Mufasa: The Lion King

FamilyFaire:  Mufasa: The Lion King  (2024) PG In Mufasa: The Lion King, Mufasa is a cub who is lost and alone. He meets another cub named Taka, heir to a royal bloodline. They become fast friends, and with Taka’s help and some new friends, Mufasa might survive in this savage and beautiful world. Lately, it seems Disney has given up on new ideas and is just remaking all their classic animated films with live-action ones. So, when it was announced that Barry Jenkins, Academy Award-winning filmmaker (Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk) would be directing, and Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton, In the Heights) would write original songs for it, I had great hope that this would break the streak of bland musical remakes. Unfortunately, it's not even close. We have a story that no one was asking for: the origins of Simba’s dad, Mufasa, and his rival, Scar.One is how Mufasa and Scar first met, became friends, and then became enemies. The original animated 1994 movie was nominated for four Oscars, three of which were nominated for Best Song (Elton John (music), Time Rice (Lyrics), with ‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight’ winning. Nothing in this film comes even close to any of the songs from the original film. There is one song, ‘Tell Me It’s You,” when (small spoiler alert) Mufasa (Aaron Pierre) and Sarabi (Tiffany Boone) profess their love for each other that is catchy and works in the moment. The rest of the songs are instantly forgettable, and there is one song, ‘Bye Bye,’ where the villain of the film, Krios (Mads Mikkelsen) sings about killing all his enemies, that is possibly the worst song that has ever graced the Disney movie screen (and that includes all those family musicals that Disney did on the cheap back in the 60s) with our bad guy constantly singing the words Bye Bye to his soon-to-be victims. Although there are some glimpses of what Barry Jenkins wanted to achieve with this film, he is hindered by the fact that the film has two storylines. The other storyline, which brings this whole film down to almost unwatchable, is Rafiki, with the help of Timon and Pumbaa, babysitting a young lion cub by telling him the story of Mufasa. I am guessing that Disney told Jenkins, hey, can you throw in the comic relief guys every ten minutes to keep the kids interested? It will help with our toy lineup. These interruptions to the story are grating and full of horrible jokes, most of which only a 3-year-old will find funny. While the lifelike animation is an improvement over the 2019 The Lion King remake (where every animal had faces that showed no emotion), this film would have worked much better as a traditional 2-D animated film. One of the great things about the Disney animated films of the 90s was that they had some incredibly beautiful shots, something this live-animated film is sorely missing. I guess I’m old school, but having lifelike animated animals singing just seems a little weird to me. The film feels longer than the two-hour runtime, with too many songs, too much Timon/Pumbaa, and an ending that seems very anti-climactic. By the movie’s end, I just wanted to say “Bye Bye,” and I sure wasn’t singing or humming any of the songs from this overly long and dull film.    My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Mufasa: The Lion King Website  Now playing in theaters nationwide.

FamilyFaire:  Sonic the Hedgehog 3  (2024) PG Sonic the Hedgehog 3 begins with Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails facing their most powerful foe ever, Shadow. If they have any hope of defeating Shadow, they will need help from a very unexpected source, Dr. Robotnik. As a film critic, I see about two-thirds (sometimes more) of the films I review with an audience. Sometimes this helps (seeing a children’s movie with kids in the audience lets me know if they are engaged with the film). Sometimes, it hurts (audience members pulling out their iPhones and distracting my vision while a key scene is being played out on screen). With horror, comedies, and Marvel films, seeing a movie with an audience can help significantly with the experience, sharing in the screams, laughs, or cheers. When I saw this film, it was evident that the audience I saw it with were fans of the Sonic games. They cheered when Sonic or Shadow showed off their powers, and when new characters were revealed, the audience would erupt. So, from those reactions, I feel that if you are a fan of the games, you will enjoy this film. I am not a fan of the film series. I barely liked the first film, mostly because of Jim Carey going nuts on screen, and I hated Sonic 2, mainly because Jim Carey’s Dr. Robotnik took a backseat to Knuckles (voiced by Idris Elba) in the film, taking away from the joy of the first film. Luckily, the studio figured out we wanted more Jim Carey, not less, so we get two Jim Carey roles: Dr. Robotnik (who has been watching a lot of Telenovelas) and his grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, who is also an evil bad guy but even more so. And then we have Shadow, voiced by Keanu Reeves, who is a character who is determined to get his revenge for killing a friend of his and imprisoning him for 50 years. Carey has a blast playing two evil and weird bad guys, including several dance numbers he does as both characters. Shadow is a much better villain than Knuckles was in the second film, with a backstory that helps you understand why he is so pissed off all the time. The film is fast-paced, and even better yet, there is less interaction with the weak points of all three films, the husband and wife team of Tom (James Marsden) and Maddie (Tika Sumpter), mostly seen at the beginning and end of the film. Of the three films, this was the one that I enjoyed throughout, and I think you will enjoy it too. And by the way, there are two bonus scenes, one in the middle of the credits that the audience went nuts over and one at the end of all the credits.Both set up the next film in the series.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Website Now playing in theaters nationwide. 

