MOVIE REVIEW: THE MARVELS

 

Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, has reclaimed her identity from the tyrannical Kree and taken revenge on the Supreme Intelligence. However, unintended consequences see her shouldering the burden of a destabilized universe. When her duties send her to an anomalous wormhole linked to a Kree revolutionary, her powers become entangled with two other superheroes to form the Marvels.

Director: Nia DaCosta

Cast: Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani, Zawe Ashton, Gary Lewis, Park Seo-joon, Zenobia Shroff, Mohan Kapur, Saagar Shaikh, Samuel L. Jackson

Release Date: November 10, 2023

Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Rated PG-13 for action/violence and brief language

Runtime: 1h 45m

The Marvels manages to shake up the standard formula by leaning into its weirdness which ends up making it fun if rather light comic book fun similar to another franchise tangent, Thor: Ragnarok.  Nia DaCosta delivers an energic and efficient entry into the long running franchise that smartly keeps the focus on the tangible chemistry between the three leads.  Sure the overall story is fairly basic by comic book standards with a central villain that barely registers as one dimensional.  The stakes are what you would expect with these kind of films but in this film it almost seems besides the point and we are given a steady stream of kinetic, body swapping action sequences that are cleverly staged and always fun.  DaCosta moves her film at pleasantly breezy pace which is a welcome change of pace after a series of overly serious and bloated chapters that have populated the Marvel release schedule over the last few years.  As a result, Brie Larson comes off far more comfortable and relaxed here than she did in the original film.  Larson is given a bit more rope with the character and she embraces it especially in some of the film's wackier sequences such as a planet whose populace communicates through song.  These sort of left turns provide a steady bit of organic comedy that works better than last year's more ham fisted Thor: Love and Thunder.  Larson benefits from having Teyonah Parris and Iman Vellani join her this go around with their interplay and relationships serving as the lifeblood of the film.  Parris and Vallani bring their small screen characters to the big screen with relative ease but Vallani's youthful charisma shines through the entire film.  The three of them together keep the film moving even as it moves to a fairly predictable end as they try and stop Zawe Ashton's villain.  Ashton fares the worst of the primary group as we are given the slightest sliver of information about her character's motivations which leave her with little to do outside of stare and scream maniacally and little else.  The story and characters are tied to a variety of separate, preestablished mythology, mostly from Marvel TV shows, but its surprisingly not weighed down by the script making the most of exposition dumps to catch the uninitiated up to speed.  The Marvels might not be the most impactful entry in the MCU but it is one of the easiest to enjoy in recent memory.

B

MOVIE REVIEW: CAPTAIN MARVEL

Captain Marvel is an extraterrestrial Kree warrior who finds herself caught in the middle of an intergalactic battle between her people and the Skrulls. Living on Earth in 1995, she keeps having recurring memories of another life as U.S. Air Force pilot Carol Danvers. With help from Nick Fury, Captain Marvel tries to uncover the secrets of her past while harnessing her special superpowers to end the war with the evil Skrulls.

Director: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck

  

Cast: Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, Lashana Lynch, Gemma Chan, Annette Bening, Clark Gregg,  Jude Law

  

Release Date: March 8, 2019

  

Genres: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

  

Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and brief suggestive language

  

Runtime: 2h 4 min

  

Review:

Captain Marvel is a solid if bland origin story.  That's not to say that there isn't fun to be had but the plot does telegraph some of the biggest reveals.  At the center of the film is Brie Larson who is typically a strong performer.  Here though, she's mostly wooden and she never really gives her character much personality.  As such, the titular character and star isn't all that interesting for the majority of the film.  Thankfully the supporting characters give the film a lot more life.  Sam Jackson finally gets his proper due in the MCU by giving us a look at Nick Fury as a young SHEILD agent.  The film is at its best when it pairs Larson and Jackson in a sort of buddy comedy, which really gives the film some life.  The real surprise though is a Ben Mendelsohn who brings a lot more to the table than you'd expect.  His character looks like a standard baddie but there's much more depth at play than at first glance.  Throw in a scene stealing cat and you get film that's better in it's final act than it was in the previous two portions.  The soundtrack is bound to make certain people nostalgic even if it plays like a copy of "Now that's what I call Music 90s."  Ultimately the film does a workman like job of checking all the boxes on a origin film but with a clever feminist twist even if it's not a natural or organic as say Wonder Woman.

B- 

MOVIE REVIEW: KONG: SKULL ISLAND

A secret government organization mounts an expedition to Skull Island, an uncharted territory in the Pacific. Led by an explorer (John Goodman) and a lieutenant colonel (Samuel L. Jackson), the group recruit a disillusioned soldier (Tom Hiddleston) and a photojournalist (Brie Larson) to investigate the island's peculiar seismic activity. But once there, they discover that Skull Island is home to a gigantic ape called King Kong, and find themselves caught up in an ongoing war between the beast and the area's indigenous predators. Jordan Vogt-Roberts directed this reboot of the classic monster franchise. ~ Daniel Gelb, Rovi

Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts

Cast: Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, Brie Larson, John Ortiz.

