Vincent D’onofrio directed this new Western featuring the legendary encounter between Billy the Kid (Dane DeHaan) and Pat Garrett (Ethan Hawke).

This encounter has been shown on film before but this time, the main focus of this film is on a different Kid than Billy.  Rio Cutler (Jake Schur) is a young adolescent boy who shot and killed his father as his father was beating his mother to death.  Running from his vengeful uncle Grant (Chris Pratt), Rio and his sister Sara (Leila George) accidentally come across Billy the Kid and his gang.  Unfortunately for them, this is just prior to Sheriff Pt Garrett’s arrival and capture of Billy.

Spinning a yarn about why they were there, Rio and Sara accompany Garrett as he is on his way to take Billy the Kid back to stand trial and to be hanged.

Along the way, Rio struggled to deal with what he had done, while seeing the two Western icons as potential role models.

The Kid is quite violent and bloody in many spots as the consequences of these bullets are obvious to the audience.  The film does not shy away from the idea that actions have consequences and the main theme of it is important of what you do next is a key one.  There are some strong ideas at play here, some covered better than others.

Dane DeHaan is excellent as Billy the Kid. He is charismatic and likable and, with this portrayal, you can understand why the young outlaw was able to accomplish what he did.  Ethan Hawke is very strong as he always is as Pat Garrett.  Hawke shows his struggles with doing what is right while sticking true to his core values.  The relationship between these two characters is one of the more intriguing parts of the movie.

What did lack at times was the relationship between the two icons and the boy, Rio.  I can see Rio as idolizing them and connecting himself with both of them, but, especially with what occurs, I am not sure that the relationship from the adults really fit well.  And it felt as if it were just a plot contrivance when Rio goes to Garrett to confess.  I am not sure I believed that they had a close enough relationship for Rio to take the chance he did.  Maybe he felt as if he had no other option.

Certainly, Billy the Kid sees himself in Rio and perhaps he wishes that he could be at a place in his life where he could have chosen another path.  Garrett did not seem to have the same connection with Rio outside of a caring adult to a child.

The sister becomes nothing more than a plot point though.  At first, she is the one getting in Rio’s head about telling what happened, and then, after she is taken away, she becomes the MacGuffin for Rio.  On the same weekend as Captain Marvel flies high with female power, The Kid does not have much of its own.

D’onofrio does a great job with the shots of the film, bringing that feeling of an authentic Western to The Kid.  The shootouts are dramatic and filled with tension and the message is strong.  I enjoyed the film for the most parts, though it felt as if there were some connective tissue missing in the plot and between the characters.  It was a decent Western to watch on a rainy afternoon, though.

3.3 stars

There has been a lot of controversy online surrounding Marvel Studios’ new film, Captain Marvel, starring the lovely Brie Larson.  I have heard the hatred of the trolls trying to review bomb Rotten Tomatoes before ever seeing the film.  I heard initial reviews being highly positive, but followed by reviews, from a lot of online reviewers that I respect and listen to, saying the movie ranged between okay and meh.  BY this point, I had no idea what I was getting into.

Sorry haters, but I loved this movie.

Brie Larson, known at first as Vers, is training with Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), friend and mentor with the Kree Empire.  She had no memories of her past, and she pretended as if that did not bother her, but it was affecting her decisions and her ability to grasp the training.  Upon a mission to rescue a Kree spy, Vers and Yon-Rogg, along with a group of Kree warriors, is ambushed by their sworn enemies, the shape shifting Skrulls.  After this conflict, Vers winds up in the Skrulls’ control and finds herself on the way to earth, where, strangely enough, many of her memory flashes seem to be from.

Once on earth, she meets up with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and the two try to discover the mystery of Vers’ past as Carol Danvers and how she is connected to a scientist named Larson (Annette Bening).

I know some people might claim that the beginning of the film is slow and takes a long time to get going, and I would agree with that assessment.  However, I would disagree that it was a bad thing.  I really liked the slow burn at the beginning of Captain Marvel, and I believe that it was a must.  Marvel Studios threw a lot at us in that opening part and all of the set up needed to be in place for this film to work.  And I really thought all the stuff with the Kree and their planet of Hala worked well.

Oh, and by the way, I had tears in my eyes in the first 20 seconds of the film.  No spoilers, but it was perfect.

