Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga




Fury,Fire and Fun

PRAISE: George Miller returns to his Mad Max world to bring audiences the origin story of Fury Roads Furiosa. I appreciated the time he spends on the character in this movie. Showing what shaped her over the years with a very thorough origin story. Alyla Browne as Furiosa as a girl does an excellent job portraying her as loving, fearful and vengeful. When the torch is passed to Anya Taylor-Joy all of the aforementioned is maintained especially in scenes with Tom Burke who I almost didn't recognize from one of my favorite shows STRIKE.As
Dr. Dementus Chris Hemsworth does a pretty good job. Though his backstory is not as thorough as Furiosa's a few things are dropped to let the audience know what made him into what he is. Hemsworth takes a bit from previous characters he plays so I almost fell for what he was dishing out but no he's basically sinister. What George Miller and Simon Duggan do visually in this movie is nothing short of incredible. From the vastness of sand dunes and canyons and the passingof time. I was focused on one thing in a scene that was playing out that there was something equally cool happening on the sidelines. The action sequences are perfect in every way. Such a good job is done on the people that make up the various factions that make up the post apocalyptic world in this movie I really wondered who was subhuman and who wasn't for the most part. Mix in Tom Holkenborgs score with the action and it just adds to how incredible they are.

PROBLEMS: I do think there was a gap or two in the story in which A couple of things weren't explained. The pacing really slows down in the movies last twenty minutes I kind of knew how things would play out but I was expecting more thrills with it.

Scale of 1 to 10 an 8




Atlas





Artificial Story Arcsl

PRAISE: Jennifer Lopez is another actress finishing up her contract with Netflix and this time around its in Atlas a movie about a data analyst who has to track down a superior AI with the help of an AI despite her mistrust of all AI.
There is some fun to be had watching this flick. Lopez gives it her all in several scenes and she makes some dramatic moments work. The movie borrows a bit from movies like Alien but at least they do something with it here and there. The movie actually brought back some fond memories I have of my old Exo Squad action figures. Speaking of action there are some pretty good CGI filled action sequences. There are some amusing moments as Lopez's character bonds with her AI assistant. There were several good moments with an AI that takes a licking but keeps on ticking.

PROBLEMS: Far to many plot holes. Does any character especially those in the military know anything about stealth?
Simi Liu is wasted in his role he just stares at the camera and says a few sinister things. Absolutely no intimidation from his character. Abraham Popoolas character actually steals his thunder as another AI called Casca in several scenes. Sterling K Brown fairs a bit better but not much and I was actually confused about something that happens with the character but maybe I dosed off and missed something. The way certain things play out should have been told better giving characters a better foundation. What was done briefly in the movie I,Robot gave it that dramatic punch it needed but in this movie it just felt lackluster. When the flick reaches what I thought was it's climax I was shocked there was still twenty four minutes to go.

Scale of 1 to 10 a 5

Boy Kills World




Bloody Boy !!!!

Part revenge flick parody,part video game BKW definitely has its moments as Boy portrayed with ultra enthusiasm by Bill Skarsgård seeks revenge against those who rule the dystopian future in this film that killed his family. A lot of fun to be had with ultra violence and at times made me feel like I was in Mojos world from Marvel Comics. The cast gives it there all chewing up scenery and doling out salty dialogue. There's some good CGI and creative moments. The movie is partially predictable and becomes repetitive in the second half . Still a lot of fun

Scale of 1 to 10 a 7½


Movie Pass Movie Crash





Great behind the scenes documentary about Movie Pass.Finacing,cant get financing because of race,or and skeptics.Founders of the company getting pushed out. Scheming by the new heads of the company.
As a person that was at a Multiplex theatre almost every Thursday,Friday and Saturday,until i developed a deep relationship with the Alamo Draft House Movie Pass was that to good to be true dream discount for me. I mean 10 bucks a month any movie you want to see? No waiting 2 or 3 weeks to see a new movie deal. GREAT but of course the bubble burst. I still remember the day the clerks and ushers yelling at the AMC theatre they were no longer honoring Movie Pass deals. It's still around but far less popular due to lame credit lines and not really saving any money.

