Movie Reviews

F9

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  • Title: F9
  • IMDb: link

F9 movie reviewF9 is one of the dumbest things I have ever seen. In a theater, on television, on the Internet, or in real life. Even for a mediocre franchise like Fast & Furious that is known primarily for hot cars, hot girls, car chases and explosions, and ham-fisted messages about family, F9 is a really, really dumb movie. Characters return from the dead, never referenced brothers are shoehorned into backstory, characters drive a car in space, a computer device capable of controlling the entire world (which turns out isn’t all that well protected) falls into the hands of yet another evil version of our crew, and the only ones who can save the day are Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his friends. Let the insanity commence.

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Cruella

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  • Title: Cruella
  • IMDb: link

Cruella movie review

I think if Disney made a movie about Hannibal Lecter it would be about how great a psychiatrist he was before he started indulging in other appetites. The ill-conceived, and lengthy, Cruella offers a look at the origins of the paper-thin villain from One Hundred and One Dalmatians who wanted to steal and murder dogs to skin for fur coats. Honestly, did anyone really need more than two-hours to explore extra layers and motivations of a character like Cruella De Vil?

The film is certainly stylish, and does offer its share of memorable moments over a 136-minute running time which also includes an unexpected The Devil Wears Prada plot about 70s fashion. Emma Stone stars as the orphan who would grow up to be a thief, a fashion designer, and eventually notorious celebrity known simply as Cruella. The screenplay also brings back Jasper (Joel Fry) and Horace (Paul Walter Hauser), the two henchmen from One Hundred and One Dalmatians, reimaging them as childhood friends and fellow thieves who she eventually takes for granted when Cruella’s ambitions get the better of her. And, because it is a Disney movie, we also get a pair of dogs with inspirationally long lifelines and their dog tricks.

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The Human Factor

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  • Title: The Human Factor
  • IMDb: link

The Human Factor movie reviewFor decades the world has looked at the tension in the Middle East between Israel and its neighbors and wished for a peaceful solution. In the new documentary featuring interviews from the American negotiators involved, The Human Factor takes us back to the 1990s and the closest America came to brokering peace between Israel and its neighbors Palestine and Syria.

With access to members of the team who dealt directly with Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin, Bill Clinton, Ehud Barak, and others, director Dror Moreh‘s film offers a behind-the-scenes look at obstacles, struggles, and small victories (such as the Oslo Accords) that offered the hope of lasting peace only to ultimately come up short. Although Syria feels a bit short-changed here given the strong focus on Israeli’s relationship to Palestine, and the film could do better in expanding on the last 20 years of after the 90s peace proposals finally fizzled out at Camp David, The Human Factor is an informative and engaging documentary from the perspective of those who lived through events with the added benefit of decades of hindsight to look back on what went wrong.

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Mortal Kombat

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  • Title: Mortal Kombat (2021)
  • IMDb: link

Mortal Kombat movie review

The 2021 adaptation of the Mortal Kombat video games has a higher budget, better special effects, and a cast at least as talented as the 1995 film. So why is it less entertaining? It probably has something to with the flaws of the earlier film feeding into joys of a B-movie, while the more serious approach this time around is just flawed. Oh, and if you are going to do a Mortal Kombat movie, you may want to include a Mortal Kombat tournament in it.

The entire film takes place prior to a tournament and involves the minions of Shang Tsung (Chin Han) being sent to kill the warriors of Earth despite the fact that all evidence suggests Earth has no chance in winning the tournament. However, there’s a prophecy that a descendant of Hanzo Hasashi (Hiroyuki Sanada), who we see murdered in the opening scene, will prevent Outworld from winning Mortal Kombat.

Our heroes are former MMA fighter Cole Young (Lewis Tan) who turns out to be a poor substitute for Liu Kang as the hero of destiny, and Special Forces officers Jax Briggs (Mehcad Brooks) and Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee).

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Godzilla vs. Kong

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  • Title: Godzilla vs. Kong
  • IMDb: link

Godzilla vs. Kong movie review

A year ago, summer was called off, theaters were closed, and studios pulled their largest potential blockbusters from the calendar. Although far from perfect, and with too much of the Godzilla story built on the ashes of the weakest film of the series (Godzilla: King of Monsters), Godzilla vs. Kong delivers the kind of big dumb summer blockbuster audiences have been waiting two years for. The culmination of Legendary’s MonsterVerse wastes little time getting both King Kong and Godzilla on-screen. And, clocking in at under two-hours, director Adam Wingard knows not to overstay his welcome.

As the film opens, Godzilla appears to be out of control, attacking the Florida coastline without warning (although his choice of target, Apex Cybernetics, allows some to question the kaiju’s motives). Having defeated the last of the Titans, only Kong, who has remained in Monarch captivity on Skull Island, remains. With Godzilla’s increasingly erratic actions a choice is made to return Kong to the Hollow Earth, both for his own protection, and in a businessman’s (Demián Bichir) hope that something long hidden can be found to defeat Godzilla.

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