Honey Don’t! – Movie Review

Honey Don’t! – No matter how much style, Honey Don’t! has, and it has a lot, none of that makes up for the hollow narrative that meanders around before realising it needs to finish at some point.

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is an audio sting at the end of the credits, but it’s not something you need to stay for.

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

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress

HNYDONT number plate on a car.

Honey Don’t! Introduction

Today, we are looking at a film that is confounding. Honey Don’t! has style, is filled with a strong cast, and an interesting setting. Throw in one of the Coen brothers, and this should have been absolute gold. But no matter what they threw at the screen, none of it stuck. To the point where it is almost interesting just how much it misses the mark
 
So, to set the scene, we arrive at a car crash, a lady drove over an embankment and ended up at the bottom of a canyon. Oddly, police detective Marty Metakawich (Charlie Day) from homicide is there, but why is Honey O’Donahue (Margaret Qualley), a private investigator, on the scene? Well, for you see Mia (Kara Petersen), who is now dead, we assume, was a potential client of Honey’s, and the question remains: was she killed before she could talk?   

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Agatha All Along: Maiden Mother Crone & Full Season – TV Review

TL;DR –  The season finale trades in the bombast for the emotions as it resonates with its story and pushes forward for the future.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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

Death Approaching.

Agatha All Along Review

Well, Death makes it clear that all good things must come to an end, so it is time for us to dive into the final episode of the season for Agatha All Along. After that, we will take some time to explore how the season went as a whole and some of the wild choices that they made that I am still thinking about now.

So, to set the scene, at the end of Follow Me My Freind / To Glory at the End, we were left reeling when Billy (Joe Locke) escaped the clutches of Death (Aubrey Plaza) because Agatha (Kathryn Hahn) gave herself up in his place. It is a perfectly selfless act that is also profoundly unlike the witch. However, as Billy arrives home, he starts thinking about things and realises he is the one who made the Road come to life, which is when he hears a cackle in the distance. We then jump back in time to 1750 with a heavily pregnant Agatha in the woods about to give birth, when in the distance, a certain green witch arrives. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode and season as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.    

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Agatha All Along: Follow Me My Friend / To Glory at the End – TV Review

TL;DR – Our penultimate episode takes some big swings, and I think it nails them all.  

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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

Death approaches.

Agatha All Along Review

We are fast running to the end of this. Well, if the viewing numbers are any guide, it will probably be the first season. However, we have been luxuriating on the road, but time is running out, and it is still an open question if this series can tie up all the many loose ends before those credits roll.

So, to set the scene, we open with Death (Aubrey Plaza) overlooking a sleeping Alice (Ali Ahn), but she is not there to wake her but to take her to the other side. Meanwhile, while Jen (Sasheer Zamata) and Billy (Joe Locke) lament over Lilia’s sacrifice, Death finds Agatha (Kathryn Hahn) alone and gives her a bargain, but only if Teen dies. But before they can process their loss, they come to the final trial and discover that the road is not a path but a circle. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.    

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Agatha All Along: Death’s Hand in Mine – TV Review

TL;DR – This was an oddly poignant yet slightly unsettling episode that I am not quite sure how I feel about.   

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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

Lilia falls.

Agatha All Along Review

We are looking down the barrel of the endgame for this series, and I always get a bit nervous when there is a lot left to explore and not that much time to do it in. There becomes a point where you don’t have the luxury to saunter around and have to hem those dresses and start running like Princess Diana at a children’s sports carnival. Thankfully, I think we are getting that today.

So, to set the scene, back in Darkest Hour / Wake Thy Power, we discovered that Teen (Joe Locke) was actually the reincarnation of Billy Maximoff, who was killed at the end of WandaVision. We found that when he forced Jen (Sasheer Zamata) and Lilia (Patti LuPone) to cast Agatha away and then jump off the road. But some witches just won’t be stopped, and even off the road, there is a chance to find the answers to what you seek. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.    

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Agatha All Along: Darkest Hour / Wake Thy Power – TV Review

TL;DR – It was a frustrating episode, but maybe that was not its fault.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

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

Witches fly in front of a blood moon.

Agatha All Along Review

Well, so far, I have been enjoying my time with Agatha All Along. The hijinks, along with the fun tone, are the sort of show that I need at the moment. However, we are starting to get to the pointy end of the season, and I wonder if we will start getting some of these questions answered before the closing credits?

So, to set the scene, in the wake of death, the Coven needed to find a new Green Witch, and much to Agatha’s (Kathryn Hahn) frustration, the universe sent her Rio (Aubrey Plaza), one of the many witches that she had crossed with over the years. But The Witches’ Road is proving to be a perilous place because not only is it testing the witches, but it is also shining a light on their past, something that many a witch would like to avoid. Especially since bringing in Rio may have opened a doorway for more things to enter The Road. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.    

