This one is one of the most original films of the year that will absolutely keep you thinking well past the end of the movie.

Two men arrive on an island to run the lighthouse that is located there.  However, there is clearly more going on here than that.  It is difficult to go into much more details without spoilers.

The two men are Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson) and Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe).  Winslow a young man who is running from his past and Wake, an older man who looked as if he were a sea captain.  As they worked on the island, both men started to slip into madness.

Willem Dafoe was utterly brilliant in this film.  His performance was Oscar worthy and he could absolutely win the award.  He handled the difficult lingo of the sailor beautifully and brings a gravitas to this role.

Robert Pattinson perhaps gave his finest performance of his career.  Although Dafoe may have been the real standout, Pattinson held his own in every moment with him.  I did not even realize that it was Pattinson until the end of the film.  He truly lost himself inside this multidimensional character.

Another major aspect of The Lighthouse is how beautiful the film looked.  First, of course, the film was shot in black and white and it was amazing to watch.  There were so many great images throughout the movie that stands out as artistically as any and the cinematography was wondrous.  The second aspect is the fact that this was shot in a way that the picture was more of a square, not full screen and it fit the story great.

Robert Eggers, director of The Witch, brought a visual style to this film unlike many you will see.  Eggers has a pretty strong early career so far and this is beautiful.

The film is challenging and does not feel the need to explain every scene that has some ambiguity to it.  I love the fact that you can interpret the film in the way you want.  And there is some weird stuff going on here. It is a film that you are never sure what is happening, what might have been a character’s delusion instead of reality.

I can see where some people may not like The Lighthouse, but I found it challenging and fascinating.  The performances were next level and the technological aspects were beautiful.  The Lighthouse is a different type of movie.

4.25 stars

Eddie Murphy is back with a vengeance.

Murphy returns in the Netflix biopic focusing on the life of Rudy Ray Moore, a comedian and Blaxploitation film star of the 1970s.

Rudy Ray Moore was a struggling comedian, rejected on a regular basis, until he created a character to play on stage, a foul mouthed, obscene pimp who rhymed his way through his act named Dolemite.  Moore was told repeatedly that he was never going to be successful, but he refused to give up.  He parlayed the character into several bootleg record albums and eventually a feature film.

There is a great cast of actors involved in Dolemite is my Name, which is lead, of course, by Eddie Murphy.  This is easily Murphy’s best performance in years.  He looks to be having a ton of fun as Moore.  The film also includes Keegan-Michael Key, Craig Robinson, Tituss Burgess, Mike Epps, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Kodi Smit-McPhee.  There are some great cameos as well, including the scene-stealing Wesley Snipes as D’Urville Martin, the co-star and director of the first Dolemite movie.

The real Dolemite movie has become a classic of the Blaxploitation genre, one of those “it’s so bad it’s good” films.  Watching the biopic, I must say that I got some flashes of The Disaster Artist, the film detailing the creation of one of the worst films ever, The Room.  Both of these films showed us the charismatic lead actor that may not have much acting chops, but can still find ways to get things done.

Moore would become an idol and an inspiration for many modern day rappers, who looked at his rhymes as an early form of rap music.  Moore would become known as the “Godfather of rap.”

There are some real feel good moments in this movie.  I found the relationship between Rudy Ray Moore and Lady Reed aka “Queen B” to be extra special.  Moore found Lady Reed in a night club one night, knocking out her boyfriend, and she became a muse for him.  The bond they formed that night carried the pair through the years of challenges ahead.  The fact that neither of them were the typical Hollywood shape sends a wonderful message to the fans who may not be as slim as they wish to be.

Dolemite is my Name is a great movie, funny, sweet and filled with tremendous performances.  Sure there is a lot of swearing, but it is fully part of the time and of the real Moore.   Eddie Murphy is magnificent here and I hope he continues this run.

4.5 stars

Black and Blue is the new film featuring Naomie Harris and Tyrese Gibson that tells the story of corruption on the police force.

Sure there are dozens of films that tell that story so what about Black and Blue that is different?  Well…not that much to be honest.  They toss some racial tension into the concept, but truly the racial tension could have been left out and not that much would have changed.

