Tag Archives: movies

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #78

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Spoilers

The Boroughs

“The Grey Rebellion”

Hello, Mother.

Episode six of The Boroughs gave us a bunch of info on what was going on in this place.

Last episode, the whole crew of Sam, Art, Judy, Wally and Renee are captured by Blaine and given an ultimatum. Wally has to go to work for Blaine while the others are basically on house arrest. Can’t leave the Boroughs, ankle monitors, cameras in their houses, the full nine yards.

They have to accept this situation or they would be sent to the Manor. The whole situation has become quite sinister.

Blaine takes Wally to meet the whole crew behind the scenes of the Boroughs and want him to help save a patient… the person they call Mother, who was supposedly hatched out of an alien egg found decades before. This is the being who the monsters (they call The kids) who suck “brain juice” from the residents came from.

Sam can’t take the way things were so he decided to walk through the desert to the diner and call his daughter, Claire. He cuts off the ankle monitor and heads out.

Meanwhile, Paz and Renee plan up an escape attempt to correspond to the 75th anniversary celebration coming up. They are able to recruit Judy to the fold, but Art did not want to be part of it.

However, when Art discovered from Claire that she had committed Sam to the Manor after she picked him up at the diner, he changed his mind and joined the “Grey Rebellion.”

Renee, though, has altered the plan. She does not want to just run away, she wanted to fight. She had been told everything by Wally and she said that she wanted to get into the offices at the manor and kill Mother, to take it away from Blaine and his cronies.

Of course there would be more to this. At the end of the episode, we see Mother, and she appears to be human-ish. She was not a monster like the “Kids.”

You knew where Claire was taking Sam after she picked him up. I was disappointed that she did not believe her father and allowed Blaine’s manipulations to work in her mind from a few episodes ago. Clearly, Mother’s appearance will make it more difficult to kill as Renee wants to do. Mother also makes me feel as if she is less sinister than Blaine and his cronies. Has she been held captive all these years?

There is something more to Sam’s wife too. This is an arc that remains unanswered.

Next week is the penultimate episode of the series and things are really setting up to be a massive final two episodes.

The Odyssey

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The epic novel from Homer, The Odyssey, was released this weekend from director Christopher Nolan, fresh off his Oscar winning Oppenheimer.

I read The Odyssey in high school and so I am familiar with the story of the movie. I have been excited about seeing this since it was announced.

The very general story of The Odyssey was Odysseus (Matt Damon), after winning the war with Troy, tried to return to his home of Ithaca and back to his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and his son Telemachus (Tom Holland). The voyage back to Ithaca faced many serious issues and dangers from the Gods and monsters.

However, the story premise is deeper than just Odysseus trying to get home. It is a deconstruction of the heroic character archetype, diving deep into the choices of our main hero, and as well as the struggles of Penelope and Telemachus and the toxic suitors for Penelope’s hand in marriage.

The movie is an epic film, with amazing look and tremendous performances.

Matt Damon does a remarkable job as Odysseus. He dominated every minute he was on screen and his performance was layered with so much complex subtext. How much of a hero was Odysseus truthfully? I thought Tom Holland gave a top level performance too, with his dedication to trying to find his “dad.” Anne Hathaway was outstanding, especially in the last hour or so of the movie.

The rest of the cast was amazing too including John Leguizamo, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, Elliot Page, Samantha Morton, Jon Bernthal, Himesh Patel, Mia Goth, and Benny Safdie.

While there is some CGI involved in the movie (Hey there Polyphemus), it is very limited and most of the film is practical. Because of that, it is such a beautifully shot film, with amazing shots at sea and the cinematography is so on-point that I was really impressed. You do not see films of this scale without a bunch of CGI these days, but Christopher Nolan is a director that limits the amount of CGI used on his picture.

The score was perfect too, building such a tone for every scene. Ludwig Göransson did the score for this movie and, quite possibly, could win his fourth Academy Award for this score, after winning for Sinners, Oppenheimer, and Black Panther.

The film is a touch long, though one is to expect that. The first half hour or so dragged just a touch, but it was a vital stretch to set up everything needed in the film.

While I am not as high on Christopher Nolan as a lot of people are, I will not deny that this is one of his best movies ever, if not his best.

