Tag: Family

REVIEW: ‘Freakier Friday’ suffers from repetition but charms with heart

The first “Freaky Friday” isn’t that old, right? It’s only been… 22 years?!

Yes, that film with Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan was released more than two decades ago, and now, we get the sequel. Both actresses return for the follow-up, with Lohan again playing Anna, who now has a daughter of her own, Harper (Julia Butters). Curtis, meanwhile, is back as the helpful grandma, Tess.

The movie picks up with Anna having met a new love interest in Eric (Manny Jacinto), and after a courtship, the two decide to get married. That’s much to the chagrin of Harper and Eric’s daughter, Lily (Sophia Hammons), as the two future siblings don’t get along. Things only get more complicated when the four women in the family all switch bodies at a pre-wedding party.

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REVIEW: ‘Snow White’ is an aggressively mediocre remake

Hi ho, hi ho, a walk through the uncanny valley we go.

The latest adaptation of the “Snow White” story and the most recent in a string of live action remakes of classic Disney animated features stars Rachel Zegler in the titular role. After the loss of her mother, Snow White, a princess, sees her father get remarried to a mysterious woman (Gal Gadot).

A short time later, Snow White’s father disappears and is assumed dead, allowing the woman to assume power as queen, to which she uses to become an authoritarian ruler. Seeing her stepdaughter as a threat, the Queen sets out to have Snow White killed, but the princess escapes and on the outskirts of the kingdom, meets new friends and allies.

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REVIEW: ‘Moana 2’ massively pales in comparison to first adventure

“Moana” kept a years-long winning streak rolling for Disney Animation. Its sequel, meanwhile, is unfortunately the latest in a string of misfires for the studio.

Set three years after the events of the first film, “Moana 2” picks up with the titular character (Auli’I Cravalho) continuing to sail the ocean as an explorer. Her goal this time is to find other communities on various islands to connect with. Her effort so far, though, is unsuccessful.

In need of some guidance, the hero is given a vision showing how a storm god, Nalo, caused a calamity that separated the people of the ocean. To reverse the situation, Moana sets out on a new adventure to break Nalo’s curse, and ends up getting help from new friends and an old one.

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REVIEW: Family follow-up ‘Inside Out 2’ mostly succeeds

“Inside Out 2,” AKA the third film in Pixar’s coming-of-age trilogy after “Luca” and “Turning Red.”

This animated sequel picks up about a year after the events of the first film, released in 2015. Riley is now 13, she’s enjoying hockey, about to enter high school and her emotions seem to be in a good place. The film picks up with her being recruited to a hockey camp after her JV squad wins a title.

That’s where things go haywire in Riley’s mind, as new emotions, including Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser) and Ennui (Adele Exarchopoulos) suddenly show up. Worried about Riley’s future, Anxiety takes the lead from Joy (Amy Poehler) and ends up making the hockey camp into an emotional roller coaster.

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REVIEW: Inconsistent tone and fantasy rules cause ‘IF’ to flop

Incredible how there are now two movies this year that squander the creative imaginary friends concept.

Unlike “Imaginary” from earlier in 2024, though, “IF” is not a horror movie. Far from it. Instead it’s a family film centered on 12-year-old Bea (Cailey Fleming), a girl who’s staying at her grandma’s New York home while her father (John Krasinski) is in the hospital for a surgery. Having lost her mother due to cancer already, Bea is on edge.

That is until she comes across a man who’s accompanied by a fantastical creature, which inspires her to find out more. It turns out the guy is named Cal (Ryan Reynolds) and he’s helping various imaginary friends find new children to connect with after having been forgotten by the kids who made them. Wanting to help, Bea decides to assist Cal in the endeavor.

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REVIEW: ‘Nimona’ is an awesome animated adventure

Production issues nearly sidelined this film. Thank goodness it was revived and released on Netflix.

“Nimona” is set in a kingdom where the past meets the future. While the kingdom has all the makings of a medieval state in function, the movie is set in a high-tech world, with knights using hovercraft and advance technology.

The movie centers on one such knight, Ballister (Riz Ahmed), who finds himself framed for killing the queen of the kingdom. He meets an unlikely ally, though, in an unruly shapeshifter named Nimona (Chloe Grace Moretz) who has been shunned by the society at large for her abilities.

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REVIEW: Pixar’s ‘Elemental’ is a miss for the studio

Pixar movies can often turn on the water works or leave a person fired up when the credits roll. Surprisingly and disappointingly, “Elemental” doesn’t do either.

The studio’s latest film, “Elemental,” is set in a sprawling metropolis inhabited by beings made of air, water, plants and fire. Most of the different elements stick to their own kind, though, especially the fire people, who are the most recent immigrants to the city and reside in a more dilapidated part of town.

In their community, though, residents have found success, such as Ember (Leah Lewis) and her parents who operate a small convenience shop that she plans to take over. That plan hits a road block, though, when a water being named Wade who works for the city lets Ember know the shop isn’t up to code. However, in a twist of fate, the meeting actually brings the two together.

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REVIEW: ‘Strange World’ is Disney’s weakest effort in recent memory

I’m not going to lie. When this film reached the halfway point and a character said he saw something cute that could be a merchandising opportunity, I considered walking out.

“Strange World” centers on a community surrounded by seemingly impassable mountains. That doesn’t deter fearless explorer Jaeger Clade (Dennis Quaid), though, who gets lost in the mountains trying to find a way out. His son Searcher (Jake Gyllenhaal) never shared his father’s quest for exploration, and instead became a farmer of a valuable natural resource.

However, when that resource becomes threatened, he joins an expedition underneath the mountains to a strange subterranean area with his own son Ethan (Jaboukie Young-White). As it turns out, it’s where Jaeger has been the whole time.

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REVIEW: Yearning for more from ‘Lightyear’

“Lightyear” may feature rocket ships that can reach incredible heights, but the movie itself can’t manage to get a high rating.

As the film points out at the very start, “Lightyear” is a movie released in the “Toy Story” universe that Andy watched before getting his Buzz Lightyear action figure. The film tells the story of how Lightyear is a space ranger who was part of a mission that went wrong.

The botched mission caused him and several others aboard a massive ship to become stranded on an alien world. To leave the planet, Buzz (Chris Evans) begins testing hyperspace fuel cells in single-man ships to try and find a way to leave the planet, but doing so causes him to go years into the future.

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REVIEW: ‘Turning Red’ absolutely rocks

Pixar has went back-to-back with great coming of age films, following up last year’s “Luca” with this superb animated feature.

Domee Shi, who helmed the Academy Award-winning short film “Bao”from 2018, directed and co-wrote this Pixar film. The movie is set in Toronto during 2002 and centers on Mei (Rosalie Chiang), a straight-A student who works hard to meet the high standards set by her mother (Sandra Oh).

At the same time, Mei is also a typical 13-year-old. She hangs out with a group of best friends and they enjoy boy bands and have crushes. She has a pretty good balance going on, but that begins to change when a mystical family spell that passes generation-to-generation turns her into a giant red panda.

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