Where do I start when it comes to how much I actually loved this movie? I guess I'll go with my all-out opinion on its director, David Leitch. With such solid titles as 'Bullet Train,' 'Deadpool 2,' 'Atomic Blonde' (which more people really need to check out), and the perhaps less appreciated, but super fun, 'Hobbs & Shaw.' I love this guy's style as an action director, and when he works with the right people, he can create something that takes you back to what blockbuster entertainment value used to be about. For this movie in particular, Leitch reconnects with writer Drew Pearce ('Hobbs & Shaw') and brings in co-writer Glen A. Larson, who's best known for his television writing on resurrected shows like 'Battlestar Galactica,' 'Magnum PI,' and 'Hawaii 5-0.' I wanna give this trio a lot of credit here, because it feels like they've delivered something here that just about anyone can enjoy. It's funny, it's action-packed, it's charming, and it's unique in that it's an underdog hero film about that unsung hero of film that is the stuntman. Said stuntman here is Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) who works in Hollywood as a stunt double for action star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). He has an off-screen romance with a camerawoman named Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), loves his work and is living the dream. That is until one day, a stunt goes terribly wrong, Colt injures himself severely, and he abandons his career, leaving Jodi behind. He takes a job as a valet, in the meantime, parking cars with style for the rich and snobby. One day, Colt gets a call from producer, Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) with the news that Jody is directing her first film, wanting Colt to join the production in Sydney, Australia. Colt jumps at the opportunity, despite being hesitant, but soon finds out why he was really brought in - to use his stuntman skills to find Tom Ryder, who has disappeared. His absence marks the film's cancellation, and he's needed back on set for it to go on. Not wanting Jody's film to fall through the cracks, Colt agrees, and the film picks up from there. When considering the film as a whole, there's so much I admire about its execution. One of the biggest details for me is that you have the ex-couple here throughout the movie, but their dialogue isn't just a bunch of bickering back and forth because for some reason people think that's funny. The few times they do get into any kind of fight, it's nothing overboard or stupid, and it's generally padded with real humour. For anyone who has seen this, the bullhorn scene is the perfect example of what I'm talking about. All that aside, it's always admirable to see some action with less CG and more genuine stunt work, and this movie is full of that. Some of the stunts end up being pretty unique, as well, my favourite being a bit of street surfing, which one can also catch a bit of in the trailer. There's even a long credit sequence here where they take you behind the scenes to see the real stuntmen at work on the film, which is admirable, as that's what the film is all about. I have to further credit it for being directed by a stunt coordinator. It's a great, unique idea. I can admit that at the end of the day, the film as a whole may end up somewhat predictable for some, and we've definitely seen the general plot of the famous person going missing and the unlikely hero(es) having to find them. But it's the execution of things I really admire here. It sort of stands as proof that in all honesty, a PG-13-rated action movie can still be a whole lot of fun. On a persoal level, I really loved what they came up with here, and it's bound to be on my "favourites" list of 2024. This is one I can recommend to the masses, so go have fun with this one if you haven't yet! 5/5
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Here we have yet another high-octane, balls-to-the-wall action revenge flick that follows the ideas of 'Monkey Man' fairly close. Therefore, I will probably be making quite a few comparisons between the two, as they each tell almost the same story (what little story there is to tell), but execute them in such different ways. For as enjoyable as 'Monkey Man' was, though, based on personal taste, I have to say that the execution of what we have here is far more up my alley, and I definitely liked this a bit better. For me, the idea of a revenge film that tries to reach the bar 'John Wick' has set is a bit of a tired concept. I do tend to have fun with them, but at the same time, its understandable that people might be getting sick of them. Hell, even seeing this movie almost paralleling 'Monkey Man' upon its release, even I said "another revenge film?" However, upon seeing the trailer for this, it added a couple of little details that managed to draw me in. It was clearly made for fun as opposed to heavy drama, it seemed to be influenced mostly by video games, and the narration of H. Jon Benjamin added a cherry to this revenge sundae of a movie. An unnamed city is run by the corrupt Van Der Koy family; artistic wannabe, Gideon (Brett Gelman), the harsh and heartless Melanie (Michelle Dockery), her equally heartless husband, Glen (Sharlto Copley) and head of the family, Hilda (Famke Janssen). An annual event the family hosts known as "The Culling" chooses twelve seemingly random victims to be murdered on live television for entertainment, suggesting the ideas we have of what the Colosseum in Rome once was have resurfaced in this dystopian future. One might also compare the ideas here to 'The Hunger Games' for a more modern take. One day, a boy we only ever know as "Boy" (Cameron & Nicholas Crovetti), his little sister and best friend, Mina (Quinn Copeland) and their mother (Rolanda Marais) are brought to the town square, and Hilda executes both Mina and her mother in preparation for The Culling, leaving Boy for death, deaf and mute. Eventually, Boy is found by an unnamed Shaman (Yayan Ruhian), and to make a long story short, the Shaman trains Boy through the years so that he can follow through with his revenge on the Van Der Koys for killing his family in cold blood. As a result of Boy's inability to speak or hear, he has created his own inner monologue (H. Jon Benjamin) whose voice he took from his favourite arcade game he used to play with Mina. He has also learned to read lips, which yields some pretty hilarious results when he can't see the lips moving clearly. There are a few moments here when nonsense is uttered because of improper lip reading, and with my love of random humour, it really just adds to things for me with a fun and, in my opinion, creative idea. Boy also constantly hallucinates Mina, who seems to be trying to help with on his mission, offering advice and perhaps a bit of a conscience. As mentioned earlier, there's a lot here that could be compared to 'Monkey Man'. Aside from the basic revenge plot, 'Monkey Man' has a similar lead name with "Kid," they both feature a funny sidekick type, here being Andrew Koji as Basho, and Sharlto Copley shows up in both as a despicable character. As far as which is better, it will all be a matter of taste, and it feels like it reflects the time of disaster movies in the late 90s when there was two of something a lot of the time, like 'Volcano'/'Dante's Peak' or 'Armageddon'/'Deep Impact'. Despite quality of either, you'll end up picking one that speaks to you a bit more. In the case of 'Monkey Man' vs 'Boy Kills World,' the big selling points for me on 'Boy' being "better" include much better fight choreography, much less shaky cam and the fact that it takes itself less seriously and almost feels like parody. It makes its heavily game-influenced execution known from the get-go, and reminds me of other non-video-game-based movies that make for good video game movies, like 'Scott Pilgrim.' To top things off, the blood is nice and over-the-top, almost adding to the absurdity of it all. While 'Monkey Man' may be preferred by some, I can say honestly that I had more fun with this one. 4/5 I can't quite put my finger on it, but it seems to me that over the past while, horror movies have actually been getting quite a bit better than they once were. They sprinkle a bit more humour into things, and subject matter is finally stepping away from haunting, possession and a whole lot of grief symbolism. Filmmakers have been doing a good job about putting their new spins onto old ideas, be they sequels like 'Saw X' or re-imaginings like this, which is a loose, modern take of 1936's 'Dracula's Daughter.' Admittedly, I wasn't entirely sure what to think of things judging by the trailer, but was ultimately sold on one of my favourite actors of villainy, Giancarlo Esposito, and looked forward to seeing what he would be a part of throughout the film. As it turns out, however, if you're like me and go to see what's up with Mr. Esposito, you might be disappointed to know that he's really not a big part of things here. Having said that, though, I was nevertheless pleasantly surprised by how the film turned out, and still had a lot of fun with things. It all starts as we see a young ballet dancer named Abigail (Alisha Weir), dancing her little heart out on stage in an abandoned theatre. In the meantime, six unnamed criminals are setting up at Abigail's home, awaiting her arrival. The six criminals have been sent to kidnap this girl by their informant, Lambert (Esposito), who intends on holding her for ransom, as Abigail's father is said to be a powerful man. The six are told they will each receive their payment of 7 million in 24 hours as long as Abigail is left safe and unharmed. The six in question are all given nicknames derived from the original Rat Pack. Joey (Melissa Barrera) is the all-around lead, a recovering drug-addict and former Army medic; Frank (Dan Stevens) is a former NYPD detective; Sammy (Kathryn Newton) is a bit of a ditsy hacker born into money; Dean (Angus Cloud) is the wheel man, and seemingly the stoner of the group; Rickles (William Catlett) is a Marine sniper, and Peter (Kevin Durand) is a mob enforcer, a fellow Canadian, and the all-around "dummy" of the group. But like, what can ya do, eh? He's still a big part of the humour here, bud. Eventually, the group does figure out who Abigail's father actually is (and no, thank God, it's