The Blackening is a dark horror comedy directed by Tim Story. It is a satire of horror movies and racial stereotypes while being both suspenseful and outrageously funny.

A group of former college friends receive an invite for a reunion/party at a cabin in the woods on Juneteenth. Unbeknownst to them, the party is a cover for a trap meant to kill them all.

This ensemble cast was excellent and worked so well with one another. The main cast included Antoinette Robertson, Dewayne Perkins, Sinqua Walls, Grace Byers, X Mayo, Melvin Gregg and Jermaine Fowler. This cast took their characters and avoided the simple stereotypes while developing the characters very successfully considering the short time of the film.

There was a great amount of self-awareness in the movie, playing up on the horror movie tropes. They even go as far as to make references to other movies such as Scream.

The movie does have some things to say about the plight of black people as well as the selfishness of a group of people. The message of the movie never threatened to overwhelm the entertainment, which is not always the norm. This group of people were not innocent in this and you can understand the reasoning behind what happens to them. However, you cannot help but cheer and root for them to make it through the challenges and games that they are being forced to undertake.

One of my favorite jokes in the film, subtle as it was, was when Diedrich Bader’s park ranger character, Mr. White, is referred to as a ‘white savior.’ by one of the cast. That was hilarious and a great example of how smart this movie’s dialogue and writing was.

I found this extremely intelligent and hilariously funny. I was thoroughly entertained by the film that moves at a brisk pace and never felt boring.

4.4 stars

The latest Pixar animated movie left me all wet at first, but I did warm up to it as it went along…

Yes, I am ashamed of those puns.

Elemental featured the story of Ember (Leah Lewis), a young girl of the fire people living in a land where the other elements- air, water and land- live together, who is trying to convince her father Bernie (Ronnie Del Carmen) that she is ready to take over running their family store so he can retire.

However, during the important sale at the store, the pipes of the store burst, flooding the basement. The water also pulled in Wade (Mamoudou Athie), a local building inspector and a water person, who writes a bunch of tickets that would lead to the store’s closure. Ember chases after Wade in an attempt to stop him from turning in the tickets.

As they work together, Ember and Wade realize that there is a spark between them, despite being apparently incompatable.

I came into Elemental with very little anticipation. Though I always enjoy Pixar, this film was just not doing much for me. Then, it did not help that the film had an animated short featuring Carl and Doug from Up called Carl’s Date. I disliked this short a great deal. It was dull, repetitive and just not funny. It kicked off the afternoon in a poor manner.

The film then started and I had a real difficult time getting into the film. I was not enjoying the story, the characters felt way below the line of the usual Pixar work and I just did not like what I was watching. I was counting the time waiting for this to be over.

Of course, the animation continued to be absolutely gorgeous and at the high level of quality of Pixar movies. It could easily be considered a work of art. The character designs were good. I loved the way Ember’s nose moved like it was a flame.

As the film moved on, I started to become a little more engaged with the relationship between Ember and Wade. By the time the third act was underway, I was liking what I was watching more than I did before. It had won me over with its charm.

Elemental was a mixed bag for me. The story and the world did not grab my attention at first, but I did eventually found it entertaining. It was beautiful to look at for sure. It is a borderline recommendation for me.

3 stars

Extraction 2, the sequel to one of the most successful Netflix original movie from the streamer, dropped today on Netflix starring Chris Hemsworth, once again playing Tyler Rake.

However, at the end of the last movie, we thought Tyler Rake might have died. At the beginning of this movie, we see how close he actually came. Pulled out of the river, Tyler was operated on in a desperate attempt to save his life.

Tyler came out of the operations injured and weakened, destined for retirement. When Idris Elba came to see him with a mission request, Tyler found the boring and low-intensity life he had been living went out the window.

Extraction 2 elevated the action of the previous movie to a remarkable level in the sequel. Chris Hemsworth is a wonderful lead character, right at home with the fighting and gunfire. Although I have to say that during one fight when Hemsworth reached for a nearby hammer on the ground, I got excited.

The action of this movie was brilliantly conceived and executed. The first scene of Tyler Rake going into the prison where the family he was trying to extract was amazingly shot. It looked like a constant one-shot, though it was not. It got to be fun as I was looking for the hidden cuts during the scene. It was flawlessly edited together to make an anxiety-ridden scene.

There were three main action set pieces of Extraction 2 and they were all different enough to keep them fresh. Director Sam Hargrave sets up the action with some excellent shots and creative ways to highlight the gunfire that can become repetitive.

The film also tosses some emotional moments, especially when dealing with Tyler Rake’s son and the family that he was hired to rescue.

