Tag Archives: movies

Masters of the Universe

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“By the power of Grayskull…I have the Power!”

The new version of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe came out this weekend, an IP that has been redone several times, both in live action and animation.

According to IMDB, “A young man on Earth discovers a fabulous secret legacy as the prince of an alien planet, and must recover a magic sword and return home to protect his kingdom.“

I was never a big fan of He-Man, although I did not dislike the IP. I watched the Kevin Smith animated versions on Netflix.

This movie was not my favorite. I had several problems with the film which I will go into later. However, it was not a total loss as there were some things I liked.

First off, I thought Nicholas Galitzine did a great job as Prince Adam. I may not necessarily like how they had him playing the role, but I do think he did a great job in the role. He had a Chris Hemsworth vibe to him.

Jared Leto, whose had some questionable roles, was an outstanding Skeletor. Again, there are some of the writing that did not work well, but Leto stood out among the cast.

There was some good action, especially in the later stages of the film. I enjoyed the finale of the third act, action-wise.

There were a lot of issues though. The biggest one is the tone. This is meant to be too humorous, kind of in the veins of a Thor: Love and Thunder. There were several times when there was a good scene, some times even an emotional scene, but it did not get a chance to settle in because there was a joke coming after.

And for a film that wanted the humor to be so front and center, the film was not very funny. I am not sure I laughed at all, certainly not more than a giggle here and there, and I found myself rolling my eyes more than anything else. I’m not opposed to a healthy dose of humor in my action movies, but the humor needs to be doled out in proper doses and in the correct moments. This film did not do that.

The earth section of this film could have easily been removed, because it did nothing and it was just a way to extend the run time. I really did not like the roommate character in this, and I wonder why people did not have this guy committed with his talk about swords and other planets. And there was a monster that showed up on earth and knocked away by an Amazon truck. This is an Amazon film. Brought me memories of War of the Worlds. Amazon is clearly the biggest heroes in all movies.

And, boy was there an obvious Coca-Cola product placement too. I laughed audibly at this.

There are a ton of secondary characters that were just here to stand in the background and not have any sort of story to them. Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn was a total waste, as was Morena Baccarin as the Sorceress.

It is not the worst movie to watch, but I did find myself bored in a good chunk of the film and very noticeably, not laughing. The last third of the film was better and one would wish it was the style the whole film would have taken.

2.5 stars

Good Night, and Good Luck: Live From Broadway (2005)

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June 5

Day 5

I wish we got more of this.

This was originally a live broadcast of the Broadway play, Good Night and Good Luck on CNN and CNN International. I wish that there were more examples of this form, movie recorded as the Broadway play, so we could get more of an exposure to this type of entertainment.

I have been excited to see this since I put it on the Netflix queue and i figured the June Swoon 5 would be a perfect place for it.

This play showed the lead up and eventual confrontation between the junior senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy and CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow, as well as the journalists and news people behind the scenes at CBS.

I found this to be completely enthralling and totally thrilling. The play used videos of Joseph McCarthy as well as other important people of the time to help illuminate the story.

George Clooney starred as Murrow and he was excellent. A personal favorite of mine was also here, Clark Gregg, who was well known as Agent Coulson in the MCU. He played newscaster Don Hollenbeck. There was a scene in this play between Clooney and Gregg that was just amazing and showed off Gregg’s skills tremendously.

Glenn Fleschler played Fred Friendly and his relationship with Murrow was another part of this story. It was some of the best dialogue you will hear and consistently was both funny and poignant.

The only thing that was distracting for me was that fact that every time the character of Joe Wershba, played by Carter Hudson, spoke, it sounded like John Ratzenberger. That did not take away from his strong performance in the play, but it was something that I thought of every time he spoke.

I wish there were more of these type of films. Not just adaptations of stage plays, but actual stage plays as they are presented on Broadway. I would definitely go see something like this in a theater.

Rental Family (2025)

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June 4

Day 4

So the June Swoon film for the day is Rental Family, a film featuring Brendan Fraser. It was one that I thought about going to the theater to see, but it did not work out. I decided that I would save this one for June Swoon.

