Nevertheless, the murderous glee factor of The Wrath of Becky never fizzles out. The movie is super tight, unraveling its mayhem in 83 minutes and change, where four of those minutes are logos and credits. Not a second is wasted on fluff. With origins out of the way and better villainy present, this is a rare sequel that counts as a noticeable improvement from its predecessor, complete with an open door for more chapters.
Read MorePutting my school teacher hat on to match the spirit of this website, The Little Mermaid, like every movie really, is, for better or worse, a series of tests. It has become nearly impossible during this current cycle of Disney “re-imaginings” not to have questions of comparison arise between the original animated classics and their newfangled remakes. Depending on a person’s fandom or scruples (or both), that list can be long, short, casual, or petty.
Read MoreWhat replaces those external conflicts is internal angst from two men who aim to be more sensitive than competitive. Nothing’s really going to happen to anyone, outside of a touchy breakup or two, if they fail. That’s borderline character betrayal and counts as another miss. While a modern 21st century maturity against frank toxic masculinity was infused to be appreciated, there is an unmistakable edginess that is missing, top to bottom in White Men Can’t Jump.
Read MoreRobert Rodriguez’s Hypnotic situates itself as a shining example of over-explanation messing up promising ideas. It should come as no surprise to those who have enjoyed the filmmaker’s distinctive works over the years that Rodriguez has a hell of a starting concept and escalating rub. The trouble is he and MonsterVerse screenwriter Max Borenstein think more is more.
Read MoreOne of the most appreciable traits about movies is their ability to give faces and voices to human history across a myriad of cultures and time periods. If you ask them, astute film viewers will lose count how many “based on” or “inspired by” movies about true stories have instigated wider and deeper educational dives to learn more. The Wind and the Reckoning joins that honorable tradition and, even greater than faces and voices, it gives its depicted history a literal and figurative fighting chance.
Read MoreWhen the larger societal issues of Britain’s social politics towards POC creep in, the hurdles, so to speak, get even higher. To Shekhar Kapur’s great credit and shared with producer and debuting screenwriter Jemimia Khan, those inclusions are honest more than heavy-handed. More than anything, What’s Love Got to Do With It puts a strong emphasis on family honor and its aforementioned different speed of romantic finality. Those nuclei become natural and not forced on a journey where the wallup and flourish surprisingly arrive in two different places.
Read MoreIn different hands and with weaker goals, A Tourist’s Guide to Love would be a hot-and-steamy romp of debauchery in a hot-and-steamy country. There’s certainly a place for that in the streaming scroll for the Netflix-and-Chill crowd. Alternatively, there’s a place for cuddly chastness too. A Tourist’s Guide to Love respects its characters, its audience, and its cultural depictions with more tact and nobility than the norm, giving us a refreshing and relaxing PG-rated romantic drama.
Read MoreWhen it comes to coolness, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is an air conditioner of a blockbuster movie. Its comic book movie breeze is crisp and non-stop, making any hot room feel stupendous. The compressors are chugging on full blast and the thermostat is set low for maximum chill. But, like any air conditioner, you can run that machine too long. It’ll churn, rattle, need a filter or two, frost up, run out of refrigerant, or overdo the coolness for the room.
Read MoreBless his heart, David Lowery has not forgotten the sensation and formative power found in the analog brands of fantasy. Constructed with earthy textures, Peter Pan & Wendy is a glorious realization and extension of make-believe play that welcomes an old-fashioned conscience. Lowery, in his second foray with Disney after his phenomenal Pete Dragon from 2015, brandishes his own creative streak with a divergent freedom and zero shame for doing so.
Read MoreTo Catch a Killer unravels to become one of those manhunt movies where the pursuit is better than the prize at the end. Wild Tales director Damien Szifron provides several platforms for the central law enforcement characters to pontificate the importance of what they are doing to stop the present public menace. The actors squeeze every bit of seriousness they can, and you believe their motivations and intentions. Yet, when To Catch a Killer reaches its climax and it becomes the hidden villain’s turn to reveal their intentions, the suspense shamefully evaporates.
Read MoreFast-forward from Steve Zahn’s hey-day. Add a quarter-century of mileage to his bread-and-butter manchild buddy type and do what too few filmmakers have done over the years: Give Steve Zahn a lead part. Take his usual brand of rootless screw-up and give it central focus and real anchors. Then, let Steve’s charm radiate fully. Gringa rewards this actor’s worth with a real chance.
Read MoreOne True Loves has one of those paperback novel premises that can only seem to work as a screwball farce or a serious melodrama when brought to the big screen. Wouldn’t you know it, the movie is based on a book from New York Times best-selling author Taylor Jenkins Reid (Daisy Jones and the Six). The novelist was lucky enough to have the opportunity to adapt her own novel with her TV screenwriter husband Alex J. Reid.
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