Mötley Crüe is the next band to receive the biopic treatment, this time on Netflix, and the film certainly highlights the band’s misbehavior over their long career in music.

The film did not shy away from the negative aspects of these men’s lives, as the drugs, the sex and the faltering relationships took center stage.  After watching this, it is amazing to know that Mötley Crüe was ever able to take the stage and perform on a nightly basis.

The film was narrated by the band itself, breaking the fourth wall several times to address the audience.  They also recorded voice overs for their individual sections.  I thought this technique worked effectively here.

The acting was solid.  Machine Gun Kelly was engaging as drummer Tommy Lee.  Daniel Webber stole the show as Vince Neil, especially in scenes with his little daughter.  Douglas Booth brought a humanity to Nikki Sixx that you did not think that he could have.

Having said this, these characters spend a lot of time in this movie being unlikable and downright jerks.   This is a true story, but it would have been nice to have a reason to cheer for them more than what the film gave me.  It also felt as if the movie brushed through the biggest parts of their lives to go back to showing the bad behavior.  It seemed as if they had more drama available to the filmmakers who passed it up for some more comedic scenes.

I could have lived my entire life without seeing the Ozzy Osbourne (Tony Cavalero) scene by the pool.

This is certainly an adult film.  There are a lot of scenes of sex and drug abuse that are detailed and disturbing.  Still, you get the feeling that this is exactly what the life was like for Mötley Crüe.

I was very interested in the story surrounding guitarist Mick Mars (Iwan Rheon) and the disease that he had that was leading to spinal problems.  I could have used more about that aspect of Mötley Crüe’s world, because watching him grimace throughout the film just made me wonder why he continued to rock on so hard.  The film touches on this theme, but does not dive into much depth.  It touched on it just so you know it is there, but not enough for you to understand what is driving the man.

The music is fun and rocks hard.  The rock star lifestyle is shown here, and we see some of the consequences of that choice, but perhaps not as much as we should have seen.

Still, as a Netflix film, this is a good watch and kept me entertained for the run time.  It even stirred some emotions watching it, in particular, near the end.  I was never a huge fan of Mötley Crüe, but you do not have to love them to enjoy this movie.

3.7 stars

I got the opportunity, thanks to Fandango, to see the new DC movie, Shazam two weeks prior to its release.  I was very excited about the later afternoon showing and I have been looking forward to it.  DC seems to be starting down this path as I also saw Aquaman early.

At this point, after only seeing Shazam once, I am preparing to make a serious claim.  That claim is that Shazam is my favorite DCEU movie to date, moving past Wonder Woman for the top spot.

Separated from his mother as a child, Billy Batson(Asher Angel) spent years in foster homes and running away from foster homes, still hoping to find his birth mother.  After a run in with the police, Billy wound up going to a new foster home with a large new foster family.  It was during this time when Billy was discovered by a wizard named Shazam (Djimon Hounsou), who gave Billy his powers so he could become his new champion.

Meanwhile, Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong) was desperately trying to find the wizard once again.  Sivana had met the wizard as a child, but failed to prove his worthiness to become his champion.  Driven by power and revenge, Sivana took in the power of the Seven Deadly Sins.  He wanted more power …he wanted the power of Shazam.  You can understand why Sivana does what he does after seeing his back story and this helped create a well rounded villain.

This movie is really fun, has an amazing sense of humor and has more heart than any DC film prior to it.  There is more happening here at a smaller level, a level of family, that we have not seen yet in a DC super hero movie.  There is not the large, grandiose must-save-the-world type situation in Shazam.  It is more of a personal, smaller story, though at times it felt like more than a character story.

Asher Angel was fantastic as Billy Batson, but the film was in danger of being stolen by Jack Dylan Grazer.  Grazer, who played Eddie in the remake of It, played Freddy, one of the foster kids at the new home, and he is tremendous.  Freddy is not only the comedic sidekick to the super hero, but he is also the voice of the audience.  He also has an extremely emotional arc all his own to handle during the movie.  Grazer delivers everything he is asked to do wonderfully and really shows that he is one of the most solid young actors working today.

