Gee, any political motivation behind this one?

Guns. Immigrants. Taking back the country with riots. I don’t see any connection to anything in our news right now.

I’m not opposed to having political messaging in my entertainment, because there has been political commentary in the industry since the very beginning, but rarely has it been so blatantly obvious.

The Forever Purge is the fifth of the films in the film franchise of the Purge (which also had a TV show). In this one, the Purge has returned, but instead of being one 12-hour day where there is all crime is allowed, an organized group of insurgents decide that one day is not enough and that they would fight to make the Purge an every day thing until they could purge the US of all outsiders (which of course meant non-white people).

No mention if any of these people stormed the capital in Washington.

The action took place near the border of Mexico, making the Mexican-Americans the targets of the crazed redneck/Nazis who were behind the Forever Purge, together in a group called Forever After.

Our protagonists include Adela (Ana de la Reguera) and her husband Juan (Tenoch Huerta) and Mr. Tucker (Will Patton), his sister Harper (Leven Rambin) and his pregnant wife, Cassidy Tucker (Cassidy Tucker) form a bond as a group and attempt make it to the border of Mexico because Mexico (and Canada, btw) opened their borders to American refugees. Ironic?

So there was a tremendous amount of violence and gunfire. I wonder who the target audience for this was supposed to be?

If they were going to be so political, then The Forever Purge should have dove into the issue fully, instead of taking advantage of the real life issue. This felt very exploitative and it did nothing more than indicate that the way through this problem was with more violence, in particular guns. The Purge itself in the film becomes more about the hatred of some people, the blatant racism in our world and less about the more subtle class warfare that the earlier movies featured. With it so out there, the issues are only handled on a surface level, diminishing them as a whole.

The Forever Purge is nothing more than a violent, gunfire-filled message of hate. There are so many better choices in entertainment today that if you want this, you can watch TV news.

1.5 stars

This one was an unexpected appearance on HBO Max today. I had not heard about this, but the crime movie with the great cast including Don Cheadle and Benicio Del Toro had me intrigued. Include with that the director being Steven Soderbergh, well, I was excited.

In the end, it’s fine.

No Sudden Move had some difficulties keeping my attention through much of the first couple acts of the movie, which was a drawback. Since I was watching this at home, I had plenty of other distractions pulling my attention away and this movie did not grab me and maintain my mind. Since I watch a lot of movies at home, it is not as if it was an uncommon situation.

I do believe that this was a film that would require some focus with its crime plot. Maybe it is not fair that I review this since I was distracted several times, even though I believe that the failure to engage is a criticism that I could level at this movie.

Detroit, 1962, a group of low level criminals are hired to steal a document Unfortunately, their attempts take a bad turn and things go out of hand. Don Cheadle and Benicio Del Toro are two of the thieves that are involved here, and they did not have any clue about what they were actually stealing. This riddle was part of the mystery of the film. I like both Cheadle and Del Toro, but I had a difficult time following the choices made.

David Harbour was here and was great as he always is, but I was distracted by him because all I could do when looking at him was wonder why he was playing H.R.G from the TV show Heroes (there is a reference for anyone). There is also Noah Jupe, who is consistently excellent in his other films such as A Quiet Place and Honey Boy. I am impressed with Jupe every time I see him in a movie, even if the movie has left me wanting.

The period piece looked good and there were plenty of solid shots. The costuming was on par and the direction was top notch. I just did not connect with this movie very well.

I should really give it another shot and it is available on HBO Max, but I’m not sure if I am motivated to do that.

2.6 stars

The new Liam Neeson action movie has come out on Netflix and it is much like many of the others. Having said that, I liked this one more than some of the others.

Neeson is Mike, who, along with his mentally challenged brother Gurdy (Marcus Thomas), is hired to drive a semi truck carrying drills to help save a group of workers are trapped in a collapsed diamond mine. The problem is the only way to arrive at the camp is to travel across the frozen rivers of northern Canada, taking a chance that the heavy semi trucks would be too heavy for the trucks. Called a “suicide mission”, there turned out to be even more dangers than just the frozen water.

There were some really good and tense scenes early in the movie with the semis and the ice that made you wonder how any of these people were going to survive. Some of the creative ways to avoid their semis from sinking into the ice was cool (pun unintended).

Liam Neeson is his typical solid performer. He is playing the same character that he has played in the last several years. His relationship with his brother Gurdy, who was a US military veteran who was suffering from PTSD, did bring a different layer to Neeson’s character.

