I have been out of commission for almost two weeks and I have found myself behind on several of the movie and television projects that are coming out in early August. Now that I am back, I decided to start off with one of my most anticipated films of the summer. I was always a big fan of Predator, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and, my personal favorite, “Mr. I ain’t got time to bleed” Jesse Ventura, and so when I heard about a prequel to the film set 300 years ago, my curiosity was piqued.

To be fair, I am not sure that I would define the film as a prequel. It is set prior to the events of the original film but, with the exception of the Predator itself, there is little connective tissue. I would say that it was more like a film set in the same world/universe.

Young lady Naru (Amber Midthunder) wanted to be more than what she was expected to be. She wanted to be a hunter like her brother Taabe (Dakota Beavers) and she was anxious to be able to prove herself. Naru was extremely intelligent and thought her way through each situation though most of the others in the Comanche tribe was unimpressed.

On the hunt for a killer lion, Naru realized that there was something else in the wilderness of the Northern Great Plains, something bigger, something unknown. She began tracking the new hunter and discovered some horrifying things along the way.

Amber Midthunder was an absolute rock star in this movie. She is a star in the making. You could put her on a list already of some of the best female action heroes of all-time and not be exaggerating. She was electrifying as Naru in just about every aspect of the film. She was great.

The story was simple. Hunter vs. hunter. The Predator kills things and Naru tries to survive. There were certainly underscoring of the themes including those of never giving up, don’t let others prevent you from accomplishing your dreams and intelligence can overcome strength.

I was glued to the film for the entire run time. It was well put together and beautifully shot, building some great tension and nervousness over the characters and their eventual fate.

Some of the special effects were definitely lacking at times. There were some sequences where the bear, or the fighting Predator look too video gamey, which was clearly an effect of the budget. However, it never became too distracting and there were several outstanding moments of action as well.

This was a serious movie. It did not have the over-the-top type characters of the original, which lent a fun aspect to that film, but it would not in in place here. As of right now, probably because of Jesse Ventura, I may place the original Predator at the top of the list, but this film is right on its heels and might supplant it eventually.

4.75 stars

Anthony and Joe Russo brought us their next non-MCU film, back to the world of Netflix (though it has been available at the theaters across the nation for the last week). The Gray Man is an action thriller film with shenanigans involving the CIA and their off-the-books assassin in their Sierra program.

We see a distinctly de-aged Billy Bob Thornton recruiting Ryan Gosling from out of prison and into the Sierra program, to become a ghost, a killer that the CIA could point to what they want to happen and the killer would take care of the job. Facing the choice between this and prison, Gosling became known as Sierra Six.

When Six was sent after a former Sierra agent, Four, to assassinate, he realized that the CIA was not out for the best intentions. Six stopped the assassination when a young child got in the way despite the CIA handlers insisting that the kid was just acceptable collateral damage. Though Six still carried out the assassination, it was a considerably messier attempt. Before he died, Four gave Six an encrypted drive detailing the corruption at the CIA.

With Six going rogue, the CIA approached Lloyd Hanson (Chris Evans) to retrieve the drive and to kill Six. Hanson was a former CIA agent who had been kicked out of the agency because of sociopathic tendencies. Lloyd was going to do whatever it took to accomplish his mission.

The Gray Man was a mixed bag. The acting was pretty good for what was here. In particular, Chris Evans was absolutely fabulous. He was chewing every scene he was in, emoting out from behind that amazing mustache. Chris Evans had personality to spare and carried the enjoyment of the movie, despite the fact that he is playing a horrible person. Ryan Gosling was basically playing the same character that he typically would play, though he did it fine. He was very stoic in many ways as he played this assassin. They gave Billy Bob Thornton’s character a niece to put in jeopardy, played by Julia Butters. Ana de Armas played another CIA agent who wound up helping Six. She was fine, but her character was quite lacking. She was just a face that showed up to shoot guns.

The action was good, but there was a lot of it. There may be too many gun fights without quite enough other versions of the fight sequences. The hand-to-hand fights were always more interesting than just the guns being shot.

The final battle between Six and Lloyd was a letdown though, which I will not go into to avoid spoilers.

The Gray Man is better than many of the Netflix original films, but not by much. It is a film that could be an entertaining watch if you have nothing to do some afternoon. I would not have been happy to watch this at a theater, but at home on Netflix, there could be worst films.

2.9 stars

One thing for certain when you watch a Jordan Peele movie, you’ll be thinking about it after it is finished. Peele’s third film, Nope, does not break that streak.

