Ever since Marvel made the prospect of a shared universe successful, allowing for numerous crossovers, many other studios have been trying to jump on the bandwagon. The latest attempt is the Dark Universe by Universal, which is trying to recreate its 1940s classic monsters with a new series.
Unfortunately, its debut in “The Mummy” is awful.
Continue reading “REVIEW: Universal’s Attempt At New Monster Series Crashes With ‘the Mummy’”
After a few strikeouts, DC Comics has hit it out of the park with its latest cinematic endeavor, “Wonder Woman.”
While the titular character had already been introduced in last year’s “Batman V Superman,” this film goes in depth to show how Wonder Woman became who she is. The film starts with the superhero, named Diana (Gal Gadot) growing up on an isolated island of Amazons, where she’s trains to prepare for the possible return of the God of War, Ares.
One day on the island, war comes to her, though, as an American pilot crashes in the surrounding waters. The pilot, named Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), informs the Amazons of World War I and his mission to help stop a doomsday weapon that could kill many more people. Diana, believing the war to be the work of Ares, decides to join Steve on his mission and help put a stop to the Great War.
Continue reading “REVIEW: ‘Wonder Woman’ Joins The Greats In The Superhero Genre”
Director Ridley Scott has once again ventured into “Alien” prequel territory, but like the 2012 picture “Prometheus,” his new sci-fi “Covenant” has too many flaws and doesn’t come close to the level of the 1979 horror film.
Scott’s latest endeavor in the genre tells the tale of a colony star ship on course to set up a society on a remote planet. Their trip to this new planet, which has been properly vetted and researched to ensure that it’s completely safe, hits a snag, though, when a space phenomenon causes a malfunction.
Not only does this result in awakening the crew from their hyper sleep, it also causes the death of their initial captain. In the immediate aftermath while the crew is checking the status of the ship, which is carrying roughly 2,000 passengers, they discover a signal being sent from a remote planet that’s closer than the one they’re going to that has breathable air and water.
Comedic actresses Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn partner up in this flick and on occasion they’re able to deliver some solid humor. However, both have been in better projects in the past.
In “Snatched,” Schumer plays a young woman who’s more or less hit rock bottom. She’s been just dumped by her boyfriend and fired from a rather dead-end job. Making matters worse, her breakup came just as her and her boyfriend were about to go on an exotic vacation to South America.
Because she still wants to go on the trip, though, she invites her mother Linda (Goldie Hawn) to go along. The two eventually make their way to the resort to begin their vacation, yet the two are somewhat at odds in how to spend their time. The two have to reconnect and repair their somewhat strained relationship in quick fashion, though, when they are abducted by a criminal enterprise.
Continue reading “REVIEW: ‘Snatched’ Earns Some Laughs, But Not Every Attempt At Comedy Works”
For a few years, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” had been the best sequel in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That movie got some competition this weekend, though, with the release of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.”
Continue reading “REVIEW: A Wonderful Sequel, ‘Guardians 2’ Kicks Off Summer The Right Way”
It’s always surprising and disappointing seeing a film squander a plethora of talent in its cast. “The Circle” is one of those types of movies.
The picture centers on a young woman named Mae (Emma Watson) who gets a job at the world’s leading computer technology/social networking company, the Circle. Headed by a pair by the names of Bailey (Tom Hanks) and Stenton (Patton Oswalt), the Circle operates at a massive facility that largely provides anything that a person could really want.
As Mae settles into her new role, though, she starts to notice some things that seem off. This thought process is only increased when she comes into contact with a lead developer named Ty (John Boyega), who informs her of some shady operations. At the same time, though, Mae also becomes a person of interest as she starts coming up with new ideas that actually benefit the company.
Continue reading “REVIEW: ‘The Circle’ Is A Directionless Waste Of Talented Performers”
UFOs, aliens and government cover-ups can all be pretty entertaining stuff. When a film just uses that premise for a rather generic found footage flick, though, it can be rather dull.
“Phoenix Forgotten” is such a film.
Continue reading “REVIEW: ‘Phoenix Forgotten’ Had A Nice Premise, Poor Execution”
“The Promise” is a picture that acts as both a historical period piece and a romantic drama. Unfortunately, the latter becomes a weakness to the overall film.
