I have been a Godzilla fan since I was but a wee-little geek watching the rubber suited Godzilla in films such as Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, or Godzilla vs. Mothra or Godzilla vs. Megalon at the movie theater matinees on Sunday afternoons in the summer.  Ah, the good old days.

of course, none of those movies are any good by today’s standards, but Godzilla has survived and has returned to the forefront of the new movie series from Warner Brothers, a direct sequel to 2014’s divisive Godzilla reboot.

When I first saw the 2014 movie, I loved it.  I think I even gave it a five star review.  Interestingly enough, the second time I saw it, I found it a little dull.  I still enjoyed it, but it felt as if my initial enthusiasm may have led me to over rate the film.

Despite this, I was looking forward to Godzilla: King of the Monsters just because of how much I love Godzilla.  I understood most of the criticisms from the last film, especially about how there was not enough Godzilla action ( which did not bother me much) and that the human characters were not engaging enough (agreed).

Godzilla: King of the Monsters certainly had more monster action (although Godzilla still is not used as much as many would like) and, unfortunately, many of the human characters are still fairly dull.

That is a shame because the cast is top notch.  Vera Farmiga is never bad, and she has a decent character arc and I always enjoy Millie Bobby Brown, who plays Farmiga’s daughter.  Kyle Chandler plays Brown’s father and Farmiga’s ex-husband.  They are fine but the story and dialogue they are handed is underwhelming.  They deserve more and they should be commended for reaching for the next level.

Early in the film, there is a storyline that is surprising and I did like that, but it really does not go anywhere.  The human are once again the weakest part of the movie, but to be fair, the human characters and story are miles ahead of the previous movie.

We get cool redesigns of all of the great Titans from the Godzilla mythos, as we continue to build toward something big.  The hints dropped about Skull Island and Kong are clearly leading us toward the upcoming Godzilla vs. King Kong film.  That should be epic, but, for now, we are filling up the rogues gallery with King Ghidorah, Rodan, Mothra, and several other CGI creatures.

This movie really hits its stride when we get the giant monsters fighting scenes, even though a few times they are a little darker than I would have liked.  Godzilla facing off with these creatures, mainly King Ghidorah, makes for a rousing good time at the theater.  It feels as if the producers do not trust that a film with a lot of monster fights is strong enough to carry the story on its own.  So they throw talented actors to fill time between the tussles.

Or maybe they just have not yet taken the time to develop the human characters to the level that we care about them as much as we do the monsters.  I thought the Vera Farmiga character started off well, but it slipped back into the same basic thing we have seen before.

Some people claim that you should not expect great characters in a monster movie but I disagree with that.  If you tighten up the writing, it helps out everything about the movie.

I did like this movie, even though I can see its flaws.  I am not giving this a five star review as I did last time because my head is not in the sand as it was before.  Godzilla:King of the Monsters is a good time that could have been a great time and hopefully, when Godzilla goes one-on-one with the great ape, that greatest will get a chance to shine through.

4 stars

Booksmart is a new coming-of-age comedy filled with a lot of laughs and a wonderful young cast that all have bright futures ahead of them.  I have heard great hyperbole from some on this movie so I went in with high expectations.  While the film may not have reached the heights I expected, it was a ton of fun and certainly a nice addition to the genre.

Booksmart focused on the friendship between Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) and Molly (Beanie Feldstein), lifelong friends who had spent their high school years studying and working hard in order to get into a good college, only to find out, to their horror, that the high school students who spent their time partying were also getting into good colleges.

Finding the situation unfair, the girls decided that they would go out partying the night before graduation to make up for lost time.

I came into this movie with the thought that this might be similar to last year’s great movie, Eighth Grade, but with more humor.  However, that was not the vibe that I got from Booksmart.  It was much more like Superbad.

I have mentioned this before, but I have a bias toward movies that portray school or school staff in an unrealistic manner.  Being a teacher myself, when a film has moments that make me think that something would never happen in any school, it pulls me out of the film, and, unfortunately, there are several moments like that in this movie.

Sure, there are situations that can be exaggerated for humor effect, but some things just would never happen and those hurt the film for me.

There is absolutely no denying, though, that this young cast is wonderful and many of them have bright careers ahead of them.  Then, the characters shown here initially seem to be the one note, stereotypical type characters you see in high school comedies like this but they all have more unexpected depth that shines through as the film progresses.

