Found this documentary on Peacock today as I was looking around for other things to watch and I thought it would be a fun doc. I enjoyed the weird and mostly fictionalized film Cocaine bear from February this year. I did kn0w that it was based on a true story, and, after viewing this documentary, it was even more apparent that there was very little true within that “based on.”

While it was true that the bear had consumed some cocaine from a duffle bag that had been tossed from an airplane, that is where the similarities ended. In real life, the bear had eaten some of the cocaine and overdosed right beside the bag.

What was most interesting about this documentary was the details and story of the man who had thrown this cocaine from the airplane, and he had died after crashing to the ground when he parachuted out of the plane. He was Kentucky blueblood Drew Thornton, a former paratrooper, police officer and drug runner. When he fell to his death, Thornton was armed with a bunch of weapons, including a watch that could have come right off of James Bond, and a bag strapped to himself containing 70 pounds of cocaine, all while wearing a pair of Gucci loafers.

The doc told Thornton’s story about how he went from the high life in Kentucky to running drugs into the United States. There was still a ton of information that was not known about this tale and it only helped create more of an uncertainty of the situation.

This documentary was short and went quickly. The talking heads of the doc were all interesting and seemed knowledgeable. The doc did its best to tie everything to the cocaine bear, even showing the stuffed remains of what is claimed to be the actual cocaine bear.

Who would guess that a film about a rampaging bear high on cocaine would have a background as wild and crazy as the fiction?

3.5 stars

Nic Cage as Dracula? Yes, please.

The first time I saw the trailer for this movie, I was unaware Nic Cage was in the movie and it was a shocking moment. It made my anticipation level go up.

Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) is Dracula’s familiar, who was responsible for all of the little details that keep Drac alive, including bringing him people to eat. However, after winding up in a support group for people in toxic relationships, Renfield started beginning to wish for a way out of his role. When he helps out police officer Rebecca Quincy (Awkwafina), he finds an inspiration to try an do it.

The standouts of this film is certainly Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult. The pair of Dracula and Renfield was excellent. Cage brought his typical Cage-ness to the role, but there is also a depth of character. Sure, there is the expected campiness, but that does not overwhelm the character or the movie. Hoult is outstanding too as he is so relatable and likeable that he is easy to cheer for.

One of my favorite aspects of Renfield was the way it used Cage and Hoult in recreating scenes from the 1931 Dracula from Universal Pictures, starring Bela Lugosi. Nicolas Cage looked just like Lugosi in several of the black-and-white scenes, and they made this film feel like a continuation of that story.

This was written by Robert Kirkman and Ryan Ridley. Kirkman, of course, gave us The Walking Dead, and they gave us a film that was full of violence and gore, with blood everywhere. Though I did not notice it, I saw several reviews that stated that the CGI-blood was so prevalent but it never got on Renfield or Officer Quincy. That did not bother me, but if I were to watch it again, it might be something to notice.

The action in this movie was really fun and well choreographed. There was plenty of action that also led into the dark comedy of this movie.

I did like Awkwafina in the film, though a lot of her character’s story was not really developed. There were a bunch of things that she had to face, but none of it really seemed to make an impact. The storyline with the mob and Awkwafina’s character and the crooked police felt tossed in several points of the movie. However, Ben Schwartz as Tedward Lobo and his mother, the mob head Bellafrancesca Lobo (Shohreh Aghdashloo) do a great job with what they are given to do.

Redfield is fun. Don’t go into it thinking that this is a serious monster movie. It is not. It has its share of silliness, but also some real thoughts about toxic relationships. Great performances from the two Nics are the key to what is happening. I had a fun time. If you like Nic Cage, this should be right up your lane.

3.8 stars

I love those urban legends/mysterious creature stories. I can’t get enough about Bigfoot or Loch Ness Monster. One of the creatures that I do not know as much about is the Chupacabra. Known as a “Mexican goat sucker” the Chupacabra has several iterations over the years. Now, a new Netflix film puts a young Chupacabra front and center.

Young Alex (Evan Whitten) was sent by his mother to spend some time with his grandfather (Demián Bichir) and his cousins in Mexico. Alex was depressed, dealing with the loss of his father. While on his grandfather’s farm, he discovered a baby Chupacabra hiding in the barn.

