Category Archives: Doc’s Movie Reviews

Origin (2023)

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June 11, 2024

The format of today’s June Swoon 3 is one unlike I have seen before and it takes a revolutionary director in order to make this work. Ava DuVernay is just such a director.

Origin adapts the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson, a book that laid out the idea that racism in the United States is a part of the concept of caste system, connecting racism in America to the attempted extermination of Jewish people by the Nazis, the caste system of India as well as other atrocities across the globe.

Such an undertaking was going to be difficult to attain, but DuVernay skillfully weaves the information, at times, in a documentary style, while mixing it with the drama of Isabel Wilkerson’s life during this stretch of working on the book when she lost her husband, mother and cousin.

The combination of docudrama is a difficult one to reach, but DuVernay does a masterful job of making this fully engaging while providing ideas that challenge the thoughts of a generation.

The lead role of the film was played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, showcasing an emotional arc for Isabel Wilkerson from early on in the film when she lost her husband, Brett (Jon Bernthal). The use of flashbacks and memories throughout the movie helped us see important aspects of Wilkerson’s life and relationships with her family and friends. Ellis-Taylor made these life moments extremely relatable and touching as we see her deal with loss and pain, as well as a love of life.

The film may be a little long, but there are so many great moments throughout that help us see the central point being made by the film. There are stories that are told such as the tale of Al Bright, a young boy whose baseball team just wanted to swim together as a celebration for a big win, but who was denied because he was black. Another story told the tale of a German Nazi and a Jewish woman’s relationship that broke all the rules of Nazi Germany and led her her eventual encampment at a concentration camp. These stories are important to the overall narrative of the piece and help highlight the concept of the book being written.

You wouldn’t think that a film could be made about a journalist writing a book about the caste system, but Ava DuVernay accomplished just that and it was compelling and amazing, even if it could be tough to watch at times.

You can watch Origin currently on Disney +/Hulu.

The Book of Clarence (2023)

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June 10, 2024

It was Netflix again for this June Swoon as I pulled up The Book of Clarence, a retelling f the story of the crucifixion through the eyes of a down-on-his-luck loser named Clarence.

According to IMDB, “Struggling to find a better life, Clarence (LaKeith Stanfield) is captivated by the power of the rising Messiah and soon risks everything to carve a path to a divine existence.“

This movie was very up and down for me. The biggest issue I had with it was that it lacked a consistent tone. There were deadly serious scenes that were well done, particularly with the strength of LaKeith Stanfield’s performance, but other scenes that felt like it was pulled right out of a Monty Python skit. I was not sure if this was meant to be a serious movie or a satire. Or was it meant to be some kind of amalgam between the two? This uncertainty hurt this film in my eyes.

As I mentioned, the performance of LaKeith Stanfield was excellent, as he went from a disbeliever to one who exceeded belief. Stanfield was believable in every moment he was on screen and he gave the film a credibility that I do not think it would have had if it were another actor in this potentially divisive role.

There is an excellent cast in this movie including Benedict Cumberbatch (whole role felt as if it were one of the most satirical of them all), Omar Sy, Anna Diop, RJ Cyler, David Oyelowo, Alfre Woodard, Caleb McLaughlin, James McAvoy, Nicholas Pinnock, Marianne-Jean Baptiste, Teyana Taylor and Michael Ward.

I can see this film stirring up the audience, depending on who was watching. For me, there are some good ideas in here, but the film can’t decide what exactly it wants to be, and that demeans the positives that are here.

Run Rabbit Run (2023)

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June 9, 2024

Another horror movie highlights today’s June Swoon as I watched the Australian film Run Rabbit Run on Netflix.

Run Rabbit Run is more of a psychological thriller than it is a horror film as there are not many scares and it really does focus on the mental state of the characters involved. It was effective in this manner as I felt a connection with the two lead characters as they went through their memories of tragic events from the past.

However, it does take a while to get rolling. The film seemed a bit long and the pacing was not the best. Some of the beats felt as if they were repeated during the story and it seemed that this could have been a tighter film with some of this narrowed down.

The lead performances are the reason to watch Run Rabbit Run. Sarah Snook played Sarah, the mother whose past was coming back to cause trouble with her daughter. The daughter, Mia, was played well by young actor Lily LaTorre. She provided many of the film’s creepiest moments as she was seemingly being possessed by the spirit of Alice, Sarah’s missing sister.

These performances overcame the weaknesses in the plot, which included a predictable outcome, and made this a film I would say that I enjoyed watching. It is not a perfect horror movie, but it does enough things well that make it interesting.