My View: The Six Triple Eight  (2024) PG-13  The Six Triple Eight takes place in 1943 during the height of WWII, when priorities changed, and a huge backlog of undelivered mail was overflowing warehouses. The 6888th Women’s Army Corps’ all-Black battalion was tasked with sorting years’ worth of mail and raising the spirits of soldiers and their families worldwide. This film is directed and co-written by Tyler Perry, a filmmaker not known for his subtle touch. The Six Triple Eight is based on a true story about an all-Black battalion that not once but twice did what others before them failed to do: finding a way to get the mail to the soldiers fighting the war and getting their letters to their loved ones back home delivered. Perry, unfortunately, makes this film about what these soldiers endured and not about the incredible accomplishment they were able to achieve against all the odds. The film constantly hits us over the head with how badly these women were treated and how they were set up for failure. It’s a constant theme throughout this film, and the repetition gets old after a while. Add in that the dialogue in this film is horrendous, with lines that felt hollow and out of place, making the film hard to watch. Their commanding officer, Major Adams (played by Kerry Washington), is constantly surprised by the racism she encounters. Every ten minutes is another scene where Capt. Adams stands up for her troops and is shot down by a racist military man. Her reaction is always of surprise and shock. The film never achieves any of the power and emotion that this story richly deserves. Instead, we get scene after scene that has little impact on the story or the great accomplishment that this battalion did. The film’s final scenes are with some of the surviving members of the battalion, who finally got recognition for their outstanding service to our country in the last few years. I wish the feeling I got from those few moments had carried over into the rest of the film. My Rating: Cable  The Six Triple Eight Website  Now playing in select theatres and on the Netflix platform. 

Forgotten Film:  The Taylor of Panama  (2001)  R  Andy Osnard (Pierce Brosnan) is a British spy for MI6 who has a habit of sleeping with women that can get him in trouble. Andy is given one last assignment to redeem himself. Go to Panama and find out if the Panama Canal is going to be sold to a foreign government. Andy needs someone who can supply him with information. He meets Harry Pendel (Geoffrey Rush), a tailor for the rich in Panama. Andy finds out Harry has a past that could ruin his career, making a perfect patsy from which Andy can mine information from. Harry also has a beautiful wife (Jamie Lee Curtis) whom Andy can hit on. The Taylor of Panama is a film based on a novel by John Le Carre and is directed by five-time Oscar nominee John Boorman (Hope and Glory, Deliverance). It's a brilliant spy film where no one is a hero and has one of my favorite lines from a spy film: 'Welcome to Panama-Casablanca without heroes.'   My Rating: Full Price  The Taylor of Panama Info  The film is available to rent/buy on Amazon and Apple TV.

Weird Credits:  From the credits of Sonic The Hedgehog 3: Sports Therapist to Mr. Carey

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You: The Last Showgirl  (2024) R  Shelly (Pamela Anderson) has been part of a Las Vegas revue show for over 20 years. Shelly has given up everything to be a part of the show and is told that in two weeks, the show will close forever. Pamela Anderson hasn’t headlined a movie since her 1996 film Barb Wire. Anderson playing the aging showgirl that has gotten a lot of attention recently from film critics and the Golden Globes, and could possibly garner an Oscar nomination for the role. The film contains an outstanding supporting cast, including Brenda Song, Kiernan Shipka, Dave Bautista, Billie Lourd, Jason Schwartzman, and Jamie Lee Curtis.   The Last Showgirl Website  The film is in theaters on Friday, January 10, 2025. 

Until Next Time!

Kraven the Hunter

My View:  Kraven the Hunter  (2024)  R   Kraven the Hunter tells the story of Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), a descendant of Russian nobility who has a complex relationship with his ruthless father, Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe). Kraven has made himself into the world’s greatest hunter, but he is also one of its most feared. I stopped reading comics a long time ago, so I had no clue who Kraven was. However, after doing some research, I found out he is a ‘supervillain.” Then why the heck would Sony/Marvel make a movie where this character is a hero throughout the film? I mean, maybe he turns bad at the end, but I have no clue other than he gets a new outfit at the end. Russell Crowe tries as hard as he can to lift up this mess of a film, but he is at the mercy of making the film center on one of the worst villains to ever appear in a superhero film, The Rhino. Alessandro Nivola plays Aleksei, a wannabe mobster who finds a doctor who gives him the ability to turn into a man/rhino. Then, he devises a plan to take down Kraven’s dad, Nikolai. Aleksei delivers some of the worst dialogue I have ever heard in a superhero movie, and I have seen Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (RIP Christopher Reeve). I think Aaron Taylor-Johnson could have done something with this role, but we never see Kraven as the great hunter he is supposed to be. I knew I was in trouble when, near the start of the film, a character is talking to a young girl and, in the span of two sentences, says her name twice. I get it. I’m supposed to remember her name, Calypso. The ending of this film is laughable, predictable, and just plain stupid. What was Marvel/Sony's plan for this character? Was he going to do a ‘heel turn,’ where you see a good guy turn bad all of a sudden like you see in WWE? We will never know since this is the end of this character, as he won’t be part of the next version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And no, thank goodness, you don’t have to stay during the credits because this film’s runtime is two hours and seven very-long-minutes. At least the film has that going for it.   My Rating: You Would Have to Pay Me to See it Again  Kraven the Hunter Website  Now playing in theaters.  

