Tag Archives: Michael Keaton

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While it does not hit nearly as hard 40-years later, it was still a fun ride from start to finish, if you can get through all the mess.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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

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

Beetlejuice appears from the mist.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Review –

While you should never say Beetlejuice’s name three times, today we are in luck because we are looking at the sequel which is just Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. However, delving back into the past and trying to find a sequel after 40-odd years since the first outing is a potentially fraught endeavour. Can you capture what made the first Beetlejuice a hit all those years ago? Well, that is what we will look at today.

So, to set the scene, in the many years since Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) helped the Maitland ghost’s out she has become a mother, and a host of a very popular ghost show called Ghost House with Lydia Deetz. However, every now and again, out of the corner of her eye she sees a man with green hair and striped suit. Lydia was in the middle of taping one of her shows with her producer Rory (Justin Theroux) when she gets an urgent call from her stepmother Delia (Catherine O’Hara). Her father has been killed and the whole family is going back to Winter River for the funeral, including Lydia’s mostly estranged daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega), who does not believe that her mother can commune with the dead. Mourning for the dead can be a difficult process, but when mysterious woman called Delores (Monica Bellucci) appears in the afterlife killing souls and sending Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) into hiding. Well, a fortunate timed funeral could be just what he needs to connect with his almost wife from all those years ago.

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Beetlejuice (1988) Review – Exploring the Past

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TL;DR – Delightfully odd in a way I am not sure you could capture today. 

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

The Handbook for the Recently Deceased.

Beetlejuice Review –

When I was invited to see Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, I was intrigued, given just how much social legacy the first film Beetlejuice had. But then, as I sat there thinking about the original movie, it dawned on me: I had watched it, right? But for the life of me, I could not remember if I had actually watched it? Or was it one of those films that you have just absorbed through the osmosis of the decades? Well, there is only one way to fix a dilemma like that, and that is to remove all doubt.

So, to set the scene, we open as Adam Maitland (Alec Baldwin) plays with his model town as he and his wife Barbara (Geena Davis) holiday at their holiday home. It is a beautiful time for all, right up until they swerve to miss a dog and are killed in the crash, not that they know they are dead for a while. They try to find purpose in the afterlife, but that is shattered when a new family, Charles (Jeffrey Jones), Delia (Catherine O’Hara), and Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder), arrives. They want to change everything, but there might be hope when the daughter catches a glimpse of the couple looking from a window. But when they can’t get anyone to leave, they do something everyone was warned against: they say “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice” (Michael Keaton).     

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The Flash – Movie Review

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TL;DR – Through all its pre-production issues, the final product is a blast of fun, but I am not sure it would have the staying power on repeat watches.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

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

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

The Flash running at speed.

The Flash Review –

We are entering quite a tricky period for Superhero films. While they have been the dominant media property over the last decade, the shine is starting to come off the genre. While we will probably not see the great Western collapse again, how many players does the industry have room for? Can you still engage with a property you know is about to be rebooted? And can multiverses still work? These are some of the questions we will look at with our review of The Flash today.

So to set the scene, Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) is living his life as part of the Justice League, but not as a leading figure as we see when Alfred (Jeremy Irons) calls him up before his morning breakfast to help clean up some of Batman’s (Ben Affleck) mess in Gotham City. But while he is very good at catching babies, the main issue in his life is trying to get his father, Henry (Ron Livingston), out of jail. He is serving a life sentence for murdering his wife, and Barry’s mother, Nora (Maribel Verdú), something Barry knows his dad did not do, but no one listened to him because he was just a kid at the time. In his frustration, Barry runs so fast that he breaches the speed of light and begins to transverse back and forwards in time, and surely nothing bad can happen from that.  

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Morbius – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A soulless husk of a film that is barely made watchable by the fact that at least Matt Smith is having fun  

Rating: 1.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There are two mid-credit scenes

Disclosure – I was invited to a screening of this film

Morbius. Image Credit: Sony Pictures.

