Tag Archives: American Cinema

Spy Kids: Armageddon – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While it does not quite hit the heights of the original, it was still a fun time.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

Map Room over lava.

Spy Kids: Armageddon Review –

All the way back in 2001, there was this oddly delightful film full of delight and odd clay hand monster abominations. Spy Kids was this strange series that was always on the cutting edge. I think I remember a smell scratch and sniff one time, and 3D before 3D, 3D’d. But it is also one of those series you don’t feel need a reboot. With that in mind, can they bring this franchise into the 21st century, or will it feel like a relic of a time past?

So to set the scene, the Torrez-Tango’s are a perfectly normal family bar for some overly dramatic tech lockdowns. Tony Torrez-Tango (Connor Esterson) likes to play the scoundrel using his tricks and cheats, while Patty Torrez-Tango (Everly Carganilla) likes to play fair with integrity. But little do they know that their parents, Nora (Gina Rodriguez) and Terrence (Zachary Levi), are spies. But when some malicious code is hidden in the video game, Hyskor steals the secret Armageddon Code. Well, it just might be the kids that come to the rescue.    

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A Haunting in Venice – Movie Review

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TL;DR – The stronger of the three so far that explores faith, mystery, and, of course, murder.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

skellington

A Haunting in Venice Review –

I love a good murder mystery film, and when you want a good murder mystery, you can’t go past the Queen of Murder Mysteries, Agatha Christie. She has a way with words that have made it through the ages, and the latest interpretation of her work on the big screen has been helmed by Kenneth Branagh with their Murder on the Orient Express in 2017 and Death on the Nile in 2022. Today, we get the third instalment in the series, and what, spoiler alert, is my favourite of the three.

So to set the scene, it is now 1947, and it has been ten years and one world war since we last saw Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) on the Nile. After a lifetime of investigations, Poirot has taken to seclusion and retirement in a house in Venice with only his bodyguard Vitale Portfoglio (Riccardo Scamarcio) and the daily pastries boat making their way past his door. It is a life of quiet solitude that is punctured when an old friend/acquaintance/annoyance, Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), arrives at his door with a conundrum. There is a medium, Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh), going around claiming that she can talk with the dead, and no matter what Oliver can do, she can’t work out Joyce’s tricks. Joyce is doing a séance for local celebrity Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly) to speak with her recently lost daughter Alicia (Rowan Robinson) as it is Hallowe’en. All Poirot has to do is work out her tricks, and surely there won’t be any other deaths …

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Blue Beetle – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It was an enjoyable time, and I wish it were not placed in such an awkward position in the franchise. 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid and post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Palmera City

Blue Beetle Review –

Well, if there was ever a film that was affected because of cinematic universe issues out of its control, it is today’s film. No matter what merits the movie is coming in on, it will find difficulties because the DC Universe is one film out from a considerable reboot, and we have already seen that torpedo good films like Shazam. But if nothing else, you could tell the cast was throwing their all into this, and I am glad I watched it.

So to set the scene, Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) is returning to Palmera City after graduating from Gotham Law University. His family Alberto (Damián Alcázar), Rocio (Elpidia Carrillo), Molagro (Belissa Escobedo), Rudy (George Lopez), and Nana (Adriana Barraza) all meet him at the airport and take him out for tacos before dropping the bomb that they are losing their house. Jamie tries to find a good job but gets stuck cleaning the home of Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon). Still, a chance encounter with her niece Jenny Kord (Bruna Marquezine) changes his life when that blue scarab statue Jenny gives him comes to life and gouges into his skin.

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Kandahar – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It is a solid action film that is, unfortunately, not really sure what it wants to say.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime service that viewed this film.

Fighters line up with guns.

Kandahar Review –

Some artists get known for periods in their career. Picasso had his Blue Period,  Monet had his Water Lilies, and James Cameron has his Avatar saga. But one new era that I have been particularly interested in is Gerard Butler’s one-word action films. So far, we have gotten Geostorm, Greenland, and Plane. Today, we look at the next entry with a spy mission that goes very wrong.   

So to set the scene, we open in Qom, Iran, where a team works on a telecommunications substation under heavy armed guard. But this is a secret CIA project led by Tom Harris (Gerard Butler) to monitor and disrupt Iran’s nuclear program. However, this gets leaked to a journalist, Luna Cujai (Nina Toussaint-White), from someone in the Pentagon. Tom is stuck in Herat, Afghanistan when the news is released. In Herat, the Taliban have taken over, and foreign spies from Pakistan, Iran, India, China, Pakistan, ISIS, and more roam the streets. There are no good options, but he needs to escape before he is publicly executed, and the only escape is MI6 black Ops pick up in Kandahar that will be on the ground for one minute in 30 hours.   

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A delightful romp of a film, stunning in its animation, and engaging in its story.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

The team looks at a video.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Review –

While you try to avoid it, you can’t help but walk into a film with preconceptions, especially when it adapts to a work with a long history. When you hear Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg’s take on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, that immediately brings an idea of what the film might look like. I might have walked into here with preconceptions, but I walked out with a new respect for the animated work of the artists here.

So to set the scene, Baxter Stockman (Giancarlo Esposito) was working in a lab trying to create his own family using mutation. But before he could complete his work, TCRI tracked down his lab, and Cynthia Utrom (Maya Rudolph) ordered an attack. Stockman was killed in the commotion, but not before one of his creations could save their siblings, and one of the vials of ooze slips into the sewers and finds some baby Turtles. Fifteen years later, Michelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.), Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu), Raphael (Brady Noon) and Donatello (Micah Abbey) live with their adoptive father, Splinter (Jackie Chan), running errands in secret. They long to be more part of the Human world, but when a new villain called Superfly (Ice Cube) starts stealing supplies, new opportunities and dangers are around the corner.    

