The third film of the Creed franchise was release this weekend with star Michael B. Jordan taking over directorial duties from Ryan Coogler, who directed the first three. Creed III continued the success of the Rocky spin off franchise with top level performances and some of the best boxing you’ve ever seen on the big screen.

Adonis Creed had retired from the world of boxing on top. His final fight led to a victory and Creed became a stay home dad and embrace the world of post boxing. When old old childhood friend, Damian Anderson (Jonathan Majors) returned after 18 years in prison, Creed found that dealing with the guilt of the incident that caused Damian to end up in prison was difficult for him.

When Creed was able to finagle a championship boxing match with his own protégé, Felix Chavez (Jose Benavidez), the current champion, Creed did not expect the result that they got, and then he found out the real intention of his old friend.

I thought that Michael B. Jordan did a very solid job as the director of this movie. He certainly had huge shoes to fill in Ryan Coogler, and he did not reach that level, but he did a very solid job. There were some excellent shots in the film, in particular during the final boxing match, that you had never seen in this franchise (or the previous Rocky franchise) and that should be commended.

The performances were really great. Jordan was very confident in this role by now and you could see that he was comfortable in the skin of Adonis Creed no matter what they asked of him to do. They looked to explore residual guilt from the events of the night when Adonis and Damian were kids.

Jonathan Majors is a super star. Coming off his excellent work as Kang in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Majors was full of intensity and felt like he could explode at any moment. Yet, he tempered it with an understanding that this character was not an outright villain. He was not the Mr. T character from Rocky III. Damian had layers that brought a much more balanced character to oppose Creed.

Phylicia Rashad brought her best work in any of the films she has appeared as Mary-Anne Creed to date. Rashad stole several scenes and dominated ever moment she was on screen. There was a particular scene between Rashad and Jordan that could be Oscar worthy.

I will say that I found some parts of the story lacking somewhat. Now, this was not something that I noticed much during the film itself. It is more upon reflection afterwards that a few storyline beats popped up as areas that bothered me. I can’t go into too much detail without spoiling the scenes, but let’s just say that the event from Creed’s past did not necessarily work well for me, and that tarnished a lot of the story moving forward. It is not like I couldn’t get past it, but it was a weak point of the film.

A strong point was the boxing scenes. These scenes felt less exaggerated like the Rocky boxing matches always felt. These were well filmed and constructed in a vey exciting and dramatic manner.

This was a really solid installment in the franchise and I enjoyed watching the movie. I was impressed by Michael B. Jordan’s directorial debut inside a huge franchise project. It could not have been an easy feat and he should be considered extremely successful in what he accomplished.

3.9 stars

Netflix brings us a new way to look at the haunted house subgenre with the new film, We Have A Ghost, starring David Harbour and Anthony Mackie.

Though the movie is listed as a Horror/Comedy, I think it really reminds me more of those types of movies from the 1980s and 1990s that were the over-the-top paranormal adventures filled with cheesy moments and silly action. A film like The Frighteners comes to mind when comparing the style as well as Beetlejuice, Caspar and even Ghostbusters.

The Presley family was looking for a new start and they moved into a low cost, fixer-upper. Frank (Anthony Mackie) and his wife Melanie (Erica Ash) along with their sons Fulton (Niles Fitch) and Kevin (Jahi Winston) had plenty of issues among them. Kevin was especially saddened by everything that had happened.

Hanging out alone in the attic, Kevin comes across a ghost named Ernest (David Harbour). Despite Ernest’s best effort to scare Kevin away, the teen was unfazed and recorded a video of the ghost on his phone. Kevin and Ernest bonded, despite the fact that Ernest could not speak or remember anything about his life.

When the rest of the family discovered the existence of Ernest, Frank saw an opportunity and posted the video online, eventually sending the social media world into a storm, attracting Dr. Leslie Monroe (Tig Notaro), a washed-up paranormal scientist, who saw her own opportunity to reclaim her lost career.

As I said, We Have A Ghost is a throwback to the action/adventure films of the 80s and 90s where young people were involved and dealt with the supernatural events in a humorous and family friendly manner. Yes, the movie is definitely cheesy and fully plants its figurative tongue in the cheek, but it is entertaining and does take a new spin on the haunted house story.