Scale of 1 to 10 a 10

Poolman





I was amused an laughed a bit at some of the banter and how kooky and quirky some of the characters were in this movie about Darren a poolman who gets mixed up in city hall corruption. He reminds me of those skateboarders who show up at city council meetings to demand that their skateboard sites wont be replaced by a McDonald's. Some fun things are done stylishly blending clothing and cars from different time periods. The movie runs out of steam fast as things become sillier and characters become extremely obnoxious,and i could barely make sense of the script. It's trying to be The Big Lebowski, Bowfinger and a parody of bumbling detective films but never quite reaches those heights.The last 40 minutes were a chore for me to get through as I found myself not caring much. How first time Director Chris Pine was able to assemble so much talent for this is beyond me.

Scale of 1 to 10 a 3

Bad Boys: Ride or Die





NOT BAD

PRAISE: The formula of these BB movies still works for the most part as the characters are dealing with multiple personal issues the Bad Boys are set up and while on the run must clear their names.
There's still a lot of fun and funny moments because of not only the fact that the characters Mike Lowery (Will Smith) and Marcus Miles (Martin Lawrence) knowing each other so well but also the bond between the two actors shines through. The banter between the two was very funny at times.I liked how the movie leans heavily into some dramatic threads in the story and how there are some truly involving moments. I think Eric Dane did pretty good as the sadistic McGrath. I think he should be considered to take on the role of Deathstroke if WB ever gets around to really using the character. By now I'm used to the side characters being sidelined in these movies but there are a couple of moments when they pick up the slack. I appreciated that the movie took the time to explain away a couple of things to avoid plot holes. There are multiple action sequences with kills but one particular kill was outstanding.

PROBLEMS: While I didn't mind some of the call backs,the film goes to repetitive mode several times, in which scene from a former BB movie is just tweaked a little with a bit of different dialogue. A character was thrown in with absolutely no development. I kept saying are they going to give this character something to say aside from a few lines? The cameos felt forced to me but I did like the outcome of one of the quick appearances. A character shows up and I immediately knew they were up to no good ten minutes into the movie.

Scale of 1 to 10 a 7½






HIT MAN





Fake it & Make it

PRAISE : I thought the trailer for this movie was kind of bland and i wasnt going o give it a minute of my time but then i heard it was based on a few true stories i had read about a few years ago. Glen Powell portrays Gary Johnson, a college professor who has been assisting the police department with menial tasks but has to step in as a fake hitman to lure people into hiring him and basically getting them to talk about murder set ups. Powell has charisma and then some and is pretty funny as he alters his appearance and voice throughout the movie. His romance in the movie with Adria Arjona as Maddy Masters works not only because of the chemistry between the two but the rules they set up for each other that sounds like they're going to work.Writers Richard Linklater & Glen Powell wisely place a The Town thread in the movie that adds to the this is going to be a problem factor.Plus there's another complicated twist that worked partially. There's a good amount of clever writing in this that adds up to some fun and involving moments in the movie.Nice nods to Hit Man movies and T.V shows


PROBLEMS: I do feel like the climax of the film felt a bit abrupt,and they throw something in to easily eliminate a problem,just a little to neat and clean for me.


Scale of 1 to 10 an 7½




The Watchers




Woods Weirdness

PRAISE: ♪♫ I always feel like somebody's watching me♪♫
The movie starts off well enough with an off balance woman named Mina (Dakota Fanning) who takes a simple bird delivery trip but finds herself right in the middle of the woods and in something very mysterious. Following in the footsteps of her father director and writer M Night Shyamalan,Ishana Shyamalan directs this story that pulled me in mainly because of trying to figure out how and why things are happening. Fanning does well as Mina trying to figure out just what is going on as the audience is. I liked that she didn't want to sit around and play along like the other three characters housed behind a glass window in the woods.As Madeleine Olwen Fouere is always a welcome unflinching presence.Theres also Ciara (Georgina Campbell) and Daniel (Oliver Finnegan) who are jittery and seemingly in a trance.
Shyamalan provides some cold and creepy moments. Several scenes standout visually as the story unfolds and I think that they're the most effective scenes in the movie, actually made me think of Guillermo del Toro SFX and practical effects work. Ishana has that similar eye and I'm hopeful to see what she does next with it.

