Category Archives: Doc’s Movie Reviews

Godzilla vs. Kong

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4 stars

King Kong (1933)

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With Godzilla vs. Kong opening worldwide this weekend and stomping into theaters and onto HBO Max this coming Wednesday, it was time to take a look at the past of the creatures. I had recently watched Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla so I thought that it was time to revisit King Kong. It had been decades since I had seen the original 1933 version so I decided to watch that over the 1976 or 2005 versions.

Of course, the fact that this is 1933 has to be taken into consideration with the movie. There is no fair way to compare the special effects, done here with stop motion animation, to anything more recent. I can only imagine what the people of 1933 thought of what they were seeing.

The classic story appears here of a film crew heading to Skull Island in an attempt to catch the images of the mighty myth Kong, only to have the lead actress Ann Darrow(Fay Wray) kidnapped by the island natives and given to Kong for a bride. The massive Kong is taken by Ann and fights off the monsters of Skull Island that want her for dinner. When she is rescued by John Driscoll (Bruce Cabot), Kong chases them back to their ship, where the giant gorilla is felled by bombs. Making an extremely greedy choice, film director Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) decides to return to the States with the captured Kong to create a stage show with him. When Kong escapes on opening night, he grabs Ann and climbs to the top of the Empire State Building.

The scene at the end of the movie is as iconic of a scene as you are going to find in a monster movie. In more recent films, in an attempt to make Kong the hero of his films, the Ann role has connected with Kong more, seeing that the giant gorilla is very gentle and kind-hearted when comes to the blonde actress. There is none of that here as Fay Wray spends most of the second half of the movie screaming her lungs out. It is very understandable and males a lot of sense. Again, King Kong is the monster here, where as in more recent films, he plays like the misunderstood hero. The tragedy of the ending is less so here as he falls to his death from the Empire State Building.

I was surprised how violent the film is as we see several crew members being devoured by the dinosaurs on the way to Kong and we see Kong chewing up villagers as well. Kong dropped one woman from out of a building that he had thought was Ann as she fell to her death. Kong dumped a makeshift bridge of people to their deaths as well back on Skull Island. I guess I did not expect a 1933 movie to show as much carnage as this did.

Some of the parts of the film are dated (such as the depiction of the island natives), but the film is timeless and the story is iconic. King Kong is the first of the cavalcade of films for Kong and Godzilla and I am excited to see the pair of them come to blows next week.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

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Back in 2015, the consensus of thought was that Mad Max: Fury Road was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Everybody loved the movie and claimed it was the most epic of all films. Then, there was me. When I saw the movie, I thought it was fine, had some cool practical stunts and was good enough. However, it was anything but a rave review for me. If memory serves me, it fell into the 20s range on the Best of 2015 movies list. I still liked it, just not as much as everybody else.

The last few months I have wanted to revisit the movie to see if it was better than I remembered. With an open evening and HBO Max, I decided tonight was a perfect opportunity to see how 2021 Doc felt about the fourth Mad Max film of the franchise.

I do believe that I enjoyed this more than I did back then, but I can still see the issues that I had with the film at the time.

One of the issues was not the stunt work. The action and the designs of this is utterly brilliant. Director George Miller created most of the stunts with practical effects and they are breath-taking, better than I remember. I was quite juiced up with these action scenes as the movie continued. Putting this much into action sequences shows the dedication to this project from Miller and everyone involved.

Though Tom Hardy does a fine job in taking over the role of Mad Max from Mel Gibson, the obvious star of this movie was Charlize Theron as Furiosa. She was utterly amazing in this role and set herself up as a huge action star from this point on.

One of the issue I did have back in 2015 that has not changed is that the story is fairly thin. The characters try to escape, head out, get chased, get away, and then goes back and gets chased. That might be too much of a simplification of the plot, but there is a lot of pieces that did not mean as much to me.

The look of the movie is just amazing. These characters are weird and designed beautifully. Some of the other characters are a little under developed, though I did enjoy the use of Nicholas Hoult as Nux.

So I think I liked Mad Max: Fury Road more this time around than I did in 2015, but I would stop short of claiming it as the best movie of that year. Definitely a great movie.

The Father (2020)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4 stars

Footloose (1984)

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My memory of Footloose from the 1980s was that I loved the movie and that it was a load of fun, full of dancing and music. I was about halfway through the film this morning and I was surprised to find that it was not how I remembered. It still had its music and dancing, but there was not a lot more beisdes.

Beaumont is little town where the fiery town preacher (John Lithgow), whose son had died years before in an auto accident, had led the town in abolishing dancing and other perceived debaucheries. The arrival of newcomer Ren McCormick (Kevin Bacon) shook up the status quo and energized the senior class.