Jahi Winston does a nice job as Kevin, the lead protagonist and best buddy to Ernest. He has a solid screen presence and I liked him as the focus of the film. David Harbour shows again that he is always awesome. Whether he is Red Guardian, Hellboy, or Hopper from Stranger Things, Harbour gives his best effort in every role. Harbour is even more challenged in his role as Ernest because the ghost is unable to communicate via words and so Harbour is required to use his expressive face and body movements even more to show the personality of Ernest.

There is a mystery of what happened to Ernest, which is interesting. I did not expect the film to go in this direction, but it did make for an exciting third act.

The film may have been too long, clocking in at over two hours. I do think there is an effective version of this film that runs around 100-110 minutes instead.

I was not a fan of the character Dr. Monroe, who I think flip-flopped too quickly after spending most of the film working in one direction. You see a character like the one played by Tig Notaro in many of those older movies so her role was not surprising.

I would have liked to have seen more from Anthony Mackie, though he does do a very good job with the screen time that he gets.

The film does seem to have something to say about the effects of social media and the grasping of fame through likes and viral videos, and how the instant fame can create such chaos in the lives of the people involved.

Again, We Have A Ghost is not a brilliant movie, but it is fun, filled with a feeling of nostalgia for a type of film we haven’t seen for years, and likeable and charismatic actors. Though it is overly long, We Have A Ghost is an entertaining romp with a restless spirit.

3.6 stars

The Netflix film The Strays was dropped on the streamer this weekend and it really was a mixed bag. Or at least, it felt like a film of two halves.

According to IMDB, “Neve (Ashley Madekwe), who leads an idyllic life in the suburbs with her loving family, and works a fulfilling job at a private school. But when she begins to notice a strange man and woman appear unexpectedly at odd moments, she starts to doubt her sanity. Of course, she turns to her family and friends for assistance, but Neve is helpless when they hesitate to believe her.”

Without going into spoiler area and revealing what happens in the switch, the first half of the film where the IMBD synopsis is featured, is the weaker section of the film. I do not feel as if the film really played up the insanity aspect. It felt uneven and a little dull. Then, there was some hints that there was something mysterious going down. It touched upon some racial and Privilege bits that is never quite developed to the proper amount.

When the answer comes at about the halfway point, this movie picks up big time and the third act is very tense and tough to watch. In fact, there was a feeling in the pit of my stomach at the end of the film.

Ashley Madekwe is definitely the standout of the film. She expresses a ton with her face and has to go through a ton of emotions. Unfortunately, the character is so inconsistent that it hurts the overall flow of the movie. The second half though was much tighter and worked so much better.

This is better than the typical Netflix film, but it seemed like it tried to be all different kinds of movies but never committing to one.

3 stars

I have been excited about Cocaine Bear since I saw the first trailer. It just looked like an insane concept that was going to be a ton of fun, in a B-movie type of way. That is exactly what Cocaine Bear is. It is a movie that knows exactly what kind of film it is and does not stray too far from that idea.

It is based on a true story. What that means is that there was a drug runner who threw out a bunch of cocaine from a plane over a mountain where they usually dropped these loads. Unfortunately, the drug runner did not survive the leap from the plane himself, leaving the cargo unclaimed in the woods. It was found and consumed by a black bear.

That much is true. After that, the story of the movie takes a bit of a turn into fiction. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

As in many of these types of horror/monster movies, the human characters are introduced to give the monster something to do. Some of these characters are simply there to be fodder for the Cocaine Bear.

However, there were several characters that I liked and wanted to root for. Keri Russell played a mother whose daughter ditched school to go to the woods instead. The daughter, Dee Dee (Brooklynn Prince), went with her friend Henry (Christian Convery). Christian Convery was the titular character in Netflix’s series, Sweet Tooth, and he was great here. He had some excellent comedic timing and he delivered some of the movie’s best lines.

The main drug runner, Syd, was played by the late, great Ray Liotta. Liotta brought some credibility to the film, though his character was fairly underwritten. He did much more with the character than was on the page, like many top actors are able to do.

