Tag: movies

REVIEW: ‘Monkey Man’ has great action but mangled storytelling

There are plenty of primate movie titles this year it seems. March had “Kong x Godzilla,” April has “Monkey Man” and May brings “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.”

The middle film isn’t actually about a monkey, though. Instead, the film centers on the character Kid (Dev Patel), a young man living in Yatana, a fictional metropolis in India. Struggling to get by, he manages to earn money as a fighter in an underground boxing ring, where he dons an ape mask.

His true objective, though, is putting himself in a position where he can get revenge on those who destroyed his village and killed his mother. His main two targets are a corrupt guru (Makarand Deshpande) and a crooked police chief (Sikandar Kher). But pulling such a thing off is a difficult, dangerous task.

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REVIEW: ‘In the Land of Saints and Sinners’ is a solid Neeson entry

Another movie has arrived in theaters with a poster showing Liam Neeson holding a gun. There’s been quite a few of these over the years, but few quite as somber.

“Land of Saints and Sinners” is set in Ireland during the Troubles, but most of the movie takes place away from the conflict. Instead, the location is a coastal village where humble, friendly bookseller Finbar Murphy (Neeson) resides. What he hides from the town, though, is that he’s also an experienced hitman.

However, it’s part of his life he’s ready to be done with. That is until the conflict arrives in the village when a group of IRA members go there to lay low after a bombing. While there, one of them commits a crime against one of the residents, and, as he’s grown to love the village, Finbar decides to take action.

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Success of ‘Flower Moon,’ Gladstone should lead to more Native stories in film

“Poor Things” was one of my favorite films of 2023, and a major factor in its high quality was Emma Stone’s performance. In the film, she did work that is absolutely Oscar-caliber, and recognition from the Academy was certainly earned.

However, the same can easily be said about Lily Gladstone’s acting in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and I was rooting for her success during the award season campaign. Her Golden Globe acceptance speech, where she spoke in the Blackfeet language, was an inspiring moment. Continue reading “Success of ‘Flower Moon,’ Gladstone should lead to more Native stories in film”

REVIEW: Godzilla and Kong’s New Empire is off to a forgettable start

At this point these films might as well just cut the human characters out entirely, they were barely necessary here.

That’s because, as expected, the latest movie centers on the big monkey and giant lizard. The former, Mr. Kong, has made a home in the Hollow Earth, a space between the planet’s surface and core. Kong is living his life as the Hollow Earth’s de facto ruler, but is rather lonely as the only giant gorilla there.

That changes when he discovers several other massive apes live nearby, but they’re led by a tyrant hell-bent on conquest of the surface. Godzilla, who is becoming aware of this threat, is preparing in his own way. But it’s going to take both rivals to handle the antagonist.

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REVIEW: ‘Late Night With Devil’ is a solid spin on found footage horror

If this movie was real, I feel like the host would definitely be invited on Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell in the 90s to talk about his experience.

The film centers on Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian), the host of a late-night talk show. His series has its fans and is mostly well received, but always comes in second to the classic king of late-night, Johnny Carson. Stuck with declining ratings and a personal tragedy, Delroy is looking for a turnaround.

He decides he needs to do something big for the Halloween special of his show. The solution is inviting a teenage girl on his show who could possibly be possessed by a demon, among other guests. From there, what begins as a fun night of evening television turns into something terrifying.

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REVIEW: Though generic, ‘Arthur the King’ has heart to win one over

I’m a simple man. I see a movie about a dog, and I usually leave the auditorium happy. It holds true once again.

While the film is named after a good boy named Arthur, though, it actually centers on an adventure racer named Michael Light (Mark Wahlberg). Michael has had several races in his career and despite many top 10 finishes, he’s never come in first. His last attempt in fact was so bad that he left the sport.

Still feeling he has something in the tank a few years later, though, he decides to give adventure racing one last shot in the Dominican Republic with a four-man team. As they go on their race, they meet a stray dog tagging along their journey, and they all come to love the canine.

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REVIEW: Despite issues, ‘Immaculate’ has good horror intensity

Sometimes, it’s better to just stay in Detroit.

The protagonist of “Immaculate” is Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney), a young woman from Michigan who finds herself in Italy. A nun, Cecilia has journeyed to Europe after receiving an invitation to join a remote convent where sisters are given end-of-life care. It’s difficult work, but driven by religious duty, she embraces it.

Her routine of devoted service is interrupted, though, when she becomes pregnant, despite being a virgin. She is then treated by the convent as if she is the next Virgin Mary. Already uneasy over the attention, the situation turns more dire as Cecilia notices dark and nefarious activity by convent leaders.

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REVIEW: ‘Imaginary’ has insufficient scares

Blumhouse Productions, the gift that keeps on giving. Sometimes you get something fun like “M3gan,” other times you get “Imaginary.”

The latest film from the horror-centric studio centers on Jessica (DeWanda Wise), an accomplished children’s book author. The film picks up with her and her husband (Tom Payne), as well as her step-children Alice (Pyper Braun) and Taylor (Taegen Burns) moving into her childhood home.

Taylor isn’t a fan at all of her stepmom but Alice seems to be OK and starts adjusting to the new house thanks to a teddy bear she finds in the basement. However, it soon becomes clear that the bear is attached to a dark spirit related to Jessica’s own past.

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REVIEW: ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ is a fumbling follow-up

It’s time to take the Ghostbusters off the contacts list, they don’t need to be called again.

Set after the 2021 film “Afterlife,” “Frozen Empire” takes place in New York City in the present day with Egon Spengler’s daughter Callie (Carrie Coon) hunting ghosts with her kids Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), as well as her boyfriend Gary (Paul Rudd). Though successful, the four have also gotten into trouble with NYC leadership for property damage.

They get off with a warning, but are forced to leave Phoebe, still a teen, out of ghost catching. Meanwhile, former Ghostbuster Ray (Dan Aykroyd) is presented with an old family heirloom with a powerful entity inside. As the film goes on, situations with the characters begin happening that may release the entity.

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REVIEW: ‘One Life’ earns credit for dramatizing extraordinary effort

The World War II era was a period with many stories of bravely doing what’s right, on and off the battlefield. This film centers on one of the latter stories.

Anthony Hopkins portrays British man Nicholas Winton, who’s cleaning out paperwork in his home office and finds several old documents that he’s kept over the years. The documents are from his time with a British committee tasked with evacuating refugees from Czechoslovakia.

The film then goes back to a younger Winton in the late 1930s where he is portrayed by Johnny Flynn. The movie shows the effort by Winton and others in the committee who worked night and day to get political refugees and Jewish children out of the area as the German invasion grew closer.

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