not just Dracula), which sends a wave of fear through the group when it comes to the stories some of them have heard about the man. We can think of it as the equivalent of what kidnapping Tony Soprano's daughter might entail. The catch here, however, is that eventually it's also revealed that not only are they holding the daughter of someone important, but they're also holding a vicious little vampire who isn't afraid to defend herself by any means necessary. I have to admit, I kind of wish that I knew absolutely nothing about this movie going in, because it would have been more fun to have things revealed to me as they're revealed to the group here. Still, though, that doesn't take away from how fun the film is. It's perhaps a little slow-moving at first, but it's filled with light humour to fill the time. Once things do get going, things get nice and bloody, and even at time are a touch reminiscent of the 'Evil Dead' movies as far as amounts of blood. It's messy, but the messiness is part of the thrill of it all, as sick and twisted as that may seem to some. I think what stood out the most to me, personally, was Alisha Weir's performance as Abigail. I'd even say it was the highlight of the movie. With her range, this performance alone could act as a sort of resume for her down the line. While that is probably the most impressive part of the movie, audiences will still get their laughs, their jumps and their gore. I could equate this to more of a thrill ride than anything in the same genre that tries to dig deeper. It's a friendly reminder that sometimes when it comes to horror, we just wanna have fun with it. 4/5 This is gonna be another one of those films in which I can recognize it as a solid movie for the right audience, but I'm not altogether sure that I am that audience. I've never been a fan of the "political thriller" genre, and it's often because I have a hard time wrapping my head around politics and all of the complications that lie within. The other side of it is that I tend to find them incredibly dry, and just take them as not being "for me". However, I can say with all honesty that 'Civil War' is an interesting spin on the subject matter. One can view the film's overall execution in a few different ways, reading into some sort of deeper political meanings. It can be seen as a cautionary tale about what to expect in our future if America ends up on the wrong path. But a lot of people also seem to see it as a heavy-handed exercise in shock value, considering a lot of the brutal imagery depicted within the film. But if I'm honest, my takeaway had very little to do with anything political at all, and the true thrill of the movie is in following our leads; all battlefield reporters who end up on the front lines of a slew of danger in order to deliver hard-hitting true stories to the nation. The idea here is that America is in the midst of its second Civil War between a US government run on a dictatorship, and various regional factions who are fighting back. It all opens with the President (Nick Offerman), now in a third term, who paints an instant portrait of what America has turned into. Enter our lead, a famous war photographer named Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst) who we see doing her job to a disturbing degree, but we can still sympathize with her when she rescues an aspiring photojournalist named Jessie Cullen (Cailee Spaeny) from certain death. Lee, along with her friend and associate, Joel (Wagner Moura) plan to go to Washington to try to get one last interview with the president in before the city is taken. They are joined by Lee's mentor, Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) and, unbeknownst to Lee, Jessie, who wants to follow in Lee's footsteps and become a pro. The thing is, in order to do that, Jessie will have to make herself come face to face with all sorts of torment, death, destruction and people who would just as soon shoot you as look at you. And it's all for the best photos. Throughout their journey to Washington, the foursome find themselves caught in the middle of a lot of the aforementioned danger, but as Lee looks after Jessie and tries to keep her out of danger, she simultaneously hints that the danger is where the action is in photojournalism, and Jessie gets better and better at the whole thing as the film unfolds. My takeaway from the film is more about the imminent danger that photographers put themselves through for a paycheck, and it helps us get a bit of insight into their brutal personalities. We've all seen a video or know of a story in which a reporter asks the victim of a disaster how they feel, and we've all had that same reaction of wanting to knock the reporter out for being so insensitive. This is not a movie that will change anyone's mind on that perspective, but it will give deeper insight into what it takes to be one of these people. You learn that in order to do this it takes a cold heart, but also quite a bit of bravery, and a lot of it is to spread the word to the masses about how terrible things have gotten in a situation. The film also shows us that these photojournalists do help where they can. But it still doesn't do a hell of a lot to make me like them. I had a hard time knowing how to feel at the end of it all, because without spoiling anything, there's a bit of a surprise ending. It doesn't really paint these people as heroes or villains, which is something I usually like, but the depth of these characters didn't offer much, despite a few solid performances that I can't really deny. In the end, I take it to be a bit of a thinker, and something to talk about, but I also don't know what else to say about it. I really think everyone's takeaway will be different. 