The youngling Chupacabra was being hunted by a scientist Richard Quinn (Christian Slater), who had led to the little animal being separated from its mother. Alex and the family have to put their lives in danger to try and help reunite Chupa with his family.

Okay, here is the thing with this movie. It’s dumb. The story is silly. Demián Bichir’s character is a former lucha libre wrestler and spends a bunch of the film dressed as such. This movie has a definite 1980s style feel to it. It is not terrible. It just is not that good.

There is a sweetness to the story. Alex and Chupa are fine together. Demián Bichir’s character is losing his memory, but the film does not treat that in a serious manner.

The film is a weird combination of a “boy and his dog” type of film and lucha libre wrestling. The tone was all over the place.

I shouldn’t say this because I do think they did the best they could and I do not want to be negative to them, but the kid actors in this film did not feel as if they were incredibly skilled. I would say that they were competent, and they were fine for this movie. They just were not going to be able to extend the plot much more than it was.

The movie was shallow in plot and character, but heartwarming at times. They did introduce some interesting ideas in the story, but they rarely paid off any of them. Chupa was a cute creature design, but the CSI effects were, at best, okay.

For a Netflix family film, Chupa was fine. I definitely have seen worse on the streaming platform. Unfortunately, most everything was surface level and lacking any true depth. It is a decent family film to watch together some Saturday night, but I would not necessarily seek it out.

2.7 stars

Ben Affleck returned to the director’s chair with the new biopic that revealed the true story of how Michael Jordan wound up signing with the Nike Basketball division of the shoe company. This led to the creation of the Air Jordan shoe line, with a celebration of capitalism front and center.

It was 1984 and the shoe company Nike was struggling in a distant third place among the giant show companies. They had Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon), a basketball expert looking to recruit the best possible NBA athletes to Nike. Things had not been going well as the top draft picks were signing with either Adidas or Converse.

Sonny was unhappy with the amount of funds available for him to do his job and was not a fan of the draft picks that could be available. Sonny came up with an idea to pursue one player instead of spreading out the money on several players and customize the show around that athlete. The athlete? Michael Jordan.

Putting all of his eggs in one basket was risky, so Sonny had to convince Nike CEO Phil Knight (Ben Affleck) that this was the way they needed to go.

Ignoring protocol, Sonny took a trip to North Carolina to stop by Michael Jordan’s parents’ place unannounced. James (Julius Tennon) and Deloris (Viola Davis) Jordan met with Sonny and would end up giving him a chance, despite Michael’s stated opposition to Nike.

There was a lot of awesomeness to this story. Honestly, the film does an excellent job of creating suspense, despite everyone knowing the end result with Jordan joining up with Nike. I really wanted to see HOW it happened because they did a great job of building that uncertainty in the storytelling.

Matt Damon did a fantastic job as Sonny, leading the ensemble cast with his dogged determination for the fledgling Nike. Damon delivered some amazing monologues throughout the film, including one at the meeting with the Jordans. Affleck’s character was full of quirks and he provided a excellent job of showing them. Viola Davis is always awesome, but she was not in this movie as much as I might have liked. Jason Bateman was here too as Rob Strasser, director of marketing, and his relationship with Sonny was shown by a group of just excellent scenes. There is a scene where Rob chastised Sonny for his risk-taking by speaking about the daughter that Rob rarely got to see. The whole ensemble cast does wonderful work in this movie.

Ben Affleck returned as a quality director after a few missteps over the last few years. He allows this film to breathe properly and to develop this story in an effective manner. As I said, despite knowing the eventual result, it was still a captivating story to discover how Michael Jordan wound up with his name on the Nike shoe.

Michael Jordan does not appear, and, truly, even the actor playing the rookie NBA player was shot mostly from behind or blocked by something or other. Jordan’s visage was not truly needed since this story was more about the people involved in the Nike process than the talent.

I have never been a fan of Michael Jordan as I have a few gripes about how he was treated as a talent. However, there is no denying that he is arguably one of, if not the, greatest player in NBA history and his name recognition made Nike the leader in shoe sales. Air was entertaining and thrilling, and the end may even bring about a goose bump or two.

4.3 stars

Owen Wilson is both figuratively and literally ‘no Bob Ross.’

Literally, he is an actor that is playing a role that is literally not Bob Ross. He plays a character named Carl Nargle.