Syd sent two henchmen, Daveed (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) and Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich), to retrieve the coke, but Eddie had just recently had a loss in his life that was making his inclusion on the trip a challenge. Eddie also turned out to be the son of Syd, whom he had left his son with while he mourned the loss of his wife.

I really liked the pairing of Daveed and Eddie and I wanted them to survive the cocaine bear.

The film has some very funny, very dark moments of comedy that I appreciated. There is also some very gory, brutal scenes of the cocaine bear on its rampage. One in particular involving Ray Liotta, that I will not spoil any further. There was also a jaw-dropping moment with Margo Martindale, who was a forest ranger, that you’ll know when you see it.

Martindale is always great and she dominated nearly all the scenes that she was included in.

While Cocaine Bear is never going to win any awards for acting or movie making, the film has plenty of fun and some great dark humor. I enjoyed watching this movie and I would recommend it to anyone as long as they approach it with the right mentality. It’s a dumb movie, for sure, but dumb can be fun if done properly and I thought this movie was just that.

3.75 stars

I wanted to watch this over the weekend, but my Apple TV + did not want to work, which pushed the viewing of the new film Sharper until tonight.

Sharper dealt with the world of the con. We see Tom (Justice Smith), the son of a New York Billionaire (John Lithgow), and his girlfriend Sandra (Briana Middleton) who was having major money problems with her brother. Tom told her that he could cover the $350,000 dollars that her brother owed. Little did Tom know that Sandra was setting him up.

Sandra was working with con man Max (Sebastian Stan) in an attempt to get this money. However, there was more to this than just that. Tom’s father was dating Madeline (Julianne Moore), who appeared to be Max’s mother, but this is also a can. Madeline was working with Max to try and scam even more money.

Our three confidence people are untrustworthy and you never know who is telling the truth or who might be scamming whom.

This was a good time because you are never sure what is real and what is not. These three are traitorous among each other and their own betrayals are great.

Sebastian Stan was excellent in the role as Max. There is a scene of his dancing in celebration that is just fantastic and made me feel connected to this character despite him being a horrible person. The relationship with Max and Madeline was really gross, but Julianne Moore creates this amazing character who is really unlikable, but still engaging.

The film tells the story in different sections. We see a black screen with certain character’s names on it, telling us which character is to be focused on during the next section. These different POVs are fascinating and give us a great look at each character.

The fact that there are nobody in this movie that are good people does not hurt the film. In fact, the fact that they are focused on each of the characters help show us who they were.

I enjoyed this movie. It started a little slow but once it became clear what was happening, the film truly picked up. When Sebastian Stan arrived on screen, things start to pop. I thought the story was really good (although I had guessed the final con) and the performances from Stan and Moore are very good and elevates the material.

3.5 stars

The classic Raymond Chandler character Phillip Marlowe is a noir detective and is currently appearing in a new movie starring Liam Neeson entitled Marlowe. Is the private detective a hit or is he just a private dick? Unfortunately, this detective story bored me to no end.

Liam Neeson was the titular character and was involved in a case brought to him by the blonde dame Clare Cavendish (Diane Kruger). The case was complex and confusing and hardly worth the time it took to unfurl the tale. The part that I enjoyed the most was the scenes from Clare’s on-screen mother, played by the exceptional Jessica Lange. She was chewing up every scene she was in and she had some chemistry with Neeson, which was something that the film lacked a lot of.

Neeson was pretty stoic in his portrayal of Marlowe and I did not find him very entertaining. The best part what picking out the words where you could easily hear the brogue coming through Neeson’s dialogue.

This felt like a much longer film than it was, with so few highlights that I was bored through all of it. Nothing Neeson did brought me any enjoyment. I will say that I was happy to see Mr. Eko himself, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, make an appearance as a secondary character that became important from out of nowhere.

In the end, I had been intrigued by a trailer for this movie earlier this year, but I found this dull and prodding and that the strong cast just lacked any real energy or interest.

2 stars

I will be honest. I am a Marvel stan. There is no doubt that if Marvel Studios has create a new project, I am going to, most likely, be entertained at the least. I will even admit to overrating several of their films at times. Still, I believe I can approach a film and see its weaknesses as well as its strengths. It is just such an important part of my childhood, heck, my adulthood, that I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt easier to a Marvel movie than others.