Other actors in the film included Golshifteh Farahani, Adam Bessa, Tornike Gogrichiani, Andro Japaridze, Olga Kurylenko and Idris Elba.

I had a lot of fun watching this movie. Chris Hemsworth does a great job with what his character is supposed to do and the action is extremely well shot and outlined. It’s a great streaming film.

4 stars

I have been looking forward to this documentary since I first heard about it. Stan Lee is one of my idols. He helped shape my childhood and helped make me the person I have become through his imagination and creativity. His influence is massive for me.

So a documentary on his life streaming on Disney +? Well, I was all in on it.

Stan Lee, the documentary by David Gelb told us, in his own words, the story of Stanley Lieber, a comic book writer who helped revolutionize the industry and who helped create a mythology of today with some of the most recognizable characters in all of pop culture.

Stan Lee nearly narrated this entire doc from clips of him giving interviews and other public appearances, and this gave us a real insight on the ‘character’ of Stan Lee, the larger-than-life, braggadocio whose super heroes helped inspire a generation.

This documentary focuses on the positives of Stan Lee’s life. I would not go as far as to call it a ‘puff piece’ but there were areas of Stan Lee’s life that was just barely touched upon that could have made this an even more enjoyable documentary.

For example, the documentary truly popped when it played a clip of a radio show where Jack Kirby, Stan Lee’s longtime collaborator and one of the most successful and prolific comic book artists of all time, was being interviewed and Stan called in to wish him a happy birthday. The conversation between the two icons got away from the host and the conflicts between Stan and Jack came out. Those few seconds of the doc were as compelling as anything and I would have loved to hear more about that.

They also touched on the conflict between Stan and Steve Ditko. This, along with the conflict with Kirby, was based around the credit on who actually created certain characters. Was it the writer who came up with the idea or was it the artists who created the visual concept? Again, this idea was brushed across in this doc but really could have been the center of a major piece of the doc. It is a section that I would have loved to hear more about.

Stan also mentioned a time when Marvel Comics had been sold and he went from having a lifetime contract to having a two-year deal. He said he was not happy about that, but the doc does not go into much detail or specifics on this.

While the documentary did not dive into the controversies of his life, the doc was very entertaining dealing with the positives of Stan Lee’s life. His story of the creation of the Fantastic Four, about how the Spider-Man character became published, the creation of Black Panther all were fascinating, and hearing them from Stan’s own words made it all the more special.

This was a fun reflection on the parts of Stan Lee’s life that led to the iconic Marvel Comics. While I would have loved to have some of the doc go into more depth with the ‘warts’ of the man, what we got was still engaging and entertaining. Much like Stan Lee himself.

3.75 stars

The Flash has been in development for years. Finally, the movie has arrived with an unbelievable controversy and with some people claiming that it is the ‘best comic book movie ever.’

I’ll start with the controversy. I have to address it. Ezra Miller has had an insane path over the last several years, leading an abusive stretch with others. I am really trying my best to separate my thoughts of the creative person from the content, so my review will not detail my thoughts on Ezra Miller’s real life craziness.

So, on to the review.

Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) uses his super speed to travel back in time to save his mother (Maribel Verdú) from her untimely death, which causes the universe to go seriously wonky and all kind of changes happen. Barry goes on a quest to try and right the wrongs he did, along with a younger version of himself, Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) and Kara (Sasha Calle).

Okay, first off, this is not the best comic book movie ever made. Period. That does not mean I did not like The Flash, because I did. But this movie is fun, but very messy.

Let me start with what I liked. Ezra Miller did a great job as Barry Allen, in particular as the older Barry Allen who had more experience. They had a confidence and a swagger that fit the character very well. Miller did a great job playing two distinctly different characters, as well. Honestly, they did such a good job that I never thought about it being the same actor playing two roles.

Michael Keaton was sensational as the older Batman. Keaton looked as if he was having a blast returning to a version of a role that he played in 1989. He was absolutely the standout character in the film and his re-introduction was epic.

Sasha Calle was a wonderful addition as Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl. She brought a character that was nowhere near a Kal-El and a character whose brutality made a lot of sense considering the situation that she had found herself in.

Some of the emotional scenes that we got between Ezra Miller and Maribel Verdú as Nora Allen were extremely well written and directed. They had some powerful moments together and brought a heart to the movie.

Then there were several parts of The Flash that I thought were a mixed bag, some good, some bad. One of these was the special effects. Honestly, the first 10-15 minutes of CGI in this movie (I’ll say one word… babies) was some of the worst special effects we have had in a major movie in awhile. It was really a turn off in that scene. However, there were also some CGI in The Flash that was amazing and awesome. The speed force and the way the Flash was shown using his speed were beautifully rendered. There were times when one Barry Allen was carrying the other Barry Allen and it was totally seamless. CGI was truly a coin flip for the movie.