4.8 stars

Rick and Morty Season Two

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Spoilers

I decided that I would start watching the Rick and Morty series as I did in the What We Do in the Shadows series. Since there are a limited number of episodes in each season and each were around 25 minutes, I decided that I would watch the whole season in one sitting.

Season two was the first season that I binged on HBO Max.

The first episode was “A Rickle in Time” where they picked up immediately when season one ended with Morty and Summer finished cleaning their house as time has been frozen. It winds up having multiple Ricks and Mortys and Summers since they were messing with time.

My favorite episode of the season was episode four, “Total Rickall” where an intergalactic parasite found its way into the Smith’s house and, by planting fake memories into the Smith’s heads, created people and creatures they believed were real. There was Mister Poopybutthole, Cousin Nicky, Sleepy Gary, Pencilvester, Tinkles the Fairy Lamb, Frankenstein’s Monster, Mr. Beauregard among others. It was such a funny episode.

Jerry and Beth’s marriage was a huge side story again. They even are taken to a planet for the most successful marriage counseling organization, which they destroy it with their toxicity. This was episode 7, entitled “Big Trouble in Little Sanchez.” The continue to be fighting and this marriage truly feels to be temporary.

Also in episode 7, we get “Little Rick!” Rick puts his mind into a younger clone of himself to help search out a vampire in Summer and Morty’s school (who was Coach Feratu). The vampire plot is mostly off-screen as it is the “Little Rick!” character that is focused. He shouted “Little Rick” very much like he would eventually yell out “Pickle Rick” in a later season.

“Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate” was a sequel to the interdimensional episode from season one. This one was funny, but it felt like it was not as strong as the first one.

There are several moments of breaking the fourth wall in this season as well. These all worked pretty well including the one where Rick called “Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate” a sequel, but he did not know why.

There were other parodies including an episode spoofing the movie The Purge.

There was a great cliffhanger at the end of season two with Rick turning himself in as an intergalactic terrorist in order to get Morty, Summer, Beth and Jerry freedom to return to the earth. The whole family had left earth to attend the wedding of Birdperson and Summer’s high school friend Tammy. Tammy turned out to be an agent of the Federation, killed Birdperson and arrested everyone. It was a cool twist and sets up the show for season three.

The Muppet Show S1 E15, E16, E17, E18

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Spoilers

Guest: Candice Bergen

Guest: Avery Schreiber

Guest: Ben Vereen

Guest: Phyllis Diller

Another strong run of four episodes of the Muppet Show consistently amaze me. I mentioned this earlier, but the material on the Muppet Show is so far advanced for a kids program that it goes to show you that you do not have to play down to kids.

In these four episodes, we got a song from Ben Vereen, Mister Cellophane, out of the Broadway play Chicago. Rowlf played a classical piano piece by Beethoven called Für Elise. The classic song Tenderly was performed in a distinctly rock format by Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem.

Crazy Harry was all over these episodes. He was the running gag in the Ben Vereen episode, constantly blowing things up when someone made a comment connected to explosions.

Veterinarian’s Hospital was on all these episodes. This is a classic bit that the Muppet Show made famous with Rowlf, Miss Piggy and Janice. They told some terrible jokes and laughed at them all.

The Candice Bergen episode featured some of the songs I remember on here including “Put Another Log on the Fire” and Piggy’s “What Now My Love.” Candice Bergen was not singing, and I was thinking, “Oh so she is not a singer so they are not making her sing” and then she did “You’ve Got to Have Friends.”

Piggy tried to make Kermit jealous by pretending to have a relationship with Avery Schreiber, which seemed to work until Scooter let the cat out of the bag. During this, we learn Miss Piggy’s true name, Pigathias- which means “River of Passion.” Other running jokes included Fozzie trapped in a box, Fozzie doing the “I’ve got a ____ for Kermit the Frog” bit, and Hilda worried about her age and appearance.

Sweetums made several appearances in this block of episodes including where he ate Candice Bergen’s camera and had an insult-off with Sir Avery (Schreiber).