According to IMDB, “An American actor in Tokyo struggling to find purpose lands an unusual gig: working for a Japanese “rental family” agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers. He rediscovers purpose, belonging, and the beauty of human connection.”

I am torn on this movie. Not because I did not enjoy it, because this was a beautiful movie filled with emotion and lovely exteriors and great performances. The problem I had was with the central concept of the idea of rental family, not the movie but the business that Shinji Tada (Takehiro Hira) was running. He would send actors into situations to play relatives or friends or whatever to people who are emotionally challenged.

For example, in this film, Brendan Fraser played an actor named Phillip who was struggling with his career. He moved to Japan several years before and he joined in the company where he is sent into a situation where he was pretending to be the absentee father of a little girl, Mia (Shannon Mahina Gorman). He was hired by her mother to help her get into a specific school.

The problem is they do not tell Mia that he is pretending and they pretend that he is her long, lost father, and they told Phillip that he needed to not get close to her. How is he supposed to do that, get to know her and not get close to her.

It just felt gross. I felt that these characters were so emotionally manipulated in this that it, as I said, felt gross.

However, so much of the movie is so wonderful that I kind of held my nose and moved along. To be fair, I think that it is gross is meant to be part of the themes of the film.

There is another storyline where Phillip is pretending to be a journalist interviewing a big time former actor Kikuo Hasegawa (Akira Emoto) which was a beautiful tale of friendship and life.

I loved the relationships Phillip developed with both Mia and Kikuo, which made his constant lies all the harder to watch. You can tell from Fraser’s excellent performance how the lies were affecting him as well.

While I had trouble with the concept of the film, everything else was amazing. I loved the story, the characters, the performances, the relationships and the chorography. Rental Family was an outstanding movie that made me feel icky at a few times.

Widow’s Bay S1 E8

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Spoilers

“Your Baggage”

With the corpse of Richard Warren officially gone, everything in Widow’s Bay is all peaches and flowers, right?

Maybe not.

Tom went to his house to deal with his son, Evan, who had all the pictures of his mom and wanted answers. Tom gave them to him, even though he did not want to do so. The father and son had some moments together when Tom gave Evan Red Sox tickets, signaling that they could leave the island.

We all knew that last week was too good to be true and, when Wyck showed up at Toms door with the message that it was not yet over, Tom’s face revealed how crushed he was, certainly because he was just making plans with his son to go to Boston for the weekend.

While this was going down, Patricia was being chased by the Boogeyman, the serial killer who killed a bunch of high school girls years before, and who tormented Patricia (though no one believed that this happened).

The Boogeyman pursued Patricia across Widow’s Bay in grand Michael Myers fashion. Patricia eventually dowsed him with gasoline and set him on fire. Unfortunately, the gas station attendant put him out with a fire extinguisher, thinking that he was doing the right thing. He learned his error as the Boogeyman grabbed him by the throat and threw him away violently.

Luckily, Patricia was able to shot him twice with a shotgun, but not before the former sheriff Bechir got slashed with a knife by the killer.

It was hilarious as Patricia kept the gun trained on the Boogeyman’s head the whole time, on the ambulance, in the morgue, as he went into the crematorium, and until he was nothing but ashes. That was really funny, but I would have shot him in the head immediately when he was down. Patricia was dedicated in making sure this killer was not coming back.

There are two more episodes in the first season of this awesome series. All eight episodes so far can be streamed on Apple TV +.

Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair

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Spoilers

I used to like Malcolm in the Middle, though I never would say that I loved it. It was something that I watched when it was originally on ABC. I knew that there was going to be a new series featuring the returning cast on Hulu/Disney + and i was somewhat interested, but I had not gone out of my way to watch it. It came out in April and I saw it on Disney + a few times, but just never got around to watching it.

Finally, tonight I had an open evening and with only four episodes of the show to watch, I decided that I would finally watch it.

Overall, I am glad I did. However, I would not say that I loved it. There were parts that bugged me, and I am not sure I would have continued if it were a longer series. I do think that this was just the right amount of episodes at four.

The show did tell a specific story centered around Lois and Hal’s 40th wedding anniversary. Again, parts of the storyline was great and other parts were cringe. The final episode had a spectacular conclusion that was emotional and heartfelt and made everything else feel better.

