I just watched the original Road House on Hulu this morning. I wanted to have seen it before watching the remake on Amazon Prime tonight. I did not love the original. I did not hate it because I could see the appeal. The 2024 version of Road House I did not love, but I liked it more than the original.
Jake Gyllenhaal steps into the role of Dalton (who gets a first name in this movie, Elwood), this time a former UFC fighter whose career ended after a tragedy. Dalton’s name was enough to intimidate most people so Frankie (Jessica Williams), who owned a bar named Road House in Florida came to find Dalton and offer him a job to help clean up the bar.
Just like the original, Dalton discovered that the backwoods town had problems with certain individuals who want the Road House gone.
These people bring in Conor McGregor to try and kill Dalton.
I was actually more engaged with the character of Dalton immediately in this movie because of a scene with a train. I found him more interesting than the late Patrick Swayze version.
The villains were every bit as one dimensional as the original. Even McGregor was just the violent killer character.
This was just as violent as the original with Gyllenhaal being quicker to fight than it was with Swayze. The fight scenes were very brutal and displayed Dalton’s skills in mixed martial arts.
There were less involvement with the rest of the bar employees in the new film than the original, but they were there in the scenes.
Gyllenhaal is the star of the film and I thought he did a really solid job. The film is not brilliant, but I was entertained and I did find it better than the Road House I watched this morning.
I love the Ghostbusters movie from 1984, and no Ghostbusters movie since has come anywhere close. That does not mean that every film since has been garbage. I had heard that the new film, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire was not very good. It lowered my expectations for the movie. I think that helped.
According to IMBD, “The Spengler family returns to where it all started – the iconic New York City firehouse – to team up with the original Ghostbusters, who’ve developed a top-secret research lab to take busting ghosts to the next level. But when the discovery of an ancient artifact unleashes an evil force, Ghostbusters new and old must join forces to protect their home and save the world from a second Ice Age.”
I did think the story was decent. I liked the idea of the villain and the powers made it very cinematic. There are some great moments with the cast, in particular McKenna Grace, who once again had the biggest arc among the new characters. Paul Rudd was playing Gary in the best Paul Rudd manner. Carrie Coon did not have much to do. Finn Wolfhard was a nice addition for comedic purposes.
However, there was way too many in the cast. There are too many characters who were just here because they were in the last movie, and they added several new characters who are performed by great actors. I do not think that any of the new characters were needed additions. I love both Kumail Nanjiani and Patton Oswalt, but they felt forced into the story.
And I hate to say it, but of the original Ghostbusters, Dan Aykroyd’s Ray Stantz was the most important. Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson were there for no major reason and Annie Potts was just collecting a paycheck. It is nothing against any of these actors, because they are all great, but there was just not enough in the script for this many people to do.
Making William Atherton’s Peck the new Mayor of New York though is a stroke of genius. He is a perfect antagonist for the Ghostbusters and it makes sense why he hates them.
The special effects are great. They use them in the proper times and it does not seem to be overused.
However, the finale of the film was a touch underwhelming for me because of which characters were central in the battle, and I saw it coming a mile away.
I enjoyed the film for the most part, but it did feel as if there were just too much stuffed into the two hour run time, making the movie feel cramped. Very few of the new characters are developed. There were a couple that I did not even mention. Still, as a fan of Ghostbusters, this was a good time at the movies. It could have been considerably better.
As I was going to Amazon Prime yesterday, I saw that the new Road House movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal was now available for streaming. With the schedule, I plan on watching that later this afternoon or evening, but I thought I should watch the original 1989 movie starring Patrick Swayze first. I have never seen Road House even though it has a large cult following. I have heard a wide variety of opinions on the film. Everything from it is a favorite movie of all time to it is one of the worst. I found it on Hulu/Max so I watched it this morning.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, “The Double Deuce is the meanest, loudest and rowdiest bar south of the Mason-Dixon Line, and Dalton (Patrick Swayze) has been hired to clean it up. He might not look like much, but the Ph.D.-educated bouncer proves he’s more than capable — busting the heads of troublemakers and turning the roadhouse into a jumping hot-spot. But Dalton’s romance with the gorgeous Dr. Clay (Kelly Lynch) puts him on the bad side of cutthroat local big shot Brad Wesley (Ben Gazzara).”