Footloose was a series of music videos connected by some surface level teenage melodrama and the cheese that goes with it. It is amazing how many of these kids were unbelievable dancers, especially since they have not been allowed to dance for five years. I guess that is just the power of Kenny Loggins.

Yes, Kenny Loggins’ theme song is catchy, but it is used three times in the film. There are some other good songs here, including Bonnie Tyler’s anthem, Holding Out for a Hero and the Denice Williams’ Let’s Hear it for the Boy.

However, the film does not age well. There are several scenes where we see moments that might have been okay in the 1980s but have not been acceptable since. Several scenes are left dangling and really never properly addressed. One in particular, where Ariel (Lori Singer), the daughter of Rev. Moore, breaks up with her boyfriend and he beats her up. There was no consequence of that scene and there was no effect of it either.

Kevin Bacon puts himself on the map here, helping kick off a career where he becomes a party game (Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon). He is fine here and he moves well.

There is a story arc involving the death of Rev. Moore’s son and how Ariel is responding to that memory, but it goes away without any real significance because they can now dance. There are two scenes that showed how downright careless Ariel is with her life and this is just cured with dancing.

Montages tied together with teen drama. I was quite surprised when I found myself not as impressed as I was when I was younger.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League

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It is here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3.8 stars

Short Circuit (1986)

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Short Circuit was one of my favorite movies when I was younger. I would have been in high school when it came out and I loved the tale of No. 5 and how he came to life. So I was excited to rent the film on Vudu today.

Sadly, I found the movie less than entertaining this time.

Newton Crosby (Steve Guttenberg) worked for Nova creating weapons in the form of robots. One day, robot Number 5 (Tim Blaney) was struck by lightning and was suddenly alive. He escaped the facility and met up with Stephanie (Ally Sheedy), a lady who he befriended and helped avoid the army and the Nova forces.

The beginning of Short Circuit was surprisingly disappointing. The set up and the characters were uninspiring and seemed more like something that should be for a 10 year old. Steve Guttenberg is likable, but hardly a standout actors and Fisher Stevens’s Ben Jabituya was an Indian stereotype that bordered on racist.

The story was basically a lesser version of E.T. the Extra Terrestrial with a robot and Ally Sheedy playing Eliot.

However, the only reason this film worked at all was the charisma of the robot Number 5. He was cute and had some definite moments of humor. The end of the movie was decent. I remember being emotional when I first saw the movie despite the obvious set up for what Number 5 was going to do.

Sgt. Rizzo from MASH (also Captain Harris from Police Academy), G.W. Bailey played security leader Skroeder, a one note villain who was just out to destroy Number 5 because that is what he was supposed to do.

I did not hate the second half of this movie, but getting there was painful and made me wonder why I loved this so much as a kid (not to mention, I wasn’t that much of a kid even. I was in high school). Short Circuit was nowhere near what I remembered.

Show the kids. That is the level this might be good for.

Spider-Man 3 (2007)

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As a huge Spider-Man fan, I generally come out of these films with a rosy-colored vision of what I just saw. I had strong positive feelings about Spider-Man 3 when I first saw it, but with subsequent viewings, the truth came forth. It is not a good movie.

Thing is Spider-Man 3 does have some positives to it. It is not as God awful as some have made it out to be. Yes, the negatives overwhelm what is good here, but there are some examples.

Specifically, the action scenes are inventive and strong, with CGI that is still decent, especially those effects dealing with the Sandman (Thomas Haden Church). The final battle in the third act was emotional and filled with dramatic images.

I think all three villains involved here were done well. Not only Sandman, but Eddie Brock aka Venom (Topher Grace) and Harry Osborn aka New Goblin (James Franco). However, there really was not enough room for all three in this film. I could only imagine that Venom alone would have been enough for the film. Or maybe they could have still used New Goblin as they did to set up his redemption for his past mistakes while focusing on Venom more.

The inclusion of Sandman, while visually impressive, was narratively weak. I did not like tying Sandman to the death of Uncle Ben and that whole plot felt tacked on and did not deliver the emotional wallop that it could have. The Sandman was a wildly inconsistent character as well. He went from criminal just trying to steal money to help his daughter to murderous, rampaging monster out for blood to empathic anti-hero sorry for his involvement in Ben’s death. Anything positive from before went out the window when Sandman joined up with Venom to kill Spider-Man. It made no sense in the thematic tale they had been telling.

And, of course, one of the worst scenes in all of comic book movies was dancing Peter, over taken by the anger of the black suit, takes Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard) out to a jazz club to rub it in the nose of Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst), who had just broken up with Peter. The piano playing, dancing Peter Parker was just such a weird choice that it devastated the reasonably powerful ending of the scene where Peter realizes that he had lost control of himself because of the black suit.

