Mary Queen of Scotts Review

Mary Queen of Scots was an okay movie boosted by a great lead performance. This movie is about Queen Mary Stuart’s rivalry with her cousin Elizabeth I, the Queen of England. Saoirse Ronan gives a great lead performance. She carries this entire movie and keeps things mostly interesting. Margot Robbie is shockingly mediocre here. She has one or two decent scenes but most of her acting is just bad and out of place.  Jack Lowden and David Tennant give fantastic performances in their supporting roles. The movie automatically got better whenever they were on screen. Josie Rourke did a good job directing. The movie looks great visually thanks to fantastic set and costume design. However, other than a unique war scene, the direction is very dull. The script is a mixed bag. When it is focused on Queen Mary it is intriguing, but everything with Elizabeth is a straight up bore. The editing is also some of the worst I have seen in a while including an awful 4^th wall break that ruins the scene. At 125 minutes the pacing starts off good but keeps getting slower the longer the movie goes. Overall, Mary Queen of Scotts is a mediocre movie that is held up by a great lead performance.

6/10

Welcome to Marwen Review

Welcome to Marwen will not be for everyone, but I found it to be a charming and unique film. This movie is based on the true story about a man who loses all his memories after being the victim of a hate crime. As a form of therapy, he creates a WWII doll town named Marwen. Steve Carell gives a fantastic performance. You care about his character and want him to recover. Leslie Mann gives a good performance. The direction they take her character is unexpected, but it works well. The massive supporting cast all turn in good performances in small roles. Robert Zemeckis did a great job directing. The way he integrates the doll animation sequences with real life was practically flawless. The doll animated sequences left me a bit in awe with how incredible they looked visually. However, there are one or two moments where the doll integration comes across as forced and corny. The script is really good, though occasionally gets too weird. Despite that, I was always rooting for Carell’s character and invested in the story. There were even a few almost tear-worthy moments. The editing is mostly great, but there are a few jump scare moments that just do not work. At 116 minutes the pacing was very good moving at a consistent pace and never got dull. Overall, it is not for everyone, but Welcome to Marwen was a charming and unique film.

7.5/10

Second Act Review

Second Act is not without a few redeeming elements, but the bad far outweighs the good. This movie is about a grocery store worker who goes to work for a big makeup company after a fake resume’ gets her in the door. Jennifer Lopez gives an okay performance. She has a few decent moments, but she does nothing to make us care about her character. Vanessa Hudgens is easily the best part of this movie. She makes her character likable and is the only character with any substance. Leah Remini and Treat Williams give passable side performances but never do anything to standout. Peter Segal does a competent job directing. His direction is very bland, but there was nothing noticeably bad about it. The script is a huge mess. Jennifer Lopez’s character is written so poorly that it is nearly impossible to root for her. Hudgens’ character is much more interesting, but some story turns with her make very little sense. There are a few funny moments but for every funny joke there are ten that miss. At 100 minutes the movie drags on for a long time and is just downright boring at times. Overall, Second Act is a big miss due to an unlikable main character and just not being funny.

4/10

Bumblebee Review

Bumblebee is a great return for the Transformers series and might win over some new fans as well. This movie is about a girl named Charlie who discovers Bumblebee in a junkyard in the 80s. Haliee Steinfeld gives a fantastic performance. She makes her character immediately likable and is very easy to root for. She also does an excellent convincing us that she had a friendship with Bumblebee. John Cena gives a really good performance as our military lead. He is playing it more over the top, but it fits well with the tone of the movie. Some of his one liners are absolutely hilarious. Jorge Lendeborg Jr. gives a decent performance. He is good in the role, but his chemistry with Steinfeld is a bit forced. Jason Drucker, Pamela Adlon and Stephen Schneider give okay performances as Steinfeld’s family. However, by the end of the movie I was warming up to them. Angela Bassett and Justin Theroux give great villainous voice performances. Peter Cullen and Dylan O’Brien give good voice performances in small roles. Travis Knight did a fantastic job directing. The action sequences are coherent and easy to follow everything going on. The script is the right mix of emotional and cheesy. The character work between Steinfeld and Bumblebee brought me to tears, while John Cena’s military plot keeps things light and fun. There are quite a few laugh out loud moments here. However, there is one bully subplot that feels unnecessary. The cinematography is overall quite good, but occasionally reminded me too much of a Nickelodeon movie. The visual effects are fantastic. All the transformers look great and you believe they are there. At 114 minutes the pacing is very good, though it does occasionally feel a bit long. Overall, I had a fantastic time with Bumblebee and recommend it to Transformers’ fans of all ages.