I found the cameos and Easter eggs that were plastered throughout the film were great and a lot of fun. Some did not always look as great as it could be, but the film absolutely played on the nostalgia (‘member-berries). However, there felt like some of the nostalgia was too forced, especially with the dialogue for Batman/Bruce Wayne. Is there a reason Michael Keaton had to repeat so many lines from his original movies? We get it, we remember. That felt too ham-fisted at times. Still, the best cameo came right at the end of the film (no spoilers, of course), but this felt like a giant middle finger to everyone and I was here for it.

Another up and down aspect was the humor. Some of the jokes worked really well, but other times it felt out of place. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that I want always serious comic book movies like the Snyder films, but some of this worked and much of it didn’t. Part that I did not like was the way young Barry Allen was portrayed. He was so obnoxious and played as a moron for much of the film. I know it was meant to show older Barry Allen what he had been like and to let him understand how others had seen him, but it felt too much. Young Barry felt stupid and I did not get that from previous films.

I will say that I hated the post credits scene at the very end of the film. It felt totally unnecessary and just not funny.

It also is unclear after this movie what the direction of the DCU is going to be. This felt much more like a goodbye to the previous films/universe instead of something that was going to kickoff the next round of movies. This was loosely based on the comic run called Flashpoint (which had an awesome animated DC movie back in 2013). The only set up in this film was.. ‘hey, multiverse!’ The multiverse concept has been done better in Across the Spider-Verse, Everything Everywhere All At Once, and the MCU.

I had fun with The Flash. Do not go into the film with the expectations that it is going to revolutionize the comic book movie industry, because it is not up to that standard. It is fun, with some solid actors who looked to be enjoying themselves, and a sprinkling of emotions in all the right spots. It is not the best DCEU movie, nor is it the worst. In fact, I would place it in the upper half of the DCEU films, and I believe that The Flash gives you permission to move on.

3.5 stars

I loved the Transformers as a kid. I loved the TV cartoon and I remember buying Transformers toys. Then the Michael Bay movies came along and I was excited. Unfortunately, they turned out to be some of my least favorite films ever. Legitimately, I believe Transformers: The Last Knight might be my least favorite movie of all time.

The last Transformers movie was Bumblebee, which was the first one without Michael Bay’s fingerprints all over it, and it was one of the best. Sadly, it did not do well at the box office so I was afraid that the film series would head back to the giant stupidity of the previous films instead of the solid work of Bumblebee.

Here come Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. This included characters from the 1990s animated TV show Beast Wars along with a low number of the Autobots. While I do not think this new Transformers movie was up to the level of Bumblebee, this was way better than any of the first five in the franchise and presented a breath of fresh air for the Robots in Disguise.

Set in 1994 after the events of Bumblebee, Rise of the Beasts featured Noah (Anthony Ramos), a down on his luck former soldier who was struggling to find employment to help his mother and his ill brother Kris (Dean Scott Vazquez). After failing to get an honest job, Noah succumb to criminal activity and tried to steal a car. Of course, his luck is terrible as he tried to steal the Autobot, Mirage (Pete Davidson).

Meanwhile, Elena (Dominique Fishback), a young museum intern, studied a falcon statue with weird markings on it. When she accidentally broke the statue, it revealed the Transwarp Key, an object that was taken by the group of Maximals, led by Optimus Primal (Ron Perlman), years before from their home planet when forces of the planet-sized Unicron, who consumed planets, tried to find the key. The key would open portals around the universe and allow Unicron unfettered access to any planet of his choosing. Unicron’s led henchman was named Scourge (Peter Dinklage), who had been searching for the key since. When Elena activated it, the signal alerted Scourge to its location.

The signal also brought Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) and the few other Autobots to it, trying to find the key which would allow them to go home to Cybertron.

Okay, so… that is a lot of synopsis. And I just scratched the surface. Though it feels convoluted when I am writing the plot out, the film does a decent job of explaining things for the audience so they were not lost. At least, I was not lost, though I have a knowledge of the lore so perhaps someone not as familiar with the Transformers may be more confused.

There have been several issues I have had with the previous Transformers movies. The first one is the human characters. In previous movies, the human characters were terrible characters that simply took up time that should have gone to the Transformers. Here, Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback do a very good job of being vital and not ridiculous like in previous films (The film had Mirage make a great joke about Marky Mark…aka Mark Wahlberg, who was in previous Transformers movies).

