Category Archives: Doc’s Movie Reviews

Clerks 2 (2006)

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Do Over: EYG Sunday Morning Revisit Week 11

I’m not for sure that I have actually seen this movie before. If I had, then I certainly did not remember much about it. Clerks 3 is due out later this year and the Do Over has been dedicated to rewatching the previous two. I thought Clerks was a decent film. Sadly, Clerks 2 was horrible.

The Quick Stop burned down sending Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) out for a new job at a fast food restaurant. Dante is engaged and preparing to move away from Jersey to Florida, however his friendship with his boss, Becky (Rosario Dawson) may complicate things.

Honestly, there are some good parts of the film too. The relationship between Dante and Becky was solid. Rosario Dawson was charming and amazing as Becky. She was shining like a true star every time she was on screen. There were some funny bits and the ending with the fight between Dante and Randal was actually quite effective and took this friendship into a deeper territory than I expected.

I also enjoyed the continuous pop culture references scattered throughout the movie. There was everything from Lord of the Rings to Star Wars to Silence of the Lambs (which was probably the standout reference in the movie). The dance number involving The Jackson Five’s ABC was fun too.

Sadly, the sexual jokes and dialogue was nonstop and was very over the top. It was too much and it overpowered anything that was trying to happen in the story. Too much vulgarity and gross out moments that did not highlight the film but that took away from the story it was telling.

Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) were back to continue their running jokes from the first film. Not much new with these two.

Overall, there was a scrap of story inside the juvenile plot and vulgar language. Some of that type of humor goes a long way and Clerks 2 went too far past it. Rosario Dawson was above everything and stood out among the mess.

Jerry & Marge Go Large

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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

The Sea Beast

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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

The Man from Toronto

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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

Thor: Love and Thunder

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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

Clerks (1994)

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Do Over: EYG Sunday Morning Revisit Week 10

I watched Clerks when I was younger, but I can honestly say that I remembered almost nothing about the movie. I remember the hockey on the roof, the black and white filming, and that Jay and Silent Bob were in it. Other than that, Clerks was a big blank slate in my memory.

I have become a big Kevin Smith fan, though I have not always enjoyed his movies. Watching his podcast Fatman Beyond is always a great time and, from watching, I knew that he had been working on Clerks 3 and that it will be released this year some time. So I decided that I should probably give the previous Clerks movies a Do Over before I watch Clerks 3.

A convenience store clerk Dante (Brian O’Halloran) gets called in to work on his day off and he deals with all sorts of craziness with his friend and fellow clerk from the neighboring video store Randal (Jeff Anderson), his current girlfriend (Marilyn Ghigliotti), and his former girlfriend Caitlin (Lisa Spoonauer).

There is not much narrative structure, but that is what was intended with this film, which is a series of incidents and the way in which it affected Dante. Dante’s constant complaint that he “wasn’t supposed to be here” was the rally cry for Dante’s continually downward spiral of a day.

The dialogue of Clerks is absolutely the selling point of the film. It is, at times, vulgar, reflective, combative, depressing, hopeful, but at all time hilarious. The fast-paced, fast-witted dialogue sparked each bizarre scene with a burst of energy that creates a remarkably entertaining film.

Randal, the consistently badly behaved and poor influence, seemed to have the key to encouraging Dante to do things that he wouldn’t normally do. Randal does it in such a deadpan manner that he feels more like the devil-on-the-shoulder than a friend to Dante.

Jay (Jay Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) start their run of appearances here as the film kept coming back to see them in a series of weird moments (almost vignettes) of the pair dancing to music or doing other juvenile activities.

As with a lot of Kevin Smith movies, there are plenty of references to drugs and sex, but it all seemed to be stream of consciousness for the misbehaving duo.

The black and white shots made this feel so much more classic than just a couple of losers talking about their failing existences. It gave the film a distinct feel and was a fascinating choice.

This was very original and you could see how this helped launch the career of Kevin Smith. Next week we will look at Clerks 2.