My View:  The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim  (2024)  PG-13  The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim tells the story of the legendary King of Rohan, Helm Hammerhand. The King and his family must defend their kingdom against an army of Dunledings led by the clever and ruthless Wulf. I am guessing that fans of The Lord of the Rings film series will be disappointed (though there are a few nods to it) mostly because it brings nothing new to the story. I was underwhelmed by the animation, which didn’t give me the splendor of Middle-Earth that we are used to. The animation felt very flat, and too many times, it felt like the film went cheap on the action. I liked that the hero of the story was the King’s daughter, Princess Hera (voiced by Gaia Wise), but the plot of the film feels like it was constructed on a whiteboard, knocking off plot points and characters like they were bit players and not a story worthy of The Lord of the Rings lore. I wanted to be dazzled by the animation and the story. Instead, I got a tale that could have easily been told in less than an hour, not the two-hour-plus run time.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  The Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim Website  Now playing in theaters. 

Indiefest:  Oh, Canada  (2024)  Oh, Canada tells the story of Leonard Fife Richard Gere), a terminally ill writer and filmmaker who has agreed to tell his story. Leonard was one of sixty thousand draft evaders and deserters who fled to Canada to avoid the Vietnam War. Remembering the past can be a challenging experience. Oh, Canada revolves around a man telling his tale to a documentary crew. It’s a story full of decisions, betrayals, and people he left behind to run away and reinvent himself. Unfortunately for the documentary crew, Leonard is in the final stage of his cancer fight and his memory is clouded. We see this in flashbacks, sometimes showing Leonard being played by Jacob Elordi, as what Leonard looked like when he was a young man. At other times, we see Leonard in the flashbacks, played by Richard Gere, as the storytelling gets confused. Oh, Canada is aided by a strong supporting cast, including Uma Thurman as Leonard’s present wife and Michael Imperioli and Victoria Hill as the husband/wife team of documentary filmmakers who share a past with Leonard. I never felt close to any character in the film, feeling like there was more to this story than what we were being told. Oh, Canada ends up as a frustrating look at a man we never get to know, and while that maybe filmmaker Paul Schrader’s point, I didn’t enjoy the experience.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Oh, Canada Website Now playing in theaters. 

My View:  Carry On  (2024)  PG-13  In Carry On, it’s Christmas Eve, and the airport is incredibly busy. Ethan (Taron Egerton) is a TSA agent who, while at work, gets a call from a mysterious traveler who tells Ethan, let a carry-on bag go through, or your girlfriend dies. They picked the wrong agent. It must be tough to write thrillers that are set in airports. Gone are the days when John McClane could run all over the Dulles International Airport without a care, saying a quip or two, while saving the day. This film tries hard to follow the rules, and for a while, it does. However, during the last third of the film, when our hero Ethan, with the help of a plucky, determined LA cop (Danielle Deadwyler), tries to stop the terrorist plot, things like common sense go out the window. The film’s first half is a fun cat-and-mouse film of Ethan trying to figure out a way to alert someone about the package while our bad guy stays one step ahead of him. Once the package gets through, the film goes downhill with ideas like a cop in an unmarked car being able to get from the highway to the drop-off point of LAX in minutes. Our hero does have some John McClane in him, as he gets beat up and shot a bunch of times, which he seems to forget about because he was a track star in high school. Carry On isn’t a terrible film, I just wish the second half had been as interesting as the first. Much like McClane, Ethan is the wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Carry On Website  Now playing on the Netflix platform. 

Indiefest:  The End  (2024)  The End is about a wealthy family who, after surviving the end of the world and spending years alone in an underground salt mine, a stranger shows up to change their world. This is the first narrative film from director Joshua Oppenheimer, known for his Academy Award-nominated documentaries The Act of Killing (2014) and The Look of Silence (2016). For him to choose a musical about the last possible surviving family on Earth is a little strange but I loved his films, so I was game. With a cast that has Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon as the heads of this peculiar underground family and it is a musical (one of my favorite film genres), you would think that I would love this film. Unfortunately, I tired of it rather quickly, and at two hours and almost thirty minutes, it’s a lot of songs that rarely captivate and are filmed almost entirely in long shots, making a small world seem stagy. A couple of songs stand out, including a fantastic song that George MacKay, as the son, sings about his love for the new stranger, a woman portrayed by Moses Ingram. Ingram is the shining light in the film, as her musical numbers have some punch to them. However, while touching on everything from climate change to the privilege of the wealthy, along with nods to race, The End never fully delves into anything except another song that doesn’t pay off. And then another one starts up, and so on. My Rating: Bargain Matinee  The End Website  Now playing in select theaters. 

Forgotten Film:  Rhapsody in August (1991) PG  An elderly woman (Sachiko Murase) living in Nagasaki, Japan, welcomes her four grandchildren to her home for their summer vacation. She attempts to teach them about the atomic bomb that was dropped on her city in WWII and how it killed their grandfather. She learns of her brother’s death and reaches out to his son, an American (Richard Gere), who comes to visit and learn from the woman about her life and city. Rhapsody in August is directed by one of my all-time favorite directors, Akira Kurosawa, whose Seven Samurai is a masterpiece of storytelling. This beautiful, moving film about a woman who wants the past never to repeat itself will bring you to tears. It’s also a love letter to a city that rose from the ashes but never forgot what happened to its people. While not one of his best, it’s still a powerful, exquisite-looking film that will touch you. My Rating: Full Price  Rhapsody in August Info The film is available to rent/buy on Amazon.