PROBLEMS: The plot holes disrupt a lot of the good things about the movie. I even sat there trying to rationalize about why certain actions weren't taking by a character because it would have been the most logical thing to do. Even the excuse i came up with was washed away. Sure I can also give the movie the excuse that they had budget limitations but there should have been a lot more in the setting in which the movie is placed. The movie aims to be multiple things but in the end it just becomes jumbled.

Scale of 1 to 10 a 4

Trigger Warning



Weak Warning

The Last movie I saw Jessica Alba in was 2016's Mechanic: Resurrection so I was up for seeing her in an action movie with a story about A special forces commando returning home after her father's death and takes on a weapons trafficking gang.
Alba is good here and there in the film. I liked the opening of the movie as it displays how tough Alba's Parker is supposed to be.
There are some lines of dialogue that I enjoyed. I did enjoy watching a few of the action sequences. Some of the cinema photography was nice to take in
There are plenty of unintentionally laughable moments

PROBLEMS: There are some awkward racist moments and conversations when it comes to Parkers ethnicity. There are definitely some moments of ultra bad acting. Yes Parker is supposed to be a skilled soldier but not a stealth super hero. Characters don't make logical decisions or steps. What the bad guys are up to and why they commit murder doesn't hold up when I actually saw how casual they were about going about illegal measures. How a couple of things play out don't make sense. There are some unnecessary drops of information that just draws the movie out.

Scale of 1 to 10 a 4½

Man, Quentin Tarantino really dropped the ball on the Kill Bill franchise. He had two movies he could’ve made with this opportunity:

1) DiVAS (The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad) - Who doesn’t love a prequel? It would’ve show all six of them as their most baddest. Ass kicking, stunts, all that. Plus, we wanted to know what Bill do to piss Honzo off THAT bad to make that sword, even after swearing the blood oath never to make another one.

2) Kill Bill Part 3 - Nakia’s revenge. Trained by the now-totally blind Elle Driver, the daughter of Nakita Green grows up with only one thing on her mind: vengeance for seeing her mother killed by Beatrice right in front of her in the first fight of the series. Could make up for some real drama. I’m sure they’d target BB to lure the retired “Bride” out into the open. How does this saga all end, tho?

Damn, I wish we could’ve seen it. With David Carrdine dead for years now, we’d never get the DiVAS movie, and everyone else is two years older, so it wouldn’t be worth shooting KB3.

Mister B. M. Ed. said:

Man, Quentin Tarantino really dropped the ball on the Kill Bill franchise. He had two movies he could’ve made with this opportunity:

1) DiVAS (The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad) - Who doesn’t love a prequel? It would’ve show all six of them as their most baddest. Ass kicking, stunts, all that. Plus, we wanted to know what Bill do to piss Honzo off THAT bad to make that sword, even after swearing the blood oath never to make another one.

2) Kill Bill Part 3 - Nakia’s revenge. Trained by the now-totally blind Elle Driver, the daughter of Nakita Green grows up with only one thing on her mind: vengeance for seeing her mother killed by Beatrice right in front of her in the first fight of the series. Could make up for some real drama. I’m sure they’d target BB to lure the retired “Bride” out into the open. How does this saga all end, tho?

Damn, I wish we could’ve seen it. With David Carrdine dead for years now, we’d never get the DiVAS movie, and everyone else is two years older, so it wouldn’t be worth shooting KB3.

Click to expand...

One aspect of KB3 that would’ve been good: Bea’s final conversation with Bill about her “true” identity as a killer would make a good theme of the film.

Also, to drive the point home, a plot twist:

BB reveals to Beatrix that she saw the whole fight between her mother and father at the end of KB2. The first gunshot Bill shot at Beatrix woke BB up after they watched Shogun Assassin, and she went to the door and watched the whole scene play out before going back to bed.

This further complicates the relationship between mother and daughter, knowing that her dad tried to kill her mom, but also seeing her mom kill her dad.

QT dropped the ball on this. I stand on it.