Starting off, this is a silly, mostly stupid, film with poor dialogue and simplistic characters. It is not a very good film.
However, it is entertaining. It is one of those film that you need to approach knowing what kind of film it is and not to expect a lot. There is fun to be had in the mindless violence and one-note characters.
This is basically a 1980s-style Western, with two main characters, Dalton and Mason (Sam Elliott), who are the silent, gunslingers, who coming into the town to clean it up. They are Clint Eastwood-like characters coming face-to-face with the mustache-twirling villains. The story fits right into the genre of the Western, right down to the shootout in the finale.
I will say that the longer the film went, the more ridiculous it became. There is no attempt at realism and it felt much more a cartoon than anything else.
It was awesome to see the late Terry Funk in this film. Sure, he was not much of an actor, but he wasn’t supposed to be. As brutal henchman, he was right in his element.
The more I reflect back on this movie, I can see why people enjoy it, but it really is not a movie that I would recommend unless you are bored on a Saturday afternoon and looking for a really dumb film to pass the time.
This was the second film I saw today that I disagreed with the Rotten Tomatoes score. Arthur the King, the new dog movie starring Mark Wahlberg, had a 65% on Rotten Tomatoes, but I did not find it as enjoyable as that.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, “Over the course of ten days and 435 miles, an unbreakable bond is forged between pro adventure racer Michael Light (Mark Wahlberg) and a scrappy street dog companion dubbed Arthur. Based on an incredible true story, ARTHUR THE KING follows Light, desperate for one last chance to win, as he convinces a sponsor to back him and a team of athletes (Simu Liu, Nathalie Emmanuel, and Ali Suliman) for the Adventure Racing World Championship in the Dominican Republic. As the team is pushed to their outer limits of endurance in the race, Arthur redefines what victory, loyalty and friendship truly mean.“
I really felt as if this film was pushing the boundaries of emotion manipulation with the times it put the dog in jeopardy, and the fact that this dog somehow followed this group of people across some brutal environments because Michael gave him some meatballs was just too much to believe. Yes, it is a true story, but I find it difficult to swallow.
There were some dramatic moments in the film, including one stunt with bicycles and a wire that was harrowing. The landscape was beautiful and was shot very well.
I never doubted what was going to happen in the movie. It was very predictable, which is not always a bad thing. Here, it just felt so manipulative that I rolled my eyes more than I should have.
I do love Simu Liu, but his character was really inconsistent throughout the film and it does not do an adequate job of explaining why he is as he is. Some of his scenes are in direct opposition to moments earlier in the film and even Simu’s great charisma could not help these moments.
A major problem I had was not necessarily the direct problem of the movie, but they showed WAY too much in the trailers, including several scenes from the very end of the movie. Any real tension there may have been in the scene was robbed because I knew there were scenes we saw in the trailer that had not yet happened in the movie. Scenes including the end of the race and subsequent after effects. Some films are hurt by their trailers, and, in my opinion, this is one of them.
I think a lot of people will love this movie, but I am not one of them. It was a basic story that we have seen dozens of times with a dog and a manipulative story. Still, it was not an offensive film and families should like it.
So the Oscars were last night, and I wanted to see how well I did. Here was the list of nominees, and my original picks for who should win and who will win. I will add the who did win section with some thoughts.
BEST PICTURE
American Fiction Anatomy of a Fall Barbie The Holdovers Killers of the Flower Moon Maestro Oppenheimer Past Lives Poor Things The Zone of Interest
SHOULD WIN: Oppenheimer
WILL WIN: Oppenheimer
WHO DID WIN: Oppenheimer
Not a surprise.
BEST DIRECTOR
Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall
SHOULD WIN: Christopher Nolan
WILL WIN: Christopher Nolan
WHO DID WIN: Christopher Nolan. Nolan was another fairly obvious pick.
BEST ACTRESS
Annette Bening, Nyad Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall Carey Mulligan, Maestro Emma Stone, Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Emma Stone
WILL WIN: Lily Gladstone (I’ve got a feeling on this one. I could see Emma Stone winning easily too)
WHO DID WIN: Emma Stone. I should have stuck with my gut, but I thought Lily Gladstone had the momentum.
