Category: Movie Reviews
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Expendables vs. Scott Pilgrim (’10 review)
Friday August 13th, 2010 was a strange weekend at the movies, with the kill loving action flick The Expendables and the videogame romantic love fest Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Personally, I was torn between my inner 80s action junkie (“Whoo! Stallone hitting people!”) and the part that really digs Edgar Wright and visual overload…
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Murder on the Orient Express (’17 review)
4 outta 5 Murder on the Orient Express is a big throwback to big stars in a big movie with lots of big acting and big twists and big monologues. Directed and starring Kenneth Branagh, it has the pace of many of his movies as it opens strong, gets pretty chatty in the middle, and…
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A Haunting in Venice
3 outta 5 A Haunting in Venice is the third installment in Kenneth Branagh’s directing and starring series as Hercule Poirot, after Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile. The star wattage is decreased considerably each installment; first movie cast is absolutely stacked and by the third not so much. This is…
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You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah
4 outta 5 You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah is another of Adam Sandler’s various Netflix movies, but he isn’t the star, his kids are. There has been a lot of discourse online about Nepo Babies in cinema, and while having Sandler’s family in a movie he produced isn’t a selling point,…
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Vacation Friends 2
3 outta 5 Vacation Friends 2 offers up pretty much the same amount of entertainment as the first movie, which is fairly enjoyable. The character interactions are basically the same bit where one character is very loud and the other character’s anger boils over. The movie adds a scheming father to the mix which changes…
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Vacation Friends (’21 review)
4 outta 5 Vacation Friends is a fun romp that follows the clash between a straight-laced couple and a wild and crazy couple. The core concept is fairly standard and there’s more than a few creaky comedy tropes but what makes it work is the enthusiasm of the leads. The script is full of dumb,…
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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.…
BigAl Reviews 