A sequel that we did not need turned out to be better than it had any reason to be.

I was not a fan of the first Trolls movie.  It felt way too saccharine sweet and irritating.  So I was anything but looking forward to the follow up, Trolls World Tour.  Yet, this was entertaining.

I don’t think it is just because I have been stuck inside for almost a month.

The arrival of Barb (Rachel Bloom), the Queen of Rock, who was in search of the mythical strings of music in order to make Rock and Roll the dominant force and end the rest of the music of the Troll world.  Pop Queen Poppy (Anna Kendrick) is determined that she can make Barb understand that all the music can exist together.  Branch (Justin Timberlake) went with her to help where he could.

A rush of color and music filled the screen throughout the movie and there were some really clever writing involved in the plot.  The film kind of reminded me of the LEGO Movie as there were lots of inside jokes and crafty word play.  It was way more intelligent than I remember it being in the first film.

The music was fine, but there was nothing here that would be able to match the catchy thrill and beat of Justin Timberlake’s Can’t Stop the Feeling.  There was some toe tapping going on, but I do not think there is anything that is worth remembering long term musically.

There were lots of cool voice cameos happening here including Mary J. Blige, Ozzy Osbourne, Sam Rockwell, George Clinton, Kelly Clarkson, and Jamie Dornan.

So I think it was way more entertaining than I ever believed it would be.  I had a smile on my face through the movie and found myself engaged in the story.  It was a quick run time and did not waste time.  It may have been even too quick at times.

This was a good time.  Who knew?

3.6 stars

Have you ever wanted to be a WWE superstar?  Well, all it would take is for you to find a magic mask and enter an NXT tournament.

The Main Event is the new Netflix/WWE Studios film that brings you into the fantasy of becoming a wrestler without any of the hard work.

Skinny and bullied 11-year old Leo (Seth Carr) is chased by the school bullies into an open house.  Hiding in a room, Leo, already a huge WWE fan, discovered a smelly old wrestling mask in a secret hiding place.  Leo discovered that when he put the mask on, he gained incredible strength, increased agility and a boost of confidence.  So much so that he, as Kid Chaos, entered a 16 person professional wrestling tournament with the winner gaining a WWE contract.

Meanwhile, Leo has a distant relationship with his father (Adam Pally), whose wife ran off with another man.  Leo’s over-the-top grandma (Tichina Arnold) connects with Leo over WWE and tries to get his father to talk to his son.

The movie is similar to the Jim Carrey movie The Mask, if this was set in the world of WWE, if the wrestling matches were real.

The film acted as if the matches in this “tournament” were real and happening.  Several WWE Superstars included in this movie were The Miz, Kofi Kingston, Sheamus, Otis and Keith Lee.  Keith Lee played a wrestler in the NXT tournament named Smooth Operator.  The main villain in the tournament was named Samson, performed by the NXT/Evolve wrestler named Babatunde.  Otis played the wrestler Stinkface, who has one of the dumbest scenes of the entire film.

The Main Event has some fun moments to it.  I liked the young Seth Carr.  I feel as if he did a solid job in this film.  The story had some sweetness in it too.  I have seen worse movies than The Main Event.

Having said that, there are a lot of silliness to the film.  It is very predictable and the whole “real-life” matches made little sense.  Everybody knows that WWE is scripted so to act as if it were real was a challenge for me.

This was not terrible, but it is, most likely, going to be more enjoyable for younger viewers.  It is silly and predictable and makes little sense.  Gigantic WWE fans, especially the younger ones, might like this more than others.  If you are not a WWE fan, this one is probably not for you.

2.5 stars 

Holy crap!  I love Pooka!

At least, I loved Pooka Lives!

This is yet another film (although it looks as if it is a TV episode of a series called Into the Dark) talked about by Critically Acclaimed (William Bibbiani & Witney Seibold).  Pooka Lives was on Hulu and, apparently, it was a sequel to another film/episode called Pooka.  I have not seen the original, but, fortunately, you do not have to have seen Pooka to enjoy the follow up.  In fact, apparently, the film takes the franchise into a much different direction.

A group of adults who were childhood friends create their own Creepypasta as a joke, but the internet meme goes viral and creates a monster that starts to kill those who are naughty.

Derek (Malcolm Barrett) was a writer whose book called out online YouTuber Jax (Motoki Maxted).  Jax sends his millions of followers after Derek, ruining his life.  Derek heads to his hometown to hide out from the snarks.  He goes to his high school friends’, Matt (Jonah Ray) and Molly (Felicia Day), house to stay for awhile.

At Derek’s welcome back party, Matt, Molly, Derek, along with Derek’s old flame Susan (Lyndie Greenwood) and police officer Bennie (Gavin Stenhouse) come up with the Creepypasta and send it out on the internet.  Nothing hurt, right?