BEST ACTOR
Bradley Cooper, Maestro Colman Domingo, Rustin Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction
SHOULD WIN: Paul Giamatti
WILL WIN: Cillian Murphy
WHO DID WIN: Cillian Murphy.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple America Ferrera, Barbie Jodie Foster, Nyad Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers
SHOULD WIN: Da’Vine Joy Randolph
WILL WIN: Da’Vine Joy Randolph (LOCK!)
WHO DID WIN: Da’Vine Joy Randolph. It was a Sure thing lock. She was wonderful with ehr speech too.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer Ryan Gosling, Barbie Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Robert Downey Jr.
WILL WIN: Robert Downey Jr. (Almost a LOCK)
WHO DID WIN: RDJ. Downey Jr. deserved his award for his performance and for years of great work.
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, Anatomy of a Fall David Hemingson, The Holdovers Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer, Maestro Samy Burch, May December Celine Song, Past Lives
SHOULD WIN: The Holdovers
WILL WIN: Anatomy of a Fall (I have not seen this film, waiting for the June Swoon.)
WHO DID WIN: Anatomy of a Fall. Got this one right. I did really well on the films that I have not yet seen.
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Cord Jefferson, American Fiction Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, Barbie Tony McNamara, Poor Things Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest
SHOULD WIN: American Fiction
WILL WIN: Oppenheimer
WHO DID WIN: American Fiction. I did the Should Win here. Too bad I didn’t put it on the Will Win.
BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE
Io Capitano, Italy Perfect Days, Japan Society of the Snow, Spain The Teacher’s Lounge, Germany The Zone of Interest, United Kingdom
SHOULD WIN: Society of the Snow
WILL WIN: The Zone of Interest
WHO DID WIN: The Zone of Interest. Easy to pick, even if I liked Society of the Snow. I’ll see Zone of Interest in June Swoon 3.
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
The Boy and the Heron Elemental Nimona Robot Dreams Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
SHOULD WIN: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
WILL WIN: I’m uncertain for this. I am tempted to say The Boy and the Heron, but I’ll stick with Spider-Man.
WHO DID WIN: The Boy and the Heron. I had this feeling, but I could not pick against Spidey. I was not surprised at this ‘upset.’
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Bobi Wine: The People’s President The Eternal Memory Four Daughters To Kill a Tiger 20 Days in Mariupol
Haven’t seen any of these. I’ll guess 20 Days in Mariupol
WHO DID WIN: 20 Days in Mariupol. Good guesser!
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
El Conde Killers of the Flower Moon Maestro Oppenheimer Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Oppenheimer
WILL WIN: Oppenheimer
WHO DID WIN: Oppenheimer.
BEST EDITING
Anatomy of a Fall The Holdovers Killers of the Flower Moon Oppenheimer Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Poor Things
WILL WIN: Poor Things
WHO DID WIN: Oppenheimer. Part of the Oppenheimer rush -7 total wins!
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Barbie Killers of the Flower Moon Napoleon Oppenheimer Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Barbie
WILL WIN: Poor Things
WHO DID WIN: Poor Things. Very funny with a naked John Cena presenting this award.
BEST HAIR AND MAKEUP
Golda Maestro Oppenheimer Poor Things Society of the Snow
SHOULD WIN: Poor Things
WILL WIN: Poor Things
WHO DID WIN: Poor Things. People were surprised this did not go to Maestro. I was confident in Poor Things.
BEST SOUND
The Creator Maestro Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One Oppenheimer The Zone of Interest
SHOULD WIN: Oppenheimer
WILL WIN: Oppenheimer
WHO DID WIN: The Zone of Interest. This was a surprise for me. Of course, I have not seen the Zone of Interest yet.
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
The Creator Godzilla Minus One Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One Napoleon
SHOULD WIN: The Creator
WILL WIN: Godzilla Minus One
WHO DID WIN: Godzilla Minus One. I was excited for this win.
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Barbie Killers of the Flower Moon Napoleon Oppenheimer Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Barbie
WILL WIN: Poor Things
WHO DID WIN: Poor Things. I did well with my Poor Things picks.