In particular, a shout out to Skyler Gisondo (from Santa Clarita Diet) whose character is much more than he appears.  Billie Lourd, who plays Gigi, is one of the best running gags in the film.  Several of the young actors receive important scenes that show what it can be like in the high school world.

There are some great laughs, but I have to say there was never any time that I was laughing too hard.  There were some solid humor, but not laugh until my stomach hurt type of humor.

The most important part of the film is the relationship between Amy and Molly and you never fail to believe that they are as close as they can be.  The connection with them is clear and apparent.   Some of the relationships between the girls and their classmates do not work as well, but services the film fine.  There are some funny cameos from Lisa Kudrow, Will Forte and Jason Sudeikis.

Booksmart marks the directorial debut of Olivia Wilde and she does a fantastic job.  The film looks tremendous and each shot tells a story.  The cast is talented and the characters are much more than they seem.  Booksmart is a funny, poignant film that gives us a different look at the teenage experience.

3.85 stars

It is a simple premise.  What if Superman had turned evil when he was a child (shouldn’t use the term “What If” here).

DC Comics has investigated this type of Elseworlds type tale with the well received Red Son story, where baby Kal-El landed in Russia instead of Kansas, so this is not completely original of an idea.  However, there are some differences to Brightburn.

First off, this is not, technically, Superman.  Sure the mythos and origin are VERY similar, but the character’s name is not Clark Kent and he is not found by Jonathan and Martha Kent.  These are DC characters and are not owned by Sony, one of the distributors of this movie.  In fact, according to IMDB, the film is based more on a Marvel Comics series from the early 2000s called Supreme Power, a take-off of en evil Justice League.

In Brightburn, Tori (Elizabeth Banks) and Kyle (David Denman) Breyer were a happily married couple desperate to conceive their own child after a series of failures.  One night, a spaceship crashed outside their farmhouse in Brightburn, Kansas and their prayers had been answered.  Inside the spaceship was a healthy baby boy.  They adopt the baby and raise him as their own.

Things seem to be going fine for the little family until their son, Brandon (Jackson A. Dunn), begins being pulled by voices to the barn where the spaceship has been hidden.  The message being transmitted to Brandon is anything but positive and it changes the boy into a dangerous psychopath.

The film is fascinating in many ways though I wish it would have spent more time on character then it did.  The concept of how were these two parents, who had been so desperate to have their own child, would react when they realized that their son was not who/what they thought he was.  I think the film both touched on this, but did not go deep enough to make it worthwhile.

Still, the film becomes a tight thriller/horror film as Brandon gets more violent.  There are some scenes that are so graphic and gory that I had to turn away from the screen.  The gore was not overused though and it fit the moment each time it was used.  It is absolutely what would happen if someone like Superman attacked you.

Produced by James Gunn, you can feel the type of vibe from Brightburn that other non-MCU produced/directed/written films by Gunn have.  Brightburn is directed by David Yarovesky and written by Brian and Mark Gunn.  The promotional materials certainly lead you to believe that this is a Superman-like story but with a twist, and that is exactly what it is: a dark and violent take on the Superman story.

The performances of our three main actors, Elizabeth Banks, David Denman and Jackson A. Dunn, are all great and elevate the material to another level.  I especially enjoyed some of the subtle moments from young Jackson A. Dunn, who played several different emotions extremely well.  Elizabeth Banks is the standout as the mother who knows what is happening, but simply cannot accept it.  I do not think this is a case of a mother too dumb to see what is happening as much as it is a mother too desperate to admit what is right before her eyes.  That slight difference makes the character considerably more understandable.

There was one scene that I really disliked that involved Brandon and his father and a hunting trip near the third act that seemed to me came out of nowhere.  There were some other moments that I felt could have used some more development.  The film was only 91 minutes and might have benefited from another 20 minutes or so.

While I wanted some deeper scenes, what I got was thrilling and disturbing, full of gore and dramatic tension.  I found this a compelling Elseworlds entry and a return to form for James Gunn.

3.8 stars

I wanted to hate this movie so much.

Disney’s original animated movie from 1992 is, most likely, my favorite animated movie of those days of the Disney renaissance, and the main reason was because of the love I had for Robin Williams.  Robin Williams absolutely destroyed the role of the Genie, creating one of the most iconic and brilliant animated characters in movie history.  Just the thought of someone else trying to play the role of the Genie was not a positive thought for me.