3/5 I love a good revenge film, as several of my readers probably know by now. It's all about being able to route for the downtrodden, the "little guy," or victims of senseless circumstances. For me, 'John Wick' has the bar set, and set pretty damn high, plowing his way through four movies, each with something fairly unique to offer. Since the release of the first 'JW' (which set that bar), revenge films have still been solid, but not quite the same because, hell, you just do NOT mess with someone's puppy dog! Nevertheless, it's still one of my favourite sub-genres of action, as they tend to allow the viewer to get inside the head of whoever is victimized and seeking their revenge. For as many as I've seen before, this one hits particularly hard for me, and probably will to anyone else who has a strong relationship with family. It leaves me with mixed emotions. I'd be hard-pressed to think of a revenge plot that I could get more behind (puppies aside), yet I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a few nitpicks about the movie's overall execution. Kid's (Dev Patel) revenge plot here is aimed mainly at the corrupt Yatana police chief, Rana Singh (Sikandar Kher) and corrupt guru Baba Shakti (Makrand Deshpande). When Kid was a... kid, living a happy life in a quaint Indian village alongside his family, Singh and several others, ordered by Shakti, drove his family out of the village, killing some, and Kid has pretty much devoted himself to revenge since. He makes his money at a grungy, bare-knuckle boxing club as a masked fighter, paid to take dives by his boss, Tiger (Sharlto Copley). In the meantime, in order to get close to Singh, Kid will need to infiltrate an exclusive luxury brothel called "Kings," run by Queenie Kapoor (Ashwini Kalsekar). He gets himself a job in the kitchen and befriends Alfonso (Pitobash), who ultimately helps him climb the ladder so that he can get closer to Singh and Shakti, not only to avenge the family he lost in the raid on his village, but to free the exploited girls in this brothel as well, namely Sita (Sobhita Dhulipala), whom he also befriends, and appears to be one of the more abused and taken advantage of out of the girls. Concerning Kid's family getting driven out of their village in such a brutal manor and the victimized girls of this brothel, the desire to see Kid succeed in this mission of his is pretty high. Kid's a very easy character to route for, especially considering how much patience and effort he puts into his mission. What I do like about this is that, unlike John Wick, Kid is sort of an "every-man" who needs to learn and train his way through things. There's something more relatable about that, and for that reason, this feels like there's a bit more heart put into things. Having said that, let's get into some of the problems I had with things here. Again, a lot of it is me being nitpicky about things. The biggest thing here is that shaky-cam action, which I have a hard time with. I wanna see what the hell is going on, not feel like I'm falling down the stairs, and there's a lot of shaky-cam action to this movie. However, the film's atmosphere is also very rough, raw and almost dirty, so that kind of messy action also sort of makes sense for the feel of things. I'm not mad about it or anything, but shaky cam isn't really for me these days. The only other thing I can say about it negative is that there's a couple of moments where the viewer might ask "what happened with this character?" Not that it creates plot holes, but some of the characters I liked in this (including a dog who thankfully survives this movie) kinda just get left behind after a while. In the grand scheme of things I can probably think of a lot of better revenge flicks, but there's really nothing particularly bad about this in any way either. 'John Wick' still has that bar set for me, and for as good as this was, it still didn't quite reach. If only the shaky-cam fights were smoother. 