Category: Movie Reviews
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Blue Beetle
4 outta 5 After the somewhat haphazard results of Shazam: Fury of the Gods and The Flash, DC films continues its somewhat disconnected 2023 film output with Blue Beetle. This is an engaging origin story crowd pleaser that may crib a few things directly from the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, intentionally or not. A lot…
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They Cloned Tyrone
4 outta 5 They Cloned Tyrone is a sci-fi horror comedy mash up that, much like the title implies, is made up of components from sci-fi movies that came before but ends up as something unique. The performances are all good, especially by Jamie Foxx playing a pimp with flair as he drops in well…
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
4 outta 5 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is yet another one of the various reboots of the TMNT franchise. Happily, this turns out to be one of the best ones with inventive visuals and fun character moments. Heck, Mutant is in the title twice, so it really embraces the icky of the Mutant…
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Oppenheimer
5 outta 5 The Barbenheimer social media joke, a double feature viewing of Barbie and Oppenheimer, has merit. Both are making a bunch of bank, both turned out to be pretty great, both have sprawling ensemble casts, and, most surprising, both have thematic similarities about the existential dread of annihilation. Barbie just has more pink.…
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Barbie
5 outta 5 Barbie is a licensed toy adaptation that both celebrates yet, at times quite savagely, parodies the toy brand it is based on. There was always a slightly unsettling, too perfect vibe about Barbie’s world which this movie uses for great effect. The performances are all hilarious with some little snippets of humanity…
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Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
4 outta 5 Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One increases the epic scope of the Mission: Impossible series and, as the series has already been epic in scope, that’s saying something. The Mission movies are pushing about 30 years at this point (the first flick came out in ’96!) so upping the spectacle in…
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Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (’15 review)
3 outta 5 There is a lot of nifty set-pieces and narrative trickery in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. It doesn’t have the Brian De Palma weirdness of the first Impossible, the John Woo slow-motion doves of M:I:2, the heart and kinetic kick of J.J. Abrams’ Mission: Impossible III, or the humorous inventiveness of Brad…
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Mission: Impossible III (’06 review)
4 outta 5 The start of Mission Impossible III, with Philip Seymour Hoffman taunting and threatening a simmering, raging Tom Cruise to an explosive conclusion, is one of those grab-you-by-the-throat openers that automatically commands your attention. With an inventive script and direction by TV wonderkid J.J. Abrams (Alias, Lost) MI:III manages to match that opening…
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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
4 outta 5 There’s a weird release pattern to the (now five) Indiana Jones movies. The Steven Spielberg directed trilogy ran through the 1980s, and then almost two decades for the 4th movie Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and then another long gap until this fifth and apparently final movie, Indiana Jones and the Dial…
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Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (’08 review)
5 out of 5 The excitement of summer movie season has become diluted with every lame Batman sequel or annoying Speed Racer. Happily, director Steven Spielberg, writer/producer George Lucas, and star Harrison Ford have rejoined to make summer movies awesome again with the fourth Indy adventure, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. …
BigAl Reviews 