The relationship between Nick Fury and Carol was great and Samuel L. Jackson was the best version of Nick Fury we have had since we have met the character.  Before all the horrors of the world brought him into the pessimistic super spy that he was before he was dusted, this version of Nick Fury was funny, quick witted and, certainly, a cat lover.

And speaking of the cat… Goose the Cat is an absolute scene stealer and a huge part of this film.  Look for this character as one of the break out characters of Captain Marvel.

Going back to Samuel L. Jackson, the de-aging technology they used on Jackson was freaking unbelievable.  He was not just in a few scenes.  Sam Jackson was a co-lead.  And never once did I think, oh look… they CGI’ed his face.  It was an astonishing piece of technological marvel.  Unfortunately, Clark Gregg, who played Phil Coulson here, was not as lucky.  Coulson’s de-aging was okay, but nowhere near as perfect as Jackson.  For Coulson, you could tell they had done work on him.  It was still nice to see Phil make his MCU return and to see the connection between him and Fury.

I did not see the story going the way it went, and, even after the story took a turn, I did not know what to think.  There was a point where I thought to myself, “I really don’t know what is going to happen” and that was awesome.  There were some real surprises for me and I was shocked that they chose to go in that direction a couple of times.  I really appreciated those decisions.

I have heard a lot of people complaining about Brie Larson and claiming that she was miscast as Carol Danvers, and I could not disagree more.  I found her to be wonderfully charming and a perfect fit for the character of Carol.  I have always liked Brie Larson, so maybe I was predisposed to liking her in this role, but I truly thought she was the Carol Danvers that I knew from the comics to a tee.

Ben Mendelsohn as the Skrull leader, Talos, was brilliant as well.  I loved this villain and he was such a surprise with a much deeper story arc than I ever believed he would have.

Some of the 90s references were a bit ham-fisted.  It did seem as if the film was trying pretty hard to hit you over the head with the fact that this film was going on in the 1990s.  I am not sure the nostalgia bits of Captain Marvel worked very well.

As I am speaking about the parts that were not my favorite, I must say that I was not a huge fan of the CGI on Captain Marvel in the space scenes that we have seen in the trailer.  The final copy of this was better than in the trailers, but it did not live up to the levels of young Nick Fury in this movie or Avengers: Infinity War Thanos.  She looked too video game-y when she would have the helmet and the Mohawk on.

It also may be a bad thing to make Carol too powerful.  She may have trouble connecting to the normal movie goer if she is too strong.  I mean, who can stand up to Carol and be believable?

And there may be a few too many moments where the movie was explaining why something was as it was in the current day.  Let’s call it the “How Han Solo got his name” effect.  We did not need to see the origin of how Fury came up with the name of the Avengers Initiative.  There were too many of these Easter eggs which stretched the film’s credibility a bit far.

There are two extra scenes.  The mid-credits scene is absolutely amazing and made me all the more excited for the future of this franchise.  The post credit scene is … well, I think it is Marvel just F@#king with us.  It was awesome, mind you, but… they are f@#king with us.  They have to be.

I loved Captain Marvel.  Sure there are a couple of flaws in the production and some of the humor did not necessarily land (although I would say more landed than didn’t), but the story was compelling and the mystery of Carol’s past life kept you guessing.  The acting in top notch and the Skrulls are amazing…as is Goose the Cat.  There is great excitement and the film felt like it flew by for me.  There is wonderful character moments and I loved Brie Larson as the MCU’s big dog.

I cannot wait for Avengers: Endgame.

4.75 stars 

This was tough to watch.

First of all, I am listing this documentary in the Movie Review section because this 4 hour HBO documentary debuted at Sundance Film Festival this year and was aired on HBO March 3rd and 4th.

This documentary told the stories of two men who, as boys, were allegedly sexually abused by Michael Jackson for years.  Wade Robinson was a 7-year old boy from Australia who met Jackson through a dance contest.  James Safechurch was also a young dancer that Jackson helped in his career.  Both men relived graphic sexual encounters that they claim to have had with Jackson and how these encounters shaped their lives from the first moments on.

I have to say that I would have always considered myself a Michael Jackson fan.  I loved much of his music and was impressed with his amazing dance talent.