Second issue I have had before was the fact that I could never tell which giant robot was which. All of the Autobots looked the same except for Optimus Prime and Bumblebee. The rest were dull and poor characters that were undistinguishable from the others. This is much better since they keep the Autobots to a limited number including Prime, Bumblebee, Mirage, Arcee and Wheeljack. The Maximals were much more original in their designs so they stood out better (although when they transformed into their robot forms, they were much less so). Optimus Primal and Michelle Yeoh’s Maximal character Airazor are the two Maximals that standout in this film. However, the villains were absolutely interchangeable, even Scourge not standing out of the crowd.

Previous franchise films had just stupid humor/jokes that were not funny. The humor in this film was kept to a minimum and usually worked well.

The writing has been truly stupid over the previous movies and, while this film’s writing isn’t remarkable, it is much better. There are several cringeworthy moments in the third act though that bothered me. The third act was decent enough as not to have ruined what they were going for, though it did feel like too much of a step back.

The mid-credit scene was great and looks to take the franchise into a very intriguing path that I would be all for. No spoilers here.

As someone who hated the Michael Bay Transformers movies, I am on board with this new path the franchise is on. This movie is not a brilliant film, but it easily clears the bar set by previous entries in the series. While not as good as Bumblebee, keeping the number of Autobots down helped this film and it is always cool to hear Peter Cullen voicing Optimus Prime. This film kept the really stupid things at a minimum and avoided most of the traps that ruined previous movies. I am cautiously optimistic about the future of the Transformers movies.

3.5 stars

Masterpiece!

Miles Morales is back for the follow-up to the Oscar winning animated movie Into the Spider-Verse from 2018 with the brand new, part one, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Miles (Shameik Moore) is trying to balance his life at college with his responsibilities of being Brooklyn’s only Spider-Man, but his continued lying to his parents (Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Valez).

Meanwhile, Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) was having many other problems in her own world with her police captain father, Captain George Stacy (Shea Whigham), who is trying to arrest her Spider-Woman persona. When a different era Vulture arrived in her world, several other spider-people, led by Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaacs) came to try to capture him. Gwen was impressive in aiding Miguel and Jessica Drew (Issa Rae) so she was brought into the multiversal group designed to protect the Spider-Verse.

Miles and Gwen are a great pairing, with a ton of chemistry together. They work so well together because they have so much in common. Both of them are lonely, lacking someone they can rely on, to confide in. The Spider-Gwen costume, which was created in the comics, looks absolutely amazing in this animation. It is one of the best designs of the past decade in comics, which is a huge reason why Spider-Gwen became such a breakout character.

However, there are other awesome breakout characters in this movie. We meet Spider-Punk (Daniel Kaluuya) who steals nearly every scene he is in. There is also Spider-Man India, named Pavitr Prabhakar (Karan Soni) who is a fabulous character design.

Of course, Miguel O’Hara makes a brilliant antagonist (of a sort) as the heroic Spider-Man 2099. Miguel was always trying to do what was best for the Spider-Verse, even if he had to do some things that he did not want to do. His character was not the quippy type as most Spider-men were. There is an anger inside of him spurred on by his own inane responsibility. I have a feeling that we will be diving into more of his story in part two, which comes out next March.

Of course, you cannot have a review of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse without commenting on the animation styles that are so varied and absolutely special. The animation on display in this movie is beyond anything I have ever seen. It is a work of art, with every frame a potential poster to be framed on the wall. Not only is the animation brilliantly conceived, each character has their own, distinct art style. It was said that the film brought artists from these characters’ comic runs in to consult on how the animation should work, and that level of dedication created something truly unique and utterly bombastic to watch. There were several times when I just stared at the screen in complete awe of the artistry on display. The animation of Into the Spider-Verse was Oscar worthy and this animation elevated that even more.

The score of the movie was perfectly placed, with the amazing music amplifying every scene. Composer Daniel Pemberton brought together the eclectic soundtrack for this picture.

There were a ton of cameos and Easter eggs in the movie. In fact, there were just too many to even be able to see. As John Locke, one of my favorite characters from the TV show LOST, said in season two, “We’re gonna need to watch that again.” This movie feels as if it demands a rewatch just to try and see everything that is there.

The story was complex, but it does a great job of laying out the idea of the multiverse and the Spider-Verse proper. You can see the ties to the greater MCU in this movie too, allowing the potential connection to the MCU. The story could have become convoluted, but it did not because it grounded it with Miles and Gwen. At the heart of this story was parents and their children.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is filled with surprises, amazing action, some of the most breath-takingly beautiful and visually unique animation ever on screen and a compelling story that shows just how important Miles Morales is. There is so much awesomeness in this movie, I have not even mentioned the return of Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) and his baby daughter May.

