Monster super slugfest. When you get two of the most iconic giant monsters together, monster super slugfest is what you should expect. Thankfully, Godzilla vs. Kong delivers in that department.

When Godzilla unexpectedly attacks an Apex Cybernetics technical site, CEO Walter Simmons (Demián Bichir) approached expert/author/scientist Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsgård) for ideas on what to do. Nathan traveled to Skull Island to try and convince a former colleague, Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), to use Kong, who she had been studying for years, to lead them to Hollow Earth, the legendary location believed to be the birthplace of the Titans.

Bringing Kong with them, the giant ape’s very presence attracted the attention of Godzilla, kicking off the ultimate battle of the alphas.

I believe that this movie is the best of the recent series of monster movies that include Godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island, and Godzilla: King of the Monsters. None of these movies were bad, per se. In fact, I liked most of them. However, they all suffered from the same misstep. The film focused way too much on the human characters and limited the amount of time with the monsters.

Admittedly, these movies require some form of human characters to hold the film together between huge monster fights, but some of the previous films may not have known exactly what the intent was of the film.

There are a couple of interesting characters here. The little deaf girl who had formed a connection with Kong, Jia (Kaylee Hottle) was one of the best. Kaylee Hottle makes her film debut in this role and she does a fantastic job. Millie Bobby Brown returns in her role as Madison from Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Kyler Chandler returns as her father with very little to do. Brian Tyree Henry plays a paranoid podcaster filled with conspiracy theories the whole way.

Godzilla vs. Kong does a much better job of balancing the humans and the monsters. The film seems to clearly have these human characters as thin plot points. They exist to put the minutes in the film as down periods. This film knows what we want.

The battles with Kong and Godzilla are some of the best of the series. The CGI and effects are beautiful and awe-inspiring. Once the film brings Kong and Godzilla together, it picks up the pace dramatically. While the first 30-45 minutes are fairly slow, the first watery fight is amazing.

The third act of the movie is just fire. Some of the best monster fights you could hope for. These battles are planned out perfectly and the choreography is on point. Yes, the plot is thin and contains plenty of holes, but it is good enough for what it needed to be. It needed to be there for an excuse to bring Kong and Godzilla face to face.

And kudos to the writers in having a clear cut winner between the two Titans while still maintaining the aura and the mystique of both of these icons.

Godzilla vs. Kong is a lot of fun and a full blown spectacle that should be enjoyed as what it is. A monster throwdown.

4 stars

One of the movies that has received some Oscar nominations that I had never seen was The Father. Sir Anthony Hopkins was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a film that I was not 100% sure actually had been made. That’s a joke, but it has not been readily available for sure.

However, The Father arrived this weekend on streaming (specifically Vudu) and I decided that the air of mystery on this film needed to end.

Hopkins played Anthony, an elderly man, whose daughter Anne (Olivia Colman) has been taking care of him and he has been becoming confused.

However, this is not simply a movie talking about Alzheimer’s Disease or any sort of decline in mental acumen. It is more than that. The film gives us scenes from the POV of Anthony. By doing this, the film creates a enigmatic jumble of memories and scenes that change per each one and we, the audience, have no idea which one is the actual reality. This is because Anthony was not sure of which of the moments was reality either. It kept the viewers totally off balance and uncertain about what they were seeing.

Anne might be movie to France or she might be looking for someone to move in and help take care of her father or she might be living with a man or they might be living in her father’s flat or her flat or … well, you get the idea.

By choosing this style, director Florian Zeller creates a symbolic reality about what living with this horrendous disease is like and going out of the way to provide an air of confusion to the audience.

Sir Anthony Hopkins is wonderful here, never sure exactly what is going on or why he is unable to straighten the thoughts out in his head. He keeps referring to another daughter, a painter named Lucy. We never are sure what had happened to Lucy, or honestly if she ever really existed in the first place, though it seemed as if she was killed in some kind of accident. Hopkins masterfully brings all kinds of emotional moments to the haze around him in reacting to Anne and the others that come in contact with him.

Olivia Colman is excellent here too, given a difficult assignment. She plays off what Anthony does and shows how important he is to her and yet, we understand the pressures and frustrations that go along with the role. She is shown in each of the POVs with a differing reaction but equal amounts of guilt and pain.