Alicia West (Naomie Harris) is a rookie police officer who covered a shift for her partner and wound up with a group of crooked police officers who execute some drug dealers.  West records the murder on her body cam and suddenly, she is being chased by police and the drug dealers all at once.

She winds up at the doorstep of Milo Jackson (Tyrese Gibson), a local community member, and she talks him into helping her.  She is desperate to get the body cam to the station.

Frank Grillo played Terry Malone, one of the crooked cops and he really was solid.  Naomie Harris worked her tail off for this script.  The performances are all decent.

It was hard for me to see Mike Colter as a drug dealer instead of Luke Cage, but that is my problem, not the film’s.

Unfortunately, the script is predictable and there are a lot of ridiculous moments.  Some that are downright stupid.  Some scenes that would never be able to happen in the real world.  However, there are some moments that are very tense as well, building some decent anxiety.

Despite the film’s flaws. I was engaged in the film.  The performances helped make up for the weakness and implausibility of the story.   I left the theater feeling pleased about the film overall.

3 stars

Western Stars is Bruce Springsteen’s newest album, a series of beautifully composed, poetically written and soulfully performed songs, and now it has been put on screen with a lovely filmed movie where Springsteen performs these songs under the cathedral ceiling of his historic nearly 100-year-old barn.

The songs are really nice.  The images are well done.

I entered the film with one major issue… I had never heard any of these songs before.  Since I was unfamiliar with these Springsteen songs, they tended to blend together and sound alike to me.

That is not to say that they were not great songs because they clearly were well written and deeply moving, especially with the orchestral accompaniment.  However, these songs kind of mixed together for me and I had trouble distinguishing them apart.  There were a couple that stood out for me, especially the title track and the song called “Moonlight Motel.”

If I had been more familiar with these songs, I am sure that I would not have had the same issues.

Yet, at the end of the film, he played a cover version of Glen Campbell’s “Rhinestone Cowboy,” which was a rocking great song and really brought some energy.  I would have liked something like that in the middle of the film to break up the songs that sounded so identical to my ears.

Still, the music was beautiful and the vision was clear.  Bruce Springsteen is one of the legends of our time and this film is excellent.

3.6 stars

As a lifelong professional wrestling fan, I was excited when I heard on Collider Live that Phil Brooks was starring in a brand new horror movie coming out on October 25th.  Brooks, better known as the former pro wrestler C.M. Punk, left the WWE and pro wrestling over five years ago, leaving a gap in the sport.

So when I looked on Vudu today, I was excited to see that the film, Girl on the Third Floor, starring CM Punk was available.

Don Koch(CM Punk) was a disgraced investor who was starting over by buying a new house in the Chicago suburbs for his wife Liz (Trieste Kelly Dunn) and their unborn daughter.  The house needed plenty of work, but Don insisted on doing the work himself.  It becomes apparent quickly that the house held more secrets from its past than anyone expected and that the house played on the bad habits of Don.

Don slipped into his bad behavior easily, showing himself to be an unlikable man and a poor husband.  Still, the fate that befell him may have been a tad extreme.

The film was a nice mix of humor and horror.  CM Punk does a good job in the lead role, which was impressive for his debut as an actor.  He had to carry bug chunks of the movie, especially in the first two acts.  The third act belonged to Trieste Kelly Dunn, who came in an killed it.

This movie does an admirable job of taking the fairly played sub genre of the haunted house movie and brought some originality to it.  The past of this house was as fascinating as anything else in Girl on the Third Floor.

There was another mysterious inhabitant of the house, named Sarah (Sarah Brooks).  Her past was important and well-developed.  The mysteries of the house were slowly revealed as the film progressed.  Even though they laid out a dramatically bad past, the film does not try to give her a break for her own poor behavior.  Sarah Brooks is top level creepy in this role and she does a solid job.

The film does become gory at times, but it does not go too far.  There is a painful scene involving Don’s dog that takes things over the edge, but it feels as if it fit into the narrative being told.

I was a huge CM Punk fan during his days in WWE so I am thrilled that he has gotten a horror film that is so well done.  Punk was great in the role and, hopefully, he’ll be able to parlay this into more in the future.

