Sean’s movie thoughts

I re-watched Stan and Ollie. It holds up. It is a little sad though. I am still not sure how true to life it is. John C. Reilly good reviews for his performance here which was nice after the bad reviews  he got for Holmes and Watson. Melissa McCarthy is making another movie with her husband Ben Falcone. They will co-write the movie and he will direct.  I guess it is nice to work with your spouse but from what I’ve seen and read the movies they co-write and he directs are worse than her other movies. She most likely has a different perspective on her career than I do. I did not go to see Dumbo. I was not interested. I have seen the animated movie.

This was good. It was nice to see long time Legion of Superheroes villains the Fatal Five in animated form. This Justice League lineup is a bit different and it has Mr. Terrific, Green Lantern Jessica Cruz, and Miss Martian (along with Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman). This movie focuses on Jessica Cruz. She is not fearless, she struggles to overcome her fears. Also Miss Martian in this movie is not quite a full Justice League member.  I guess she is a member in training. Starboy has come from the future but his mental state is deteriorating. Maybe the movie could have done a better job spotlighting the Fatal Five and their motivations. I am familiar with them but some viewers might not be familiar with then. These DC animated movies are usually under 100 minutes. Maybe some of this movies might benefit from a longer running time. I enjoyed it.  I put a link to a review below. https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/03/30/justice-league-vs-the-fatal-five-review-2

I am not saying this is a terrible movie. I just lost interest and I think I had 40 or maybe 50 minutes left to watch. I might try it to watch it again in a month or so. Or I might not. Claire Foy plays Lisabeth Salandar, the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, in this movie. She is the third actress to take the role and she is good in it. The problems with the film don’t include her. This movie bombed but it doesn’t seem like it hurt Foy’s career. I am not sure why I lost interest. I thought there was a car chase that went on too long. I’ve seen a lot of car chases over the years but it feels like I have not seen a really good one in a while. This feels like it wants to be a female James Bond or female Jason Bourne movie. It is fairly humorless. Except for Foy’s performance, there is not much to recommend this film. I am not recommending this movie. If I re-watch it and revise my opinion, I will write a new blog posting,

Captain Marvel is a good film, but not a very good film. There are some nice moments and it is nice to see the Kree and the Skrulls on the big screen. However this is not top tier Marvel and might be middle tier or lower. I did not mind the 90s references or the music choices. I did not think the movie overdid the 90s references and I liked most of the song choices. There might have been a song choice that was a bit too obvious. I think maybe the main character suffering memory loss for most of the movie hurt Brie Larson’s performance. We will see how her performance in Avengers Endgame compares. I do think the movie is worth seeing again. Almost all the Marcel movies are. Maybe I would have made a few changes if I had written the movie. I don’t want to say more and I want to avoid spoilers.

This is a very good animated Spider-man film. It features a variety of Spider-men from various dimensions but it is mostly the story of Miles Morales becoming Spider-man. It was nice to have Chris Pine as Spider-man (even briefly). This is everything you’d want a Spider-man film to be. It it is funny, it is touching, and it is exciting. It does a good job of introducing the various Spider-men. These include Spider-ham, Spider-Gwen (who is now called Ghost Spider), and Spider-Man Noir. It is definitely worth seeing if you haven’t seen it and it is worth re-watching if you have seen it.

Before the hit TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer there was a movie called Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Over the years, the series has overshadowed the movie and now the character is being rebooted in comics. Luke Perry died recently, and it was nice to see him in this film. Kristy Swanson stars as Buffy Summers and she is fine in the role.  She is a valley girl and cheerleader with a hidden destiny. Donald Sutherland is Merrick, her watcher. He is in charge of her training. It is not a great movie. The horror humor combination the movie is trying for doesn’t work completely. Perry and Swanson are good together and the movie has nice moments. The villains are not great. The show is better but I think the movie is worth seeing at least once.

Triple Threat puts Tiger Chen, Tony Jaa, and Ike Uwais (from the Raid and the Raid 2)together. It is nice to see Tony Jaa working again on a regular basis. Tiger Chen seems more comfortable acting than he did in Man of Tai Chi. Scott Adkins and Michael Jai White are on hand as villains. Adkins gets to use his British accent. They both get good fight scenes. This movie needed more hand to hand fight scenes. Michael Bisping is another villain. While not great, it is pretty good and the last act is good. I like a movie that ends well.

Is Will Ferrell making another Anchorman movie? He is doing a podcast as his character Ron Burgundy and he appeared  in character to call part of a hockey game. I think the last time Ferrell was appearing as Ron Burgundy was before Anchorman 2 came out. I don’t really like Anchorman that much and I never saw the sequel. At least I never saw all of the sequel(I saw parts on cable). I don’t really want to see a third Anchorman film. So far, no third film has been announced. So, if there is not going to be a third movie, why is Ferrell making the podcast and appearing places as the character? I don’t know.