The Watchers

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I did not see Uatu the Watcher anywhere in this movie.

Seriously though, the question I had was What If … I had liked this crappy movie?.

According to IMDB, “This forest isn’t charted on any map. Every car breaks down at its treeline. Mina’s (Dakota Fanning) is no different. Left stranded, she is forced into the dark woodland only to find a woman shouting, urging Mina to run to a concrete bunker. As the door slams behind her, the building is besieged by screams. Mina finds herself in a room with a wall of glass, and an electric light that activates at nightfall, when the Watchers come above ground. These creatures emerge to observe their captive humans and terrible things happen to anyone who doesn’t reach the bunker in time.“

The premise sounded interesting, but the film was anything but. Directed by Ishana Shyamalan, the feature directorial debut for the daughter of M. Night Shyamalan, The Watchers had lots of familiar elements to it, but nothing that feels as though it was necessary to make a movie out of.

The characters were all fairly simplistic. Even Mina’s backstory did not make me connect to Mina at all. In fact, I did not like her much at all. I was more connected to the bird, Darwin, and I continuously wondered if they ever fed or watered that poor bird.

Those were the things I thought about instead of the purported plot that the film tossed us into.

The ending, which there were two… just be aware, was very anticlimactic and did little to salvage what had been a boring time inside these scary, supernatural woods.

It constantly make little sense and there was a ton of exposition that you are never sure is accurate. I found myself wishing this was over early on in the film. I did not find this engaging at all.

1.5 stars

Rustin (2023)

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June 8, 2024

I have yet another Oscar nominated film for the June Swoon 3 today. This nomination went to Colman Domingo for Best Actor in Motion Picture. He did not win the Oscar, but he gave an electric performance that carried an average film to new heights.

There have been a lot of examples of an amazing lead performance elevating a movie before. Rustin is just the latest example in a long line. Many of these tend to be biopics. This is yet another.

Bayard Rustin was a leader in the Civil Rights movement and a driving force behind the 1963 March on Washington. He was also an openly gay man. His leadership and charisma shone through the struggles his life presented to him.

Colman Domingo is absolutely amazing in this film and he overshadows the rest of the movie. Without him, this movie would be considerably lesser. The way the film is present is fairly pedestrian outside of the main performance.

There is a solid cast supporting Domingo including Chris Rock, Gus Halper, Jeffrey Wright, Ami Ameen, Glynn Turman, Johnny Ramey, CCH Pounder, Michael Potts, Jordan-Amanda Hall, and Lilli Kay.

But Domingo leads the way, bringing to life this man who had such a hand in creating this seminal point in history. He is a name that is not as well known as Dr. King or John Lewis, but he should be.

Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor (2023)

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June 7, 2023

As I was searching for movies to put on the possible list for this June Swoon, I came across this horror film on Shudder. It sounded interesting and so I placed it on the list. I had no idea that this was the fourth film of the series, with the first Hell House LLC being released in 2015. I guess I have some films to watch during The October 13 this year.

Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor looks to have built on the previous installments (though I can’t say that for sure) and provided a found footage horror film that was extremely creepy and had its share of effective scares.

According to IMDB, “A group of cold case investigators stay at the Carmichael Manor. After four nights, the group was never heard from again. What is discovered on their footage is even more disturbing than anything found on the Hell House tapes.”

The three main characters that went to stay at the Carmichael Manor did a great job of selling the mysterious feel and the fright that this situation would entail inside a person. The story of the events really work well here, as Margot (Bridget Rose Perrotta) ties the story into her background. The film does this in a very strong manner, not bashing the audience over the head with it. In fact, it is possible that some may miss the connection to Margot if they are not paying attention.

Then, I enjoyed the way the film kind of makes this found footage/haunted house film into a sort of documentary, with a couple of people commenting about the footage that was found of these missing people.

The film goes to great lengths to build a mythology, which I can only assume included a bunch of Easter eggs from the previous three movies.

I found this extremely creepy and a little unnerving as I watched it this morning in the dark. That means this horror film did its job. I was entertained and I look forward to going back and seeing some more of this franchise.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die

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I was not a fan of the first two Bad Boys movies. However, the last film, Bad Boys for Life was a lot of fun. I have heard some positive word of mouth for this new film, so I went into Bad Boys: Ride or Die with a positive feel.

Then, I did not like this one much at all.

Mike (Will Smith) and Marcus (Martin Lawrence) are back once again. This time, their friend and former boss Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano), who was killed in the previous film, looked to be crooked. Mike and Marcus are on the case in order to attempt to clear the name of their captain.