Peele’s horror/thriller film followed brother and sister OJ Hayward (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald Hayward (Keke Palmer) who were horse trainers for movies. The Haywards were struggling with their business, forcing the to sell some of their horses off to pay their bills.

However, one night there was a discovery of something in the skies that changed the siblings’ mindset. Something that they believed would fix all their problems if they could just get this recorded.

Nope is one of those movies that is very difficult to talk about without dealing in spoilers, so I will do what I can to critique the film without going into specifics.

Let me start with the main two characters, portrayed by Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer. Kaluuya is excellent as the stoic, quiet, almost brooding head of the horse training, but Keke Palmer steals the show. She was absolutely fantastic as Emerald, bringing so much energy, emotion, humor and anxiety to the role. Steven Yeun was good in his limited screen time, but I would have liked more from him. Brandon Perea added a nice touch as a supporting character from the Best Buy-type shop.

The visuals and the special effects were gorgeous and the cinematography was exquisite. This film looked amazing and helped create the tension that was prevalent in the movie.

Speaking of tension, Jordan Peele is unbelievable at creating anxiety and tension in his movies. You are constantly on the edge of your seat and are never quite sure what was going to happen next.

There are a couple of scenes that worked tremendously well, but did not seem to have any purpose in the film outside of providing some background to one of the lesser used characters. I loved the scenes, they were were filled with suspense and fright, but I am just not sure why they were included.

Then, the reveal of what was happening felt a little off. It is not really a twist in the story. It is really just telling us what was going on and it felt a little flat. Again, it looked amazing and it worked in the context of the scenes that it was in, but something felt lacking.

Nope did feel like there were a couple different movies crammed together into one, with each movie needing more to flesh them out.

While I do have some criticisms of the film, I liked it more than I did the last Jordan Peel film, Us, though it does not reach the excellence of Get Out. I enjoyed my experience of watching the movie and came out mostly satisfied.

3.7 stars

I did not watch Beavis & Butthead when it was a series on MTV. The stupid humor was just too hard for me to watch.

Heh heh heh I said HARD heh heh heh

I did not know this new movie was coming out on Paramount + until I saw a review of it from Chris Stuckmann on YouTube.

Heh heh heh I said Stuck, man heh heh heh

Okay, enough silliness. Beavis and Butthead Do the Universe does a decent job of providing plenty of clever “stupid” story and does give us some funny moments and situations.

Beavis and Butthead get involved in a space camp (through machinations) and get selected by accident to go on a mission into space. Through misunderstandings, Beavis and Butthead get pulled into a black hole and sent from 1998 to 2022. Beavis and Butthead engage in future fish-out-of-water shenanigans all over the place.

I have mentioned before how I am not a huge fan of the type of humor that is being used in Beavis & Butthead. Just this weekend, I watched Clerks 2 and disliked it because of the overtly sexual jokes, and, of course, Beavis & Butthead Do the Universe is nowhere near the level of Clerks 2, but it is definitely in the same ballpark. However, this film uses the humor in an effective manner, in a way that informs the characters of Beavis and Butthead. I have always said that this type of humor works best when the writing is clever and works into the story and not just for shock value.

Beavis and Butthead creator Mike Judge does the voice for the two titular characters. Other voices appearing in the movie include Gary Cole, Nat Faxon, Chi McBride, Andrea Savage, Phil LaMarr, Stephen Root, Martin Starr, David Herman, Ashley Gardner, and Susan Bennett (the real voice of Siri).

For what this movie was, it turned out pretty decently. I did laugh several times and the story was fine. The “Watcher” Beavis and Butthead characters made me laugh all the time. It is just an hour and 25 minutes and an easy watch. It is streaming on Paramount +.

3.5 stars

I have been waiting for the right time to watch this movie. I have heard a lot about RRR, an Indian Telugu-language film that was supposed to be a real kick. That is a definite understatement.

In 1920, during the British Raj, a cruel British administrator Scott Buxton (Ray Stevenson) and his vicious wife (Alison Doody) abducted a young girl named Malli (Twinkle Sharma) from her tribe of Gond. Gond tribe protector, Komaram Bheem (N.T. Rama Rao Jr.) promised that he would bring the little girl back to her tribe.

Meanwhile, Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan) was a member of the Indian Imperial Police and he was dedicated to do whatever he could to advance in the ranks. Raju took the assignment of bringing Bheem to the British Raj.