Then, I did not hate the announcement that Will Smith was cast in the role, because I enjoy him enough, but the images we got from promotional materials of Smith in his blue makeup look so bad that it felt as if this were a train wreck waiting to happen.

Robin Williams is one of my favorite people in movies and TV history.  I went way back to Mork & Mindy with him (heck, even before when Mork was on Happy Days).  Williams made the Genie role special with his unbelievable brand of improvisation and chaotic energy.  The film was literally changed to fit in some of the stuff Robin was coming up with off the top of his head.  I remember where I was when the news of Robin Williams’ suicide broke and that was a punch in the gut for me.

So there was already lots of negative feelings working against the new live-action version of Aladdin for me.  As I said, I was ready to hate this.

I enjoyed myself quite a bit.

Let’s start with the blue elephant in the room: Will Smith as Genie.  I started out not liking what I saw right away.  I did not like this version of “Friend Like Me” and I was worried that was going to be what we got the remainder of the movie. However, it picked up dramatically after this and the version of “Prince Ali”, which had been panned on the internet after the scene was released early, I thought was great (I had not watched it early, so the film was the first time I saw the song).

As the film progressed, Will Smith’s Genie felt like it became more and more its own character to the point where I stopped thinking about this being Will Smith’s Genie and just started thinking about it as the Genie.  In fact, Will Smith was one of the best parts of the second half of the movie.

I also really enjoyed Naomi Scott and Mena Massoud as Princess Jasmine and Aladdin.  They had great chemistry with each other and they both fit the roles well.  And Naomi Scott could sing.  Her song “Speechless” was amazingly powerful and beautifully rendered.  Now, I am not sure it fit in the film where they placed it, but the song is gorgeous without a doubt.

In the trailers, I was not a fan of Marwan Kenzari as Jafar, because of the voice.  However, in the movie, Kenzari worked extremely well for me.  I thought this version of Jafar was very solid and was, actually, quite sinister.  Unfortunately, I did not think that the film’s version of Iago the parrot (voiced in the original by Gilbert Gottfried and here by Alan Tudyk) worked at all.  Iago is a major character int he animated movie and seems like an after thought here.  I am not even sure they ever actually call him Iago in the movie.

The first act of the movie felt very rushed as the film jumped right into the story, brushing past several defining character moments.  Perhaps the film believed that everyone knew the story already and could breeze past it, but it did take the movie some time to recover the momentum after this.  Once it did though, Aladdin was a good time.

The dance numbers here were all good to great.  Most of the songs were well done, once again with anything that was sung by Naomi Scott being standouts.  Magic Carpet was done flawlessly.  Some of the CGI was not great, including the blue Genie.  It always felt better when the Genie was not blue and just looked like Will Smith.

The live action film may have been a touch too long, as it clocked in at around 2 hours and 8 minutes.  It could have benefited from shaving maybe 10 minutes from the run time.

In the end, I was ready to hate this version of Aladdin, but I liked it.  There are things that I did not think worked as well as other parts, but none of it made me angry or disappointed.  I think Robin Williams would have appreciated the work of Will Smith.

3.75 stars 

The first John Wick was such a pleasant surprise.  Keanu Reeves’ career had slipped into a rut as the actor was starring in films that were not very good.  The arrival of John Wick brought him back to doing movies that were well received and entertaining.

John Wick Ch. 2 was good, but did not reach those heights.

John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum falls somewhere between those two.

In Chapter 3, John Wick is on the run, trying to avoid all of the assassins in New York after he killed a member of the shadowy assassin guild named the High Table, John Wick was declared excommunicado and a huge bounty was placed on his head.

The bounty forced Wick to take drastic steps to attempt to get back into the good graces of the High Table.

Now, the story here is about as basic as you are going to get.  There are a bunch of assassins and hitmen chasing after John Wick and John has to kill them all in exceedingly dramatic and inconceivable ways in order to survive.  That’s about it.  Despite the film’s attempt at world building with its mysterious High Table or its rules and regulations that the assassins must follow, there really isn’t much more to the movie than that.

However, the action in this movie is so great you do not focus on the film’s narrative shortcomings.  Some of the action scenes are ridiculous, but they know they are and audience members can embrace that fact.  I found myself laughing several times at the results of the viciousness and I was shocked at what they showed me.  The action scenes are filmed with a ton of style and the violence level is way up there.  It is brutal and the choreography of these fights are astounding.  It makes for some serious thrills.