I want to say immediately that I really found Leah, the daughter of Malcolm, played by Keeley Karsten, to be remarkably charming and a perfect fit for the role. The show cleverly gave Leah the ability to talk to the screen like Malcolm could do, narrating much of what was going on. It is obviously a trait passed along from father to daughter.

It was very funny, and well in character, that Malcolm had not ever told Hal and Lois that he had had a daughter, and so when they crashed his home because Malcolm had been avoiding the question about attending Lois & Hal’s big party, all of Malcolm’s lies came crashing down.

I am not sure how I felt about the whole Hal story arc of these episodes, but there is no denying that he came out a better person in the end. I was torn about the whole drug trip he went on (reminded me very much of the trip taken by Mayor Tom on Widow’s Bay), but there were some very funny moments within it.

I was sure that the role of Francis had been recast, but, according to IMDB, it was Christopher Masterson playing the role. I was shocked. I thought that the recast was very similar to Francis, but that it was clearly not him. I was in err on that. Turned out the only recast of the kids was Dewey, who was now played by Caleb Ellsworth-Clark instead of Erik Per Sullivan.

Jane Kaczmarek was giving me Candace Bergen feels as she returned to her multiple Emmy nominated role. You’ve got to appreciate how committed Bryan Cranston is to playing Hal, because he is clearly willing to do anything. They really work together as well.

I was very much split on the Malcolm/Lois confrontation in the men’s room. The toilet humor just did not work for me. I have never been a fan of this style of humor. I thought the writing of the scene between the two characters was outstanding though.

Some of the other characters from the show looked rough. I am not sure if that was intended or if the actors had had tough lives. I would hate to speculate on any of them. I am glad that they were here.

The revival of this show was hit and miss for me, but I am glad that I watched it and I might even watch another show, if they did any more.

Toy Story 3 (2010)

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I finished off the original Toy Story trilogy tonight by watching Toy Story 3 on Disney +. Toy Story 3 is one of my all-time favorite animated films. It is top 3 for sure, if not number one. It had been too long since I have seen it. After the viewing tonight, I can say with certainty that this remains an all-time classic.

Andy has grown up and is about to head off to college, which means that he has to make a decision about what he is going to do with his toys. When they accidentally get thrown out, the toys decide to get themselves donated to a daycare. However, the daycare turned out to be nowhere near as awesome as they thought it would be.

There are a couple of reasons why I loved this movie as much as I did. First up was the arrival of what I consider one of the greatest Disney villains of all time in Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear, voiced by the iconic Ned Beatty. Lotso was such an evil character, but I could completely understand his story. I thought his origin story, which was told in flashbacks, was just perfection. Everything that Lotso did was relatable because of the trauma of being lost and replaced. It turned him bitter and angry, something that he never got over.

The second thing that made me love this movie was one of the most dramatic and suspenseful scenes you are going to get in any movie, let alone a Pixar kids movie. The scene where Woody, Buzz and all of the others were in the incinerator, slowly moving toward the flames. When I first saw that scene in the theaters, I actually couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I couldn’t see a way out for them and I truly thought that the film was going to send them all to a fiery grave. This time, I saw the foreshadowing with the little aliens on how they get rescued, but when I first saw this in 2010, I was sure they were all goners. It was one of the most effective scenes I had ever scene and one of Pixar’s greatest.

Thirdly, the final scene with Andy and Bonnie was spectacular, filled with real emotions, that couldn’t help but bring tears to my eyes. It was so beautifully written that you just can’t help it.

Another brilliant scene was the escape plan organized by Woody to get out of the daycare. The plan revealed some amazing skills for the different toys involved. Everybody had an important role to play and the ending of it with the confrontation with Lotso was such an amazing moment.

Buzz getting turned back into the Space Ranger and then eventually to the Spanish version was hilarious. Tim Allen does a great job voicing that character. It was wonderful to get the voices back for Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, John Ratzenberger, Wallace Shawn, Estelle Harris, Jodie Benson, Laurie Metcalf, and John Morris.