3/5 Hollywood has given us more than a fair share of crossover movies that include a "vs" in their title, including this particular franchise. But I have to give it up to the MonsterVerse here for not only having the big, epic wrestling match between two celebrity monsters, but also bringing them together as a tag team. I've said it before and I'll say it again; these movies just work better if you watch the monsters' story lines unfold as though it was something Vince McMahon dreamed up. As far as this series has gone, it has been a fun ride so far. But considering how this movie unfolds, and the films that preceded it, this franchise kinda blew its wad already. Godzilla has already fought a good chunk of his big monster enemies, including the main event that was 'Godzilla vs Kong'. So for as cool as it is to see these guys team up, the truth of the matter is, the "villain" they go up against left a lot to be desired, and it sort of feels like things have taken a monstrous step backwards. But don't worry, this title doesn't come bereft of any solid monster-on-monster action. Picking things up three years after the last film took place (bringing us up to circa 2027 here), the concept of Hollow Earth has been revealed as fact, and Kong has been spending his time down there in search of more of his kind; Hollow Earth being the old home to many "Titans" or "MUTOs" (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms). Meanwhile, Godzilla stays on Earth's surface, fending off other big baddies like a giant crab named Scylla, and maintaining order between monsters and humans. These fights probably kill thousands in the process, but more on that later. A Monarch outpost within Hollow Earth picks up on a mysterious signal, which seems to be affecting Jia (Kaylee Hottle) on the surface with creepy dreams and hallucinations. Just to recap, Jia is the sole survivor of Skull Island's Iwi tribe after a natural disaster wiped them out. She lives with her adopted mother, Monarch researcher, Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) and is able to communicate with Kong, using sign language. Jia's visions begin to worry Ilene, so she begins to assemble a crew including Titan veterinarian, Trapper (Dan Stevens) and podcaster for the conspiracy-minded, Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry) to head to Hollow Earth to figure out what this signals all about. Godzilla soon begins to act almost irratic because of this signal, attempting to absorb all the radiation he can for whatever threat may be coming. Meanwhile, within Hollow Earth, Kong discovers a secret that suggest that he may have found the rest of his kind, with the help of a young ape who was probably put in the movie just for cutesiness, Suko. And yeah, Suko's cute and all, but he's also a bit of an asshole. Kong has to keep him in line quite a bit, and it's often pretty funny to see how it plays out. One paritcular fight scene had me laughing out loud, and it's something you'll know when you see it. What the signal ends up coming from, however, is fairly anticlimactic, and it leads us to the big baddie of the film, Skar King, another giant ape who uses a reptile-like Titan named Shimo as both a weapon and a mode of transportation. I have to admit that this irks me just a little bit, while other much cooler monsters are briefly glimpsed, but quickly tossed aside, like the aforementioned Scylla and another named Tiamat, who is essentially an underwater Chinese dragon and should have made for a much bigger adversary than it was presented as. Going back to what I mentioned about destruction probably killing thousands, I've said it before, but one should probably just treat it as the old game 'Rampage'. Destruction is just a part of it. Something like a superhero movie feels different in that they're "heroes" who come across as careless. Titans, on the other hand, are giant animals who act like giant animals, so to me, it's more forgiving here. This chapter was definitely not the best of the franchise, but I still had fun with it, and I have to appreciate that they kinda go all-out here with some of the silliness. It's no 'Godzilla vs. Kong' with a cool big reveal, but it's fine for what it is. 3/5 Like with many 'Ghostbusters' fans who were looking forward to this movie, I read and watched a few critic reviews for it before going in. It wasn't doing well, and my only reaction to it was as simple as "wait for the fans' reaction". Thankfully, almost across the board, fans came out of this thinking it was pretty great, but also really drilling into critics for having their opinions. And when it comes to such a divide as that, that's when I really enjoy writing my reviews, as I can easily see the argument from both sides. Now, I'm not gonna sit here at my desk ripping something to pieces, but if I'm brutally honest with myself, I left the theatre liking it more than I probably actually did overall, as my fandom was kind of cranked to eleven for this. But don't worry, I'll get into everything I liked about it just as much, and at the end of the day, I'm still a huge fan of all of this, and would love to see more. But I should say that when I want to see more, I want to see this new crew move on with their new missions after this because as far as I'm concerned, the torch has officially been passed. We hit the ground running with the new Ghostbuster crew/family, consisting of the Spenglers, Callie (Carrie Coon) and her kids, Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Callie's now intimate partner, Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd) as they drive Ecto-1 through the streets of Manhattan, giving chase to a ghost, and showing us how their skills have evolved over the past few years. Presumably, the old firehouse was handed to them by Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) after