Having said that, I approached the latest installment of the MCU, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania with trepidation considering the number of negative reviews it had received. Now, after seeing the film, I found myself thoroughly entertained and I am not sure why there is such vitriol toward the Payton Reed directed film.

Quantumania is absolutely a full fledged science fiction movie. In fact, about an hour into the movie, I was thinking this was more like the next installment in the Star Wars franchise starring Ant-Man than a Marvel film. That might be some people’s problems with the movie, but I enjoyed the aspects. It reminded me a lot of the Disney animated movie Strange World that came out last year too. That film was also not that well received.

Scott Lang (Paull Rudd), Hope (Evangeline Lilly), Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Cassie (Kathryn Newton) get trapped in the Quantum Realm after a lab accident and they hope to find their way back home. Unfortunately, Janet knew of a dangerous person who was also stranded in the Quantum Realm from her time before and she was scared that they may come across him.

Jonathan Majors (who appeared as a Kang variant in the Loki series) arrived in this film as Kang the Conqueror, the next big bad in the MCU and you can tell why the actor was cast in this role. He was menacing in every word while still being charismatic and engaging. He gave off that frightful feeling that he might, at any moment, rip your head off. Majors is an amazing actor and his presence absolutely could put him in the same class as the Mad Titan, Thanos.

Paul Rudd is always great as Scott Lang. He started off the movie cashing in on the celebrity of a super hero who saved the world, even if the people really didn’t know who he was. Scott wrote a book, among other things. However, his daughter Cassie was getting in trouble with the law when she would be sticking up for homeless protestors against the police.

The other major standout among the cast was Michelle Pfeiffer, who was exceptional as Janet Van Dyne, the original Wasp who had the dark secret of the Quantum Realm inside her and just did not want to share it.

The visuals of the film were mostly awesome and looked great. There were a few moments where you could tell it was a green screen but it was mostly stunning. I saw the film in a XD theater and I would absolutely recommend watching this on the biggest screen you can.

One of the parts of the film that is going to be divisive for sure is MODOK. While I did not mind the film altering the Marvel character’s origin, I am not sure I liked what they did with the character. MODOK felt like a disposable piece that could have been left out of the story and not lost any importance.

I would also say that most of the freedom fighters from the Quantum Realm were one dimensional characters that were not worth the time. Sure, some of them had cool designs, but there were not any of them that were a full-fledged character.

Michael Douglas had some bad ass moments in the movie as Hank Pym. Bill Murray had a guest star role that was minor, but fun. I would have wanted more for Evangeline Lilly. As one of the titular characters, I would have thought that she was going to be more front and center. I mean, Wasp did have a few major moments, but they were few and far between. She did have some solid spots in the third act, but she really blended into the backdrop until that.

The third act did feel a little messy, but I think that it was intended to be that way. By the time we had reached that third act, I was completely in and so any possible flaws did not bother me.

I do think that the trailers for Quantumania gave away too much of the story and gave us too many moments in that third act that wound up hurting the film.

As I said, I found this to be a great MCU offering, with some great performances, a fantastic villain and some excellent visuals in an entertaining world. The story was simple, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. I’ll be curious to see what a second viewing will do to my thought process.

4.25 stars

When I was a young comic book fan, I was a fan of the Legion of Superheroes. I’m not sure what appealed to me as a youngster, but I did love the variety of characters. I never collected the book for any regular amount of time, but I did like them. So I was pretty excited to see that the newest DC Animated movie was going to be based on Legion of Superheroes.

After escaping from the doomed planet of Krypton, Kara (Meg Donnelly) was deflected from her path to reunite with her cousin Kal-El (Darren Criss) on earth. However, under the guise of Supergirl, Kara was struggling to control her powers and was having a difficult time assimilating to the lower technological earth.

Superman had an idea. He used a time cube to take her to the 31st century and have her start training in the Legion Academy. Once there, she came across Brainiac-5 (Harry Shum Jr.) whom she mistook for the villainous Brainiac. Their fight led to both young heroes to be in trouble at the Academy.