Without knowing it, Raju and Bheem’s paths cross when they team up to save a young boy’s life after a train crash. They became best friends. Raju helped Bheem to meet the lovely British lady named Jenny (Olivia Morris). They bonded with each other, becoming as close as brothers.

However, their personal missions would soon come between them as their purposes were at odds.

Raju and Bheem were real-life historical Indian revolutionaries but these versions of these men are fictionalized and emphasized. They never really met in real life, but this was not the only thing that the film took liberties with. Little things like gravity or realism got in the way of these characters. You could tell right off the bat what kind of movie this was going to be as Raju waded through a mob of protestors to get to arrest one individual. Everybody here was shown to be larger than life… almost mythological, and that made this almost like a superhero movie.

This was not just a superhero movie but also a wild adventure, a musical with massive dance routines, a drama, or a bromance. There were a couple of times, with all of the slow motion that was happening that I thought I might be in a Zack Snyder movie.

Music was vital to the story as it was the song from Malli (along with her art) that led to the British snatching her and taking her with them to Delhi. The giant dance routine at the party- Naatu Naatu was just tremendous. There was another scene where Bheem was inspiring a crowd with a song later in the film too. The music was amazing and even when you wouldn’t think that it would work in a film, it did here every time.

This film was so filled with energy, joyousness and power. It was undeniably fun and colorful. I was engaged in the movie immediately and I never lost my interest despite its long run time. It was 3 hours and 7 minutes and it was epic. It was very violent. It was funny. It was exciting.

I was not sure what to expect from this one and the film length had led me to push off the viewing of this on Netflix. Yet, I loved this. Was there some ridiculous stunts? Absolutely. But I was all in despite of them and I was thoroughly entertained.

5 stars

Paramount + has a few new releases on their streaming service and I chose to watch a film called Jerry & Marge Go Large, which featured performances from Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening and directed by David Frankel.

Jerry & Marge Go Large is based on a true story of couple Jerry and Marge Selbee (Cranston & Bening) who, after retirement, were having trouble finding anything to get excited about. Jerry, who always had a remarkable skill for math, discovered a flaw in a game involving the lottery called Rollback. Jerry began playing the Rollback game every three weeks and was making money. He knew, however, that the more money he could invest in the lottery, the more of a payout the game would given them.

So, he told his wife Marge and, to his surprise, she was all in on the adventure. Taking yet another level, they formed a company and convinced the people of their small town to join them as stockholders.

Marge and Jerry would spend days printing out lottery tickets and then counting numbers after the lotto numbers came out.

Making things tougher, a group of young Harvard students led by Tyler (Uly Schlesinger) discovered the same flaw in the lotto and began to play too. The problem was, the number of groups involved brought a lesser amount of return and Tyler began to look for ways to get Jerry & Marge to get out of the game.

It truly is a remarkable story and plays out in a great film. I had a lot of fun with this movie. The biggest reason is absolutely the pairing of Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening. As the titular characters, Cranston and Bening are charming, lovable and so much fun. Cranston, in particular, does a fantastic job as the slightly odd, but endearing Jerry. The two actors shared a ton of chemistry as the older couple and I believed every second of the two of them on screen.

The story is warm and sentimental, but not to the point that it becomes too much. The addition of the Harvard kids and Tyler presented a nice counter-balance to Jerry and Marge and gave them a challenge in which to overcome.

There are some other solid actors involved including Michael McKeon, Larry Wilmore, Rainn Wilson, Jake McDorman, Cheech Manohar, Ann Harada, Anna Camp and Ana Cruz Kayne.

The film was nicely paced and was never boring. Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening were tremendously entertaining and enjoyable. There were some good laughs and an underdog story that really came through. Jerry & Marge Go Large can be seen on Paramount +.

4 stars

Just the other day I was reflecting upon the original movies on Netflix )after I watched The Man from Toronto) and how there were so many that were terrible and how they create a reputation of poorly made films on the streamer. However, I need to clarify that comment today. Fact is, most of the time, the animated movies that are released as original movie son Netflix range from watchable (Vivo, Monster House, The Wish Dragon) to the brilliant (Klaus, Mitchells vs. the Machines, Apollo 10 1/2). Even the few that do not work well for me have an audience for a younger viewer.

This weekend saw the release on Netflix of another of the animation films that would fall into the brilliant category as we get The Sea Beast, directed by first time solo director Chris Williams and featuring the voice acting of Karl Urban, Zaris-Angel Hator and Jared Harris.

