Category: Movie Reviews

Project Hail Mary

Posted on by Mikey

TV Show or Movie: Movie

Where to Watch: Theaters

Genre: Space, Adventure, Buddy-buddy, comedy, sci-fi,

Writer: Drew Goddard

Based on the Book By: Andy Weir

Director: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller, James Ortiz, Milana Vayntrub, Ken Leung, Lionel Boyce

Synopsis: Science teacher Ryland Grace wakes up alone on a spaceship light-years from Earth. As his memory returns, he uncovers a mission to stop a mysterious substance killing the sun, and save Earth. An unexpected friendship may be the key.

Review: 

Trailer: 

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come

Posted on by Mikey

TV Show or Movie: Movie

Where to Watch: Theaters

Genre: Black comedy, horror, body horror 

Writer: Guy Busick, R. Christopher Murphy

Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett

Cast: Samara Weaving, Kathryn Newton, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Shawn Hatosy, David Cronenberg, Elijah Wood

Synopsis: After surviving one deadly game, Grace and her sister Faith must now outrun four rival families competing for a powerful throne – winner takes all.

Review: The first Ready or Not was a fun movie. Mostly horror with some great comedy added in towards the end. This sequel goes balls to the walls with a great split of comedy and horror. There is just as much blood splatter as there are laughs.

This sequel takes place directly after the first. I mean, directly after. Weaving’s character still has a cigarette in her mouth and a wedding dress full of blood.

The cast in the first one included Weaving and Adam Brody, but this sequel boasts a stacked cast of big talent. Sarah Michelle Gellar and Shawn Hatosy play twins who are working together and also completely apart. Kathryn Newton, a newer scream queen, plays Weaving’s sister who is now thrown into the game. Elijah Wood hosts the game. Kevin Durand plays his usual wild and crazy character. And we even have horror legend David Cronenberg in a small, but memorable part.

This movie goes a lot more into the history of the game, the different families who have steak in it, how much control these affluent families have over the world and everything that happens in it.

Like the first one, there are many different weapons and many different ways that characters are killed off.

I believe the movie is definitely worth seeing in theaters. I went by myself, but still had a great time. Laughing loudly with others at completely gross scenes.

Trailer: 

Slanted

Posted on by Mikey

TV Show or Movie: Movie

Where to Watch: Theaters

Genre: Black comedy, horror, body horror

Writer: Amy Wang

Director: Amy Wang

Cast: Shirley Chen, Fang Du, McKenna Grace, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan

Synopsis: An insecure Chinese-American teenager undergoes experimental surgery to appear white, hoping to secure the prom queen title and peer acceptance.

Review: 

Trailer:

How to Make a Killing

Posted on by Mikey

TV Show or Movie: Movie

Where to Watch: Theaters

Genre: Black comedy, action, thriller

Writer: John Patton Ford

Director: John Patton Ford

Cast: Glen Powell, Margaret Qualley

Synopsis: Disowned at birth by his obscenely wealthy family, a blue-collar will stop at nothing to reclaim his inheritance, no matter how many relatives stand in his way.

Review:

Trailer:

Goat

Posted on by Mikey

TV Show or Movie: Movie

Where to Watch: Theaters

Genre: Adventure, Animated, Sports, Comedy, Family

Writer: Aaron Buchsbaum, Teddy Riley
Story by Nicolas Curcio, Peter Chiarelli

Director: Tyree Dillihay

Cast: Caleb McLaughlin, Gabrielle Union, Aaron Pierre, Nicola Coughlan, David Harbour, Nick Kroll, Jenifer Lewis, Patton Oswalt, Jelly Roll, Jennifer Hudson, Sherry Cola, Eduardo Franco, Andrew Santino, Bobby Lee, and basketball player Stephen Curry

Synopsis: A small goat with big dreams gets a once-in-a-lifetime shot to join the pros and play roarball, a high-intensity, co-ed, full-contact sport dominated by the fastest, fiercest animals in the world.

Review: I am so impressed by kids movies. This isn’t anything new, but I love how many jokes they include in there for both children and adults. And how many little details there are to every single shot.

The animation to this movie was very impressive. Which is no surprise, as it was the same people behind Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The animation flows so well with the fast action through the film.

The movie has a lot of heart and a lot of message.

Trailer: 

Send Help

Posted on by Mikey

TV Show or Movie: Movie

Where to Watch: Theaters

Genre: Horror, Comedy

Writer: Mark Swift, Damián Shannon

Director: Sam Rami

Cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brieb

Synopsis: An employee and her insufferable boss become stranded on a deserted island, the only survivors of a plane crash. Here, they must overcome past grievances and work together to survive, will they make it out alive?

Trailer: https://youtu.be/R4wiXj9NmEE?si=tmijqs62Wx6ZI-tV

Primate

Posted on by Mikey

TV Show or Movie: Movie

Where to Watch: Theaters

Genre: Horror

Writer: Johannes Roberts, Ernest Riera

Director: Johannes Roberts

Cast: Johnny Sequoyah, Jessica Alexander, Troy Kotsur

Synopsis: A group of friends’ tropical vacation turns into a terrifying, primal tale of horror and survival.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/wo87F-va410?si=tIwG7ag9OIrXja4k

Review: if you have read this site, then you know that I am a big fan of horror. It is my favorite genre. I just released a book of short horror stories. The last two October, I watched 31 horror movies that were new to me.

I’m looking forward to this year as we have a lot of good horror. Movies coming out. A new Silent Hill film, and a new Resident Evil film. We have Ready or Not 2, Clayface, a new Evil Dead, a new a Scream entry. And I’m sure many more movies in the Poohniverse.