I remember never believing the accounts in 1993 when Jackson was originally sued for sexual abuse by a young fan (which was settled out of court).  Nor did I believe that Michael Jackson was guilty when he was placed on trial in 2005, when he was acquitted.  I was always seeing this through the eyes of Michael Jackson, unable to accept that he would ever do such a thing.

After watching the documentary, I believe every word that Wade and James said.

This was a painful and emotional roller coaster from the first moments and laid out a picture of a sexual predator who knew just how to take advantage of his celebrity to manipulate and control these children and their families, allowing him to get what he wanted.

The supporters of Jackson claim that these two men are liars (both of them had lied about the abuse for years to everyone, and Wade went as far as to testify for Michael in the court case) and that there was no shred of evidence.  While this may be true, the stories of Wade and James are compelling and their responses are convincing.  Watching the After Neverland documentary special with Oprah Winfrey that followed the documentary, seeing James literally shake and quiver sitting their tells me something had happened.

Both men told their painful stories fully and held back nothing in the documentary and, like many sexual abuse encounters, the only real evidence is the testimony of the victims.  In that case, their stories felt very creditable and totally believable.

Director Dan Reed, when confronted with the accusation that this documentary was one-sided, responded that the doc was really the story of Wade and James and the film would not have been serviced with people on the other side who could only state that Michael Jackson was a good guy and couldn’t have done this.  Truthfully, the only people who could have known what really happened was the boys and Michael and that is where the story was focused.

The Jackson family issued a statement about the documentary that said, in part, “The two accusers testified under oath that these events never occurred. They have provided no independent evidence and absolutely no proof in support of their accusations.”

This documentary changed what I thought about Michael Jackson and about the reputed sickness that he had been rumored to have.  This was a harrowing documentary to watch and difficult to finish.  Everyone, especially parents of little children, should see this film to understand the potential dangers that can come from places that are unexpected.

I’m not rating this documentary as that feels wrong, but I am recommending everyone watch Leaving Neverland and see what you think about the stories of these two men.

I had heard nothing about this movie. I had not seen one poster, trailer or promotional material.  After seeing it on the Cinemark listing this weekend, I did check out the Rotten Tomatoes score and it was high (in the upper 80s if I remember) so I was excited.  I was hoping to start off the review with the line, “I never heard of this movie, but it is now one of the best movies of the year.”

Unfortunately, I can’t say that.

It was really good, but it did not completely enthrall me as I had hoped it would do.

Don’t mistake me though, Arctic, starring Mads Mikkelsen, is a fabulous movie of survival in the harshest conditions imaginable.  There were many times when I thought to myself, “This guy is doomed.”  That was good storytelling.

Mads Mikkelsen is a character who is never specifically named in the movie, but had the name “H. Overgard” on his coat, so it looked as if that is his name.  Apparently, according to IMDB, the director Joe Pinna had hinted that the name was Hannibal.

Overgard had crashed his plane in the snow and the winds of the Arctic and he had been trying to survive for awhile when we first meet him.  Then, a rescue helicopter was spotted and it seemed like it was going to be a short movie.  However, the copter crashed too and Overgard had to try and help one of the copter pilots, a young woman who we never get named, played by María Thelma Smáradóttir.

The mostly unconscious pilot and Overgard had to face a number of dangers in a desperate attempt to survive.  It gets so tough that you never know what was going to be the next tribulation they had to face.  Of course, we have seen all of these winter survival hazards before, but Mikkelsen make them all feel fresh again.

The film was a beautifully shot film, with amazing scenery with every moment.  It becomes very intense at many times as Overgard tries to save the pilot by going on a trek back to her camp by following a map he found in the wreckage.

Mads Mikkelsen was tremendous in this performance, especially since there was very little dialogue for him to use to get across his thoughts and concerns.  Despite this, you never doubted what Overgard was thinking and the internal struggle was apparent all over his expressive and snow damaged face.  As only one of three credited actors, Mads Mikkelsen carried this film on his shoulders from the first scene.

Unfortunately, I cannot claim this is one of the best movies of the year, but it is a fine film that should keep you on the edge of your seat.  I really have had enough snow this year to last me for a good long while, but this one was worth seeing a little bit more.

3.5 stars

Very disappointed.

I was looking forward to this movie because I have liked the trailer and I hoped that it would give us something new and different.

Nope.