8.5/10

Mary Poppins Returns Review

Mary Poppins Returns is a fun family film, but its lack of memorable music holds it back from greatness. This movie is about Mary Poppins who returns to the Banks’ household decades later to help with Michael’s kids. Emily Blunt gives a fantastic performance. You buy her as the character from the moment she comes on screen.  Lin-Manuel Miranda gives an incredible performance as Jack, now an adult, who also had Mary Poppins as a nanny. The movie just comes to life with so much energy whenever he is on screen. Ben Whishaw and Emily Mortimer give great performances as the Banks’ kids grown up. Whishaw in particular does fantastic work in some key emotional scenes. Pixie Davies, Nathanael Saleh and Joel Dawson give incredible performances as Michael’s young kids. They are never annoying and sell the emotion and childlike wonder perfectly. Colin Firth gives a good performance in a supporting role. However, the way his character is written is just one giant cliché. Meryl Streep is awful in her small supporting role. Her character serves zero purpose to the plot and is tonally inconsistent with the rest of the movie. Rob Marshal did a great job directing. The movie looks beautiful visually and the dance choreography is spectacular. The script is good, albeit, very predictable. All the main characters are likable, and you are rooting for them. As for the music, it is very underwhelming. Meryl Streep’s big musical number is just straight up awful. All the other music is perfectly fine, some of it is even pretty good, but there is not a single memorable song. My favorite part of this movie is easily the 2D animated sequences. These segments frequently left me just staring at the screen in awe. They are easily among the best scenes in any movie this year. At 130 minutes the pacing is good though does occasionally slow down a bit too much. Overall, Mary Poppins Returns is a charming family film, but due to its underwhelming music it never achieves greatness.

7/10

Aquaman Review

Aquaman was a fantastic addition to the DC univerise and is a course correction done right. This movie is about Aquaman who must retrieve an ancient artifact to stop his Atlantean brother from going to war with the surface world. Jason Momoa gives an incredible performance. He is very charismatic and sells the dramatic scenes as well as the action scenes. By the end of this movie I could not picture anyone else playing the character.  Amber Heard gives a great performance. She makes her character her own and is never helpless. Her dynamic with Momoa is one of the films strongest aspects.  Patrick Wilson gives a really good performance as our main villain. He had believable motivation and felt like a legitimate threat. Yahya-Abdul-Manteen did a fantastic job playing Black Manta. From the moment he appears on screen, he feels like a threat and is a great foil to Aquaman.  Willem Dafoe and Nicole Kidman also impress in small supporting roles. James Wan did an incredible job directing. He fully embraced the campiness of Aquaman while still having a great story.  The action sequences might be some of my favorite I have seen this year. All of them are filmed extremely wide so you can see everything and feel so energetic.  The script is great, filled with likable and believable characters and a fun adventure story.  The VFX and cinematography are fantastic. A few poor visuals aside, this is one of the most visually unique and beautiful movies of the year. At 143 minutes the pacing is very good and consistent, never feeling too slow or too fast. My only other flaw is there is a forced environmental message early on that feels out of place. Overall, Aquaman was a fantastic superhero movie that I look forward to revisiting many times.

9/10

The Mule Review

The Mule was a good movie, but never comes close to greatness.  This movie is about a 90-year-old flower enthusiast and war veteran who becomes a drug mule for the Mexican drug cartels.  Clint Eastwood gives a really good performance. While he does the best he can portraying his character, the script gives him very little to work with. Bradley Cooper gives a great performance in a supporting role. Michael Pena, Andy Garcia and Laurence Fishburne all impress in their respective smaller roles. Clint Eastwood did a good job directing. While there are some scenes that feel very tense, they are few and far between. The script leaves a lot to be desired. While the basic story is quite good, there are just far too many sequences where nothing happens. And herein lies the biggest issue, this movie moves at a snail’s pace and is boring rather often. At 116 minutes it feels like it is three hours long.  This is one of the most poorly paced films I have seen in a long time.  Overall, The Mule was still good thanks to its performances, but is a rather big disappointment from Eastwood.

6/10

Mortal Engines Review

Mortal Engines is a fun action thriller with a great premise held back by a mediocre script. This movie is about a post-apocalyptic world where cities are on wheels and eat each other to survive. When two young people meet in London, they go on a quest to stop the evil leader of the city. Hera Hilmar gives a good performance.  Her character does not talk a ton, but she sells the role very well physically and you care for her personal struggle.  Robert Sheehan gives an okay performance. He is never awful, but he never does anything to stand out and has almost no chemistry with Hilmar.  Jihae gives a fun performance in a small supporting role.  Hugo Weaving is easily the best performance in this movie. He is clearly having a ton of fun hamming it up as the villain.  Christian Rivers did a great job directing.  This is a beautiful looking movie and the action scenes are all fantastic. Specifically, a thrilling chase scene in first 20 minutes that had my heart racing. The script is where this movie’s problems lie, the characters have very little development and the script assumes you know way too much without filling you in on basic information.  At 128 minutes the pacing is a mixed bag. The first act flies by and the third act moves quickly as well. However, the second act of this movie really drags. Overall Mortal Engines is a fun action movie, but with a better script could have been something really special. 