Release Date: Mar 10, 2017    

Rated PG-13 for Intense Sci-Fi Violence/Action and Brief Strong Language    

Runtime: 1 hr. 58 min.    

Genres: Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi/Fantasy    

Review:

Kong: Skull Island is a bit of a throwback in multiple ways.  Bringing back the cinematic beast with a 90’s style blockbuster bombast provides some good fun even if the film’s human characters suffer.  Kong and his fellow island beast all look great and are appropriately menacing during the huge set pieces that make up the better part of the film.  The action itself is well directed and fun with the helicopter sequence being the biggest standout.  There are a few drawbacks that keep the film from being great.  First off, there are way too many characters in the film with none of them really getting any sort of depth.  There’s a bevy recognizable faces on display but the director Jordan Vogt-Roberts doesn’t seem all that interested in using them for anything other than eye candy.  As a result, strong actors like Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, John Goodman and Sam Jackson (channeling Ahab vs. Kong via Apocalypse Now) are short changed by the script which leaves them spinning their wheels.  John C. Reilly is fairly great as the downed WW2 pilot.  He brings a ton of energy and fun to the film as soon as he hits the screen in the third act helping keep the momentum going for the finale.  Kong: Skull Island implies a much larger monsterverse at play, which cough cough includes Godzilla, so future entries can improve on some of the faults in this entry. 

B-

Cindy Prascik's Review of Kong: Skull Island

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dearest Blog: Yesterday I took a trip through uncharted territory (well...Marquee Cinemas) to Kong: Skull Island.

 

Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't know from the trailers.

 

A team of scientists and its military escort investigate a mysterious island in the Pacific.

 

Ladies and gentlemen: the third month of 2017 has presented us with what might end up being its best summer-style blockbuster.

 

The success of any movie featuring a character as iconic and oft-portrayed as Kong depends a great deal on how well it handles its icon. I am more than a little pleased to report that Skull Island's Kong is every bit as majestic and intimidating as he should be. See this movie in 3D on the biggest screen you can find; you'll deliver yourself straight into the jaws of the great gorilla himself. The other creature effects are pretty terrific, but, when it's down to nuts and bolts, Kong is definitely king. Skull Island's human cast--including Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, and John C. Reilly--is an impressively-decorated lot, elevating the outlandish premise and predictable dialogue. Skull Island boasts awesome locations and sets, terrifying battles, and fantastic disaster effects. It's funny when it wants to be, pointed when it needs to be, and thrilling from beginning to end. A rousing score by Henry Jackman, peppered with some great 70s tunes, perfectly underscores the movie's tone, and a fun post-credits scene makes sitting through 15 minutes of compositors' names worthwhile.

 

Kong: Skull Island clocks in at an even 120 minutes and is rated PG13 for "intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and for brief strong language."

 

Kong: Skull Island is a terrific popcorn feature, about as much fun as two hours at the cinema could be. Of a possible nine Weasleys, Kong: Skull Island gets eight.

 

Fangirl points: Toby Kebbell! Shea Whigham! (A man who improves any project fortunate enough to have him.) Also, for the record, Hiddles has never looked hotter!

 

Until next time... 

 

Cindy Prascik's Reviews of Carol & Room

 

Dearest Blog: Yesterday it was off to Marquee Cinemas to catch a couple Oscar hopefuls before they beat a hasty path out of town. On the docket: Carol and Room.

 

Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn’t know from the trailers if you’ve seen any (which I haven’t).

 

Dear Reader(s), Awards Season is a funny thing here in Smalltown, USA. Unless you’ve got yourself a freakishly-realistic bear attack, your picture may expect a run of about seven days. Thus I found myself at the movies on a Wednesday afternoon in January, watching two films that interested me about as much as one of those “Real Housewives” shows. First on my agenda: Carol. 

 

A young photographer falls for a sophisticated older woman. 

 

Ahhhh…forbidden love. It always sounds just a bit tawdry, doesn’t it? While Carol tells the tale of an affair that was, for the time, utterly impossible, there’s not a hint of dirtiness about it. The romance is a slow burner, with not even a kiss before the movie’s midway point, and the major love scene is as sterile as an operating theatre. 

 

Respect for the subject matter is appreciated, but a taboo affair should feel at least a little dangerous. There are also some weird shots that linger so long as to be almost comical. That’s the bad news is. 

