The second animated movie that I am catching up on tonight is the sequel to the hit film Minions, which was named Minions: The Rise of Gru. The Rise of Gru was a big hit from earlier this year, but I just did not want to watch this in the theater. I did not mind the Despicable Me films, but I hated the first Minions movie and that feeling just did not inspire me to head out to see it. I knew it would show up on streaming sooner or later before the year ended and I would watch it there. I still avoided renting it because of the price. I knew it was going to drop the price eventually. Then, this weekend, the movie showed up for free on Peacock and that was the price I wanted. So I watched Minions: The Rise of Gru tonight.

Who would have guessed it? I kind of liked this.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, “In the heart of the 1970s, amid a flurry of feathered hair and flared jeans, Gru (Oscar® nominee Steve Carell) is growing up in the suburbs. A fanboy of a supervillain supergroup known as the Vicious 6, Gru hatches a plan to become evil enough to join them. Luckily, he gets some mayhem-making backup from his loyal followers, the Minions. Together, Kevin, Stuart, Bob, and Otto–a new Minion sporting braces and a desperate need to please–deploy their skills as they and Gru build their first lair, experiment with their first weapons and pull off their first missions. When the Vicious 6 oust their leader, legendary fighter Wild Knuckles (Oscar® winner Alan Arkin), Gru interviews to become their newest member. It doesn’t go well (to say the least), and only gets worse after Gru outsmarts them and suddenly finds himself the mortal enemy of the apex of evil. On the run, Gru will turn to an unlikely source for guidance, Wild Knuckles himself, and discover that even bad guys need a little help from their friends“

The introduction of the Vicious 6 in the cold open caught my attention and these characters were intriguing. With the inclusion of young Gru (Steve Carell), this gave the Minions a chance to not necessarily the lead characters, which was not something that worked with them. This allowed the use of the Minions, even hen they were front and center, to be kept at a minimum, making them much more enjoyable than when they had to be the entire focus of the movie.

There is a great voice cast here in The Rise of Gru including Taraji P. Henson, Michelle Yeoh, RZA, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Lucy Lawless, Alan Arkin, Danny Trejo, Russell Brand, Julie Andrews, and Pierre Coffin as the voice of Kevin, Stu and Bob.

I went into this movie with every expectation that I was going to hate this, but it was surprisingly entertaining and it turned out considerably better than I thought it would. Who knew?

3.6 stars

One of the animated movies that I missed in the theaters this year is available to rent on Vudu at a decent price so I rented Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank.

After watching it, I am not unhappy that I missed this one in the theater.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, “A down-on-his-luck hound finds himself in a town full of cats who need a hero to defend them from a ruthless villain’s evil plot to wipe their village off the map. With help from a reluctant trainer, the underdog must assume the role of fearsome samurai and team up with the felines to save the day. The only problem is — they all hate dogs.”

While the animation was fine, the story is a basic rehash of Kung Fu Panda with a dog and simplistic characterization. It is colorful and quick-moving, but lacks any real depth. My guess is this would be something that a young child would enjoy, but it did not appeal to me at all.

The voice cast was strong with Michael Cera, Samuel L. Jackson, Ricky Gervais, Mel Brooks, Aasif Mandvi, George Takei, Michelle Yeoh, Djimon Hounsou, Gabriel Iglesias, and Kylie Kuioka.

The film used almost a breaking of the fourth wall technique in the early part, but it never seemed to work well. The dialogue between the characters was forced and lacked any real humor. What little humor there was in the movie was of the lowest form, farts, pee and bodily function jokes.

I’ve seen worse, but I did not enjoy Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank very much. I suppose I was not the target audience for this, but this is a far way from an intelligent and awesome film.

2.3 stars

There have not been enough comedically tinged murder mysteries as big screen movies. Films such as Clue, Knives Out, Confess Fletch, and Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang are a lot of fun to watch, not just for the comedy, but also for the mystery.

One of the queens of the murder mystery is Agatha Christie and she was involved in one of the biggest successes on the stage in Mouse Trap, a play based on Christie’s work. The ending of which has been a closely guarded secret for years, In fact, the movie rights have been held up for years because there was a contract where a clause said that a movie could not be done until the play ended its theatrical run, and it has been going strong since.

That is one of the key points behind the latest murder mystery See How They Run, starring Sam Rockwell as Inspector Stoppard, who comes in to the theater to investigate after one of the key people involved in the movie adaptation is murdered. Stoppard is joined by inexperienced and gung-ho Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan), who is as much of a hinderance for Stoppard as an aid.