Moana (2026)

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Disney has been doing live-action remakes of their animated movies for decades now, but the most recent push of this trend started with Alice in Wonderland in 2010. Since then, we have gotten Maleficent, Cinderella, The Jungle Book, The Lion King (although it is technically all animated), Beauty and the Beast, Dumbo, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Mulan, Snow White, and Lilo & Stitch. This weekend, the most recent of the animated movies to receive this treatment debuted in theaters.

Moana, the animated series was released in 2016, and just under ten years later, the live-action film was made and released.

I did not watch the original animated Moana before going to see the new live-action film, which was probably a good idea. I believe if I had watched the animation, I would have not enjoyed the live action version at all. Fact is that the Moana live action is a complete recreation of the 2016 animated version with almost nothing new, and it would have stood out even more had I watched the animated movie in preparation for the new film.

Another problem with the film is that the look of the new film is nowhere near as vibrant and magical as the animated film. This looked like they had a lot of the live action actors filming in front of a green screen or an animated background, which you can see easily. The best section of the film was in the middle of Dwayne Johnson’s song “You’re Welcome” when they animated everything.

Catherine Laga’aia as Moana was probably my favorite part of the film as I thought she was lovely and I could not take my eyes off her. Her performance was solid, and I believe she has potential to be much better in future projects. Laga’aia had a presence on screen that really worked for me.

Dwayne Johnson, who I love so much, felt much more underwhelming than he did in the animated movie. There were times when he was noticeably more thick in the waist and torso area than he was in other moments of the film making me think they did some CGI with him, or perhaps put a muscle suit on him. It was noticeable, and not in a good way.

The songs were all decent, except for “Shiny” by Jemaine Clement as Tamatoa. I thought that sounded terrible, so bad that I wondered if it was the theater’s sound system that was causing the problem. The other songs sounded fine so I am not sure why this standout song sounded so poor to me.

I did enjoy the live action dance sequences showing off Polynesian culture, especially in the opening scenes. I wish the backgrounds would have helped amplify the beauty of the dance, but it did not help it at all.

While it sounds like I did not enjoy this movie, I did like it. It is the same movie as 2016’s Moana, and I loved that movie. It does feel like the same movie, but with less of that Disney magic. If you have never seen the animated movie, this would be a sufficient remake, but if you have Disney + and have never seen the animated movie, watch that version.

2.9 stars

Scary Movie (2026)

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I was going to see The Invite at 4 PM today at Cinemark, but I wanted to do a movie in the afternoon to watch to waste the time. The movie that fit into that window the best was a movie that has been out for several weeks, but I had not seen. It was the new film from the Wayans Brothers, Scary Movie.

I was not sure if this was a movie that I wanted to see, because it just did not feel like it was a film that was in my wheelhouse. I had nearly gone a different time, but it just did not work out. So today would be the day for me to see the film from a previous franchise, returned to the public’s eye.

I definitely found a movie to waste my time with.

I hated the newest Scary Movie. Truly hated it.

The film parodied a bunch of horror movies over the last few years, specifically Scream as they used the Ghostface killer from that franchise. However, they also poked fun at It Follows, K-Pop Demon Hunters, M3GAN, Nosferatu, White Chicks, Sinners, Get Out, Wednesday (TV show on Netflix), Smile, The Substance, Terrifier 3, and several more. The problem was that none of the parodies had any cleverness to it and the writing was just poor.

The film was just drug jokes, dropping the n-word, sex jokes, and killing a bunch of people. None of them were funny at all. The only pieces that made me smile a bit were the meta jokes or the breaking of the fourth wall. However, they overdid these too.

I did not laugh at this movie and that is a sin for a comedy, especially a spoof film that has all kinds of leeway to be ridiculous. I was hoping that I would enjoy this with the return of the Wayans, but it was clear that I was just not going to.

1 star

Agents of Shield S7 E4, E5, E6, E7

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Spoilers

“Out of the Past”

“A Trout in the Milk”

“Adapt or Die”

“The Totally Excellent Adventures of Mack and The D”

This continues to be my favorite season so far, and the show has been taking some gigantic swings.

How about a whole black and white, noir episode? Coulson with the monologue over the scenes (which is an internal monologue), the cool mystery and the saving of Sousa, sort of.

