Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024) Film Review

After his daughter’s life is threatened, wisecracking Detective Axel Foley teams up with a new partner and some old pals to turn up the heat on a conspiracy

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is directed by Mark Molloy which is his directorial debut. The film is the fourth installment in the Beverly Hills Cop series and serves as a sequel to Beverly Hills Cop III (1994).

After the disaster that was Beverly Hills Cop III (1994) the series stayed dormant for 30 years and luckily Axel F is a far better film than it’s predecessor, it’s more in line with the first two films and does a pretty decent job of complimenting and celebrating said films.

Admittedly this is a nostalgia fueled legacy sequel but that really does not take away from it at all. First off the performances are quite great, seeing Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser and Bronson Pinchot again is just truly exciting and they all do excellent in their respective roles. Even if some are given more to do than others it’s still great to see them interact and only adds to this installment’s celebration of the series in general. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Taylour Paige and Kevin Bacon are great additions to the series and are able to easily blend in with the rest of the cast, together this cast is really strong and is just overall a lot of fun.

The humor, camerawork and soundtrack were all pretty strong as well, granted they weren’t anything groundbreaking but they all fit the nostalgia theme and celebration of the series the movie was going for. They even got Crazy Frog into the mix which usually would be a negative but in this case it’s used well and the movie puts its own twist on it.

The action scenes are quite great here as well, for a first time director Mark Molloy manages to really give some quite solid action scenes and keeps up with Axel’s rapid fire repartee it’s fantastic stuff and moments like those that really do make this installment special.

Overall there really isn’t much else to say about Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is a very solid installment to the series, it might not be doing anything for the series or anything groundbreaking. But at the very least it’s fun, well acted and greatly crafted.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is available on Netflix.

7/10 B

Ultraman Rising (2024) Film Review

When Tokyo is threatened by giant monsters, an all-star athlete reluctantly returns home to take on the mantle of Ultraman, and become a legendary hero.

Ultraman Rising is directed by Shannon Tindle which is his directorial debut.

I don’t know much about Ultraman I’ve seen maybe one or two of the films, so I went into this one blindly. Luckily it does seem like (from what I’ve read from people who are fans) is that this movie takes place in a new timeline.

What sticks out immediately is the animation which is quite beautiful and incredibly fun to look at, there’s a lot of attention to detail with the character designs that add to the film’s characters. Plus the world the film takes place in has a lot of style, which only adds to the film’s already high level of charm. So when it comes to style Ultraman Rising nails it completely but what about script and character wise?

Well the characters and script are quite fun as well, there’s this whole parental/child story that’s quite charming. Ken (voiced by Christopher Sean) is quite an interesting character he juggles around being a father, a baseball player and Ultraman during the course of the film. Which ultimately leads into some quite touching moments.

The film is much more about parents and children than it is about fighting monsters, which was actually surprised about but it’s a very welcoming choice that while not every single viewer will get behind if you dig these types of stories and are looking for more than just fighting giant monsters you get that here.

While I don’t think the film is doing anything brand new with the parent and children plot line, it’s charming enough to grab the viewer’s attention and really invest into these characters.

Ultraman Rising is available on Netflix.

7/10 B

Boy Kills World (2024) Film Review

Boy is a mayhem machine who’s been training to assassinate the bloodthirsty Hilda Van Der Koy and avenge his family’s murder; guided by his sister’s mischievous spirit, Boy uncovers one stunning revelation after another as he barrels toward Hilda.

Boy Kills World is directed by Moritz Mohr which is his directorial debut.

It really pains me to say that Boy Kills World did not work for me, it’s by far one of the most disappointing films so far this year and is completely dismantled due to one glaring issue…the internal monologue.

The use of internal monologue isn’t necessarily bad (far from it) what is bad is that Bill Skarsgård’s character simply known as “The Boy” only speaks through it and after awhile it becomes incredibly obnoxious. H. Jon Benjamin is a great voice actor don’t get me wrong (I like a lot of his voice work) but he doesn’t really add anything funny with his delivery, it’s incredibly lacking and doesn’t have the punch he usually delivers.

The movie does have its positives such as the gore combined with the kills that do bring this excitement factor into the mix. The performances are overall pretty solid Bill Skarsgård, Isaiah Mustafa and Jessica Rothe are quite great, the rest of the cast are pretty solid as well. The characters themselves were interesting enough to follow plus the Scott Pilgrimesc style of action was pretty charming as well.