Weird Credits: From the credits of Kraven the Hunter:  Fashion Consultant

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You:  The Brutalist  (2024)  The Brutalist begins in the aftermath of WWII when visionary architect László Toth (Adrien Brody) and his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) flee post-war Europe to restart their lives. When László begins working for a wealthy client, Harrison Van Buren (Guy Pearce), he little realizes how much his life will change. Many film critics feel this role could bring another Academy Award for Adrien Brody. The film was shot in the VistaVision format, a widescreen camera system that hasn’t been used in an American shot movie in over 60 years.  The Brutalist Website  The film will first be released in IMAX in January 2025 and then to a wide release on Friday, January 23, 2025.

Until Next Time!

Nightbitch

My View:  Nightbitch  (2024) R  Nightbitch is about a woman (Amy Adams) who has paused her career to be a stay-at-home mom, but it’s not what she wanted in life. Soon, she feels different, and her life begins changing. She starts to transform into a dog. Does she actually become a dog or is it just her imagination? Do the local dogs worship her? I have no clue. Nightbitch is a film that needed to go further into the bizarre. Sure, there are a lot of strange scenes where she goes out into the yard and digs like a dog or goes for runs in the middle of the night, but the film never pushes the boundaries that it needs to. Amy Adams gives a stellar performance but is let down by a script that sometimes seems too conventional. How often have we seen a main character go off on someone who is being stupid, and then we realize that it’s only in her mind, with the character retreating without saying what she is really thinking? The film has a lot of say about motherhood and how society in America makes mothers almost second-class citizens with limited maternity leave and childcare that makes it too expensive for women to do part-time jobs until their kids are in school. All that is great, and the film hits us over the head with those thoughts. Unfortunately, Nightbitch leaves a lot to explore. It should have been a little weirder and more out there. It’s kind of like the scraps left in a dog bowl. It's tasty, but not enough to make a meal or a movie.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Nightbitch Website   Now playing in theaters.

My View:  Flow  (2024)  PG   In Flow, when a cat’s home is devastated by a great flood, it goes on an adventure to find a new home. Along the way, the cat must team up with other species to find this new world. One of those species is a dog. The best way to describe Flow is Homeward Bound in an alternate universe, where the cat and its friends don’t know where they are going; they just know that they have to do this together in order to survive. While this is Latvia’s nomination for the ‘Best International Feature Film’ category of the 97th Academy Awards, there aren’t any spoken words in the film, only animal sounds (all recorded with real animals). You will fall in love with the plucky cat, who is living a good life in an abandoned house with a ton of green space for the cat to explore and find food. Other than having to hide from a pack of local dogs, things are good until a flood that makes it impossible to stay turns the cat’s world upside down. The cat (we never know if it is male or female) finds a boat to climb aboard, and wouldn’t you know it, a dog is also on the boat. The adventure then starts from there, as we follow the cat and the boat, finding more friends along the way to join on in the journey. Flow is a magical film with animation that must be seen in a theater to appreciate its beauty. As we root for the cat to survive, your heart will beat a little faster at some of the troubles the cat gets into, and a few tears will be shed along the way. Flow is a film not to be missed, and though it is animated, I’m not sure small kids will be as interested as the teens and adults as the adventures go on with our cat and its rag-tag friends. I was stunned by how quickly this film moved and was sad that it ended. I wanted more with the cat. And I’m not a cat person. There is a small bonus scene at the end of all the credits. My Rating: I Would Pay to See it Again  Flow Website   Now playing in theaters. 

Indiefest:  Queer (2024) R Queer is about William Lee (Daniel Craig), an American expat living in Mexico City in the 1950s, struggling to survive on part-time jobs and the GI Bill. Along comes Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey), a former soldier, and William starts to believe that having an intimate connection with someone might be possible. If you have read any of William S. Burroughs’ work, you know he can be a little (ok, a lot) trippy. I loved the first two-thirds of this film, with a performance by Daniel Craig that might be his best ever. Craig plays William Lee, a man who is happy being a barfly who picks up a man from time to time but stays a loner for the most part. In fact, he seems to revel in going from bar to bar, conversing with his friends, and then going home to sleep until it’s time to do it again the next day. Into his life comes Eugene, a man who becomes Williams’s obsession. I loved Craig, portraying a man who, at the film’s beginning, is sure of himself, then falls head over heels in love with Eugene, even before they sleep together. William is a flawed man, but Eugene sees something in William, which allows him to hang around and occasionally sleep with William. Then comes the part that I didn’t enjoy when William and Eugene go off to South America to find a mysterious plant that might have the ability to allow you to do telepathy. This is where Burroughs’ work turns weird (the film is based on a novella he wrote in the 80s), and I felt the film gets too far off the tracks to ever recover. Still, Queer is a film to be seen to show us that Craig is an outstanding actor who I hope keeps making interesting choices like William Lee.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee    Now playing in select theaters. 

