Sean’s movie thoughts

Solo a Star Wars story lost money at the box office. I find that hard to believe. Star Wars is thought to be one of the most popular franchises in the world. There are four possible reasons why I think this happened. Reason one, it came out too soon after the Last Jedi and also at a bad time of year. Maybe it would have benefited from coming out later in the year. That would have given the studio more time to advertise the film (there was a not of advertisement for the movie because of the Last Jedi). Also average movie goers in the US go to 5 movies a year and early 2019 had hits like Avengers Infinity War, Black Panther, and Deadpool. Reason two is some people were burned out on Star Wars after the Last Jedi. A vocal part of the audience was not happy with the Last Jedi. How many people that really was is hard to know. (This audience dissatisfaction did not seem to hurt home video sales of the Last Jedi.) Reason three is maybe people loved Harrison Ford as Han Solo and really w...

Scott Adkins Stars as Cain, a criminal who escapes police custody to get revenge on his brother and his brother’s criminal organization. (He was being taken to see his dying mother in the hospital before he escaped.) This is set in England, so Adkins does not have to fake an American accent. Jesse V. Johnson directs. This is the sixth film he has made with Adkins. This partnership seems to be working. I think the Debt Collector,  another of their collaborations, is significantly better than this film. Maybe Accident Man is also better than this movie. The fight scenes are really good. Adkin’s performance is pretty good. The villains are not too interesting and one plot point seems hard to believe but I am not an expert on British law, so maybe that plot point is not as far fetched as it seems to me. If the villains were better, this would probably be better. It is not a classic but it is worth seeing. I included some review links. https://ew.com/movie-reviews/2019/05/23/ave...

Haley Lu Richardson stars as Stella, a teenager with cystic fibrosis. She is in the hospital and she meets another patient with cystic fibrosis Will (Cole Sprouse). They need to remain six feet apart because of health risks. She and Will decide to break the rules and be five apart. Richardson had a supporting role in the Edge of Seventeen and is very good here. She makes Stella likable and relatable. She has a nice chemistry with Cole Sprouse and it will fun to see where her career takes her.  I think Sprouse is good too and are there are some good supporting roles. This movie has been compared to the Fault in Our Stars. That seems fair. If you will like this film or not depends on how you feel about the dying teens in love aspect of the plot. Some people find those plots manipulative. The film might not show all the bad effects of cystic fibrosis in detail but enough is shown and implied, I think. I don’t think the film glamorizes dying young.  I feel this is worth seei...

How to Train Your Dragon the Hidden World holds up. It is not a masterpiece and maybe it is not as good as the first film in this series. However it looks beautiful, especially some of the flying sequences, and it gives the series a proper ending. Hiccup is officially chief after the death of his father Stoic. He wants his people to live in peace with dragons but other Vikings want to control the dragons/use them as weapons. There is a dragon hunter and he wants to kill Toothless (Hiccup’s Dragon). Toothless is not the last of his kind. There is a female Night Fury that the dragon hunter wants to use as bait  for Toothless. Hiccup remembers a place his father mentioned, the Hidden World, which was a home for dragons and one point he plans to move the villagers and the dragons to the hidden world. I liked this movie. I thought there was a bit too much comic relief at times but that might be my only compliant. The animation was good and there were some fun sequences without dia...

Samuel L. Jackson stars as John Shaft, the nephew of the original John Shaft (Richard Roundtree). John is a cop and one day he is called to a murder scene. It turns out a rich young man (Christian Bale) killed a young African American male outside a restaurant/bar. Bale’s character jumps bail and John throws his badge at a judge. John becomes a private eye like his uncle. Bale’s character comes home to find the only witness to his crime, a waitress at the bar. (This dates the movie a bit, I think in today’s New York there would be security cameras around and therefore footage of the crime). He meets up with a drug dealer played by Jeffery Wright and enlists Wright to find the waitress. Jeffry Wright and Christian Bale are good in their roles. They have some nice scenes together. Jackson is good as Shaft and it is nice to have Richard Roundtree make a cameo.  This is enjoyable but not special. It is nice to hear the classic Shaft theme.