Wrong.  The story they loaded goes viral and, through the power of belief, leads to the accidental creation of this monster, based on a toy, a toy of which is preparing to have a relaunch soon.

This is a comedy/horror film that was just a hoot.  I loved the humor here.  I loved the characters.  I love the story.

Malcolm Barrett is great here, playing this silliness nearly straight, adding to the tone.  Felicia Day is fantastic as always as Molly, the crystal-using, mystical believing housewife and the relationship with Matt is both filled with conflict over their differing beliefs but also their true connection.  This is a real couple and I really enjoyed their arguing.

This movie also has something interesting to say about internet culture and the way the trolls online can act horribly and be downright wicked.  The movie shows how the online trolls can affect the lives of real people in the real world.  This message may not be subtle but it is also not beating you over the head with it.  It is well done here.

Pooka Lives comes from the Blumhouse Television and is directed by Alejandro Brugués, a different director than who did the original film Pooka.

I really enjoyed this movie, way more than I ever thought that I would.  There was a light, carefree tone to the film and has its share of campy moments.  The Pooka creatures are funny, but look to be mostly practical with their effects.  There are also some really scary imagery here, especially when Pooka’s big, overblown red eyes start to glow.

This is a lot of fun and I had a heck of a good time with Pooka Lives. Might be the best of the films that I have seen since the quarantine hit.

4.5 stars

In my continuing search for new content to pass the day along in the quarantine, I was listening to Critically Acclaimed, a podcast featuring critics William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold.  I was curious on their opinion on Netflix’s Coffee & Kareem (which basically matched mine), but I actually found something else.

They reviewed a movie from the producers of Nightcrawler and Whiplash, two movies which I loved, and the noted Polish director Malgorzata Szumowska called The Other Lamb.

It was called a horror movie, but I am not sure horror really fits as a genre.  It’s horror in the same way that Midsommar is horror.  There are horrible moments and situations and it is more horror in the creation of a mood than anything that outright scares you.  You feel very uncomfortable and somewhat dirty.

The film is the story of a cult lead by the mysterious Shepherd (Michiel Huisman).  There are a group of women who are considered either wives of Shepherd or daughters of Shepherd and they all live in the woods, sheltered from the view of the world at large.

However, one of the daughters, Selah (Raffey Cassidy) is headstrong and starts having thoughts and visions that make her question the validity of the situation and her faith in Shepherd.  With the veil pulled back, Selah began to see the fate of the wives as they grew older.

The atmosphere of this movies is what will either sell it or wreck it.  There is a definite yuck feeling going on here as you can tell exactly what Shepherd was doing with these women.  It makes one wonder what it was that led these people to find this man and how he was able to place himself on a pedestal above them.  He did not seem to be charismatic as some cult leaders are.  Plus, he was clearly a murderer.  The very absences of any male children tell you that, if a wife gave birth to a boy, things would happen.

I could have used more of a look inside the cult and something to base this all on for me to accept the total premise.  However, it was clear that this Shepherd was horrid and that the film was leading toward a showdown with him and Selah.   With this, the film does a strong job.

Overall, the movie did a good job unnerving me, but it could have done more.

3.2 stars

Uncorked is a Netflix film featuring Courtney B. Vance, Mamoudou Athie and Niecy Nash in a family drama of a son and the expectations of his father and how those expectations clash with what the son wants for his life.

Elijah (Mamoudou Athie) worked at his father Louis’ (Courtney B. Vance) Memphis BBQ restaurant, which had been passed down from father to son for a generation.  Elijah, however, was not looking at having the restaurant passed to him.  Instead, he wanted to become a master sommelier, which is an expert on wine.  Elijah’s choice to go to school began causing issues with his work at the restaurant and this led to conflict with his father.

The relationship between Louis and Elijah reminded me very much of my own relationship with my late father so there were moments that really spoke to me in Uncorked.  The mother, played by Niecy Nash, wonderfully by the way, was a fun and remarkably engaging character.

With good performances, the film is strong.  I will say that it did drag a little bit in the middle.  I do not drink wine so I did not know or relate much to it.

I also must say that the film had a couple of well done twists that take the story in a path that you do not expect.  Though there are some predictable bits in it, there are also some moments that you do not expect.  I did like the ending to this film as I did not expect it and I wanted to have it end differently.  Thinking back, I liked the end very much, but as I was watching it, I wanted the situation to be different.

This is one of the better recent releases from Netflix.

3.3 stars

There is a new comedy that popped up on Netflix recently.  It is called Coffee & Kareem.  It is an odd couple movie featuring Ed Helms as a police officer who gets involved with a foul mouthed son of his girlfriend.