4 stars

The Current War- Director’s Cut is the latest version of the biopic telling of the story of the race to provide electricity to the nation by Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon).

Honestly, not knowing much about this, I had thought that the trailers made it look as if Nikola Tesla (Nicholas Hoult) played a bigger role in the rivalry and that Westinghouse was more of the side character.  That is just opposite as Michael Shannon’s role was much more important to this story than was Hoult’s.

There was a tremendous cast here with Cumberbatch, Shannon, Hoult and including Tom Holland, Tuppence Middleton and Katherine Waterston,   The acting was fine.  There just seemed to be lacking some of that electricity to the film.

Don’t get me wrong… it is fine.  It is just missing that spark that could have made this hit more like lightning and spawn some energy to light up the screen.

Okay, enough of the electricity puns… before you get all charged up and bolt out of here (last one, I promise).

Tuppence Middleston’s Mary Edison was one of my favorite parts of the film and her sad story was a highlight.  I would have liked more of an emphasis on that, but I do know that it was superficial to the actual Current War.  It just provided some emotional pop to a story that could have used more.

Apparently, this film got caught up in the whole Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment mess as it was intended to be released originally in 2017 and was going to have a huge Oscar push.  I do not think they have to wonder about an Oscar push for this film.

The Current War was, at best, passable with a strong cast giving adequate performances in a script that undersold most everything.  It might be a good watch for those historical buffs out there, but I am sure that others would find it, perhaps, competent.

2.9 stars

I thought this sounded like the stupidest idea that I ever heard.

In the end, it was better than I thought it was going to be, but it was no where near good.

There was an app that anyone could download on their phone that would tell the user when they were going to die.  It seemed to be a fun little joke of an app, but, after a few people started to die exactly when the timer reached zero, it became obvious that there was more to the app than just a joke.

The characters of the film were not the major focus of the film.  Honestly, most of them were fairly slightly created.  Our main protagonist was Quinn (Elizabeth Lail) and she had the most development of the film.  Even still, I am struggling to remember much about her.  Her mother died and she blamed herself, but that was only really used when the plot felt as if it needed it.  She had a sister (Anne Winters) who seemed to be at odds with her, until the story needed her not to be.  There was another guy that we meet who is also getting ready to have their countdown reach zero named Matt (Jordan Calloway) and he was here and then gone.

There were some really dumb things that happened too.  None of the deaths that were shown were very interesting.

There were a couple of fun side characters here.  Derek the Phone Store Guy (Tom Segura) and the Priest, Father John (P.J. Byrne)  who seemed to be geeked out by the chance to deal with demons both stole show, mainly because they had character.  Everyone else was so uninspiring.

Still, I did not hate this movie and I found myself reasonably entertained.  It is not like I wanted to walk out after twenty minutes.  It is not good, and I will not be recommending it, but, for as awful as that concept could have been, this was better than it had a right to be.

2.6 stars

Okay, this one is crazy.

Eli (Charlie Shotwell) is a young boy who, because of a rare disease, cannot live outside his bubble and his parents (Kelly Reilly and Max Martini) are desperate to try anything to save him.  So they take Eli to an experimental facility where Dr. Isabella Horn (Lili Taylor) has claimed that she can save him.  Soon though, Eli discovers that the facility and the good doctor may not be what they seem.

I enjoyed this movie quite a bit and then the film went absolutely crazy.  I was not sure what was going on at this facility but I did not guess the result even slightly.  I love when a film surprises me.

I found Eli to be clever and mysterious.  There were so many things going on that I would be curious to see what they would be like upon a second viewing.

As it was, the film bounced me around and I was unsure what was going on.  There were plenty of red herrings and theories that were looked at, which helped to make this all the more shocking.

Charlie Shotwell does a fine job as the young Eli, who has to carry the load of work in this movie.  His confusion and fear truly are realistic and help develop what we would see later.  Sadie Sink (Max from Stranger Things) appears as Haley, a girl who shows up outside the window and talks to Eli.

This movie caught me off guard and surprised me and I love it when a movie can do that.  This one is one of the better horror movies of the year.

4.4 stars