There are a ton of voice actors involved, considering the typical cast of the Legion of Superheroes is large. Other voice actors here included Jensen Ackles, Matt Bomer, Darin De Paul, Ben Diskin, Victoria Grace, Jennifer Hale, Ely Henry, Eric Lopez, Zeno Robinson, Daisy Lightfoot, Cynthia Hamidi, Yuri Lowenthal, Robbie Diamond, and Gideon Adlon.

It was fun seeing all of these Legion characters appearing on screen, but I have a major question. Is there really a character named Arms Fall Off Boy? (After a quick google search, there absolutely was a Arms Fall Off Boy. Geez).

The story of the film is pretty simple and will not hold up to much scrutiny. It all revolves around a MacGuffin that was being kept in the Legion’s unbreakable vault (which, as soon as it was mentioned at the movie’s beginning, I thought that it was clearly being broken into later). Supergirl and Brainiac-5 are forced to team up despite there being conflict between the two of them. Of course, it also will lead to a romantic pairing between them. That was pretty cliché.

Unfortunately, most of this film is basic super hero clichés that lack any real depth to them. Because there are so many characters involved, most of these characters are basically their powers, without any deeper understanding of them. You would think that, with decades of great Legion stories, they could find one with more oomph to adapt.

I did find the animation of the film to be a step up from some of the other DC Animation projects. While it may not be at the upper end of animation styles for big movies, this was better than what it had been in the past and it makes me hopeful that the animation will not be the area they will skimp on moving forward.

While it was fun to see some of these heroes appear on the screen (although there was no significant parts for some of my favorite Legionnaires like Wildfire, Karate Kid, and Chameleon Boy- though it was fun to see Bouncing Boy and a flash of Ferro Lad), this movie is really more of a Supergirl film than one of the Legion of Superheroes. The drawbacks to the story and lack of characterization overall really hurt this movie.

2.75 stars

One of the creepiest movies I have seen in a long time is now on Shudder, named Skinamarink, and it was directed by Kyle Edward Ball.

Not only is is one of the creepiest films I have seen for quite a while, but it is also one of the oddest, especially in terms of structure. Skinamarink does not have much of a narrative, and you have to pay close attention to really understand a plot. You never see the faces of any of the characters, outside of a couple of quick flashes, and the sound mixing of the film is difficult to hear or to make out.

The basic plot is that there are two kids, Kaylee, who is six, and Kevin, who is four, and they wake up in their house in the middle of the night to discover that their father has disappeared and the doors and windows of the house have vanished. After that, there are some unbelievably frightening things that happen (or do they?).

Skinamarink legitimately put me on edge from the moment it started. I kept focusing on the screen, waiting for something to happen that would explain to me what the film was going to be about and how it would be structured, and that just never came. It kept me unnerved from start to finish and I was tense and anxious, staring at the darkness on the screen and wondering why these moments were occurring.

I listened to William Bibbiani’s podcast, Critically Acclaimed, when he spoke of Skinamarink and he used the perfect word to describe the movie. He said that the film was about “dread.” I agree with that assessment completely. I felt dread through the entire movie and the film only ratcheted that mood up with every image (or lack thereof).

It would not be wrong to call this an experimental horror film.

I can also completely understand why some people may hate this movie. It is intentionally slow and plenty of people are going to struggle with the format of the structure of the narrative. The audience score at Rotten Tomatoes is at 44% because it is not what anybody has ever seen before. It is not like any horror movie out there and the plenty of people are going to be divisive
because of that.

While narrative is usually something that I watch closely in a movie, there is no denying that this movie got to me in several organic ways. There were some scenes that caused me to have a cold chill run down my back and a few times when I gasped. The film absolutely unsettled me, and not too many films have been able to do that.

Skinamarink may not be for you. I can understand if you hate this movie, but I can not argue that it affected me physically as I watched it and I was uneasy and skittery as it progressed. It may have been a touch too long, but Skinamarink does not pull any punches and creates a movie that is different from anything else you have ever seen.

4 stars

I am a longtime fan of the New England Patriots and, of course, that meant that I have loved Tom Brady for his success and how he has helped bring multiple Super Bowl championships to New England. Because of that, I have been excited to see 80 for Brady, a film based on a true story based around Super Bowl LI from 2017, the Super Bowl that the Patriots came from behind against the Atlanta Falcons.