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Agatha All Along: If I Can’t Reach You / Let My Song Teach You – TV Review

TL;DR – What Agatha nails is that fine line between fun and concern.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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

the house on the hill.

Agatha All Along Review

There is a lot of space within the Supernatural genre for where you can locate your show. You can terrify all the way to making it a straight comedy. Well, Agatha All Along does fall mostly towards that latter category, but it also shows how much space you can work with, even if you are trying to have a fun romp.

So, to set the scene, there was a feeling of triumph as the coven of Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn), Teen (Joe Locke), Jennifer Kale (Sasheer Zamata), Alice Wu-Gulliver (Ali Ahn), and Lilia Calderu (Patti LuPone) made it through the first trial during Through Many Miles / Of Tricks and Trials, but that was until someone noticed that Sandra (Debra Jo Rupp) was dead. The death of one of them put a stark pause on everything, especially given Agatha’s callousness. However, as they still need a green witch, they do a bit of summoning. If Agatha had a choice, I don’t think she would have summoned Rio Vidal (Aubrey Plaza). Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.    

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Agatha All Along: Seekest Thou the Road – TV Review

TL;DR – This was a fascinatingly weird start to the series that hit the end of the episode with the gusto it needed to move forward.  

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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

Based on the Danish Series WandaVisdysen.

Agatha All Along Review

I’ll be honest: I didn’t think we would ever come back to Westview with all the changes and realignments of the MCU in recent years. I loved the promise that WandaVision presented, even if I don’t think it stuck the ending. But in this world, it was clear that Kathryn Hahn was a real presence as Agatha, and when it was announced we were going back, I hoped we would get something as boisterous as it could be, and I think we might just get that.

So, to set the scene, Agnes (Kathryn Hahn) is a local detective in Westview and is arriving at a peculiar murder scene because a young lady from Eastern Europe has seemingly landed in a riverbed without disturbing a single leaf. This frustrates Agnes because there is something there, something she can’t quite put her finger on. But her life takes a turn when the Feds (Aubrey Plaza) arrive. Because no one wants the Feds snooping around your case because things tend to go wrong. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.    

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My Old Ass – Movie Review

TL;DR – This is a film that swims through the nostalgia of youth when significant changes are about to come, and you don’t know what the future might hold

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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

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

Elliott (39) talks to Elliott (18)

My Old Ass Review

Today, we look at a slightly sweet film that tries to ride the line between a bombastic juvenile comedy and a quieter coming-of-age work. It is a very fine line to walk because there is not a lot of safe ground between those two points. Indeed, I know people who have entirely disagreed on where this film landed. I think I am more in that first category, but that might be just because this film is laser-targeted on who I am.

So, to set the scene, Elliott Labrant (Maisy Stella) has just turned 18, and in just 22 days, she is going to leave the life she has lived on a lake in Canada harvesting cranberries on her family’s farm to move to the big city. But before she leaves, she wants to have one more trip with her friends Ro (Kerrice Brooks) and Ruthie (Maddie Ziegler) out to an island on the lake to camp, chat, and, oh, maybe dabble in some hallucinogenic mushroom. While her friends see many interesting things like rabbit orchestra, nothing quite prepares Elliott to look over and see her 39-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza) looking back at her. They talked about life and love, and her older self warned her not to fall in love with Chad. “Well, that was an odd trip”, thought Elliott, until she found Chad (Percy Hynes White) working on her dad’s farm as a summer farmhand. Oh, and someone put a new contact ‘My Old Ass’ in her phone.

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Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre – Movie Review

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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Movie Review – Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates

TL;DR – About as enjoyable as an overseas destination wedding

Score – 1.5 out of 5 stars

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates. Image Credit: 20th Century Fox.

Review

You know this is a movie I have seen so many times now, to the point I was going to have my review be same as – The Night Before, Dirty Grandpa, Grimsby and on and on and on. It feels like when The Hangover exploded on the screens, and Hollywood realised that people would go watch an R-rated comedy they decided that this would be the only type of R-rated comedy that would sell, so they change the setting and the cast, well actually no, not the cast because you see the same cast members over and over again, I’m looking at you Zac Efron, and the same wacky adventure, with the same jump scare humour, the only difference is trying to outgross the last successful film to see where the line in the sand is. All of this, at best, gets quite boring to watch, and at worse can actually drag down really important issues with it, see Bad Neighbours 2. I would like to say Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates breaks this trend and tries to do something different like Deadpool, but alas not, it is the same old shtick with a new colour of paint over the top.

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