Category: Movie Reviews

REVIEW: Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)

Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock in VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE — PHOTO: Sony Pictures Releasing.

Directed by Andy Serkis — Screenplay by Kelly Marcel — Story by Kelly Marcel and Tom Hardy.

I thought Ruben Fleischer’s Venom (2018) was pretty bad. As a film, it felt like a product of a different time, it felt outdated, it was surprisingly dull, and all it had going for it was a go-for-broke Tom Hardy performance. To me, it felt like he was in a different film than the rest of the cast. It has become a film that I remember primarily for one absolutely hilarious scene, but it’s also a film that I don’t feel like rewatching. It should come as no surprise to you then that I didn’t feel like rushing out to theaters to see its sequel. In fact, because of the similar critical reception, I’ve never really felt the urge to watch it. That is, until today when I finally ripped off that symbiotic band-aid. Turns out it was almost exactly what I expected it to be. That’s not a good thing, but it’s also not the end of the world. I don’t think it’s good, but it is better than I expected it to be.

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REVIEW: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

Letitia Wright’s Shuri in BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER — PHOTO: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Marvel Studios.

Directed by Ryan Coogler — Screenplay by Ryan Coogler & Joe Robert Cole.

How do you follow up on one of the most popular superhero films of the last decade, when the incredibly magnetic actor portraying the titular iconic character is no longer with us? Such was the seemingly impossible task for Ryan Coogler when he sat in the director’s chair for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. As I sat down to watch the film, this was the big question that was on my mind. Chadwick Boseman, the charismatic actor who passed away in 2020 due to a private battle with colon cancer, was such an amazing screen presence, and he was the focus of that first film, and you definitely miss him in the sequel. However, it must be said that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever actually does work quite well in spite of the big missing link. One of the reasons why it works is because the presence of a gaping hole at the center of it is an intrinsic part of the plot in more ways than one.

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REVIEW: The Good Nurse (2022)

Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain in THE GOOD NURSE — PHOTO: Netflix / JoJo Whilden.

Directed by Tobias Lindholm — Screenplay by Krysty Wilson-Cairns.

Like the many films with the word ‘American’ in the title (American Sniper, American Gangster, American Ultra, American Hustle, American Pie, etc.), films or shows with ‘Good’ in the title are a dime a dozen. The Good Dinosaur, The Good Wife, The Good Doctor, and so on and so forth. Let’s just say that Tobias Lindholm’s The Good Nurse has a very generic title. I’d love to be able to say that the film isn’t like that. But, honestly, it is a fairly generic but ‘okay’ film that somehow has a great cast, director, and screenwriter.

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REVIEW: All Quiet On The Western Front (2022)

Felix Kammerer as ‘Paul Bäumer’ in IM WESTEN NICHTS NEUES — PHOTO: Netflix.

Directed by Edward Berger — Screenplay by Ian Stokell, Lesley Paterson, and Edward Berger.

Can a war film ever truly be anti-war? A lot has been said on the topic over the years, with François Truffaut often being attributed to the quote that “there is no such thing as an anti-war film,” and Steven Spielberg reportedly disagreeing completely in an interview with Newsweek in which he stated that “every war movie, good or bad, is an anti-war movie.” With respect, I think both of their black-and-white absolute statements miss the mark. Certainly, there are war films that aren’t explicitly anti-war in case they showcase heroism or glorify the act of fighting for one’s country. Some would definitely argue that Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan fell prey to some of these war movie pitfalls. On the other hand, I also think the Truffaut quote is a strange generalization. Actually, with All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), I think Edward Berger has done an excellent job of recreating the hell of World War One in a way that knocks you out, shakes you up, and sends waves through you.

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REVIEW: Barbarian (2022)

Bill Skarsgård as the mysterious ‘Keith’ in BARBARIAN — PHOTO: 20th Century Studios.

Direction and Screenplay by Zach Cregger.

Zach Cregger’s Barbarian, one of the most entertaining surprise hits of the year, follows Tess Marshall (played by Georgina Campbell), as she arrives at a remote house that she has booked, only to find out that someone else, Keith (played by Bill Skarsgård), is already staying there due to the house having been double-booked. When Tess finds out that there isn’t really an open motel close by, she has to decide if she feels comfortable staying at the house with this total stranger. What she doesn’t know is that the house isn’t exactly what it seems.

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REVIEW: Black Adam (2022)

Dwayne Johnson is BLACK ADAM — PHOTO: Warner Bros.

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (Jungle Cruise) — Screenplay by Adam Sztykiel, Rory Haines, and Sohrab Noshirvani.