The Pats trailed 28-3 in the third quarter only to make a wild comeback to push the game into overtime before winning in OT.

The film is based on a true story of a group of women who were huge Tom Brady fans that decided they wanted to to head to Houston for the big game.

In the film, the four lead women were played by Lily Tomlin, Sally Field, Rita Moreno and Jane Fonda. The four women played the characters of Lou, Betty, Maura and Trish respectfully.

The ladies arrived in Houston to attend the NFL Experience and go through several bizarre shenanigans.

This is a silly, lightweight, puffy film that is absolutely dominated by the four lead actors. Tomlin, Field, Moreno, Fonda are easily the best part of the film, their charisma and chemistry absolutely killing it. I believed 100% that they were best friends and had been together forever.

Some of the things that happen during their Super Bowl adventure felt like a bad sitcom. Still, the silly moments work moderately well because of the actors.

Tom Brady appeared as himself several times throughout as a vision to Lou, speaking inspirationally to her about the attempts to make it inside the game. The film used a ton of highlights from the big game, including some of the most intriguing close up dialogue from the players. Once again, as a Patriots fan, it was awesome to relive the amazing comeback in the biggest stage of them all.

Though the film is advertised as being “based on a true story,” but there were things from the film that were clearly ridiculous and did not happen. I am not saying that it needed to be exactly how it happened because it is not a documentary. It is meant for an piece of entertainment and most of the additional scenes worked in the film.

80 for Brady was funny and was an enjoyable film, especially as a Patriots fan. Those Brady haters out there are probably going to be rolling their eyes, but the lightweight film was a lot of fun with four amazing actors that carried the film.

3.5 stars

M. Night Shyamalan is no stranger to controversy, In fact, I would go as far as to say that he thrives on it. The director’s latest film, Knock at the Cabin is definitely going to stir up some controversy.

A happy family consisting of Andrew (Ben Aldridge) and Eric (Jonathan Groff) and their daughter Wen (Kristen Cui) went to a secluded cabin for a getaway. As Wen was outside catching grasshoppers, she was approached by Leonard (Dave Bautista), whose manner about him about him(as well as his own skill at grasshopper catching) put the young girl at ease. However, when she saw Leonard’s three associates arriving with what she defined as weapons, she rushed off to find her two dads to warn them.

Locking themselves inside the cabin did not prevent the four strangers from forcing their way inside and taking the family hostage. However, the group had a bizarre request. They claimed that someone in the family had to be sacrificed and one of the others had to kill them. If a sacrifice was not made, the world would face an apocalypse.

Andrew and Eric, facing an implausible decision, did not believe Leonard and his apocalyptic statements, despite everything that they tried to do to convince the couple. Unbelievable events began to occur, bringing a shock to all.

I do not want to spoil this for anyone, but my biggest problem stems from what would be considered a spoiler, so beware. I’ll say it this way, I found the ending of this movie to completely ruin what I had found to be a taut, exciting thriller. The ending left me cold, disappointed and felt cruel and lacking a sense of purpose outside of just torturing these characters.

The ending spoiled what I had been finding to be an exciting and thought-provoking film, but the resolution was completely unnecessary and unsatisfying in any way.

Until the end of the film, I was finding myself involved in the story. The performances were excellent. Dave Bautista continues to show that he is willing to expand his repertoire as an actor with a multilayered performance. Both Ben Aldridge and Jonathan Groff were top notch as the loving couple dealing with their own past, which we touch upon in flashbacks. Those flashbacks take us nowhere and do not have any purpose except to make us agonize over the end even more.

Oh Ron Weasley, how far you have fallen. I kid of course as Rupert Grint played the role of Redmond, a mean-spirited bigot who becomes one of the foursome led by Leonard. Grint is really solid and I did not recognize him until I saw the credits, speaking even more to the level of his performance.

Kristen Cui does a very solid job as the little girl, providing more than just an afraid child. She is very capable and has to emotionally deal with a lot of the strife that is brought to the cabin.

