Be careful what you say to Alexa because you never know when your Amazon virtual assistant may take it the wrong way.

I just watched the original Child’s Play a few months ago in preparation for the release of the new rebooted version from director Lars Klevburg.  I enjoyed the original Child’s Play, but I did not feel the need to watch all of the other sequels that followed it.

The new version of Child’s Play was fine.  I liked it.  Some of the changes that they made did not wind up bothering me because I did not have the deep connection to the series as other may have had.  I can understand, however, why some people might be unhappy with the film.

Karen (Aubrey Plaza) picks up one of the Buddi dolls for her son, Andy (Gabriel Bateman) to help ease the transition from moving into a new place.  Andy has trouble making friends and she believes that the doll would help his spirits.  Little did she know that the doll was defective (sort of) and was sentient.  Naming himself Chucky (Mark Hamill), the doll bonds quickly with Andy a little too closely.

Chucky is an iconic figure in horror movies, and some people are not happy with the new look of the doll.  Another aspect that many people disapprove of is the fact that this Chucky is no longer possessed by the serial killer, and is instead technology turning on the human race.  Sure we have seen that all the time, but neither of these differences cause an issue for me.

The movie knew what it wanted to be.  There was a definite cheesy part of the film, and that makes sense, since this is a killer doll.  There should not be a full out dramatic version of Chucky.  However, there were some times when the cheese factor may have gone a bit too far and felt out of place, especially when dealing with the other kids in Andy’s neighborhood.

I do like the motivation of this Chucky.  Whereas the original film’s character was being motivated by this killer spirit to become human again, the new Chucky is motivated by the relationship with Andy.  He wanted to protect Andy and to be the whole world to Andy.  Chucky did not want to share his “best friend forever” with anyone else and that feeling of loneliness and drive for connection is something that  everyone can relate with.

Mark Hamill is one of our generations greatest voice actors and his new turn as Chucky is as great as you would expect it to be.  Hamill’s voice portrayal helps to create the creepiness of the character in the new movie.

I also really loved the work of Gabriel Bateman as Andy.  The young kid had a lot of this movie placed on his shoulders and he came through like a champion.  You can see the conflict within Andy as these horrible things begin to happen and how he does not know what to do.  His fear and pain feels real and well done.

The aspect of the doll being an AI works very well when Chucky is able to interface with other technological items and use them against his victims.  This helps with one of the film’s main themes of how technology can control our lives and puts into a danger of becoming too enthralled.  The film also has some things to say about consumers and their attempt to grab the newest thing, even if it is bad for them.  The third act brings back memories of Jingle All the Way.

The film is very bloody and has some seriously gory scenes.  It certainly earned its R rating.  I found that there were less times in this movie where I would be thinking, “This is just a doll, destroy it” to the people Chucky was attacking.  I had those thoughts many times in the original so that says that the kill scenes were reasonably well done to me.

I enjoyed the relationship between Andy and his mom.  It felt like a real relationship.  I enjoyed the scenes involving Detective Mike Norris (Brian Tyree Henry), especially his interactions with Andy and Mike’s own mother Doreen (Carlease Burke).

There were several relationships that either did not work or were weaker than these ones.  I already mentioned the other kids in the neighborhood and all of them are simply one-note characters there for background.  The only exception I would make is Beatrice Kitsos who played Falyn.  This character was intriguing but they never really dive into what makes her special.  She is visually appealing.  Then, Karen’s boyfriend, Shane (David Lewis) was a terrible character with little redeeming qualities at all.  He was there to be the conflict with Andy and not much else.

The film was quick and short (90 minutes) and it moved by quickly.  I was reasonably entertained by Child’s Play and I was not offended by the changes from the original.  It is not the best horror movie of the year and I do not think it is trying to be.  I think it is trying to be a fun and tense film with a heavy dose of creepiness.  While it is far from perfect, the new Child’s Play succeeds in what it is trying to be.