Chloe Grace Moretz plays Frances, a young and desperately naive girl living in Manhattan.  She finds a handbag left on the subway and she wants to do the right thing so she returns it to the owner, Greta Hideg (Isabelle Huppert), a sad and lonely older woman.  They strike up a friendship, bonding over shared losses in their lives.  Then Frances discovers that Greta has been duping her and had planted the bag on the subway to try and lure someone into returning it.  At this point, Frances tries to end the relationship, but Greta has a different idea.

The movie started out solid and I had hopes that it would take things in a new direction. It does not.  Honestly, I saw a possibility to take this into a realm where it is Frances’ fault.  She really treats Greta poorly immediately after she discovers about what she had done and ignored the old lady’s pleas for forgiveness.  Had the film gone in a different direction here, I think we could have had something original and even emotionally satisfying.  But it didn’t.  Sure enough, we discover that Greta is considerably more bat-shit crazy than we thought and was more of a predator than was let on to at the beginning.

By this point, Isabelle Huppert stops playing any sort of subtlety to the character and just begins chewing the scenery.  The film turns into a cartoon at this point and things go truly stupid.  I hate when supposedly intelligent characters do STUPID things in a movie just because the plot needs them to do it, and the second half of Greta is one stupid move after another.  I did not understand half of the decisions that Frances makes or fails to do (especially this part because there are things that are obvious and she fails miserably at doing them).  And she is not the only one doing stupid things.  Her roommate (Maika Monroe), who I liked in most of the movie, and Frances’ father (Colm Feore), jump head first into the dumb ass moves as well.

Greta also seems to become super powered as she arrives in places that she shouldn’t be able to do and does things that she couldn’t possibly get away with.  Greta reminds me of Jason Statham in the Fast and the Furious franchise, suddenly appearing right where he needed to be to cause the most trouble. The police are completely incompetent and there is a private investigator that simply is a waste of screen time.

There was a neat use of a dream sequence that kept me off balance near the back half of the movie which I liked a lot.  More of this would have helped to balance out the movie.

While the ending does have some satisfying resolution, it also has some simply ridiculous aspects that you have to stretch credibility to accept.

With the acting talent involved and a well shot film, this had a chance to be something special, but, unfortunately, this became just another film of this type, where a friend is shown to be actually an obsessive crazy person.  There are a ton of these films from the 1990s and Greta falls right in line with those.  There are moments of enjoyment here, especially if you want to pretend like the film was trying to be purposely campy, but the stupidity and implausibility of everything that happens just took me out of the movie and ended with a huge disappointment.

2.2 stars 

I had missed this movie for the last several weeks.  When it came out, it just never fit into the schedule and it was too easy to skip over.  However, I had liked the Mel Gibson original, What Women Want and, with this week being a slow one (and a Madea movie to ignore), I decided to finally go to see this gender swap remake starring Taraji P. Henson.

Meh.  It was okay.

Taraji P. Henson played Ali Davis, an agent working for a big firm who keeps getting passed over for partnership.  Frustrated at her inability to break the glass ceiling into the boys club at the firm, she becomes determined to sign the hot new basketball player, Jamal Barry (Shame Paul McGhie).  In order to sign the young player though, you had to navigate his obnoxious-Lavar Ball-like father, Joe (Tracy Morgan).  Meanwhile, Ali met bartender Will (Aldis Hodge) and they started a relationship.  Unfortunately, as you would expect in this type of a film, her work put their relationship in jeopardy from her poor choices.

This film is quite the mixed bag.  It is remarkably predictable and break little to no new ground, but there are a few moments of sweetness and nice character moments among a lot of mean-spirited comedy.    Every time I was ready to completely write off the film, it would have a scene that brought me back into the moment.

I found Taraji P. Henson to be over-the-top too much.  She was too much of a cartoon for most of the movie.  The dialogue was extremely weak and did not feel realistic.  The humor was awkward at times and downright unfunny at others.  All of the men at the agency were utterly sophomoric and idiotic.  None of them felt real.  They were exaggerated stereotypes that were a waste of time.  There were some moments that were funny, but there were not enough to forgive the faults of this movie.

Shout out to Erykah Badu, who played the tarot card reading psychic named Sister.  She was easily one of the best parts of this film.  She was a hoot and was the most original part of the movie.