The cast is great. Along with Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan, there are plenty of talented actors including David Oyelowo, Adrien Brody, Ruth Wilson, Charlie Cooper, Harris Dickinson, Reece Shearsmith, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Sian Clifford, Maggie McCarthy, Ania Marson, Shirley Henderson and Tim Key.

Rockwell and Ronan are great together and both actors have a deft comic timing that really work in some of the more over-the-top moments of the film. They bring a sufficient energy to help carry a script that is okay, but not as clever as it thinks it is.

The beginning of the film is a little slow and does not truly take advantage of the comic situation that has been presented. However, when a second murder occurs, the film picks things up quite a bit, including a funny misunderstanding that pushes some characters in different directions.

I enjoyed this movie, but I have seen better murder mystery comedies than this one. The story could have been tighter and expand that initial murder more. The cast is top notch and elevates the material above where it would be without them. There is a meta-ness about the movie that I appreciated, since it is based around Mouse Trap and the real issues that went on with it. It is a quick and easy watch that is entertaining enough.

3.6 stars

Goodnight Mommy debuted on Prime Video this weekend as a new thriller/horror film. It was a remake of a 2014 Austrian film of the same name. I saw several reviews of the new film saying that it did not live up to the original and that it watered down the suspense and the tension of the first version.

But here’s the thing. I have not seen the original version, so I was not affected by the apparently lesser version. I watched Goodnight Mommy with fresh eyes, and I have to say that I liked most of what I saw.

Twin brothers Elias (Cameron Crovetti) and Lukas (Nicholas Crovetti) are dropped off at their mother’s isolated house by their father. Their mother had just had plastic surgery and was still recovering from it, wrapping her face with bandages.

However, as time passes and the boys see some strange behavior from their mother (Naomi Watts), they start to fear that something terrible has happened and that the woman was not truly their mother.

In the first part of the movie, they plant several pieces of evidence to make you feel as if the mother was doing something sinister and her interactions with the children was clearly off in some manner. The mystery of what was going on really started off strong and I wanted to know what the answer was.

The biggest problem I had was a certain CGI heavy scene about half way through the movie that was meant to give an answer in one specific manner, but turned out to be a huge red herring. I did not like the scene when it first was shown because I thought to took away the mystery and then later when I learned the truth, I liked it even less because it was meant to be such a manipulative scene that made no sense in the overall narrative and was not refenced again.

I will say though, the film delivered a twist at the end that I was not expecting and that I found very interesting. Sadly, the conclusion never really built on the psychological aspects of the reveal and it felt as if they missed an opportunity to really create a tension-filled scare.

The three lead actors in this version were really solid. Naomi Watts is always an excellent actor no matter what she is in and the twin brothers, Cameron (who plays Ryan in Amazon’s series, The Boys) and Nicholas Crovetti match her in intensity and effort. These performances make the flaws within the script lesser as they elevate the material.

There are some strange decisions in this film that are meant to manipulate, but I do think that I enjoyed the strong parts of Goodnight Mommy more than I was distracted by the weaker parts. Perhaps if I had seen the original, my opinion would have been more colored, but since I have not, I found this to be an interesting and flawed watch.

3 stars

What are my thoughts about House of Darkness?

Just not sure.

I like Justin Long. He has done some interesting work over the years. Of course, he was not playing a character here that is meant to be likeable. Unfortunately, Justin Long is very likeable, which played against the character’s type.

Justin Long played Hap, a guy who was out at the bar and met a lovely woman named Mina (Kate Bosworth) and offered to give her a ride to her secluded home. When arriving, they went inside for a drink and to see where the evening would go. Strange things began to happen as the night moved along and Hap learned that they were not alone and that everything might not be exactly what he expected.

I was both interested and bored at this movie. The first two-thirds of the film was spent talking and exchanging dialogue among the characters. Some of it was decent, but much of it felt repetitive and lacked any true cohesiveness.

Things picked up a bit when Mina’s sister Lucy (Gia Crovatin) showed up. Her monologue involving a story was probably the most intense part of the evening. Lucy Walters joined in as sister number three later.

I’m not sure who the film wanted me to root for. I was with Hap, even though he was a little slimy. He certainly was not as bad as he could have been.

