MOVIE REVIEW: ANYONE BUT YOU

 

Despite an amazing first date, Bea and Ben's initial attraction quickly turns sour. However, when they unexpectedly find themselves at a destination wedding in Australia, they pretend to be the perfect couple to keep up appearances.

Director: Will Gluck

Cast: Sydney Sweeney, Glen Powell, Alexandra Shipp, GaTa, Hadley Robinson, Michelle Hurd, Dermot Mulroney, Darren Barnet, Bryan Brown, Rachel Griffiths

Release Date: December 22, 2023

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Rated R for language throughout, sexual content and brief graphic nudity.

Runtime: 1h 43m

Review:

Anyone but You is a fairly paint by the numbers rom-com that toys with being a raunchier romp before settling into the usual genre clichés that we've seen plenty of times before.  To his credit, Will Gluck delivers a slick looking, breezy film that unabashedly uses Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing as its basic template while occasionally lifting full lines of dialogue from the play.   It’s an interesting choice that never works since those moments are played off as a running joke with the characters stating they just made up the rather robust bit of dialogue lifted from the Bard.  It would have been an interesting approach if they'd leaned into it instead of just sporadically shoehorning it randomly with little pretext or payoff.  The film does something similar with its random forays into raunchy territory while never committing to it.  Paired with the random Shakespearean lines, the film never finds its own flow or rhythm since everything in between is overly familiar and broad.  Gluck has proven capable of making a memorable genre film like Emma Stone's Easy A but this film relies far too heavily on tired tropes.  It’s a shame since the cast seems up for pretty much anything especially the overly attractive onscreen couple.  Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell are clearly having fun with the material which makes the film an easy watch even if decidedly forgettable.  Sweeney and Powell have solid chemistry, but you never buy the fact that the characters supposedly have a certain level of disdain for each other which makes it readily apparent they'll end up together.  The supporting cast is made up of familiar faces like Dermot Mulroney, Rachel Griffiths, Michelle Hurd and Bryan Brown but the film doesn't take advantage of the talent instead being mostly satisfied with them delivering broad strokes of comedy.  It all leaves Anyone but You as a passable but forgettable rom-com that could have been far more memorable.

C

MOVIE REVIEW: DARK PHOENIX

This is the story of one of the X-Men’s most beloved characters, Jean Grey, as she evolves into the iconic DARK PHOENIX. During a life-threatening rescue mission in space, Jean is hit by a cosmic force that transforms her into one of the most powerful mutants of all. Wrestling with this increasingly unstable power as well as her own personal demons, Jean spirals out of control, tearing the X-Men family apart and threatening to destroy the very fabric of our planet. The film is the most intense and emotional X-Men movie ever made. It is the culmination of 20 years of X-Men movies, as the family of mutants that we’ve come to know and love must face their most devastating enemy yet -- one of their own.

Director: Simon Kinberg

Cast: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Jessica Chastain

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action including some gunplay, disturbing images, and brief strong language

Release Date: June 7, 2019

Genres: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Runtime: 1h 54 min

Review:

It’s typically not the biggest compliment for a film when you start comparing it to past entries in the franchise only to confirm that it’s not as bad as some of the series low spots.  In this case, Dark Phoenix isn’t the collective disaster that X-Men The Last Stand was and it’s far more palatable than X-Men Apocalypse.  That doesn’t necessarily make a good film though, it’s serviceable at best.  The first two acts of the film rush through exposition and tries to get the audience to care about Jean Grey whom we’ve spent barely anytime with as a character in the previous films.  Sophie Turner just isn’t terribly engaging as the titular character, her acting ranger here seem to consist of staring blankly into space angrily.  The real shame is that the film is stacked with excellent actors and actresses across the board.  Jennifer Lawrence is barely given much to do and her character’s storyline doesn’t land the way it should.  It’s a consistent issue with the film, its first two acts feel like an emotionless slog peppered with some respectable action sequences.  Jessica Chastain’s character and performance exemplify this since she’s a walking talking emotionless villain who’s not so much a character but a plot device to move the story forward. She’s utterly wasted throughout the film, much like Michael Fassbender whose role feels more like an extended cameo.  James McAvoy fares slightly better but it not enough to turn the tide, the films final battle is solid but strangely Simon Kinberg decided it was a good idea to uses certain beats from The Last Stand.  Since the final act was entirely reshot, it’s hard not to see a problematic production turn into a messy uninspired film.

C