I did not like the interaction between Smith and Lawrence. It felt so silly, bordering on stupid. I know that is kind of the vibe of their typical relationship, but I have not liked three of the four so obviously their chemistry, which sells this movie, does not work for me.

I did not like what happened to Marcus at the beginning of the film and I do not like how it affected his character. It also had no lasting effect on the character and was like it never happened. I don’t want to go into spoilers, but I found this to be a huge weakness of the film.

The action was hard to watch for me too. I thought it was so shaky and wobbled during the action that I hated watching it.

And there was a killer alligator and my friend know how much I hate killer alligators.

Something happens with Mike about halfway through the film that I do not think has ever happened before and had no reason why it now suddenly happened. Perhaps I missed the reason for this thing to have happened outside of they needed a reason to create more conflict. Again, I do not want to spoil the situation, but I found this to be totally shoved in for no reason.

There were some okay moments, but I just found this to be ridiculous, annoying and hard to watch. Will Smith was decent and many of his reactions to Martin Lawrence were mine as well. I was very disappointed with the next installment of the Bad Boys franchise.

2.4 stars

Babes

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I was watching one of Kristian Harloff’s shows that had Winston Marshall was on and he had made a comment about not planning on going to Babes until someone had told him it was pretty good. Winston went and said it was hilarious, but that he would not have gone without the word of mouth.

I was in the same boat. I had no plans on going to Babes because I was unfamiliar with it and it did not seem to fit into my schedule. When Winston said it was hilarious, and since it was summer and I had some time, I decided to give it a chance.

It was hilarious.

According to IMDB, “Follows inseparable childhood best friends Eden (Ilana Glazer) and Dawn (Michelle Buteau), having grown up together in NYC, now firmly in different phases of adulthood. When carefree and single Eden decides to have a baby on her own after a one-night stand, their friendship faces its greatest challenge. BABES delves into the complexities of female friendship with a blend of laughter, tears, and labor pains.“

The film works because of Ilana Glazer and Michelle Buteau. They had a very easy chemistry and were both extremely funny. For some reason, their hectic delivery, which some times bother me with some other actors, worked for me here. Perhaps they looked very unique as performers and that helped me react to them. Either way, they are definitely the strongest part of the story.

The film looks at motherhood as well as the relationship between two female friends and does it with a lot of humor. It was raunchy, over-the-top and dirty. It all worked because it is laugh out loud funny.

I enjoyed this one a bunch.

4 stars

The Boys in the Boat (2023)

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June 6, 2024

Today’s June Swoon 3 movie was one that I actually had tickets for this past year, but I left the theater after seeing another movie first because I was not feeling well. After being unable to see this (Along with Ferrari too), I decided that I would wait for the June Swoon to watch this movie directed by George Clooney.

The Boys in the Boat is the true story of the Washington Huskies rowing team’s unlikely ascension to the 1936 Olympics with a junior team that lacked experience. Led by their coach Al Ulbrickson (Joel Edgerton), the group of eight young men exceeded all expectations in quest for an Olympic medal.

I enjoyed the actual rowing competitions filmed during this movie as they brought some real dramatics to a sport that might not have as much as some others. The races were well filmed and created suspense in scenes that were fairly predictable.

The film lacked a lot of characterization for the cast, focusing on Coach Ulbrickson and Joe Turner (Callum Turner), one of the crew. The rest of the crew of the row team were fairly simplistic, one-note characters, with a few minor traits tossed their way. Ironic how a sport that is so much about the team does not spend much time with the parts of that team.

The story itself was basic, taking most of the sport movie cliches into play. This was a basic, by-the-numbers sports flick that did not stray from the pattern much.

Having said that, I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t inspired by the finale of the film, especially the final Olympic race. There was one final conflict that was tossed in at the end that felt rushed and did not pay off in the end.

If you come into The Boys in the Boat with the idea that this is a basic formulaic sports movie and that it does not go above that, there are things to enjoy here. I think this story could have been more than what was here, but there is something to say for formula.

The Last Repair Shop (2023)

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June 5, 2024

It is a busy day today so I had to get the June Swoon 3 going early this morning and I had another Oscar winner on the list. This was the Oscar winner for Best Documentary Short and it was entitled The Last Repair Shop. I watched it on YouTube, but I see that it is available as well on Disney +. This is just over thirty five minutes long and is a joyous expression of love for music and for those for whom music has changed their lives.

The focus was on a instrument repair shop from Los Angeles that provided a service to the schools of the area to repair damaged or broken musical instruments for free. The film profiles four members of the shop: Dana Atkinson, Paty Moreno, Duane Michaels and Steve bagmanyan.