National Champions (2021)

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June 30th, Movies 31

The June Swoon comes to a close today with the final film in the binge. The choice I made was a football movie featuring J.K. Simmons and Stephan James called National Champions. Truth is the film is less about football and more about the system of college football and how the NCAA makes billions of dollars while the student-athletes get nothing.

In National Champions, two football teams are preparing for the college championship game when the star quarterback LeMarcus James (Stephan James) and his friend, another player Emmett Sunday (Alexander Ludwig) announced that they were going to boycott the game unless the NCAA changed their system and began paying and providing benefits to the players that the NCAA was building their brand upon.

LeMarcus and Emmett went around to players on the team trying to build up support, others to join in on the boycott. Meanwhile, Coach James Lazor (J.K. Simmons) was trying to hold his team together before the big game and met up with the officials of the NCAA trying to break down the boycott.

The fact that the NCAA is a billion dollar business that absolutely takes advantage of the young men to make that money, and then the athletes are not allowed to benefit for it. The small percentage that go on to the NFL may benefit from their college games, but the vast majority of the players will not play any more. Many of them find themselves back in poverty or in financial difficulties and facing injuries or pain from their playing days.

The film really did a great job of building tension as they approached the game and what the individuals involved would do in order to get the game played. JK Simmons was fantastic as always, but so was Stephan James. These performances were what this film depended on.

I do believe that the storyline involving Coach Lazor’s wife Baily (Kristin Chenoweth) and a professor at the college Elliott Schmidt (Timothy Olyphant) was too far, and, in the end, was a strange twist. This actually hurt the story and distracted from the overall story. It is a shame because I do love Timothy Olyphant.

The film’s message is one that is absolutely a problem that needs to be addressed and the movie does a great job of showing the troubles with the NCAA and college football. It is able to present the message while still being entertaining.

Father of the Bride (2022)

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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

Beckett (2021)

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June 29th, Movie 30

The penultimate day of the June Swoon was filled with the Netflix film Beckett, starring John David Washington.

According to IMDB: “While vacationing in Greece, American tourist Beckett (John David Washington) becomes the target of a manhunt after a devastating accident. Forced to run for his life and desperate to get across the country to the American embassy to clear his name, tensions escalate as the authorities close in, political unrest mounts, and Beckett falls even deeper into a dangerous web of conspiracy“

Washington was solid in this man-on-the-run story. He made a good every man struggling to do whatever he has to do to survive. Are there things that Beckett does that he probably should not be able to do. Still, most of the action works well.

The story was convoluted. I liked the mystery of what was happening, but it never really felt like it came together well and some of the twists were hard to buy. Still, I liked the way it worked itself out and ended up.

Beckett may not be the greatest film ever but it is a fairly fun time and has an enjoyable lead character who battled to survive against the villains. It is not a deep film, but I liked watching it.

Best Sellers (2021)

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June 28th, Movie 29

As the June Swoon moves into its final few days, I have been having some troubles finding movies from 2021 that I wanted to watch. I have a list of films still, but a lot of them are films that just do not appeal for me. The DailyView was easier considering the number of years available, but, even then, I had stretches that it was tough to find what I was in the mood for.

Yesterday, I watched the Billy Crystal film Here Today which has been on my Amazon Prime for quite awhile and now I am getting to another longtime film on the “My Stuff” queue, Michael Caine’s Best Sellers.

Harris Shaw (Michael Caine) was a ill-manner, cranky retired author who was approached by Lucy (Aubrey Plaza) the daughter of his friend and editor. She was now in charge of her father’s publishing company and she wanted him to fulfill a contract he had signed years ago for another book.

Harris was anything but helpful and Lucy was nearing her breaking point. She had an offer to purchase the publishing company, but when Harris arrived with a new manuscript, she was ecstatic. She wanted him to go on a book tour, but he was unhappy with that idea. He eventually agreed but his bad behavior was not helping the book sales.