What Men Want was not a terrible movie, though it was too long and could have been made better with some removal of several parts.  It is predictable and lacked too much humor, but it did have moments of heart that rescued it from being a complete failure.

2.6 stars

You do not have to be a fan of pro wrestling to enjoy the wonderful new film Fighting With My Family, a biopic about the rise of WWE female superstar Paige and the drama that that opportunity caused amongst her family.

Now, you may not have to be a wrestling fan, but I am one and because of that, I came into the movie with some background knowledge on Paige.  More on that later.

The movie tells the story of Paige (Florence Pugh), who started wrestling at 13 years old with her father (Nick Frost) and mother (Lena Headey) and older brother Zak (Jack Lowden) in their low brow, independent wrestling company in their hometown of England.  Initially uncertain about what she wanted, as soon as Saraya (Paige’s real name, Paige is her WWE wreslter name) found the thrill of performing in the ring, she was hooked.

After several happy years, she and Zak sent a tape to the World Wrestling Entertainment, WWE, to apply to join.  When the siblings received a tryout, their whole family was excited.  The problem was that Saraya was signed but Zak was sent home.  Because Zak’s dream was dying before him, this event sent a ripple through their family and damaged the close relationship between Saraya and Zak.

This movie is really about the relationships between Saraya and Zak, as well, to a lesser extent, the other members of her family.  It is an underdog story that wisely focuses on the characters involved and Florence Pugh absolutely slays it as Paige.  She brings so much to the role as the WWE star that she dominates every scene she is in.  Jack Lowden is exceptional here too, really playing the hurt and betrayal of having his sister succeed in his dream where he had failed.

The movie, produced by WWE Studios, does a great job of showing the challenges and struggles faced by the men and women attempting to break into the business of professional wrestling,  especially for the WWE.  Vince Vaughn played Hutch, the “coach” at the development territory who pushed the wannabe-superstars to their limits.  While this is a true story, the character of Hutch is an amalgam of different backstage real people in the WWE who helped encourage the real Paige in her dream.

Written and directed by Stephen Merchant, the movie has some very effective humor to go along with the real family drama.  I never felt as if the humor was out of place and I thought it balanced perfectly well.  The character of Paige’s father, Ricky, played by Nick Frost, is a wild man with great humorous traits.  There is a scene at dinner with Ricky and his wife Julia where they tell about how they fell in love and the troubles they faced.  This scene was very touching and showed how wonderful of a connection these two characters had.  It was truly one of the sweetest parts of the story.

The one problem I had with Fighting With My Family was the fact that I am a wrestling fan and that I knew much about Paige prior to seeing the movie.  In particular, SPOILERS…the film built to Paige’s debut on Monday Night RAW.  In the movie, Paige was shown as someone who was not ready for RAW but was able to have an exciting match with Diva Champion AJ Lee (played here by Thea Trinidad, Selena Vega in WWE currently).  However, Paige was already a big deal in NXT, the WWE’s developmental organization, and she was the NXT champion.  Paige had been tearing up the NXT shows and was certainly ready for the main roster.  The film changed that up and, while I can understand why they went the route they went, it was just a tad distracting for me, knowing how it actually went.

Now, I am not saying that a biopic needs to be 100% accurate.  In fact, the way they showed the event in the movie was extremely effective and well done and maintained the general spirit of the RAW segment.  It is just that I knew the way it actually went down and I could not get past it in my head.  It is a minor gripe of mine, but it was going through my head when I was watching the film.

“The Rock” Dwayne Johnson, a producer on the film, came across the story and helped get WWE Studios to produce the film.  Johnson also had a couple of top notch cameos in the movie as himself.

You do not have to love professional wrestling to love Fighting With My Family because it is not just a wrestling movie.  It is, first and foremost, a character study of a family and their personal demons that affect their choices and lives that just happened to involved pro wrestling.  It is remarkably well acted and moves briskly.  Paige was one of my favorite female wrestlers and I loved getting to see the story of her rise to stardom in the WWE.  WWE Studios has not had a ton of critical hits under its banner, but this one is the best film they have ever made.

4.6 stars

The “final” installment in the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy came out and does an amazing job of bringing the series of films to a close.  Of course, we have seen that, if something makes money, it does not matter if the film is a perfect ending…Hollywood finds a way (pssst… Toy Story…4?)