My View:  Y2K (2024) R    Y2K takes place on New Year’s Eve in 1999 when everyone is told that because of Y2K, the world might end. Two best friends, Eli (Jaeden Martell) and Danny (Julian Dennison), go to a party to have fun. Little did they know that when the clock strikes midnight, the party is over. Y2K is a film that might have made a funny 10-minute short to show at the midnight screenings at a film festival. The problem is that the material can’t sustain an hour-and-a-half film. Heck, it can’t even make it to the half-hour mark. Since Y2K was twenty-five years ago, who is your audience for this film? The couple of times that I laughed while watching this film was because I lived through this time of dial-up modems and downloading pictures that took what seemed like days. SNL alum Kyle Mooney co-wrote and directed the film, and Y2K feels like it was a leftover idea from a pitch he did five years ago. The film wants to be a teen horror comedy film, but the deaths are creative enough to be funny, and the plot gets old way too fast to sustain any interest in any of the characters. If you remember video stores and Billy Blanks, you might find a funny joke or two, but that’s about it. Frankly, I don’t want to be reminded of my AOL days with that saying, “You’ve Got Mail.” Not anymore.  My Rating: You Would Have to Pay Me to See it Again   Y2K Website  The review will be up Friday night. 

Familyfaire:  That Christmas  (2024)  PG  That Christmas is about the small town of Wellington-on-Sea when a snowstorm for the ages threatens to shut the town down, altering everyone’s plans, including Santa’s. This is a fun family movie based on the children’s books by Richard Curtis, who wrote the screenplay for the mainstay Christmas movie Love Actually. The film is greatly helped by the voice cast, including Brian Cox as Santa, Bill Nighy as Lighthouse Bill, and Jodie Whittaker as Mrs. Williams. Kids will love this film, which is full of action, where the town's children are the ones who save Christmas and a life or two. The film touches on many subjects, from loneliness to young love and how parents underestimate their children on how much they understand, especially when it deals with families in trouble. I loved that Santa not only delivers gifts, but he also knows when a town needs some special help and guidance. That Christmas is a fun and enjoyable addition to the animated Christmas fare that gives us a warm ending to take into the season.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee  That Christmas Website  Now playing on Netflix. 

My View:  The Order  (2024)  R  The Order takes place in 1983 when a series of bank robberies and car heists were frightening communities in the Pacific Northwest. Law enforcement was baffled, not knowing who or why the robberies were being committed. One man, an FBI agent (Jude Law) in Idaho, began putting the pieces together and was out to prove he was right. The Order is a taut thriller that, while based on actual events that happened in the 80s, could easily be set in 2024. Jude Law plays an FBI agent, Terry Husk, who drinks too much, is an outsider to life in Idaho and has a past that keeps haunting him. He does make one friend, a local police officer, Jamie Bowen (Tye Sheridan), who wants to help Terry in investigating a local White Supremacist group that may be involved in some local bombings and bank heists. Terry, with the help of Jamie, discovers that a splinter group may have started up under the direction of Bob Mathews (Nicholas Hoult), who has shown his dissatisfaction with the leader of the White Supremacist group. The Order is an intense film where the stakes keep getting higher as Bob convinces more of his followers that now is the time to strike against the government. Things get serious when the violence and bank heists escalate, and Terry is convinced that this is just the tip of the iceberg. The film is buoyed by an incredible performance by Nicholas Hoult, who has the charisma and charm to make Bob a character that we can believe would make men (and women) follow him down a rabbit hole they won’t return from. It’s a film filled with fantastic performances, including Marc Maron as a radio DJ who plays an integral part in raising the stakes in the fight. The Order is a film about good versus evil and how evil can hide in the weeds before striking, often with only a few brave people to oppose it.   My Rating: Full Price  The Order Website  Now playing in theaters. 

Forgotten Film:  Wilde (1997) R  The story of Oscar Wilde (Stephen Fry), who was a playwright, a poet, and a genius. He was in a straight relationship with his wife (Jennifer Ehle) and was the toast of the town because of his wit and his plays. Then, he met Lord Alfred Douglas (Jude Law), who wanted to be famous and seduced Wilde. Wilde's world then crumbled as he accepted his homosexuality, but the law and the public didn't. Stephen Fry is brilliant as the witty and tormented Wilde, who just wanted to live his life, having fallen for a man who didn’t really care about him. The supporting cast is a dream with Vanessa Redgrave, Tom Wilkinson, Ioan Gruffudd, and Gemma Jones. Jude Law is perfect casting for the man who brings Wilde down. In my opinion, Stephen Fry should have been nominated for an Academy Award for his performance. My Rating: Full Price  Wilde Info   Available on streaming services. 

Weird Credits:  From the credits of Nightbitch: Decorator Gang Boss

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You: The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim  (2024) PG-13  The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim tells the story of the legendary King of Rohan, Helm Hammerhand. The King and his family must defend their kingdom against an army of Dunledings led by the clever and ruthless Wulf. Peter Jackson, who made The Lord of the Rings film series, produced this animated film. The film takes place 180 years before The Lord of the Rings.   The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim Website  In theaters on Friday, December 13, 2024. 

Until Next Time!