Early reviews of Aladdin are good. That is a bit surprising. Maybe I should consider seeing it. I did not have high hopes for this movie. Will Smith is getting good reviews for his performance as the Genie. Taking on the part that Robin Williams did in the animated film seems daunting. Naomi Scott got some good reviews for her performance as Jasmine and she gets a new song. I have avoided most of the remakes of Disney animated movies. I have a  theory “the more you like the original movie, the less likely you are to like the remake”. (There are some exceptions of course but that theory is good maybe 88 to 92 percent of the time.) Maybe this remake could prove to be an exception.

Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace hit theaters 20 years ago. Some people hate it and the whole prequel trilogy.  I have heard it called the worst movie ever. I have seen worse. Okay, maybe there is too much comic relief from Jar Jar Brinks. I guess he is one of the reasons people hate this movie. Stretches where he is not onscreen do seem a bit better than the ones with him. His screen time is reduced in the next two films. I can’t be too harsh about the performance of Jake Lloyd. He was really young and some directors might not be good working with young actors. He was the only really young actor in the main cast, so that probably made his acting stand out. Ewan McGregor is good as Obi-Won Kenobi. If he gets to return to the role someday, that could be nice. I like Liam Neeson as the older Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn. Maybe a lot of that is because he is Liam Neeson. Neeson and McGregor  have some nice scenes together. I heard someone once say that the prequels needed a Ha...

I have not seen Sweet Home Alabama. I started watching it yesterday and so far, I am just not interested. Maybe it is because I like Patrick Dempsey more than the male lead but I lost interest after 20 minutes or so. Maybe I will give it another try later. Godzilla King of the Monsters opens in less than 2 weeks. It looks good, and it might be nice to see more of the classic monsters like Mothra on the big screen. Early reviews should dropping soon. Maybe I should re-watch the 2014 Godzilla movie before seeing this one. I might skip going to a movie this weekend. I am not interested in the live action Aladdin. Maybe this is a good weekend to stay out of movie theaters. Rocketman also comes out in less than 2 weeks. Reviews should drop soon. The music will be good, even if the rest of the movie is not.

The Foot Clan has come to Gotham and they’re stealing scientific equipment. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles come after them. The Turtles cross paths with Batman and well there is a misunderstanding and a fight. (This is a very Silver Age of comics style moment.) This is fun. The interactions of the Turtles and Batman, his allies, and his enemies is fun. (Poor Alfred.) Batgirl did not appear in the comic mini-series that this movie was based on but it is nice to see her. The Turtles were in character and for a direct to video animated movie the animation is good. The movie hints at a sequel. I thought the voice performances were good (most of the characters sounded right). Yes, it is nice to get some non-Batman animated original movies from Warner Brothers. However if the Batman animated original movies are this good, I won’t complain about there being too many Batman animated original movies. I still like the fact there is a Wonder Woman Animated movie coming out later this yea...

John Wick Chapter 3 Parabellum is good. The fight scenes are good, you can actually see what the heck is happening, it is not a bunch of quick cuts. Keanu Reeves returns as John Wick and the movie opens right where the last movie ended. The story holding all the action sequences together could have been better. At a certain point some of this mythology or world building borders on ridiculous. Where is the money for all these killers coming from? There are a lot of professional killers and then there is the High Table and it’s clerical staff. Are there enough people hiring assassins to support all this? I think William Bibbanni said something similar after Chapter Two, so I am not claiming this as an original thought. I guess we are supposed to just go with it. It was nice to see Mark Dacascos as a villain. (It might be time to re-watch American Samurai again.) It was also nice to see Halle Berry and Anjelica Huston in supporting roles.  Berry’s role is not as big as trailers mi...

Robert Pattinson is the new Batman.  The news broke today. That is an interesting choice. It might be controversial. I am sure that will be fine. He has made some smaller riskier films since Twilight ended. I liked Twilight, so I did not get the backlash against it or him. I guess this officially ends Ben Affleck’s tenure as Batman. Ben Affleck was not a bad Batman but he apparently felt it was not working out. So he bowed out after two films and no solo films. The next Batman movie is scheduled to come out in 2021. Matt Reeves from the recent Planets of the Apes series will write and direct the new Batman movie.

