MOVIE REVIEW: Venom: Let There Be Carnage

This is a comic book movie that centers on and attempts to broaden two of the most violent, powerful, and deadly villains ever to grace Marvel Comics, and what do you get? Asininity instead of menace. Venom: Let There Be Carnage feels like the cinematic equivalent of a young teenager who just learned to be brash for brash’s sake where the consequences haven’t kicked into gear. The kid curses a bunch, breaks stuff, and tries to sound all tough only to always come out looking like a clown, complete with a retreaded Iron Man 2 party scene of stage-stealing and mic-dropping cringe.

2 STARS, 2021, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanSeptember 30, 2021VenomComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Old

This is Shyamalan’s second ever adaptation, following the disastrous The Last Airbender, and he has smeared another one. The predicament of the setting and the possibility of unseen puppeteer strings are given more mysterious investment than the people at the core. That has very limited appeal. At some point, someone, more than something, has to matter.

2 STARS, 2021, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanJuly 23, 2021Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Joe Bell

Much of Joe Bell has the pungent trace of an unglamourous “glamour project” for Mark Wahlberg and likely a few of the film’s manly executive producer backers including Jake Gyllenhaal, NFL Hall of Famer Derrick Brooks, and former NBA All-Star Michael Finley to name a few. Projecting for sure, this movie feels like a place where the A-lister is trying to put forth marketed atonement for his own past bigotry. When all of this movie adds up to be about him, the genuineness aligns to the wrong place.

2021, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Streaming, 2 STARSDon ShanahanJuly 21, 2021Joe Bell, Mark WahlbergComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Voyagers

This is going to get confusing, but critiquing Voyagers calls upon several illustrative conflicts. First off, science fiction is the realm of high-minded concepts of fantasy, and yet organic humanity creates and drives each and every great idea in the genre. In the same regard, you have homage versus originality in applying prototypical themes to the luster of new settings. Lasty, you have an audience’s subjective aim to project any number of thoughts out of a movie while the work was created with certain objectives in mind that may not be seen or readily interpreted. All three of those dichotomies clash in Neil Burger’s new film with mixed results.

2 STARS, 2021, Home Media, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanApril 9, 2021Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Godzilla vs. Kong

Punch up the peril. Amplify the spectacle. Turn the big boys loose. That’s it. Should it really be that hard, especially when you pair the two most popular monster properties in cinema history? They’re billed as ancient enemies of a never-ending rivalry. Would it really be that difficult to stand back in Godzilla vs. Kong and “let them fight?” Evidently, it still is. Apparently, monsters are still dragged down by convolution and pesky people.

2021, 2 STARS, MOVIE REVIEW, Home Media, StreamingDon ShanahanMarch 29, 2021Godzilla, Kong, King Kong, MonsterVerseComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Cherry

Cherry feels like the cinematic embodiment of the expression “throw everything at the wall to see if it sticks.” The Collins Dictionary defines that to mean saying something “that is not believable but hoping that what is said will be acceptable as truth.” For the movie, it’s about the performers and filmmakers piling on every trope and trick they can to try and get noticed for praise. To that end, Cherry is trying way, way too hard.

2 STARS, 2021, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanMarch 14, 2021Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Silk Road

When you read the source material coming from David Kushner’s 2014 long-form piece from Rolling Stone and then watch the movie, the character traits and tonal choices just don’t fit. Silk Road has an astounding and blistering story to tell that seems mishandled by those two filmmaker tools for dramatic effect. We too easily see the chopped scars from a machete and the lift of a weakly deflated Thanksgiving Day parade balloon from something that could have been as sharp and heady as The Social Network.

2021, 2 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanFebruary 20, 2021Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Little Things

The very accomplished Denzel Washington is and has been many superlative things throughout his illustrious career. His signature intensity and ardent commitment to character have filled trophy cases and made him a magnetic draw across five decades now. One thing you could never call him was boring. Sure, the same can’t be said about all of his movies, but he was never (and I mean never) part of the dullness. Well, after nearly 50 films, there’s a first time for everything and John Lee Hancock’s The Little Things, debuting on HBO Max, is the culprit.

2 STARS, 2021, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanJanuary 29, 2021Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Dig

It’s rare, as rare as the ancient treasure trove shown in the movie at hand, but sometimes you encounter a “based on a true story” movie that may have been more compelling and richly told as a documentary than a theatrical drama. The Netflix new release, The Dig, is one of those. Why? Call it subject matter versus character and the pendulum of revealed truths against manufactured melodrama. Sometimes, the dramatic licence amplifies the impact of the embedded facts, but in other instances the injected theatrics water down the truism. While bolstered by a fine cast, Simon Stone’s The Dig is too much of the latter.

2021, 2 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Independent Film, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanJanuary 28, 2021Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Outside the Wire

The gulf between how good Anthony Mackie looks and everyone else in Outside the Wire is as wide as the Mississippi River delta the New Orleans-born actor hails from. Paired with a whiny and clunky younger partner and pitted against the mirage of a paper-thin, nondescript European villain, there’s so little complimentary muscle next to Anthony. The overwhelming majority of this futuristic army flick couldn’t arm wrestle a toddler.

2 STARS, 2021, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanJanuary 13, 2021Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Greenland

The trouble is Greenland still cannot resist overselling the unbelievable side of this whole ordeal. The former stunt coordinator director Waugh still needs silly thrills and spills. Rapid societal collapse would be far worse than a smattering of looted stores and some increased traffic here and there. For this movie to go that route, it had to commit more. While shooting for a more grounded perspective, the pitfalls and hurdles placed before Gerard Butler and company try to be harrowing, but they’re still too easy and light on risk. We still have an action hero getting lucky like an action hero too often does. When that happens, the repetitive disbelief smears the good graces of more tense intentions. The eye rolls take over.

2 STARS, 2020, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanDecember 17, 2020Greenland, Gerard ButlerComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Black Bear

Much to her flexible power for sardonic comedy or reckless abandon, actress Aubrey Plaza has a look. It’s not entirely a scowl. It’s not entirely a cynical grin. Deeming it a case of “resting bitch face” would be a dismissal to grander notions going on behind those eyes and curved lips. No, it’s more than that. It feels like all of the possible come-hither coyness mixed with all of the possible perilous threat her presence can express. She’s a puzzle, and it’s quite alright to love that about her.