Figuratively, though he may be based on the iconic TV painter, Carl Nargle is simply not even close to the man who was Bob Ross.

When I first heard about this movie, I had thought that it was maybe a biopic dealing with the extremely intriguing life of Bob Ross. There would be plenty of areas to mine if that was the track this film had taken. However, that was not the intent of this movie. This was, at best, a parody of Bob Ross and a poor one at that.

Carl Nargle was a TV painter at a small PBS station whose best days were behind him. When the station manager Tony (Stephen Root) looks to increase ratings, he hired a second painter, Ambrosia (Ciara Renée) which caused stress and jealousy for Carl.

There was just not much that I liked about this movie. I always appreciate the work of Owen Wilson. I believe that he did everything that he could with what he was given, and any positives that I can attribute to this movie rests on his shoulders. However, there was not enough to elevate this weak script into an enjoyable experience.

I found very little funny, even though the film had intended it to be. Characters were one-dimensional and did things that were both inconsistent and illogical.

There was not much of a storyline in the film, and, what there was, was remarkably simple, lacking any true depth.

In what could have been something much better, Paint was lacking in just about every way. No happy little accidents here.

1.3 stars

Super Mario Brothers are one of the greatest video games of the last forty years. Mario is a beloved iconic character. Yet, some of the appearances of Mario in the movies were lacking much.

So there was hope that the new animated movie with the Super Mario Bros. would present this in the best manner possible. The Rotten Tomatoes score was lower than I had expected, which was depressing.

Plumbers Mario (Chris Pratt) and his little brother Luigi (Charlie Day) wind up falling through a pipe and into a magical world called the Mushroom Kingdom. Separated, Mario is taken to Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) in an attempt to ask for help to find Luigi.

Meanwhile, the monstrous turtle Bowser (Jack Black) is preparing an assault on the mushroom Kingdom in an effort to get Princess Peach to accept his marriage proposal.

I thought this film, from the animation company Illumination, was a solid film. It may not be the greatest animated film we get this year, but it was charming, fun and cleverly written.

One of my favorite parts of the film was how cleverly the writers worked the game bits into the world. Early in the movie, while still in Brooklyn, Mario runs through a construction site much like he would have done in the actual video game. It was a fun way to include that in the film. I also enjoyed how they incorporated the power-ups among other things.

There was a lot of controversy over Chris Pratt’s voice (aka lack of accent) in trailers. The film addressed that immediately in a realistic and reasonable way in my opinion and I did not miss the hackneyed Italian accent. I found Pratt to have done an admirable job. Jack Black, in particular, was outstanding in his voice over acting. I did not even recognize his voice as Bowser until he was singing. Jack Black was probably my favorite part of the movie. Seth Rogan’s work as Donkey Kong and Keegan Michael-Key’s Toad both enriched the characters and brought them to life well.

The animation was colorful and excellent. It was the typical computer generated animation that Illumination has used in its other animated fare over the years. It very much worked in this style.

The story itself was kind of slight and did not bring much more to it than the very basic narrative structure. That is not a terrible thing. The film does know what it is trying to accomplish and it does so well.

While I enjoyed all of the music choices (because they are all great songs), to be honest, the songs chosen felt very overused. Songs such as Holding Out for a Hero, Take On Me, Thunderstruck, and Mr. Blue Sky are some personal favorites, but they have been used many times in other movies making them feel less special. However, jack Black’s Peaches is masterful.

The final act of the movie was truly messy. It was a giant bombastic fight that felt out of place as with the rest of the movie. It should have been toned down some to make it more relatable to the audience. I am sure the children in the audience enjoyed the rapid fire action though and I have seen worse third act throw downs.

You could do much worse on an Easter weekend with the family than going to see The Super Mario Bros. Movie. It is not going to be the best animated movie of the year, but it is far from the worst. It adapts the game effectively and provided some awesome animation and some fun, classic characters.

3.5 stars

I spent literally hours during college playing the video game Tetris on Nintendo. I spent so much time that I realized that I had to be careful with my video game playing or else I could lose myself in them. Tetris was easily my favorite of the games we played.

Now, a new Apple TV + film starring Taron Egerton has been released telling the story of the high stakes efforts to bring Tetris to Game Boy and spread it to the consumers of the world.