Daniel Sousa was supposed to die in 1955 after he delivered an object to Howard Stark. Coulson said that he was a hero and that he was taught in SHIELD history. The team decided to save Sousa, fake his death (by using Coulson) and bring him with them in the Zephyr.

All in black and white.

Turned out, the black and white came from a malfunction of the Coulson LMD.

The next episode was into the 1970s and the show had a seventies style opening theme, with voice over introducing the cast.

It was clear that the writers had a freedom to come up with remarkable situations over the time stream and that they were having a hoot. There is drama, comedic moments and some great action.

Mack goes through a lot as his parents are killed and replaced by Chronicoms. He gets left behind with Deke in 1982. He spends a year mourning in isolation as Deke tries unsuccessfully to help him. Deke created a cover band…as a cover. The Deke Squad was his covert Shield group filled with weirdos and losers. Deke shows some real character development during these episodes and Jeff Ward is just remarkably funny. His dialogue is some of the series’ best.

Coulson destroyed his body in an explosion that killed the Chronicoms. Coulson wound up a Max Headroom-type character in 1983 with Deke.

Sousa and Daisy are growing closer as Daisy was getting tortured and experimented on by Nathanial Malick, who wanted Daisy’s powers transferred to him. He was able to do it, but he could not handle the new power.

It was awesome to have General Rick Stoner, played by Patrick Warburton, in his real body in the 1970s. Warburton played Stoner as a hologram when the Lighthouse closed up a few seasons ago. That hologram was based on a past Shield executive, and now we got to meet him.

Again though, Shield and the Chronicoms were playing havoc with the Sacred Timeline and I wonder what the TVA was doing.

The Muppet Show S1 E12, E13, E14

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Spoilers

Guest: Peter Ustinov

Guest: Bruce Forsythe

Guest: Sandy Duncan

Three more Muppet Show episodes and three guest stars. Looking at the three guest stars, Peter Ustinov would not be a guest star that you would expect on the Muppet Show. He was a two time Academy Award winner and had that high brow feel to him. However, he seemed to be fully engaged and willing to put himself out there. He was clearly having a good time with whatever silliness he was put in. Bruce Forsythe and Sandy Duncan make a much more understandable guest for the Muppets, but Ustinov was great.

It was on the Peter Ustinov episode where Kermit sang his iconic Sesame Street song, “(It’s Not Easy) Bein’ Green.” This was the song most connected to Kermit until the Rainbow Connection came along in the Muppet Movie.

The running storyline of the Peter Ustinov episode was that Kermit was feeling jealous of Ustinov, especially how everyone was fawning over him. We come to find out at the end that Peter Ustinov was jealous of Kermit because he always wanted to be a frog. Silly, but fun.

Bruce Forsythe helped Fozzie finish off Statler and Waldorf and their heckling. Forsythe was great because he was a comedian, a singer, a dancer, piano player and he showed all of these off during the show.

The Sandy Duncan episode found Fozzie at the heart of the backstage storyline as he was telling people that his writer was the legendary Gags Beasley. Fozzie then said he was going to do the famous Banana Sketch, which EVERYONE except Kermit knew. Kermit was getting frustrated when everyone would laugh about the Banana Sketch and would look down on Kermit when they discovered that Kermit was unaware about it. Even Sandy Duncan got into the act, barely able to contain her laughter with Fozzie when thinking about the Banana Sketch. There was no real pay off to this, outside of Kermit driving himself crazy. The bouquets of bananas her had Fozzie give Sandy Duncan at the end was a nice little punctuation to the storyline.

Of the most memorable moments for me on these three episodes, (outside of Bein’ Green) I would say that it was the song “Never Smile at a Crocodile” which was a fun respite. I did not remember hearing “I’m My Own Grandpa” on the Muppet Show before, but it was there. I am most familiar with Ray Stevens’ version of the song.

The Furious

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The Furious is a English-language Hing Kong martial arts action thriller that came out earlier this year in theaters. It did not stay in theaters very long, and I had wanted to see it there, but scheduling just did not work out. So when it appeared today on Fandango at Home, I rented it immediately to watch this afternoon.

The story is straightforward and fairly simple. A father fought against the people who snatched his daughter for their child trafficking ring. He teamed up with another man who was in search of his journalist wife who had been investigating the traffickers.