The movie sets itself up at the onset of the first World War in the Ottoman Empire and mainly follows three characters, a medical student named Mikael (Oscar Isaac), an American reporter with the Associated Press named Chris (Christian Bale) and his fiance Ana (Charlotte Le Bon). After the three meet, a romantic triangle begins to develop between them causing some expected friction.
However, the real drama of the film comes as the war deepens and the Armenian Genocide begins. This poses immediate danger to Mikael and Ana as they both have Armenian backgrounds and are forced out of their normal lives. Meanwhile, Chris begins to document both the war and the genocide for the AP.
This movie’s Internet Movie Database page says that it’s a thriller, but as it was screening, “Unforgettable” seemed to be more of a comedy.
The film follows the character Julia (Rosario Dawson), who’s moving from San Francisco to a smaller community to live with her fiancé David (Geoff Stults) and his daughter. While it takes some time for to fit in, Julia does eventually start to get a bit used to living in her new home.
An immediate problem starts to come forward in the character Tessa (Katherine Heigl), though. Tessa is David’s ex and isn’t too much of a fan of Julia getting close with her former family and it doesn’t take long for the jealousy to turn into complete hatred. As time goes on, Tessa begins working to ruin Julia’s life.
Continue reading “REVIEW: There’s Nothing Memorable About ‘Unforgettable’”
Do you have a restaurant you enjoy going to that isn’t perfect but you still enjoy it? There’s some dishes there that aren’t the best of all time, they won’t win any awards, but they’re good, comfort food. That’s more or less what “The Fast and the Furious” franchise has become.
Since the fourth film came out in 2009, the series has more or less found a working formula and the eighth movie follows it pretty closely. As a result, those who’re familiar and have enjoyed the action set pieces of late should be able to have a good time at this latest installment.
Like the other recent pictures, part 8 of “Fast and the Furious” introduces a new threat in a terrorist named Cipher (Charlize Theron) and in response, agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) gathers a team of outlaws led by Dom (Vin Diesel) to fight back outside the books. The difference this time around, though, is that Dom ends up going rogue and appears to betray his friends that have become like family.
As a result, the remaining group of protagonists have to walk a tight rope in stopping Cipher while also dealing with Dom. To help them out in the process, the villain from part 7, Deckard (Jason Statham) is brought in to assist. Dom, meanwhile, has to deal with the issue that’s made him fight against his friends in the first place.
Aside from the sub-plot showing Dom deal with his issue that’s caused him to go rogue, “Fate” goes along with the aforementioned formula and it works for pure entertainment. As I said in the lede, this whole series has been one that isn’t perfect, in fact as films they’re not even technically good by standard metrics such as acting and script.
And yet, they do have a sort of charm that just keeps drawing viewers back to it, me included.
Many of the characters, especially Hobbs, have plenty of charisma to go around making them quite likable and they also have an enjoyable level of camaraderie. So, even though it’s more or less a given that the protagonists will all make it at the end of the film, their likability makes the film fairly watchable.
A hook to engage audiences even more than the characters, though, was the fantastic action featured in some key sequences. One of those moments as an example is a prison riot where Hobbs and Deckard fight their way through criminals and guards in the most over the top fashion. It’s wild, but it’s also all sorts of fun.
The same can be said for the movie’s full blown extravaganza that is its finale. More or less, the heroes take on a nuclear submarine.
Now with that said, there were some moments that went a little bit too far. A sequence in New York City, for example, causes so much collateral damage with such little disregard that it’s laughable. There’s also the factor of the protagonists working with Deckard when he tried multiple times to kill Dom’s family, even succeeding with one of them.
There’s also the tonal shifts that don’t really work. A few scenes include some dark moments dealing with what Dom’s going through then it will cut to Tyrese Gibson’s character Roman cracking jokes. It’s the reason that these movies should stick to a bit more of a traditional action movie format, which have led to better movies with some of the predecessors.
Additionally, the latest addition to the franchise’s team, Ramsey, doesn’t fit in at all. Not only does she have none of the driving or fighting skills as the rest of the group, but she also lacks the attitude and charisma that the rest of the team does. Also, Nathalie Emmanuel gives the character very little energy in the performances.
Overall, if you walk into “Fate of the Furious,” you know what you’re getting yourself into. With that in mind, I can just say that this, like the others, brings plenty of excitement to entertain your eyes and ears for two hours. However, it’s not the best of the franchise. 3.0 out of 5.
Matthew Liedke on Film 