There had been an ages old war between the various sea monsters and the humans where the heroic hunter went out to fight and kill the monsters, giving their lives if needed. One of the most famous of the hunters was Captain Crow (Jared Harris), who was on the trail of the hated Red Bluster with his first mate Jacob Holland (Karl Urban) aboard his ship The Inevitable.

One day, in pursuit of the Red Bluster, the Inevitable had to break away from their prey in order to give aid to another hunter ship that was being attacked by another monster. After killing it, Crow brought the horn to the King and Queen of The Crown, who were unhappy that The Inevitable broke away from their pursuit of the Red Bluster to follow the hunter’s “code”. The King and Queen prepared to end hunters and offer the job to the royal navy instead.

Jacob approached the royals and offered a deal, a contest between the navy and the Inevitable to see who could return with the Red Bluster.

Meanwhile, an orphan girl from a family of hunters Maisie (Zaris-Angel Hator) stowed away on the ship, hoping to become a famous hunter like her parents. She bonded with Jacob eventually and the pair of them appeared to have been consumed by the Red Bluster. However, they survived inside the beast’s mouth and the beast returned to its home, allowing Maisie and Jacob a different view of the monsters.

First, the animation is computer generated and is just breathtaking throughout the film. The beauty of the ocean images were wonderfully rendered and the designs of the characters were top notch. There were plenty of shots in The Sea Beast that was art of the best kind.

Karl Urban, Jared Harris, Zaris-Angel Hator and Marianne Jean-Baptiste (who played Sarah Sharpe, another ship mate) do very strong work as the voices of the four primary characters. Urban and Hator have a excellent bond and they create a wonderful pair. Their relationship is a the heart of The Sea Beast. How Jacob and Maisie connected with Red, the name she gave the Red Bluster, works extremely well.

The film certainly has some “How to Train Your Dragon” vibes to it, but those films are exceptional and are a good series in which to base your story. The Sea Beast takes the ideas from Dragon and builds on their own mythology and takes the story into a different path. The finale of the film is tense and emotional and keeps you on the edge of your seat.

There was a scene in the film when Captain Crow went to find his ultimate weapon to battle Red and he went to find an elderly merchant named Gwen Batterbie (Kathy Burke). She was supposed to be a spooky character and she made plenty of weird implications that Crow would suffer for using the weapon, but this was only referred to once again and becomes an unimportant piece of the story. This was a waste of time and lacked an appropriate pay off. This was the weakest part of the film.

Despite that hiccup, The Sea Beast was a joyous good time with some great characters and an enjoyable story. It is truly a gorgeous looking film and would be a fun time for families of all kind.

4 stars

I had some hope for The Man from Toronto. Unfortunately, this was just another Netflix movie that is barely worth the time.

The film is one of the typical misunderstanding films where one of the characters gets mistaken for another and then winds up in an adventure. There is nothing new about any of this.

Especially with Kevin Hart as a lead. Sadly, Hart, who I have always liked, continues to play only the one type of character. He played the same ‘Kevin Hart’ role that he plays in every movie he is in. Woody Harrelson is here too. He has played this type of character, the hard nosed, tough killer, before as well. Again, nothing new found here.

That does not mean that this film couldn’t have worked, but the story is so imbecilic that it does not overcome the predictability. The film never grabbed my attention and was so dumb that the only way that this would work is if everyone else in the film was stupid as well and that does not make me enjoy it more.

The film dissolved into the lowest form of humor, including fart jokes and vomit. It is such a waste of time. Just another flop on Netflix.

1.4 stars

This weekend sees the release of the next installment in the Thor franchise within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor: Love and Thunder, the follow-up to the hugely successful Thor: Ragnarok, once again written and directed by Taika Waititi and starring Chris Hemsworth and a returning Natalie Portman.

The film begins with Thor (Chris Hemsworth) trying to find his path as he spends time going on adventures with the Guardians of the Galaxy. When multiple distress calls reach the Guardians, Thor realizes that [SPOILER], an old friend and ally of his, was one of them. Thor splits with the Guardians to go help [SPOILER].

This was when Thor discovered that Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) existed and that he was killing all of the gods. Gorr had been a man and was praying to the gods to help him save his daughter. The gods did not respond and she died. When Gorr found the dangerous Necrosword, he started on his path to murder all of the gods.

When Thor ;earned that Gorr was on his way to New Asgard, he returned in an attempt to stop him. He arrived in a fight with the shadowy creatures that Gorr created when he saw Mjolnir back in one piece. Thor was excited to see his old “friend” Mjolnir, but was shocked to find out that Mjolnir went to the hand of the Mighty Thor, who turned out to be his old flame, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman).