The movie felt too long for what happened. It felt like this could have been done in 30-40 minutes and not lose much of what was here. It did a pretty decent job of setting a tone as Hap grew more and more uncomfortable with his situation.

House of Darkness was a movie that took a big chance and tried something different, which I liked, but it did not hit the mark enough to really love it. There are positive things, but they get lost in the slow burn of a tale.

2.75 stars

I had not heard about this reboot until very recently. I was never much of a fan of the original Fletch series. I just recently (during the DailyView, in fact) watched the original Chevy Chase Fletch for the first time. I did like it, but I did not think it was anything that would create such a cult following as it has.

So, I was intrigued when I heard Jon Hamm was cast as the new lead in a new Fletch movie. Jon Hamm has always had a pretty good comedic binge to him and I like him much more than Chevy Chase.

Based on a 1976 novel of the same name, Fletch comes to Boston to investigate his girlfriend Angela’s (Lorenza Izzo) missing father and stolen paintings. Once he arrived, he discovered a dead body in the townhouse where he was staying and, unfortunately for Fletch, he became the lead suspect.

I really enjoyed this movie. I found the murder mystery to be very entertaining and well done. The tone of this revisited the old murder mysteries that had a hero sneaking around trying to solve the case while the police were trying to catch him. There is a Beverly Hills Cop vibe to this though Fletch was nowhere near as cool as Axel Foley.

Roy Wood Jr. played Detective “Slo-Mo” Monroe and he brought a lot to the role. He had a strong comedic presence while being a competent character. Wood Jr and Hamm had some solid chemitry with each other as antagonistic forces to each other. Kyle MacLachlan, who I have always loved since his time on Twin Peaks, added to the cast as well.

The laid back nature of Jon Hamm really worked well in this film. He fit the shyster type well and I was easily bought into the movie in the early set up.

I would actually love to see another film with Jon Hamm in this role. Confess, Fletch was a lot of fun and very funny.

4.1 stars

George Miller’s latest film is a romantic fantasy featuring a djinn revealing his life story to the most recent person to take possession of his bottle.

The Djinn (Idris Elba) and the scholar Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton) find one another after Alithea purchases an antique bottle and discovers that it contained a djinn who had been alive for many years. However, Alithea was not intending for things to go awry as she tells the djinn that in every story about wishes being granted, it turns into a cautionary tale. Because of that, and because of not wanting for anything, Alithea refuses to make any wishes.

To try and convince her to make the wishes, the Djinn tells her three stories of his life and how he came to be trapped within the bottle that she had purchased.

Three Thousand Years of Longing is a beautifully shot and wonderfully looking film, but the center of the film, the relationship between Alithea and the Djinn, lacks a little oomph for me.

The three different stories, as narrated by Idris Elba, are fine and they are interesting, but I did not find them necessarily engaging enough to sway the mind of Alithea into making the wishes that she eventually makes. Because of this, the sacrifice made at the end of the movie ends up to be fairly lacking in emotional power.

Elba and Swinton are their usually excellent selves here as both do everything they can to make the lacking script work and they nearly pull it off.

There is no denying that the film is beautiful to look at and that the film takes some real swings. It is original and does keep the attention of the viewer. The issue I have is that the story does not truly come together. It is a decent watch, but not to the level that one would expect from George Miller.

3.3 stars

I have been looing forward to watching Marcel the Shell With Shoes on for some time now. I missed it while it was in its limited run in theaters and I have been waiting patiently for it to arrive on streaming. It finally arrived on Vudu and, although it was not yet available to rent, I decided to add it to my list as a purchased film.

It was worth the wait.

Marcel the Shell With Shoes On in based on a series of shorts that appeared on the internet in 2010. The film is shot as a mockumentary that followed the life of Marcel (Jenny Slate) an anthropomorphic shell that lived with his grandmother Connie (Isabella Rossellini). They lived alone in an old Airbnb that Dean (Dean Fleischer Camp), the documentarian, moved into after breaking up with his wife. Dean discovered Marcel, the talking shell, and decided to start filming him, putting the shorts on the internet.

The film was extremely sweet and filled with life. It included several very adult themes such as being isolated and alone, the effects of aging, and the power of connection as well as being funny and kid friendly.

Jenny Slate’s voice work is powerful and poignant at the same time. Marcel is surprisingly world weary and yet filled with such a zest for life. Marcel may be a shell with shoes on, but he is absolutely dealing with emotions and feelings that any human being can relate to and provides a connection beyond its stop motion animation.