The relationship between Peter and Mary Jane, which was a strength in the first two Spider-Man movies, was a total flop here. Neither of them were honest with each other. They were both selfish and needlessly jealous. There was no sign of the love that we had gotten from before. It was an annoying addition to the plot and, of course, MJ turned into nothing more than a damsel in distress and someone to be kidnapped by the villains.

J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) was wasted, used strictly now for a few stray laughs. James Cromwell played Captain Stacy, Gwen’s father and police chief, but I had honestly forgotten he was in this movie since Captain Stacy does nothing in this movie. I am not sure if he was being set up for a further role in the potential future of the series, but this could have been played by anyone.

While I have seen worse Spider-Man movies, Spider-Man 3 was a huge step down from one of the best Spider-Man movies ever, Spider-Man 2. Sam Raimi’s direction did not feel as tight as it had been in the previous two films and One could only wonder if the film was supposed to feature all of the characters that it did.

Hopefully, Sam Raimi will have more success dealing with a large cast in next summer’s Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.

Spider-Man 3 was a financial success, but has found its place among the weaker of the Spider-Man flicks. What gems here are clouded by too much excess and unneeded garbage.

Honest Thief (2020)

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I was flipping around the streaming services looking for something to watch when I headed to Amazon Prime. On the banner above Prime was Honest Thief. I was shocked. I was just as surprised seeing this listed as a 2020 film, released in October. I remember seeing it on Cinemark’s attraction page thinking that it was not the kind of film I would risk going to the theater to see. However, even better, it was now available for free on Prime. That price was right.

I have enjoyed Liam Neeson’s work historically. Most of his “Taken”-esques films are usually dumb but entertaining so I loaded up Prime and watched the movie.

Liam Neeson played Tom, a thief the FBI have dubbed “The In and Out Bandit” because of his ability to get into a bank without trouble. He had been extremely successful. Then, as he was renting a storage unit to keep the money he had stolen, he met Annie (Kate Walsh) and he was immediately stricken. After a year of dating, Tom was ready to move in with her and confess to her his secret life.

However, fate intervened and so Tom called the FBI. Agent Baker (Robert Patrick) took the call, apparently not the first In and Out Bandit confession he had heard. Baker’s partner, Agent Meyers (Jeffrey Donovan), sent another pair of FBI agents to go check on the story.

When the new pair, Agent Nivens (Jai Courtney) and Agent Hall (Anthony Ramos) arrived, they realized the opportunity that they had before them. Namely, have Tom tell them where the money was, take it, and frame him for a murder.

Of course, these type of Liam Neeson as a lone vigilante movies are all fairly repetitive, but they all scratch that revenge flick itch. Honest Thief is one of the better ones. I really liked the relationship with Tom and Annie and Tom with his typical bad ass manner was fun.

The movie is nicely paced and at a 1 hour and 39 minute run time, this is a investment that does not ask much of the viewer. I enjoyed the quickness of the story and the realistic action scenes.

I enjoyed these characters. I thought the little character trait for Agent Meyers about his dog that he got in his divorce was a neat bit.

Yes, there is nothing really new about this but I liked what I watched. It was a fun time and a good way to spend a lazy Saturday afternoon.

Man of Steel (2013)

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With the immanent release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League (aka the Snyder Cut) next week on HBO Max and the recent success and enjoyment I have had watching Superman and Lois on the CW, I figured that this was a perfect time to revisit the DC movie, Man of Steel, Zack Snyder’s first and, arguably, best DC film to date.

I had some major issues with Man of Steel when I first saw it in the theaters, but it is definitely better than Batman v. Superman or The Justice League. I had been meaning to give it a rewatch over the last few months, but this was the best time.

The film reimagines the origin of Superman (Henry Cavill), bringing a more grounded and dark/moody tone to the character. Produced by Christopher Nolan, DC was anxious to give Superman the same big screen treatment as they gave Batman in the Dark Knight series of films. Man of Steel is one of the first true divisive films with some calling it a mess and others deeming it a masterpiece.

Even after the rewatch, I fall in-between of these extremes. There are several moments of wonder in the movie and it provides some of the best Superman action around. I still do not believe though that the film ever really got the character of Superman correct, choosing for more of an angsty Batman-like character.

Some of the real positives of the film include the initial “learn to fly” moment where Kal-El begins to learn what he is capable of and takes to the skies for the first time. This is as hopeful of a moment as the film has and really should have been the tone overall of the movie.

Henry Cavill does a fine job as Superman, albeit that he may not be as deep of an actor as there is, he is the perfect physical specimen for the role. The look of the film is wonderful, with some amazing special effects and the Superman suit itself in all its glory.

