Tag: Review

REVIEW: ‘Tuesday’ is a turbulent, pretentious disappointment

Didn’t have death appearing as a bird that talks like Caesar from “Planet of the Apes” on the bingo card.

Voiced by Arinze Kene, Death comes in the form of a size-shifting parrot in “Tuesday,” and visits people across Earth in their final moments before they pass away. As the movie gets underway, the bird’s latest task is visiting the terminally ill teenage girl Tuesday (Lola Petticrew).

Tuesday speaks with Death though and the two form a sort of understanding, leading to an arrangement where the girl will be allowed to stay alive until her mother Zora (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) gets home to say goodbye. From there, the film presents a journey all about mortality for the characters.

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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: Raunchy script of ‘Babes’ is out of sync with dramedy vibe

Sometimes a film can have its heart completely in the right place, but still not be as enjoyable as one would hope. Such is the case with the new comedy “Babes.”

At the beginning of the film the audience is introduced to Eden (Ilana Glazer), a single woman who’s spending Thanksgiving with her pregnant friend Dawn (Michelle Buteau) at a movie theater, which is their tradition. It’s interrupted, though, when Dawn goes into labor.

While Dawn has experience being a mother, with this being her second child, Eden is on the opposite side as a single woman who doesn’t intend on being a parent. That is until she has a one-night stand and ends up getting pregnant herself. After some consideration, she decides to have the baby and become a single mother.

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REVIEW: ‘Young Woman and the Sea’ is a winner despite a few flaws

A century before Katie Ledecky was representing the U.S. in significant swims over long distances, there was Gertrude Ederle. However, the latter’s greatest swim didn’t take place in the pool.

“Young Woman and the Sea” tells the story of how Ederle, a swimmer from Manhattan, became the first woman to cross the English Channel. The movie shows how Ederle, portrayed by Daisy Ridley, grew up to become a competitive swimmer who competed in the 1924 Olympics.

The film follows Ederle being coached up by Women’s Swimming Association founder Charlotte Epstein (Sian Clifford) and how she was driven by her sister Meg (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) who also swam. It then shows her motivation to conquer the Channel and what it took to pull it off.

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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: Gosling and Blunt lift ‘The Fall Guy’ above average

Ryan Gosling has been outstanding in many dramatic roles, but damn does he ever have some good comedic skills, too.

Gosling stars as Colt Seavers, an experienced stunt man who had a steady career and a budding romance with a camerawoman, Judy (Emily Blunt). However, that came to an end with a bad injury that took him a long time to recover from. He’s convinced to come out of retirement, though, to work on a film that’s being directed by Judy, which is her first project.

It’s an awkward experience because he broke up with the up-and-coming director after his injury. The situation is made even more complicated when the actor Colt is doing stunts for suspiciously disappears. It turns out, there are nefarious reasons why, and as Colt searches for the star, he’s put in danger.

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REVIEW: Steaminess of ‘Challengers’ is a smokescreen for its shallowness

Luca Guadagnino’s last film about cannibalistic monsters featured a more wholesome relationship than this sports drama. Imagine that.

The director’s latest film, “Challengers,” features a trio of central characters, all of whom are tennis players. There’s the pro Art Donaldson (Mike Faist), his wife and coach Tashi (Zendaya), as well as Patrick (Josh O’Connor), who’s trying to revive his career in the sport.

The film is set in the present day, with Art struggling in recent tournaments and Tashi wanting him to compete in a smaller event where he can gain some confidence. There he’s put in competition against Patrick, a former friend and rival. The film then goes through a series of flashbacks showing how the three got to where they are in life and their intertwined relationships.

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REVIEW: Vampiric flick ‘Abigail’ is just average

Spring is apparently the new spooky season because this vampire flick is the latest in a string of horror releases over the last few weeks.

The most recent in the genre to hit theaters stars Melissa Barrera as Joey, one of six criminals looking to pull off a kidnapping for ransom. The job is to abduct a young ballet dancer, Abigail (Alisha Weir), who’s the daughter of a wealthy and powerful, but mysterious figure.

Others on the team include former detective Frank (Dan Stevens), a hacker in Sammy (Kathryn Newton), a getaway driver named Dean (Angus Cloud), weapons expert Rickles (Will Catlett) and a mob enforcer with Peter (Kevin Durand). However, what they don’t know is that they’ve kidnapped a vampire.

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REVIEW: ‘Civil War’ entertains but doesn’t quite captivate

If a fascist regime ever rises up in the U.S., rest assured Texas and California will put aside their differences and the 2005 Rose Bowl to take it down.

That at least is the interpretation of writer and director Alex Garland in his new film “Civil War.” The film picks up in the near future with California and Texas, known as the Western Forces, marching toward Washington to topple the dictatorial third-term president portrayed by Nick Offerman.

The film centers on Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst), an experienced photojournalist who’s been to several areas of conflict, and is now reporting on her country’s own inner turmoil. She’s joined by a Reuters reporter, a veteran journalist for the New York Times and a rookie photographer on the way from New York to D.C. to document the war’s ending.

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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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