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“What Was I Made For?”, Billie Eilish and Finneas, Barbie “I’m Just Ken,” Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, Barbie “The Fire Inside,” Diane Warren, Flamin’ Hot “It Never Went Away,” Jon Batiste, American Symphony “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People),” Osage Tribal Singers, Killers of the Flower Moon
SHOULD WIN: “I’m Just Ken”
WILL WIN: “What Was I Made For?”
WHO DID WIN: “What Was I Made For?” However Ryan Gosling’s performance of “I’m Just Ken” was one of the best moments of the night!
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
American Fiction Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Killers of the Flower Moon Oppenheimer Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Oppenheimer
WILL WIN: Oppenheimer
WHO DID WIN: Oppenheimer
BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT
The After Invincible Knight of Fortune Red, White and Blue The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
SHOULD WIN: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
WILL WIN: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
WHO DID WIN: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. Sad that Wes Anderson wasn’t at the ceremony.
BEST ANIMATED SHORT
Letter to a Pig Ninety-Five Senses Our Uniform Pachyderme War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko
SHOULD WIN: Letter to a Pig
WILL WIN: War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko
WHO DID WIN: War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko. Got this right. Letter to a Pig is much better still.
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
The ABCs of Book Banning The Barber of Little Rock Island in Between The Last Repair Shop Nai Nai & Wai Po
Again, have not seen any of these. Guess: The Last Repair Shop
WHO DID WIN: The Last Repair Shop. Another lucky guess!
I was 18/23 and I really came close to picking Emma Stone and The Boy and the Heron.
Here are the picks from EYG for tonight’s Academy Awards. I am giving the Should Win, Will Win choice for each. These are my picks, the nominees I think are going to win, not necessarily my favorites.
BEST PICTURE
American Fiction Anatomy of a Fall Barbie The Holdovers Killers of the Flower Moon Maestro Oppenheimer Past Lives Poor Things The Zone of Interest
SHOULD WIN: Oppenheimer
WILL WIN: Oppenheimer
BEST DIRECTOR
Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall
SHOULD WIN: Christopher Nolan
WILL WIN: Christopher Nolan
BEST ACTRESS
Annette Bening, Nyad Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall Carey Mulligan, Maestro Emma Stone, Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Emma Stone
WILL WIN: Lily Gladstone (I’ve got a feeling on this one. I could see Emma Stone winning easily too)
BEST ACTOR
Bradley Cooper, Maestro Colman Domingo, Rustin Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction
SHOULD WIN: Paul Giamatti
WILL WIN: Cillian Murphy
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple America Ferrera, Barbie Jodie Foster, Nyad Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers
SHOULD WIN: Da’Vine Joy Randolph
WILL WIN: Da’Vine Joy Randolph (LOCK!)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer Ryan Gosling, Barbie Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Robert Downey Jr.
WILL WIN: Robert Downey Jr. (Almost a LOCK)
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, Anatomy of a Fall David Hemingson, The Holdovers Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer, Maestro Samy Burch, May December Celine Song, Past Lives
SHOULD WIN: The Holdovers
WILL WIN: Anatomy of a Fall (I have not seen this film, waiting for the June Swoon.)
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Cord Jefferson, American Fiction Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, Barbie Tony McNamara, Poor Things Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest
SHOULD WIN: American Fiction
WILL WIN: Oppenheimer
BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE
Io Capitano, Italy Perfect Days, Japan Society of the Snow, Spain The Teacher’s Lounge, Germany The Zone of Interest, United Kingdom
SHOULD WIN: Society of the Snow
WILL WIN: The Zone of Interest
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
The Boy and the Heron Elemental Nimona Robot Dreams Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
SHOULD WIN: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
WILL WIN: I’m uncertain for this. I am tempted to say The Boy and the Heron, but I’ll stick with Spider-Man.
