When talking about the best trilogies inside the MCU franchise, the argument had always centered around the Captain America movies and the Spider-Man movies. After this weekend, there is another three movie trilogy that needs to be in the conversation and just may be the trilogy to take the mantel.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, the wrap up of the James Gunn directed trilogy, arrived in theaters and brought so much emotions, so much great action, so much laugh out loud comedic beats that an argument can be made that this is the best film in the Guardians trilogy, which is saying a lot because I really loved Guardians 1 (and 2 I always thought got a bad rap from some).

Gunn brings to an end this variation of the Guardians of the Galaxy by providing each character in the ensemble their moment in the sun, bringing some outstanding character moments for practically everyone, while penning a film with the emotional core being Rocket (Bradley Cooper)

When something happens, the Guardians are forced to look into the background of Rocket which brings them into conflict with Rocket’s original creator, The High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji).

I’m keeping most of the plot synopsis short and broad to avoid spoilers, because there are so many awesome beats for every character that I do not want to tip off anything for any viewer. Go into this with the expectation that this is going to be a rocking good time, that it is going to be dark, that Rocket’s past is heartbreaking and that the cast brings it.

Even though all the cast gets excellent moments, Rocket is the center of this film. Bradley Cooper once again brings this CGI creature to life and provides the raccoon with so much heart and soul. Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord, Karen Gillan’s Nebula, Dave Bautista’s Drax the Destroyer, and Zoe Saldana’s Gamora all receive some of the best performances of the trilogy in this film and they all get amazing story arcs that pay off huge, without falling into predictability or cliché.

Then, Chukwudi Iwuji as the High Evolutionary is one of the best “worst” villains in any Marvel film. He is so easy to hate. Unlike a lot of Marvel villains who become popular characters and whose plan are even potentially understandable (Loki, Thanos, Killmonger to name a few), The High Evolutionary is just someone that is an evil villain and his cruelty is showed in spades. Iwuji brings this monster to life in a remarkable way, and was consistently chilling.

I heard some critics complaining about the animal cruelty in the film, and there is no doubt that there are some horrendous examples shown, but it all pays into the character of the High Evolutionary and I think those people are just looking for something to complain about.

There are so many laugh out loud moments in the movie and it blends beautifully in with the melancholy aspects of the script. It seamlessly bounces between sad scene and humor effortlessly.

The music, of course, is always a highlight of a Guardians of the Galaxy movie as we receive a bunch of wonderful songs from the playlist of James Gunn. There are a couple of call backs too that make this feel like a perfect close to the trilogy.

That is the clear truth. This film closes the door on this iteration of the Guardians perfectly like few movies can, and it does it in ways that could not be expected.

There are so many emotionally powerful and satisfying scenes that I had tears in my eyes throughout. There were tears of sadness and tear of joy. I legitimately found myself feeling as emotional within the third act of this movie as I did with the third act of Endgame.

I have also seen a lot of complaints about the use of Will Poulter as Adam Warlock. I disagree with this analysis as well. I found Adam Warlock to be used exceptionally well in this film and he received a arc of his own. I can understand how someone who was a big fan of Adam Warlock from the comics might feel disappointed, but, to me, this is just the beginning for this character. The film version is different than the comic version and that is okay. If you bring your own expectations into a character, you can’t complain if they do things in a way that you did not anticipate. The character of Adam Warlock, as written here, works very well and allows the character a ton of potential for growth.

The design and the special effects are amazing. The film is full of color and spectacle.

I haven’t even mentioned Pom Klementieff as Mantis. This is easily the best she has been in any appearance so far. Nathan Fillion’s cameo that was so cheesy and fun. Sylvester Stallone making a return cameo. Groot (Vin Diesel) and his continued growth to tree adulthood. Kraglin (Sean Gunn) is trying to work through his own issues while having a funny running joke with Cosmo (Maria Bakalova). Linda Cardellini provided the voice for Lylla during Rocket’s flashbacks and that character becomes a favorite with really limited number of scenes.

The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is a masterful end to one of the best (if not the best) trilogies in the MCU. I need to see this again, but I think the Guardians of the Galaxy may just be my favorite trilogy of the MCU and that this movie may be my favorite movie of this franchise, placing very high in the overall MCU list of films. It surpassed my very hefty expectations. Congratulations to James Gunn and all the actors of this franchise. I certainly wish Gunn all the success over at DC.

5 stars

What happens when you take a character similar to John Wick, set him in the ending days of World War II, and give him even less dialogue? You get a Finnish film called Sisu.