The end of this movie is a HUGE cliffhanger, yet it did not leave me feeling as if the movie shorted me on the story as films such as Fast X did. The end of this, almost 2 hour and 20 minute movie, only left me wanting more. Next March cannot get here soon enough. This is the best movie of the year so far.

5 stars

The latest Stephen King short story adapted into a feature film is the movie The Boogeyman, a horror film directed by Rob Savage.

According to IMSB, “Still reeling from the tragic death of their mother, a teenage girl and her younger sister find themselves plagued by a sadistic presence in their house and struggle to get their grieving father to pay attention before it’s too late.“

Sadie (Sophie Thatcher) is a solid lead character, bring both a competence and a serious troubled backstory. The death of her mother in a car wreck shaped her as a character dramatically, but not as much as it did her father, Will (Chris Messina). Will, a therapist who worked out of his home, had major grief going on with the loss of his wife. So much so that it was affecting how he was parenting. I found myself yelling at Will during the scene where Sadie wanted to talk to him about her feelings of her mother’s death, but he avoided it like crazy. I found that to be just horribly selfish of him.

The film does a really good job of keeping the mystery of what the Boogeyman looked like for most of the movie, allowing the suspense to grow with every shadowy glance. Some horror movies jump right into full screen shots of the monsters and it becomes less frightening. Not so here. The Boogeyman was scary through the entire film and when we finally get a really extended look at it, it makes it more effective.

There were plenty of times where I found myself ready to yell (I was in the theater so I was yelling to myself) about things that the characters were doing or were not doing. I don’t know if it is my geeky background or my knowledge of comic books and roleplaying, but there are things that seem obvious to do instead of some of the things that they tried. However, one of the big things from the third act, I had picked out well before and was yelling (to myself) that they needed to do it. When they actually did what I wanted and it worked, I nearly jumped out of my seat.

Vivien Lyra Blair played Sadie’s little sister Sawyer, and she does a very solid job. She had several facials that showed plenty of the differing emotions that a young girl her age would be thinking during this entire movie. There was also a winning cameo from David Dastmalchian that kicks the film off wonderfully.

The film may not be the best horror film ever made, but it succeeded in keeping me invested and tense with these characters. I was on the edge of my seat for most of the movie so I found it to be a good time.

4 stars

This was the second film I saw today that was based after a stand up comedy routine. The first one was Bert Kreischer in The Machine and this one was Sebastian Maniscalco, co-starring with Robert DeNiro in About My Father.

Sebastian was invited by his girlfriend Ellie (Leslie Bibb) to join her and her family over the Fourth of July weekend which was going to give Sebastian an opportunity that he had been looking for. The perfect place to propose. One problem, Sebastian felt guilt about leaving his father, Salvo (Robert DeNiro) alone on the holiday. Despite his better judgment, Ellie convinced Sebastian to invite Salvo to come along to her parent’s summer home. Hijinks ensue.

Honestly, though this was also not the worst movie I have ever seen, it was not very good. First off, it was not especially funny, which is always a drawback for a comedy. The biggest laugh moments had already been shown in the trailer so they lost any impact that they may have had.

Secondly, there was so much exposition in this movie, trying to set up Ellie’s family members that it really dragged down the film. None of these weird characters were near as creative as the film thought they were.

Next, this film felt very much like Meet the Family, even starring Robert DeNiro, though in a different manner. The story lacked any really creative twists or original thoughts.

In the trailers, they showed the whole peacock debacle, but it played as if it was Salvo’s error. However, the film played it much more nasty and cruel, making me change opinions on Salvo and his motivation.

Sebastian Maniscalco was also not a strong actor, which only stood out even more with the talented cast around him. The cast not only included Robert DeNiro, but also Kim Cattrall, David Rasche, and Anders Holm. Maniscalco did a lot of squinting and not much more.

The biggest problem is the film was just not very funny. I laughed maybe once at a scene and the rest of the time I just sat and watched.

About My Father lacked any really funny moments that we hadn’t already seen in the trailers and the story was just what you would expect. I’ve seen the same ideas in much better films. Not offensively bad, just bad.

2.2 stars

It feels as if I am thoroughly back to normal from the days of not heading to the theater because I went to a couple of movies today that I would not have gone to over the last few years. Neither of the films were on my most anticipated list. However, here they are.

First up is The Machine. This movie is roughly based on the stand-up routine of Bert Kreischer. The routine is Bert telling the story of how he took a trip to Russia and wound up involved with the Russian Mafia. However, Bert’s party ability while he was drunk won over the Russians and Bert wound up helping them rob a train.

Years later, Bert was still having problems with his own family, including his 16-year old daughter, Sasha (Jess Gabor). When Bert’s father (Mark Hamill) came to Sasha’s birthday party, Bert continued to spiral out of control. Even worse, when Russian mafia daughter Irina (Iva Babic) showed up in search of something that Bert had stolen from that train, she and her muscle grabbed Bert and his father to return to Russia to find the object. Lots of stuff happens after that.