The other problems come in during the last half of the movie where there’s a ton of plot twists and the movie tries to go for this grand finale when it quite honestly did not need to, the action also sort of fell apart at the end. It was a lot more sloppy when you compare to what came before it. Gideon Van Der Koy (played by Brett Gelman) as a villain is really not as entertaining as the movie tries to make him out to be. There’s a couple lines he delivers that are somewhat humorous but a lot of his performance is about as basic as you can get when it comes to villains trying to be comedic.

Overall Boy Kills World definitely had a lot of potential but was held back due to so many issues that stick out like a sore thumb.

Boy Kills World is available on all VOD platforms.

4/10 D+

In The Land Of Saints and Sinners (2024) Film Review

Hoping to leave his dark past behind him, former assassin Finbar Murphy leads a quiet life in a coastal Irish town, far from the political violence that grips the rest of the country. When menacing terrorists show up, Finbar soon discovers that one of them has been abusing a local girl. Drawn into an increasingly vicious game of cat and mouse, he must choose between exposing his secret identity and defending his friends and neighbors.

In The Land Of Saints And Sinners is directed by Robert Lorenz director of Trouble With The Curve (2012) and The Marksman (2021).

After so many Liam Neeson action thriller movies that ranged from bad to below average, here is one that is actually quite decent (which is shocking since Lorenz directed The Marksman (2021) It’s not anything groundbreaking and is most definitely flawed, but this is a bit different from what we normally get from these movies.

For one thing Liam Neeson’s character is far different than any of the characters he’s been playing for awhile now, the performance as Finbar Murphy is a bit more grounded and actually does get some character development. He also works well with Kerry Condon who I would argue is the best part about the film. She delivers a solid performance that is quite effective at certain points.

The atmosphere is also pretty effective as well, it matches this mysterious feel the film is going for and actually moves the story along well…until the second act. The second act is rough to get through there’s absolutely no getting around that, the pacing goes from being nice and breezy to slow as molecules and it does hurt the film in the long run. Having that said the third act delivers quite well and rewards the viewer for being patient, there are some script issues along the way that cause a few bumps in the road but for the most part the movie does get back up on it’s feet during the final act rather than staying down.

In The Land Of Saints And Sinners is available on all VOD platforms.

6/10 C+

Trigger Warning (2024) Film Review

A special forces commando returns to her hometown after her father’s sudden death, only to run afoul of a violent gang when she starts asking questions.

Trigger Warning is directed by Mouly Surya director of Fiski (2008), What They Don’t Talk About When They Talk About Love (2013) and Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts (2017).

Look I’m happy to see Jessica Alba out of retirement, she’s a fun actress that I do genuinely root for a lot of the time. However Trigger Warning is horrendous, it’s very obvious Netflix needed a recognizable name to advertise their next cliche Netflix original action film (much like with Heart Of Stone and Apex).

Jessica Alba and the choreography are the only positives here, it does shock me to see this movie actually have quite decent up close combat. Usually with a lot of these movies you get one or two scenes of it and they tend to be a “blink and you miss it” moment, but here you actually get a healthy amount.

Having that said just about everything else is terrible, the story is incredibly predictable and the writing is abysmal. It doesn’t help that the story being told isn’t very interesting at all, this is your usual terrible revenge action thriller affair that does absolutely nothing new or investing with it’s plot.

I really have nothing else to say here, Trigger Warning is one of those movies where you immediately forget about it by the next week. It’s not here to say anything or do anything interesting, it’s here to be put on as background noise.

Trigger Warning is available on Netflix.

2/10 F

Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes (2024) Film Review

Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he’s been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.

Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes is directed by Wes Ball who previously directed all three of The Maze Runner films.

Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes is a standalone sequel to War Of The Planet Of The Apes. It’s the fourth film in the Planet Of The Apes reboot films and is the tenth overall film of the franchise.

Planet Of The Apes is a film franchise that I truly love and I’m always excited to hear when a new installment is releasing, I wasn’t sure how they could follow up from the excellent Matt Reeves trilogy (Rise, Dawn and War) but I was interested to see what they were going to do.

This film takes 300 years after War the previous film, Ceaser is dead and almost immediately one of the film’s main themes comes into play…manipulation and twisting someone’s words to mean something else entirely. In this case that someone is Ceaser who taught peace between humans and apes, the film’s main villain Proximus completely alters that and manages to create a clan of apes that believe whatever he says.