Sisu is a Finnish word that cannot be fully translated, but it can be roughly translated into English as “strength of will, determination, perseverance, and acting rationally in the face of adversity.”

Aatami (Jorma Tommila) was a former soldier who had left the military and began prospecting for gold in the Lapland wilderness. When he struck the motherload, he began to travel to the city to cash in the nuggets. However, he crossed paths with a troop of Nazis who was being forced to leave and were scorching the land on their way out.

Finding out that Aatami had gold, the Nazi troops decided to pursue him, not knowing the legend that this man was.

Jorma Tommila, who was nearly silent when comes to dialogue, gave an amazing performance with his facial expressions and his body language. He was a great protagonist that was easy to cheer for even though he seemed to be more powerful of a character than any super hero.

This movie was remarkably brutal and gory. Some of the kills from Aatami were painful and had me gasping. There were shocks that I just was not ready for as they happened. This absolutely reminded me of the John Wick series as Keanu Reeves had the same type of brutal fight and kill scenes as this was. However, the character of Aatami was injured and survived so many situations that should have killed him. There had to be some suspension of disbelief to not roll your eyes. The film does pull off most of the weird situations that did not pull me out of the film.

Violent and gory, Sisu was a lot of fun and you can never go wrong with killing some World War II Nazis. Aatami is treated like a myth and he pulls that off.

4 stars

There have been many variations of the story of Peter Pan in cinema, some okay, some terrible and a few really good ones. No matter how many times this story has been told, it seems as if they insist on trying it again. There is a new film on Disney + telling the story of Neverland, Peter Pan & Wendy.

This film does take some distinct liberties with the story, and I really liked that. Without spoilers, this movie does define the relationship and background between Peter Pan (Alexander Molony) and Captain Hook (Jude Law) in a way that I have never seen before and I found it an excellent twist.

We also get Wendy (Ever Anderson) being much more of a kick ass character than I had seen before. There were also some female characters in the Lost Boys, which have sent the Internet woke mob into a frenzy. The Rotten Tomatoes Audience score was 20% meaning that there were plenty of those complainers review-bombing the show because there is no way this was that low of a score. The critic rating was in the upper 60%, making it fresh. I just do not understand why people get in such a tizzy over something that make so little difference.

Anyway, Alexander Molony’s work as Peter Pan was fine, but I was not blown away by him. His work was passable, and was stronger at the very end, but I have seen better Pan performances. However, Jude Law’s Captain Hook was outstanding. Law embedded Hook with more character depth than we have seen in almost any other version and you could understand why Hook was the way that he was. I really dug that about this movie.

I will say that the tone of the film had some inconsistency throughout. It would go from dead serious to almost too lighthearted/campy. Jim Gaffigan as Smee was one of the biggest perpetrators of this.

This version played up the tragic nature of Peter Pan and his refusal to grow up, making it a figurative albatross around his neck. This Peter Pan was much more of a darker character with less of a heroic nature, even if in the end he was an adventure-hound. I found the new take on these characters one of the best parts of this movie.

Overall, there were a lot of goodness in this movie and I enjoyed the original takes on Peter, Hook and Wendy. The film looked great, even if the portrayal of Neverland was darker than we’ve seen it before. The scenes with the crocodile were fun and exciting and the swordplay between characters, especially Peter and Hook, was top notch.

Definitely a worhtwhile film to watch on Disney +. Would I have thought differently if I had paid money to see it in a theater? Hard to say, but as a streaming film, Peter Pan & Wendy was a worthy watch.

3.5 stars

I enjoyed Judy Bloom as a young reader, but, honestly, I do not think that I ever read Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret (at least I do not remember reading it.) I was aware of it, but I was more of a Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing kind of guy. Still, I was curious to see the film adaptation of the classic book.

Margaret Simon (Abby Ryder Fortson) was a pre-teen during 1970 when her parents Barbara and Herb (Rachel McAdams and Benny Safdie) moved her out of New York City and to New Jersey, away from her beloved grandma Sylvia (Kathy Bates). Having to start at a new school, Margaret has to face questions about religion, adolescence and the arrival of her period.

I liked most of this movie. Abby Ryder Fortson was extremely charming and likable as Margaret and you can never go wrong with Rachel McAdams and Kathy Bates.

In my opinion, there was a standout child actor here too. Her name was Elle Graham and she played Margaret’s friend Nancy. I’ll talk about her later.

The film was unafraid to broach subjects such as menstruation, relationships and religion honestly and with amazing forthrightness. I would absolutely recommend that any young teen or pre-teen girl watch this movie with their parents because I can only imagine that it would not fail to spark some conversations that would be vital for them.