Are there things that happen that are unlikely? Of course. It is a big, dumb action movie which seems to be one of Liam Neeson’s specialties. Having this streamed on Netflix makes this worth the time. I had a decent time with The Ice Road and it was fun.

3.2 stars

I could not believe it when I found this documentary earlier in the year.

I use the book this documentary is based on, The Reason I Jump by 13-year old teen with classic Autism, Naoki Higashida, as a source during our Overcoming Obstacles unit in my 7th grade literacy class. I found the book years ago while watching an interview with David Mitchell (who had written the forward for the book) on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and I was intrigued by what I had heard. So I searched out the novel. It was a quick read but it was amazing. The insight given about Autism was fantastic and I immediately built the unit around it.

As I was preparing this year’s unit, I stumbled across the documentary that was based on the book and I was desperate to see it. Unfortunately, it was not available, having just been shown at some film festivals. I knew that I would keep my eyes open for the doc to become available on a source I could watch.

It is here now, on Netflix.

The documentary follows the lives of five Autistic children, using the words of Higashida as a backdrop. It is a doc that pulls back the curtain of the mysterious disorder, gives the world a chance to see what is going on inside the minds of these individuals who are mostly silent.

It shows the audience the misunderstandings engulfing Autism, including the panic attacks and the perceptions that the kids are the way they are because of some lack of mental acumen. It continues on beautifully to build empathy for the kids, instead of sympathy. When something is understood, it is considerably easier to help deal with and Autism is no different.

The cinematography of the movie is lovely, with so many amazing scenes with these children. There are shots within the documentary that are breathtaking, but yet they take on a fully different concept because of the perception of the kids involved. The children this doc is covering bring more of a depth to each scene than just the, admittedly stunning, visuals do. You can’t help but wonder what these subjects are seeing, perceiving, living.

Directed by Jerry Rothwell, Naoki Higashida is listed as a writer. The film is short, around 82 minutes, but the importance of each image cannot be overstated.

Everyone who has a connection to an Autistic person should see this doc. If you do not have a connection to an Autistic doc, you should also see this because the world could use more empathy in it today.

5 stars

When I got the discount Paramount + on Amazon Prime Day, I knew that I would be watching Infinite. It was just a matter of time. Perhaps in another life, I will know better.

Infinite is a sci-fi/action film starring Mark Wahlberg as Evan McCauley, a man who has skills that he has never learned. He can make a perfectly designed sword but he has never learned how, at least, not that he remembered. Diagnosed as a schizophrenic, Evan is self-medicating, trying to keep the voices and mysterious memories at bay. However, he finds that he is not mentally ill.

Instead, he learns that he is a part of a secret group called Infinite, people who have been reincarnated and use their knowledge as a way to protect the world. One of the reincarnated, Bathurst (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is tired of the constant returns and tries to hatch a plan to kill everything on earth so there is nothing left to reincarnate into.

I’m not sure how that would work, however. Maybe I misunderstand the concept of reincarnation.

I had heard this was bad. It totally is bad. A pretty strong cast does not bring its A game. The story in convoluted and ridiculous, failing to play upon the strengths of the premise. It starts with a terrible car chase scene that would have felt right at home in the Fast & the Furious franchise.

The finale was just as implausible and downright stupid.

I really do not want to be talking about this one any more.

1 star

The Fast and the Furious franchise has taken realism as a suggestion for a long time now. For years, they did stunts that were implausible at the best, dragging heavy safes through the city streets, leaping cars from building to building, and redirecting submarine torpedoes with hands. However, the new film, F9: The Fast Saga, has moved so far past reality, it borders on satire.

In fact, part of what they do in F9 is take a bunch of the criticisms about the Fast & Furious franchise and make fun of them. Tyrese Gibson specifically was saying how the crew was actually indestructible. It was a running joke for the whole movie.

Dom (Vin Diesel) and the rest of the Fast family reunite to try and recover this film’s MacGuffin before Dom’s rotten little brother Jakob (John Cena) finds it. We see flashbacks of young Dom and young Jakob at the point where their relationship was severed (and it was truly a stupid assumption that causes years of anger). Their sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) shows up instead of her husband (Brian, aka Paul Walker, reduced to babysitting) and she turns out to be a great fighter and driver too. Who knew?

As the trailers have shown us, Han (Sung Kang), who died earlier in the series, returned from the dead. It was conveniently connected to the case they are working on right now.