However, just because the film has a simple story, does make it a bad movie. In contrast, the film knows what it needed to be and what it needed as a story to get the film where they wanted it to go. Some films like this make the story needlessly convoluted with storylines that do not make sense or are just crammed into the movie in order to have it. The Furious did what it needed and gave us just enough to be engaged.

Our main character, Wang Wie (Xie Miao), was a mute handyman who clearly had some kind of a background that made this guy a real bad ass. Navin (Joe Taslim), the journalist, had some amazing training somewhere too. Those things are not necessary for this film, and it is very important to suspend your disbelief in this area.

The action is just unbelievable. The fighting is the standout of the film as the choreography of this film and its fight scenes are masterful. Words do not do justice for the action/fight scenes that they present in The Furious.

I was impressed with the young girl who played Wie’s daughter Rainy. Her name was Enyou Yang, and she was an awesome part of the film and helped give Wie the humanity he needed.

High energy action and non-stop tension made this a thrilling and completely entertaining movie that reached a level that we have not seen in a long time. It was one of the best films of the year so far.

4.8 stars

Agents of Shield S7 E1, E2, E3

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“The New Deal”

“Know Your Onions”

“Alien Commies from the Future”

I kicked off season seven of Agents of Shield today with episodes 1-3. I think it might have been my favorite season of the show because of the wild time travel aspects that they have, plus the addition of Daniel Sousa, from the Agent Carter series.

The time travel of this show is different than the greater MCU, which, I choose to believe, is where the Agents of Shield show went off the wire for the MCU. Up until a certain point, it maintained continuity with the movies, but that clearly changed. It might have been when the agents came back from the future, but there is no doubt that with the whole crew back in the past, they would have been creating branch timelines all over the place.

The TVA must have been extremely busy cleaning up the sacred timeline here.

First, we landed in 1931 and we got involved in an attempted assassination of FDR… or so we thought. Instead, the Chronicons were after Freddy Malick, who we know would become the father of future Hydra leader Gideon Malick.

We also met the first of the Koenig family involved, Ernest “Hazard” Koenig. He learned a bunch about the Shield group, which probably is what started his family’s involvement down the line. Enoch got left in the past as the Zephyr time jumped on its own. I remember the first time that I saw this episode being so sad about Enoch being left behind. He had become one of my favorites, and this rewatch has only helped solidify him as a personal favorite secondary character.

In 1955, they have Simmons pretend to be Peggy Carter, which was both inspired and crazy, to infiltrate Shield base at Area 51. Coincidentally, Peggy’s old partner Daniel Sousa showed up for the testing as well. I was not a big fan of Sousa on Peggy Carter, but when he came to jo0in Agents of Shield, I found him to be an exceptional addition.

Both May and Yo Yo are having problems. May was lacking emotions, even more than before, and Yo Yo has not been able to use her Inhuman power since the alien parasite had infected her.

The show continued to have that great action mixed with laugh out loud moments and created a different brand of sci-fi genre than it had had before.

The Muppet Show S1 E9, E10, E11

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Guest: Charles Aznavour

Guest: Harvey Korman

Guest: Lena Horne

I knew that there would be some huge moments of nostalgia for me by doing this Muppet Show rewatch because there are some clips that have stuck with me all these years. These three episodes of season one, nine, ten and eleven, included several of these.

In episode nine, guest starring Charles Aznavour, someone who I would have never recognized, did one of the numbers with lyrics I say all the time. “Two and two are four. Four and four are eight. Eight and eight are sixteen. Sixteen and sixteen are thirty-two.” This is from the song Inchworm and I remember this since my youth.

Episode ten had a couple of iconic memories for me. First was the “Funniest joke of all time” from Fozzie Bear, who grabbed Kermit to help him and wanted Kermit to come on stage after he hears the word “Hear” and deliver the line “Good grief! The comedian’s a bear!” The homophones would be the joke of course, but this is a fabulous routine with Jim Henson and Frank Oz delivering their lines perfectly. This was on a record album of hits from the first season of the Muppet Show that I had owned.