One would not believe that a story about worldwide video game rights could be as gripping as this movie was. In fact, when I first heard about Tetris being in production, I pictured those other films that deal with the game in more youthful ways. Tetris is anything but. In fact, this has much more in common with a Cold War thriller than it does with Sonic the Hedgehog or Pixels.

Based on a true story, Tetris tells the story “of how one of the world’s most popular video games found its way to players around the globe. Businessman Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton) and Tetris inventor Alexey Pajitnov (Nikita Efremov) join forces in the USSR, risking it all to bring Tetris to the masses.” (IMDB)

One of the most fascinating aspects of the film was the look at the pre-fall Soviet Union and how the government kept their people in control. The use of the KGB and the surveillance of foreigners was extremely intriguing.

Henk Rogers was portrayed as an honest man and one of the few people in the film that was being above board. Taron Egerton does an excellent job in this lead role, and, even though I knew Tetris was making it out because I played it so much, I was anxious to see how it actually came about. Henk was an easy protagonist to root for and there were plenty of opposing antagonists that gave a variety of conflicts for him.

There was a feel of “Argo” about this movie, especially the escape near the end. While much of the film had been exaggerated, things added were exciting and worked very well within the context of the narrative.

Toby Jones appeared as Robert Stein, who was attempting to get the rights from the Soviets as well. Jones is always great and he disappears into the roles.

Other actors involved in important roles in Tetris included Oleg Stefan, Roger Allam, Anthony Boyle, Ayane Nagabuchi, Sofya Lebedeva, Rick Yune and Ben Miles.

This film kept my attention despite it basically being about video game rights and contracts and a solid performance helped sell the adventure. The mysterious culture and rules behind the Soviet Union kept this absorbing.

4.1 stars

I was an former D&D player from back in the day and so when I heard they were doing a new version of the game in live action I thought… meh. The reason I thought that was there have not been any good versions of Dungeons & Dragons on the screen, live or animated, big screen or small one, yet. The closest it came was the old animated TV show from the 1980s. There have been some just horrendous adaptations since.

The early trailers looked okay, but then a few weeks ago, I saw a trailer at the theater with a voice over and that trailer was just terrible. It made me not want to go see the movie.

Despite positive word of mouth, I went to the early access event at Cinemark to see Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves a week before it was officially released and I had my doubts.

I am happy to say that my worries were unfounded and that this movie was a lot of fun and presented the audience with one of (if not the)best versions of the role playing game we have ever seen. It was a great adventure and it gave us a fantastic spirit and feel of being in a group going through an adventure.

Edgin (Chris Pine) and Holga (Michelle Rodriguez) were in a prison camp, hoping for a pardon for their crimes. They had been captured during an attempt to steal a relic that Edgin could use to raise his wife from the dead. Unfortunately, this meant that Edgin had to leave his daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman) with his con man friend Forge (Hugh Grant).

When the pair escaped from their prison, they discovered that Forge had assumed a position of power and had been behind them being captured.

Edgin and Holga formed a team, which included their friend, the insecure sorcerer Simon (Justice Smith) and the shapeshifting tiefling druid, Doric (Sophia Lillis), and they came up with a series of plans to try and re-steal the artifact and free Kira.

The cast is excellent here. Chris Pine is so over-the-top that he fits this role beautifully. He just feels so genuine in his performance that I believed everything he said and did. And he was extremely funny. Hugh Grant was also a hoot as the slimy Forge. Both Sophia Lillis and Justice Smith gave their characters just enough traits and heart to make them easy to root for and they displayed some definitive chemistry not only with each other, but the entire ensemble.

The story absolutely felt like a D&D adventure, with the side adventures and the confrontations with the creatures of the world. The special effects looked real solid. I believed they were fighting a dragon when they were fighting a dragon (even though one of the dragons they fight is not the typical dragon you are used to seeing).

The film’s comedy worked very well, reminding me of the type of comedy one would see in a Guardians of the Galaxy movie. There was an absolute Marvel flair in the humor (in the good way). I could not help but get a few reminders of Monty Python and the Holy Grail during the questioning scene in the graveyard. It was easily the funniest moment of the movie.

I was not as fond of the Red Wizard, Sofina (Daisy Head) character as it reminded me too much of the Enchantress from Suicide Squad. Still the third act with this character went much better than the third act of that movie.

