Disney + has a brand new original movie on its streaming service that celebrates the bond between a boy and his polar bear.

Based on the best-selling book by Stephan Pastis, Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made is a sweet, funny family movie that is well worth the time.

Timmy Failure (Winslow Fegley) is a 5th grader who has to face the problems of any fifth grader…specifically trying to keep his detective agency afloat by taking cases, dealing with the Russians and handling his 1200 pound partner, Total, who happens to be a polar bear.

Timmy’s mother Patty (Ophelia Lovibond) is supportive of her son even when he is in trouble at school from the curmudgeony teacher Mr. Crocus (Wallace Shawn) or when he is knee deep in chaos from his investigations of his cases.

Timmy finds a confidant in school counselor Mr. Jenkins (Craig Robinson) and has to deal with classmates Molly Moskins (Chloe Coleman), Rollo Tookus (Kei) and Corrina Corrina  (Ai-Chan Carrier).

Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were made is a film that is the definition of an unreliable narrator as the film is narrated by Timmy and he sees things in a different light.  In fact, most of what Timmy relays to the audience is fabrication and imagination.  We, as the audience, can see what is really going on as Timmy tells us what he is thinking, Russian plots and fears over moving to Middle School.

I was surprised how imaginative this movie was and how much I enjoyed it.  It was funny, and I actually laughed out loud several times.  The writing was cute and the performances were all well done.  I love Wallace Shawn, of course the classic Vizzini from the Prince Bride, and he is a perfect foil for the miniature detective.

Winslow Fegley does a really good job as the titular character, bringing a distinct deadpan performance that fit perfectly in with the character.  When he was asked to do more than that, he rose to the occasion.

Of course, there is not much weight to the film, but it is not the type of film that needs weight.  And truthfully, there are some interesting ideas found in the film that you see in the background.

This film could not be a greater departure from director Tom McCarthy.  Imagine being able to put on a resume that you are the director of Spotlight and Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made.  Yet his style mixes very well with the zany weirdness on display in this film and inside Timmy’s fanciful imagination.

This is a movie that should be entertaining for the whole family and shows how far imagination and creativity can take you.  The deeper messages of fear of change and being abandoned are there too if you choose to look.  Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made does have a few mistakes, but they are overshadowed by the positive message and the engaging characters.

3.8 stars 

The movie with the longest title of the year so far, Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, has arrived starring Margot Robbie once again as the DC villain/anti-hero, Harley Quinn.

Robbie appeared as Harley originally in the Suicide Squad a few years ago and is easily the standout of a movie that was nearly universally maligned.  The question was whether Robbie could bring the magic to Harley Quinn once again and would the movie be better?

The answer to both ends of that question is yes.

I enjoyed Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn very much, and, once again, Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn is easily the standout of the film.  This time, however, there is more to enjoy and there is nothing as egregious as the Enchantress.

In this movie, Harley Quinn has broken up with her puddin’, the Joker, and she is not handling it well.  When the news gets out, the benefits of being the main squeeze of the Joker, such as a general protection it buys you, was gone and Harley was finding out that there were several people with grievances with her.

One of the people out to get Harley was one of the crimelords in Gotham named Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor) aka Black Mask.  Sionis was also attempting to acquire a special diamond, but, unfortunately for him, it was stolen by pickpocket extraordinaire and young girl Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco).   This sent Harley, as well as all of the mercenaries of Gotham, after the girl.

One of my concerns about Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn from the trailers was the secondary characters.  The trailers made the supporting cast seem fairly unimportant, if not, lackluster.  And truthfully, there was some of that, but I felt that Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn did an admirable job with the characters.  Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) was actually very well developed and the Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) was reasonably developed, although underused.  I would have liked more from the character of Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez).

But the film is not really a Birds of Prey film, it was a Harley Quinn film, and Harley Quinn gets the bulk of the screen time.  This is the correct decision because Harley is thoroughly entertaining and wonderfully played by Margot Robbie.

The film did have a bit of an issue with Roman Sionis though.  This is not an issue with Ewan McGregor, who was great in his comedic-crazed manner.  However, the character of Roman Sionis was fairly underdeveloped.  He was a crazy villain who did things just because.  He was one-note and truly did not have motivation deeper than his own wants.  McGregor was great in the role, but his shtick did wear on a bit.  He was such a horrible person that you could not stand the guy at all.