A Quiet Place, A: Day One




Suspenseful in Places

PRAISE: 6 years after the original movie there's still gas in the tank in this franchise. This time around the story is about A woman named Sam who ends up finding herself in the middle of an alien invasion but still goes off on a mission that is very personal. I liked the Sam character right from the start and part of it has to do with funny but sympathetic performance from Lupita Nyong’o. I can't talk about the character and not mention her fearless and smart cat Frodo. I can see why the pet was written in to the film.There are charming and heartfelt moments in the movie that are attached to some great suspenseful moments. When the character of Eric is introduced portrayed by Joseph Quinn the charming parts of the film are reved up because they both depend on each other not only for survival but encouragement. The aliens are still an intimidating and vicious force to be reckoned with and really stand out in some key scenes. This is a smaller film than the first 2 but there's enough here to connect all 3 movies and this is still effective as a stand alone film.

PROBLEMS: Sure like any film franchise things that made the first film so great and that inspired sequels,(including box office numbers)starts to thin out. There are definitely moments that are not that involving and there's definitely a been there done that feel around the edges coupled with a few predictable moments.

Scale of 1 to 10 a 7½




Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1




Ponderous but hard hitting Horizon

PRAISE: Kevin Costners passion project hits the big screen and I could definitely tell this is the R rated western that he has always wanted to make. He and Co writer Jon Baird have created multiple story threads for this film and it took some time for me to warm up to the characters and once that happened I definitely found myself more involved in what was happening in the story. The characters I felt the most for were Frances (Sienna Miller) and daughter Elizabeth (Georgia MacPhail) through harrowing unforseen occurrences have to depend not only on each other but U.S Army officers including First Lieutenant Trent Gephardt (Sam Worthington) I liked the characters blunt honesty towards the settlers who even though facing obvious hard truths didnt accept or didn't want to accept such truths because they were sold a false dream.Then theres Russell (Etienne Kellici) who's going through his own trauma after an attack by the Apache.The Apache, and its warrior Pionsenay (Owen Crow Shoe) still wants to fight for their land against all odds but the tribal-chief father Tuayeseh’s (Gregory Cruz) seeks peace.
Costner doesn't pull any punches in his story telling, with the brutality,hard living,take what and who I want mindset of the old west. When his character is introduced Hayes Ellison it's a laid back I just want to handle my business persona to him but of course with a lot of Costners western characters there is more than meets the eye. Especially when Ellison is being hounded by psychopath Caleb Sykes (Jamie Campbell Bower. The action and attack sequences are hard hitting as I said before NO punches are pulled. There are string themes throughout the movie. Seeking revenge and vengeance comes with a price. Costners direction is on point as usual especially in several suspenseful scenes. There's a nice who's who of familiar actors and actresses blended in the film. I thought it was cool when the words spoken by Danny Huston as Colonel Houghton are exactly what's playing out in the Yellowstone series.

PROBLEMS: The first hour and fifteen minutes definitely meander. It took me time to actually care about the characters that were being introduced. Some characters are so blatant about what they are all about it made parts of this film and will make parts of the next film very predictable.
I thought it was odd how a character couldn't read the room even though other characters were spelling it out.A better editing job should have been done at the end of the movie because I'm absolutely sure other people who watch this movie will be as confused as I was.

Scale of 1 to 10 a 7½




In a Violent Nature




Vivid Violence

PRAISE: Writer and Director Chris Nash must be a huge fan of The Friday the 13th movies and the relentless killer Jason because it truly shows in this movie. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that because I'm a fan of those movies too even when they became ultra campy and silly. This story about a killer rising again to obtain a gold locket is definitely an over the top,and dwelling gore fest and it provides several moments so crazy I laughed a lot and sure it made me wince a few times. The mute killer appealed to me because as aforementioned im also a Jason fan.There are a couple of obnoxious characters I couldn't wait to see become just memories and I was given just that.

PROBLEMS: The characters are dumb and then some. If anyone that watches this and loves long and i mean really long nature walks during different times of the day visually this is the movie for you. I found these scenes to be obnoxious and that Nash was just trying to make it to the 92 minute mark. The backstory doesn't even make sense when I sat there and really thought about it and what actions weren't taken by a certain character. The last 15 minutes are so dull I picked up my phone to watch Friday the 13 in 3D trailer to amuse myself.

Scale of 1 to 10 a 6