The introduction of Proximus is really excellent here, he’s a manipulative monarch that uses others to get what he wants. What really makes him excellent is he’s played by Kevin Durand who gives my favorite performance of the film, what really fascinates me is Durand’s performance whether intentional or not comes off as a direct opposite of Andy Serkis’s performance as Ceaser. Ceaser used his emotions accordingly and was genuinely excellent leader, that came with Andy Serkis completely hitting it out of the park. Proximus is manipulative and has so much power in his voice.

Proximus as a villain is also a lot of fun as well, every time you see him on screen you just sort of want to be the fly in the room to hear the conversations that are being had to get the full impact. It all comes from Kevin Durand’s performance that always makes sure to never go over the top and to truly capture Proximus’s manipulative nature.

The rest of the cast are quite great here Owen Teague plays the main protagonist Noah who the film centers around, a lot of the film is sort of creating a hero’s journey type of story which although not entirely new everything else around it really makes up for it. Peter Macon as Raka and Freya Allan as Mae are also some standouts as well. I don’t think the three are as strong character wise as Proximus is, but they are still a lot of fun and the world around them does compliment them well.

One of the best parts of Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes is the atmosphere and the world itself, almost immediately we are struck by incredible visuals that completely capture the beauty of the Reeves trilogy. The film’s beginning moments really set up and give the viewer an idea of what to expect as it takes you on the journey. The atmosphere during the action scenes and the third act is truly fantastic, it’s suspenseful and truly leaves you at the edge of your seat. There’s so much going on and the amount of detail the film goes over is truly great, what’s also great here is that you genuinely care about these characters. Noah starts out as a very basic protagonist but as the film goes on you really start to care for him, you want him to save his family and to succeed in his goal.

Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes is a worthy sequel to War and is a very promising start to a new trilogy, I am very interested to see exactly where they go with this series!

Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes is playing in theaters.

9/10 A

Atlas (2024) Film Review

A brilliant data analyst with a deep distrust of AI finds it may be her only hope when a mission to capture a renegade robot goes awry.

Atlas is directed by Brad Peyton who has previously directed Cats & Dogs: The Revenge Of Kitty Galore (2010), Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012), San Andreas (2015), Incarnate (2016) and Rampage (2017).

Look going into Atlas I didn’t expect an Oscar worthy masterpiece especially given a majority of Brad Peyton’s previous work. However there comes a point where “this movie is dumb” isn’t an excuse anymore, the problem here is Atlas is incredibly painful to sit through and quite frankly one of the ugliest and horribly written movies I’ve seen so far this year. Heck there is an argument to be made that this is THE worst movie so far this year.

The performances are dreadful even great actors such as Sterling K. Brown can’t save this mess (it doesn’t help that he really isn’t given a whole lot to really do.) Simu Liu is a terrible villain who’s incredibly one note and has so little to offer performance wise, Jennifer Lopez is truly terrible here as well. I’m not entirely sure what she was going for here, but if it was to come off as a badass heroine she completely missed the mark, her character Atlas Shepherd has no meaningful character development. She’s thrown at the viewer and the movie expects the viewer to instantly connect with her which is not exactly how character development and connecting the viewer with a character works.

The biggest problem here is Atlas has nothing going for it, the movie contains every single sci-fi trope you could possibly think of, it borrows from so many other far better movies, books and video games of the same genre but forgets to do something interesting with those ideas. The writing doesn’t bother to explore anything about this world, the most you get is a brief introduction at the beginning and that’s about it. You are left in the dark for the rest of the movie which is 2 hours which it clearly did not need to be that long.

The movie itself is ugly, the CGI is incredibly undercooked and really seems like it was rushed out the door for release, even the big CGI moments in this movie look disastrous. I have seen straight to video sci-fi films that look far more appealing to the eye than this, films where there was so much passion and even if they didn’t have the best writing you still respect the amount of work that was put into making them. I can’t say the same for Atlas this is a prime example of a sci-fi movie that fails on every single level.

Atlas is available on Netflix

Disgrace To Cinema F

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024) Film Review

Godzilla and the almighty Kong face a colossal threat hidden deep within the planet, challenging their very existence and the survival of the human race.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is directed by Adam Wingard who has previously directed Godzilla vs. Kong (2021), Death Note (2017), Blair Witch (2016), The Guest (2014), You’re Next (2013) and a few others. The film servers as a sequel to Godzilla vs. Kong (2021), the fifth film in the Monsterverse and the 38th film in the overall Godzilla franchise.