3.5 stars

I was very worried about Toy Story 4 because I did not see the purpose of the movie.  Toy Story 3 is one of my favorite movies of all time and it felt like the perfect way to tie up the Toy Story franchise.  Plus, I was unimpressed with the promotional material for Toy Story 4.  Nothing jumped out at me as being a worthwhile addition to what could be argued as one of the best trilogies in movie history.

However, the word of mouth has been positive so I was hopeful once again.

I never should have doubted Toy Story.  Toy Story 4 was fantastic.

The young girl Bonnie (Madeleine McGraw) who was given the group of Andy’s toys is on the way to Kindergarten. Woody (Tom Hanks) sneaks into her backpack to help her through the day despite the fact that he has been regulated to the closet during playtime for much of the previous week.  Woody pulled some shenanigans and helped Bonnie through the day.  Bonnie made her own toy at school out of an old spork that she named Forky (Tony Hale), and Woody made it his mission to make sure that Forky was there for Bonnie.

However, Forky considered himself trash and kept trying to throw himself away.

Toy Story 4 was one of the funnier entries in the franchise.  There was several very great new characters.  Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele reunited as Ducky and Bunny.  Christina Hendricks voices the new villain Gabby Gabby.  And the wonderful Keanu Reeves appears as Duke Caboom, Canadian stunt motorcyclist in the vein of Evel Knievel.

Duke Caboom is one of my favorite parts of the new film.  Keanu is the perfect voice for the role of Duke Caboom.

Annie Potts returned to the series as Bo Peep, the lost toy.  Bo Peep and Woody are a cool pairing and have some chemistry, for an animated pairing.  It was nice to see Bo Peep back as the kick ass female toy.

The story moves quickly and, everything works so well.  The new characters all fit right into the rest of the cast.  Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) is here again and, although not as used as Woody, is still an important supporting character.

One of my doubts was that Toy Story 3 wrapped up the franchise in a perfect bow.  After seeing Toy Story 4, I am readjusting my thoughts.  Toy Story 3 is the perfect wrap up of the Andy story.  Toy Story 4 does the perfect job of wrapping up the story of Woody and the toys.  This is definitely Woody’s movie and it was worth it.

The animation, surprise surprise, was amazing.  Pixar’s animation only seems to get better each time.

This was a tremendously fun movie that I had a great time with.  If I were rating it, I would still put Toy Story 3 first, then the original.  Four would be the third place and Toy Story 2 was my least favorite.  They are all amazing though.

Anyone worried that Toy Story 4 would not live up to the trilogy, don’t.  It’s awesome.

4.25 stars

This one has been on the radar for awhile now, but the timing just never worked out.  Finally had a chance to see Late Night and I am glad that it was able to work out.

Mindy Kaling, who plays Molly, wrote this film that tells the story of an all-time great late night talk show host, Katherine Newbury (Emma Thompson), who has fallen on tough times in the way of ratings and creativity.  Newbury discovers that there is a plan in place to replace her as the host of her show, and she decides to push ahead and try to convince her boss (Amy Ryan) and the public that she deserves another chance.

Molly is hired to become the sole female writer on her staff around the same time as a diversity hire.  She learns quickly that the all-male, all-white writing staff may not be as welcoming as she believes.  Plus, Katherine has chosen this time to become more hands on in her approach to the show, showing up to the writer’s room, full of vim and vigor, and, despite the fact that she does not know the writer’s names (she calls them by a number), she puts everyone on the spot and on guard immediately.

Molly, unaware of the office protocol, rubs everyone the wrong way immediately, but her skill with comedy and her new ideas shine through and get her noticed by Katherine.

Emma Thompson is wonderful here, as always.  She is as charming and likable as this fully unlikable character could be.  She brings an instant credibility to the role that allows you to believe that she is a legend in the late night business.  You excuse the bad behavior because of the charismatic lead actress.

There is also a fantastic relationship between Emma Thompson and her on-screen husband, the great John Lithgow.  Lithgow plays Walter, Katherine’s husband who is suffering from Parkinson’s Disease.  This piece of the story brings such a richness to the story that, while it may not inspire much toward the plot, it tells us more about the character Katherine and allows us to love her even more.  Lithgow is tremendous in his limited screen time.