Michael Caine was his typically excellent self and he and Aubrey Plaza made a strong team. Much like Crystal and Tiffany Haddish in Here Today, Caine and Plaza were the best part of this movie.

The story was filled with clichés though: the alcoholic author, the lost wife, the sentimental home. The film does take a few of the clichés in a different direction, including the shocking moment near the end of the film in a book store.

A lot of what happened required some suspension of disbelief. I am not sure that social media would work the way this film indicated that it worked, but all of that could be dismissed if you connect to the two main characters.

Best Sellers had some good moments and a strong pair of leads. Again, it is not perfect, but it is interesting enough.

Here Today (2021)

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June 27th, Movie 28

Billy Crystal and Tiffany Haddish starred in a film called Here Today, a story about a successful long time comedy writer who was suffering though the onset of dementia and who met a much younger singer who helped him face the troubles of his life.

The film’s strength was easily the pair of Billy Crystal and Tiffany Haddish. They had an easy chemistry and a platonic charm that carried most of the film. The intimacies that they shared was much greater than sexual and they worked extremely well.

There are some definite laughs in the film, much through the dialogue and banter with Crystal. Crystal, who played Charlie, worked on a SNL-type sketch show as a comedy writer, and a mentor to some of the others on the writing staff. Though this was a secondary plotline, I really enjoyed this piece of the movie. It brought the strength of Billy Crystal to the forefront.

However, the film is too sentimental and emotionally manipulative through much of the dementia storyline. Parts of it worked very well, but other parts of it felt as if it was being included to pull on the heart strings. I think some of the dementia sections of the film needed some tightening up.

These sections were intertwined with the story of Charlie’s wife, who had died in a car wreck. These were mostly well done and the flashbacks were used effectively.

Here Today had been on my list at Amazon Prime for quite awhile and I am happy that I finally got around to watching it. It is not a perfect movie, but it has enough entertainment value to watch.

Home Sweet Home Alone (2021)

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June 26th, Movie 27

“This is garbage. I don’t know why they are trying to remake the classics. They’re never as good as the originals.” — Jeff McKenzie (Rob Delaney), Home Sweet Home Alone.

You know, this is never a good sign when a movie makes a meta reference about how bad films that try to remake classics are, when that is exactly what your film is trying to do.

I did not watch this last year when Home Sweet Home Alone came out on Disney +, but, if I had, this atrocious film would have been atop the Top 30 Worst Films of the Year, over taking Tom and Jerry.

We know the general story. Little kid, this time named Max (Archie Yates), gets left behind by his family who are on their way for vacation over seas (this time to Japan) and he has to defend his house against two intruders.

Now, most of the time we have seen this concept, the intruders are criminals looking to rob the house, or to get revenge on the kid. This time however is a little different.

The intruders are a married couple Jeff and Pam McKenzie (Rob Delaney and Ellie Kemper) who are trying to retrieve a rare doll they think Max has stolen. Instead of being reasonable and, I don’t know, calling the police, they decide to break into the house to find the doll. This leads to a series of non-creative yet violent assaults on the McKenzies.

It is completely full of crap and a horrendous movie.

I do want to say that I do not blame the kid, Archie Yates. Archie was great in Jo Jo Rabbit and he has plenty of upsides to his career. He just should fire those people who got him this script and had him star in this movie. They do not have your back.

Home Sweet Home Alone is a mess. If you have some kind of morbid curiosity about it, it is on Disney + but otherwise, stay away.

Men in Black II (2002)

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Do Over: EYG Sunday Morning Revisit Week 9

Sequel time this week on the Do Over and we head into the early 2000s with Men in Black 2. I remember being a big fan of the original Men in Black and also of Twin Peaks and The Practice, where our main villain of this film, Lara Flynn Boyle, appeared. It couldn’t have failed. However…

I disliked the sequel quite a bit the first time I watched this. Will my opinion hold up?

Spoiler alert: Yes, it does.

