MOVIE REVIEW: The Woman King

Of all the subjective or objective metrics that get bandied about when rating a film, one of the more powerful traits that can make up for shortcomings is a movie’s inspirational effect. An impassioned audience with stirred emotions is very forgiving. Many large and small aspects about Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King could be debated or exposed as flaws. In the end, they will not matter. The story being told and the dedication collected to tell it carry weight greater than the art or craft.

2022, MOVIE REVIEW, 4 STARSDon ShanahanSeptember 17, 2022The Woman King, Viola Davis, Lashana LynchComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Confess, Fletch

So much of Confess, Fletch feels like a wiser-than the norm throwback against the hefty audience quadrant that will always prefer the louder, action-ified punch of the James Bonds and Jason Bournes of the world over a journalist gumshoe. If that crowd can slow down for a smaller and smoother ride, they will find mental thrills equally clever to the pop of blockbuster stunts that fade as quickly as they explode.

2022, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, Streaming, 4 STARSDon ShanahanSeptember 13, 2022Fletch, Confess Fletch, Greg Mottola, Jon HammComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul

Through impressive performances from Support the Girls star Regina Hall and This is Us Emmy winner Sterling K. Brown, Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul has caricatures so believable that they transcend the winking-at-the-camera trope with vivid potency. There’s another level of “commitment to the bit.” We, the audience are not normally supposed to believe what we see from the characters but, with these two, we buy it.

2022, 4 STARS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanSeptember 2, 2022Honk For Jesus Save Your Soul, Sterling K. Brown, Regina HallComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Samaritan

Even now at 76 years old, long past his own peaks and valleys, Sly remains a proven talent and beloved favorite. Nothing will probably break that or ever take that away. Nonetheless, this writer feels like “You still got it!” respect towards Stallone, as a complete performer, is still worth acknowledgment. Thanks to the Rocky and Rambo series, most go straight to the muscles. The special thing is Samaritan shows how much Sylvester Stallone still offers as an actor that has nothing to do with the ripped physicality that made him famous.

2022, 3 STARS, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanAugust 28, 2022Samaritan, Sylvester StalloneComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Breaking

It would be really easy for a movie like Breaking, tip-toeing in the Dog Day Afternoon direction, to turn up the brightness of the pariah spotlights and crank up the volume on the injustice pulpit loudspeakers. That’s not so here. Director Abi Damaris Corbin resists the temptations to pound messages and shout showy monologues. He and his screenwriting partner Kwame Kwei-Armah uphold the simple and poignant principles that were at hand with this true story and on the central figure’s mind during a fateful July day in 2017.

2022, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Streaming, 4 STARSDon ShanahanAugust 25, 2022John Boyega, Breaking, Nicole Beharie, Michael K. WilliamsComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Beast

Anyone who’s watched an MGM movie for a century has heard the majestic pop of a lion’s roar. That’s all well and good, but the part that’s even better is the growling lead-up. The guttural purr of a lion is all-natural, distinctive, and menacing. The sound is an evocative draw and an arresting warning at the same time. It’s a precursor to danger. You hear it and your human instincts go off like fireworks because, as a wise character in Beast says, if it’s between you and the lion “it is not a fight you are designed to win.”

2022, 3 STARS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanAugust 20, 2022Beast, creature featureComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Summering

There is incomplete depth all over the place in Summering. Examining the relationships between these girls and their loyal mothers, the many absentee male examples, and the legitimate anxieties accompanying the apprehensive change between elementary and secondary school are heavy obstacles not easily healed by pouring on literal or figurative warmth. So much is glazed over for sunny rays, amateur detective aimlessness, and scary sideshows.

2 STARS, 2022, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanAugust 14, 2022Summering, James Ponsoldt, Madalen MillsComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Fall

Sometimes, the simplest premises are all you need, and Scott Mann’s thriller Fall has that going for it in spades. Long has the subgenre of survival thrillers flourished in this area. By ascending a 2,000 foot antenna in the desert (masterfully so in its own perfect teaser trailer), Mann and his co-writer Jonathan Frank have picked a unique and uncomplicated setting. The film’s characters and camera explore its peculiarity and scale. True to its name, Fall’s plot exploits mortal fears and gets creative with the desperate measures people reach to keep kicking and screaming with life.

2022, 4 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanAugust 11, 2022Fall, Grace Fulton, Virginia GardnerComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Prey

There is no star-fueled preening on this no-name cast. The body count is patient, yet raised to a frightful level. The kills are often quick and brutal. Prey stays precisely locked into the relentless gear and exciting pace this legendary movie monster threat has long deserved.

2022, 4 STARS, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, TelevisionDon ShanahanAugust 5, 2022Prey, Predator, The Predator, PredatorsComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Easter Sunday

While Jo Koy and Chandrasekhar are amiable enough to keep the content inclusive, newbies to Filipino quirks may misread what and why something is the butt of a joke. They’re not going to laugh like those in the know or, more appropriately, those in the family. What was supposed to introduce and celebrate an under-represented culture may set it back a little bit too, in the name of trying to gain popularity. The same result may come to Easter Sunday and its star. The cursory introduction is now out of the way. Next time, let’s see Jo Koy play someone other than himself and see if he can unleash true chops.

2022, 2 STARS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanAugust 5, 2022Easter Sunday, Jay Chandrasekhar, Jo KoyComment

MOVIE REVIEW: DC League of Super-Pets

With its buoyant humor and stellar energy, DC League of Super-Pets is the finest pampering treat we’re going to get and it’s a welcome one, even if a treat like this is a tad on the unhealthy side. With no apologies to Joss Whedon, Zack Snyder, or anyone else, it took bringing in a bunch of animal characters, the writers of The LEGO Batman Movie, and shifting to animation to give us the best theatrical Justice League movie we’ve had to date.

MOVIE REVIEW: Nope

To put it more casually and in a way fitting the movie, horses say “nope” with fight-or-flight responses faster than and far before us humans. When Nope pushes your buttons and raises your pulse rate, follow what the horses do and you’ll fare well. Alas, we know humans behave differently and so does Jordan Peele. He knows man’s curiosity, perceived dominance, and other courage-warping temptations bend people to test survivability beyond their instinctual triggers until their own exit point or fatal failure.