The relationship between Katharine and Molly was fine, but did feel a tad forced at times.  Still, by the end of the film, you accept the connection between these two women.

There are plenty of themes running through the film, from ageism to sexism to the lack of diversity in the entertainment business.  The #metoo movement even gets a moment inside the movie.  Each one is handled well, if not covered fully.

The film belongs to Emma Thompson though and she is a powerhouse here.  There are some top notch supporting performances along the way, not only with John Lithgow, but also with Denis O’Hare, Max Casella, and Reid Scott.  The writer’s room was filled with intriguing characters from number one to number 8.

If you like the late night TV shows like Stephen Colbert or Jimmy Kimmel, you will find something to like in Late Night.  If you are a fan of Emma Thompson, this is a smorgasbord of her acting skills.

3.9 stars 

This was very much a different type of zombie movie, one that I was not expecting.  Certainly, with Bill Murray as the lead, I knew that we were in store for a humorous take on the genre, but I had no idea what I was about to see.

Writer/director Jim Jarmusch is known for his slow take on some of his films and that style is in full display here.  The story slowly moves through the movie as characters talk about life and, at times, barely even recognize what is happening around them.

The small town of Centerville finds itself with strange events happening.  The daylight is staying longer, the moon has a strange glow and the dead are rising from the grave.  All of this because the earth has shifted slightly off its axis because of polar fracking.

Police Chief Cliff Robertson (Bill Murray) and Officer Ronnie Peterson (Adam Driver) respond to the terrible happenings in the town.  Murray and Driver are as deadpan as you can get, as Driver constantly says that “this won’t end well.”

Meanwhile, we are introduced to a bunch of characters from around Centerville, some of who are important and others whose story arc does not seem to go anywhere.  The cast is tremendous as, along with Murray and Driver, you have Tom Waits, Chloe Sevigny, Danny Glover, Steve Buscemi, Tilda Swinton, Rosie Perez, Selena Gomez and Carole Kane.

Of course, some of these actors play characters without any connection to the story at all.  Tilda Swinton is amazing here, but her arc is bizarre.  It was very funny, and at least she did interact with the main actors.  There are a group of young actors playing kids in a children’s detention center who literally have nothing to do with the plot.

Some times that is funny and works and other times it feels kind of lazy, as if they are just filling up screen time with scenes.  There is a definite irreverence on display inside  the film and that fits into the tone.

I loved the work between Murray and Driver.  The had a wonderful connection in the movie.  Their responses to one another was perfect and fit beautifully with the tone that Jarmusch was going for.  Both Murray and Driver were veterans of Jarmusch movies and that experience pays off royally here.

I got a feeling watching The Dead Don’t Die that reminded me clearly of Twin Peaks.  It was a show that was filled with eccentric, bordering on weird characters, who found themselves in strange and unexplained situations.  The Dead Don’t Die would be an episode of Twin Peaks, but with zombies.  There was even a zombie who loved coffee.  Of course, as a huge Peak Freak, I would love that and I enjoyed this movie a great deal.

Sure, some of the characters are unnecessary, but they help create a flavor of the town of Centerville.  The message of the movie is pretty heavy handed and could have been more subtle, but that does not dominate the movie and does not ruin the enjoyment I had.

3.75 stars

As I prepared for this movie, a movie that I had enjoyed the trailers for, I watched the original Shaft from 1971 with Richard Roundtree and the 2001 Shaft with Samuel L. Jackson.  Both movies were escapist fun and featured one bad mutha…shut your mouth!

So when I heard the really bad reviews the 2019 version of Shaft was receiving from critics, I was disappointed, but I remained cautiously optimistic.  I mean, I have disagreed with critics before, though, 35% on Rotten Tomatoes does not usually mean this is going to be a winner.

Still, I hoped for the best, and, in the end,…

I liked it.