Marcel the Shell With Shoes avoids becoming too melodramatic or wishy-washy, maintaining a tone that can give us both the sweetness of the character and the potential heart-break that comes from life.

Dean Fleischer Camp was the director o this film, as well as the documentarian who befriends Marcel. This was Camp’s feature film debut and there are some wonderful shots, in particular, when Connie was reading some poetry.

You would not expect a film like this to have the emotional balance that it does and to exceed the trappings of a kids movie, and yet it does. The movie might be stretched a little long, but it was an excellent piece of cinema.

4 stars

I have been a huge fan of Kevin Smith for years, but, for me, most of his movie filmography is hit-and-miss. I love listening to Kevin Smith talk as he is one of the best storytellers around. I love his podcast, but his movies are split. I loved Dogma, Red State, and Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. I liked Tusk, but I disliked Yoga Hosers.

As for Clerks, I enjoyed the original film, but I disliked Clerks 2 a great deal, so when I heard Smith was working on a Clerks 3, I was torn.

I caught a showing of Clerks 3 through a Fathom events presentation last night as the film is not opening wide. Instead, Kevin Smith is taking it on tour, as he did with Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.

We returned to the Quick Stop to reunite with Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randall (Jeff Anderson), who continue to work at the convenience store that they co-own. Randall survived a massive heart attack and the trauma lead him to try and make a change of his life. He decided to make his life into a movie, in a hugely meta way, which looks very much like the first Clerks film.

This first act of the film was really hard for me because I have a tendency toward hypochondria, the scenes with the heart attack and at the emergency room was rough for me. I was extremely uncomfortable during it and I was desperately hoping to get through that section. Thankfully, it moved along soon after that. The film is clearly telling the story of Kevin Smith’s real life survival of the Widowmaker heart attack from a few years ago.

I liked a lot of the humor in this. I found the amount of drug humor, which I have never been a huge fan of, was kept at a reasonable amount here.

And there was a surprising arc throughout with Dante still dealing with the death of his wife Becky (Rosario Dawson) and their unborn daughter from years ago. This was some of my favorite parts of the movie and it showed some real levels of acting from Brian O’Halloran that I do not think we have seen before. The scene with Dante and the spirit of Becky at the graveyard was great and was odd in this film. This was some of the best work done by Kevin Smith.

The third act of this movie was sensational and really changed the tone of the film and it did it in character bits. I will not spoil anything that happened here, but I found it to be an unexpected surprise. As the first part of the movie was funny and enjoyable, but the finale really brought it home in an emotional manner.

Clerks III provided a sufficient and enjoyable way to conclude the Clerks trilogy with an emotional wallop while maintaining the characters from the previous films.

3.6 stars

I had not intended on heading to the theatre this weekend. Then, I saw a Twitter review of the new film Barbarian which said that it was a lot of fun and that you should approach it with as little knowledge as you could (I believe it was a Dan Murrell Tweet). I had no idea about what Barbarian was and I am not sure I had ever seen anything about it, so I decided that this would be a good opportunity to check it out.

I came into the film with zero knowledge. I do think I had seen a trailer once, but I barely remembered it. I wasn’t even sure that I knew the style or genre of the film before it came on screen. (Horror, by the way).

Having said that, I 100% agree with Dan Murrell. Going into this film without any pre-existing knowledge is absolutely the way to go. It keeps you off balance and things happen that you have no idea is coming. The unknown really helped out Barbarian for me.

Because of that, I am going to pass on the typical synopsis that I would normally place in my review to keep it as surprising as possible.

The film starred Georgina Campbell as Tess, our main protagonist. Bill Skarsgård played Keith. Justin Long appeared in the movie too, as a character named AJ. Georgina Campbell brought a great performance, leading the audience through the mysterious goings on of Barbarian. This was one of my favorite performances from Justin Long too. He had some of the more emotional and questionable moments in the film.

There were some amazing moments of suspense, built by the mood and the tone of the film. Combine the setting with the unknown aspect of what was happening and Barbarian did a great job of keeping the audience on the edge of their seats.

The film has a fantastic look to it and the effects are truly frightening.

That’s about all I can say about the movie without spoiling it, so all I can say is, if you are a horror fan, or if you enjoy a tense suspenseful thriller, give Barbarian a try and go in with as little info as you possibly can. It was worth it to me.