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Bobi Wine: The People’s President The Eternal Memory Four Daughters To Kill a Tiger 20 Days in Mariupol
Haven’t seen any of these. I’ll guess 20 Days in Mariupol
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
El Conde Killers of the Flower Moon Maestro Oppenheimer Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Oppenheimer
WILL WIN: Oppenheimer
BEST EDITING
Anatomy of a Fall The Holdovers Killers of the Flower Moon Oppenheimer Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Poor Things
WILL WIN: Poor Things
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Barbie Killers of the Flower Moon Napoleon Oppenheimer Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Barbie
WILL WIN: Poor Things
BEST HAIR AND MAKEUP
Golda Maestro Oppenheimer Poor Things Society of the Snow
SHOULD WIN: Poor Things
WILL WIN: Poor Things
BEST SOUND
The Creator Maestro Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One Oppenheimer The Zone of Interest
SHOULD WIN: Oppenheimer
WILL WIN: Oppenheimer
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
The Creator Godzilla Minus One Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One Napoleon
SHOULD WIN: The Creator
WILL WIN: Godzilla Minus One
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Barbie Killers of the Flower Moon Napoleon Oppenheimer Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Barbie
WILL WIN: Poor Things
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“What Was I Made For?”, Billie Eilish and Finneas, Barbie “I’m Just Ken,” Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, Barbie “The Fire Inside,” Diane Warren, Flamin’ Hot “It Never Went Away,” Jon Batiste, American Symphony “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People),” Osage Tribal Singers, Killers of the Flower Moon
SHOULD WIN: “I’m Just Ken”
WILL WIN: “What Was I Made For?”
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
American Fiction Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Killers of the Flower Moon Oppenheimer Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Oppenheimer
WILL WIN: Oppenheimer
BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT
The After Invincible Knight of Fortune Red, White and Blue The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
SHOULD WIN: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
WILL WIN: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
BEST ANIMATED SHORT
Letter to a Pig Ninety-Five Senses Our Uniform Pachyderme War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko
SHOULD WIN: Letter to a Pig
WILL WIN: War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
The ABCs of Book Banning The Barber of Little Rock Island in Between The Last Repair Shop Nai Nai & Wai Po
Again, have not seen any of these. Guess: The Last Repair Shop
Millie Bobby Brown has had success with her movie role choices since her breakout performance on Stranger Things. This weekend saw her brand new film, a fantasy film, debut on Netflix.
According to IMDB, “A young woman who thinks she is being married to a perfect prince is thrown into a pit where she discovers she’s not going to be a princess after all, but a sacrifice to appease a bloodthirsty dragon. Trying to survive long enough until someone can save her — she soon realizes that no one is coming and this “damsel” must save herself.“
Led by Brown, the cast of this film was solid. Robin Wright, Angel Bassett, Ray Winstone, Nick Robinson, Brooke Carter, Shohreh Aghdashloo, and Milo Twomey. However, Millie Bobby Brown spent a lot of time on screen and the other powerful actors were supporting for sure. This is definitely Millie Bobby Brown’s movie.
The special effects/CGI of the movie were pretty good, specifically the look of the dragon, which was on screen a lot.
The story was fairly simple. It was a survival tale, bit it took the concept of a “damsel in distress” from fantasy movies and flipped it on its head. She did not need anyone to come rescue her.
I did enjoy the voice of Shohreh Aghdashloo as the dragon. Aghdashloo, who I remember from 24, has a very distinctive voice and it gave that dragon a strong presence.
There is a lot of fun in this movie. Brown is very charismatic and easy to root for. It may be a simple film, but that does not mean it is a bad one.
2024 must be the year of imaginary friends. The film IF with Ryan Reynolds is out later this year, and this weekend dropped the latest horror movie featuring the idea of the imaginary friend.
According to IMDB, “a woman returns to her childhood home to discover that the imaginary friend she left behind is very real and unhappy that she abandoned him.”
Here is the thing with Imaginary. I was fully engaged in the first 2/3rds if this movie. I was invested, surprisingly so. Then, in the third act of Imaginary, everything absolutely fell off the cliff. The last third of this movie absolutely crushed the enjoyment from the first part of the film and brought this rating way down.
So what went wrong in that third act? Without talking in spoilers, the problems are varied. The movie suddenly falls into exposition. It starts to explain things and doesn’t seem to stop. SO MUCH EXPLAINING!!!! And it was multiple scenes.
Not only are they over explaining things, they are explaining things that we just saw happen, as if we were not smart enough to understand what had just happened. There was one scene in particular where once the action ended, the characters told us what we had just seen. I do not like to think the movie thinks I am too dumb to understand what I am watching. This sure as hell is not Dune 2.