There were many humorous moments, but the film never felt the need to take it too over-the-top with the comedy like many of these genre of films do. It mines humor from such topics like buying sanitary pads for the first time at a drug store or playing Spin the Bottle with your classmates. These all feel very real and relatable.

Kelly Fremon Craig directed this movie. She had an outstanding film already in this coming of age genre on her resume in Edge of Seventeen. She clearly has a strength in displaying this type of film.

However, I had a huge problem with the ending of the movie. It may be the same in the book, but I do not know. There were several plot lines that felt dropped or rushed or that just did not pay off in the end. Specifically, one that involved Nancy.

As I mentioned earlier, I was impressed with Elle Graham’s performance as the somewhat snooty leader of the secret club that she formed with Margaret and two other friend (Amari Alexis Price as Janie and Katherine Mallen Kupferer as Gretchen). Nancy had some negative traits, but after a sensational scene in the bathroom, we got to see her raw and vulnerable, but the film completely dropped this part of the story. Margaret was mad at her because of a lie, but I felt so sorry for Nancy that it felt cruel to just never give them any sort of resolution.

That was not the only point that felt like it was either dropped or rushed wither. There was a whole ending bit with Margaret’s teacher (Echo Kellum) that seemed to flip quickly because of the time of the movie.

These third act decisions may be straight out of the book, but, either way, these choices, for me, tainted a movie that I was really enjoying up to this point.

Yet, I do believe that this is a film that would be enjoyed by most, and might be a valuable watch to young girls. The positives of Are You There, God? It’s Me Margaret outweigh the weakness of the story elements in the third act.

3.2 stars

The classic horror franchise, Evil Dead, has returned with a new face and some old scares. Evil Dead Rise takes the franchise in a little different path while still paying tribute to the iconic history of the franchise.

According to IMDB, “‘Evil Dead Rise’ tells a twisted tale of two estranged sisters, played by Alyssa Sutherland and Lily Sullivan, whose reunion is cut short by the rise of flesh possessing demons, thrusting them into a primal battle for survival as they face the most nightmarish version of family imaginable.”

There were some really scary moments in the new film, with a ton of blood too. While it is not as campy as the original films, Evil Dead Rise still finds a lot of ways to honor Sam Raimi’s vision.

Lee Cronin does a solid job of introducing these new characters, placing them into situations where they are clearly making poor choices and creating frightful moments of horror as they face their potential fate. I did find myself both yelling at the characters for their choices and hoping beyond hope that they were going to escape from it.

I found this film to be far better than the reimagined film from 2013. I hated that film because all it felt like was an excuse to bring the gore. While there was plenty of blood and gore in this now Evil Dead movie, I never felt as if it was here just to gross out the audience.

I especially found myself rooting for the kids in this story. I thought they all did a sensational job with what they had to deliver. Gabrielle Echols, Morgan Davies and Nell Fisher did some excellent work building their characters and providing the depth of emotion for each sibling.

There may not have been much more to the horror than just the terror that it created, but that does not mean this is not a worthwhile movie. Evil Dead Rise knows what it is and it does what it needs to do to deliver some scary moments and a film full of tension and suspense. I am very pleased that this franchise went in this direction, able to still provide the nostalgia of the original films while carving out a place for itself among the horror films of today.

4 stars

There have been several adaptations of Victor Hugo’s classic The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

This is another one.

The comedy troupe called Broken Lizard reunited to make the newest adaptation, Quasi, a Hulu comedy set in the middle ages of France. Broken Lizard consisted of Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske and were the creative force behind Super Troopers and Club Dread.

In Quasi, the hunchback (Steve Lemme) finds himself in trouble as both the King of France Guy (Jay Chandrasekhar) and the Pope (Paul Soter) tried to order Quasimodo to assassinate the other. Guy was set to marry an English queen, Catharine (Adrianne Palicki) to increase his army, but the old rivalry with the pope threatened to get in the way.

Sadly, this was not a very good film. There were a few moments of humor, but there was nothing here that we hadn’t seen before and that wasn’t done better in Monty Python skits, the Galavant TV show or the Princess Bride, among others.

Most of the jokes do not land or feel forced. There are a few funny moments, but not enough to sustain the runtime of the movie.

Adrienne Palicki is great though. I loved her back in her days as Bobbi Morse on Agents of SHIELD, and she does her best to work her way through this script as Queen Catharine. She has a presence that can not be denied.

Quasi is found on Hulu and is not the worst way to spend an hour and a half, but it is not something that you need to go out of your way to see.

2.5 stars

WTF?

No, seriously, what did I just watch?