This was not the worst film I have ever seen, but it was truly a stupid story. So many stupid things happened that you had to ignore to enjoy the film.

The best part of the film was clearly Mark Hamill. I enjoyed his work throughout. Bert Kreischer was not much of an actor and what he did was basically just be loud and yell.

There were some decent character moments in the film as well, especially with the relationship between Bert and his father. The story was told with flashbacks to the original trip for Bert to Russia, and in these flashbacks, Jimmy Tatro played young Bert.

I did not hate this movie, but it was nothing special. The whole idea that Bert became this mythic type figure “The Machine” in Russia from his days drunk and on the train was ridiculous but I think film makes the most out of the premise. The Russian mobsters were cliched and uninteresting and the arc of Irina felt like it came out of nowhere. Overall, this movie would not be a movie that I would recommend to see in the theater, but if you had a chance to watch it at home, it might be worth a view.

2.5 stars

I watched a movie from 2023 this morning that was streaming for free on Peacock. It was one that I was in the theaters for a short time, but I had not been able to attend. I also saw it on Vudu, but I did not have the time to commit to watching it. This morning, everything worked out and I was able to see A Thousand and One, the new movie from director A.V. Rockwell.

Inez (Teyana Taylor) kidnapped her 6-year old son Terry (Aaron Kingsley Adetola), who was being kept in a foster home in the New York City foster care system. Inez and Terry live together and try to keep their bond through the New York world.

We see three different actors play Terry. First was the young Aaron Kingsley Adetola, who does a solid job as the boy who was desperately trying to escape the foster home he was in. Secondly, there was Aven Courtney, who played Terry as a 13-year old. Courtney was on screen the least amount in the movie. Finally, 17-year old Terry was played by actor Josiah Cross, who had to deal with some serious emotional baggage in the story.

Teyana Taylor is the standout performance in the film as she had to deal with all of the consequences of her choices and the relationship with Terry, as well as her boyfriend/husband Lucky (William Catlett). While all of this drama went on, the film placed these characters in the late 90s, early 200s New York background, including such issues as stop & frisk as well as the crackdown on the minor crimes going on during the Giuliani administration. These impacted the lives of Inez and Terry.

The movie provided a real feel to it. The drama is a slice of what many black families had to go through and gives those of us who is not experienced in this area some idea of what it was like. The constant challenges are compelling and true to life.

This is a engaging and enjoyable film. The ending twist was a surprise, but it made perfect sense. The emotions are real and full. This was a solid film.

3.8 stars

Disney’s continued attempts to remake their classic animated films into live action films has been spotty at best. Some of the films were pretty good, such as Cinderella, The Jungle Book or (kind of) Aladdin. Others were considerably big step downs such as Beauty and the Beast, Mulan and Dumbo and those that were just best forgotten like The Lion King and Pinocchio. This weekend a new film joined this company, the classic The Little Mermaid.

In anticipation of this movie, I rewatched the original animated movie last Saturday. It had been literally decades since I had seen it and I wanted a refresher before the live-action version. It was fine, I liked the music but the relationship with Eric and Ariel in the animated movie felt rushed and I just did not buy it. I also did not like how they dealt with Ursula’s tricking Eric into a wedding ceremony. It made Eric look like nothing truly mattered to him. I know he was meant to be betwixt by Ursula’s magic, but it just rang false to me. I still liked it, but it, as an animated film, was way below the other renaissance Disney films from the late 80s and early 90s for me.

Seeing that the new live-action film was considerably longer than the animated movie (live action was 2 hours and 15 minutes and the animated was barely 90 min.), I hoped that they would address some of the issues I had, especially with the relationship between Ariel and Eric.

Ariel (Halle Bailey) was a mermaid who had her head in the surface world. She was fascinated by everything human being despite the objections of her father, King Triton (Javier Bardem). When she rescued Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King) from a shipwreck, Ariel fell for the handsome prince. After an upset Triton destroyed her collection of human artifacts, she was approached by her evil aunt Ursula (Melissa McCarthy), who made Ariel a deal that would see Ariel changed into a human, with legs and feet, and she could stay that way as long as Ariel is able to get a true love kiss from Prince Eric before the sunset of the third day. Otherwise, Ariel would belong to Ursula.

I am happy to say that I really loved this new version, considerably more than I liked the animated one. They added several scenes between Ariel and Eric that really fleshed out the characters and created a pairing that was engaging immediately. I found Eric and Ariel’s connection so much more enjoyable, believable than I ever did in the animated film. I was in on them right away. The chemistry was so much better here than I ever could have guessed.

