JEM-11313 Reviews

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)

Great for older kids, much better than previous installment

[10/10 · 30 March 2024]

It seems like lessons learned from 2021 Godzilla vs. Kong. This one has much more action time, more exploration of Hollow Earth, and way more monster fights. Just the right amount of human involvement for pacing, exposition, humor, and relatability. The comedic elements land better than in the last installment and the movie doesn't take itself too seriously. The soundtrack and music direction were very good. Some of the previous characters are not present but it doesn't matter. Jia has an important role and the actress playing her is very expressive without speaking. The special effects are all convincing and well done.

Dancing Pirate (1936)

A fun film suitable for families

[10/10 · 31 December 2023]

This is a really enjoyable movie if you enjoy good dancing, including tap dancing, Latin dancing with castanets and capes, and acrobatic dodging of a sword. The lead is a very capable triple threat and the leading lady beautiful and a good actress. There is nothing frightening for the kids except the very young might not like it that a couple people are knocked unconscious on the back of the head, but this is done in a comedic way and no one suffers lasting consequences. The actor playing the head of the ranch is very funny and stole every scene he was in, but the others were very good as well. The main baddie is sufficiently dastardly without being frightening for any kids. The hero's charm and unflappable good will would reassure kids that it will work out alright. There are a few laugh-out-loud hilarious scenes. I loved the movie and am so glad it was rescued from obscurity!

Predators (2010)

OK Action, nothing spectacular

[6/10 · 1 December 2023]

Predator, Predator 2, and The Predator all were better than Predators, while Predators beats out AVP. (I never saw AVP 2.) Action was OK, the surprise with the doctor was predictable. Fighting could have been more dramatically choreographed. The most entertaining character was the convict. The others were all just a little bland. Should have had more human to human fighting as well, given the backgrounds that they had. The predators themselves didn't have the same intensity of menace as the original, I felt. It was still enjoyable. Trejo's character was killed too soon. Brody's character should have got the honors like Danny glover did in 2.

The Quest (1996)

Fun epic adventure

[9/10 · 17 June 2023]

My son and I enjoyed the film. We liked the different styles portrayed in the fighting and the choreography was entertaining. Abdel Qissi was appropriately menacing (Even though he looks about as Mongolian as Roger Moore. I guess they figured Western audiences wouldn't know the difference.) The action was fun. The character Carrie Newton was somewhat underutilized. There were a few uneven parts, but mostly it delivers and the period sets are done quite well. There is even an airship! There is also a lot of joy in James Remar's delivery as he discovers and remarks on the animal styles of the Chinese fighter, since Kung Fu would not have been very familiar to many in 1925 America. And in the world of that time, Lhasa, Tibet truly was a Lost City of the mountains. The scope of the journey was done well.

Justice League vs the Fatal Five (2019)

Needed a bit more backstory for the villains, and something else left unexplained

[7/10 · 2 January 2023]

Exciting, great animation, excellent voice acting. I liked the addition of Mr. Terrific.

I would have liked to have learned what this Empress was about, and just what the Fatal Five's grievances or causes were, real or imagined. Without that information, they were completely one-dimensional evil conqueror types.

The movie would have been greatly improved by some explanation of just how Jessica Cruz got so powerful at the end besides overcoming fear, that can't explain how massively powerful and fast she got, single-handedly defeating the remaining villains (since the leader already sent off her eye thingy), villains that killed two other Green Lanterns together as well as gave the Big Three a serious fight.

The Fantastic Four (1978)

Good kids' show.

[10/10 · 22 December 2022]

Herbie is better than Human Torch and I'll tell you why.

1) Anybody with a jet-pack and flamethrower can do what Human Torch does.

2) Having the physicality of the Human Torch added to Thing and Sue Storms force shields relegates Mr. Fantastic to a more cerebral role, but with Herbie doing computations it frees up Mr. Fantastic for more stretchy combat action.

3) Arguments and put downs between Ben Grimm and a robot are somehow more amusing by the nature of their absurdity, than arguments between Ben and Johnny, and Herbie and Ben have a great rapport that is not the same with Johnny.