This is a powerful story with a lot of pain and depressing moments. It might be a film that is challenging to watch and may stick with you for awhile.

4 stars

It is here.

After years of squabbling and online trolling, the fans of Zack Snyder have helped accomplish it. The infamous “Snyder Cut” has arrived on HBO Max after WB approached Snyder to complete his vision of what should have been in the 2017 Justice League movie that he had started but had to leave before it was completed. Snyder tragically had to leave the project when his daughter passed away.

WB had brought in Joss Whedon to finish the project and he wound up doing a lot of re-filming and re-editing, taking Zack Snyder’s ideas and repurposing them. The Justice League (2017) was a failure and cast members and fans were calling for the release of the Snyder cut. Some did not believe that this mythical “Snyder cut” actually existed. But, as I said earlier, it is here.

We will get this out of the way immediately. Zack Snyder’s Justice League is a better movie than the Justice League (2017). Period. It can not be debated. Of course, it is double in time (4 hours compared to 2) and there is no sign of the CGI-killing Superman mustache so that has to be considered a vast improvement right there.

The story in this new version is considerably more coherent and it is easier to follow. Many of the scenes that appeared in both films make more sense here than they did in the previous movie. The characters get a considerable amount more time and it helps them tremendously.

In particular, Ray Fisher, who played Victor Stone (aka Cyborg), had an amazingly different film role here. Fisher was one of the earliest and loudest voices about releasing this film and how unhappy he was with Joss Whedon, and you can absolutely see why. Victor Stone is way better here than he was in the previous version. He was wasted away in that film, but here, you can see the relevance and the importance of Cyborg. His story with his father Silas (Joe Morton) was so improved here (although it is a typical father-son estranged story). It worked much better and provided some important emotional beats later in the film.

Ezra Miller’s Flash though felt a little creepy considering the situation Miller found himself in a year or so ago. The memory of his choking that girl, whether it was real or not, did play on my opinion of this character. Flash did get some funny lines, but he felt off to me.

It is a four hour movie and, I will be honest, the first hour or so dragged for me. There was a lot of set up and I am usually in favor of such things, but it just did not move with the flow that I would have hoped. Perhaps it is the downtrodden tone that seems to cover much of Zack Snyder’s DC films. However, I think the film really picked up and I found myself really engaged in the third act battle with Steppenwolf.

Let’s talk about Steppenwolf. In the 2017 film, he was the single biggest problem I had with the movie. Every time he was on screen I could not see anything but a failed and sloppy CGI character. The CGI felt unfinished and just constantly distracting. Here, Steppenwolf is much better. I would even go as far as to say, he was watchable. The face on Steppenwolf was still a problem, but it did not become a huge issue and I found it acceptable.

However, this film had too many moments of CGI that were poorly rendered. Especially the CGI used to create Darkseid. Darkseid did not make a lot of appearances (considerably less than I had thought he was going to) and I did not like the look of the character. Cyborg too had several moments, though fewer overall, of CGI issues. When the super hero genre has a character such as Thanos, the CGI for the big bad guys need to be stepped up.

Though some of the characters had some iffy CGI, the backgrounds and the settings were consistently beautiful and was extremely artistic. Though, in my opinion, it could have used some brightness here and there, for what was here, the art was gorgeous.

A couple of other problems I had fall under the realm of SPOILERS so be aware. First, there was the weirdest cameo in the middle of the movie that was revisited at the very end. I am not sure why they felt the need to include this character. Secondly, I found the “futurescape” dream that Bruce (Ben Affleck) had where Superman is evil and Darkseid has taken over Earth, was a silly and unnecessary tag on to the film simply to get the Joker (Jared Leto) into the movie and to show Flash in his outfit from Batman v. Superman (when he appeared to Bruce in another dream). This was just a waste of time and it goes nowhere. END OF SPOILERS.

I did not like the use of the Amazons this time. It felt different than the first film, which I thought was one of the better moments. Here it just did not work for me. I also was not a huge fan of the exposition drop of the past battle with Darkseid and the “age of heroes.”

The best part of the film is still the cast and their interactions with each other. We did lose that great scene with Aquaman and the magic lasso, but there was so much more there that it balanced out. Zack Snyder’s Justice League was better than I thought it was going to be and I enjoyed the overall film.