Part of that is because Halle Bailey, a casting that caused a ton of controversy on the Internet because of the fact that Bailey is a black woman cast in this white mermaid role, was amazing as Ariel. Bailey has a fantastic presence about her, just beaming off the screen. Halle Bailey is a star in the making and this performance will only elevate her ever further. Add to that fact that she had an amazing voice and that her songs as Ariel were powerful and beautifully delivered. Anyone who is upset because this Ariel has the wrong skin color is just not giving this talented actor her due.

Jonah Hauer-King does a great job too. I had never seen him before either (at least he does not jump out of my memory) but he does such a solid job of bringing Prince Eric to life and giving him many more layers than the character got before. I even think the film does an admirable job of showing Eric’s conflict when Ursula shows up with her magic to betwixt him. Here, I believed that he was really in love with Ariel and that he showed the internal struggle against the magic spell cast upon him by the sea witch.

I did have a couple of issues, both on the special effects side. First, I did not feel as if the underwater scenes were very special. None of them felt to me that these characters were underwater. After Aquaman and, more recently, Wakanda Forever, we saw great CGI showing underwater characters where you could tell they were underwater. The fact that The Little Mermaid scenes did not feel as accurate was distracting to me.

Secondly, I was a little put off by the character design of Sebastian the crab. I did not think he was a character that was fully imagined in this live action version. The character design did grow on me as I became more used to it. However, I loved the voice acting of Sebastian, performed by Hamilton actor Daveed Diggs. I found that voice performance to be one of the strongest in the film. I really hope that the rumors of Daveed Diggs being cast as the Thing in the MCU’s Fantastic Four remake turns out to be true.

Other voice actors were decent. Awkwafina as the seagull Scuttle was a standout. I thought her work with Daveed Diggs was exceptional. Jacob Tremblay as Flounder was fine, but Flounder felt like the least important of the main cast.

Javier Bardem did a wonderful job as King Triton. I believed everything he did with that character. Melissa McCarthy was a revelation as the evil Ursula. She brought the right amount of humor mixed with menace. I know McCarthy was another controversial casting jobs for this movie, but she nailed this roll beautifully.

There was one notable scene that was cut from this movie (though referenced during it) and I think that was a wise decision. I did not feel as if this scene fit very well in the animated movie and its omission here worked for me. In fact, every time they made changes in this film, I think it was for the overall betterment of the movie.

The music was still really well done. There were some new songs and a few updated lyrics and I never thought that it was out of place. I wanted to specifically mention how amazing I thought Melissa McCarthy was with the song Poor Unfortunate Souls. I wondered if it was actually her singing and she is listed as the artist on the soundtrack. I had no idea she could sing like that and that number was a standout for me.

These live-action movies have to answer a question… what is the purpose of it existing? Some of these films add to the story and build upon what was there. Some of them are nothing more than a shot-by-shot remake. The Little Mermaid improves upon the original, adding several scenes that highlight characters and enhance the story. In particular when it comes to the relationship between Ariel and Prince Eric. Because of that, I found The Little Mermaid to be a rousing success and thoroughly enjoyable.

4.25 stars

I did not realize that this movie, The Pope’s Exorcist, a supernatural horror film that I rented on Vudu tonight, was based on a real person. The titular character was Father Gabriele Amorth, an Italian Catholic priest and an exorcist for the Diocese of Rome, and he worked as an exorcist from 1986 until his death in 2016. This was revealed in box text at the end of the film, surprising me as the ‘based on a true story’ was not what I expected with this movie.

Father Amorth (Russell Crowe) and his questionable techniques were being looked at by a Church tribunal when he was called to see the Pope (Franco Nero). Amorth is sent to Spain where a young boy, Henry (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney), who along with his mother Julia (Alex Essoe) and his snarly sister Amy (Laurel Marsden) had come to a Spanish abbey left to them by Julia’s late husband, who had died in a car crash. Henry had been in the car with his father and witnessed his grisly death.

Henry had been possessed by a demon and priest Father Esquibel (Daniel Zovatto) had sent for help to the Catholic Church.

While much of this movie was the standard fare for these possession movies, there were a few things that I found interesting. First off, the character of Father Gabriele Amorth was quirky and unlike other priests that we have seen in this genre. Russell Crowe had a distinct presence about him and did a nice job giving these strange character traits to Father Amorth. Admittedly, some of the Italian accent may not have been the strongest, but it was not a distraction for me.

I thought the young actor, Peter DeSouza-Feighoney, gave a solid physical performance as the possessed boy. He did a very good job with the lip synch of the demon voice that was provided by Ralph Ineson. I have to say that there were times that the demon voice was unintentionally funny as the British accent snuck through.