Does anyone really know what Warner Bros. Discovery and DC Comics are doing with their immensely popular comic book characters on the big screen? Half the time it sounds like they want to copy what Disney and Marvel are doing, and the other half it sounds like they want to do a little bit of everything. That latter suggestion is unfocused but it is also a little bit exciting that they are prepared to do anything. That we can get a deeply gritty Halloween-set Batman film and a more brightly colored tongue-in-cheek superhero comedy for all ages in Shazam! with DC Comics is good fun, but I’m not sure fans, general audiences, or the higher-ups are on the same page. Some fans want a patient build-up in the vein of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, some want a return to Nolan-esque grittiness, and others are desperate for Zack Snyder’s vision for the DC universe to live on. Time will tell if they can have it all, but, in trying to appeal to the most amount of people, Jaume Collet-Serra’s underdeveloped Black Adam raises some eyebrows, as it feels very much like a film that has been tinkered with by higher-ups so much over the years that it has gone stale, which is a shame since Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson has been waiting for 15 years to make his mark as the titular antihero.

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REVIEW: Halloween Ends (2022)

Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode eventually goes toe-to-toe with Michael Myers one last time in David Gordon Green’s HALLOWEEN ENDS — PHOTO: Universal Pictures.

Directed by David Gordon Green — Screenplay by Paul Brad Logan, Chris Bernier, Danny McBride, and David Gordon Green.

Do bankable film franchises really end? These days it really doesn’t feel like it. Horror franchises, like other genre franchises, can be brought back to life again and again and again. Heck, these days reboots can just ignore several films that came before and chose to only acknowledge one or two films in the franchise, and audiences will still accept it. So, well, regardless of what happens in this film, does anyone truly believe that Halloween will really end? This skepticism is coming from a guy who thought this franchise probably should’ve ended with Steve Miner’s Halloween H20, which I liked. Honestly, I would’ve been fine with them ending it after the 2018 reboot.

Because let’s be honest, this — 2018, Halloween Kills, and this film — shouldn’t have been a trilogy. It should’ve just been that one ‘Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode a la Sarah Connor’ film to end the franchise with a bad-ass one-on-one confrontation. But then some higher-up probably wanted more, and so we got a pretty awful and aimless middle part, in Halloween Kills, and now, with Halloween Ends, a really messy conclusion that both wants to live up to the promise of the 2018 film and try something new. It doesn’t completely work, but I admire the attempt.

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REVIEW: Halloween Kills (2021)

Jamie Lee Curtis in HALLOWEEN KILLS — PHOTO: Universal Pictures.

Directed by David Gordon Green — Screenplay by Scott Teems, Danny McBride, and David Gordon Green.

On October 31st, 2022, people all around the world will be celebrating Halloween, the favorite holiday for all horror fans, but if you choose to believe the marketing for the latest film in the franchise named after the aforementioned spooky holiday, Halloween ended last weekend when David Gordon Green’s Halloween Ends (which I have yet to see), the last film in his Michael Myers-focused trilogy, was released. I certainly have my doubts about whether or not they’ll actually let the dust settle on John Carpenter’s stories horror franchise.

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REVIEW: She-Hulk: Attorney at Law – Season One (2022)

(L-R): Mark Ruffalo as Smart Hulk / Bruce Banner and Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer “Jen” Walters/She-Hulk in Marvel Studios’ She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.

Show Created by Jessica Gao — Directed by Kat Coiro and Anu Valia.

The first Disney+ Marvel Cinematic Universe series, WandaVision, was released in early 2021. Now, in October of 2022, Marvel Studios has fully released eight different Marvel series on the Disney streamer. While I’ve enjoyed watching all of them, I really do think that many of them would’ve been better as films, as these shows — like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier — still swear by the classic Marvel template. Honestly, I think only WandaVision, Loki, What If…?, and Ms. Marvel were right to be made into series rather than films. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, however, is the kind of story that feels appropriate for the streamer as a series. It doesn’t take the overarching Marvel storylines all that seriously and, even though I’m a fan of the MCU, that feels really refreshing.

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REVIEW: Grimcutty (2022)

The titular monster attacks Asha (Sara Wolfkind) in John Ross’ GRIMCUTTY — PHOTO: Disney/HULU.

Directed by John Ross — Screenplay by John Ross.

A couple of days ago, I noticed that a new horror film had been released on Disney+ (on Hulu in the U.S.), and, since it was a title that I had heard absolutely nothing about, I was somewhat puzzled. Where had this been hiding, why did Disney/Hulu acquire it, and why are they now releasing it without any fanfare? I assumed that it was a bad sign, just like how January has previously been known as a bit of a dumping ground for movie releases. I was right. I take no pleasure in writing highly negative reviews, but I think this is a big miss. It is an ineffective and quite bland horror film with no staying power, even though its general interest in how parents want to control what their children see online is an interesting premise for a horror film. 

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