 

The good news is, Carol is a lovely story, slowly paced but never dull. The family drama is well-played, and fleshes out our love story without feeling like an intrusion. 

 

Should Cate Blanchett go home with Oscar on The Big Night, the Academy will undoubtedly be accused of choosing old-and-safe over young-and-edgy (again), but, for my money, she is deserving. 

 

Rooney Mara is equally extraordinary and moving. For all its deliberate pace, the movie never feels long, and, a superhero fangirl stuck in a grownup movie even has a *squee* moment when Cory Michael Smith (Gotham’s Edward Nygma) turns up, so there’s that. 

 

Carol runs 118 minutes and is rated R for “a scene of sexuality/nudity and brief language.” 

 

Carol is a beautiful love story that boasts some very special performances, and, like The Danish Girl, provides nice reminders of how far we’ve come and how far we’ve yet to go. 

 

Of a possible nine Weasleys, Carol gets six.

 

Next up: Room.

 

A young woman who bore a son while being held captive attempts to recover from her ordeal, while the boy experiences the outside world for the first time.

 

In the interest of full and fair disclosure, I’ll always admit when a movie’s main or only problem is that it’s not “my thing.” Room is most certainly not my thing (nor is Carol, for that matter), but it’s got much bigger problems. 

 

The first ten minutes of Room are so insufferable that it was all I could do not to walk out. Most of the first half is barely watchable, and not remotely in the way a capable telling of this harrowing story might make itself unwatchable. 

 

Rather than sympathizing with characters that should be very sympathetic, I was bored and even annoyed with them. The film picks up somewhat once it puts “Room” in its rearview, which might be attributed to happier subject matter or simply to more going on. 

 

I attribute it mostly to Joan Allen, a great actress who elevates anything that’s lucky enough to have her. Brie Larson is as good as you’ve heard, though not my Best Actress winner, if the Academy gives me a vote. (Hint: it does not.) 

 

Kid actors are never less than a risky proposition, and, while it may seem unfair to place such a big burden on such small shoulders, it’s youngster Jacob Trembley who ultimately could have made Room fully engaging, but, sadly, does not. 

 

There are a fair few emotionally wrenching moments where you think the film might be finding its feet, but it overstays its welcome so badly that those are barely remembered by the time the picture reaches its longed-for conclusion.

 

Room clocks in at 118 minutes, and is rated R for “language.”

 

Room is this year’s Boyhood, an unjustified critical darling for what it should have been more than for what it is. 

 

Maybe next time they should consult Tommy Wiseau. 

 

Of a possible nine Weasleys, Room gets three.

 

Until next time…

MOVIE REVIEW: TRAINWRECK

Since she was a little girl, it’s been drilled into Amy’s (Schumer) head by her rascal of a dad (Colin Quinn) that monogamy isn’t realistic. Now a magazine writer, Amy lives by that credo—enjoying what she feels is an uninhibited life free from stifling, boring romantic commitment—but in actuality, she’s kind of in a rut. When she finds herself starting to fall for the subject of the new article she’s writing, a charming and successful sports doctor named Aaron Conners (Bill Hader), Amy starts to wonder if other grown-ups, including this guy who really seems to like her, might be on to something.

 Director: Judd Apatow

Cast: Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, Brie Larson, Colin Quinn

Release Date: Jul 17, 2015

Rated R for strong Sexual Content, Nudity, Language and Some Drug Use

Runtime: 2 hr. 2 min.

Genres: Comedy

Review:

Amy Schumer, comedy’s IT girl at the moment, first film is a solid romantic comedy.  Yes, there’s here trademark vulgarity and wit but at it’s core it’s a rom-com anyway you cut it.  That’s not a knock but you notice all the same beats in you’ve seen in every rom-com.  In Judd Apatow’s hands its funny and sometimes insightful look into relationships and growing up to a certain extent.  As with all Apatow films it’s overlong by a good half hour and there are some steady bits of deadtime.  That being said, Schumer and Hader have good chemistry together with both settling into their roles comfortably.  Schumer’s voice is rarely lost in the film which, outside of a weird love hate relationship with sports, is a good thing.  Especially since a lot of comics can get sucked into becoming a parody of what made them famous.  Trainwreck doesn’t reinvent the wheel but it just shows you that when done right, it does roll along just fine.

B

MOVIE REVIEW: THE GAMBLER

In this remake of the James Caan 1974 vehicle The Gambler, an English professor (Mark Wahlberg) who is also a compulsive gambler finds that the only people who will have anything to do with him are those to whom he owes money. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

Director: Rupert Wyatt     

Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Brie Larson, Jessica Lange, John Goodman, Emory Cohen

 Release Date: Dec 25, 2014     

Rated R for some Sexuality/Nudity and Language Throughout     

Runtime: 1 hr. 51 min.     