Ari Aster, director of such mind-bending horror films as Hereditary and Midsommar, takes mind-bending to a whole new level of insanity in the new, three-hour film Beau is Afraid, starring Joaquin Phoenix.

I’m not sure how to review this. Literally, two hours since I walked out of the theater and I still have not been able to formulate my complete thoughts about what I saw. It felt like scenes from Pink Floyd’s The Wall, but viewed through the kaleidoscope of a David Lynch movie (or the weirdest parts of Twin Peaks) all with the uncertain POV of a nightmare. I know that all of those things sound like something that I would love, but when they are all tossed together, I just am not sure how to process.

Without a doubt, Joaquin Phoenix is amazing as Beau Wassermann. He is as confused and unbalanced as we are as audience members. Phoenix absolutely goes for it all in this movie.

How to describe the plot? I am not sure I can. IMDB describes it as “Following the sudden death of his mother, a mild-mannered but anxiety-ridden man confronts his darkest fears as he embarks on an epic, Kafkaesque odyssey back home.” That is probably as best as it could be described.

There was so much going on in every frame of this film that I do not know if anyone could figure it all out. Then, there are some images that defy explanation or comprehension. I do not think I will ever be able to forget the image of Beau going into the attic and what he finds in there. No spoilers but HOLY CRAP.

What is real? What is imaginary? What is delusion? I have no idea.

It is three hours long, but, to be fair, I was engaged enough that it did not feel long to me. However, sitting through the credits was a somber and empty feeling. And my entire theater was dead silent and no one left until they stopped playing.

I’m just not sure what to do about a recommendation. I mean, I am not unhappy that I went to the movie, and I was not angered by the film, by any stretch. However, it has been a long while now that I have left a theater feeling as hollow as I did at the end of this film. Was it in a good way? I don’t know. It certainly elicited emotions from me, but were they the type of emotions that are effective?

In the end, I am going to pull a real cheat on this one. I have no idea if this is a movie that I would recommend. I do not think that I ever want to see it again, but there have been great films that fell into that category too. I guess the only way I am going to put this is, you need to go and decide for yourself. It is absolutely a HUGE swing and it is a movie the type of which I have never seen before. However, I am not sure if that HUGE swing was a swing-and-miss.

So my score is a big time cheat. Sorry. Got to do it for the first time ever, my star rating is…

N/A

I was never a big fan of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers when it was on FOX back in the 90s, but I did watch the show. I knew enough to know characters and some monsters. My favorite Ranger was Tommy, both as the Green Ranger and then later as the White Ranger. Sure, it was repetitive and fairly stupid, but it still had its charm and there can be no denying the cultural significance of the show.

That was why I was unexpectedly excited about the new one shot special on Netflix with the reunion of the original team of Rangers.

Of course, I knew that two of the original cast were no longer with us as Thuy Trang, who played the Yellow Ranger, died in a car crash when she was 27, and Jason David Frank, who played Tommy the Green Ranger took his own life last year.

However, it became clear that this was not going to be a reunion of the surviving Power Rangers as Amy Jo Johnson, who was the Pink Ranger, and Austin St. John, who was Jason the Red Ranger, were nowhere to be seen in this new show. All we get from these characters are in costume heroes with helmets on. I think they used their voices in some of the action scenes.

There was a return for Black Ranger Zack (Walter Emanuel Jones) and Blue Ranger Billy (David Yost). They also tossed in a couple of other Rangers from one of the countless rebooted series over the years to fill in with the missing colors- Rocky for Red (Steve Cardenas) and Kat as Pink (Catherine Sutherland).

This show added Minh (Charlie Kersh), the daughter of Thuy Trang’s character and the legacy replacement for the Yellow Ranger. Barbara Goodson voiced Robo Rita, a replacement for the arch villain Rita Repulsa, who was originally played by the late Machiko Soga.

I have to say… with the missing cast members, this did not strike the nostalgia button enough to overlook how horrendous this thing was. It was such a disappointment. I am not sure why I thought it was so disappointing as I was never a huge fan, but I found this nearly unbearable to watch and I could sit through episodes of the original series.

The acting was not very good. To be fair, I thought Walter Jones’s Zack was not too bad. He was the acting standout of this, but that is not saying much. The rest of the cast was robotic, and I don’t just mean Rita.

The action was weak, the dialogue was lacking and the story had holes throughout it. Yes, I know that the original show was never an Emmy winning quality, but, again, I could watch it if I was waiting to get to Spider-Man Animated series or The Tick.

I did like how they addressed the Yellow Ranger’s absence, making it a huge part of the plot, but it was never sufficiently dealt with in any emotional sense.