Samuel L. Jackson returned as John Shaft, and we meet the woman, Maya (Regina King), who tamed, if only temporarily, the sex machine with all the chicks.  Unfortunately, a hit gone wrong led to Maya to take Shaft’s baby son away from him and keep the boy isolated from his father for his own safety.

J.J. aka John Shaft Jr. (Jesse T. Usher) had grown up never knowing his father and resenting how Shaft deserted him.  J.J. became an FBI data analyst and wound up on the outskirts of a case that led to the murder of his lifelong friend Karim (Avan Jogia).  Not sure where to turn, J.J. turned to his father in his search for his friend’s murderer.

Now, the story of this movie is dumb.  There is no way around it.  The plot is needlessly convoluted and feels too much like a bad 1980s movie.  There are two main reasons why this movie works despite the failure of the story.

One, is Samuel L. Jackson.  He is clearly having all kinds of fun playing the role of John Shaft once again.  He is funny, foul-mouthed and full of inappropriateness, which all adds up to be simply a hoot.  Jackson’s Shaft is politically incorrect and loving every minute of it.

The second reason is the relationship that the movie builds between Shaft and J.J.  The film focuses on the differences between the two generations of Shaft men (eventually, bringing in a third with Richard Roundtree’s John Shaft, who turned out to not be Uncle John as the 2001 movie indicated).  J.J. is a metro-sexual, computer savvy, gun-hater, opposites to his father in many ways.  However, the film also shows that J.J. and Shaft have some unexpected connections as well.  I loved the chemistry between Jackson and Usher and their relationship made the film for me.

Yes, the villains are one note and the violence is everywhere, but that is the same as the other versions of Shaft.   I thought Regina King was a bit overtly dramatic for her role, but she did show the type of fire that might have kept John Shaft interested for all these years.

Shaft (2019) is not a great movie, but I had a good time watching it.  Samuel L. Jackson is great as the title character and his relationship with J.J. carries the film past its weaknesses.  You may need to approach this film with the right mindset, but there are parts of the new Shaft worth admission.

3 stars

The fourth film in the Men In Black franchise looks to reboot the films with new characters and stories.  Well… there are new characters.

Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, who worked together as Thor and Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Endgame, don their own black suits and ties to join up with the galaxy defenders.

This is another film this year that is a bit of a mixed bag for me.  Men In Black International is a perfectly okay movie that does not elevate itself above the pack of movies looking for your summer entertainment dollar.  Yet, it is not the most objectionable time at the theater and if you do choose to see it, it won’t be the worst two hours you spend at the movies.  Faint praise, I know.

Molly (Tessa Thompson), after an encounter as a child with the MiB, spent years trying to track down the mysterious organization, finally succeeding.  Her moxie impressed the head of MiB (Emma Thompson) who sends her to the London branch of MiB on a trial basis.  Molly becomes Agent M and meets up with legendary Agent H (Chris Hemsworth) who, along with London branch leader Agent High T (Liam Neeson), saved the world a few years ago from an alien species known as the Hive with nothing more than their wits and a series 7 deatomizer. Agent M arrives and is thrown into a case with Agent H and things happen.

Unfortunately, that plot of the movie is fairly simple and predictable.  So predictable.  I was amazingly  disappointed with how the film played out because I saw the truth coming a mile away and so should most everyone who has ever watched a movie before. They hinted at some potentially interesting ideas early in the movie in connection to Agent H, but they dropped them for the standard fare very quickly.

The film is saved by the wonderful performances and easy chemistry of Hemsworth and Thompson, who are easily the best part of Men In Black International.  Without the charm of these two actors, this movie could be a total mess, but they salvage many scenes just with their work together.

The movie depends on some wild coincidences to make it through the story and many of these coincidence (though spoilers, so I won’t go into specifics) are eye-rollingly bad.

The usually awesome Rebecca Ferguson (from the Mission Impossible series) was here too, but her character is so over-the-top silly that we have zero interest in her.  This is a huge disappointment for the film.

In the end, this is an okay movie, if you have a couple of hours to shove popcorn into your face and shut off your brain.  Men In Black International really does not give you anything new to think about or to watch, but it does provide you two movie stars at the height of their game.  There could have been more here, but, unfortunately, there is not.