3.8 stars

I am a fan of Tom Holland and the Russo Brothers. Unfortunately, their new collaboration does not match the work the trio reached in the MCU.

Cherry is the new movie debuting on Apple TV + this weekend, directed by Joe and Anthony Russo and starring Tom Holland. It was based on a novel of the same name that told the story of a troubled young man who, after it seemed as if Emily (Ciara Bravo), the love of his life, was leaving him to go to college in Montreal, joined the army and wound up a medic in Iraq. He spent two years in the horrors of war in the Middle East, pushing his mental wellness to the edge. When he returned, he was suffering from severe PTSD and had to turn to drugs to get through the day.

There are several problems with Cherry, but Tom Holland is not one of them. Holland gives a stellar performance, elevating the material that, in many cases, really let him down. He was very believable in every moment of his pain and his suffering trying to make it through the day. He has good chemistry with Ciara Bravo, who is also excellent in her performance.

However, the script never goes above the expected steps that would take this movie into a different, more original direction. It is overlong and drags in the middle badly. Cherry has a feel like Forrest Gump on crack.

There are too many attempts to turn the film into a stylish artistic piece. The POV from Tom Holland’s butthole took things just too far for my taste. Most of these shots felt like a desperate attempt to find a relevancy for the movie because the movie’s story was lacking in anything special.

None of the other characters in the film, outside of the two main ones, are anything more than stereotypes and poorly drawn caricatures. Any attempt at giving them more to do was wasted by the movie and just felt like more clutter added to an already messy tale. It felt as if several of these characters and moments involving them could have been cut out to make room for more exploration of the main story.

Motivations of the characters were messy as well, including some of the decisions made by Cherry that would end up affecting his life forever. The ending as well felt tacked on and did not seem to fit with the narrative that had been told up until that point.

Good performances and director tricks do not a movie make. Especially one that lasts 2 hours and 20 minutes.

2.4 stars

What a difference a year makes.

If Monster Hunter would have come out in theaters a year ago (around that at least), I would have gone opening weekend.

however, then the pandemic struck and I had to wait on Monster Hunter. It popped up on streaming during that time and I looked at it, but, with the low Rotten Tomatoes score and critical question marks, I did not want to rent it for $19.99. I figured it could wait until the price dropped. Again, unlike prr-pandemic. Bad reviews did not keep me from attending the film in theaters, but the viewing at home was a different beast.

So the price on Monster Hunter finally dropped to a reasonable level this weekend and I decided that it was time to watch it.

Should have kept pushing it off.

Lt. Artemis (Milla Jovovich) and her loyal troops are somehow transported to a different world where gigantic monsters are out to kill and eat unimportant side characters. As her crew fall one by one, Artemis meets another person, a mysterious Hunter (Tony Jaa) in a struggle to survive and an attempt to find her way back home.

Just thought that the premise sounded somewhat like Land of the Lost, only more violent.

So many problems here. I couldn’t give two craps about any of the characters. The film does not give me any reason to care about them. It barely introduces them. These extra characters are here simply for slaughter. It is like a slasher movie. Because of that, I felt no concern for any of them when they were being eaten or stabbed or…whatever.

When Artemis and Hunter meet, they spend more time fighting and mistrusting one another and I am not allowed to see them as friends or any other type of relationship.

Ron Perlman is in this too. After appearing in a nonsensical cold open, he does not return until late into the film to provide some needed exposition so the audience understands what is happening. It is far too late for that as I had stopped caring about anything well before this.

There is the absolute minimal plot happening here. The dialogue is utterly terrible. When Hunter arrives and speaks a different language, the dialogue actually gets better.

To be fair, the CGI monsters do look cool. It could have been much worse but it was easily the best aspect of Monster Hunter.

Based off a video game series, Paul W.S. Anderson’s latest film is very much like the rest of his oeuvre. Loud and limited. Dumb. Do not waste your time on Monster Hunter, and if you do, shut off your brain and stuff your face full of popcorn.

1.25 stars

I fought it as long as I could.

