Sean’s movie thoughts

My Spy is okay. Dave Bautista is good in the role of a CIA agent who befriends a young girl. He is surveilling her mom's apartment in case her uncle, who is an arms dealer, contacts the family. This is not revolutionary but it was enjoyable. A lot of action heroes have movies where they befriend young children. This is a standard example and it would not work if Bautista was not good.  Of the wrestlers turned actors (there are a lot of them), Dwayne Johnson probably has the most star power or charisma. I think Bautista has a good screen presence and he has a wry sense of humor at times.  Bautista used to play villains and still does sometimes. Okay, maybe I am being generous because this was streaming on Amazon Prime and I like Bautista. Perhaps I would have been more critical if I saw this in a theater after watching 25 minutes of previews and adds. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/my-spy-movie-review-2020 I think this review is fair.

Are they still going to make more of those Fantastic Beast movies?  Maybe it would be okay if they did not make any more of them. They are not terrible but they are not getting better and maybe the second one is worse than the first one. Also the second one undoes at least two major plot points of the first one. There does not seem to a story or a plan here. Maybe it if the movies just stopped without an announcement that would be fine. Gone with the Wind is back on HBO Max. So that was not too long. There is a brief introduction to put the movie into context, which seems like a good idea. I never finished the movie Bad Moms. I lost interest after one of the mom's went to the PTA meeting after throwing her husband out of the house. I wonder if I should give the film another chance, it looks like I won't being to a movie theater until at least August at this rate, so I have time and I know people who really liked the film.

I like Michael Keaton as Batman as much as anyone. I am just not excited about the prospect of his possible return to the role. I mean I am sure he will be great but it feels odd to have him back.  Maybe as this develops I will get more interested. The trailer for Superman Man of Tomorrow is out, so hopefully the movie will be out in a few months. The trailer looks good and it is nice to see the Martian Manhunter getting a supporting role. I wish John Morrison would do another movie. I know he is back with the WWE but I would like to see him in another movie, maybe another Boone the Bounty Hunter film. .

The Second Chance Film Festival continues. Summer Night is a likable movie. It might not be that good but it is likable. This is about a bunch of friends in a small town in California and what they are doing on a day and night. Some of these friends are in a band. Some of these friends are dating each other or want to date each other or have dated each other (I think that covers everything). The actors are good, even the ones I don’t recognize from other projects (which is a large part of the cast). Lana Condor seemed to have a larger role in this from the trailer than she really did but it was nice to see her. I would have liked to see more time with her and would be boyfriend Jack/Rabbit. Victoria Justice is likable in this movie, she plays Harmony and she is on a date with Jameson. It might be a first date. There are some band performances in the movie but maybe there’s one too many.  I like band performances in movies as much as anyone and the songs are good. There is a lot...

Stu Bennet returns as British mercenary John Gold in this thriller. John is offered a job to bring in Sean Teague (Vinnie Jones), the man who betrayed John and his special forces team. Teague was reported killed a few years earlier but that report was in error. John has two people to support him in this mission, which does not seem like enough. Bennet is good in this role, he makes a rare joke or interesting comment but he is not Dwayne Johnson or Dave Bautista. It is only the third movie I have seen him in, so maybe he can get better in the non-combat scenes. (I am not saying he should have lots of one liners but he could show another side to his personality.) I did like it like when he told the mercenary working for Teague that he was the most polite mercenary he ever met. Bennett’s fights with Jones are good. The hand to hand fights are good. Jean-Paul Ly shows up briefly but it was nice to see him. Phoebe Robinson-Galvin and Katrina Durden are fun to watch in their fight scenes...

I liked this film. Sabrina Carpenter stars as Nola, a teenage girl living in a van and traveling America after her father’s death. They were on the road together when he suddenly died.  I think they have been on the road since her early childhood. Nola has to figure out what she does next. I won’t go into the plot details but I will say that the movie is mostly optimistic. Nola meets mostly nice people during her time on the road including Danny Trejo as an auto repair shop owner. Nola does meet her mother (okay, I spoiled the part of the plot). While the film is sometimes sad, I don’t think the move was grim or depressing. Nola’s dad might have romanticized their life on the road. Nola did not, she sees that it has some drawbacks, and I don’t the film does either. The life looks a bit lonely. Carpenter was good in her second non-Disney film (she had a role in the Hate You Give, which was not a Disney film before the Disney/Fox merger). The supporting actors are good. This wa...

Black Ops (aka Stairs) movie is okay. It is a British scifi film by director Tom Paton, who also directed Black Site (which is more successful).  A group of soldiers is trapped in a never ending stairwell after an assignment. The film does not quite come together I think. I am not sure why though. Some actors from Black Site return. If Black Ops pops up on streaming, it is worth checking out but it might not be worth buying.  However I am still interested in Patton's next film. Sabrina Carpenter has a new movie the Short History of the Long Road coming out digitally next week. It looks interesting. She plays a teenage girl living in an RV with her father on the fringes of society. The basic plot sounds a bit like Leave No Trace.  Reviews are good on average and the film is at 70% on Rotten Tomatoes. I should have a review next week. Escape Room holds up. I think there is supposed to be a sequel next year. I wonder if there is a way to do a sequel without it seeming to...