Though the performances were all excellent, the characters, especially the four attackers, were barely developed and lacked much to support the craziness that they were spouting. Outside of Bautista, who was also not the deepest of characters, these remaining three were fairly disposable and unremarkable. Grint’s character presented a possibility, but any sort of potential from that character was tossed aside almost immediately.

The first hour of the film brought the goods, keeping me on the edge of my seat, but the last forty minutes or so wrecked the positives that I had about the film and I left the theater feeling downtrodden and, almost, cheated.

2.5 stars

The most recent Netflix film dropped this weekend that featured a great cast of actors. You People is written by Kenya Barris and Jonah Hill and directed by Barris. Jonah Hill starred with Lauren London.

Ezra (Jonah Hill) was a Jewish man doing a podcast on black culture with his friend Mo (Sam Jay). When he had a misunderstanding over an Uber, Ezra met Amira (Lauren London). They fell in love and, after six months, went to meet their families. Amara’s parents, Akbar (Eddie Murphy) and Fatima (Nia Long), was not fond of Ezra, and Ezra’s parents, Shelley (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Arnold (David Duchovny), were the typically white ignorant people.

The film was both of our main characters dealing with the problems of race and ignorance of their families.

So, You People had some moments that I enjoyed, but there was something that just did not work for me overall. It felt long and the story did not progress well. The end of the film came quick and was rushed. The changes that happened did not feel earned.

There were a bunch of talented actors in cameos and supporting roles here. Others include Travis Bennett, Rhea Perlman, Deon Cole, Elliott Gould, Mike Epps, La La Anthony, Andrea Savage, Molly Gordon, Yung Miami, Hal Linden, Anthony Anderson, Matt Walsh, Bryan Greenberg and Khadijah Haqq.

The scenes between Jonah Hill and Eddie Murphy had some moments, but they really were repetitive. The scenes with Julia Louis-Dreyfus were difficult to watch because she was so tone deaf.

In fact, that is the biggest problem with this movie. It was uncomfortable, and not in the good way. It tries to be a film diving in race and relationships, but it never goes deep enough with characters that are not more than what we see. There are parts of You People that are funny and would work if the film was deeper and had more of a chance to be greater than what it is. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

2.7 stars

This weekend saw the release of Shotgun Wedding on Amazon Prime. It was a rom-com/action-adventure film that featured Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel. The film was like Trip to Paradise was mixed up with The Lost City. My initial thought on the film was that it was going to be a stupid film that tried to be funny. That is kind of on target, but I was entertained by it more than I thought I would be.

Tom (Josh Duhamel) and Darcy (Jennifer Lopez) were off to a tropical island for a family with their entire family. When pirates arrive and take the wedding party hostage, Tom and Darcy were on the run across the island trying to get help, as they struggled with their own personal problems.

Yes, this movie stretches credibility a lot, but it was just silly enough to be fun. Duhamel and Lopez were great together. I believed everything that they did and I could see what a great couple they made, even when their characters did not seem to feel the same.

Much of the action beats of the film were not that realistic, but they are not bad enough to ruin the film. In fact, Jennifer Lopez, especially, really dove into the role and brings a lot of energy in the action.

The supporting characters are all eccentric and played wonderfully by an ensemble cast that stands out. Cheech Marin is excellent as the father of the bride. Jennifer Coolidge is hilarious as the mother of the groom. Lenny Kravitz appeared as Darcy’s old fiancé. Other actors in the ensemble included Sonia Braga, D’Arcy Carden, Desmin Borges, Callie Hernandez, Selena Tan, Alberto Isaac, Melissa Hunter and Pancho Cardena.

Shotgun Wedding did take some time to look at two main protagonists closely, bringing up some deep seeded character doubts that gave a nice flavor to mix with the action scenes.

Unlike a lot of the action rom-coms, this film was pretty violent with its share of blood and killings. There was also several scenes where the movie played on the emotions, especially one where the wedding guests were singing a song (no spoilers here, but this was my favorite part of the film).

Shotgun Wedding is definitely not a film that makes a lot of sense at times, but I enjoyed watching it and I was never bored. I’m not going to dive too deep into it, but as a snowy Saturday afternoon at home, this was worth my time.