The film also had words from students who gave quick stories about how they wound up playing the instrument they played. The passion and the joy came through each child’s words as it helped us understand how important these musical instruments would be in their lives.

The stories were very emotional and compelling. The stories of the workers at the repair shop ranged from a man who an Armenian refugee from Azerbaijan to a woman who tried to give her children a better life in America only to struggle to a man who played on the same stage as Elvis Presley.

The film ended with a performance of a song called “The Alumni” which featured many of the voices that we heard during the film.

If you love music, or if you ever played an instrument, you will be inspired by this documentary short film. It is a love letter to music and those people who make it or allow other people to make it.

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Two

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I could not find this on HBO Max despite the release date supposedly being some time during April, so I had to go to Vudu (which is now called Fandango at Home, I guess) to rent the second part of the three part Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths animated film.

This one, to me, was a big step down from the previous Part One.

I found this continuation of the story to be quite messy, filled with sections that did not make much sense in the context that they used it in. A focus on Kara, aka Supergirl, and Psycho-Pirate were understandable because of the original comics, but did not work nearly as well in this presentation.

The animation is still, at best, passable, but not what this type of project deserves. This is one of the most iconic DC stories ever told and it should be a much wider scope with breathtaking visuals instead of animation that just gets by.

And then the story felt so discombobulated during the telling, jumping back and forth between Kara’s story and that of Psych-Pirate and the current day troubles. The best part of the story was the individual issues that came up within each locations, such as the Bat-Family’s infighting or Wonder Woman and her conflict with her not-mother Hippolyta.

They had the worst reveal with who the homeless man was who had been warning that the end was coming. You had to not be paying attention if that surprised you.

I do not remember if the Monitor in the comic series was such a rip-off of the Watcher as he is in these movies, but he is clearly the same character with different skin color. I had no feelings toward Monitor at all, even though I think I was supposed to feel something for him.

Part three is coming later in the summer and I do hope that it is better than this one so this trilogy of a story can finish strong.

2.75 stars

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part One

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This morning, I did the June Swoon 3 film for the day and it was on HBO Max. It was an animated Justice League movie called Warworld. I did not find it great, but it did reveal to me something that I did not know. There was another Justice League animated film out and available on Max which was based on one of the classic DC Comics storylines ever told: EYG Hall of Fame series, Crisis on Infinite Earths.

A wall of anti-matter is sweeping across the multiverse, destroying everything in its path. The Monitor (sort of like DC’s Watcher) recruited heroes from across all different worlds in an attempt to prevent the multiverse’s complete annihilation.

One of the most fun part about watching this movie was seeing the background heroes recruited to stand behind the main heroes. I saw everyone from Metamorpho to Hawk & Dove to Swamp Thing. These were just there for Easter eggs as none of them earned speaking roles.

Barry Allen (Matt Bomer), aka the Flash of Earth One, was one of the main characters as he had been in several previous films, introducing the concept of parallel earths. We saw Barry in multiple places during his own timeline as well as on different earths, such as Earth 3 with the Crime Syndicate. If you know about the original DC Max-Series, you know Barry Allan played a vital role in that story, and so it is effective that he is front and center in this one.

The animation of this film remains to be of a lower quality than one would expect from this type of a project. With animation that we see in weekly shows such as X-Men ’97, a feature length film should be better than what we get here. Still, it is watchable, but it just does not make me stop and be amazed at the shots.

The voice cast is once again assembled with some great voices. Along with Matt Bomer as Flash, there are Jensen Ackles, Darren Criss, Stana Katic, Meg Donnelly, Zachary Quinto, Jonathan Adams, Aldis Hodge, Jimmi Simpson, Ike Amadi, Alexandra Daddario, Nolan North, Lou Diamond Phillips, Matt Ryan, Keesha Sharp, Matt Lanter, Ashleigh LaThrop, Erika Ishii, Liam McIntyre, Zach Callison and Ato Essandoh.

This adaptation does a decent job with providing a story that works for the most part. This is an enjoyable film, and a much better one than the Warworld one that preceded it. It also did a decent job of being a part one, leaving us with a cliffhanger, and yet feel as if we got a complete story for the first part. On to Part Two!

3.8 stars

Justice League: Warworld (2023)

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June 4, 2024

The fourth day of the June Swoon 3: A Cinematic Flashback brought me to HBO Max and the first animated film of the month. It is also the first disappointment of the month.

