased with the result of the movie. Rosamund Pike was exceptional as this horrendous woman and she easily matched the presence of the counter-balance of the film.

4.25 stars