7/10

Once Upon a Deadpool Review

Once Upon a Deadpool is an interesting experiment of a movie, but is not for anyone except the most hardcore Deadpool fans. This movie is a PG-13 Recut of Deadpool 2 with some extra footage used as a framing device. Deadpool has kidnapped Fred Savage, the young kid from the Princess Bride, grown up and is reading him the story of Deadpool 2. Let's just go ahead and start with this, all the new additional scenes with Fred Savage are incredible and absolutely hilarious. However, in total they probably only equal around 15 minutes. The rest of the movie is a PG-13 Recut of Deadpool 2. Now I love Deadpool 2, it is one of my favorite films of the year. However, edited down this movie makes zero sense unless you have seen the R-Rated cut which completely defeats the purpose of a PG-13 cut. Overall, my advice is, unless you are a massive Deadpool fan, just wait 2 months for the additional scenes to be on Youtube.

6/10

Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse Review

Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse is a great superhero movie for families and adults. This movie is about Miles Morales who is struggling to learn how to become Spider-Man when a villain opens up a a portal to other dimensions and now there are numerous Spider-Men. They must get everyone back to their own dimension in order to save the world. Shameik Moore did a fantastic job voicing Miles. They do a good job making you care about him as a character and his family dynamic. Jake Johnson does a great job voicing a very different Peter Parker. While his voice took getting used to, I loved him by the end. Haliee Steinfeld did a really good job voicing Gwen Stacy. Nicolas Cage, Kimiko Glenn and John Mulaney did an incredible job voicing the other Spider-Men making them funny and likable. Liev Schriber did a fantastic job voicing the villain. Mahershala Ali and Brian Tyree Henry did a great job voicing Miles’s family. The animation is incredibly unique as it looks like a comic book on screen. However, as a creative choice, sometimes the backgrounds are out of focus compared to the main characters and that can strain your eyes. If your eyes can handle it though I highly recommend seeing this movie in 3D, it is a stunning experience that way. The script for the most part is great. The big emotional scenes all work well and the characters play off each other well. However, there are some early character setup scenes that I just found to be absolutely awful and they really took me out of the movie. Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman all did great jobs co-directing. At 117 minutes the movie moves at a good pace though there is the random bad scene that really hurts the flow of the story. Overall Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse is a great animated Spider-Man movie, but with better character setup early on could have been a masterpiece.

8.5/10

The Front Runner Review

The Front Runner is good political drama with a fantastic lead performance. This movie is about Gary Hart and the scandal surrounding him in the 1987 presidential race. Hugh Jackman gives an incredible lead performance. This movie only works because of him. He makes Gary someone worth rooting for even through the scandal. Vera Farmiga gives a really good performance playing Hart’s wife. She does not have a huge role, but her scenes left an impact. J.K. Simmons gives a great performance as Hart’s campaign manager. You really sympathize with his character through the entire plot. Jason Reitman did a great job directing. The movie constantly has an 80s feel and he brings a sense of energy to the story. The script is good but never crosses into greatness. It is an effective political story, but it never does anything unique. At 112 minutes the pacing is good though it does feel a bit long at times. Overall The Front Runner is a good political drama thanks to a fantastic lead performance.

7.5/10

Green Book Review

Green Book is a great drama/comedy led by two fantastic lead performances. This movie is about Tony Lip, a bouncer in the 60s who is hired to drive and protect an African American pianist on his tour in the Deep South. Mahershala Ali gives an incredible performance. You really grow to care for his character over the course of the movie. Viggo Mortensen gives a fantastic performance. His story arc makes him very likable and has fantastic chemistry with Ali. Mortensen and Ali’s back and forth is easily the strongest aspect of this movie. Linda Cardellini gives a great performance in a supporting role as Mortensen’s wife. Peter Farrelly did a good job directing. While his direction is perfectly fine, it does come across like a TV movie at times. The script is fantastic filled with believable character development and a surprising amount of good humor. This is a shockingly funny movie and the humor never felt forced or out of place. At 130 minutes the pacing is good, but could probably lose around 10 minutes. Overall Green Book is a great drama/comedy with excellent performances.

8/10