F9 has left reality completely. They did not concern themselves with little thinks like Physics. Or the fact that people being caught from falling upon the hood of cars is not much better than landing on the ground, but they all seem to shake it off like it was nothing.

Dom was also like Superman here. He took blows to the head as if it were nothing. He pulled down the ceiling of a place with two chains. He rolled from the rolling vehicle without completely shattering every bone in his body. It was amazing.

Then the most eye rolling moment of all happened… once again trolling those people who would joke about sending these characters into space. They do it. Into orbit. In a car with a rocket on top. Not kidding.

The movie was way too long. You knew what was going to happen with Dom and Jakob. Charlize Theron showed up for a cup of coffee.

I have been finding these Fast & Furious movies to be getting worse for the last few, and this is the worst of the bunch. I could not even enjoy the use of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson because he was not in this film. John Cena is no replacement (sorry John). The story is bad. The characterization is severely lacking. Even the action had a lot of shaky shots, particularly when fighting in Han’s Tokyo apartment. This one is really bad.

They should just proclaim that these films are in a superhero universe because that is the only way that these characters could pull off what they pull off.

2 stars

The second sequel I saw this weekend was a sequel that no one any where was demanding to be made. In fact, I heard a lot people say that they did not even remember the original movie. However, we get The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, the sequel to The Hitman’s Bodyguard, anyway.

Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds) was trying to get away from bodyguarding for awhile. After having his license suspended, upon therapist orders, he was trying to be on a break. Unfortunately for him, Sonia Kincaid (Selma Hayek) arrived, guns a blazing, and grabbed Michael to help her rescue her husband, Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson) who had been taken prisoner. Chaos ensues.

This movies starts dumb and gets stupider with every scene. Literally, the plot is a series of the most ridiculous set ups imaginable, many of which are clichés of other, better movies. It gets so stupid that one might wonder if this was meant to be a satire of spy movies (I don’t think it is intended as such).

However, the film is not a total failure because of the charisma and wit of its three main stars, Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson and Selma Hayek. Hayek was just fantastic in every scene in the movie. She was so ridiculous and over-the-top that you couldn’t help but be entertained by her. Hayek was crude, explicit and a hoot. Samuel L. Jackson was every bit as Sam Jackson as you could be. Ryan Reynolds played off both of them beautifully in that normal way that Ryan Reynolds does. Again, I do not think Sam Jackson and Ryan Reynolds played anything more than their normal character, but they were funny.

Funny enough, there was one scene where I thought to myself, “Hey, it is Nick Fury, Deadpool, Crossbones (Frank Grillo) and that Eternals character (Hayek is in The Eternals, but I do not know her role).” It’s not that I was distracted by the actors.

Antonio Banderas was here too, playing the film’s Bond villain. He had some reason he wanted to destroy Europe and a half-baked plan in which to do it. I actually think I have seen this very plan in an older James Bond movie. Morgan Freeman makes a fun cameo as well.

The action was okay, but really bouncy. The violence was both bloody and cartoonish. A couple of times, Ryan Reynolds felt like a Looney Tunes character with the way he took damage.

The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard was really dumb, but funny. You can’t go into this expecting a well thought out and cohesive story. If you approach it like it is a cartoon with guns (and a swiss army knife), you might enjoy yourself. Reynolds, Jackson and Hayek are the only reason to see this.

2.7 stars

Today was the day for sequels, as I was heading to the movie theater for two of them. I was not a big fan of the first Peter Rabbit movie from 2018, but I did not hate it. I really disliked the sequel though.

As Bea (Rose Byrne) and Mr. McGregor (Domhnall Gleeson) were getting married, Peter Rabbit (James Corden) continued to have his insecurities of his place in the family. After realizing that the book Bea wrote portrayed Peter as a mischief maker (or brat, as Mr. McGregor said), Peter become more upset. He walked away from his family while Bea and McGregor were meeting on the next book deal with Nigel Basil-Jones (David Oyelowo). Peter ran into an older rabbit (Colin Moody) who said that he had known Peter’s father, and wanted to bring Peter into his own world of stealing food.

I was bored with ten minutes of the movie starting. It began with a dream sequence which I immediately realized was a dream sequence (funny enough the other sequel I saw today began with a dream sequence too). I had no feelings towards any of the animal characters, finding all of them quite annoying. The joke of Peter’s voice being really annoying (which they brought back several times) was painfully unfunny. Most of the jokes were repetitive and not very funny.