2.85 stars

I did not like the first movie of this franchise, but, you know what, the second one wasn’t that bad.

It was certainly surprising to me that I found parts of this new sequel to be entertaining and funny.

I should be specific.  I really liked the part of the story where Max (Patton Oswald) and Duke’s (Eric Stonestreet) owner gets married and has a baby to be a charming, funny and fully interesting take on the film.  There was so much to mine here, including a hilarious trip to a relative’s farm where a dominant Welsh sheepdog named Rooster (Harrison Ford) gives Max some life lessons.  This was great.

And there was a funny bit where Max had Gidget (Jenny Slate) keep an eye on his favorite doggie toy and it wound up in the paws of the cats of the Cat Lady’s house.  Gidget had to get tips on how to be a cat from Chloe (Lake Bell) so she could go undercover as a cat to retrieve the toy.  This was not as charming as the first story, but it was very funny.

Finally, there was a third, nonsensical story arc featuring Snowball the Bunny (Kevin Hart) who believes himself to be a super hero because his owner dresses him like one.  Then another dog named daisy (Tiffany Haddish) comes to Snowball with a ridiculous misadventure about freeing an abused white tiger named Hu from the evil circus trainer.  This whole bit felt out of place among the rest of the animated movie.

Of course, the when the story arcs come together, you know which one takes precedence, don’t you?  The one that could degenerate the film into a silly chase scene involving a train and the wolves from the circus who are chasing the white tiger.

These three storylines have plenty of narrative problems, but the biggest issue is that the third act chooses to focus the most attention on the white tiger story instead of the one it should have focused on, the story of Max and his relationship with the baby Liam.  This is where the heart of this movie rests and the fact that the film feels the need for this throwaway third act tells you what they are going for in this series.

I could have gone for the entire movie dealing with Max, Liam and Rooster on the farm.  The side plot of Gidget trying tor retrieve Busy Bee would be a great subplot.  Expand these parts of the movie and drop entirely the whole white tiger aspect and I think this could have been a really great animated movie.  Especially with the perfect voice work of Harrison Ford as Rooster.  A better match up of voice and animated character has not been seen in years.

However, The Secret Life of Pets 2 is heads and shoulders above its predecessor and has many moments of real heart and warmth, along with some real humor.  Though far from perfect, this is a considerable step forward.  It was a film that I was considering skipping, but I am glad I saw it.

3.1 stars

The Dark Phoenix saga is one of the greatest comic book story arcs of all-time.  Why is it so hard to translate it to the big screen?

Dark Phoenix is the second attempt to adapt the comic arc.  The first one was X-Men: The Last Stand, which was a tremendous disappointment.  And going into the film, all I had heard was negative word of mouth about the final FOX X-Men movie before the rights revert to Marvel Studios.  Because of everything I had heard, I went into Dark Phoenix with my expectations lowered down about as low as they could go.

With the expectations so low, it was not the worst movie I have ever seen, but there were not very many positives that would overcome the negatives.

I heard Schmoes Knows host Kristian Harloff on Collider Live make the perfect comment directed toward Dark Phoenix.  He called the movie “hollow.”  That description fits perfectly.  That is exactly how Dark Phoenix feels.

On a rescue mission into space, X-Men member Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) is exposed to a strange, fiery force that, despite blowing up her ship, did not kill Jean.  Instead, the energy (known in the comics as the Phoenix Force) entered Jean and jacked up her power level to major levels.

As he power increases, mental barriers set up in her mind by Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) when Jean was a child to block the unpleasant memories of her parents’ death (in a scene right out of Shazam, I swear) began to crumble and Jean became more dangerous.

The X-Men attempt to stop Jean and help her regain herself before the mighty power of the Phoenix consumed her.

There are so many problems here, but nothing that makes me angry or want to never watch the film again.  They are problems that make the movie a bad movie.