Amy Adams playing Lois Lane smart and figuring out who Superman really was almost immediately is a great adjustment to decades worth of stories where we, as readers, have to believe that an award-worthy reporter cannot figure out that Clark Kent is Superman just because he put on a pair of glasses and combs his hair differently. We start out with a smart and capable journalist in Lois Lane.

Michael Shannon created a great villain in Zod and the moments on Krypton were some of the best of the movie. General Zod had a motivation that could be understood and related to despite his path taking him on a way of cruelty. Shannon is always good in his roles and this is one more example.

Unfortunately, I still think the drawbacks to the movie outweigh the positives. First massive mistake this movie makes is the entire Jonathan Kent (Kevin Costner) in the tornado scene. Exactly who thought this was a good idea? It is totally free of sense and was an insult to the character. I can understand having Clark watch his father die. It is an important moment in his development, showing Clark that he does not have the power to save everybody, but he did have the power to save his father here and he just chose not to. It is an entirely different message and it just does not work at all.

Second big error is the relationship between Clark and Lois. I never believed it in this movie. It felt very forced and I had a hard time buying that they were as connected as they turned out to be. Sure, we all know that Superman and Lois Lane are an iconic couple, but this does not show that. Then, Amy Adams, the smart and capable reporter, does become nothing more than a damsel in distress in the second part of the film.

The biggest issue I had in the theaters is still the biggest issue I have with the film is the final act battle between Zod and Superman. It went too long, creating a sort of fight fatigue (much like the Obi-Wan-Anakin fight in Revenge of the Sith) and the film never had Superman do anything but crash through buildings and destroy property. I maintain that all it would have taken to create more empathy for Superman was show him saving some bystanders during the fight instead of leaving what had to be thousands of people to die. A couple of scenes where Superman has to pull someone to safety before they are crushed by falling debris would have helped this tremendously. He does it earlier in the film, so why not here where it was desperately needed?

When I speak of the third act problems, I am not actually speaking about Superman breaking Zod’s neck. I did not have an issue with that, outside of the fact that I think there were multiple ways he could have stopped Zod from using his heat vision to kill that family rather than breaking his neck. I also had a hard time thinking that this random family was important for Superman to break Zod’s neck because we hadn’t seen Superman save anyone else in the battle.

In the end, my thoughts on Man of Steel remain the same as they did back in 2013. It has some parts that I really liked, but too many areas where the creators just did not grasp the understanding of their main hero. A film more interested in its excesses than in its heart. A watchable movie, but not a classic and, when people say it is the best Superman movie since 1978 Superman: The Movie, well, that is not a bar too high set.

Cherry

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2.4 stars

Monster Hunter (2020)

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What a difference a year makes.

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

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

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

Should have kept pushing it off.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1.25 stars

More Than Miyagi: The Pat Morita Story

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I watched a documentary tonight on Vudu that featured a look at the life, mainly during his adult life in entertainment, of Noriyuki “Pat” Morita, famed comedic actor from Happy Days, Sanford and Son and, most notably, The Karate Kid series of films where he portrayed the iconic karate master Mr. Miyagi.

The first half of the documentary focused on Morita’s young life, including his time in the Japanese internment camps during World War II. The doc then started to examine his early days in Hollywood, with his appearances on variety shows and his stand up comedy. The film told the story of how Pat Morita became the owner of the diner on Happy Days, Arnold. Some of the prejudice of the entertainment industry was shown, including the difficulties of a person of Asian culture getting jobs on television and the movies. The film showed clips of Mickey Rooney’s desperately stereotypical, leaning towards racist, role in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, one of the most infamous performances of all time as well as the portrayal of Genghis Khan by, of all people, John Wayne.

Overcoming these stereotypes to join Happy Days, Morita’s career continued on with some choices that may not have been the best choice made. We saw interviews featuring Henry Winkler, Marion Ross, Anson Williams, Donnie Most, Larry Miller, Tommy Chong and James Hong.

However, everything led to the role that would change his life, that being the Oscar nominated role of Mr. Miyagi in the Karate Kid films. They cover the story of how Morita earned that role and they went into specifics about the way it was filmed. We saw interviews with co-stars Ralph Macchio, William Zabka, Sean Kanan and Martin Kove.

Even more interesting was the struggles Morita faced later in his life with alcoholism and the battle he eventually lost with the disease. There were several powerful moments in recollection by his third wife Evelyn Guerrero. I did not know much about the actor’s personal challenge when come to drinking, something that he had done his entire life.

Pat Morita was loved by his family and friends and he left a huge legacy with one of the great characters of the 1980s cinema. He had a life of pain and struggle, but he still was able to find success. He seemed to be a kind man, and wouldn’t it be nice to say that about all of us?

Raya and the Last Dragon

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I fought it as long as I could.

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

It lasted about a day and a half.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4.5 stars

Boss Level

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4.25 stars