The third act became ridiculous. The story was convoluted and then everything had to be explained. Things happened that did not make sense. The special effects were okay, except for the look of the bear. The monstrous bear known as Chauncey looked like a fraud Bigfoot on a poor video recording.
The acting was, at best, passable, but the writing was extremely weak and the dialogue felt wooden in a lot of times.
They used a bunch of jump scares in the film because they could not really create the type of horror that built on it normally.
I was enjoying the first two acts, despite the fact that it was a little slower. But that third act just drove the film into the ground. I went from being invested to laughing at the scenes. It has been a long time since a movie took this hard of a turn into badness for me.
All across the realm of social media the last few weeks, the clip of Jack Black with Tenacious D, doing a cover of the Britney Spears hit, Baby, One More Time, thrived. It was everywhere, and it was the song to play over the end credit scenes of the fourth installment of the animated film from the DreamWorks franchise, Kung Fu Panda.
That was my favorite part of the film.
Kung Fu Panda 4 was okay, but it definitely felt like the franchise had stretched farther than it should have.
Jack Black, however, is a treasure as always. He completely embodies Po, the Dragon Warrior and commands the screen with his voice in every scene that he is in. Awkwafina voiced the character of Zhen, a fox who was a thief looking for a specific score. Awkwafina was just okay in this film. Dustin Hoffman resumed his role as Shifu and Po’s two fathers, voiced by James Hong and Bryan Cranston, were back as well.
However, there was no sign of the Furious Five, as the characters were off on their own adventures.
Our new villain, voiced by Viola Davis, was The Chameleon, and was quite a letdown. The character had some great design and looked awesome in the animation, but there was just not enough done with her, leaving a lot of potential untapped.
The story was just so obvious that it was quite the drawback. It was pretty clear what was going to happen and it felt as if it was something that I did not want to see.
The animation, though, was beautiful as always for this franchise. Po looked great and all of the characters were designed wonderfully. There were some very creative animated spots throughout the film and the film looked excellent. Plus, the animation of the action scenes were really well done.
The involvement of Po’s two fathers, Mr. Ping the goose and Li the panda was one of my least favorite parts of the story. It made little sense and they felt as if they were shoehorned into the story so they could have Bryan Cranston in the movie more.
I found this to be okay. I expect that the kids of the world will enjoy the film way more than I did.
However, I did love that Baby One More Time cover.
The final season of Moonlighting kicked off with a big musical number and one of the jokes in the song was that they were determined to make 22 episodes this season, but the critics claim that they would only get to 16. Funnily enough, they do not get to 16, they only make thirteen.
I can understand why. The first episode of season five introduced us to Baby Hayes, played by Bruce Willis and visited by angel Jerome (played by Joseph Maher). Jerome introduced Baby Hayes to his mom and dad and showed him some of the best and worst parts of the world.
Then, in a remarkably cruel twist, Jerome claimed that the “Creator” has decided that Dave and Maddie were not going to be parents and took Baby Hayes away to let him be born to a different set of parents.
I remember being upset with that decision when I first watched the episode. It was like everything we as an audience member went through in season four was rendered a waste of time with one quick twist of fate… and they did it with another musical number.
They gave Dave and Maddie a three minute scene tacked on the end of the episode to deal with their grief and their loss. It just felt so wrong. Clearly they had decided that the show could not handle a baby in the cast and they went out of their way to fix it. I wonder how many viewers they lost with this stunt?
It made no sense and was a weak way to try and get around a prior season full of narrative. No the best way to kick off a new season.
I watched Spaceman, the third sci-fi movie of the day for me. It is also the one that I am the most conflicted about.
It is very well known that I am not a fan of Adam Sandler. However, he has had some more recent, serious movie roles that I have enjoyed, so seeing this still left me with some hope. After watching it, I am just unsure what exactly I watched.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, “Six months into a solitary research mission to the edge of the solar system, an astronaut, Jakub (Adam Sandler), realizes that the marriage he left behind might not be waiting for him when he returns to Earth. Desperate to fix things with his wife, Lenka (Carey Mulligan), he is helped by a mysterious creature from the beginning of time he finds hiding in the bowels of his ship. Hanuš (voiced by Paul Dano) works with Jakub to make sense of what went wrong before it is too late.”