We got some new voices too. Michael Keaton joined the cast as Ken, Barbie’s boy toy. Blake Clark replaced Jim Varney as Slinky Dog after Varney’s death in 2000.

This is a masterpiece of a film, filled with heart, emotion and a connection to one’s things that everyone can relate to. Toy Story 3 is easily my favorite of all the Toy Story movies and right up there with Into the Spider-Verse and Inside Out.

Spider-Noir S1 E4, E5, E6

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Spoilers

“A Mistake I’ll Never Make Again”

“Betrayal”

“Nightmare on a Gurney”

I watched the next three episodes of the Amazon Prime series, Spider Noir. I loved the first three episodes of this pulpy-fun and we jump right back into the action.

When episode three left off, Silvermane was shooting someone, and it turned out to be just another guy with Winston.

We are introduced to another ex-army platoon guy, who turns out to be a low-level villain from Marvel Comics named Megawatt. The Spider fought him in public and does defeat him.

We are introduced to actress Amy Aquino’s character, Dr. Faber. She was the connection between the four villains, as she treated them all just before their powers manifested. She was a decent person who made some bad choices trying to save her son, who was another person in the experiment.

We get an origin of The Spider, and see how he is connected to Sandman, Tombstone, and Megawatt. It was one of the scarier moments of horror in the show as Ben got bit by a transformed man-spider.

The third episode, “Nightmare on a Gurney,” felt very much like a sci-fi, B-movie, crazy scientist noir. The show has been great, using all noir tropes in the different episodes.

An interesting point mentioned in that third episode included Faber’s son telling Ben Reilly that they were looking for the Spider, but he had changed his name, so they could not find him. Could Ben have been originally Peter Parker and changed his name to Ben Reilly. We know they could not use the name Peter Parker because of rights and technicalities, but this way covers the base.

Ben Reilly has been playing this character as anything but a hero. He is downright selfish, but it feels as if that came form Ruby’s death more than anything else.

Nic Cage is spectacular in his Cage-i-ness. Brendon Gleeson has been doing a great job bringing the sinister to Silvermane.

This has been great. I can’t wait to watch episodes 7 & 8.

Toy Story 2 (1999)

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I have not seen Toy Story 2 very many times. Of the three original Toy Story movies, Toy Story 2 was my least favorite. That is not saying that is was a bad movie. In fact, it is a sensational film, but the other two Toy Story films are just so exceptional.

I did a rewatch of Toy Story 2 tonight and I found it much the same way. It is extremely clever and well-written. I laughed out loud multiple times.

According to IMDB, “When Woody is stolen by a toy collector, Buzz and his friends set out on a rescue mission to save Woody before he becomes a museum toy property with his roundup gang Jessie, Prospector, and Bullseye.“

All of our favorite voices are back including Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, John Ratzenberger, Jim Varney, Wallace Shawn, Annie Potts, Laurie Metcalf, and John Morris. The voice cast had several huge additions with Joan Cusack as Jessie, Kelsey Grammar as the Prospector, Wayne Knight as the toy collector Al, Jodie Benson as Barbie, Andrew Stanton as Zurg, and Estelle Harris as Mrs. Potato Head.

The idea that Woody was a rare and popular toy that completed the set was a fun way to take the story. It brought us Jessie and Woody’s horse, Bullseye. I could relate to the collector part of the story, and I would have loved to have seen Al arrive in Japan only to find Woody gone.

I was not a fan of the musical song detailing Jessie’s origin. That felt too overly sentimental and manipulative on the emotions. It felt like the movie could have done this in a much more effective way. That was the one spot in the film where I thought the story took a dip.

Toy Story 2 is still on the lower end of the three original Toy Story movies for me (although it would be ahead of Toy Story 4 as of now). Though it was my least favorite of the three, does not mean it is not a spectacular movie with amazing CGI, clever writing, amazing characters and funny lines.

Next up will be Toy Story 3… one of my favorite animated movies of all time.

Exit 8

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Exit 8 was another film that I could have seen in the theater, but could not make it fit the schedule. So I rented it today on Fandango at Home. The Japanese sci-fi/thriller is one of the best movies that I have seen in 2026.