Easily the best part of the entire show was the archival footage they had of the original Rangers sitting around with Amy Jo Johnson playing the guitar as Walter Jones joined her singing. This one moment brought more nostalgia and feelings than anything else that this show had. They really needed more of this type of scenes.

Any feeling of anticipation I had for this special was gone ten minutes into it. What was here just could not measure up to what was missing.

1.4 stars

This was a movie that I was not anxious to see. I was not that interested in the film from the trailers and it looked to be longer than I wanted, but it fit into the schedule and I always enjoy Jake Gyllenhaal so I decided to give it a chance.

I am so glad that I did, because I found this movie thrilling and suspenseful throughout.

Sgt. John Kinley (Jake Gyllenhaal) led a battalion of U.S. Army soldiers in the search for explosives through Afghanistan in 2018. When their interpreter was killed in a bombing, John recruited Ahmed (Dar Salim), a local who needed money for his pregnant wife and the offer of a Visa to America.

Ahmed showed himself to be very capable, not only in his interpreting skills, but also his common sense and his knowledge of the Afghan world. However, after an ambush that led not nearly the entire unit being slaughtered, Ahmed had to get the injured John back to his base by dragging him through the mountains of Afghanistan while being pursued by the Talban.

When John awakens in the hospital struggling to remember how he got there, he learns that Ahmed and his family had gone into hiding because of the dangers of the Taliban. Feeling the bond with him, John was determined to return to find Ahmed and to get him out of the country.

There felt like there were two distinct movies here. The first half was the whole in Afghanistan film that saw John and Ahmed working together and carrying out the unit’s mission. This was not just a small bit of the story. It was a heavy section of the film. The second part of the story was John back home trying to obtain a Visa for Ahmed’s family, and hi subsequent return to Afghanistan.

Neither part of the movie was skimped upon and they both worked extremely well. The first half included some amazing action sections and showed what a heroic character Ahmed was. The second part was driven by John’s covenant with Ahmed and John’s guilt-riddled desire to save the man who had, quite literally, saved his life by hauling him back to safety.

I found this amazingly tense and suspenseful. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, especially the section where Ahmed was dragging a semi-conscious John across Afghanistan and the tense action of the ending. Even with a potential deus ex machina, the ending firefight was amazing.

Jake Gyllenhaal is exceptional as he always is. Even if he is in a bad movie, Gyllenhaal always brings his best effort. The bond between Gyllenhaal and Dar Salim was very pronounced and Salim looked to fit on the screen opposite Gyllenhaal. Salim was extremely likable and was so easy to root for.

Guy Ritchie does a fantastic job as the director of this movie, setting up action scenes beautifully and doing am admirable job with the characters.

I really enjoyed this movie. It was long, but I thought it moved fairly well. They did not rush through anything and the flow was good. Gyllenhaal and Salim are epic and the story created a ton of suspense for me. It was very gripping.

4.4 stars

A brand new biopic came to theaters this weekend about Joseph Bologne, composer and Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the illegitimate son of an African slave and a French plantation owner. Bologne’s work and skills were buried by Napoleon after the French Revolution. It has just been recently where his efforts have been rediscovered.

This was the part of Bologne’s life when he was friends with Queen Marie Antoinette (Lucy Boynton) and trying to be appointed to the head of the French opera. For a competition with Christoph Gluck (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), Bologne (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) created his own opera. He wrote the opera for singer Marie-Josephine (Samara Weaving) despite the objections of her husband. The opera led to an affair between them.

The music of this movie was a huge star. I loved the violin duel between Joseph and Mozart (Joseph Prowen) at the beginning of the film. The music throughout was just wonderful to listen to and set the scenes beautifully.

Kelvin Harrison Jr. had a great presence in this movie, carrying himself like a virtuoso and prodigy. I believed he was a master of music, fencing…anything else he was involved with. He and Samara Weaving had a strong chemistry, though you could tell that only bad things were going to be a result of their affair. Weaving had some powerfully emotional moments to perform here and did a stellar job of them.

Lucy Boynton as Marie Antionette gave me Margot Robbie vibes. She did not have a lot of scenes, but she was a prominent feature every time she made it on screen.

I’m not sure how I felt about the finale of the film. It felt a tad unlikely and disappointing. The whole revolution aspect of the plot did not work as well as the relationship between the leads. I felt as if I wanted more at the end. The film could have trimmed off some of the middle parts and extended the end a bit more for some extra heft.

I was not that interested in this movie because I had no idea anything about the person who was Joseph Bologne, but the film did its job well enough to make me curious to find out more about him. That is one of the best things you could say about a biopic.

3.6 stars