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The Nun II – Movie Review

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TL;DR – We get a film that terrifies in its opening and reigns with a bombast at the end. You just have to get between these two points.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

The Nun appears in a magazine.

The Nun II Review –

In 2023, I set myself a goal of dipping my toe more into the Horror genre, and while I am not sure how successful I have been on that front, I have continued with some interesting new entries in that genre. Today’s entry is another film in the Conjuring Universe, of which I have only seen The Conjuring 3, and neither of the three other films the main character appears in before now. With that in mind, can you follow a sequel when you missed everything leading up to it?     

So to set the scene, it is 1956 in Tarascon, France, where a young alter boy is going about his daily routine to prepare for evening mass, not knowing that an evil presence lurks in the dark. Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) is now working in a quiet monastery mentoring young nuns like Sister Debra (Storm Reid) when she is told that The Nun (Bonnie Aarons) is back and carving a swath of destruction across Europe. But the potential victims dramatically increase when The Nun homes in on a school.

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Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It never reaches the heights it is aiming for, but it is deeply entertaining in parts.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime service that viewed this film.

A car chase.

Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre Review –

I love spy films. I like it when they play them seriously and when they are more whimsical. When it comes to Guy Ritchie, you could get either or both. Add a cast you know can deliver and even a comeback or two, and you have a premise I want to see.

So to set the scene, it is a lovely Sunday morning when Nathan (Cary Elwes) is summoned to the intelligence headquarters in London by Knighton (Eddie Marsan). For you see, something just got robbed from a facility in Odessa. What no one knows, but the wrong people are interested in it, so that makes it a top target. Knowing traditional intelligence apparatuses would be too slow, they bring in the team that you need for cases like this, led by Orson Fortune (Jason Statham), who is now rudely having his Moroccan holiday interrupted, and worse, they will need the famous movie star Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett) to pull it off.

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Outpost – Movie Review

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TL;DR – There is an interesting story here, but the strong-handed visuals overwhelm the narrative and don’t give it any space to land.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.
The Outpost.

Outpost Review –

There are many ways that you can intrigue me to watch your film. It could be the premise, the director, the actor, or a scenario that just asks you to watch it. Today’s film had the latter when I was asked if I wanted to see the horror directing debut of Brooklyn Nine-Nine actor Joe Lo Truglio? The answer to that question is yes, yes I do. Partly because of that premise, I also like watching debut works to see what new ideas they can bring to the medium.   

So to set the scene, we open with Kate (Beth Dover) being attacked by an assailant. She keeps getting flashbacks to the event, seeing violence at every turn. Struggling, she turns to her friend Nickie (Ta’Rea Campbell) to get her brother Earl (Ato Essandoh) to let her stay in one of the fire outposts. Away from society, where she can recover, because the police have not found Mike (Tim Neff) yet. The walk to the top is rickety, but you can see for hundreds of miles. It is secluded, but maybe not secluded enough.  

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Jurassic Park Review (1993) – Exploring the Past

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TL;DR – A masterpiece in cinema that still moves you thirty years later.    

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no end-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

the entry gate to Jurassic Park.

Jurassic Park Review –

Some films captivated you the first time you watched them, getting your claws into you and never letting go. As a kid, one of those films was Jurassic Park. It delighted and terrified in equal measure. But even though it is in my Top 10 Films of All Time, it is a film I never watched on the big screen because I was far too young when it was released. But on the 30th anniversary of its release, it was back in cinemas, and it was time to rectify that.

So to set the scene, on a remote island off the coast of Costa Rica, an animal transfer at a new type of zoo goes terribly wrong. Investors start to panic, so John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) and his lawyer Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferrero) bring in three experts: Dr Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Dr Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), and Dr Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) to give the park their stamp of approval. But why would a zoo need palaeontologists? Cue the John Williams soundtrack.   

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Jesus Revolution – Movie Review

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TL;DR – An interesting exploration of the founding of a movement, but for all its strengths, it did feel like a shallow experience.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I did not pay to see this film.

Chuck Smith gets surprise hugged by a hippie.

Jesus Revolution Review –

Those not living in America might not know that an entire independent-ish scene of Christian-themed films is being produced. While I often get requests for reviews, I tend not to go down that road because there is a whole cultural conflict component that you must wade through, and also, they just tend not to be any good. Much like animation for young children, quality is unnecessary when you can guarantee people will watch it through church networks. But today’s film caught my eye because it has some studio polish behind it, and it also was able to recruit Kelsey Grammer, which was enough to intrigue me.

So to set the scene, it is the 1970s in southern California, and the world is full of the generational divide, war, sex, drugs, and a touch of Rock and Roll. Greg Laurie (Joel Courtney) is in a Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps questioning the military mantra that is being fed to him when he sees a girl named Cathe (Anna Grace Barlow), who leads him into the world of counterculture through the medium of a Janis Joplin concert. Meanwhile, in Calvary Chapel, pastor Chuck Smith (Kelsey Grammer) looks out at his dwindling congregation and laments that he struggles to reach the youth who he no longer understands. Well, one day, his daughter Janette (Ally Ioannides) fixes that problem when she gives a lift to Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie), a hippie and a gateway to a world Chuck is not ready for.   

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