The other amazing performance on this episode was from Robin the Frog, who sang A.A. Milne’s poem, “Halfway Down the Stairs.” I loved this growing up and it just triggers every memorberry that I have.

Most celebrities look as if they are having a great time on the Muppet Show. Some have joy and fun all over their faces. Lena Horne is a perfect example. She was so happy to be here. However, in episode eleven, it sure seemed as if Harvey Korman hated being here. He did not seem to be enjoying his time on the Muppet Show at all. Of course, he did dress in a giant chicken costume for half the show, so there is that.

This show, which was children’s show, was surprisingly high brow on many occasions. When Charles Aznavour did a dance number with Mildred as he sang “Old Fashioned Way,” there would be plenty of people who were introduced to that song for the first time here. I was surprised to see Mildred as his dance partner in this act. Later in the seasons, it would have been 100% Miss Piggy doing that. I even had to look up the name for the Muppet Mildred.

Lena Horne surprised me with a cover of “I Got a Name” by Jim Croce. I looked it up and Horne did, in fact, cover the song herself as a record. She also sang “Sing (Sing a Song)” from Sesame Street which included background singers Gonzo, Miss Piggy, George the Janitor among others. Both Kermit and Fozzie got to sing with Lena.

As I mentioned, the Muppet Show may have been targeted for children, but it did not talk down to them. It provided music and allusions to some of the greatest cultural items of all time. And, they put Harvey Korman in a chicken suit.

Minions & Monsters

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I have hated the previous two Minions movies and I have not been a big fan of any of the Despicable Me franchise either, so I was not excited when they announced a new Minions movie.

However, I had heard some positive word of mouth, especially from online film critic Dan Murrell, a well-know hater of Minion content, and I had some hope.

After seeing Minions & Monsters, I can say without hesitation that this is my favorite Minions movie I have ever seen.

According to IMDB, Minions & Monsters “Follows the Minions in 1920s Hollywood as they search for frightening creatures for their monster movie, partner with a green creature, and must save the planet after unleashing monsters.“

The Minions wind up in Hollywood and that was really fun. The movie had a ton of references and allusions to some of the greatest movies of all time, from Jaws to Casablanca.

There are some real characters in the movie and an actual storyline. They are not incredibly deep, but they are here. There are some big time voice performances too including Trey Parker, Allison Janney, Christoph Waltz, Jeff Bridges, Jesse Eisenberg, Zoey Deutch, Phil LaMarr and Bobby Moynihan.

The animation is wonderful and full of amazing color. The times they switched from the typical animation style into a different one were very effective.

This movie does a great job of appealing to the children in the audience while still giving some jokes and items for the adults, which, again, is not something that is typical in a Minions movie.

This was such a nice surprise. This had a feeling of the Looney Tunes to me. For a movie that I had no desire to see at one point in the year, to a film that was entertaining, it sure tells you that if you keep your mind open, anything could happen. Even a fun and enjoyable minions movie.

3.9 stars

Neighborhood Watch (2025)

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June 30

Movie 30

The June Swoon 5 comes to a close with a film I watched on Hulu this morning called Neighborhood Watch, which starred Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Jack Quaid.

I had been looking for a final film for the June Swoon and my list just did not have any films that made me excited about watching it. My search led me to this movie and I do like Morgan and Quaid very much so I thought this was a good choice to finish with.

According to IMDB, “When a mentally ill young man thinks he witnesses an abduction and the police refuse to believe him, he reluctantly turns to his next-door neighbor, a bitter and retired security guard, to help him find the missing person.”

I really enjoyed this movie. Were there some moments when you had to just go along with the plot? Yes, there were some times when credibility was stretched. However, there were no moments that pulled me out of the story.

I thought Jack Quaid did an excellent job portraying this young, damaged man whose mental illness was a huge factor in his life. Still, you could see the goodness in him and how much he wanted to be something more than what he was.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s character was fairly typical for this type of role. He just is such a likable actor that he overcame the stereotypical grumpy, old man archetype.

Together, Morgan and Quaid bring the film to life with the chemistry between them and the interactions between their characters. They grow to care about the other and seeing how gentle Morgan was with Quaid near the end speaks levels.