The action was very well done.  Harley Quinn was fantastic and funny with every scene she was in.  I do have one nitpick though.  There were a couple of times when it was pretty clear that, during the fights, you could see Margot Robbie’s stunt man, who looked like he was considerably burlier than Robbie.  It happened a couple of times and was momentarily distracting.  Yes, it is not that important, but I did notice it.

Still, the star is Margot Robbie who is perfectly cast as the psychotic Harley Quinn.  We can relate to Harley despite the terrible things that she has done or is doing because Robbie infuses the character of Harley with such humanity and empathy that you can’t help but root for her.  Yes she is clearly a criminal and a murderer, but she is a beloved figure.

Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn is certainly violent and earns the R rating it is given.  Though the violence never really goes too far, this is not a children’s movie which may hurt the box office for it.

DC has been very solid recently with their films.  Although it was better than some of their previous movies, I did not love Aquaman, but Shazam was great and Joker is Oscar nominated.  Toss in Wonder Woman and you have a pretty effective series of stand alone films which are much better than when they were trying to force everything into a Marvel-like shared universe.  This is the path they should continue on because they are having much more success.  Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn may have some story issues and the lay out of the film may be a bit clunky at times, the film is enjoyable and fun to watch.  It is colorful, filled with awesome action and some genuinely engaging characters, especially Harley Quinn herself.

4.25 stars 

I knew very little to almost nothing about this movie when I went in to see it.  I knew that it starred Blake Lively and that was about it.

Blake Lively played Stephanie Patrick, a woman whose family was killed in a plane crash, which sent her spiraling into her own downward path.  At the low point, she is approached by a reporter who has information showing that the plane crash was actually an act of terrorism.  Stephanie set out on a path of revenge and winds up enlisting former MI6 agent B (Jude Law) to train her.

It is a ridiculous plot.  I never accepted the character of Stephanie Patrick as someone who was trained into being a competent assassin.  When we are introduced to her, she is working as a prostitute and seemed completely checked out.  Somehow, she is able to pull herself out of this life and into one of an international assassin after a few montages that were meant to illustrate several months.

Since I could not really accept the main character’s arc, the rest of the movie did not have much of a chance.  It did not help that the story then became convoluted and messy, with major coincidences and plot contrivances.

Sterling K. Brown arrived as well as a CIA operative that makes a connection with Stephanie, but his character is as simple as you could guess.  Very little is expounded about any of the other characters besides Stephanie, and to be honest, she is anything but deep.  In fact, at one point in the movie, B tells her that she is a cliche, and he was 100% right.

The action was not great either.  I heard some people saying it was well done, but I found it to be nothing more than shaky cam to hide what we were seeing.  There was one scene of a fight between Stephanie and B that seemed to be filmed as one-shot, but that fight lacked any consequences or stakes to be great and was missing any really cool parts to make it stand out.

Blake Lively did a nice job as the character, but there was just nothing there and the script was such a mess that I could not care one iota about Stephanie.  Any little bit of connection I felt for her was because of Lively.

There was a movie here that could have been more than the standard revenge plot. The film even touches on it when one of the hits go awry and leads to innocent people being killed.  However, that plot point is dealt with immediately, never to see the screen again.

This was lacking in many ways and signals the end of January movies (yay!).  Hopefully, things pick up as we move into February.

2 stars

The new film based on the Grimm’s fairy tale, Hansel & Gretel, from director Osgood Perkins is called Gretel & Hansel which is a very dark version of the child’s tale.

The film is more about the character of Gretel (Sophia Lillis) than it is about Hansel (Sammy Leakey).  They are still brother and sister, Gretel older, and they still found the witch (Alice Krige) in the woods.  Then Gretel is truly the main character and becomes kind of the apprentice of the witch.

And that is about all there is in the plot.

The film looked fine.  In fact there were actually some really great visuals.  The cinematography and the visual images are above average and definitely the strongest aspect of the film.

Unfortunately, the film was boring and there was very little with the characters.

I really disliked most of the film.  The performances were decent.  Sophia Lillis was solid with what was given for her to do.  The music was good too.

None of the good pieces worked together though.  I disliked it so much. I do not really have much more to say about it.

1.5 stars