I think there is no denying that I am not the target audience for this movie. To be fair, would this be a good movie for the kiddos? Yeah, but I could argue that our kids could use more quality entertainment. In the end, Peter Rabbit 2 would work well for those young kids, but as an adult, I was painfully bored for much f the film, wishing it would be over.

I do think the movie had some good moments in the third act wrap up, but those jokes got dumber as it went on. It really wore out its welcome for me. Still, there were some interesting ideas in the third act that helped me from really ripping this one apart.

The original is considerably better than this one. Luca would be a much better film for the family this weekend.

2.3 stars

Disney + is the exclusive home for the latest film in the Pixar oeuvre, a story about sea monsters and understanding, Luca.

Luca (Jacob Tremblay) is a young sea monster living in the sea off the coast of the Italian Riviera. He wrangles fish and lives with his mother Daniela (Maya Rudolph) and father Lorenzo (Jim Gaffigan). Daniela is strict with Luca and forbids him to ever go near the surface in order to protect him from the dangers of humans.

However, Luca meets a rebellious sea monster, Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer), who lives on the surface alone and lives a more daredevil type lifestyle. The freeness and carefree nature of Alberto appeals to Luca and he begins spending more time with his friend out of the water. When out of the water, the sea monsters conveniently change to a human form until they get wet.

When Luca’s parents discover their son’s secret, they plan on sending him away to stay with his uncle in the deep for awhile. Luca runs away and he and Alberto decide they are going to go to the human world to find the magical Vespa, a scooter that they believe will take them across the world.

Once in the human village, they meet a girl named Giulia (Emma Burman) who is training for a giant race that she loses every year to the “evil empire” bully Ercole Visconti (Saverio Raimondo), who immediately begins to target Luca and Alberto as well.

This is another great movie from the minds of Pixar. The story is well done. The animation is always top notch. There is heart and charm and the voice acting is excellent. Although I enjoyed this a great deal, there just seemed to be something missing from the movie to make it that extra special event that Pixar movies usually are, and I am just unsure what that missing piece is.

The film has a good message about friendship and accepting people for who they are, looking past the surface to see the person that they are underneath. The friendship between Luca and Alberto is a positive relationship shown on screen between two boys and then the inclusion of Giulia causes some friction as they realize that they may have differing wants and needs.

The film did take a little while getting to the main story of the film, and may have been a bit of a rush to get to the conclusion, but neither of these are major points to derail the film. We spend a good deal of time with Luca and Alberto and that gives us an understanding of who these characters are supposed to be.

I would say that, as a villain, Ercole is weaker than we are used to in Pixar films. He is one-dimensional and we do not know why he is like he is. He feels more buffoonish than threatening so I have less concern over what he is doing than other villains I could think of.

Luca is a wonderful movie, a good story of freedom and life. As always, the animation is stellar. I just feel as if there is something that is missing from the movie, call it the Pixar magic, that prevents this from being in the same class as Coco or Inside Out. It would be a great family film for all ages.

3.75 stars

Netflix has a new animated movie available to stream this weekend called Wish Dragon. Wish Dragon is a fun, family film that has strong positive messages to share with the viewers and some excellent animation.

Teenager Din (Jimmy Wong) has a plan. He wants to reunite with his childhood best friend Li Na (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) who is now a famous model/spokesperson for her father’s company. Before she left as a child, they had promised to be friends forever. It had been years since Din had seen her, but he hoped to crash her birthday party. As he was preparing his plan, he was given an emerald tea pot by a mysterious figure claiming to be a god. Din discovered that the tea pot contained an age old wish dragon named Long (John Cho), who was trying to get back to heaven by serving ten masters. Din gets three wishes, but he is unaware that another group is after the tea pot too.

So…. this is Aladdin, right?

There are a ton of similarities between Disney’s Aladdin and Wish Dragon, from Sony Pictures Animation. Three wishes. There are rules to the wishes (pretty close to the rules given to us by Genie). Din could easily be mistaken for a Chinese Aladdin, poor kid with the heart of gold, desiring what he cannot have. Li Na is the wealthy princess whose father is the top banana. Our villain is tall and thin, extremely menacing. Din lies to Li Na about who he is as he is pretending to be something he is not.

The differences are minor. Our dragon here has a pretty rotten attitude toward the world and his role as a wish dragon. The story is set in the present day so Long is amazed by all of the new world technology and items such as a bus or a car.