I was excited for primate from the first trailer that I saw. It reminded me of Jordan Peele’s Nope. At least the opening. Monkeys are one of my absolute favorite animals. But I also enjoy a horror movie about monkeys. Such as 28 Days Later or Congo.

I didn’t know if this movie would be kitschy or not. I walked out out of the movie, saying that I really enjoyed it, but then saying that I felt there were some plot holes within the writing. But the more I thought about them, the more they made sense. The film follows a chimpanzee who gets rabies in Australia. A good fact to go into going into this Movie is that rabies do not exist in that continent.

Troy, who played the father in the Oscar winning CODA also plays the dad in this. There are some cool sign language scenes used between the humans and the chimpanzee and also some where the humans are communicating in sign language quietly, to avoid the ravenous Chimp. And there’s also a very cool, unique scene, where we take the POV of the death, father, which sets up some good scares.

For some reason, I didn’t think that the kills would be as brutal and gory. But I was wrong. The first one alone was very graphic. I felt like I was brought back again to when I took my girlfriend to see the substance last year, and she covered her face for a half of the movie.

Category: Movie, Movie Reviews

Zootopia 2

Posted on by Mikey
Rating 5

TV Show or Movie: Movie

Where to Watch: Theaters

Genre: Animal Adventure, Buddy Comedy, Computer Animation, Urban Adventure, Whodunnit, Action, Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Crime

Writer: Jared Bush

Director: Jared Bush, Byron Howard

Cast: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Ke Huy Quan, Fortune Feimster, Andy Samberg, David Strathairn, Shakira, Idris Elba, Patrick Warburton, Quinta Brunson, Danny Trejo, Alan Tudyk, Nate Torrence, Don Lake, Bonnie Hunt, Jenny Slate

Synopsis: Brave rabbit cop Judy Hopps and her friend, the fox Nick Wilde, team up again to crack a new case, the most perilous and intricate of their careers.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/BjkIOU5PhyQ?si=eIRIBec_s5-22Yl9

Review: A Silence of the Lambs reference and a Shining reference in the sequel. A Godfather reference in both. These movies now how to cater to children and to their parents. Ke Huy Quan has the most adorable voice and plays such a cute snake. And we get the whole Handsome podcast hosts of Tig Notaro, Fortune Feimster, and Mae Martin.

Anaconda

Posted on by Mikey

TV Show or Movie: Movie

Where to Watch: Theaters

Genre: Comedy, horror, remake

Writer: Tom Gormican, Kevin Etten

Director: Tom Gormican

Cast: Paul Rudd, Jack Black,
Steve Zahn, Thandiwe Newton, Daniela Melchior,
Selton Mello

Synopsis: A group of friends are going through a mid-life crisis. They decide to remake a favorite movie from their youth but encounter unexpected events when they enter the jungle.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/az8M5Mai0X4?si=D4pzeCBA-k09dVKY

Review: I didn’t know what to think of this movie going into it. I knew that it would be funny, at the least, Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Steve Zahn. That’s a good enough recipe for me to see a movie. I also loved the Tropic Thunder premise to it.

The movie is really, really funny. As always, Steve Zahn steals the show. Not to say that Rude and Black are not also hilarious. The scene with Jack, Black and the boar had me crying laughing.

Along with the movie. Being funny, it also surprised. We have some really good jumps scenes and some heart. I shouldn’t be surprised at the gym scenes, but there were one or two times where I literally jumped in my seat. The movie does play pretty well as a horror Comedy and not just a dumb buddy buddy comedy. The movie also has a lot of heart for people who feel stuck in their lives right now and want to do that one thing they’ve always wanted to do. The two main characters grew up making videos together and there’s a scene where they’re watching their old Movies together. The scene made be nostalgic as I also used to make videos with friends back when we were kids.

Without spoiling anything, there’s a few cameos in the movie that are pretty wild. There’s also some good jokes that almost break the fourth wall where they talk about how bad a remake to a classic can be. There’s also a story line in there about the IP for Anaconda.

The movie. Definitely surprised me. It wasn’t just a comedy. It wasn’t just a stoner comedy. It had action, it had heart, it had jumped scenes.

I hope that we get more movies like this. Movies within movies within movies within remakes. And allows people to get away with things on screen and really just make things fun and poke fun while also putting together a pretty good movie.

Fackham Hall

Posted on by Mikey
Rating 4

TV Show or Movie: Movie

Where to Watch: Theaters

Genre: Comedy, Satire, Parody

Writer: Steve Dawson, Andrew Dawson, Tim Inman, Jimmy Carr, Patrick Carr

Director: Paul Feig

Cast: Thomasin McKenzie, Ben Radcliffe, Katherine Waterston, Emma Laird, Tom Goodman-Hill, Anna Maxwell Martin, Sue Johnston, Tom Felton, Damian Lewis

Synopsis: A new porter forms an odd bond with the youngest daughter of a well-known UK family. As the Davenport family, headed by Lord and Lady Davenport, deals with the epic disaster of the wedding of their eldest daughter to her caddish cousin.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/FuO5WI1S7F0?si=uF_JA8J-s2RSzy7X

Review: We are all patiently awaiting Scary Movie 6 to come out next year. The news of the original creators and cast got us all quickly onboard. The last few years have also spoiled us with horror movies, so the Wayans brothers have a lot to work with.

This year, we were lucky enough with two parodies. Liam Niesen starred in a new Naked Gun and Fackham Hall entered theaters just at the end of the year.