A new intergalactic threat arrived on earth in the tentacled form of Lara Flynn Boyle and she was in search of a new MacGuffin called The Light of Zartha. Coincidentally, only the neuralyzed K (Tommy Lee Jones) knows where it is so his old partner J (Will Smith) had to retrieve K. help him get his memories back before the The Light of Zartha explodes (apparently in the next couple of days) and destroys the earth. All the while avoiding the dangerous alien Lara Flynn Boyle. Oh, Johnny Knoxville is here too, with two heads as if one isn’t bad enough.

The plot on this is just ridiculous coincidental. There is no way everything falls into place perfectly for this movie to have taken place. Everything dealing with this story is just poorly written and lacks any comprehensive story design.

There was a ton of CGI and special effects in Men in Black II as well and most of it is clearly at a lower level than we are used to. I would go as far as to say that it was not up to par for a film in 2002 either.

Then, a lot of the same jokes and beats from the original are reused in the sequel. That is not an uncommon thing, but there are really a lot of them. Everything from K now being the person unfamiliar with the real world and having to take hints from J to blowing the head off of Tony Shalhoub so it can grow back. No matter how much I loved Tony Shalhoub, I think that is the only reason to include this character in this movie.

There are some good jokes scattered throughout and, of course, the chemistry between K and J shined like a light through the mess around them. Jones and Smith are easily the best part of this movie and anything that was enjoyable about it was directly from them.

Although did enjoy Rosario Dawson too, though her part was underwritten and I wanted more from her even if her part of the plot was perhaps the biggest eye-rolling section of the film.

In the end, there is enough here to not hate myself for re-watching it, but it is not a good movie and my original opinion looks to be right on the money.

House of Gucci (2021)

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June 25th, Movie 26

House of Gucci was one of the films that I did not get to in the theater, that was nominated for Oscars but one that I planned on doing during the June Swoon.

I have now watched House of Gucci, and I have to say that I did not get into it at all. I found it uninteresting and dull and I just could not get into it.

There are some positive things. I did like the soundtrack. There were some great songs included. Both Lady Gaga and Adam Driver play their characters well and deserved the praise that they received.

There was an impressive cast of actors in the film including such notables as Al Pacino, Selma Hayek, Jeremey Irons, Jack Huston, Camille Cottin and Florence Andrews.

Jared Leto is here too, but the less spoken about his performance, the better.

I thought it was too long and meandered through Lady Gaga and Adam Driver’s relationship.

It was just not a movie for me.

Watcher

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Watcher is a new film that just arrived on Vudu recently and I rented to give it a watch. The topic of the film intrigued me and I had seen it in the theaters for a few weeks before coming on Vudu.

The film is a psychological thriller directed by Chloe Okuno based on an original screenplay by Zack Ford.

Julia (Maika Monroe) and her husband Francis (Karl Glusman) moved to Bucharest for his job. They seemed to have a happy marriage and their apartment was very nice. However, it was not long after they moved in that Julia began to suspect that a neighbor at the building across form theirs had been watching her from his window. When a murder happened in the neighborhood, Julia’s suspicions became all the more intense, bordering on paranoid.

Francis started off as supportive, but he was not seeing the same problems that Julia was. Julia’s next door neighbor Irina (Madalina Anea) gave her some support and comfort, but she did not see any changes in the man watching her. She continued to be afraid of the man and worried about what he might do.

The film has some really strong atmosphere, filled with tension and an uncertainty of what truly was happening. It was nicely shot and set a mood for the film.

I do have to say that the old horror trope of the person who no one believes is overused. Why can’t the husband have just believed Julia about the situation? I mean, he was somewhat supportive, but he still had that aura of thinking that there was another answer to what was happening. There seemed to be better things happen when you just believe your spouse. The film did not give us any real reason to why he wouldn’t have believed what she was saying.

This was a decent horror/thriller that was engaging on a rainy Saturday morning. It may not be the best horror film of the year, but it was solid.

3.5 stars