This may have been a touch too long and could have benefitted from cutting maybe one side encounter, but it was truly an overall fun time at the movies and, by comparison to other D&D properties, this was a massive home run.

4.2 stars

I was a big fan of the first John Wick film. However, if I am being honest, while I remember liking the next two in the franchise, I can’t remember anything specific about either one outside of the fact that John Wick just went about killing fools. They really just blended together into the films that followed the first John Wick film. Chapter 4 is not going to have that trouble because this is the most memorable and, arguably, the best entry in the entire franchise.

John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is still in all kinds of trouble with the mysterious Table as he is trying to stay alive. New threat, Marquis (Bill Skarsgård) is looking to take down John for his trespasses against the Table and he has hired/blackmailed John’s old friend, blind assassin Caine (Donnie Yen) into taking John’s name and killing him. There is also another assassin, Tracker (Shamier Anderson) and his dog coming after John. John kills a ton of fools trying to stay alive (did I mention that already?).

The story is straight-forward. John Wick is trying to stay alive while bunches of people are coming after him. They gave the antagonists hunting John Wick their own motivations here (as well as a ton of cannon fodder to die). Caine was a complex individual who had a motive that you could understand, though that did not make him a good guy. I kept wondering if John, Caine and Tracker were going to eventually team up as an all-star assassin team at some point because they all had a strange connection.

The key to this movie is the action. It is absolutely insane. I do not know how many times I gasped or laughed out loud or dropped my mouth open in utter shock at the amazing set up for each of these action set pieces. The car chase/fight in traffic in Paris was perhaps the most outstanding sequence among all kinds of exceptional scenes. The way these scenes are choreographed and designed are brilliant, as the precision of each moment required knowing what was happening with every shot (or stab or blast etc.). There was also an awesome shot of John Wick moving through a building killing fool that gave us a bird’s eye view of the events. It felt very much like a video game in all the best ways possible.

After all the action leading up to the final act, I thought what they had set up might not deliver the goods, but I was so wrong. No spoilers, of course, but the ending sequence was tense and filled with so much suspense while taking everything to a more low key moment. It was done exceptionally well and felt perfectly satisfying after the huge battle scenes.

The film is long, but you do not feel that length. It is well paced and there are so many action beats that you are grateful for those few breaths that you get throughout the run time.

RIP Lance Reddick, who passed away just recently. His scenes as Charon were quite bittersweet and it was sad to know that this unique presence would no longer grace us with his acting skill.

I was unaware that John Wick’s suit was made of Kevlar. I do not remember that fact bein introduced in prior films, but, if it was, it goes to show you how I have found these middle two films not that memorable. I definitely got that idea from this film.

It was good to see Ian McShane and Laurence Fishburne once again and the addition of Clancy Brown is always welcome. Three LOST alumni appeared in Chapter 4: Clancy Brown, Lance Reddick and Hiroyuki Sanada and I love seeing these talented character actors.

John Wick: Chapter 4 is full of fun, excitement and ‘holy s**t’ moments that I found thrilling, funny, completely engaging and worth every second.

5 stars

I have always been intrigued and fascinated by serial killers so when I saw that Hulu was having a film based on the Boston Strangler, I was looking forward to seeing it. I was not that familiar with this case heading in and, now that I have, I was unaware that this case may not have been the slam dunk that it seemed.

This film reminded me of David Fincher’s Zodiac. I will state right now that Zodiac was one of my favorite movies and Boston Strangler is not close to that masterpiece. However, there are distinct similarities between the two films.

This film follows the journalistic investigation from the newspaper the Boston Record American into the serial killer. Reporter Loretta McLaughlin (Keira Knightley) was the first reporter to link the different Strangler victims together to indicate that they were connected. Jean Cole (Carrie Coon), a more experienced reporter, was assigned to work the story with Loretta by their editor Jack Maclaine (Chris Cooper).

Loretta and Jean faced not only the challenges of investigating these murders, but also the reigning feeling of misogamy among the police and in general during the early 1960s when this case was going on. Seeing how these reporters faced the sexist thoughts and words of the police was a fascinating layer added to this movie.

Albert DeSalvo (David Dastmalchian) became one of the leading suspects in the Strangler case and then wound up confessing to all 13 murders Some of the tricks pulled in this case by DeSalvo’s attorney F. Lee Bailey were really slimy. Bailey was not cast in this movie, as they simply spoke about the things that Bailey had DeSalvo do.