the torch was sort of passed to this family at the end of the last film, and they are the new Ghostbusters. In the aftermath of this destructive mission, the Spenglers are brought in front of Mayor Walter Peck (William Atherton), who has been looking for an excuse to shut down the Ghostbusters for ages. As leverage, the now somewhat rebelious 15-year-old Phoebe is taken out of the field, and the story turns largely more about her being upset about things and needing to "grow up", show more responsibility, listen to her mother, etc. She evntually meets and befriends a ghost named Melody (Emily Alyn Lind) and everything between them feels very much inspired by 'Casper the Friendly Ghost' concepts. Meanwhile, our side characters Podcast (Logan Kim) and Lucky (Celeste O'Connor) work for Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston, respectively, studying haunted and possessed objects and testing new equipment, some of which has the ability to extract a spirit from an object and trap it, indefinitely. One day, a guy named Nadeem Razmaadi (Kumail Nanjiani) brings Ray a mysterious orb that has been in his family for ages, and inside said orb lies the big baddie threat of this movie, a master of ice a snow, a demon-like creature named Garraka who, if freed, will wreak frozen havok on the world. Critically, we have the return of these mini marshmallow men who, despite how cute they are, are basically here to be 'Despicable Me'. They seem to still be attached to Podcast in some way from the last movie, where they're also not explained very well. The best I can do is that they are meant to be leftover spiritual residue from the first fight with Gozer, which is where the 100-foot Marshmallow Man came into play. Besides that, we also already had out big nostalgic hit with 'Afterlife', so I don't see a whole lot of reason to throw so much of it at us at this point. Although the old toy commercials were a pretty great flashback. But for as much as I understand where critics are coming from with this, I have to admit that I still had fun with this for the most part. But it's a bit more about developing Phoebe and pretty much only Phoebe while giving us a bit of the old crew, namely Ray (who almost carries this movie) and Winston while Peter (Billy Murray), Janine (Annie Potts) and even Slimer are really only there for nostalgic purposes. Bottom line, If you're a long-time fan, check it out. If nothing else, it'll be a fun ride. If you're a critic, you're just doing your job, and even as a die hard fan of all this, I can't deny that it could have been much better than it was. 3/5 To this series credit, I can say with all honesty that I find it to be altogether pretty solid. And right off the bat, I'll tell you that this instalment may have been, altogether, my least favourite of the bunch. But it's still a lot of fun, and carries on Po's (Jack Black) story even further, just when we thought '3' might very well be about as far as Po could get, becoming a full-fledged "Dragon Warrior" and Grand Master of Kung Fu, becoming Master Oogway's successor. It's a "happily ever after" ending to things, and I didn't entirely expect much more from it. I won't go into very great detail on Po's development here, and the lessons and takeaways the three previous films give. For more on that, head over to my "Gearing Up" page for reviews on all three. Back to the point, however, it seems as though that "happily ever after" ending followed through, as we pick things up with Po being a hero to the Valley of Peace and bathing a little bit in his celebrty status which he also uses to help his adoptive goose Dad, Mr. Ping (James Hong), and his biological Dad, Li (Bryan Cranston) open a new and improved noodle restaurant. Soon, however, Po's sensei, Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) comes in, as usual, to drive the plot forward. Even though we may have thought Po's development couldn't go much further, it seems there's just one more thing he has to do, and that's to name a successor, as Oogway did, seemingly not to long ago with him. This will also mean passing down the mantle of "Dragon Warrior" to whoever it might be, and that's not something Po is entirely ready to do, illustrating quite plainly that for as much as Po has gone, he still has a bit of growing up to do. But this time, he will not have the Furious Five to help out, as they are each off on missions or just living their respective lives in different ways. Auditions are held, and the fighters are impressive, but Po's attention goes to a thief fox he catches in the act named Zhen (Awkwafina), instead. And with word of Tai Lung (Ian McShane) returning (the villain from the original film) demands Po to check it out, he uses the opportunity to bring Zhen along and teach her a thing or two along the way, generally having to do with attitude as opposed to fighting skills, which she shows she has. We soon find out that the actual culprit is a Chameleon named... the Chameleon (Viola Davis) who has the ability to shapeshift and use the abilities of Kung Fu masters she has bested. The Chameleon's motivation in all of this is to get her hands on Po's staff (which he received from Ooogway in the Spirit Realm in the previous film) which will giver her the ability to open the Spirit Realm and steal even more Chi (again, refer to 'Kung Fu Panda 3') from the deceased masters. Now it's up to Po to stop her with the help of his unlikely apprentice. In the meantime, there's a sidequest involving Mr. Ping and Li going after Po because they worry he might not be able to pull his mission off, and to that degree, it's a little more of the same. Ping has always been a it of an annoyand with that, and now Li's doing the same thing. I have a few other little nitpicks here and there, but they are nitpicks. For example, this is another animated movie that does the thing where we see a group of adorable, puppydog-eyed kids who ultimately become little terrors, which is something I tend to find fairly cliche at this point. But at the same time, it is one of those cliches I can put up with for a chuckle. I also missed the Furious Five in this, but of course, I do understand their absense. They weren't necessarily needed, and to be fair, it is quite a cast, just between those five characters. Again, these are minor nitpicks. I think the biggest takeaway from this is that at this point, 'Kung Fu Panda' should probably finally come to an end with this. It may be my least favourite of the bunch, but it's still surprisingly enjoyable if maybe a little, tiny bit stale after a 16-year run. Thankfully, the films have been spread far enough apart, however, which adds to the enjoyablity of it all. Don't flood us with things, make us want things. All in all, this is a super solid series of animated movies that provide themes on growth, acceptence, being an all-around good person, and even finding one's path in life. I can highly recommend it for anyone with some growing to do, and that includes some adults! 3/5 It's hard to know what to feel about this one, altogether. If one refers to a lot of reviews and criticisms about the film, they'll see that it's not going all too well. And while I completely understand where these criticisms are coming from, as I have quite a few, myself, I can't deny that there were bits and pieces about this that I DID enjoy, even if it's on a level of "guilty pleasure." Looking at the overall spirit of things, it feels like they were trying to tip their hat to such 80s horror titles as 'Nightmare on Elm Street' to some degree. Having said that, one should "bear" in mind that there are aspects of this movie that I have a certain bias towards, but that doesn't mean these things were necessarily executed well, either. This is one of those movies that feels like it's one thing for about half of it, and then it switches into something completely different, not quite feeling like the same movie. The first half is reminiscent of movies like 'Child's Play' or 'Annabelle' in which this teddy bear known as Chauncey just kinda sits there, and it's up to the kid who has befriended him to freak the audience out. The film centres on a new stepmom/children's author named Jessica (DeWanda Wise) who is trying her best in her role. But while the young Alice (Pyper Braun) is friendly with her, the typical (and annoyingly bratty) teenager, Taylor isn't a fan. After a series of horrible nightmares involving her own creations, keeping her and her husband, Max (Tom Payne) awake at ungodly hours, they decide to move the family into Jessica's childhood home in an attempt to calm things down. To no one's real surprise, Taylor isn't entirely on-board, but Alice keeps things civil. It's not long before Alice discovers a teddy bear (Chauncey) in the house's basement and forms a bond with him. According to her, Chauncey makes up a scavenger hunt for Alice to complete, which actually consists of a pretty controversial list, and long story short, like any film like this, things go off the rails fairly quickly with a concerned adult/parent, a kid who doesn't understand or know any better, and the kid's imaginary friend/doll/toy who is secretly pulling all of the seemingly supernatural strings. So yeah, this is something we've seen done before, done better, and becomes altogether pretty predictable. In my opinion, what kind of adds to it is when their neighbour, Gloria (Betty Buckley) comes into the picture with memories of babysitting Jessica, and a whole big conspiracy theory about imaginary friends and the world they come from. I really don't wanna spoil much here, but I will say that this is where I get reflections of concepts from 'Nightmare on Elm Street', and I have to give the film at least a little credit for creativity. The problem is that it's too much too fast, changing the film's tone, completely. and just because I thought they made some creative choices doesn't make it altogether good. Critically, I'm not a fan of how the film handled the kids' real mother (Alix Angelis) who in some ways felt kind of crow-barred in to add some level of horror to things while not entirely adding anything to the plot. If I'm honest, a lot of the writing is kinda rough too, and they seem to go a little too far with Taylor's mouthiness sometimes. I get that she's supposed to be a bratty teenager, but it's also