I am not a fan of Disney + releasing these movies on Disney + as a Premium premier film. Charging the customers an extra fee (especially the large fee of 30 dollars) to watch a movie on a streaming service that they already pay for is really Capitalism at its worst. While I paid for Mulan, I wanted to ignore the latest film Disney released in this manner.

It lasted about a day and a half.

Although I do not believe any movie would be worth spending that much money to view, Raya and the Last Dragon comes pretty dang close.

Years ago, humans and dragons lived together in the land of Kumandra. That time of peace would not last. When the monstrous creatures called Druun arrived, the dragons sacrificed themselves to save humanity, leaving behind one gem of the dragon power. The lands of humans fractured apart and fought over the gem, ending the time of Kumandra.

Benja (Daniel Dae Kim) and his daughter Raya (Kelly Marie Tran)were the gem’s guardians, but Benja had a hope to bring the land back together and reached out to reclaim Kumandra. Unfortunately, betrayal would be the order of the day as Namaari (Gemma Chan), the daughter of one of the separate lands, pretended to befriend Raya, by sharing the connection they had over the rumor of the last dragon, Sisu (Awkwafina), to get her hands on the gem. In the battle, the gem was shattered and the different pieces went to members of different lands. This also saw the return of the dangerous Druun. which would turn to the humans to stone.

When Raya’s father turned to stone, she set off on a quest to reclaim the shards of the gem and find the last dragon to save the world from the Druun.

This film was immensely beautiful and featured spectacular animation. Disney continues its amazing animated work with this artistic masterpiece. The character designs and the settings are a master class of animation.

The voice cast was every bit as wonderful. There was subtlety in the voices that both inform and create character. Awkwafina’s work is extra special and both Tran and Chan play their parts perfectly. Add to the impressive voice cast Benedict Wong, Sandra Oh, Izaac Wang, Alan Tudyk, and Jona Xiao. The voice cast brought their top game to help tell this emotional story.

Now, the story itself certainly had some familiar beats to it. However, that was not necessarily a bad thing. It depends on what you do with the story that matters and the creators of Raya and the Last Dragon do a wonderful job of tugging at the emotions of the audience and creating new steps among the recognizable tale.

I believe the theme of this movie is one that is vital in today’s world. The shattering of the Kumandra society over material items and the loss of trust among the people led directly to the divisive nature of the land. The true magic only comes from trust and having the people of the world, despite their differences, work together for a common goal. This is a warning to the world that we currently live in that our separation can rob the world of the magic.

I am happy I decided to go ahead and pay the money that the execs of Disney deemed necessary for me to see this movie at home. I wish they would make such a fee a little more affordable so that the strength of this beautifully positive message could be seen by more people of the world.

4.5 stars

It seems like every other week now, we are getting a new film that falls into the sub-genre of Groundhog Day/repeating the day films. Just within the last couple of years there has been Happy Death Day, Palm Springs, Before I Fall, The Map of Tiny Little Things and I am sure that there are some that I did not see. We could go back even further if we had to. And now we have the newest entry into the sub-genre: Boss Level.

Frank Grillo is Roy Pulver, a man who is being pursued by a group of assassins and who have died multiple times so far. Roy kept reawakening in his bed on the same day. He has no idea what or why this is happening, but as he is learning about the events, he continues to press through the day, in trial and error, to discover the truth.

Naomi Watts is here as Roy’s former girlfriend Jemma and Mel Gibson is her boss Colonel Clive Ventor. Gibson is not actually that important to the story, which is fun.

Boss Level, which is a reference to video games, is funny, fairly clever and entertainingly violent. The assassins that are chasing Roy are all just excellent and are such an awesome piece. One of the best was Guan Yin (Selina Yo) who has a Chinese sword that she uses to decapitate Roy several times, in which she responds, “I am Guan Yo and Guan Yo has done this.” LOL.

The story went in different directions as it progressed and it had some real heart, especially with Roy and his son Joe, which makes perfect sense as Joe is played by Frank Grillo’s real life son, Rio. Rio Grillo may not have had a huge role in the film, but what I saw I really liked. He seemed to have a calm presence and a natural aura about him. I really liked his performance.