Keira Knightley and Carrie Coon worked extremely well together and they had a chemistry with one another. Knightley gave a Pitbull-like performance as Loretta and we got a chance to see (much like Jake Gyllenhaal’s character from Zodiac) how this case/investigation took a toll on the marriage.

The tone of this film was decent, but it was not as tense as some other films of this irk. The music was lacking on the soundtrack and that took away from the overall feel of the crime movie.

While this may not reach the epic levels of Zodiac, Boston Strangler is a fascinating watch and provided me with parts of this story that I was unaware of. I did not know that some believe that Albert DeSalvo did not murder all 13 of the women and that there were multiple people who committed these crimes. It may not be the greatest film of this subgenre I have ever seen, but I was engaged fully and anxious to see how the film would end up.

3.8 stars

I really enjoyed the first Shazam movie so I had some excitement for the follow-up, Shazam: Fury of the Gods, starring Zachary Levi as the Big Red Cheese. It’s too bad he can’t just keep the name Captain Marvel as he originally had because calling the character Shazam, which is the magic word that transforms him, means he can never introduce himself to anybody. Anyway…

Zachary Levi returned as Shazam, who is trying to keep his Shazam Family as a group, preventing them from flying off (literally) and doing their own things. Shazam said that they needed to be all together and never alone.

That did not sit well with the others who had plans of their own. When three sisters, the Daughters of Atlas, arrived looking to reclaim the power that Shazam had gotten (and shared), the family was put into a dangerous situation and have to try and survive, even without their powers.

This was fine.

That is about the nest review I can give. There were several parts that bothered me about the film, but overall, I had a decent theater experience with it. The film was paced nicely, and never felt like it was a 2 hour and 10 minute film. It moved at a brisk pace and kept me interested in the overall story. That story was simplistic, but it worked more than it did not.

The special effects of the film were pretty solid. The look of the dragon that was summoned was cool and the fight with Shazam was well done.

I especially liked Jack Dylan Grazer (most of the time) as Freddy Freeman. I thought he had the best arc of any of the Shazam family and got to show off his range. He did act too hectic at times, but that felt like something that was common for the film. Zachary Levi did the same for most of the film. It felt like Shazam was too immature for too much of the movie. As Billy Batson (Asher Angel) he was almost 18, but he felt nowhere near that.

And I always love Helen Mirren, who played head villain, Hespera. Her very presence gives the film a bit of gravitas that it might not have had with another actor in the role. However, the villains of the film (which also included Lucy Liu and Rachel Zegler) felt very inconsistent character wise. Rachel Zegler, who was amazingly beautiful, was intended to be connected with Freddy, but I never believed or understood why she was so taken with him that she would do the things that she does. Hespera made some switches in her character in, what felt like, a real sudden manner.

One of the biggest issues I had was the Shazam Family. Outside of Freddy, the rest of this group of characters were underdeveloped and lacked anything more than a character trait here or there to define their characters. None of them were interesting or felt like anything but background characters in colorful suits. Even Mary (Grace Caroline Currey), who is a major player in the DC Comics, was regulated to a scene or two that did not display anything more than surface level characteristics.

Djimon Hounsou returned as the not-so-dead Wizard who had given Shazam his powers in the first film. This was another character that did not feel well written and bounced all over the place between seriousness and comedy.

Sadly, I would say that a lot of the comedy did not work for me. There were some good laughs, but most of it just felt flat. Too much of the comedy was based on the hectic dialogue from Zachary Levi that I just was not a fan of.

Then, there was a special cameo that was SPOILED for me by a TV ad that really wasted a good moment. I won’t spoil it here, but I was actively mad when I saw that TV spot wondering why they wouldn’t have left it a surprise.

Shazam: Fury of the Gods had some definite high moments while there was plenty of mess too. Again, I think the theater experience was good enough to recommend Shazam: Fury of the Gods. The positives outweighed the negatives, but I wish it would have been more focused and written a little less chaotic.

3.4 stars

A new, computer-generated animated film dropped this weekend on Netflix. It was entitled The Magician’s Elephant, which was based on a 2009 novel of the same name. This animated film was directed by Wendy Rogers.