The entire crew at the foster home were good.  It was cool to see Jerry from the Walking Dead, Cooper Andrews in the film as the “father” of the foster home. Marta Milans did great as Victor’s wife Rosa in a limited amount of screen time.  Faithe Herman was the other major standout in the foster kids as Darla, who you just love immediately.

So much of this movie really works as the “Big Red Cheese,” Shazam (played by Zachary Levi) goes about discovering what he can do and trying to wrap his head around what he has to face.  While Zachary Levi is in the super hero role, Asher Angel gets the bigger dramatic beats in the movie, especially the subplot with his mother.  Angel showed that he is another young star to keep an eye on.

The CGI was great as well.  The villains, which has derailed DC movies before (hello Steppenwolf), look great and have a distinct character about them.  They are frightening and look to really be a threat to our characters.  These are more than just the normal CGI from DC.  Aquaman’s CGI had made distinct improvement and Shazam seems to have taken it a step further.

It was also very funny to hear how the film bounced different names around for the character in the film. Obviously, he can not call himself Shazam, because if he does, he changes form.  They cannot call him Captain Marvel as they used to do so it became a running joke from everything from The Red Cyclone to Captain Sparkle Fingers.

My only gripe with the film is with Zachary Levi.  While parts of the time I liked him as Shazam, I did not like how he yelled all the time.  There are a lot of actors who seem to yell as a fall back point, and I did not like it here.  I would also say that in the Shazam form, Levi did not feel like he was the Billy Batson character in a larger body.  Billy (Asher Angel) seemed way more competent than Levi did.  They felt too different at times.

Other than that, I really enjoyed this movie.  I even enjoyed the third act, which is something that I have never liked in a DC movie.  Even Wonder Woman’s third act was a dramatic downgrade from the rest of the film.  Man of Steel’s third act tanked the whole movie for me.  Shazam, though, had a strong third act that even shook off many of the typical super hero genre cliches that you see in the final battle.  Everything here worked very well.

Shazam had a great deal of themes, but the theme of family was at front and center.  It was powerful to see how both Billy Batson and Thaddeus Sivana had parental issues (surprise, parental issues in a super hero) and how they each dealt with it.

There are several meta moments too, as Shazam exists in the world with other heroes but understands his place.  This is a movie where the kids are front and center and that brought an air of freshness to this film that was welcome.  There is a unbelievably funny homage to Tom Hanks’ movie Big as well that worked on all levels.

Shazam is a heck of a good time and I am excited to have a chance to see it once again.  It is over-the-top in every positive way and has more humor and heart than any DC Comics movie ever before.

4.75 stars 

Jordan Peele had a huge hit with 2017’s Get Out and Us has been the highly anticipated follow-up for the director.  Jordan Peele has become one of the top directors in Hollywood and the horror film Us cements that for him.

In Us, a family of four head to their summer home for a vacation.  Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o), her husband Gabe (Winston Duke) and their two children Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and Jason (Evan Alex) arrived at the house and Gabe wanted to go to the beach.  Adelaide was frightened about something that happened in her childhood when she got lost for 15 minutes and came across a girl in a fun house mirror who looked exactly like her.

Sure enough, after the trip to the beach, Adelaide was starting to freak out.  When a mysterious family showed up at their home at night, the family realized quickly that their was danger facing them.  And when they realized that this family was nearly exact copies of them, the weirdness leveled up.

Lupita Nyong’o was absolutely fantastic here, as she had to play the dual role of Adelaide and Red.  Both characters were the same, but also totally different.  Red’s voice was one of the creepier aspects of the movie.  The rest of the cast was great as well.  Shahadi Wright Joseph was amazing and was totally brutal throughout the movie.  Young Evan Alex had a seriously physically taxing role as Jason and Pluto.  And then there was M’Bako from Black Panther himself, Winston Duke, playing a character much different than the warrior from Wakanda.  The film intentionally creates Duke’s Gabe as a lesser physical threat despite the largeness of the actor.