This feels like the perfect vehicle for Frank Grillo and the type of character that he has played up until this point. I will say that I am unsure how I felt at the very end of the movie as they left the last scene on a bit of a cliffhanger. The more I think about it, the more I think this is a great way to wrap up a movie like this. I can see some people being unsatisfied by this result.

This time loop sub-genre has been a pretty successful one as there have been more positive movies in it than ones that failed. Boss Level was a lot of fun and had me on the edge of my seat for much of the run time. It debuted on Hulu this weekend.

4.25 stars

Dropping a night early on Amazon Prime, Coming 2 America was trying to do something that is really difficult to do: be a good sequel to a comedy movie 30 years later. There are way more sequels that were terrible (Zoolander 2, Dumb and Dumber 2, Anchorman 2 etc) than those that are good. Coming 2 America had a huge hurdle to get over to avoid falling into the same club.

Sadly, it could not do it.

I was disappointed with Coming 2 America. I had been excited for this project and was anticipating watching this movie. When it dropped early, it was so unexpected that it felt special, and, while I would not put it in the same category as some of those other sequels I mentioned, this was nowhere near what I had hoped it would be.

Prince Akeem (Eddie Murphy) is still in Zamunda with his princess Lisa (Shari Headley) and his three daughter. As Akeem’s father King Jaffe Joffer (James Earl Jones) is on his deathbed, a neighboring despot General Izzi (Wesley Snipes) is looking to grab some power, either by marrying off his son to one of the daughters of Akeem or by something more violent.

Trying to look strong, Akeem discovered that he had a bastard son Lavelle (Jermaine Fowler) when he went to America to “sow his royal oats.” Apparently, Lavelle’s mother Mary (Leslie Jones) had been a set up by Semmi (Arsenio Hall) and she wound up drugging Akeem and having sex with him. She wound up pregnant, and Akeem did not know it had happened.

Ignoring that date rape part, Akeem came back to Queens to find his illegitimate son, which he does easily, thanks to the same old barbers that were there thirty years ago (without changing one bit). He brings Lavelle back to Zamunda to attempt and make him into a prince which includes a pre-arranged marriage.

One of the biggest problems with this movie is that it plays on the nostalgia of the original Coming to America so hard that large sections of the movie feels like a repeat of what we saw before. They even replay several scenes from the first movie in the sequel. Why do we need to see the same bits over again in 2021?

There are some strong parts to the film as well. It is not a total failure. Westley Snipes is tremendous as General Izzi, continuing his revitalized career with such interesting choices. Snipes was surprisingly funnier than many of the comedians in the movie. Jermaine Fowler developed Lavelle into a decent character, though he started out as an obnoxious kid. There were some definitely funny moments as well. My favorite scene may have been Akeem and Cleo (John Amos) having a heart to heart talk in the back of the Zamunda version of McDowells.

Unfortunately, parts of this did not work either. Lavelle’s “true love” story with the royal hair dressed felt forced and unrealistic. There was not enough scenes between the two of them to really find the investment in their relationship. There were too many characters who were there to just scream. Not only was there Murphy, Arsenio, Leslie Jones, but also there was Tracy Morgan. Historically, I have not been a fan of that style of comedy.

There were a ton of cameos here too including Morgan Freeman, Salt-N-Pepa, En Vogue, Colin Jost, Gladys Knight, Dikembe Mutombo, and Louie Anderson. These were fun and kept you on your toes while watching.

It is just such a Xerox copy of so much of Coming to America, with just a few little tweaks, that it did not feel new or original. In fact, I found a good chunk of the movie to be boring because I knew what was going to happen. I like al these actors, but there just felt as if there was to much. This version did not take its time like the original and it did not have the same amount of heart or innocence.

I had seen a trailer and it made me nervous because I did not find it funny. Sadly, for me, the trailer did display the movie as I saw it. While I did not hate this, I was absolutely disappointed.

2.75 stars

Based on the novel Guantánamo Diary, The Mauritanian tells a tragic and painful story about a man in Guantánamo under suspicion that he was involved as the organizer of the 9/11 Attacks.

I had not heard anything about this movie until I was watching Collider’s FYI with Scott Mantz, Perri Nemiroff and Jeff Sneider and they were talking about award nominations and they came across a nomination for Jodie Foster. None of them were familiar with the movie, The Mauritanian, which intrigued me.