Let’s start with the positives.  James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Sophie Turner were pretty solid in their roles.  Fassbender is always great as Erik/Magneto, even though here he was doing the same thing that he had done in previous X-Men movies.  McAvoy actually plays Charles Xavier as a jerk here, someone who may have good reasons, but who ha done very questionable things.

The opening scenes in space were decent too.  It showed the X-men working together and the aftermath showed the world treating the X-Men as heroes for once instead of the freaks that they are used to being called.  That was a cool little change that, unfortunately, did not last for long.

Now, the other X-Men were desperately under served.  Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), and Quicksilver (Evan Peters) were wasted, basically there to show off their mutant power.  They were nowhere near real, 3-dimensional characters.  Several of them also acted in a manner that was not like their character.  At one point, Nightcrawler began killing people all over the place, including teleporting one of them in front of the train they were fighting on.  or those who know about the “Fuzzy Elf,” Kurt Wagner is very Christian and does not kill people.  I had trouble with that since it is such an important part of the character.

Nicholas Hoult’s Hank McCoy (aka Beast) is another character who is doing things that he simply would not do under circumstances and the only reason he is doing them here is that the script says he is.  This film does not care about character motivations or character traits.  They simply want to push along the extremely lacking plot.

And the movie must have something against Evan Peters because his Quicksilver really got the short string here.  For such as standout from the previous couple of X-Men movies, Quicksilver gets almost nothing significant to do.

The relationship between Scott and Jean, which was vital to the comic book story, is forced and boring here.  We get like one scene of them kissing and then a bunch of Scott looking sad about what happens.  One of the biggest problems is that we have not spent enough time with the versions of these characters so we do not care enough about them.

Another character was Raven, played by Jennifer Lawrence.  She has received criticism for phoning in her role as Mystique/Raven and many people say she is better here.  I actually disliked her in this film quite a bit.  Maybe I did not care about her because the trailer had so spoiled her fate ( as did the director in an interview).

The story was sparse.  In fact, I would venture to say that practically nothing really happens.  I found it even kind of boring as the film moved on.

Director Simon Kinberg, a first time director, also wrote the script for The Last Stand and, seemingly, repeated several of the beats from that failure.  Instead of repeating your errors, shouldn’t you learn from your mistakes?  The Last Stand is considered one of the worst X-Men movies ever made.  We do not need a reboot.

I hated the ending of the third act too.  It was supposedly completely re-shot.  Rumors indicated that they were worried that the ending might seem too close to another superhero movie (Captain Marvel, maybe?) so they had the finale on a train instead of outer space.  Either way, it was a mistake.

It really is sad how such an all-time classic comic arc can be so messed up twice in the movies.  I have to say that I am very happy that this is the last X-Men for FOX.  Hopefully the characters will find a much better home back where they began.

1.8 stars

I am going I am going to do my best to avoid comparing the new musical biopic, Rocketman, to last year’s monster hit, Bohemian Rhapsody, despite there being a ton of comparisons that could be made.

For example, the director of Rocketman was Dexter Fletcher, who was the director who came onto Bohemian Rhapsody to help finish the movie up as an uncredited director after Bryan Singer’s public problems forced him off the project.

Secondly, both biopics focus on British rock stars around the same era that dealt with similar issues, such as substance abuse and sexual orientation.

Third, both films feature transcendent lead performances from their actors, Taron Egerton as Elton John and Oscar winner Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury.

Both films freely use their subjects’ music to improve the movie and…

Oh, I guess I did not succeed in not comparing Rocketman to Bohemian Rhapsody.  Fact is that, despite some similarities, Rocketman is actually very different than other music biopics.

This movie is truly a musical, not just a performance film.  You have Elton John songs used to further the story and other characters participating in the songs and the intricate dance routines.  I did not expect that as it did not seem that this was portrayed that way by any of the promotional materials.  I wondered how I was going to feel about that but I got past it quickly.

The movie also had scenes that were not the literal translation of what happened but we’re meant to show more of a fantasy, dream-like state.  Rocketman was much more of a musical fantasy than any other musical biopic that I can ever remember seeing.