I realized immediately that this family was very smart.  One of the worst parts of horror movies is how stupid people get as they are in danger.  Not this family.  As I am watching, I am thinking to myself what these characters should be doing and, more times than not, they did either what I was thinking or something that I thought was a great move.  For example, there was a scene with Zora and Jason walking through a house where there had just been a violent murder and she walked past an open door.  She stopped and, before she moved on, she shut the door.  I thought to myself, “That’s a good move.”

I was not as scared as I thought I might be from the film.  It was more of a uncomfortable feeling of tension as scenes developed.  They did not resort to the cheap jump scares.  When the jump scares appeared, they were earned.  The tone was brilliantly set with the darkness of the shots and the wonderful score that created such a nervous wonder.

The biggest problem with the film was the gigantic exposition drop in the third act.  Though delivered exceedingly creepily by Lupita Nyong’o, I feel like it derailed a lot of the suspense and the uncertainty of the plot.  I did not need to know all of these specific details of what was going on.  A little bit of mystery goes a long way.  I would have preferred them to leave a lot of what was included here to the imagination.  The scenes were still effective, but I think it hurt the film overall.

The direction of the movie was pitch perfect, though.  Shot after shot was so well developed and so perfectly placed that it is obvious that Jordan Peele has earned the glowing praise that is being heaped upon him.  This is less of a social commentary than Get Out (although there is a message here too) and more of a straight horror film, but he never loses the exceptional movie making to go for the easy bit.

Without spoiling, the twist at the end is a fascinating idea (that I did consider during the film’s run so the twist does not come out of nowhere) and it actually makes you reconsider some of what we know about the entire family at the center of the movie.

Are there some plot holes?  Sure, there always will be, but there is nothing glaring that will stop me from truly loving this movie.  I do wish they would have kept some of the answers to themselves, but the info is delivered so effectively by a superior actress that it only bothered me for a little bit.  It looks to me that Jordan Peele has another huge hit on his hands and that, if he wants to continue in the horror genre, he could really elevate it to another level.

4.25 stars

I always enjoyed Cole Sprouse as Riverdale’s Jughead, so I found it intriguing to see him as a co-lead in this Fault in our Stars-esque rip off.

It is not cancer this time that is bringing the two teens together.  It is cystic fibrosis (what they refer to as CF the whole film).  These two are both in the hospital at the same time and they strike up a connection.  Stella (Haley Lu Richardson) is a control freak and can’t stand by while angsty teen Will (Cole Sprouse) refuses his treatment regimens while sketching everything around him.  They spend time together, despite not being allowed to come withing five feet (the film consistently says 6 feet, which was odd considering the movie title) of each other in fear that they would give each other the infection of their type of CF.

The closer they become, the more they are willing to flaunt the rules and place themselves in jeopardy.

While both Richardson and Sprouse are charming and easy to like, the film does not provide much for them outside of the typical cliches found in these dying teenage film genre.  The film does no favor to either of their lead actors as the situations become more unlikely as the film progresses and the plot is not developed past the surface level of manipulative tear-jerker.

I would say that both Richardson and Sprouse are stars in the making.  I was thinking about what Marvel character they could play.  I thought Sprouse would be great as Bobby Drake, aka Iceman in the upcoming X-men-in-the-MCU discussions and I considered Richardson perfect for Kitty Pryde.

You can tell that I was not as invested in the movie’s story since my mind was wandering to the MCU.  It is not a bad movie and there will be a ton of teenage girls who will love this movie, but the melodrama is at a high pitched level for me.  Charismatic young future stars aside, Five Feet Apart is just another forgettable dead teen film.

2.5 stars