Sean’s movie thoughts

The Stepfather is a suspense movie. Terry O’Quinm plays Jerry Blake, a real estate agent with a wife and daughter but he has a secret. He is obsessed with the idea of the perfect family and he marries into a family looking for the perfect family. However when his family fails him (as all real families must) he starts to look for a new family. The old family becomes something to dispose of and we will see him disposing of a family in the first scene. Terry O’Quinn is really good as Jerry. Jill Schoelen is good as his stepdaughter Stephanie who suspects there is something wrong and Shelley Hack is good as her mother. It is really scary when Jerry flips out when Stephanie is kissing her friend Paul (they nearly kissed earlier in the film).  The brother of one of Jerry’s previous victims is looking for him. He tries to get the local newspaper to reprint the story of one of Jerry’s previous killings and tries to get the cops to pursue Jerry. He is only partially successful. There ...

As much as I like this movie, maybe it would have been better with a slightly longer running time. Or maybe it would have been nice to have another Superman animated movie before this one to explore Clark and Lois’ relationship. Their relationship feels a bit rushed. I like Batman as much as anyone, I think, but maybe more Superman animated movies would be nice. This is the first animated Superman solo film in six years. I liked the voice actress they chose for Cat Grant (Toks Olagundoye). She is also the voice for Mrs. Beakly on the new Ducktales. She was also on Castle and had voice roles in the animated Vizen special or short series. There are a few references or callbacks to Superman movies and comics. They were nice, I thought. They were not overdone.

What is Ving Rhames up to these days? I feel like I never see him out of the Mission Impossible movies. So it is nice to see him here. This time Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team are trying to recover some stolen plutonium. A CIA agent named Walker (Henry Cavill) is assigned to the team and his orders are to get the plutonium no matter what. Isla Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) is back from the last movie and so is the villain. Some people have hidden motives. The story is mostly an excuse to go from amazing action or stunt sequence to another. There is an amazing fight in a bathroom. Jeremy Renner’s character from the last two movies is not back. Cruise is good as usual in the role and the knowledge that he is performing a lot of his own stunts adds to the  enjoyment of the film. I am not sure Rebecca Ferguson needed to return for this film, she did not have a lot to do. This might be my harshest comment about the movie. This movie is pretty good.

The Dark Tower movie is not good. I kind of enjoyed it but the movie being under two hours helps. (It probably shouldn't.) Idris Elba is good as Roland, the gunslinger, and it is nice to see Dennis Haysbert as Roland’s father. The sequences where Roland confronts the Man In Black (Mathew McConaughey) are fun. After that, the film makes no sense. Why is Roland immune to the Man In Black’s powers when no  one else seems to be? How are the children going to destroy the Dark Tower? Roland’s guns are said to be made out of Excalibur. Does that mean anything? This movie adapted or tried to adapt an eight book series by Stephen King. That probably explains a lot. Maybe if I read some of the books in the series I’d have a better understanding of some the questions above. I don’t regret seeing this in theaters or buying it on Blu-ray. Some of the bonus features are enjoyable. This is a not top tier Stephen King adapation or maybe not a mid tier one either. This might be bottom tier St...

This is pretty good, even with the New 52 inspired character designs. Jerry O’Connell provides the voice of Superman/Clark Kent and Rebecca Romijin co-stars as Lois Lane. They are a real life married couple and they have a good chemistry. Other voice actors are good too including Rosario Dawson as Wonder Woman and Christopher Gorham as the Flash. I might have liked another actor as Green Lantern but Nathan Fillion is good. The mysterious alien Doomsday arrives on Earth and he is rage personified. The Justice League, minus Superman, tries to stop him but they fail. Superman comes to the battle and he stops Doomsday but the cost is his life. (This is a movie based off a series of comics from 1992 and 1993. There were some changes of course and one of the storytelling methods from the comics doesn’t translate to the screen.) The action is good. It is rated PG-13 for violence, which makes sense. It is nice to see Hawkman. The relationship with Clark and Lois is well handled. I enjoye...

Back to School is a classic with Rodney Dangerfeild playing a rich man named Thornton Mellon, who goes back to college and reconnects with his son. It is his best movie. It is driven by a subplot about a professor who doesn’t think Thorton belongs in college and Thornton’s belief that the professor is naive. Life of the Party, which wisely does not use the classic song of the same name, is not as good as Back to School. (That is a sad song.) I could be biased, I really liked Rodney as a comedian and as an actor. I have seen the movie several times over the years, I could be overlooking its faults. Melissa McCarthy stars as a woman who goes back to college after a divorce. Her ex-husband seems in a rush to get married to another woman. McCarthy’s character  has some misadventures adjusting to life on campus, including dating a guy half her age and dealing with mean girls, but the plot isn’t as strong as Back to School. Also I feel like I know who Thornton Mellon was and I don’...

It would not be fair to review a movie that I stopped watched before it was even half over. So I won’t. The movie could get better. It could also get worse I guess. Maybe I was I more patient with movies a few years back. There are so many new movies coming out now (and older movies coming out on home video) it seems okay to give up on a movie if I lose interest. The Equalizer 2 opened well. I might catch up with it later but reviews suggest there is no need to hurry.  Maybe I won’t catch up with it. I don’t think it is right that James Gunn got fired from Guardians of the Galaxy 3 for old tweets even if some were in really bad taste. He already apologized for those years ago. Now people are trying to get him rehired. We will see how this develops. He was supposed to have a new project announced before this went down, so maybe he will be fine.