In this edition of Additional Bite-Sized Reviews, I give you my thoughts on 1) a recent two-part documentary that I enjoyed quite a bit, 2) my first Wim Wenders film, 3) one of the biggest event films of last year, 4) a streaming film that didn’t fully work for me, and, finally, 5) a Disney film that is chock-full of references.
Continue reading “‘The Eras Tour,’ ‘STEVE! (martin),’ and More | Bite-Sized Reviews”
In this edition of Additional Bite-Sized Reviews, I give you my thoughts on 1) an iconic film that I struggled with, 2) a strange passion project from a genuine pop star, 3) the debut film of one of Britain’s finest auteurs, 4) one of last year’s best animated films, and, finally, 5) a horror film that didn’t work for me.
Continue reading “‘Sexy Beast,’ ‘TMNT: Mutant Mayhem,’ and More | Bite-Sized Reviews”
Directed by George Miller — Screenplay by George Miller and Nico Lathouris.
Back when the low-budget cult favorite first Mad Max film was released in 1979, no one would have expected it to eventually evolve into a franchise that director George Miller would still be working on when he, himself, was 79 years of age. But here we are, and even though it’s been nine whole years since Miller’s finest hour — the action masterwork that was Mad Max: Fury Road — it is now time to finally get the origin story to the character of Furiosa — who was originally played by Charlize Theron — in the long-awaited prequel film Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. Though it isn’t the instant genre classic that Fury Road was, it is nevertheless a very good film that builds upon the successes of the previous film through gripping world-building and an extremely entertaining supporting performance.
Continue reading “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) | REVIEW”
Directed by Ned Benson — Screenplay by Ned Benson.
Ned Benson’s The Greatest Hits is a romantic fantasy film that follows Harriet Gibbons (played by Lucy Boynton), a woman mourning her boyfriend Max (played by David Corenswet) who recently died in a car crash. To recover emotionally, she takes part in grief support group meetings, but she doesn’t know how to move on because whenever she hears a song that she listened to while she and Max dated, she is emotionally transported through time to the moment she heard it, while, for everyone else, it just looks like she is passing out or having a seizure. Harriet has become obsessed with the idea that she can use this condition and/or ability to travel in time and prevent Max’s death. However, she is also starting to become emotionally involved with another member of the support group named David (played by Justin H. Min).
Continue reading “The Greatest Hits (2024) | REVIEW”
Directed by Wes Ball — Screenplay by Josh Friedman.
The Planet of the Apes franchise is one of the most iconic and most beloved long-running science fiction film franchises. Despite it, admittedly, featuring a significant number of films and shows that the world has largely forgotten about (including Tim Burton’s 2001 remake), this franchise also happens to have a genuine science-fiction classic adaptation with one of the most famous and unforgettable movie endings of all-time (that is uniquely in the style of Rod Serling, i.e. the creator of The Twilight Zone who co-wrote the 1968 Apes-film), and every now and again these films represent massive leaps forward for the film industry either through prosthetics, visual effects, or motion performance capture. As if that wasn’t enough, despite failing to capture wide audiences’ interest for quite some time, the iconic franchise broke through once more with the reboot trilogy of the 2010s from directors Rupert Wyatt (of the strong and emotionally engaging Rise of the Planet of the Apes) and Matt Reeves (of the jaw-dropping near-masterpieces Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes).
Continue reading “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024) | REVIEW”
Directed by David Leitch — Screenplay by Drew Pearce.
Apparently relatively loosely based on an ‘80s action-adventure TV series of the same name starring Lee Majors, David Leitch’s The Fall Guy follows a Hollywood stunt performer named Colt Seavers (played by Ryan Gosling), who, after suffering an injury during a high-profile stunt, has left the industry, as well as his camerawoman girlfriend Jody Moreno (played by Emily Blunt), behind. However, when a film producer from his past, Gail (played by Hannah Waddingham), contacts him and tells him that Jody needs him on her feature directorial debut, he rushes back to a movie set in the hopes of rekindling his romance with Jody. When he arrives in Sydney, Australia for production, he finds out that Jody didn’t actually ask for him, but he also learns that Gail needs him to find actor Tom Ryder (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson) — i.e. a movie star that Colt is a stunt double for — who has gone missing and whose absence may cause Jody’s first film as a director to be canceled, thus harming Jody’s chances of having a career as a director in the industry. To investigate things and ensure Jody’s film remains in production, Colt will have to put his skills as a stunt performer to good use.
Continue reading “The Fall Guy (2024) | REVIEW”
Directed by Luca Guadagnino — Screenplay by Justin Kuritzkes.