Moana 2

Familyfaire:  Moana 2  (2024)  PG   Moana 2 takes place when Moana receives a message from her wayfinding ancestors and must go on a journey to the far seas of Oceania. Moana and her friends will sail into dangerous, long-lost waters to seek out an island that could unify all the people of Oceania. I really liked Moana (2016). I thought it had a great message, some cool songs, and Auli’i Cravalho, who was delightful in the title role. Even Dwayne Johnson was fun in the role of the demigod. Unfortunately, I can't say the same thing about Moana 2. Despite Auli'i Cravalho's excellent performance and top-notch singing, the plot and rest of the film are lacking. The film was originally conceived as a series, and that's what it feels like. It’s a bunch of 15-minute stories woven together, with some very forgettable songs and a plot that is incredibly hard to follow. The film has an ending that seems rushed and all too easy to happen when the rest of the movie was leading up to this breakthrough point. And don’t get me started on how Johnson’s demigod character has become annoying and bland. Add in Johnson once again trying to sing, and it makes for a long film to watch that only young kids will have fun with, mostly due to the stupid chicken that keeps popping up everywhere. A bonus scene at the end of all the credits explains what happened to one of the main characters in the film and sets up a Moana 3. Let’s hope they get better songs and a better plot.  My Rating: Cable  Moana 2 Website  Now playing in theaters. 

My View:  Maria  (2024)  R  Maria is about Maria Callas (Angelina Jolie), who was at one time the world's most famous opera singer with a voice that thrilled the masses. Now Maria has retired and has retreated to Paris, where she is attempting to mount a comeback but cannot escape the past. Maria is a film where the lead's performance lifts a meandering and weak script and makes it watchable. The film follows Maria during the last week that she was alive. She has been retired for five years but wants to mount a comeback. Her problem is twofold: she has a strong addiction to drugs, and her voice, once one of the world's greatest, has become a shadow of her former self. Jolie is brilliant in the role, playing a character who was a huge star whose every move was documented by the paparazzi. Jolie reveals the agony of realizing that Maria will never have that voice back, but she still believes she is a star. The film, though, lets Jolie’s performance down, mired in a series of weird flashbacks and drug-induced fantasies that don’t give you the emotional punch you need. The film never gives us in the flashbacks the big moments in her life, just glimpses of them as Maria stumbles through her last days. Still, Maria is a film to see because Jolie is spectacular in the role. I just wish it had been a different film that showed us why she was the star who captivated the world with her voice.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Maria Website  Now playing in select theaters and on the Netflix platform on December 11, 2024. 

My View:  Dear Santa  (2024)  PG-13   In Dear Santa, every year, tons of kids send letters to Santa. This year Liam (Robert Timothy Smith) sent his letter to someone else because he is a crappy speller: that man, Satan (Jack Black). Who the heck thought that giving Bobby Farrelly, one of the brothers behind films such as Shallow Hal and There’s Something About Mary, the reigns to a Christmas movie for kids would be a good idea? It is rated PG-13, so "it may not be suitable for children." I have no clue who this film is for. I just know that Dear Santa isn’t funny, has Jack Black making some pretty raunchy jokes, jokes that a kid Liam's age shouldn't be hearing and has an incredibly lazy ending. I wasn’t happy with this film almost from the start, as Liam isn’t a crappy speller (as I put in the description). Liam has dyslexia because that’s so funny. And the film goes downhill from there. Liam agrees to a deal with the Devil, granting him three wishes in exchange for his soul, and there are still more ha-ha moments to come. Maybe the kids will enjoy Post Malone being goofy but even that isn't funny. It's just kind of sad. If you find Jack Black dancing around in a leotard hilarious, go ahead and watch Dear Santa; otherwise, watch any other Christmas movie out there. They have to be better than this. My Rating: You Would Have to Pay Me to See it Again  Dear Santa Info     Now playing on the Paramount+ platform.

Indiefest:  All We Imagine as Light  (2024)   All We Imagine as Light is about Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and Anu (Divya Prabha), nurses who work at the same Mumbai hospital and are roommates. Prabha and her husband, who is currently away in Germany, have not seen each other in a year, and the phone calls have stopped coming. Anu is younger and in a relationship with a Muslim boyfriend, which is challenging because of their conflicting religious beliefs. Prabha and Anu take a trip to a coastal town to get away, and there, they learn about life and love. All We Imagine as Light is a beautiful and touching story of love told from the perspective of two women. They are opposites in their lives, yet they are connected by a marriage custom that removes love from the picture. Anu is a young woman in the first stages of love, where you will do just about anything to steal time with that special person. Anu is blinded by love in the moment, not knowing or wanting to care about the future. All she wants is to be with the man she loves. The issue is that her parents won't approve of the relationship. In actuality, they are already preparing candidates for her to wed. Prabha is older, and she never had the chance to find love. Her marriage was arranged, and her husband is off in Germany, seemingly having forgotten her. There is a doctor who she likes and who is interested in her, but it can never happen because she is married. I loved the performances of the two leads. Kani Kusruti, as the sad and lonely Prabha, is brilliant in the role, letting us see Prabha’s true feelings in those small moments when she is alone and her thoughts take over. Divya Prabha, as Anu, is like a breath of fresh air when she is on the screen, making Anu someone who can contain herself when she is in her loved ones’ presence. This is also a love story about Mumbai, the city where they live. We are constantly shown the city as a warm and lively place where romance can happen, with the possibility of getting lost in the crowd on a train or in a restaurant. All We Imagine as Light is a story about love, loneliness, and the hope a city can bring you if you look hard enough. My Rating: I Would Pay to See it Again  All We Imagine as Light Website  Now playing in select theaters. 