This is most definitely a slow burn sci-fi movie, which I do not mind. I have always enjoyed a good slow burn character piece, and this is definitely a film that embraces the pace.
Adam Sandler does a decent job in this performance, but it does feel strange at times. I have to say, I did not realize that he was supposed to be an astronaut from the Czech Republic until midway into the film. There was not much about Adam Sandler or his performance that screamed Czech.
Then, things go really weird when the creature voiced by Paul Dano arrives and begins a deep, psychological and internal discussion about just about everything in Jakub’s life. I don’t want to spoil the creature, but your acceptance of this creature will depend if you think the film is a decent sci-fi film or a silly facade.
There are things about Paul Dano’s character that I would like to discuss, but I can not go into it without spoiling some specifics so I will not do so. Let me just state that one of the big themes of the film deals with the loneliness and isolation of Jakob and how that might affect his mental state, and I’ll leave it at that.
I went back and forth with Dano’s character, so it is the reason why I am unsure how exactly I feel about Spaceman. This is the central relationship that we focus on and I am mixed on it. I found it more interesting overall than silly, so there is that.
There was an interesting use of flashbacks to tell the story of Jakob and his life. I did enjoy the manner in which the movie displayed the flashbacks and how the story on earth maintained a different visual style than the scenes in the spaceship or from the flashbacks. I thought the direction of these scenes especially, from director Johan Renck, was solid. I am not sure that I got enough out of the scenes to understand some of the decisions made by Jakob, especially in the area of Lenka. Carey Mulligan has some good moments, but not enough of them to really matter.
I do think the film missed some opportunities to really take this into a strong character piece and deal with some heavy ideas and themes. What they did was okay, but I think there is an outline of something that could be truly good.
You should check it out on Netflix. This is one that I think you could hate, but I found enough here to be engaged by it.
It was quite a weekend for sci-fi part two films. The biggest, of course, was Dune: Part Two in theaters, but the other is a film that arrived on Netflix called Code 8: Part II.
This was a film that I had no idea even had a Part I. Apparently, this is a sequel to a sci-fi film that came out in 2019 and on Netflix in 2020 featuring Robbie and Stephen Amell.
According to IMDB, “After witnessing the murder of her brother and subsequent cover up, a teenage girl with abnormal abilities seeks the help of an ex-con (Robbie Amell) and his former partner-in-crime (Stephen Amell). Together, they face a unit of corrupt police officers who deploy advanced robotic technology to prevent themselves from being exposed.”
The mix of super powered individuals and the science fiction robotics is very intriguing with this movie and leads to some interesting scenes with the different characters. I did like the young girl, Pavani, played by Sirena Gulamgaus. I thought she pulled off her character with some gusto.
The relationship between the characters played by the Amell brothers were shaky at times. It was unclear the relationship between them and it was inconsistent. Perhaps this is a drawback to not seeing the first Code 8 movie.
The story is okay. I wouldn’t rave about it, but it does have a good flow and the idea of technology being corrupted by human is definitely a regular one in sci-fi.
I liked this film. I have seen reviews stating that this was a step down from the original, but as that is not an issue for me, I would say I liked watching this. It may not be the best Part II of the weekend, nor the best sci-fi film of the weekend, but it was a worthy watch despite that.
I have heard so many glowing reviews about Dune Part Two that I went into this movie with high expectations. I re-watched the first Dune last weekend to review what happened. I still found it to be fine. I did not love the first one.
I did not find the second Dune to be as brilliant as it seems everyone else did, but I did like it more than the first one. It is clearly a beautiful, epic science fiction film with several amazing performances. I would not be honest if I said that I wasn’t confused about some of the things that were happening here.
Denis Villeneuve completed his second film, and the second film feels like a more complete story. One of the criticisms of the first film was that it ended suddenly and did not feel like a complete end. The second film had more completion to it.
The special effects are absolutely astounding and the shots of this world were breath-taking. It is one of the most visually impressive films I have seen in years.
Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya are wonderful together, with amazing chemistry and a powerful connection. This relationship is at the center of the movie and makes the ending of the film even more difficult.