Taron Egerton was spectacular as the often flamboyant but deeply troubled Reggie Dwight, who would change his name to Elton John.  The film does not shy away from the troubling aspects of Elton John’s life and deals with the topics in an original and engaging manner, and Egerton provides a stellar performance throughout the film, even going as far as recording the Elton John songs himself.  He never feels as if he were doing an imitation of Elton and, instead, feels as if he had just become the singer.

Jamie Bell has a remarkable supporting performance as Elton’s long time song writing partner, Bernie Taupin.  Fate brought them together as Bernie would write the lyrics and Elton would provide the music and the tunes.

Bryce Dallas Howard has an amazing role too as Elton’s birth mother Sheila.  Elton’s childhood is handled with some powerful scenes as we see how the lack of love from his parents shaped the man that he would become.  Howard loses herself in the role and I did not even realize that it was her until the credits at the movie’s end.

While some of the story beats are similar to other music biopics, the manner in which the story is presented is as clever and original as it could be.  Just when you think you are heading into tropes of the genre, Rocketman turns them upside down.

Rocketman is very different than Bohemian Rhapsody, so do not go to it expecting the same type of tone or film making experience.  However, the music is great and the performances are above the line.  If you are an Elton John fan, you will love Rocketman, but I do not think it is a requirement to enjoy this musical fantasy.

4.85 stars

The latest horror/thriller from Blumhouse came out this weekend and it features Octavia Spencer in a role unlike any role you have ever seen her in.  Ma is the title and Octavia Spencer really embraced the crazed elements of this character.

Sadly, there are just too many issues that the film has for Ma to really grasp the ring and be the truly shocking, frightening and disturbing film that it could have been.

Starting with Octavia Spencer, she was absolutely tremendous.  Her performance was creepy and vile despite the fact that you, as the audience, could almost relate to her traumas.

Spencer plays Sue Ann, a veterinarian assistant who is lonely and winds up buying alcohol for a group of under aged kids.  Then, Sue Ann invites the kids over to her house to party in the basement.  It does not take long for the kids to realize that, despite Ma’s house becoming the in place for high school partying, there was something more going on than they expected.

Sue Ann turns into a psycho stalker and does some dastardly things.  As the film progresses, we discover the reason why Sue Ann is as damaged as she was.  A certain high school incident traumatized her and forever altered her life path.  I was just not sure what triggered Sue Ann to start on this path of vengeance.  There really was no trigger and it seemed as if Sue Ann had spent many years living in this little town in the south with many of the same individuals as she went to school with, but she never went crazy until now.  The whole backstory was something that I just did not buy and that hurt the movie for me.

There were also too many moments when all that needed to happen was for one of the characters to call the police and the whole movie would have been over.  When there are too many times like this, it feels like lazy writing.  There were even times when Sue Ann had sent something via social media or email that showed Sue Ann in a dangerous light.  I mean it was … you know, evidence.

Ma dropped some hints through the film that there were some really messed up things going on but the movie never goes for it.  I totally thought we were going to get some reveal showing how messed up Sue Ann was, but they did not do it.  Sue Ann has a daughter and this character was one that was never developed despite feeling like the movie had some idea of what was happening to her.

The young actors do a decent job with what they are given.  I liked Diane Silvers, who played Maggie, the main character of the high school students.  Juliette Lewis was Maggie’s mother.  Their relationship seemed to change each time the plot needed it to.  The inconsistency was a problem here.

Luke Evans appears too in a small but important role as one of Sue Ann’s classmates in high school who had grown up and had a son, Andy (Corey Fogelmanis), who was dating Maggie.

Things go really nuts in the third act, which is fairly fun, especially because of  Octavia Spencer.  There are several over-the-top moments that work thanks to this talented actress.  I have to say that I wanted some more wrap up at the end of the movie than what I got.

In the end, Ma has its moments and is not a terrible movie.  It just had the potential to be a thrilling and dark story with unbelievably disturbing twists, but does not reach the level.  Octavia Spencer is awesome though and is the main reason to see this.

2.8 stars

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