In an attempt to show the town of Baltese that magic was real, the Magician (Benedict Wong) accidentally summoned an elephant that fell on wealthy Madam LaVaughn (Miranda Richardson). Meanwhile, young orphan Peter (Noah Jupe), who was being raised by  an old soldier Vilna Lutz (Mandy Patinkin), was discovering that he had a fate to follow an elephant to find his long-lost sister that he believed to have died.

The magical appearance of the elephant was too much of a coincidence for Peter and he went to see what he could find out. However, the King (Asaif Mandvi) and the Countess (Kirby) were deciding the fate of the elephant, as they leaned toward putting the animal down.

Peter is able to stop the killing of the elephant, showing that the elephant was not mean, but was instead in pain from his eye. When he begged the King to let him have the elephant, the King decided that he would allow Peter to have the elephant if he could do three impossible tasks.

The Magician’s Elephant is a fine film, very enjoyable for families to sit down and watch. It just has nothing that really stands out as special. Everything about it is decent, but nothing that makes it better than any other animated movie that we have seen over the last several years. The animation was good, though there was nothing here that really jumps out as being beautiful. It is solid. The voice cast is a strength as there are some wonderful actors involved here. The film had a decent pace so you do not feel as if it overstayed its welcome. The story was fine, if not a bit predictable. I did like how the conflict of the story was not provided by an evil character, just a group of people who, in their minds, were trying to do what was best.

I feel as if this is a film that I will not necessarily remember much about by the end of the year. It was a good film, but it would not stand out in a field of several animated movies. It had some moments and would be a decent time for family viewings.

3.2 stars

I have never seen an episode of the British TV series Luther, which ran on the BBC from 2010-2019 and starred Idris Elba as the titular character. However, that did not prevent me from wanting to see the new Netflix film featuring the character and said to be a direct continuation of the show.

I would say that I never felt that, because I had never seen the TV show before, I was confused or not sure what was going on. I would venture to say that you do not have to have seen the show in order to watch this movie. It may give you more background or a deeper understanding of the characters but it is not a necessary requirement.

Luther: The Fallen Sun saw the return of Elba to the role, as he matched up with cast members Cynthia Erivo and Andy Serkis.

John Luther was on the case of a serial killer who was murdering individuals that he would blackmail into helping him by certain secrets that the people did not want revealed. However, when Serkis, whose character was named David Robey, found out, he used his connections to pull all of the dark secrets from Luther’s time as a brutal cop and send him to his own justice and a prison cell.

When Luther learned of David’s victims through a video David sent to him, he decided that he needed to escape from prison and continue his pursuit of the murderer.

Andy Serkis is downright chilling in this film. He is such an amazing performer because I bought him 100% as a brutal serial killer who was getting off on his machinations. He pulled off some horrendous cruelty along the way and displayed a cold, calculating evil unlike few I have seen before.

Idris Elba was excellent here as well and the pair of them had some powerful confrontations during the two hour plus movie. Dermot Crowley revisited his character Martin Schenk from the show as the retired Detective Superintendent, the former head of the Serious and Serial Crime Unit and Luther’s former boss. Crowley brought an inside man for Luther, despite Martin’s own moral creed.

The story is fairly basic and by-the-numbers, but the performances elevates the material. There are a few scenes that really make me like the character of Luther, despite the obvious hatred that he may hold for himself. It might have been a touch too long but there were several decent moments that helped make this a strong addition to Idris Elba’s filmography.

3.5 stars

I like Adam Driver. I like sci-fi. I like dinosaurs.

65 however, not so much.

I had come into 65 (which implied 65 million years ago) unsure what the premise of the film was going to be. I saw previews of Adam Driver fighting dinosaurs with sci-fi weapons, which I thought would be hard to mess up. I did not know what was happening. Was it time travel? Was it another planet? No to either of those.

Apparently, Adam Driver was a man who lived on a planet somewhere out in space that was very much like earth in all ways (including English language) except it has some special ray guns. He was on mission that was going to take him away from his daughter, who was sick, for two years. The money was meant to help make her well. On this mission, his ship crash landed on earth and it was earth 65 million years ago (to us, not Driver, I guess).

Once there, he discovered a young girl, the only other survivor of the crash, Koa (Ariana Greenblatt), who he claimed was nine, but seemed more like 14 years old.