The thing is… what the film lacks in originality, it makes up for in heart. There is a nice relationship formed between Long and Din, and Long is the character who learns the transformational lesson of the movie. The relationship between Din and Li Na is wonderful and sweet. There is an interesting dynamic with Din and his mother (Constance Wu), as well as the rest of the extended family/friends.

The animation is beautiful. This is something that has to be these days. If you want to be successful, you cannot scrimp on the animation. It is just too good these days.

The whole family should be able to enjoy Wish Dragon. Sure, the story is very familiar in a lot of ways, but there is enough differences to make this worth the time.

3.5 stars

Netflix has a new thriller/sci-fi film on its site today, called Awake. Will you stay awake while watching?

In a planetwide event, all electronics, including cars, got wiped out and it caused everyone on the planet to be unable to sleep. Former soldier Jill (Gina Rodriguez) tried to get her son Noah (Lucius Hoyos) and her daughter Matilda (Ariana Greenblatt) to safety from a maddened mob and an army desperate to find a cure. Matilda happened to be one of the few people who can fall asleep.

There is an interesting premise here, but when the film turns into a road movie, there are a lot of silly encounters during this time. She was trying to get the kids to the Hub, where apparently there was another woman who could sleep was being held. When they arrive at the Hub, if you cannot guess, things all go to heck.

I will admit that it was during this time period when I dozed off. Not a good sign when a film about people unable to sleep leads to an audience member falling asleep. Maybe that is my fault trying to watch this instead of taking a nap. I did then pause the video for a nap, which was awesome. After I woke up, I went back to the film and rewound some so I could see what i had missed.

It was really not necessary. There was nothing here that made this stand out. Jill came across the sleeping woman and, after hearing her speak, you knew what had to happen to fix things. The best part of this is the dazed and sleep deprived people running around barely capable after several days of no sleep.

This one is not as terrible as I am making it out to be, but there is nothing that is special about it either, and it could have been top of the line. Gina Rodriguez is pretty good as Jill and the two kids are passable. Awake could make an okay watch on a lazy Saturday afternoon. Just make sure you are well rested before.

2.5 stars

I had a choice today. I could have either watched Lin-Manuel Miranda’s new film, In the Heights, on HBO Max or I could go to see it at Cinemark, preferably on the IMAX screen. I have enjoyed the HBO Max films that release day and date as the theater, but I thought that with the intricate dancing and choreography involved in the musical, I might enjoy this more on the big screen. Because of that, I decided to head to Cinemark to watch the movie.

I made the right chocie.

In the Heights is the story of a group men and women living in Washington Heights, a neighborhood on the northern tip of Manhattan. The ensemble took us through the joys and the struggles of this community of heavily Latino descent. At the center of the movie is a bodega owner Usnavy (Anthony Ramos) who watched over the matriarch of the neighborhood, the aging Abuela Claudia (Olga Merediz).

There are a ton of storylines going on during the film, and each one gets a reasonable focus during the 2 hour and 23 minute run time. These stories vary for each character, but they are all done very well and intersperse nicely.

However, the biggest part of the movie is the music from Lin-Manuel Miranda, which is nearly going on through the entire movie. There are very few breaks from the music. The music is incredibly catchy and it is almost impossible to keep yourself from swaying or moving with it. Much like Miranda’s other iconic show, Hamilton, the lyrics of the songs are witty, sharp and brilliant in storytelling, but go very fast so it can be difficult to follow at times. I can imagine that it would require several viewings (or times listening) to catch all of the clever lyrical lines within the songs. Despite this, the music does an admirable job of conveying the story, especially the emotion of the moment.

There are some excellent performances here, with a couple specific performances standing out. Olga Merediz, who reprised her role as Abuela Claudia from the stage play, is utterly brilliant as Washington Heights’ heart and soul. She had received a Tony Award in 2008 for the role and I do believe that she will have an Oscar nomination in her future as well. She provided, arguably, the most powerfully emotional song and moment of the entire movie.

Jimmy Smits was another top notch performance as Kevin Rosario, a father and businessman willing to do anything for his daughter Nina (Leslie Grace). Grace is another standout here as she was simply a vision every time she was on screen. It was difficult taking my eyes off of her which tells me that she has ‘it.’

The dance choreography is unbelievable with several massive scale dance numbers. Christopher Scott is the choreographer on the film and he does a masterful job. The cinematography is also masterful from Alice Brooks. In the Heights is directed by Jon M. Chu.