Rebel Wilson stars in this spoof of romantic comedies. She is mugged and the next day wakes up in a romantic comedy. Adam DeVine plays her friend and co-worker. Liam Hemsworth plays her romantic interest in the romantic comedy world. I liked this movie, it is not great but it is fun. I think it might be better than the romantic comedy spoof “They Came Together”. Wilson is playing a less brash character than she usually does. She is still likeable. There are some fun moments, like when her assistant in the real world becomes her rival in the romantic comedy world. She has a gay best friend in the romantic comedy world. Maybe the movie being under 90 minutes helps. If there was any improv in the movie, maybe there is very little of it. (Some recent long comedies have a lot of improv, maybe too much.)The movie does not wear out its welcome and the jokes aren’t run into the ground. I think it is worth checking out at least once.

It has been almost three years since Anton Yelchin died. We cannot know what paths his career would have taken if he had not died in a freak car accident. He apparently wanted to direct a movie. As good as he was in Star Trek (and he was good), he had other roles. I liked the Fright Night remake and he was really good in it. I think he was good in Terminator Salvation, even if the film it was not that good. He was good in Odd Thomas, which was based on a Dean Koontz novel. I am not sure if his last movie was Thoroughbreds.  He had a supporting role in that movie. It is worth re-watching just for his performance. (I plan to re-watch it this year.) I think it is his best film outside of Star Trek but I probably should re-watch a few of his other films to be sure. There is going to be a documentary, Love Antosha, produced by his parents, about him scheduled to come out in June. I have seen one review already, and it sounds like the documentary is worth seeing. I hope that he i...

If there is a big budget movie with King Arthur fighting Robin Hood in the next few years, I had that idea in December 2018.  https://seansmoviethoughts.blogspot.com/2018/12/movie-thoughts-12-9-2018.html  I am just saying. I am not sure why they’d be fighting though. Maybe there won’t be another big budget King Arthur or Robin Hood movie in the next 7 years. Maybe the characters just don’t connect with movie going audiences anymore. Superheroes seemingly have replaced King Arthur and Robin Hood in the movie goers’ hearts and imaginations. There could be a modestly budgeted back to basics Robin Hood or King Arthur movie in the next 7 years that finds an audience. Maybe the problem with the last few movies with King Arthur or Robin Hood is the movies have tried too hard to reinvent the story or modernize it. Reviews of the Hustle suggest it is bad but not terrible. A couple of critics said Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson seemed to be acting in different movies. (I wonder who ...

John Cena as New Orleans Detective Danny Fisher. He arrested an arms dealer named Miles Jackson but an accident happened that killed Miles’ lover. A year later Miles breaks out of prison and kidnaps Danny’s girlfriend and sets a series of challenges for Danny. (This makes it feel a bit like Diehard 3.) Cena is pretty good in this. He gives off a good determined vibe and if he did not do his own stunts, the stunt double for him was pretty good. He has a nice chemistry with his partner, and his love interest. (Those are separate characters in case I was unclear.) This is definitely a step up from the Marine. Aiden Gillian is good as the villain Miles Jackson. This was before he joined the cast of Game of Thrones. Gillian has been in the Maze Runner series too. (He was good in that series.) There are sequels to this but Cena did not return for them. I am not saying this is great but I enjoyed it on re-watch.

Happy Death Day to 2U holds up on re-watching it. This is more science fiction than horror but that is okay. In this movie Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) gets pushed into another dimension. Things are different, like she and Carter (Israel Broussard) aren’t dating in this new dimension and Tree’s mother is still alive. Tree has to decided what to do and there is still a masked killer out there. Jessica Rothe is really good in this series. She expresses anger at being put back in a time loop. She has really emotional scenes with her mother. She can also play the comedic elements. She has a nice chemistry with Israel Broussard. Israel Broussard is good in this movie. At first I thought he needed a bit more to do but on re-watch I think he more to do than I noticed on my first watch. He gives a nice speech to Tree. If this is the last movie in the series, that might be okay. The two films are good but maybe a third film would pushing luck too far.

