Put the atlas away and send the stenographer on vacation. For this one, you’re going to need a Ouija board, a witch doctor, a semester’s worth of Disney+ homework, and either a giant Ambian or the PASIV machine from Inception to join the dream party. OG Spider-Man trilogy director Sam Raimi stuffs this movie with all of his signature garish monstrosity that can fit under a PG-13 rating. Prepare to be dazzled and prepare to be dizzy as well.
Read MoreWhen it comes to entertainment value versus artistic value, much can be forgiven about a film when its heart is in the right place. Beginning as a romantic comedy, The Sound of Violet has a beginning premise that veers very much into a cloying territory. Once the drama of its chosen realities thicken and the laughs no longer come easy, its sense of correction can feel quite heavy-handed. Normally, such an imbalance would be the death knell for a movie. Somehow, the openly hemorrhaging sweetness of The Sound of Violet grants a few critical pardons.
Read MoreInstead of empathy leading to absorb the full breadth of such a possible tragedy, the conjured thrills selfishly serve only one side of the story and plead a hollow case by the end. By staying on Amy and her radical involvement in the climax, the movie forgets to consider the unseen characters in the story that do not fare as well. The movie is laser-focused on this one mom and her one kid with very little respect extended to the fullness of the event or larger issue. Even with the objective of making a claustrophobic and voyeuristic movie, that larger picture cannot responsibly be dismissed for selfish or singular gain.
Read MoreNone of those interactions and traits do Tom Holland any favors in a big spot that he should have been allowed to outright own. By golly, it’s a good thing the kid (see, there I go doing it too) is an upper-level movie star athlete pulling off his own moves and an even better thing the high adventure that requires him to run, jump, leap, flip, and swing without his trusty Marvel webs is very entertaining. Still, what should be the second coming of Indiana Jones comes off more like a graduation and gender swap of Dora the Explorer.
Read MoreCharlie Day and Jenny Slate are both very calibrated when it comes to self-deprecating humor. He has his plucky fluster and she has her Debbie Downer magnetism and their mutual resumes before this movie are full of that specialty. When they’re together, the two best actors and characters are bouncing emotions off each other. Their comedic cadences click for their future foregone conclusion of “will they” or “won’t they.”
Read MoreEven with a blindfold, an astute movie fan could play “Pin the Tail on the Proxy” with the films of Woody Allen from the past two decades. The likes of Timothee Chalamet, Justin Timberlake, Jesse Eisenberg, Colin Firth, Joaquin Phoenix, Owen Wilson and others have taken on the signature scripted blather of the male leading roles the writer-director used to play himself when he was younger than the 86 he is now. For his newest film, Rifkin’s Festival, cherished character actor Wallace Shawn assumes the short New Yorker vessel for this romantic comedy jaunt.
Read MoreAnyone who’s watched Sudeikis knows the Everyman archetype suits his charm and talent. The independent film South of Heaven from Big Bad Wolves director Aharon Keshales challenges Jason to take a podunk pariah that has been pushed into a corner and unravel him to commit violence to defend himself and the honor of the woman he loves against his better judgment and softhearted morals. It is indeed a very valiant turn within a movie that tailspins wide of the mark behind him.
Read MoreThis 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.
Read MoreThis 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.
Read MoreMuch 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.
Read MoreThis 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.
Read MorePunch 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.
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