The Palermo-born Italian auteur Luca Guadagnino is fast rising into the ranks of becoming one of my favorite current-day European filmmakers. His transformative and beautiful Call Me By Your Name, of his Desire trilogy, blew me away in ways that I hadn’t anticipated. While I’m not sure I like it more than the film he remade, Guadagnino’s reworking of Suspiria had a vibe and a climax that has made certain chilling images stick with me. Then a couple of years ago, he reteamed with Timothée Chalamet to make a sensational genre-bending cannibalistic romance film, in Bones and All, which is probably more of a cult film than anything that would appeal to a wide audience. His latest film, however, is easily Guadagnino’s most accessible film yet. While I don’t think it’s his best film, it’s easily one of the most entertaining and inventively shot films I’ve seen this year. Challengers is a stylistic, sexy, and sweaty sports love triangle drama that gets the most out of the subgenres it fits in.
Continue reading “Challengers (2024) | REVIEW”
Directed by Alex Garland — Screenplay by Alex Garland.
I would definitely describe myself as a fairly big fan of writer-director Alex Garland. Although he, as a writer, had already influenced a couple of personal favorite genre films in the early 2000s — specifically Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later and Sunshine — I must admit that I didn’t really know who he was until I saw his feature directorial debut titled EX_MACHINA, which is this breathtakingly fascinating and stunning science-fiction masterpiece. After blowing me away with his debut as a director, he cemented himself as a true master of the science-fiction genre with his equally thought-provoking and spellbinding sophomore effort titled ANNIHILATION. Following his sophomore directorial effort, his career trajectory changed slightly as he created, wrote, and directed the underseen but very good FX sci-fi series titled Devs. He then made his third feature as a director, but it, a folk horror film titled Men, didn’t quite receive the warm critical reception that his previous efforts did. Some might think that after the lukewarm reception to his third outing, he would be tempted to make something less button-pushing or with fewer potential pitfalls. Not so. Civil War, his fourth film as a director, is his biggest film yet, and it dares to imagine a world where tensions as a result of dangerous, hateful polarization — perhaps not unlike today — have devolved in such a way that the United States of America has entered into a modern — you guessed it — civil war. Along with the release of his biggest and potentially most controversial film yet, Garland has also suggested that he has fallen out of love with filmmaking and may be stepping down from directing. But if Civil War is evidence of anything for Garland, it is that he is a filmmaker who knows how to craft a fascinating film that can ratchet up the tension and ask interesting questions.
Continue reading “Civil War (2024) | REVIEW”
Directed by Doug Liman (Chaos Walking) — Screenplay by Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry.
Whether its fans liked it or not, for more than ten years, there had been talk of an attempt to remake the Rowdy Herrington 1989 action cult classic Road House starring Patrick Swayze. Now in 2024, it is finally here, as it has been remade for modern audiences by The Bourne Identity and Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman, whose remake stars Jake Gyllenhaal in the role popularized by Patrick Swayze’s iconic performance — Dalton. Like in the 1989 film, Dalton is hired to be the bouncer at a bar early on in Liman’s film, but there have been significant changes, including the fact that now Dalton has a background in UFC fighting. He doesn’t have the steely focus as a professional bouncer either. Rather we first meet him as he gets ready to scam fighters in an underground circuit. In these opening scenes, Dalton is suicidal and only narrowly survives a suicide attempt early in the film. When he finally gets to the bar that he is supposed to be the bouncer at — a sunny, tropical Florida-set bar called ‘The Road House’ — it doesn’t take long for him to get involved in a fight to get a motorcycle gang off the premises. Soon, a local crime boss (played by Billy Magnussen) tasks the psychotic enforcer Knox (played by Conor McGregor) with taking out Dalton for good.
Continue reading “Road House (2024) | REVIEW”
Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett — Screenplay by Stephen Shields and Guy Busick.
Ever since Radio Silence (a filmmaking group that also includes producer Chad Villella) directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett broke through with their sophomore feature, 2019’s Ready or Not, the directing duo has only risen through the ranks when it comes to horror filmmaking. After their bloody wedding horror film in 2019, they were hired to take over from the late, great Wes Craven in the Scream franchise, and they did so with their Scream (2022) and Scream VI. How do you follow up three genuine horror hits in a row? Well, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett decided that they should take on a different kind of horror subgenre that holds a special place in the hearts of horror aficionados with Abigail.
Continue reading “Abigail (2024) | REVIEW”
I'm Jeffrey Rex 