My View:  Beatles ’64  (2024)  Beatles ’64 is a documentary about the Beatles US debut, which created a frenzy that changed the world of music forever. Beatles ’64 is an inside look at the tour of America that the Beatles did in 1964, just months after President Kennedy had been assassinated. Two brothers, Albert and David Maysles, were given unprecedented access to the tour, as we join the Beatles in hotel rooms, trains and backstage at their legendary concerts. We get to experience what it was like for the four lads to tour America for the first time and experience the madness of how America’s teens went nuts over them. The footage includes interviews, both past and present, that detail the experience of being on that tour. And we get to see some of their legendary concert footage, not just the songs they sang on the Ed Sullivan Show, but also concerts in Miami and Carnegie Hall. You will fall in love with the four young men from Liverpool who are just as mystified by the mania that they inspired as the press is. Beatles ‘64 is a Beatles lover’s dream, but it’s also a way to understand how something like the Beatles coming to America could start the healing process of a country that had just lost a leader. My Rating: Full Price  Beatles '64 Info Now playing on the Disney+ platform. 

Forgotten Film:   A Hard Day's Night  (1964) G  Two days in the life of The Beatles as they prepare for an important live TV broadcast. Richard Lester directed this fantastic and fun look at The Beatles in a fictional look at what it was like to be them in England in 1964. The film allows the guys to have fun and showcase their personalities. While the plot is incredibly thin, and the boys mostly do a lot of jokes and winking at the camera, we do get to see how much fun they had at the time being together. Plus, we get a ton of their music. What is forgotten about this film is that it garnered two Academy Award nominations: Best Original Screenplay and Best Score.  My Rating: Full Price A Hard Day's Night Info The film is available to stream on Max and buy/rent on Amazon. 

Weird Credits: From the credits of Moana 2: Environment Lighting

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You:  Babygirl  (2024) R  A high-powered CEO (Nicole Kidman) has everything she's ever desired except one thing. She finds it in a torrid affair with her much younger intern (Harris Dickinson). Nicole Kidman has won a couple of awards from film festivals for this role. Could an Academy Award nomination be coming next year?  Babygirl Website  The film will be in theatres on Christmas Day. 

Until Next Time!

Wicked

My View: Wicked  (2024) PG Wicked is about Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), a misunderstood young woman who has been looked down upon because of her green skin. Glinda (Ariana Grande) is a spoiled rich girl who is a little boy crazy. At Shiz University in the Land of Oz, they find themselves becoming unlikely friends. We are about to learn that there are always two sides to a story. Wicked is a perfect example of what film can do with an adaptation of a Broadway musical. Take the music and story from the stage and flesh the story out, giving us more about the characters than what we get just from a song. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande shine in this adaptation of the beloved Broadway musical. Both are award-worthy performances and, like the two characters, the performances of Erivo and Grande are different but still both fantastic. Grande is perfect as the vain Glinda (pronounced with a hard G, by the way), who knows she is something special and loves the attention she gets just walking in the room, always looking perfect. Grande shows impressive range in her songs and commands the screen in every scene she is in, which is hard when your cast-mate in many scenes, Cynthia Erivo is equally compelling and commanding. Wicked is Elphaba’s story, and Erivo runs with the role, making us fall in love with her character from her first song. It’s an impressive and multi-level performance that gives us insight into what Elphaba thinks and feels as she discovers she isn’t a freak with green skin but someone who can have friends who care about her. The musical numbers range from some solos for both Erivo and Grande to big production numbers that are inventive and fun to watch. The musician number which takes place in the school’s library where the love interest of the film, Jonathan Bailey, as Prince Giyero, does a rousing number that has people dancing upside down that will blow you away. For fans of the Broadway musical, this will be a wonderful addition to a story they love. To the rest of us who haven’t seen it, it’s a beautiful film anchored by two terrific performances and a set design that is truly out of this world. I don’t know if there are any songs you will be humming as you walk out the theater door, but I know that you will be looking forward to part two.  My Rating: I Would Pay to See it Again.  Wicked Website Now playing in theaters nationwide, including 3-D. 

My View:  Gladiator II  (2024)  R    Gladiator II tells the story of Lucius (Paul Mescal), who, after his home is conquered by a Roman army led by Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), is captured and taken to Rome to become a Gladiator to fight in the Colosseum. Lucius vows revenge and looks to his past to find the strength to return the glory of Rome to its people. Gladiator II takes place fifteen years after the first film, and the son of Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), Lucias, is living a good life with his loving wife, Arishat (Yuval Gonen), in Numidia. That city is attacked by a Roman force led by General Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), who conquers the city. Lucius’ wife is killed, and he is forced into slavery, where he is spotted by Macrinus (Denzel Washington), who hand-picks Lucius to become a gladiator. Lucius vows to kill Marcus Acacius and anyone who gets in his way. The reason Gladiator was such a fantastic spectacle of a movie was because of the star power of Russel Crowe, the absolutely bonkers performance of Joaquin Phoenix and the incredible fighting sequences (including tigers). Now we have Gladiator II, which is still worth the price of admission because director Ridley Scott knows how to bring something this big and magical to the screen. However, there are some problems with this film that the first film didn’t suffer from. First is Paul Mescal doesn’t have the star power to play this part. I love him in smaller films, but this role needed a commanding presence that when he walks into any room, people will follow him to the death because of his charisma and star power. Russel had it. Even going back to Kirk Douglas in another gladiator genre film, Spartacus, had it. Mescal doesn’t. He is too soft- spoken and not charismatic enough for the role. In fact, I think the film might have been better if Mescal and Pedro Pascal had switched roles. The second problem is the CGI is not worthy of a movie that cost 250 million to make. Some of the CGI effects look like they didn’t go through a final process, making the film, at times, lose some of its impact. However, some of the battle sequences are fun to watch, and then there is Denzel Washington. Washington has a blast playing the string pulling Macrinus, who plays people like they are pieces on a board game. Washington does what few can do, chew up scenery and still make it look like a master class in acting. Watching Washington act on screen makes up for any fake-looking CGI severed head any day. So, pay tribute to Maximus and the past with a new adventure in the land of sandals, blood, and sweat. We are entertained. Just not as much as the first one.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee Gladiator II Website  Now playing in theaters nationwide.