They discovered that the undiscovered planet had dinosaurs on it, both small and giant. They started on a path to find an escape pod that had fallen on a mountain.

By the way, Adam Driver’s timing is just horrendous, as he landed on earth as the asteroid, that we know killed the dinosaurs, was preparing to crash on the surface (right where he landed, too. How unlucky?)

I had so many problems with the plot. Many of them were small things that would have been an easy fix, but 65 does not seem to care about these details that pulled me out of the film every time. For example, Adam Driver had a computer thingy that could identify the oncoming asteroid that was going to strike earth. But it called it an asteroid. Why? Isn’t that something that an earth based scientist named it? Since this was in the earth’s past, how did that detail get out to Adam Driver’s planet? If this was not the actual earth in the past, I could guess that the vocabulary could sneak out to other planets, but that has not happened yet. Like a said, it was minor, but those kind of details can ruin a sci-fi movie.

The movie also made the odd choice of having Koa speak a different language than Adam Driver or us, the audience. This was meant as an obstacle for Driver, but it never was because he would just say the word slower and everything seemed to work fine. Koa speaking a different language only kept me from connecting to her as a character.

Because of the language barrier for the audience, I did not care much about Koa and I cared even less about the relationship between Adam Driver and Koa. This relationship was basically the same one as Joel and Ellie have in The Last of Us video game and TV show, except Driver was not as awesome as Joel was nor was Koa anything like Ellie.

The movie did have very impressive special effects. The dinosaurs looked great, but the lack of a story or characters that I cared about did not overcome the strong fx.

Adam Driver does a decent job with what he is given, but all he is given is running around, shooting some laser guns and yelling ‘Koa!” A subplot with his daughter is tossed out and then aside before you ever had a chance to care. Ariana Greenblatt was fine, but she should have been speaking English. It would have helped that character immensely.

This felt like a film that could have benefited from another trip or two through the writer’s room. Use time travel and lots of the little problems go away and I can get past them instead of thinking about why they made the choices that they did.

2.4 stars

Scream has been one of the most successful horror franchises of all time. Each film in the series has been decent, if not excellent. Now, the franchise moves forward with the new characters from last year’s Scream 5, although there remained other legacy characters here as well.

Scream VI took the franchise out of Woodsboro and moved it to New York City. By doing so, the film felt to be much fresher than it has in several years while still maintaining much of the Scream style.

Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera) and her sister Tara (Jenna Ortega) are still having plenty of issues with the events from last year in Woodsboro, when Sam’s boyfriend and a friend became Ghostface and tried to kill them. Sam was in therapy and Tara was in denial over the memories.

When a new Ghostface gets murdered himself, things get wild once again as the Carpenter sisters find themselves in constant danger from Ghostface all over NYC.

I really enjoyed this movie. It was a lot of fun and it made everything feel new, even though we got Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) and Kirby (Hayden Panettiere) as legacy characters returning for the film. They did not feel as if they were just there for nostalgia. Scream VI walked that tightrope between new and old brilliantly. To the film’s credit, it really felt as if anyone was vulnerable to Ghostface as well as anyone could have been under the mask.

Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown returned as brother and sister Chad and Mindy from Scream 5. Skeet Ulrich was back again as Sam’s delusion-daddy Billy Loomis. Dermot Mulroney joined the cast as Detective Bailey. Jack Champion, Josh Segarra, Liana Liberato, Tony Revolori, Samara Weaving, Andre Anthony and Henry Czerny all had significant roles in the new film.

New York City was really a cast member of this film as well. As a setting, The City stood out as great moments in a bodega and on the subway. Both times, you can see New Yorkers and how they stepped up.

I loved how this film started off. It was familiar and, yet at the same time, original. I was surprised by the twists in the beginning and found it very intriguing. No spoilers of course, but I really was engaged in the film right off the bat.

The kills were pretty brutal and bloodier than I expected. Ghostface built suspense with its stalking of plenty of the characters.

The humor was well done and the meta-narrative continued as they moved into describing the situations from rules for a ‘requel’ to rules for a franchise.

Scream VI should be given credit for moving away from Neve Campbell’s Sydney Prescott and reinvigorating the series with new characters that feel very important and who fit wonderfully into the Scream franchise. The film was exciting and tense and I enjoyed the whole thing.

4 stars