evident that she cares a great deal for Alice and will do anything to help her, so they could have done better with giving us a reason to route for her. I do, however, like some of the concepts they put into the second half of the movie, and I have to say, I am fan of some of the creature design here once things do get going. It's a tricky one to navigate. On one hand, it's creative and even sometimes kinda fun. But on the other hand, I'd be hard-pressed to call this a "good" movie. It's one I can't really recommend one way or the other, and I'd say it'd probably be better to await streaming. But I'd still argue it's passable for someone dipping their toes into the horror genre, especially when, at times, it delivers some corny laughs. At best, it's probably just a guilty pleasure. 2/5 I should probably make things abundantly clear again about how I feel about 'Dune' in general. It's not really my cup of tea when it comes to things as a whole. I can't really explain why, it just never truly struck a chord for me as much as other things like 'Star Wars' did. Still, it has my respect as a great story (at least what I've seen from these two movies, as I've never read these books), one that established itself well before so many like it, and above all else, I still think of it as a breath of fresh air between overexposure to things like superheroes. 'Dune' feels much more as though it's meant to be the next big epic three-parter adapted from classic writings since 'Lord of the Rings'/'The Hobbit', and so far, it's succeeding very well. About 99% of anyone I talk to even remotely about these movies seem to be pretty blown away by what writer/director Denis Villeneuve has accomplished, changes from the book notwithstanding, as per usual with things like this. For yours truly, I've really been enjoying them for what they are, but I don't truly see myself coming back to them until the next chapter is about to release. Before getting into things here, however, it should probably be noted that some pretty heavy spoilers lie ahead for the first movie, so I wouldn't highly recommend reading on unless you've either seen the first film, or simply don't care one way or another. But without further adieu, let's get into it. In the first film, the honourable House Atreides are essentially given planet Arrakis by the Emperor of the Universe, Shaddam VI (Now played by Christopher Walken), taking it away from the House Harkonnen who, in turn, launch an attack to wipe Atreides out, all for control of a substance called "spice" which is the only means for interstellar travel. Following these events, Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his Mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) survive these attacks, and head for the Fremen (the native race of Arrakis) sanctuary of Sietch Tabr. While there, a bit more light is shed on Paul's role in this story, as a Fremen named Stilgar (Javier Bardem) and several others see that Paul and Jessica could be there to fulfill a prophecy that will bring order to Arrakis. Still, however, some Fremen aren't swayed so easily, believing they could be spies, and Chani (Zendaya) and her friend, Shishakli (Souheila Yacoub) believe the prophecy to be an all-out lie. Said prophecy includes a lot of stuff that comes "as written", as Stilgar mentions almost too many times in this, and slowly but surely both Paul and Jessica begin to fulfil the propechy on both of their ends. Chani eventually gives respect to Paul when he promises that he wishes to fight alongside them as opposed to rule over them as the prophecy seems to foretell. Meanwhile, a pregnant Jessica earns the ability to communicate with her unborn child, Alia, through injesting "The Water of Life" as a whole part of her end of prophecy fulfillment. I'm sure I'm missing a lot of important information here, so forgive me. On the Harkonnen end of things, after a series of spice raids on them from the Fremen, Chani and Paul, included, Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) replaces his nephew, Rabban (Dave Bautista) as the new Arrakis ruler with his other nephew, the totally badass but psychotic Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) who sort of becomes the big baddie in this chapter, complete with a beautifully shot arena scene in black and white to artistically reflect the "black and white", primitive and brutal Harkonnen way of life, so a definite kudos to them for letting the audience feel the Harkonnen as oppsed to just seeing and hearing them. I know I've still glazed over a few things in explanation, but just to speak of the quality of the movie, it's one that should definitely be seen on the big screen if one is genuinely interested in seeing what happens after 'Dune' ('21). Any sort of effects, CG or practical manage to jump off the screen with their epic quality, and it's pretty plain to see that this is the "next big thing" (as far as box office epics go). While it may not necessarily be in my wheelhouse as something I'll return to again and again, these movies are nevertheless solid and do a good job of reminding us that some things non-superhero can still demand a big-screen viewing. 5/5 |