This movie definitely has some flaws, specifically in the story, but the two lead performances are so engaging that those do not seem to be a problem at all. The film flied by and, if I am being honest, I would have liked even more at the end. I wanted to know what was going to happen to the characters and that tells me the film was a success.

So that brings an end to the June Swoon 5.

The June Swoon will return in June 2027.

The Great Flood (2025)

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June 28

Movie 28

We are down to three final days of June for the June Swoon, with today’s entry being a Korean sci-fi/disaster film called The Great Flood.

According to IMDB, “A great flood has hit planet Earth. People, including An Na and Hee Jo struggle to survive in their apartment building, which is sinking into the water. An Na is an AI development researcher and Hee Jo belongs to a human resource security team, who is trying to save An Na from the disaster. But why is Hee Jo trying to save An Na and who is behind it?“

There are some solid moments in The Great Flood. However, the film takes way too many sudden shifts to be effective. Every time the sci-fi elements work their way into the story, it weakens what had come before it. They dropped the sci-fi story in the middle of this disaster film about a flood and it pulled me out of what was happening.

These different genres did not play well together in this movie. An Na (Kim Da-Mi) does a good job of showing the panic of the situation and her desperation in trying to recover her son, Ja-In (Kwon Eun-sung). The kid was both decent in his role and extremely annoying, depending on what the plot needed him t be.

The film looked great and some of the flooding scenes were really strong. However, the sci-fi scenes just messed with the story and the imagery of the sci-fi stuff did not work for me.

I got to the point where the characters lost me and I did not feel compelled to root for them any longer. The film felt way longer than the run time would indicate and had me wondering how much longer it was going.

Still, it was not the worst movie of the June Swoon 5, and if you get past the story aspects of the sci-fi, the disaster movie scenes were solid. It’s a mishmash of a film that could have been better than it was.

Supergirl

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I went to the next DCU movie today, which was Supergirl. I had heard so many negative things about this movie… well, not necessarily negative, but more like middling. People were calling it forgettable and meh, so I went into the film with low expectations, but an open mind.

I tell you what… I really enjoyed this movie. Based on the classic Supergirl story “Woman of Tomorrow,” Supergirl gave us a Supergirl that we had not seen before on the big screen. I will admit that I was not a huge fan of the “Woman of Tomorrow” comic book storyline, which I know places me in the minority.

We get a Kara who is flying to red sun planets so she did not have her powers, meaning that she could get drunk. On the planet, she encountered young Ruthye (Eve Ridley) who is in search of revenge against Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts), a brutal killer who had killed her family. Krem then shot and poisoned Krypto, inspiring Kara to try and save her dog.

Even those critics who did not like the film had positives to say about Milly Alcock as Kara/Supergirl. She is truly a revelation as the character. I think her performance was outstanding and I have a lot of positive thoughts about Alcock moving forward in the DCU.

On the other side, Matthias Schoenaerts’s performance as Krem was a major drawback for this movie. I disliked the way he played this character. Krem had the chance to be such a frighteningly sinister character, but he was so weird in his dialogue and the way he delivered it. He was my least favorite part of Supergirl.

I thought that I would have problems with the character of Ruthye in the movie, because I did have a problem with that character in the comics. However, I thought this was a strong addition to the film. There were a couple of moments when I thought she was getting whiny, but they did not take away from the story or the character for me.

Two big cameos in the film: Superman and Lobo. I loved the use of David Corenswet’s Superman in the film. He felt perfectly used and helped center Kara in the tale. While I thought Jason Momoa was awesome as Lobo, I am not sure that the character of Lobo was really needed for the story. He felt a little crammed into the movie. Again, it is not that Jason Momoa was bad, because he wasn’t. I just feel that he did not play enough of a significance for the roll.

The other area that I had a problem with the music. Some of the needledrops did not fit well and were distracting to the film. There was a time in a bar on this other planet where the band started singing “Cheek to Cheek,” the earth song that was so out of place.

I was engaged and enthusiastic about Supergirl and Milly Alcock’s portrayal. I had heard so many bad things about Supergirl, but I truly thought this was exceptional. The humor worked. The film looked pretty good. The characters were great (with the exception of the villain). The film moved quickly and worked well.

4.3 stars