According to IMDB, “A man trapped in a endless sterile subway passageway sets out to find Exit 8. The rules of his quest are simple: do not overlook anything out of the ordinary. If you discover an anomaly, turn back immediately. If you don’t, carry on. Then leave from Exit 8. But even a single oversight will send him back to the beginning. Will he ever reach his goal and escape this infinite corridor?“

This movie engaged me so much, I was literally yelling at my computer screen, wanting the characters to follow my instructions. It was a simple set up with a complex morality tale. I absolutely loved this film and the experience of watching it.

The film was in Japanese, but the dialogue was limited, which made it a breeze to follow along with the subtitles.

Kazunari Ninomiya was our main protagonist whose point of view we start with in the very beginning of the movie. His eyes were literally the camera to the scenes we were watching. However, that does not last long as the POV switched once he was inside the subway corridor.

There was also the “Walking Man,” played by Yamato Kochi and the Boy, played by Naru Asanuma. The young actor does a sensational job with nearly zero dialogue. To be honest, I am not sure I understood the Walking Man’s role in this narrative, but that did not stop me from being invested in the characer.

Based on a video game, Exit 8 had me looking for every little detail and found me frustrated when the characters did not see the same.

The ending of the film had me screaming out loud, first in desperation and then in joyousness. It was beautifully shot and made me extremely happy.

I loved this movie. I did not expect that this was going to be one of the best movies I would see in 2026, but I am so pleased that I took the chance with a Japanese film.

5 stars

They Will Kill You

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Happy Memorial Day. With the day off school, I am using today to catch up on a bunch of films, now on streaming, that I have not yet seen in 2026. The first film up today is a horror/action/comedy movie called They Will Kill You starring Zazie Beetz.

I had seen the trailer for this film in the theaters, but it only lasted like a week or so in the theaters and I did not get to see it. Honestly, I did not think I would miss it much. It did not seem to be my cup of tea. However, after watching the film this morning, I have to say that I was wrong. This was a heck of a good time.

According to IMDB, “A woman takes a job as a housekeeper in a NYC high-rise, unaware of the building’s history of disappearances. She soon realizes the community is shrouded in mystery.”

That synopsis does not do justice to this story, which, admittedly, is rather thin and coincidental. Still, this is not one of those films where you go in expecting a deep and fully developed story. There was just enough background in the film to make the action and brutality to come understandable.

Zazie Beetz is sensational in her violent, bad ass way. After her first scene in her room inside the building, the shocking reveal of what was going on was out of nowhere and I was here for it.

The rest of the cast was fun, featuring some reasonably big names including Patricia Arquette, Tom Felton, Heather Graham, Myha’la, James Remar, and Paterson Joseph.

I found much of the film very funny. Again, this movie does an admirable job of blending tones through the film. It has comedic beats that feel like they work well with the gory horror moments and the action/adventure moments. It is not easy to blend tones and more movies that try to do it fail than succeed. They Will Kill You is one that makes it look easy.

I wish I had seen this on the big screen. I think the violence would have popped all the more. Still, I enjoyed renting this on Fandango at Home and it kicked off today’s binge in a exciting and dramatic manner.

3.8 stars

Toy Story (1995)

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I was watching a YouTube watch along with Toy Story, the original from 1995 and I realized that I had never reviewed Toy Story (or Toy Story 2 or Toy Story 3) at EYG. With Toy Story 5 coming up later this summer, I thought this would be a great idea to watch and review these absolute classic films.

Spoilers: Toy Story is epic!

The arrival of Buzz Lightyear, a special action figure, in Andy’s room throws off the balance of power among the other toys, who are able to come to life when Andy is not watching. Cowboy Woody, who was always Andy’s favorite toy, felt the pressure of the new toy and reacted with a lot of jealousy, which put both of the toys in jeopardy.

This movie is so great. It is brilliantly constructed in the writing, so clever and funny. The movie is able to put these toys into situations that everyone could relate with and built some of the best animated characters of all time. The relationship between Buzz and Woody developed naturally and believably, and the remainder of the toys in Andy’s room added so much to the comedy and the overall storyline.