However, let’s not think about that.  Let’s think about the fact that this movie is a beautiful and emotional end to the series that started almost a decade ago.  Having just rewatched the first two films last week, I found the third film was a wonderful companion to those movies.

Berk has begun to become overcrowded with the crew, led by newly minted chief Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), having spent the last year rescuing captured dragons from dragon hunters.  Unfortunately, they have come across the dragon hunter who has killed almost all of the night furies, Grimmel the Grisly (F. Murray Abraham) and the existence of Toothless became a quest for Grimmel.

Realizing the real danger his tribe was in, Hiccup chooses to try and lead his people and their dragons into the mythical Hidden World, the birthplace and homeland of dragons.  Along the way, they are shocked when they discover a female fury, they dubbed a light fury, that has stolen Toothless’s heart.

Above all else in the Dragon trilogy, the animation is stunningly beautiful.  The scenes with Toothless and the light fury flying through the clouds are some of the most gorgeous animation you are going to see.  The flying sequences are typical among the most breath taking in the trilogy, and these are no exception.

Most of the humor is on target as well, though I must say that I did not find the antics of the side characters such as Snotlout (Jonah Hill), Fishlegs (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), Ruffnut (Kristen Wiig) and Tuffnut (Justin Rupple, replacing T.J. Miller) funny.  In fact, they were more annoying than humorous.  The voice work is fine, but a lot of this humor just did not hit for me.  Much more interesting was the humor with Craig Ferguson as Gobber.

Astrid (America Ferrera) is one of my favorite supporting characters in the movie.  Hiccup’s mom Valka (Cate Blanchett) and Eret (Kit Harrington) is underused here and I would have liked to see more of them, especially a teased relationship between them.

The story itself felt a little repetitive at times to me, but I was happy to go along.  If I was ranking the three films, this would be my least favorite of the three, but not by much.  The three movies are all very consistent in their excellence.  Once again, How to Train Your Dragon is a series that has a theme about growing up.  Each movie has allowed its characters, in particular Hiccup, a chance to grown not only physically, but emotionally and that is rare amongst animated movies.

The movie moves at a brisk pace and never feels boring.  The story, while not as compelling as the first two, is not lacking too much and does have some seriously poignant moments.  The animation is, once again, epic and the relationship between Hiccup and Toothless is still at the heart of the tale, no matter what other characters become part of their world.

A great final chapter of a trilogy that never failed to entertain.

4.35 stars

I have never been a huge fan of rom-coms, but the promotional materials for Rebel Wilson’s new project, Isn’t It Romantic, seemed to take the genre and satire it.  The trailers were fun so I thought I would give this one a chance.  And I am really glad I did, because this was a lot of fun and an enjoyable time at the cinema.

It does a weird thing too.  It makes fun of romantic comedies, all the while, being one.

Natalie (Rebel Wilson) was an architect who was down on love and her life and was lacking confidence in herself.  When she hit her head during a mugging, Natalie woke up in a New York City that was right out of a rom-com.  Everything was perfect and her life and job were way better than she remembered.  It was not long before she realized that she had been caught, somehow, inside a romantic comedy and she started looking for a way to escape back to her own dirty and grimy world of NYC.

The idea here is very clever and creative.  Rebel Wilson is the perfect lead character for this type of genre satire, as she delivered all the tropes and the cliches normally found in a romantic comedy and called them out as they were happening to her.  She did it in a charismatic and funny way and it helped create a bond with her and the audience.  The cynicism she showed truly masked her true feelings and they were on display.  There was a fourth wall-esque breaking without actually breaking the fourth wall.

The writing was also very clever, as it threw in allusions to many of the classic rom-coms of all time, from Pretty Women to When Harry Met Sally to Jerry Maguire.

There were also several musical numbers that were used here that were so cheesy and over-the-top that they turned out wonderfully and fit right into the tone being set.

Liam Hemsworth and Adam DeVine were both solid as Rebel Wilson’s love interests.  I’d even go as far as to say that this was one of my favorite movies featuring the “other Hemsworth.”

The people who created this movie clearly loves romantic comedies and have made a film that not only points out the genre’s flaws, but also lovingly includes them in their story.  The movie is a quick watch and is entertaining.

3.7 stars