I am not sure how much of this storyline has been revealed in the trailers or interviews, so I am going to keep how and why Jane became the Mighty Thor under wraps for now. It does follow the Jane Foster Mighty Thor arc from the Thor comics by Jason Aaron. I also loved the little adaption to reveal how Mjolnir was able to be wielded by Jane.

Let me start off with Christian Bale. He is completely brilliant as Gorr the God Butcher. His performance was chilling and vicious, yet you could absolutely relate to him. He is one of the best MCU villains that we have gotten so far.

Chris Hemsworth absolutely slays as Thor once again. You can tell how comfortable he is in this character and that comfort allows Taika Waititi to take Thor into areas that we have not seen him yet. Natalie Portman also delivers a tremendous performance and the chemistry between Thor and Jane was off the charts. The chemistry between them never worked in Thor and Thor: The Dark World as it felt forced and out of line for the two characters. Everything with that is 100% fixed as the film has you rooting for them and that chemistry is put to a major test in the amazing third act of this film.

That third act was as emotional as I have been since No Way Home and Endgame. I was crying from excitement and from all manner of emotions that was striking me all at once. Obviously, I am not going to spoil the third act, but this was my favorite part of the entire film. Not to mention that we saw a character here that I would NEVER believe that we would ever see and it was completely comic accurate.

There was a lot of humor in the movie and much of it hit with me. I would say that I wish there were some times that the film did not take it as silly as it did. I didn’t mind the silliness that much, but I felt like I could have dialed it back a bit.

Oh, and the screaming goats were GOLD!!!! Loved every scene with them.

I have seen some complaints about Russell Crowe’s performance as Zeus. This did not bother me at all since this is truly the type of character that Zeus from the myths would be. I also found that Zeus’s bombastic nature was meant to be a façade to hide what he was truly feeling.

Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) had a good secondary story, and she does well with every second that she is on screen. We did wind up with less time than we got with her in Ragnarok and some more with her might have been welcomed. And, the Guardians of the Galaxy were not in the film much at all, basically a cameo in the first act.

Thor: Love and Thunder was a gorgeous film to watch. The shots in black and white that you see in the trailers are just astoundingly beautiful in the actual movie and created such a tone of dread fitting of the situation.

Both post credit scenes are great and offer up surprises.

I can understand why some people may not be a fan of Thor: Love and Thunder. There are moments in the film where the satire is too overpowering and threatens to send the film into parody and fans of the character may not be happy about that. However, I do not believe that the film ever takes that full step and I enjoyed most of the humor. Would I tone some of the humor/silliness back? Yes, but what is blended with the silliness is some of the best MCU action, heart and emotional stakes that we have had in a long while. The third act is one of my personal favorites of any MCU film and Gorr the God Butcher has to be included on any list of the best MCU villains to date.

Thor has been perhaps the MCU character that has taken the greatest character path since his first appearance of all of them and the direction of Taika Waititi and the performance of Chris Hemsworth has to be considered the reason why.

4.9 stars

How many times can this movie be remade? Father of the Bride has been made three times, 1950 and 1991 and now in 2022. The 1950 version had a sequel while the 1991 film had two sequels as well. So why do we need yet another version of this film?

The reason we need another remake is because they were able to come up with a undeniably entertaining and robust take on the formula that is funny, totally engaging story with some of the most likeable characters you would find.

Billy (Andy Garcia) and Ingrid (Gloria Estefan) are having major problems with their marriage and even therapy was not working. They finally decided that they were going to get a divorce. With their daughter Sofia (Adeia Arjona) coming back to Miami, they planned on telling her and their other daughter Cora (Isabela Merced) about their divorce.

However, Sofia beat them to the announcement drop when she told them that she was engaged to be married to a young man named Adan (Diego Boneta) and they were looking to get married within a month.

There are so many great moments that really work in the movie. Plenty of them are your typical issues that pop up, but the cast is so strong that any cliché melts away. Andy Garcia and Gloria Estefan have great chemistry and you feel everything that Andy Garcia throw out there. You get mad at him when he is being stubborn and your heart melts when he is in pain.

Other cast members that I have not yet mentioned include Ruben Rabasa, Chloe Fineman, Pedro Damián, Ana Fabrega, Sean Patrick Dawson, Enrique Murciano, Ho-Kwan Tse, Macarena Achaga, Laura Harring, and Casey Thomas Brown.

Father of the Bride is streaming on HBO Max and it may be somewhat predictable, but it is engaging and fun and worth the watch.

3.9 stars