Tag: Movie Reviews

  • Joker: Folie à Deux

    Joker: Folie à Deux

    3 outta 5 Joker: Folie à Deux is an even stranger sequel to an already strange film. While the first film is heavily influenced by the classic work of Martin Scorsese, this goes more in an unexpected direction. It is sort of a musical, but not really because a lot is mumble singing and none…

  • Joker (2019 review)

    Joker (2019 review)

    4 outta 5 The DC Comics superhero movies have been a bit of a mixed bag of an extended universe of interconnected movies. DC Comics latest film, Joker, shuns being a part of a universe and stands apart as a dark, disturbing, character piece about the origin of the Batman villain. Its influences are not…

  • Wolves

    Wolves

    4 outta 5 Wolfs is a zippy movie from writer/director Jon Watts, the director of the last three Spider-Man films, and he brings a similar pace here. There is even a bit where a young man is parkour running across the rooftops, so he doesn’t entirely let the whole Spider-Man vibe drop. In his Spider-Man…

  • Transformers One

    Transformers One

    4 outta 5 After several “live action” installments of the Transformers franchise, the series returns to its animated roots with Transformers One. However, there was so much CGI animation in the series’ previous films, that it’s hard to make much of a distinction between live action and animation by now. Which isn’t a bad thing.…

  • Uglies

    Uglies

    2 outta 5 Uglies is a YA novel adaptation that really doesn’t offer anything particularly good. It feels cobbled together from other sci-fi dystopian franchises and that bubble burst a few years ago. The central hook, that people in a dystopian future society undergo mandatory, mind-controlling cosmetic surgery, feels basic. Even the action, such as…

  • Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice

    Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice

    4 outta 5 Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, a sequel that took over three decades to manifest, turns out to be an entertainingly unique film. It doesn’t exactly retread many moments from the original, but it does throw in a few things that one would expect from a Beetlejuice movie. It has a few neat twists to the…

  • The Instigators

    The Instigators

    4 outta 5 The Instigators is a fun flick about low rent crooks getting up to hijinks and setbacks trying to get one big score. Also, there is a psychotherapy angle as the crooks get caught up with a therapist amidst a series of unfortunate heist bungles. There is a pretty stacked cast that is…

  • Jackpot!

    Jackpot!

    4 outta 5 As far as action comedies about future dystopias go, Jackpot! is entertaining. The leads have good chemistry, and the constant action is engaging, even if just a bit numbing. It is consistently funny with some random asides like one of the main characters rapping the “Turtle Power” rap from the 1980s movie,…

  • Alien: Romulus

    Alien: Romulus

    4 outta 5 Alien: Romulus is a crackerjack entry in the Alien franchise that flips between knowing homages, splicing in bits of continuity, flat-out ripping off others and repeating some bits exactly. It can be sort of a “greatest hits” version of a few Alien movies all combined into one, and its willingness to take…

  • Alien: Covenant (2017 review)

    Alien: Covenant (2017 review)

    4 outta 5 Director Ridley Scott straight up made a sci-fi horror masterpiece with 1979’s Alien. After staying away from the series for a few decades, his return in 2012 with Prometheus was a heady, sideways, horror-infused look at the fringes of the mythology surrounding the series.   It’s an interesting take on the Alien storyline…