I have seen a few early reviews of What We Left Behind (the Star Trek Deep Space Nine documentary) and they are good. There are not a lot of reviews but all the reviews I seen have been positive. (If there is a negative review, I have missed it so far.) I still think it might be better to have someone unconnected to Star Trek Deep Space Nine make a documentary about it. Maybe someone unconnected to the show would be more honest about behind the scenes controversies, for example. One review says the documentary covers actress Terry Farrell leaving the show after season 6 in detail. I am a bit surprised that Avery Brooks was not interviewed for this project. He was the commander, and later Captain of the space station. I think he'd have some interesting insights to share. Maybe the documentary will mention why Brooks did not take part. I won’t be able to see the movie in theaters this Monday (it is not playing anywhere convenient to me and it is only playing for one night). I h...

This is okay. Justice Smith is likable as Tim, a cop’s son, who comes to Rhyme City after he hears about his dad dying in a car wreck. Ryme City has Pokemon living in it. He meets a Pikachu but unlike the rest of the humans, Tim can understand the Pikachu (voiced by Ryan Reynolds). The Pokemon look good on screen and share the screen well with the people. It looked convincing to me. Various Pokemon are introduced but if you are not a fan of Pokémon, you can enjoy the film. It is nice to see Kathryn Newton as the want to be reporter Lucy but she does not have much to do, hopefully she has another project or two lined up. She and Justice Smith could be a good couple together in another movie. I like Bill Nighy as much as anyone, so it was nice to see him. Reynolds is good as the voice of Pikachu. I liked it well enough. I am not sure if I’d want to see it again. I think I could have made a few worse movie choices this weekend.

I don’t get too excited by trailers. I am not going to do a “trailer breakdown” post. I enjoy trailers but wish they would not reveal so much. The trailers of Avengers Endgame avoided that but a lot of trailers for other movies reveal a lot. I don’t want to see the live action Aladdin. I don’t really watch the live action remakes of the Disney animated movies. I have skipped most of them so far. I heard Cinderella was good. Maybe if my nieces or nephew express interest in Aladdin I will go. Top five movies I am looking forward to seeing for the rest of the year Star Wars the Rise of Skywalker Spider-man Far from Home It Chapter 2 The Jumanji sequel 21 Bridges

Tolkien, the new movie about the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings author, is reported to be pretty bad. That is a shame. It is at 47% on Rotten Tomatoes as I write this. J.R.R. Tolkien created some classic books, he served in World War I, and he was a long time friend of Narnia creator C.S. Lewis. (They disliked each other’s work.) It seems like there is some material to work with in creating an interesting biography. Nicholas Hoult stars as Tolkien and Lily Collins is on hand as his wife. (Her character has a name but from reviews I’ve seen the movie only really sees her as his love interest.) They are both talented but they can defeated by bad writing and direction. I am assuming this happened to a degree from reviews I’ve seen. I guess I can see Holt in the next X-men movie if I decide to see it. Collins probably has another 3 or 4 projects lined up. Oh well, Tolkien’s books endure. Maybe some cable network will make a better Tolkien biography someday. Or maybe there could be a mini...

Rebel Wilson and Anne Hathaway star as con artists in this new movie. It is a remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, the movie where Michael Caine and Steve Martin played con artists (which was a remake of another movie). I don’t feel interested in this movie but I guess if I see some good reviews maybe that will change. Hathaway is doing a bad British accent but not a terrible one. (Maybe it plays better in the movie. Maybe it will seem less jarring the more a person hears it.) Wilson seems to be doing her same material from her other movies. I am not really tired of either actress (not like I was tired of Seth Rogen a few years back) but I don’t feel interested in it. The film’s gimmick, from I’ve seen in trailers, is Hathaway’s character is convinced that no man will ever believe that a woman is smarter than he is. That is not a bad idea and maybe the movie is better than the trailers looked. Trailers are unreliable.  (See the Trailer truths below) The Trailer truths Good mo...