Barely competent cop James Coffee (Ed Helms) is in a relationship with Vanessa (Taraji P. Henson), whose 12-year old son Kareem (Terrence Little Gardenhigh) is a foul-mouthed kid who doesn’t want any part of Coffee the police officer in their lives.  As Kareem tried to get Coffee out of their lives, he accidentally gets them involved in a drug enterprise.

I did not like this movie at all.

First of all, I hated the way that the Kareem character talked and how the movie glorified it.  The movie constantly showed that the kid was right and his behavior was excused or even shown to be the way it should be.  It was obscene and offensive.

Second, the story was ignorant and totally unrealistic.  The kid was going to hire some people to “paralyze” Coffee because he was sleeping with his mother.  Coincidentally, they walked right in to the middle of the case Coffee had been involved in.  The other characters in this movie, especially the villains were completely over-the-top and ridiculously played.

Ed Helms had some decent moments, but his character and the arc he went through was so painfully predictable that there is practically no reason to watch it.  The relationship with Helms and Gardenhigh was not believable either.  I felt little connection with the pair until the very end.  Then the switch came too suddenly.

Why did Helms want to be with Taraji P. Henson?  I don’t know because they did not seem to have any chemistry and I saw little reason for either of them to have any connection whatsoever.

The film was just too loud and bombastic.  There was nothing worthwhile in the story, the bad cops were so obvious and the events to get to the conclusion were dumb.  The scene with Kareem driving a car, using a handgun, etc were all just stupid.

There was nothing that was funny here.  I have said it before, but funny can overcome plenty of mistakes in a movie. The humor here was so lacking and dumb.

I have already talked more about this one than I should have.  It is a bad movie.

1 star

I have been searching for new content on the streaming services recently since the theaters are currently closed with the COVID-19 pandemic.  I had seen this on Hulu once but I thought it was a series.  So when I heard the podcast Critically Acclaimed with William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold review this as a movie and give it a positive review, I went back to Hulu to check it out.

Mo (Griffin Gluck) is a young teen who has bonded with his sister’s former boyfriend Zeke (Pete Davidson), who is several years older than Mo.  They continue to hang out even after his sister and Zeke break up.

After years of friendship, now 16-year old Mo is convinced by Zeke to sell marijuana at his high school parties, which Mo is suddenly the star of the show.  However, the world starts condensing on him.

This coming of age story is actually quite solid.  Pete Davidson does a top level job as the loser who cares more than he lets on.  Zeke does have feelings for the kid and he tries to give him advice that he thinks will be helpful, despite the fact that his advice is poor most of the time.  Davidson has some real charisma and feels like he works in this type of film.

Young Griffin Gluck does a great job as well.  He has a natural feel to him and looks very comfortable on the screen.  He has chemistry with the other actors and portrays the awkwardness of the teen life extremely well.

Jon Cryer plays Reuben, Mo’s frustrated father.  Reuben is unsure how to deal with his son and his strange connection to Zeke.  Cryer is excellent in showing his exasperation with Mo and how he does not understand why Mo wants to spend so much time with Zeke.  Cryer is very believable and could have used more on screen time.

Big Time Adolescence is a sweet and enjoyable coming of age story that has good performances and a fun story.

4 stars  

I never got around to this while the theaters were open and it was there.  I had intended to see it in the theaters, but I wasn’t feeling great and the timing just never worked out so I skipped Vin Diesel’s latest comic book based project, Bloodshot.

However, it came to the video on demand early after the theaters were closed nationwide.  I have to say that I still ignored it for a time because, by this point, I had heard the bad reviews on it and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to drop the money to see it.  Boredom took over tonight and I went ahead and purchased it.

Boy this was terrible.

Vin Diesel played Ray Garrison, an elite soldier killed in battle, but who was brought back using technology that gave him special abilities and powers.  After returning from beyond the grave, Ray turned his attention to the man who murdered his wife in front of him.

Or so he thought.

This is not a spoiler, since trailers gave it away, but it turns out that Ray’s mind is being messed with and his memories manipulated in order to make him an assassin.

So the story is convoluted and I couldn’t have given a bigger crap about Ray Garrison or anyone in his orbit.  The film does not make any real attempt to give us any reason to support or cheer for Ray and the mission he is on.  In fact, it is clear that he is not on a heroic mission.  Vin Diesel provided us with zero emotions outside of anger and vengeance.

There are zero side characters that are worth anything either.  Eventually we come across Lamorne Morris, whose comedic sidekick type character is fine, but we have little to no backstory or reason to care about him either… except that he was funny.

The action was fine, but nothing that you haven’t seen before.  The CGI was below average, especially when compared to other comic book movies and the exceptional work that they are providing the world.

This was quite boring.  There was nothing that made this stand out.  I probably should have left it alone.

1.65 stars