Matthew Liedke

REVIEW: Action waltz in ‘Ballerina’ doesn’t surpass other ‘Wick’ films

What if a girl from the John Wick universe was put through the Black Widow program from the Marvel universe? You might just get a protagonist like the one in “Ballerina.”

Ana de Armas stars as Eve in this “Wick” spin-off. An orphan, Eve is trained by an assassin tribe called the Ruska Roma after the death of her father. Ruska Roma operates by developing girls to be both capable assassins and skilled ballerina dancers when they get older.

Eve grows to become such an assassin, and never lets go of the memory of how her father was killed. After one of her missions, she finds a clue about the group possibly behind it, and decides to follow-through on revenge, even without approval from her superior.

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REVIEW: Live ‘Dragon’ finds mild success with animated playbook

After six years, the dragon Toothless returns to the big screen looking much like he did in the animated film from 2019. The world around him, though, is much different.

The latest “How to Train Your Dragon” film is a remake of the 2010 animated feature. Like its cartoon counterpart, the picture centers on the young, awkward Viking Hiccup (Mason Thames), who doesn’t have the same battle prowess of his father, Chief Stoick (Gerard Butler).

But he makes up for it with his inventiveness, which he uses to one day catch one of the dragons attacking his village. He can’t bring himself to slay the dragon when push comes to shove, though, and instead decides to learn about the creature and train it.

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REVIEW: Celine Song’s sophomore effort ‘Materialists’ disappoints

A film from A24, written and directed Celine Song who helmed the wonderful “Past Lives” from 2023? On paper it looks like a slam dunk. Unfortunately, that’s not quite the case.

In Song’s second feature film, Dakota Johnson stars as a matchmaker in New York City named Lucy. She works for a company that specializes in setting up dates between similar people. Basically, it’s an in person dating app, but the app is a human match manager with an office.

Work is going well enough, but Lucy herself has been single for a while. That changes, though, when she meets the charming and understanding Harry (Pedro Pascal), and the two start dating. At the same time, she meets up and starts talking with former boyfriend John (Chris Evans).

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REVIEW: Wes offers style and substance again in ‘Phoenician Scheme’

Michael Cera’s career has been hitting a pretty good stride in the last few years, starring in solid flicks like “Gloria Bell,” “Barbie” and “Dream Scenario.”

That positive streak continues in his latest appearance, playing a key role in Wes Anderson’s new project. Cera co-stars in the film as Bjorn, alongside Mia Threapleton as Liesl and Benicio del Toro as Korda. The movie centers on Korda, who’s a powerful industrialist staking his empire on an infrastructure project in Phoenicia.

Making it a reality is tricky. Kordo has enemies against him and obstacles to overcome. To navigate the situation, he sets up his daughter, Liesl, to be heir to his throne in case of his demise, and brings her and Bjorn on a wide-reaching journey to make the scheme a reality.

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REVIEW: ‘Karate Kid’ legacy lives on with solid new entry, ‘Legends’

This movie has a lot of cliches and more cheese than the pizzas prominently featured throughout, and damn if it can’t win a person over.

The latest film in the franchise features a new titular Kid. This time around its Li Fong (Ben Wang), a former student of kung fu teacher Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) from the 2010 film. Li now finds himself a new resident of New York City after moving there with his mother.

After moving, Li makes friends with a pizzeria owner, Victor (Joshua Jackson) and his daughter, Mia (Sadie Stanley). Li came to NYC vowing not to fight again after a family tragedy, but when Victor is injured and in need of money, he decides to enter a martial arts competition. Mr. Han comes to help train the student, and enlists karate expert Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) to assist.

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REVIEW: ‘Mission Impossible’ saga mostly ends on high note

Just a few years after we said goodbye to Daniel Craig as James Bond, we close the chapter on another super spy who goes on missions for the United States.

The eighth, and seemingly final “Mission: Impossible,” takes place a couple months after the conclusion of the seventh installment. The AI defense system known as The Entity is infiltrating several nations’ nuclear programs and setting the stage for potential atomic disaster.

IMF Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) has a key capable of opening a door to technology which could lead to the shut down of the Entity. However, many obstacles, from the villainous Gabriel Martinelli (Esai Morales) to his own government stand in the way of him and his team.

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REVIEW: Fun adventure of misfits makes ‘Thunderbolts’ enjoyable

Are we back, Marvel?

It seems like that could be the case with the latest film from the comic book adaptation studio, “Thunderbolts.” The film mainly centers on Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), who finds herself a bit rudderless. Outside of doing missions for the CIA, Yelena lacks any appreciation for the life she’s living, especially since the death of her sister, Natasha, the Black Widow.

Things only get more complicated when she’s sent on a mission that brings her into conflict with several other secret operatives working under CIA head Valentina de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus).Realizing they’ve been set-up by de Fontaine, the group reluctantly join forces to stop a new and potentially dangerous project the CIA leader is working on.

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REVIEW: Strong emotional core, vampiric thrills power ‘Sinners’

What if “From Dusk Till Dawn” took place in the Great Depression?

That’s sort of what we have here in this new vampire thriller from writer and director Ryan Coogler. A period piece, “Sinners” is set in 1932 and takes place in the Mississippi Delta region. The movie stars Michael B. Jordan in dual roles, playing twin brothers Elijah and Elias Moore.

After making money as part of Al Capone’s Chicago mafia, they’ve returned to their roots to open a Juke Joint. The duo bring in family and friends to help run the venue and it turns out to be a success. In fact it’s such a success that it attracts a group of vampires.

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May 2015 featured one of the biggest weekends of entertainment ever

The most traditional ways movies and sports collide is in a sports movie. Often about underdogs overcoming tremendous odds.

However, other times, it just so happens that big movies are released around the same time major sporting events take place. That’s what occurred in the first weekend of May, 10 years ago, and there was definitely no underdog. These were heavyweights going at it across the world of entertainment, with screens of all sorts filled with events.

All of five of the major professional sports leagues were in play. The NFL, NBA, NHL, MLS, MLB all had events, on top of the “Avengers” sequel being released. Oh yeah, there was also the biggest horse race and boxing fight taking place. Here’s a breakdown of that legendary weekend.

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REVIEW: ‘The Amateur’ doesn’t have enough thrills for an audience

It’s probably not a great sign that throughout this experience I was wishing the movie was about Laurence Fishburne’s character rather than the protagonist.

That protagonist is Charlie Heller (Rami Malek), the titular Amateur who works as a cryptographer with the CIA. Rather than conducting missions in the field, he works at the agency’s headquarters in the digital space. That is until his wife is killed in a London terrorist attack.

Following the incident, Heller sets out on a path of revenge. After picking up some training from special operative Robert Henderson (Fishburne), Charlie sets off on a multi-nation quest of payback against those behind the London plot, even if he has to go against the CIA to get it done.

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