If Dark Phoenix is really good or great, that would be nice. I am not expecting it to be great. I’d like it to be good, even if I really doubt it will be. I saw a video that suggested that Jennifer Lawrence’s fame was the reason she became so important to the franchise. (They got her before the Hunger Games came out and made her a star.) It made sense to me. New Mutants is supposed to come out next year. This is the third move back and I hope it gets released because now I am curious. I wonder if Disney will just drop it if Dark Phoenix is a bomb. (I think they could just write it off.) I bought two of the Insidious movies. I am not sure why but I might watch one soon. Are these connected to the Conjuring series?

This was long but good. It wraps the Infinity Stones saga and the trailers really did not reveal much of the film.  It is kind of surprising in this day and age. (Some movies seem to have their plots revealed in their trailers.) Five years pass and Ant-man comes out of the quantum realm. He suggests that they use time time travel to get the Infinity Stones. Tony Stark has a daughter now and at first he resists taking part in the plan but he eventually solves time travel. I enjoyed this. I liked the parts where the Avengers went back in time to get the Infinity Stones. The scenes with Thor and his late mother Frigga, and Tony Stark and his late father Howard Stark were good. The part where Captain America fought his younger self was fun. The time travel goes wrong and Thanos from the past comes into the present day. He brings his army, and past versions of Gamora, and Nebula. There is a massive fight but it is done fairly well and characters get standout moments. The girl powe...

I bought this movie digitally on a whim. Black Site is a thriller about a group of soldiers who are working at a Black Site, where Elder Gods are deported. Elder Gods inhabit people and the government has a special agency to deal with them. (Elder Gods became weak after years or centuries away from Earth). As the movie opens an Elder God kills two people and a young girl sees his true form. Years later the girl, Ren, is as an adult and joins the agency and the elder god Eberus has been captured and is set for deportation. The Black Site has wards and these makes combustion impossible at the site (which means no guns or explosives work).  A group of Elder God cultists come to free Eberus and combat ensures. This movie was written and directed by Tom Paton. I am not familiar with him or his work but he is working on his fourth film currently. I enjoyed this, I might have been feeling generous. I liked some of the performances, I liked the fight scenes, and I liked the idea of t...

Star Wars is taking a three year break. I thought it would be longer. Disney announced that new Star Wars movies will start arriving in 2022 and will come out every other year.  It was not announced if these films are going to be Rian Johnson’s trilogy or the Games of Thrones show runners’ trilogy. Okay, I guess expecting the series to take a longer break was misguided. Also I guess it was a bit misguided of me to think that there would not be news about the next Star Wars movies before the year ended. At one point I thought everything was on hold and maybe there might be news sometime next year. We will see how this develops. There could be more news after Episode IX hits home video. Or there could be more news sooner than that. Maybe this break will be a good thing. I do like the move to releasing a new movie every other year. The “failure” of Solo has really shaken things up. Solo made 392 million dollars worldwide but because of the reshoots, it cost a lot to make (rumor...

There is a lot to say about Avengers Endgame. It is a good movie. However the question I have at the moment is does it redeem Thor the Dark World? Of all the Marvel movies, Thor the Dark World might be in the bottom 5. (Thor the Dark World is better than say Star Trek V or Spider-man 3.) Rene Russo has a cameo in Avengers Endgame as Frigga, Thor’s mother. It is a good cameo. It brings a depth to her relationship with Thor that did not come across in her other performances. I was not expecting this scene and I am glad the movie included it. Does this scene redeem Thor the Dark World? I am not sure. Maybe I should watch Thor the Dark World again. Maybe I will.

There is a Star Trek Deep Space Nine documentary, What We Left Behind, coming out. I am interested in seeing but I wish it was made by someone more neutral. One of the co-directors is Ira Stephen Behr, who was the show runner of Deep Space nine. I think someone who was not involved in the creation of the show might have a more fair view of the show. Deep Space Nine was the successor to Star Trek the Next Generation and it was set on a space station. That was different, some people didn’t like that. It ran at roughly the same time as Babylon 5 which also set set on a space station. (There was a controversy over some similarities between the two shows). I still want want to see the documentary. The show seems to have gained popularity in recent years after it became available on some streaming platforms. I don’t think it was ever truly unpopular (it did last 7 seasons) but it was not as well liked as the Next Generation. It might be more popular than Enterprise.