When this came across the streaming services, I had learned that it was a thriller and had some court elements to it, both of which appealed to me. I rented it.

It was a difficult watch at times, but the performances were outstanding and the story was one that struck at the heart of the United States and the policies of torture that engulfed the foreign policy of our country from the days following the fall of the Twin Towers. It was ugly. It was difficult to wrap my mind around it.

In this true story, Tahar Rahim played Mohamedou Ould Slahi, the man who was captured and held in prison for years because of a apparent connection between him and Osama Bin Laden. Defense attorney Nancy Hollander (Jodie Foster) and her associate Teri Duncan (Shailene Woodley) wound up on his case, despite not being sure, at first, that he was innocent.

Rahim, in particular, delivers a knockout performance and dominates his screen presence./ He creates such a character that an audience could root for. The building relationship between Rahim and Nancy Hollander is another strong point of the movie.

Benedict Cumberbatch is Stuart Couch, the military man who was supposed to prosecute the case against Rahim. His American accent was a little iffy.

The Mauritanian was a tough watch and had one of the best go-to-black moments at the end of the movie ever. Great performances and a heartbreaking story carries this film. There may be other films more powerful, but that takes nothing away from this.

3.8 stars

Found this new animated movie on Netflix last night and it found its way onto the list to watch this weekend. I have always been a big fan of bigfoot and this premise intrigued me. Unfortunately, the actual execution of the premise was lacking.

I did not know that this was a sequel to another animated movie from 2017 called Son of Bigfoot, and that might actually have helped the viewing of this film since much of the backstory with Bigfoot and his family felt crammed in to this. Understanding that it is more of a synopsis of a previous material helps.

Bigfoot (Alexis Victor) has decided to use his 15 minutes of fame to help protest against an oil company’s planned drilling of Alaskan land when he goes missing. His son Adam (Kylian Trouillard), his wife Shelly (Marie Chevalot), Wilbur the grizzly bear (Frederic Souterelle) and the raccoon Trapper (Sébastien Desjours) take off to help him.

This was a below average animated movie that might appeal to the children since there are some funny, cute talking animals involved. Wilbur had a couple of funny moments and I seen worse.

However, as an adult, even an adult who loves animation, this was not for me. The story was simple and stereotypical. The messages were over-the-top and obvious. The animation was fine and the voice work was okay. Nothing really stood out on either of those areas.

The villain was the head of the drilling company, Connor Mandrake (Pierre Tessier) pretended to be a friend of the environment but. in truth, was a typically boring oil executive. And he was not a smart one either as there were several moments where I thought to myself, “Why is he doing this?” or “Why didn’t he just ____?”

The film also overused the tiresome phrase of “fake news” which is a comment that has its own connotation to in this day and age. The use of it is meant as a joke, but it was anything but.

If you need a movie to put on for the kiddies, then you could do worse than Bigfoot Family. However, have something for you to do while its on.

2.6 stars

Director Lee Daniels has taken a section of the life of a jazz legend, Billie Holiday, and brought to life a new biopic on the singer. Originally scheduled to be released in December, the movie wound up being sold to Hulu, where it was released this weekend.

The film follows Billie Holiday during a period of her life that she was being pursued by the Federal Department of Narcotics. The feds claimed they were looking at Holiday because of her heroin use (Billie Holiday did spend a year in prison because of this), but the movie and book this was based on, claimed that another of the fed’s purposes for their dogged pursuit of Holiday was to prevent her from singing a song called “Strange Fruit.” “Strange Fruit” was a controversial song that dealt with the topic of lynching and helped lead into the era of civil rights.

However, the fed’s had some inner issues as Agent Jimmy Fletcher (Trevante Rhodes), who had been assigned to keep track of Holiday, ended up in an affair with her.

Andra Day played Billie Holiday and she was tremendous. Day was easily the best part of the movie. While much of the movie was slower and a bit muddled, Day’s performance elevated the film to a much higher level. This is an especially impressive trick as Day has not had any major movie acting experience. She also did much of the singing in the film as well and she was wonderful. The music of the movie was another strength.