The cast is excellent. Everybody bring their A-game to this film, including Dave Bautista, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, and Stellan Skarsgård. Special shout out to Austin Butler, who played the David Bowie role from the first film. Butler was sinister as Feyd-Rautha and he created an absolutely brilliant antagonist to Chalamet.
The fight choreography of this film was exciting and wonderful. Some of the one on one fights of this movie were dramatic and so beautifully put together. The battle scenes of the war are great and make the energy of the film elevated.
I have never really understood the world of Dune and that has been my biggest struggle of viewing the film. I wonder how much more confused I may have been had I not done the re-watch last weekend?
There are a ton of things about this movie that make it an amazing cinematic exercise, and my issues are not enough to derail this amazing piece of work.
When the trailer for Sony’s Madame Web first came out, it looked like all kinds of hot garbage. Then, there was a lot of negative reviews for the flick. I saw it today and it was absolutely one of the worst movies of this year.
Sony keeps making these Spider-Man adjacent movies and none of them seem to be good. Let’s not forget Morbius from a few years ago. Of course, Morbius is a much better movie than Madame Web.
According to IMDB, “Cassandra Webb (Dakota Johnson) is a New York metropolis paramedic who begins to demonstrate signs of clairvoyance. Forced to challenge revelations about her past, she needs to safeguard three young women from a deadly adversary who wants them destroyed.“
There are simply not much to say about this movie that is positive. I guess Adam Scott did the best he could with what he had. He played Ben Parker, who, I guess, was also a paramedic.
This movie has some of the worst, most wooden dialogue that I have ever heard in a big budget movie. In particular, the villain of this movie Ezekiel Sims, played by Tahar Rahim, had the absolute worst lines and delivery of the lines as I think I have ever seen. There was also a strange overdub of his dialogue in some scenes that did not synch up very well with his lips. Ezekiel Sims has to be considered near the top of the list for worst comic book villains of all time.
Dakota Johnson is a very great actor, but she does not look to give two craps about this. I do like the way the last scene with her in the movie (at least the way she looked).
There are so many things that are so stupid about this movie. Plot holes abound. Characters do things that do not make any sense.
So you know, there are no post credit scenes at all, so you can take off before the credits. I waited until the very end.
The three young actresses, Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, and Celeste O’Connor, are implied in trailers to be spider-based super heroes and that is not true. We see them in costumes in a vision of the future, and that is all. The whole movie features these three girls as teenage girls without powers. It does feel like some false advertising.
This movie is very dull too. There is so much missing from this. All that this was for was to throw some poorly written Spider-Man Easter eggs and and a sad attempt to take advantage of the Spider-Man’s success. This is a terrible movie.
If I am being honest, I did doze off for a short time at the beginning of the new movie, Lisa Frankenstein. Sadly, I was awake for most of it.
According to IMDB, “After suffering an unspeakable tragedy, Lisa finds herself at a new school her senior year in 1989, struggling to fit in, despite her “sister” Taffy trying to get her to conform to her more typical cheerleader vibe. When a freak accident reanimates a corpse from the abandoned cemetery where she was spending time, she must keep his arrival a secret from her family and classmates, all while deciding how much she wants to help him, and at what cost.”
I really did not like Lisa Frankenstein. I found it unfunny, mean-spirited and filled with characters that I just did not like. Lisa, played very well by Kathryn Newton, was a protagonist that I found so unlikable that I did not know why I was supposed to be cheering for her. Maybe I wasn’t.
I will give the movie some credit in the fact that it did take some big swings and did not fall into the typical steps. I like the idea behind a lot of the film, but I just did not like the execution of these original ideas. I did enjoy the character of Taffy (Liza Soberano). She was a character that we have seen dozens of times and is always portrayed in a certain way, but this film took this character in a completely different direction. That was welcome and she was easily my favorite character in the movie.
Cole Sprouse was fine as the Creature. He did a solid job without any dialogue for most of the movie.
I can say that I did not think that the actors were part of my problem with this movie.
I found it to be cruel, filled with mean scenes toward the people of the film and I just did not appreciate it. I may have chuckled a few times during the movie, but, overall, the writing of it just did not inspire me in any manner.
This was another movie that I was disappointed by since I had been looking forward to seeing it since the trailers. I would say that as of February 10th, this is my least favorite movie of the year (although Madame Web is coming next week).
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 