4 stars

It is Disney + Day and that meant we were going to be seeing a brand new “live-action” adaptation of a past Disney classic animated movie. We have seen Cinderella, Jungle Book, Aladdin, The Lion King, Dumbo, Mulan, Maleficent, 101 Dalmatians, Pete’s Dragon, and Beauty and the Beast. Now, it was time for the remake of the 1940 iconic Pinocchio.

Tom Hanks starred as Geppetto, the wood carver who created the puppet Pinocchio in response to his son and wife’s recent death. After Geppetto wished upon a star, the Blue Fairy (Cynthia Erivo) arrived and brought the wooden boy to life and appointed Jiminy Cricket (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) as his conscience.

Pinocchio (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) was told that he had a chance to become a real boy if he showed the ability of being brave, truthful and selfless. This leads to a series of weird adventures as Pinocchio heads out into the world.

There are several issues with this new version of Pinocchio. First, the design of Pinocchio is nearly identical to the original version and that makes Pinocchio a little creepy. The animation style also stood out against the rest of the film. Pinocchio did not look like it fit in the world.

A second problem I had was that this was a basic shot for shot remake with little new material. Some of the scenes were fine, but were not any better than the original. The scene where Pinocchio watches Lampwick (Lewin Lloyd) get turned into a donkey is not as scary as the animated version, but it was adequate. I liked the Monstro section but it was done too quickly.

Tom Hanks did not have much to do. Geppetto just kind of wandered around yelling for Pinocchio. The inclusion of the death son and wife was potentially a rich addition for the actor, but the scenes with his grief disappeared early.

I am not sure the reason for the remake outside of just making money. Not that making money is a bad thing, and all films are trying to make money, but there felt like little purpose.

The film is not the worst thing I have seen, but it was not very good and it didn’t reach the level of the 1940 film.

2.6 stars

Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul streamed live on Peacock this week while the film is still in the theater, which helped me be able to watch this.

The movie was written, directed, and produced by Adamma Ebo, which was her feature debut. This was based on her 2018 short film of the same name.

The story featured Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs (Sterling K. Brown) and his beautiful wife Trinitie Childs (Regina Hall), who were, at one point, running a highly successful congregation until Pastor Childs became enthralled in a scandal that led to the closing of their church. This movie had a documentary inside the film taping the attempt by Lee-Curtis and Trinitie to try and reclaim their past success.

The best part of this movie is clearly the two main leads, Sterling K. Brown and Regina Hall. The film only works because of the power of their performances. Both actors brought excellent energy and elevated the satire of the script wonderfully.

There are some definite moments where the satire of the organized religions. Some of these moments work well and others fell a little flat. The story never quite went into specific of what the scandal was, but there were some definite hints that the movie showed about what had happened.

This is a movie that I would not have seen if I had to watch it in the theatre. By having it streaming on Peacock, I got to see it and it was a decent time with two powerhouse performers.

3.5 stars

Sylvester Stallone joined in with the super hero genre in the new film on Prime this weekend called Samaritan. However, Stallone is not unfamiliar with the super hero genre as he appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Judge Dredd.

Stallone played Joe, a garbage man who tried to stay out of the way and just fill his day by fixing junk that he would find in the dumpster. When Joe helped protect a young boy Sam (Javon Walton) from a group of bullies, Sam discovered that Joe had certain powers. Joe was a huge fan of the hero Samaritan, who had been believed to have died fighting his brother Nemesis years ago, but who Joe believed was alive.

Local criminal and gang member Cyrus (Pilou Asbæk) was looking to create chaos and burn the city down around him. He was able to find a powerful hammer that had been created by Nemesis as one of the only things that could hurt Samaritan. Cyrus, trending his best Arthur Fleck imitation from the end of Joker, roused up the street people into a mob to follow his orders. Cyrus had taken the identity of Nemesis for himself.

After that, the story gets a little too convoluted and the motives and desires of Cyrus was inconsistent. There was little development to the character and he was really just the old mustache-twirling villain.

Stallone looked like he was having quite a good time and Javon Walton was decent. The third act had the kid doing too much yelling and that never works for the subtlety of the moment.

Without spoilers, there was a twist in the film that I had guessed way back at the beginning. To be fair, I only thought it could have been a neat idea if the film went that way, but I did not expect they would. As the film went on, I thought it was much more likely, and I liked it when they actually went there.