Tom Hanks is absolutely perfect as Woody, and I can’t think of another voice over actor that could be better as Buzz Lightyear than Tim Allen. The rest of the voice cast included classic actors such as Don Rickles, Annie Potts, Jim Varney, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Laurie Metcalf, and John Morris.

The animation is spectacular. Everything looked so amazing that you believed that these toys were coming to life.

The showdown with the misfit toys, Woody and Sid was just tremendous. The writing on this was so wonderful and it showed Woody finally as the leader that he was and not the jealous toy wishing he was better than Buzz.

The Randy Neuman music is amazing too and the theme “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” could not be more perfect.

I am so happy that I was able to watch this on Disney + and I am looking forward to seeing Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 (which is one of my favorite movies of all time) again.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu

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It has been seven years since we got a new Star Wars film on the big screen. That last film was the much maligned Rise of Skywalker, which most of the fanbase either disliked it or outright hated.

However, the Disney + show, The Mandalorian, has been popular over the first three seasons, and the announcement of the next movie being a continuation of the show received mixed responses. The character of Grogu, who was known first as Baby Yoda, was a phenomenon in pop culture and was suddenly everywhere.

With the new film, starring Pedro Pascal as The Mandalorian, we get a mixed bag of a movie with some positives and some negatives that does not feel like a return to the big screen for Star Wars. It really does feel like a TV season crammed into two hours of a film.

Start with the positives. I love these two titular characters and I love the idea of spending more time with them. However, if I had not already watched three seasons of TV, I might not understand what was going on. The film does not spend much time setting up the relationship between Mando and Grogu. It just feels as if they are expected to know it.

The action sequences are mostly excellent. The beginning sequence, in particular, was exceptional. I did enjoy much of the action of the film.

The CGI had its moments, but there were also moments of CGI that were not well done. Some of the green screen (or is it The Volume?) was painfully apparent and below what one would expect from this franchise.

The story feels stitched together among the different moments of the script. There are things that happen in the film that show up out of nowhere and does not play much of a part in the film. There was a scene with a creature in the woods that helps out Grogu that feels like the character was going to be more significant than it turned out to be. It is possible that this character is known in the Star Wars universe and I am not recognizing the Easter egg.

The middle of this film was pretty boring and repetitive. There is only so many times that I need to see Grogu steal some food to eat.

Interestingly enough, they never once call the Mandalorian by his name Din Djarin, referring to him as Mando instead.

Sigourney Weaver is in the film, doing little. Jeremy Allen White voiced Rotta the Hutt, a character that debuted in the animated programs. Much of the dialogue of this film was not great and fairly surface level at best.

The best part of the film was the score by Ludwig Göransson, who has won an Academy Award. The score was very engaging.

The Mandalorian and Grogu is an okay movie. I liked much of the film, but I do not think that it elevated my enjoyment of any of the characters or the franchise. It was okay. I did not come out of this hating it, but there just is not anything that I feel needed to be on the big screen.

3 stars

Daily Countdown: Weird Al Songs #42

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#42

Jurassic Park

Title: “Jurassic Park”

Written: Al Yankovic / Jimmy Webb

Album: Alapalooza

Release: 1993

Parody: “MacArthur’s Park” by Richard Harris

Topic: Jurassic park, the movie from Steven Spielberg

Fact: Al reached out to both Michael Crichton and Steven Spielberg for permission to parody the Jurassic Park film.

Weird Al has done many movie parodies in songs over the years including Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Spider-Man and Rocky. Jurassic park joined that list with this lead track from Alapalooza.

I remember when this album came out. I was at Wal-Mart, looking at CDs when I spotted this new Weird Al album. I had no idea it was coming out and it was such an awesome surprise.

Lyrics

I recall the time they found those fossilized mosquitoes
And before long, they were cloning DNA
Now I’m being chased by some irate velociraptors
Well, believe me this has been one lousy day

Jurassic Park is frightening in the dark
All the dinosaurs are running wild
Someone shut the fence off in the rain
I admit it’s kinda eerie
But this proves my chaos theory
And I don’t think I’ll be coming back again, oh no!