The Front Runner is not terrible but it is a misfire. Hugh Jackman plays Gary Hart, the Senator whose run for the Presidency was derailed by his affair with Donna Rice. This occurred in 1987. Jackman is a large part of why the film is a misfire. He is either miscast as Hart or the script did not give him good material. The movie starts off a little slowly. Then the press finds out about Hart’s affair with Donna Rice and Hart tries to continue the campaign but the press becomes focused on the affair and what it might mean about his judgment. He drops out. Sarah Paxton is fine as Donna Rice. She does not get a lot of screentime though. Vera Farmiga is good as Hart’s wife Lee. Other performances are good. Jackman as the main star gives the worst performance but I am not sure how much the script is to blame for that. I know some movies only point is to be entertaining but I think this movie wanted to make a point. I don’t think a point was made.

Cheech Marin wrote, directed, and stared in this movie about a Mexican American (Rudy) wrongly deported to Mexico. He left his wallet at home and he was caught up in an immigration raid. He tries to get back to East LA. Daniel Stern costars as an American running a bar and hiring Rudy for odd jobs. Why Stern’s character is in Mexico is hinted at but not completely explained. He and Cheech have some nice moments. It is fun. Chech has a likable screen presence. As a viewer, you want him to get back home(at least I I did). His character Rudy was not fleuant in Spanish, which was done I guess to make him seem like an outsider in Mexico. There is a romantic subplot and that subplot is good. Kamala Lopez played Delores, who was from El Salvador and also worked at Daniel Stern’s bar. There are some nice sight gags when he attempts to cross the border. The parody song Born in East LA is fun (and predated the film). This was Marin’s first movie after he and Tommy Ching ended their partner...

I was wrong about there not being a romantic subplot in any of Mike the Miz Mizanin’s Marine movies. His sisters were dating guys in the Marine 3. I think that counts. It is a bit interesting or odd that his character had four movies without a love interest. The Disney Fox merger is complete. I am not sure the results are going to be good for consumers in the long run. There were stories about Disney flexing their muscles towards theaters recently and now Disney has more muscles (or bigger muscles). I am okay with the X-men being in a separate film universe than the Avengers and company. (The X-men and the Fantastic Four being in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is seen as a benefit of the merger.) It worked for years, even if a few of the X-men movies were not good.

Where does the Transformers series go now? Bumblebee was not a huge hit but it was profitable and I think it is going to sell well on home video. (I bought it digitally and might buy a physical copy for a friend.) There is going to be a sequel. However one of the series producers wants to make a sequel to Transformers the Last Knight. That movie is reported to be really bad. I haven’t seen it to be fair but nothing I have heard or read about it makes me think skipping the film was a bad idea. Also wasn’t Bumblebee made on a smaller scale and budget because The Last Knight made a lot less than the previous entry in the franchise? (I think it was at least a 35% drop domestically.) I am not sure that going back to the Last Knight’s scale and budget is the right move.

I am not sure why I was thinking about the movie Soul Man. Soul Man probably hurt C. Thomas Howell’s career. Soul Man is a 1980s movie where a white man named Mark (C. Thomas Howell) darkens his skin to win a scholarship to law school. He discovers that he has no idea what it is like as an African American. I have not seen the movie in years but I know that it was controversial. Howell has expressed that he regrets making the film sometimes because it hurt his career. That is unfair. While not a great film, it is not mean spirited. If anything Mark became a better person over the course of the film. I think the movie might have been an easy target because the writer and director were not African-American. Maybe an African-American writer or director (or both) would made a different film from the same basic plot. That might have been a better film.

I like Batman as much as anyone. However it is nice that DC is making another animated Wonder Woman movie this year and released another animated Superman movie in January (making two in the last year). Batman will be in the new Justice League animated movie but it is nice to see Warner Brothers put out some non-Batman animated films. I think I am not going to a movie this week. I might double up some other week but I don’t feel like a dying teens in love story this week. I could go see Captain Marvel again but I don’t go to see a movie in theaters multiple times. I hope Shazam is good. I think it is the next movie I am looking forward to seeing.(Unless I forgot something.) Early reviews have been good.

Billy Blanks stars as a cop named Billy who leaves the department after a tragic accident. Years later he is a school janitor. The new kid in town, Ken, runs afoul of a bully. Billy trains Ken to defend himself. There is also an illegal fight ring happening. (The bully is involved in that.) This is not a great movie but I always kind of liked it. I have not seen it in a few years but it held up. (There is a new Blu-Ray of the movie.) It does seem a bit similar to the Karate Kid. (Okay it is very similar to the Karate Kid.) The positives The training scenes are fun The fights are pretty good Patrick Kilpatrick makes a good villain Blanks makes a good mentor http://cinema-crazed.com/blog/2013/08/16/showdown-1993   I think this review is fair.

Robert Downey Jr has played Iron Man in 8 movies. Chris Evans has played Captain America in 6 movies. It is unfair to expect Bree Larson to be as good as Captain Marvel as either one is in their respective roles. I might have been unfair in my review of Captain Marvel. Shang Chi (the Master of Kung Fu) is getting a movie. That seems odd. He stared in some classic comics in 1970s and 1980s. We will see what develops. I am not sure where he fits into the Marvel cinematic universe. There will be an animated Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie coming to home video. That could be fun. Also there is a Justice League vs Fatal Five animated movie coming out soon.