Many of the scenes felt disjointed as the complexity of Billie Holiday’s life did not seem to come together here well. There were sections of the movie that dragged along, but any time Day was there, there was a new life to the scenes. The inclusion of “Strange Fruit” is one of those examples as it did not seem to be woven into the story arc effectively. They leave it and come back at other moments and it did not blend well with the drug abuse of her life.

In the end, the reason to see this movie is Andra Day in the lead role. She does an admirable job both as a singer and an actor.

3 stars

A24 has been a bastion of light among the world of independent cinema for several years now. They have consistently released some of the best films of the year, while not losing focus on the ideals of the independent theater. Minari is another triumphant success for the movie company.

Minari follows the life experiences of a Korean family that has moved to a small farm in Arkansas. Steven Yeun played Jacob Yi, a highly successful chick sexer who decided that a change of lifestyle was necessary for his family. His wife, Monica (Yeri Han) was not enthused with the move and this caused some friction among the couple. Adding to the worries was the health of their youngest of two children David (Alan S. Kim), whose heart flutter was a concern for the family.

In order to help out with the family, Monica’s mother, Soonja (Yuh-Jung Youn) comes from Korea, but she was not quite the grandmotherly-type. Soonja clashed with David’s expectations of what a grandmother was supposed to be like.

As with many independent movies, the film is more of a series of scenes from the characters’ lives than a structured story narrative. In this case, the performances from this group of actors really standout from the calm and quiet storytelling. Steven Yeun, best known for his role as Glenn from the Walking Dead, carries his character with such a pride and determination despite the struggles and the problems facing him from his choice for his family. The relationship between Jacob and Monica was strained seriously, but there was always the feeling of love with them.

The standout performance though is clearly that of Yuh-Jung Youn. When she arrived as Grandma, a foul-mouthed, brash woman, everyone, especially David, are on their toes. Yuh-Jung Youn is amazing and you can not take your eyes off of her. You are never sure what she was going to do next and she brought a humor and a passion to the story. Her developing relationship with David is a strength of the film, and the results are human as can be.

Directed beautifully by Lee Isaac Chung, Minari is one of the leading candidates for Oscar glory this year. It was a film that I enjoyed very much. It provided a glance at the immigrant life and the attempt at the American dream.

4 stars

We have an early leader for worst movie of the year.

Tom & Jerry, the classic cartoon cat and mouse, debuted this weekend in some open theaters and on HBO Max and jumped to the lead in terribleness. Honestly, I would not feel right even saying the line, “This is a film that kids will like, but parents will not” because the fact of the matter is this… kids should not be exposed to stupidity of this caliber.

There is a plot, sort of, but it revolves around the human characters. Tom & Jerry are cartoon animals living in a real world with humans around. They find themselves in a hotel to cause shenanigans after our heroine Kayla (Chloë Grace Moretz) sabotaged another person’s job interview at the hotel, stole her resume and took the interview herself. Nice message to the little children watching.

There was a great cast in Tom & Jerry reduced to slapstick and a brain damaged script. Not only was there Moretz, but there was Michael Pena, Ken Jeong, Rob Delany (Peter from Deadpool 2), Colin Jost (of SNL fame) and Jordan Bolger. The cast was wasted, and yet seemed to take up a lot of screen time. Perhaps that is because Tom and Jerry do not speak and someone had to carry the narrative.

There was rapping pigeons too. In the first scene of the movie with the rapping pigeons, one of them let off a pigeon poop at the other. I knew what kind of movie this one would be. There was also a scene where poor Michael Pena had to stop to clean up the poop that the dog Spike (Bobby Cannavale, no really) took in the middle of the crosswalk. High brow comedy, for sure.

The poop jokes could be excused if they were actually funny, but they were only cringy. I was looking at the time after only a half hour (which felt like triple that time). This movie was long too. Over a hundred minutes is way longer than this movie had any right to be.

The plot surrounding a wedding of a rich couple was the main driving force of the film, but it made little to no sense and depended upon a bunch of stereotypes. There was no need for it.

Characters bounced around, changing characteristics depending on what the plot required them to have. No one in the film was smart or elevated the film above the words on the page. It was a painful watch, but I was proud of myself for finishing it because, since I was viewing it at home on HBO Max, it would have been very easy to shut it off and turn to something else. Minari is available on Vudu this weekend.