I cannot approve of this attraction
‘Cause getting disemboweled always makes me kinda mad
A huge tyrannosaurus ate our lawyer
Well, I suppose that proves they’re really not all bad

Jurassic Park is frightening in the dark
All the dinosaurs are running wild
Someone let T- Rex out of his pen
I’m afraid those things’ll harm me
‘Cause they sure don’t act like Barney
And they think that I’m their dinner, not their friend, oh no!

Jurassic Park is frightening in the dark
All the dinosaurs are running wild
What a crummy weekend this has been
Well, this sure ain’t no e-ticket
Think I’ll tell them where to stick it
‘Cause I’m never coming back this way again, oh no, oh no!

Source: Musixmatch

Remarkably Bright Creatures

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It has been a good couple of weeks for talking animal movies.

Last week, I was absolutely taken with Sheep Detectives and this week, I was able to watch the Netflix film starring Sally Field and Louis Pullman called Remarkably Bright Creatures. This featured an octopus, voiced by Alfred Molina (who coincidentally played Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2 and No Way Home) as the narrator.

According to IMDB, “Through unlikely bonds formed during night shifts at a local aquarium, Tova, an elderly widow, learns of a life-changing discovery that may bring her joy and wonder once again.“

Sally Field really came to work in this movie. Her portrayal as Tova was just so sweet and touching, but more than just that. She had a real emotional arc for her character and a tragic backstory that was impactful as could be. I was really impressed with her work in this movie.

I did not recognize Louis Pullman at first, but about midway through the movie, I thought to myself… “Hey, that’s Sentry… Bob.” He, as well, was fabulous, giving a depth to a performance with a character that could have been one note, but turned out to be extremely developed.

I also loved seeing Kathy Baker back on my screen. Kathy Baker was one of the stars of Picket Fences, a show that I loved, and it was just a nice surprise seeing her in this.

Alfred Molina’s narration was kind of odd, but it did provide some important relevant details as the movie progressed. Plus, there were some emotionally powerful moments with Marcellus, the name of the octopus that Molina was voicing. It took a little bit of time for me to get used to the idea, but by the end of the movie, this was an important role.

I enjoyed this story. Even though it did feel a bit scattered early on, it came together beautifully. I did enjoy the presence of Colm Meaney as Ethan. His character may have felt kind of unnecessary, but the film took time to actually give him a personality.

This was a lovely film with some solid characters and some excellent performances. It is available for streaming on Netflix and it is a worthwhile time.

4.5 stars

Is God Is

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I saw a horror movie this morning that felt like it was not a typical horror movie. After that, I went to see Is God Is, which is a revenge flick that did not feel like a typical revenge flick. It was a good day for creative filmmaking.

The title made no sense to me at all. Is God Is? What was that? Honestly, I almost did not go to the film, because the title had me confused. However, once I noticed which film this actually was (I have seen trailers for this), I was excited to see it.

According to IMDB, “Two sisters embark on an epic quest for revenge; confronting a charged family history that will push them to extraordinary lengths.”

This was a story not just about two sisters, but specifically about twins. Kara Young played Racine and Mallori Johnson played Anaia, twins who had lifelong scars when their father had attempted to murder their mother by setting her on fire. I don’t know if the actor playing their father is known, so I am going to not mention him by name, but this actor created an amazingly horrific individual.

However, there was more than just the pursuit of their father going on and it made me question whether I should be pulling for Racine during this film. I loved the level of shades of grey in the script, which I feel gets overlooked in a lot of revenge movies.

I loved the way the film showed the “twin mind link” by putting what the twins were thinking, as if they had a telepathic connection between them. They just knew what the other was thinking, but it still ended up with a conflict between the sisters in the movie.

There is a great ensemble of black actors in this movie including Vivica A. Fox, Janelle Monáe, Mykelti Williamson, Erika Alexander, Xavier Mills, Josiah Cross, and Justen Ross.

The flashbacks to the horrible events of the past really worked to keep the motivation of the twins going as it seemed to start off as a road film before changing into a brutal revenge flick.

Kara Young and Mallori Johnson are outstanding together. You buy them as twins who are so tight that they know what the other is thinking, and, because of that, the third act hits even harder. I found the ending very satisfying.

4.2 stars