One of my favorite DC heroes is Green Lantern Guy Gardner. He is also a character that some writers don’t get (Booster Gold is another) in my opinion. In the wrong hands, Guy is a bad character. In the right hands, he is an interesting one.  My favorite creation of his was his giant brush when he gave someone “the brush off”. I also really liked the time he made a little table, chair, and drink while fighting someone. Why can’t he star in a Green Lantern movie? It could be him and John Stewart. Or it could be John Stewart, Hal Jordan and him. I want Guy on the big screen.

Captain Marvel is pretty good but not great. It takes place in the 1990s but I did not think there were too many references to the era or that the references overwhelmed the plot. Basically the Kree and the Skrulls are at war in space and Kree Warrior Vers comes to Earth in pursuit of the Skrulls. She discovers that she is not who she thinks she is. (This pretty obvious from the trailers but there are plot details I am not giving away.) Samuel L. Jackson is on hand as a young Nick Fury. The effects making him look younger are good. Clark Gregg is also on hand as a young agent Phil Coulson. There is also a young Monica Rambeau and her mother in the movie. Perhaps we will see a grown up Monica later. (Monica is a superhero in comics and she was called Captain Marvel for a time.)  Brie Larson is good in the role but as not as good as Gal Galdot is as Wonder Woman. (Larson is not as good in her role as Robert Downey Jr is as Tony Stark or Chris Evans is as Captain America.) Maybe...

Producer Jason Blum says that a third Happy Death Day looks unlikely. That might be okay. I liked the two films we got. Maybe a third movie would have been as good as the first two but maybe it would not. I’ve heard there is a new Dark Phoniex trailer and it is better than the last one. I might check it out but I think I be okay if the X-men movies took a few years off. Maybe I would be more interested in this movie if some major changes were made. The first two Fantastic Four movies are not that bad. They are a lot better than the third one. The cast was pretty good, even Jessica Alba. (There are worse cases of actors or actresses playing scientists than her. I think she got some harsh criticism.)

I might have been too hard on Alita Battle Angel. I have seen worse movies than Atila Battle Angel. Some of them I saw in theaters, and some I saw on cable or DVD. Independence Day Resurgence might be worse. (I have not seen Resurgence in a while, I might be underestimating its faults.) Yes, the movie has some problems and yeah, I wish it did not end seting up a sequel that will probably never happen. (A number of movies recently set up sequels that never happened.) Maybe the script needed another editing or revision. It has some positives though. Rosa Salazar is good in the lead role and it has good action sequences. It looks really good. I did not lose interest. Maybe the movie is worth another watch.

How to Train Your Dragon the Hidden World was good, not great. The first movie in this series is probably the best.  I was worried that there would be too much comic relief but that was not a problem. I saw an early review that suggested too much comic relief was a problem. Hiccup and the gang are happily living with their dragons in Burke. Maybe they have too many dragons. However a band of Vikings wants to steal the dragons and they hire a villain to get them. There is a female Nightfury, which is interesting because it seemed from the previous movies that Toothless was the last Nighfury. Hiccup thinks the people of Burke and their dragons need to find the mythical Hidden World, the homeland of dragons. (This ends the plot summary/description.) The parts with Toothless and Hiccup are fun. Their relationship is the backbone of the series. There are some flashbacks featuring Stoic (Hiccup’s father), which I thought was a nice touch. Hiccup’s mother is back from the second movie...

Star Wars the Last Jedi was a surprisingly polarizing film. It was popular at the box office but there has been an online backlash against it. There still is but the movie sold pretty well on home video, so maybe the backlash is coming from a small but vocal group of fans. I like the movie overall. It is a little long. The subplot on the casino planet feels unnecessary or at least too long. I wonder if a version of the movie without that subplot would be significantly better.  You have to review the movie that is, not the movie you want the movie to be. There is probably a better way to say that. There are some other problems with the film but overall I still enjoyed the movie enough to re-watch it and I am still interested in seeing the next movie. I have not given up on the franchise and I don’t expect to (this could of course change). The major problem with the the film, according to its critics, is that Luke is not enough of a badass. Did they not see the Force Awakens? ...

Will Smith won’t be in the Suicide Squad sequel because of a scheduling issue. I am okay with that but I hope the sequel is better than the first movie. I mean Smith would probably be good in the movie but maybe some new characters and actors would be nice. It would be nice if the person or people writing the script knew why the Suicide Squad exists and what kind of missions it should undertake. Why isn’t Jessica Rothe the next big thing? Tiffany Haddish was the latest “next big thing” and I think Rothe can do more. (She is really good in the Happy Death Day movies. I am not happy that her Valley Girl remake has been shelved.) No offense to Haddish. Maybe she has a trick or two up her sleeves. What is Ben Foster up to now? I am not sure but it will probably be interesting. It probably won’t be a barrel of laughs. Foster doesn’t make fun films, except for Warcraft.