Genres: Drama, Suspense/Thriller     

Review:

The Gambler is a film that’s trying very hard to be something special.  Rupert Wyatt gives the film a glossy sheen, driving it through its narrative with noticeable energy.  Mark Walhberg is doing his best Christian Bale impression by losing a massive amount of weight and looking generally disheveled.  John Goodman does excellent work in a supporting role as Mafioso.  Typically all this would make for an excellent film but the results here are mixed.  I respect Walhberg’s attempts to take his craft seriously but he’s seriously miscast here as the worlds most aggressive English professor.  He gives it his best try but it doesn’t work, it’s just never believable.  It’s always good to see Brie Larson get some work but she’s saddled with a nonsensical love interest role.  We’re told she’s a genius early on but her actions throughout the rest of the film tell us otherwise. John Goodman does give us an excellent supporting turn, creating an extremely intimidating character in limited scenes.  All in all The Gambler feels like a missed opportunity because there seems to be a better film in there somewhere.

C+

MOVIE REVIEW: 21 JUMP STREET

IN THEATERS

21 JUMP STREET



The television series that shot Johnny Depp to stardom makes the leap to the big screen in this reboot starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum. Schmidt (Hill) and Jenko (Tatum) have the kind of faces that could let them pass for teenagers. Eager to prove themselves as effective policemen, the pair join the Jump Street program and go undercover to investigate a high-school drug ring. Now, the only thing more daunting than the prospect of taking on violent adolescent dope slingers is the possibility of experiencing the torture of their teenage years all over again. Ice Cube, Brie Larson, and Rob Riggle co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Director: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

Cast: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Brie Larson, Dave Franco, Rob Riggle

Release Date: Mar 16, 2012

Rated R for drug Material, Crude and Sexual Content, Pervasive Language, Some Violence and Teen Drinking

Runtime: 1 hr. 50 min.

Genres: Action/Adventure, Comedy

Review:

Lame remakes are a dime a dozen and when I first heard about this reboot I thought it’d fit nicely into that category. Impressively after the first 15 minutes it lets you know in obvious terms that it’s totally aware of itself and the genre. Once you know it’s going to have some fun with itself, it frees the audience to sit back and enjoy the palatable comedic energy brimming from its vulgar self. Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller keep their comedy moving loosely and quickly, satirizing a handful of buddy cop comedy tropes and clichés. The strength of the film lies with the 2 leads who display some excellent chemistry together. By this point in time you know what to expect from Jonah Hill and here he’s in good form. The real surprise comes in the form of Channing Tatum, displaying some excellent comedic chops. Up until now Tatum had done a generally impressive job of underwhelming me in every role I’ve seen him in but here he’s funny, really funny. Brie Larson makes for a strong supporting female, she comes off as the most adult of the group. Ice Cube hams it up in a small role to great effect; along with some other well know actors popping here and there. All in all, it makes a nearly 2 hour comedy feel substantially shorter.

B

TV SHOW REVIEW: UNITED STATES OF TARA THE COMPLETE SERIES

TV SHOW REVIEW: UNITED STATES OF TARA THE COMPLETE SERIES

ON DVD / STREAMING VIA NETFLIX



A woman struggles to find a balance between her dissociative identity disorder and raising a dysfunctional family.

Created by Diablo Cody

Starring Toni Collette, John Corbett, Rosemarie DeWitt, Patton Oswalt, Keir Gilchrist, Brie Larson

United States of Tara is the type of show that’s easy to dismiss for plenty of people. Once some people see Diablo Cody’s name listed as the creator and writer of the show, I assume some people will just move one. Personally, I’ve been a fan of Cody since Juno and never went through the backlash about her writing style after that film came to prominence. I’ve enjoyed all the films she’s written, even liked Jennifer’s Body. I also have to admit I’ve been a big fan of Toni Collette since Muriel’s Wedding, so maybe I’m just a perfect mark for this show but none the less I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the 3 seasons of it. The writing and direction is excellent throughout, very few episodes ever fill like filler and deftly avoids falling into a repetitive pattern of plots. The cast of characters are all wonderfully written and well rounded over the life of the series. The cast is filled with wonderful actors whom I’d already been a fan of (Toni Collette and Patton Oswalt) and gave me new found respect for some I’d never given more than second thought (John Corbett & Rosemarie DeWitt). Toni Collette is front and center of course and her talents truly deliver throughout as she creates clearly defined personalities that go beyond wardrobe changes. Keir Gilchrist and Brie Larson deserve special attention because they really deliver even though their characters are written in the most “Codified” style. The cast as a whole gives the writing real heart and soul. The series, sadly, never had a proper finale and season 3 really heads down some interesting and dark roads. A shame but it doesn’t detract from an excellent run.

A