3.4 stars

What has happened to January? Every year, January is the dumping ground for the garbage movies, but something has changed. This month so far there have been three movies that were absolute fire: M3GAN, Plane and now Missing. That is great and it is awesome that I can go to a theater in January without expecting the film I am going to see end up on the worst film of the year list.

A few years ago, there was a fantastic movie called Searching which starred John Cho as a father whose daughter had disappeared and he used social media and her online presence to find her before it was too late. The idea to that film is very similar to Missing, except that this time the missing person was the mother and her daughter was on the computer using her intelligence and online skills to map out the mystery. The people behind Searching are the same involved in Missing.

I think this story in Missing is stronger than the one in Searching. There are some twists happening in the film and they legitimately were keeping me off balance. There were some times that I thought I knew what was going on, but then something flipped and changed my idea. Now, to be fair, because of that, I am not 100% sure that everything fell neatly into place at the end. I would almost like to see it again to see how it played when I was aware of the ending.

The actor playing the daughter, June, was Storm Reid, and I thought she brought it, big time. She handled the difficult scenes and she was able to create tension and emotion while searching though Facebook and hacking into e-mails. Not the easiest of jobs and Reid did it beautifully. I think she has a bright future in movies as her performance here was a highlight for me.

I also loved the character of Javi, played by film veteran Joaquim de Almeida. Javi got involved through a clever idea from June and their relationship over Face Time was one of the best and most supportive of the film. It goes to show that there are good people in the world who will help do what is right.

I loved seeing Ken Leung, who played Kevin. Leung appeared on the last few seasons of LOST as Miles and made me fall in love with him as a performer.

Beside the performances, the story structure was remarkable. I have not felt a story being this active and engaging in a long time, and most of the film was spent clicking on links on the computer or searching through old files for ideas. The script was just so intelligent and clever that it did not fail to be filled with suspense and to push the mystery of the film along. Part of the intelligence of the film was showing how bright June was in finding pathways to clues among the internet and putting her ideas into motion.

As I mentioned, I am not sure everything really links up perfectly at the end, but I did not feel the need to retrace every step of the movie to try and find the gotcha moment. I do believe that if I wanted to nitpick the film, there may be some places where I could.

Do you have to stretch your suspension of disbelief? Sure, but I do not think it has to stretch more than, say, believing Lois Lane can’t tell Clark Kent is Superman because he put on some glasses and combed his hair differently. The implausibility of Missing does not hurt the film at all.

I loved this movie and I was invested in it from the beginning. I love character that are smart and can execute that intelligence effectively and Storm Reid does that in spades.

This is a rare film that could be a Top 10 best film of the year that came out in January. It is my early year favorite movie as of now.

4.75 stars

I love a good documentary and Netflix tossed a good out recently. Good documentaries tell amazing stories with twists and turns and this story has all of the above.

Proclaimed a hero on the internet and in the media, the man who would become known as Kai the Hatchet-Wielding Hitchhiker parlayed his moment of fame and heroism into an appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel Show in 2013. Three months later, the viral sensation was wanted for murder.

The film begin by documenting an incident by a driver who picked Kai up, Jett Simmons McBride, McBride drove his car into another vehicle, spurred on with a racial hatred. He also attacked a woman who had come to try and aid the man pinned in the accident. McBride placed the woman in a bear hug. Kai saw this and removed a hatchet he had in his backpack and attacked McBride in order to help the woman.

Journalist Jessob Reisbeck was able to get an interview with Kai, thinking he was a witness. Kai then told him about the incident and how he hit McBride three times, using the term “Smash” while acting out the attack. The video went viral and began a media firestorm with everyone wanting to get the interview for this supposed hero.

As they were working toward getting Kai on Kimmel, some of the eccentricities of Kai started to come through. Things escalates until he winds up murdering an older lawyer.

This story was remarkably compelling and watching how the world built this guy up, who was a nomad, someone who was a free spirit and living off the land and the kindness of people, to a point where he is now in prison for murder.

Kai, whose real name was Caleb Lawrence McGillvary, appeared in several videos through the doc. We also heard from family members, people from the Jimmy Kimmel show, Reisbeck and police involved in the case.

I was fascinated with the documentary. It showed how celebrity could be highlighted by the media and the public and how it can make things much worse. It is an entertaining doc.

3.9 stars