Sometimes the narrative gets lost in the music, but it is such a minor quip from me that I do not even want to go into it. There is a natural vibrancy to the film and the music is entertaining, engulfing the audience in a world within this neighborhood in New York, a neighborhood where Lin-Manuel Miranda grew up in, bringing us the experience with great emotion and amazing visual images.

If you can, see this on the biggest screen you can. It is worth it.

5 stars

It is time to dive back into the files of Ed and Lorraine Warren and base a movie loosely on the cases within. Yes, it is the third movie of the Conjuring trilogy, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It.

This film is inspired by the true case in 1981 of Arne Johnson (played here by Ruairi O’Connor) where the defendant of a murder case claimed to be “not guilty by reason of demon possession.” This Conjuring film takes that trial case and weaves a background for it, involving everyone’s favorite demon fighting married couple.

I have not seen any trailers for this movie and it sounded as if the trailers made this film sound like they were going to be heavily involved in the court case, which sounds like a fascinating idea. However, the court parts are all of five minutes (maybe) of the film with the biggest part of the film dealing with the investigation of the Warrens searching for the witch that cursed Arne.

The film started off with Arne’s girlfriend’s little brother David (Julian Hilliard), who had been possessed and Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) were trying to help. However, during the ritual, the demon switched from David to Arne. When Arne eventually ends up killing someone, the Warrens are back on the case.

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is most definitely the weakest of the three Conjuring core movies. While it is considerably better than most of the “spin-off” Conjuring films out there, this is a step back from the high quality of the first two installments. Still, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do was not a huge step back.

Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson are clearly the heart and soul of these movies, and they are once again. Their love and their connection is what The Conjuring series is based upon and these films would not work at all without that connection. They are very smooth with these roles now and bring a confidence into their portrayals.

The unexpected heart issue that occurs early in the film was very effective and made me concerned for the victim the entire movie. At every moment, I was concerned that there would be a reoccurrence of the event to a more drastic result. That helped create a tension to these scenes.

There are some excellent scenes that are in the investigation that build a great deal of tension too. There is a very well done scene in a morgue that was anxiety creating. There is the scene of Vera Farmiga on the edge of the cliff that was frightening.

The story felt too disjointed at times and the investigation did not create an overall feeling of fear and concern. I was not connected to Arne or his girlfriend Debbie (Sarah Catherine Hook) as I was for the Warrens and since we spent a good deal of time with them, these characters dragged the film down too much. I would have liked more of a reason to have cared for them besides they are the new victims the Warrens are helping.

In fact, I think I would have liked to have had more of the courtroom story. Had the story been tied to the court events, I think I would have cared more than I did for Arne.

The first two Conjuring films were directed by James Wan, but this time Wan is strictly in the producer (and writing) credit and the third film is directed by Michael Chaves, who directed The Curse of La Llorona in the Conjuring spin off series. Taking nothing away from Chaves, who does a fine job here, Wan is an exceptional director and brings a level of excellence to his projects that just might be missing here.

Overall, I think fans of the Conjuring series will not be disappointed with The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. It does not feel as if it matches up with the first two core Conjuring films, but it certainly is stronger than The Nun, Annabelle, or The Curse of La Llorona.

3.2 stars

Disney has been creating live action films of their animated movies for awhile now, and they have been featuring characters who have been villains and showing where they came from. We had Maleficent and its sequel and now we see the origin of one of the foulest villains in the Disney vault, Cruella De Vil.

Emma Stone takes her turn as Cruella in this bombastic prequel to101 Dalmatians. We see Cruella, whose real name was Estella as a precocious child who was always in trouble in school. She had a loving and patient mother (Emily Beecham) who supported her daughter right up until the day the mother died. At a party held by fashionista The Baroness (Emma Thompson), the Baroness’s attack dogs (which happen to be Dalmatians) leapt at Estella’s mother and knocked her over the edge of a cliff.

Estella ran from the party and wound up on the street, being brought into a pair of street con men and pickpockets, Jasper (Joel Fry) and Horace (Paul Walter Hauser). She grew up helping them pull cons and steal from others.

Estella always wanted to be in the world of fashion, though and she continued to be sad. Jasper was able to arrange for Estella to get a low-level job at a fashion design house. Estella caught the eye of The Baroness and is brought to her team. Estella was intent on pulling herself up the chain and showing the skill that she had in fashion design.