4) Human Torch asks for a bridge too far in all the "fantastic" suspensions of disbelief. Why would being combustible magically enable him to fly-- and though we can grant that Reed could invent flexy clothes to fit his plastic powers, how don't Human Torch's clothes burn up? Herbie is more interesting to me than Human Torch and the way Ben is better than in the comics, where he is always complaining and has no gratitude for miraculously surviving a cosmic accident and crash landing without permanent injury or pain, just burdened with super strength and a monstrous, but not entirely unpleasant appearance. This Ben is more fun, and Herbie is more fun than Human Torch, too.

Encanto (2021)

Animation excellent, technical achievement, otherwise forgettable.

[5/10 · 18 September 2022]

The problem resolves itself pretty easily, no real sense of any danger to Mirabel, the main protagonist. Story is kind of dull overall. On the plus side, animation and characters were well realized. However, music by superstar Lin-Miranda is actually just average or below. Except for Luisa's song and of course the famous 'We Don't Talk About Bruno' song, which were both fairly catchy but nothing special, I can't even remember anything of the melody or lyrics of any other song. Luisa's song also was kind of strange because the tone sounds positive while the lyrics are of a foreboding problem (pressure). Overall, not a film belonging to Disney's classics. The animation and faces were beautifully rendered. The heaviness of the scene involving Pedro feels like a mismatch to the rest of the movie.

Deadwood: The Movie (2019 TV Movie)

Serviceable by-the-numbers conclusion

[7/10 · 12 February 2022]

It was enjoyable enough, though not on par with the first and second season finales, which were perfect. There is nothing really surprising in the film and everyone is somewhat muted in their passion compared to the fury displayed in the original series, particularly Bullock and Swearingen. The conclusion does what it appears set out to do, that is, resolve some of the relationship loose ends that were a consequence of the show's cancellation. Essentially, that's all it accomplishes. The movie could have benefited from a greater number of intense violent scenes. It is fun to see the characters again, though.

The Night Comes for Us (2018)

What it needs to be!

[10/10 · 18 January 2022]

The movie includes just enough of the barest cursory plot and characterization to serve to stitch together a series of many dizzying, dazzling, spectacular long-take fight scenes with incredible stunts and terrific choreography and camerawork.

Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

Too many human characters, mostly boring

[5/10 · 8 October 2021]

We really don't need the Scooby-Doo gang solving the "mystery of the mechanical eye" in this. For humans, all we need are: 1) a mustache-twirling corporate villain (Charles Dance is sorely missed here); 2) a human for Kong to "connect" with, which is served well enough by the little girl; 3) Any adult protagonist to serve up the exposition of whatever nonsensical plot. You don't need any of the others. It just clutters up this confused mess.

As for the action, there is no sense of scale to these giants. They did a pretty good job in the previous Godzilla films to get a sense he was a force of nature. (The Japanese film _Godzilla's Revenge_ does great at that). Here, G and Kong are just rival pro-wrestlers, albeit one with death-beam breath and the other with a glowing axe. Godzilla uses his nuclear breath so much, and it is evaded so often, that it becomes ho-hum instead of the treatment as a terrifying weapon that it got in KOTM. And Mecha-godzilla looks like a dang Decepticon.

Mortal Kombat (2021)

A mostly joyless affair

[3/10 · 27 September 2021]

The best fight scene was in the beginning between Hanzo and Subzero. In the movie, the fight choreography was usually fairly good, though nothing spectacular. However, the characters were all bland and none of them showed much of any particular personality except Kano, Liu Kang, and Cabal, and of those three, only Kano was interesting. With all of the awesome characters in almost thirty years of Mortal Kombat video games, why did they come up with a new protagonist as flavorless as bone broth? What the heck was his power, an Aquaman shirt that glows when hit (ostensibly absorbing the power?) I was hoping early in the film that his arcana would turn him into Skorpion, but nah, the old guy comes back instead. Boring and anticlimactic. And where was the tournament?