My View:  Bread & Roses  (2023)  Bread & Roses is a documentary that follows three women living in Afghanistan after the Taliban’s 2021 takeover of Kabul. The documentary is a heartbreaking and powerful film about women at great peril fighting for their rights. The film is shot by the women on their phones as we see the fall of Kabul and how the Taliban started taking away the rights of women. One of the women, Dr. Zahra Mohammadi, is an outspoken dentist who has her own successful practice. She is vocal in street protests, constantly having meetings in her dentist offices, and is arrested several times during the film. Her practice is shut down, and she can no longer even take a taxi alone on the streets of Kabul. As the film progresses, we see the bravery of these women who keep speaking up, even when threatened with imprisonment and beating. The film shows the bravery of these women, as we see scene after scene where their protests are shut down with violence and arrests. In one shocking scene, after being arrested and put in a police car, the women are told that if they don’t shut up, they will be killed. A woman in the car dares the officer to kill her. Bread & Roses is a film that puts you right in the middle of a fight for basic human rights, where women are fighting against a regime of tyranny. Bread & Roses has gotten some publicity because of actress Jennifer Lawrence and activist Malala Yousafzai (who, as a teen, was shot in the face by the Taliban), but the focus should be on the film and the women who put their lives on the line to protest the ceasing of women’s rights at great peril.  My Rating: Full Price Bread & Roses Info  Now playing on Apple TV. 

My View:  The Piano Lesson  (2024) PG-13    The Piano Lesson focuses on the Charles family in 1936 Pittsburgh during the Depression and their conflict over what to do with a treasured heirloom piano, a legacy of their enslaved ancestors. This is another film produced by Denzel Washington that is based on a play by the legendary playwright August Wilson. The film is directed by Malcolm Washington (Denzil’s son), who co-wrote the screenplay with Virgil Williams, who was nominated for an Oscar for his screenplay Mudbound, which he co-wrote with Dee Rees. Another Denzel son, John David Washington, stars as Boy Willie Charles, who comes into town and into the lives of his sister Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler) and their uncle Doaker (Samuel L. Jackson). Boy Willie is there to claim his inheritance, a piano carved by a relative, a slave at the time, who carved the Charles family’s faces and scenes from their life into a piano owned by their slave master. Boy Wille’s father, who lost his life in the heist, stole that piano, and Boy Wille wants to sell the piano to buy some farmland. His sister is dead set against selling the piano and is convinced that ghosts are protecting it from being taken. Most of the film, like the play, centers on a couple of rooms in the home, as characters talk and drink, debating if the piano should be sold and if the ghosts of the dead are still around to protect it. There is a show-stopping scene in the middle of the film when the men are all drinking late one night and start a work song from the past that they sing with their hearts. The Piano Lesson is a film filled with powerful performances and always with August Wilson’s work, some fantastic speeches that seem to fill the air with those ghosts from the past. My Rating: Full Price The Piano Lesson Website  Now playing on the Netflix platform. 

Forgotten Film:  The Comedians  (1967)  A Welsh hotel owner (Richard Burton) secretly romances a diplomat’s wife (Elizabeth Taylor) while the harsh and violent reign of the despot ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier brings a country to its knees. The Comedians isn’t a great film, but it has a ton of star power from the 60s. Taylor and Burton were at the height of their fame and relationship, and they bought the rights to the book by Graham Greene as a vehicle for them to work together on. No matter that the wife in the book is barely in the film, Graham Greene wrote the screenplay and put Taylor in a scene every ten minutes to satisfy the couple and ensure the check would clear. Besides the power couple (Taylor looks terrific in the film), we have a cast that includes Alec Guinness, Peter Ustinov, Lillian Gish (great performance in a sea of bad ones), James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson, and Paul Ford. The Comedians is worth watching to see a great example of Hollywood of the 60s trying to find things for the world’s most famous couple and failing.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee The Comedians Info  Available to rent/buy on Amazon.

Weird Credits:  From the credits of Gladiator II: Shooting Electricians

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You:  Mufasa: The Lion King  (2024)  PG  Mufasa is a cub who is lost and alone. He meets another cub named Taka, who is heir to a royal bloodline. They become fast friends, and with Taka’s help, along with some new friends, Mufasa might survive in this savage and beautiful world. The film is from Barry Jenkins, the Academy Award-winning director of Moonlight. Mufasa: The Lion King Website The film will be released on December 20, 2024, 30 years after the original The Lion King was released. 

Until Next Time!