Emma Stone and Emma Thompson are great in this movie and they have a natural adversarial relationship that was totally believable. Both women wind up dressed to the nines with stunning costume design and amazing hairstyles. The film looked amazing and should be an early lead for hair and makeup as well as costume design Oscars in 2022.

The CGI is really good too. All of the dogs in this movie are, apparently, CGI creatures and they are all excellent. Disney has done a much better job here than they did in Call of the Wild from last year. That CGI was terribly distracting whereas this CGI flows effectively with the action and look of the film.

They give these characters, especially the iconic ones, some good depth to them and we see more than just the one note evil characters that they seem to be in the animated films. I was rooting for Estella to be successful even though I knew that she would eventually become the woman who wanted to skin a bunch of dogs to make a coat.

I do think that at 2 hours and 15 minutes, Cruella was a little long and could have used some trimming here and there. There was a whole punk rock sequence that felt unneeded. There are several other moments like this that feel tossed in for unknown purposes. I think this could have been a tight 1:45 run time without too much difficulty.

I’m not sure if Emma Stone feels like Cruella De Vil by the end of the movie, much the same way that Angelina Jolie felt like a different character than Maleficent. That is not to say that Emma Stone wasn’t great, because she was. It just seems that Emma went from Estella to Cruella too easily.

There are some holes in the story, but I did enjoy watching this. Great soundtrack in the film too.

3.5 stars

A Quiet Place (2018) was one of my favorite movies of that year so I was anticipating the sequel a lot…last year. A Quiet Place Part II was one of the first major films to be delayed because of the worldwide pandemic that struck us last March. In fact, I believe the sequel was a weekend or so away before they delayed it into 2021. That was a shame, but they say good things come to those who wait, and that is absolutely the case here.

A Quiet Place Part II is both a sequel and parts prequel as the film starts back on Day One of the alien invasion that sent the world into its apocalyptic future. We see the Abbott family attending Marcus’ (Noah Jupe) baseball games when a comet streaked across the sky. No one was sure what was happening but we got to see the reactions of both Evelyn (Emily Blunt) and Lee (John Krasinski) to the confusion.

That opening with the aliens landing, which was featured heavily in the promotional materials for the film, was a distinct different feel from the film we had seen back in 2018. This was extremely loud and full of chaos as these creatures attacked and murdered the humans without any apparent reason. I like the fact that the film does not feel the need to explain the motives behind the monsters. It is not about the aliens, it is about the people being affected by the aliens. But the loudness was there clearly as a counterbalance to the opening in the original film.

After the opening, we come back to the present where we see the remaining Abbott family leaving their house in search of somewhere to continue their lives. They wind up finding a family friend (who was at the baseball game in the prequel section), Emmett (Cillian Murphy) and beg him for help.

The film is really the kids’ movie, especially Millicent Simmonds, playing deaf Regan. She has stepped into the role left by Lee’s death in the previous movie and she shoulders that responsibility extremely well. She is shown to be brave, intelligent and adept. Every time the film flips into her POV, it is disturbing and shaky for the audience. She shows her skills throughout her path in the story.

Noah Jupe also got to show off his acting chops here, and he may have taken more of a character arc than his on screen sister. Something dramatic happened to him at the beginning of the movie and provides him with a serious conflict to overcome. I think Noah Jupe is an outstanding young actor. I have been impressed with him in every role he has had.

I do think there was a little slowness from just after the prequel section until the plot really gets underway, but the tension and suspense after that really ratchets up to a level that kept me uneasy the entire time. There may have been a few too many jump scares, but every one of them worked on me. The second part of the movie had a much more action centered story than the original, which made the film feel new.

A Quiet Place Part II is a sequel, but it does not feel like the same movie as the original. Many sequels fall into the trap of just redoing the same movie and then calling it a new film. This has the familiar characters, but it places them in different situations and made me feel like this is a true second installment in the greater story.

The ending is very satisfying, but it does end suddenly, leaving me wanting more. At least I would have liked a little bit of wrap up to these characters, a chance to wind down from the high stakes that the film ended with.

We had less of Emily Blunt, but what we did get was big time kick ass. Cillian Murphy was a great addition to the cat as well.

This was a great follow up to a brilliant first film. I do believe there is plenty of story to continue, if the creative side of the movie would like to continue. This may be a great film to see in a theater, if you have not yet ventured out since the pandemic.

4.75 stars