At first, I felt that Justice League: Warworld was an intriguing concept. Seeing Wonder Woman in the old West was a neat concept and watching her square off with Jonas Hex opened a lot of possibilities. I was thinking this was much like Westworld and seeing the Justice League involved in this setting would be cool.

However, it was not just the old West. After her short bit was done, we came across Batman in the world of Warlord. Wonder Woman was there too. I did not understand what was happening and, if this was the case, why was Batman not in the old West. and where was Superman?

Eventually we came to Superman as an agent of the government in a black and white alien invasion film where both Batman and Wonder Woman would appear as would King Faraday. It also borrowed heavily from a Twilight Zone episode I saw last summer during the Daily Zone rewatch.

All of these side bits seemed to be nothing more than time wasters as the real plot started up in this episode as they came across Mongul, with Lobo, who has some weird sci-fi storyline. Apparently, Warworld is a massive weapon against the multiverse and he was in search of a key. Why he brought the Trinity into the story made no sense, but that was not unlike most of the rest of this movie.

J’onn J’onzz was here too and played a role in the end of the film, but the movie made the entire thing feel unnecessary as it was being used simply to introduce the idea of Crisis on Infinite Earths. The movie brought in what I assume was Harbinger at the very end to rescue the Trinity and set up the next animated film. I am only guessing that this is Harbinger since the look of the character is nothing like I remember. She looked more like Marvel’s Frankie Raye aka Nova than she did the Harbinger from Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Jensen Ackles lead the voice cast which included Stana Katic (formerly of Castle fame) as Wonder Woman, and Darren Criss as Superman. Other actors included Ike Amadi, Troy Baker, Matt Bomer, Roger Cross, Brett Dalton, John DiMaggio, Frank Grillo, Teddy Sears, Kari Wahlgren, and Robin AtkinDownes.

The animation was fine, but did not standout in any instance. The characters did not feel right. Even in Elseworld type stories, the characters needed to feel like the characters we know in order for us to relate to them. Much of the story was convoluted and only felt as if it existed simply to put them in these specific settings. Worse yet, was it simply felt like a commercial for the next DC animation film.

Usually, the DC animated movies are very well done. This was quite a step down.

Thanksgiving (2023)

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Eli Roth’s holiday slash-fest is the next film in the June Swoon 3 as I pulled up Thanksgiving on Netflix this morning.

Slasher movies are not my favorite sub-genre of horror film historically, but I have to say that I fund Thanksgiving to be a decent film with plenty of scary (maybe gory is the better word) moments and a film that avoided a lot of the typical stupid behaviors associated with slasher films.

I liked how this film started off, setting up suspects for who would eventually be the John Carver murderer. There were a ton of red herrings in the film and I really liked how they went through these methodically.

Some of the kills were really gruesome too. A couple were so bad that I actually had to avert my eyes once or twice. I know I am a wuss, but I am not big on the gore.

The Black Friday scene was absolutely over the moon and set this craziness up perfectly. It also introduced us to some eventual victims who I was looking forward to seeing get their comeuppance for their crazy behavior during this riot.

The film does a great job of taking comments or incidents from the beginning of the film and pay them off in the finale. That was some solid writing and made everything feel important.

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun and brought a new flair to the slasher sub-genre.

Ezra

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A new film featuring a character with Autism was at Cinemark this weekend, and I had heard some positive word of mouth about the film, so with a light weekend of new movies, I decided to give it a shot.

According to IMDB, “Tony Goldwyn’s EZRA follows Max Bernal (Bobby Cannavale), a stand-up comedian living with his father (Robert De Niro), while struggling to co-parent his autistic son Ezra (introducing William Fitzgerald) with his ex-wife, Jenna (Rose Byrne). When forced to confront difficult decisions about their son’s future, Max and Ezra embark on a cross-country road trip that has a transcendent impact on both their lives.“

Bobby Cannavale is the definitive stand out in this film as the deeply troubled father who still loves his son, Ezra. Cannavale was given a really meaty role with plenty of deep seeded troubles and he does an exceptional job. Much of it is the chemistry between Cannavale and William Fitzgerald, who is the young actor they found to play Ezra. Fitzgerald is very good in this role too. Director Tony Goldwyn held a nationwide search for a child actor with Autism, providing as realistic of a performance as possible.

Robert DeNiro gives a strong supporting performance as Cannavale’s father. There are some story in the film for DeNiro and Cannavale to play and, while it does not dominate the film, it adds a nice flavor to Ezra.

There are some parts of the story that stretch believability and I will say that the ending felt too emotionally manipulative, but I thought most of the story was well done.

3.75 stars