Unfortunately, there were some parts near the end that I found a bit boring, almost tedious.  There are only so many action sequences that I can see before I need something more, and Parabellum was approaching that limit.  Thankfully, most of the action is done so well and is so original that the stretches where I found the film dull were short and did not take away from the overall enjoyment of the movie.

Keanu Reeves plays John Wick perfectly.  There may not be a better character for Reeves to play.  He hits the action beautifully while delivering the humor well too.

Ian McShane returns as Winston, manager of the Continental, and brings his normal gravitas.  Halle Berry’s role was short but impactful.  She definitely had some back story that I would not have minded learning about as the film progressed and she made a nice companion for John Wick.  Two LOST alums were here with Lance Redding resuming his role of Charon, the concierge of the Continental, and Saïd Taghmaoui as the Elder of the High Table.  The character I enjoyed most outside of John Wick was the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) who returned from previous installments and had Fishburne chewing up scenery all around him.  Seeing Fishburne and Reeves together once again was a cool treat.

The Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon)  was an emissary of the High Table who arrived on the scene to dole out punishments for the last movie’s rule breakers.  She was not very engaging of a villain and seemed to exist merely as a plot point between Wick and Winston.  Zero (Mark Dacascos) made for a much more compelling villain, almost a John Wick opposite and the conflict between Wick and Zero was entertaining.

I would have liked more story than what I got, but the action made up for that with some amazing choreography and thrilling, violent imagery.  John Wick clearly is being set up to continue the franchise so hopefully they can find that nice balance between action and story.  Until then, let’s blow some heads off.

3.9 stars

I have never liked any of the Christian faith movies that have come out over the years. The main reason was that it always felt as if the characters’ faith was the only thing that mattered and that these characters were pushing their faith with a hammer.  No subtlety at all.  I have never wanted to downgrade anyone beliefs but many of these faith movies, as movies, are nearly unwatchable.

Today, for Mother’s Day, I took my mom to Breakthrough, a film that I had avoided since it was released in April for that very reason I mentioned before.  However, I figured mom would like it so I took her to it.

I will say that it was probably the best Christian faith movie I have seen because it allowed its characters to be real characters who just happen to have faith in God and not one-dimensional people spouting their personal beliefs.

This movie is based on the true story of John Smith (Marcel Ruiz), a young teen who fell through an icy Missouri lake in 2015 and spent 15 minutes under water before being pulled out by search and rescuer Tommy Shine (Mike Colter).

John was rushed to the hospital and was near death, but his mother Joyce (Chrissy Metz) was a powerhouse force of nature and insisted that her son would recover.  Even at a point where it appeared that the doctors and nurses had given up finding a pulse, Joyce refused to let go.

Here is the strength of the film.  During his hospital stay, characters were allowed to doubt, question and be angry.  Even Joyce was shown to be out of control.  Those people who expressed doubt were never demonized by the movie and, in fact, the film went out of its way to show that Joyce’s angry dismissals of these people’s thoughts were unlike her and were inappropriate.  That surprised me.

Even the film’s pastor, Jason (Topher Grace) was allowed to speak to John’s father (Josh Lucas) in a real way.  It is not just “pray and all will be okay, trust in God” etc etc.  Pastor Jason, in that conversation, told John’s father that he had doubts about John’s survival, but anything was possible.  This felt like a real conversation that would be held with real people.

And I especially loved the ending when, SPOILERS- I guess, John recovered, and there was some resentment directed toward him, wondering why he was saved while others were not.  That was even more interesting of an approach to me, and I would have liked for the movie to expand upon that more than it did.  Just the inclusion of those moments was a step in the right direction though.

Mike Colter’s character even expressed that he did not believe in God, and he was allowed to be a real person who showed confusion over the fact that he believed he heard someone direct him to where John was in the water.  This internal conflict was never officially resolved, just like it most likely would not be in real life.

Now, there are plenty of problems with the film as well.  I mean, some of the acting was average at best, the story became extremely melodramatic several times (don’t get me started on the giant sing-a-long pray session outside John’s hospital window) and there were times where the movie felt too movie-of-the-week-like.  Still, the main performances were strong and just the fact that these characters were written like real people of faith and not just propaganda for Christian faith is a definite positive.

Plus, my mom loved it.  So there is that.

3.1 stars