Morbius Review –

There are moments when the credits roll, and you sit back in your chair and wonder, what did I just waste my time with? Then, of course, you immediately go, well, maybe I am having a bad day, perhaps the film is targeting a different audience, or did I just miss something. But then you look around and feel the audience’s tone and discover that you are not alone with your disbelief. Well, today, we have a film that, when the credits rolled, a whole room of people collectively shrugged at the very meh-ness that they just watched.

So to set the scene, 25-years ago in Greece, two boys who needed three blood transfusions a day to live met in a clinic. The head of the clinic, Emil Nikols (Jared Harris), discovers that young Michael (Charlie Shotwell) is a prodigy and gets him into a private school, and he promises his friend Milo (Joseph Esson) that he will find a cure. In the now, Michael (Jared Leto) takes a helicopter ride to a cave in Costa Rica to capture some bats that only feed on blood. He is hopeful that inserting bat DNA into a human might cure him and Milo (Matt Smith). It works … but at what cost? Well, a boat full of mercs, at least.

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The Protégé (The Asset) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – Well, look, it is not a great film, but it is not a bad one either. It is just that the narrative is not there to support the action.   

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 movie.

The Protégé (The Asset). Image Credit: Amazon Prime.

The Protégé Review –

Some actors out there give solid performances no matter what film they are in. One of those actors is Maggie Q, who I have always seen giving her best in whatever production she is in. Frankly, I am not sure why she is not in more things. Well, today I catch up with her latest action film with The Protégé.    

So to set the scene, in 1991, it was a stormy day in Da Nang, Vietnam. Moody Dutton (Samuel L. Jackson) walks into a hideout to find that all the people inside are dead, bar one little girl hiding Anna (Eva Nguyen Thorsen) in a closet that may have killed them all. Moody can’t leave her alone in the middle of all that death, so he takes her with him. 30-years later, in Bucharest, Romania, a now grown-up, Anna (Maggie Q) and Moody kidnap Vali (George Piștereanu), the kid of a local mobster Don Preda (Velizar Binev), for 3 Million Euros. But while Don Preda blusters, he does not know that Anna is not a kidnapper. Anna is an assassin.

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Movie Review – American Assassin

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TL;DR – Bland the movie

Score – 1.5 out of 5 stars

American Assassin. Image Credit: Lionsgate.

Review –

Well, I don’t know what I was expecting with American Assassin, maybe some excitement, maybe some competent action sequences, maybe an interesting character study, maybe even an interesting look at America’s involvement in global terrorism. Of all the things I was expecting, the last thing was a bland paint by numbers snooze fest, well not paint by numbers because that implies that there was some colour in there somewhere. So yer, let’s dive into our review of American Assassin a dull film if ever I saw one.

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Movie Review – Spider-Man: Homecoming

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TL;DR – A brilliant relaunch of a much-loved character, which tells an origin story without telling an origin story

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

P.S. – There is a Mid and Post Credit scene.

Spider-Man Homecoming. Image Credit: Marvel/Disney/Sony.

Review –

So here we are with our first big standalone Spider-Man feature now that he is in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Before we go on, we should probably take a moment and talk about how amazing it is that we actually got Homecoming at all. Indeed a lot had to fall into place to make this work. I’ve not seen companies work like this, and as well as this since, well maybe since Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Props have to be given to both Sony and Marvel to being able to put aside their differences and making this work, because that would not have been an easy set of negotiations, but they have made the integration almost seamless. So let us begin as we swing into the world of high school proms, alien weapons, explosions, and award conversations about life changes when you become a teenager.

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Movie Review – Spotlight

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TL;DR – This is a real life story that needed to be told, of scumbags who hurt children and them covered it up, I just wish it had been done a bit better.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Spotlight. Image Credit: Open Road Films.

Review –

Spotlight is the real life story of the Spotlight team of The Boston Globe. This is a team of investigative journalists who pick their own stories to investigate, sometimes spending years researching their cases. In early 2001 after some prompting, they start looking into the Catholic Church in the Boston area and how they handled sexual abuse cases. Here they discover that it is not just a couple of bad apples and that it is a much bigger problem, one the Church knew about and one they covered up.

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