There are some good moments in Samaritan and it gave us a branch of the super hero genre that we had not seen yet. It was a decent watch on a Saturday night at home. It may not be the greatest super hero flick we’ve ever seen, but it has some positives too. I liked watching it.

3.1 stars

I had been looking forward to Bullet Train for awhile. They had played the trailer for the movie all the time, but I had already been sold on it. I have been battling with some issues so I have not been able to see it until today.

An assassin called “Ladybug” (Brad Pitt) by his handler because of penchant for bad luck, is out on his next mission as a snatch and grab aboard the bullet train. He was trying to find a briefcase that had a ton of money inside. It seemed like an easy job, but, little did he know, this was anything but easy.

A group of other assassins were aboard the train and heading after the briefcase among other revenge ideas. Chaos ensues.

The beginning of the film felt a little off. It was not a very cohesive story at the beginning. Eventually, everything they showed us in the initial section of the film, though it felt somewhat boring, paid off later so I forgave it by the end.

Once we got all of the characters in place and we understood what their motives were, the film got considerably better. Honestly, this is more of an ensemble character piece with a group of characters that are eccentric and entertaining. There are some awesome characters in Bullet Train.

Starting with Brad Pitt, who is just tremendous here, we get a lot of info with Brad Pitt and his recently changed philosophy. Pitt was so great here and holds everything together.

The twins Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry) and Tangerine (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) are trying to retrieve the son of the mysterious White Death, the leader of Japanese organization. Henry and Taylor-Johnson are absolutely standouts here. They are completely funny and engaging every time they were on screen.

There are a bunch of actors involved here. Bad Bunny, Zazie Beetz, Logan Lerman, Hiroyuki Sanada, Joey King, Andrew Koji, Michael Shannon, Sandra Bullock, Masi Oka, and several other cool cameos that I won’t spoil.

This movie is just a wild time and the action is over-the-top goodness. There is a lot of humor as these characters find themselves in bizarre situation after another and they all seem to have amazing chemistry with Brad Pitt.

It did feel a little long, and could have probably trimmed 15 minutes off the run time and not miss too much. Still, I do like how they spent a lot of time on the ensemble and not just make them typical assassin #1. Each of these characters felt like they were original characters that were their own people. That is a great point of the film. It is not just Brad Pitt and a bunch of faceless assassins.

I enjoyed Bullet Train. It may have been a little long, but the extra time devoted to character development was worthwhile and some of the actions scenes are tremendous. It has a humor to it and, once it got past the beginning sections, Bullet Train picked up speed.

3.9 stars

We’ve had killer sharks, killer crocodiles/alligators, killer primates, insects of all kinds, Hitchcockian birds, and a bear that mauled Leonardo DiCaprio nearly to death. This time, we have a massively dangerous killer lion.

Dr. Nate Samuels (Idris Elba) and his teenaged daughters, Meredith (Iyana Halley) and Norah (Leah Sava Jeffries), went on vacation to Africa after recently losing their wife and mother to cancer. As she was originally from Africa, they went to see where she was from and, during this time, they reunited with an old friend Martin (Sharlto Copley) who was acting like a guide.

However, when they came across a village of people that Martin befriended only to discover that they had been killed, the tension in the group rose quickly. Not too soon after the village, the family was attacked by a rogue lion that was apparently out for revenge after a group of poachers had slaughter the lion’s entire pride.

Yes, that bit of a lion wanting revenge and killing everyone he comes across is a little cringey, making on think of Jaws 4: The Revenge where the shark followed the Brody family to Florida. The difference is that the writing on this is considerably better and the scenes of with this lion were totally tense and anxiety-filled. There were plenty of times where the lion would attack and I gasped.

Idris Elba was sensational here and he showed some fantastic chemistry with the two actors playing his on-screen daughters. I believed every scene with the three of them together. The film made a wise decision too because at the first 15-20 minutes of the movie, they established a conflict between Elba and the girls dealing with the loss of the girl’s mother. Nate had been separated from his wife and had not been around for much of her battle with cancer or the struggles that the girls had been going through so they clearly had some resentment built up for him. These moments in the film really humanized these characters and allowed us to know them more, and thus care about them more.

The action was extremely well done and, although you could see the ending coming, that did not mean that it was not admirably done. The film had about the perfect run time for this type of film and it kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time.

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would and, if you like a tension-filled ride, this will give you the needs you are looking for.

4.2 stars