There were some interesting ideas in the plot that the film does not spend too much time truly diving into. Most of them, including the conspiracy, are brushed over at surface level and feel thrown in. None of it felt necessary for the film to have it included.

I did not like the character of Amy, who was written as a growly teenager with quite the attitude, but none of that really was focused on outside of the first ten to fifteen minutes. It was a thing that could have easily been left out because it was simply unimportant to the story.

There were some moments of the film that felt too ridiculous, moments that caused me to laugh out loud where I should not have been laughing. I feel as if there were some really solid ideas in this movie that could have been expanded on by dropping some of the lesser important details that the film seemed to focus in on.

The Pope’s Exorcist is a mixed bag. There are some things I liked about the film, and there were some that I found tedious and, even at times, silly. I was not bored by the movie though and I did enjoy Russell Crowe’s work. This is right on the border between fresh and rotten for me.

2.9 stars

I am not a huge fan of the Fast and the Furious franchise. I don’t hate them totally, but they have always been so stupid. Still, I go with the hope that this would be the one that would break that streak. Spoiler alert: it isn’t.

The Toretto family is being targeted by the villainous and flamboyant Dante (Jason Momoa) for revenge because his father had been killed when Dom (Vin Diesel) dragged the safe across Rio in Fast and Furious 5.

I do like the idea that they dipped back into the continuity of the franchise to create a new villain. It makes sense for the son of this drug dealer who died in the fifth installment to be looking for some justice from the Family. Jason Momoa was absolutely playing this role in a weird, Joker-esce manner. I’m not sure I liked the character choices, but, at least, it was an original take.

The first problem I had with Fast X was that the dialogue of these characters. Real people do not talk like this. The dialogue was so clunky in every scene that did not involve cars flipping and exploding (and yes, there were a few of those).

One of the original action scenes in the film, which take place in Rome, is just so ridiculous that I found myself laughing at it way more than being anxious about it. It was so mind-numbingly dumb that it took away any positives I had for that action beat. It felt more like a parody of itself than anything else.

That was a recurring idea in the movie for me. All of the action scenes were so illogical and implausible that I found myself incapable of suspending disbelief. I know the Fast franchise historically has action that is more cartoony than realistic, but some of this just pulls me out of the movie. At least they are not going into space in their cars as they did in Furious 9.

My absolute favorite part of this movie was John Cena, who returned as Dom’s brother Jakob. While Brian (Leo Abelo Perry) was okay (at best) as Dom’s son, I thought the kid’s chemistry with John Cena was really good and easy my most enjoyable part of the film. Without spoilers though, I thought how this was resolved was one of my least favorite parts of the movie and was way too laughable.

There is a remarkable cast here including Helen Mirren, Rita Moreno, Brie Larson, Jason Statham, Charlize Theron, Scott Eastwood, Pete Davidson along with the other members of the Torreto family (Ludacris, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang). Most of these actors did not have much to do. Rita Moreno was in the film for two minutes and I think every moment was in trailers.

And this film ended with a massive cliffhanger that came from out of nowhere. That ending made this movie feel very inconsequential overall. The post credit scene though was fun and shocking. No spoilers here, but I did like that.

This was just a stupid action film that had ridiculously poor dialogue, action that at times felt more laughable than exciting, and a story, well…not much of one. Jason Momoa made it around the world to different locations somehow easily, in what felt like mere seconds. He also seemed to know everything that was going to happen and, apparently, had a evil plan that was more convoluted than any comic book movie plan, yet somehow happened perfectly. And that ending… if you want to call it that.

2 stars

I watched the new Netflix movie The Mother on Mother’s Day this past Sunday. I just realized this morning that I had not written a review of it for the site. I believe that after I had finished watching The Mother and started off watching Schmigadoon and The Silo and never came back to The Mother. It was not up to their of those Apple TV + projects, but The Mother was not terrible.

Jennifer Lopez starred as a former assassin who had been in hiding after having to give up her baby daughter to protect her. When the identity is revealed, Lopez returned to do what she could to save her from the evil forces.

So this really reminded me of that other Netflix movie, Lou, starring Allison Janney. It had a similar arc to it and maybe even some similar tones.

Jennifer Lopez is decent as the action hero of this film even though there are so many moments that are fairly dumb. She does what she can with what she is given to do.

There was some decent action scenes, but there was nothing really memorable that stood out in the film.

Having said what I have, nothing much else stands out about this movie. Obviously if I do not remember much about a movie from a week before, there can’t be much to the movie. I remember not hating the film, but it does not stick out to me.

2.5 stars