Tom & Jerry is an utter waste. Go watch some of the classic Tom & Jerry shorts instead. They’re much better.

1 star

I Care a Lot is the first movie ever that has made me want to root for the Russian drug dealing gangster.

Released this weekend on Netflix. I Care a Lot is a black comedy featuring a group of characters that are, simply put, the worst people around. It’s like Ruthless People and Horrible Bosses without the cartoonish moments.

Marla Grayson (Rosamund Pike) is a legal guardian who uses her court appointed position to drain the bank accounts of elderly people who are court-determined to be unable to take care of themselves. Her manipulation of the court system made me feel bad for the other lawyer. When her doctor friend sends her an older woman without family, friends, but a tone of money, Marla realizes that she has found a “cherry,” an absolute easy mark. Easy money.

However, the woman, Jennifer Peterson (Dianne West) was more than what she appeared. Turns out that Jennifer Peterson had her own dark secret that was coming into conflict with Marla’s plans. SPOILERS We discover that Jennifer Peterson was not her real name and the woman was the mother of the presumed dead Russian gangster Roma Lunyov (Peter Dinklage). END OF SPOILER.

Marla, along with her partner and lover Fran (Eliza Gonzalez), are such rotten people that I found myself openly rooting against them and hoping that they would pay to karma. Rosamund Pike does a fantastic job of making me hate her. Her performance was great as I never once thought of her as Rosamund Pike. Instead, she was the selfish manipulator of these helpless elderly people.

She was very much like a cockroach too since everything that happened to her would never get rid of her. Peter Dinklage was a frightening presence in the film and these two characters had some powerful scenes together.

What was keeping me watching the movie was the hope of seeing Marla get her comeuppance. Even when the film switches gears and wants you to support Marla and Fran, I did not want to do it. I wanted this character to face justice for her ill-gotten gains, and when it started to look as if she was not going to pay the price, I was getting upset with the film.

SPOILER Yet, when the ending arrived, I was very satisfied on the fate of Marla with a call back from the beginning of the movie. END OF SPOILER.

I can see where some audience members may be split by this movie. Still, I found it to be very entertaining and I was pleased with the result of the movie. Rosamund Pike was exceptional as this horrendous woman and she easily matched the presence of the counter-balance of the film.

4.25 stars

You know a movie that starts out with animated clips of the Silver Surfer and Wolverine was going to be right up my alley.

Based on the children’s novel by Kate DiCamillo, Flora & Ulysses dropped on Disney + this weekend and gave us what we never knew we wanted… a super hero squirrel. And I am not talking about Squirrel Girl, either.

Flora (Matilda Lawler) was a ten-year old cynic, who loved comic books, especially those drawn by her father George (Ben Schwartz). Unfortunately, George had fallen on hard times in the comic industry and was currently separated from his author wife Phyllis (Alyson Hannigan). Flora was looking for something hopeful and she found it in the form of a squirrel, who after being accidentally sucked up by the neighbor’s runaway rumba-like vacuum, gained super powers.

Flora and Ulysses bond quickly (Flora actually saved Ulysses’s life with mouth to mouth) and she took him home, leading to shenanigans and chaotic events.

I had some doubts heading into this film, but I was entertained thoroughly. I found Flora & Ulysses funnier than I thought it would be, engaging relationship between the characters and silly situations that make this film a decent family movie to share with the entire family.

Matilda Lawler was charming and did a great job as the lead protagonist, wrangling the super squirrel and doing what she could to straighten out her life. There was the arrival of another young character, William (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth), who had been stricken with hysterical blindness. It may not have been a very sensitive representation of blindness, but William was more than his disability. The film gave us some quiet moments with the boy too as there was a nice character moment with him.

The young actors do a great job, and they are anchored by Ben Schwartz and Alyson Hannigan, a pair of experienced actors who carry a heavy load. Anna Deavere Smith appeared in a strong cameo role.

Slapstick humor and a natural cheesiness, Flora & Ulysses provided a energetic film with decent special effects and some positive performances. The film is fun and certainly worth a watch as a family on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Kids should love the misadventures of the super squirrel and the parents can engage with the problems faced by the adult characters. Flora & Ulysses is just the type of film that will find a level of success on Disney +.

3.4 stars