I was kind of excited for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire especially after its predecessor Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) which was a genuinely fun movie that I would even go as far as to say that I really liked it. Unfortunately with The New Empire a lot of what made the previous movie exciting is completely absent here and is very noticeable drop in quality.

Rebecca Hall is pretty solid here once again and the addition of Dan Stevens who’s just having the time of his life here is always great. Stevens is some of the movie’s best moments mainly due to making the human character parts more fun and a bit more interesting. Where as I actually did not mind the human characters in the previous movie, it does feel like once again the human characters have become such a chore to watch, they were poorly written in Godzilla: King Of The Monsters (2019) and they are somehow even more poorly written here.

The action scenes with Godzilla and King Kong are fine enough, but part of the charm with the previous movie is we hadn’t seen Godzilla and Kong face off on the big screen in years. This movie doing the exact same sort of thing again loses the impact and hype that the first movie left the viewer. It doesn’t help that there really isn’t anything here that makes the movie itself standout. Sure the fights look really neat and there’s undeniably some cheer worthy moments, but is there really anything here that’s particularly memorable?

If anything the monsters interacting with each other Suko and King Kong for example is genuinely funny at times (the rest of the humor just does not work at all) and much more memorable than a lot of the action scenes. The New Empire really seems like they put together a half baked plot and threw some monsters on the screen and said “let’s hope for the best.” I wasn’t expecting an Oscar worthy script but seeing how the Monsterverse has shown in the past that there can be really great writing, it’s disappointing to see it get bogged down this low.

Having that said I did have fun with this movie for the most part, but this is definitely something I’m never going to go back to. If you just want some neat action scenes you might like this fine enough.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is available on all VOD platforms.

5/10 C

Arcadian (2024) Film Review

In the near future on a decimated Earth, Paul and his twin sons find tranquility by day but terror by night when ferocious creatures awaken and consume all living souls in their path. When Paul is nearly killed, the boys come up with a desperate plan for survival, using everything their father taught them to keep him alive.

Arcadian is directed by Benjamin Brewer who previously directed Beneath Contempt (2011) and Trust (2016).

You would think that a monster movie featuring Nicolas Cage who is the leading role would have a lot to talk about. But that’s oddly enough not the case here which is where a lot of the disappointment comes in.

The performances are not bad here Nicolas Cage gives a solid performance even if for a lot of the movie despite being in the leading role he is not really given a lot to do. When the movie does focus on his character Paul that’s where the movie shines, while Jaeden Martell, Maxwell Jenkins and Sadie Soverall give solid performances their characters are missing a ton of character development and result to your typical teenage characters.

The creature designs are at the very least fun and there are some thrilling moments to spice the movie up a bit, unfortunately the rest of the movie ends up amounting to yet another post apocalyptic movie that doesn’t do anything new for the genre. Which is a shame because I do like the premise and there are a lot of glances of a solid movie here it’s just surrounded by a lot undercooked writing and story elements.

Arcadian is available on all VOD platforms.

4/10 D+

Civil War (2024) Film Review

In a dystopian future America, a team of military-embedded journalists races against time to reach Washington, D.C., before rebel factions descend upon the White House.

Civil War is directed by Alex Garland who previously directed Ex Machina (2015), Annihilation (2018) and Men (2022).

Part of the reason my review is so late is because I honestly had no idea what to exactly think of Civil War. There is an incredible amount that I really love about the film, even if the politics can get muddy I do get the point the film was making and in some instances it kind of works.

I’ll start with the performances because they are ultimately what really makes the film, starting with Kristen Dunst she gives a phenomenal performance. She plays a war photographer named Lee Smith who mainly focuses on the job and nothing else at all, there are tons of character moments from her. The ones that stood out were her slowly realizing that doing absolutely nothing while chaos is going on other than getting that one excellent shot is not worth it at all. Dunst gives such a raw performance and her interactions with the rest of the cast is truly investing.

Cailee Spaeny is also quite excellent here, she plays Jessie Cullen an aspiring young photographer who kind of just joins in on Lee and Joel’s (played by Wagner Moura) journey. Her depiction of someone being someone who hasn’t been in this much chaos before is absolutely top notch and at times quite scary, the scenes with her Dunst or her and Moura just having conversations are among some of the film’s best moment.

Wagner Moura and Stephen McKinley are both excellent here, they work incredibly well with Spaeny and Dunst the chemistry between the four is top notch. Moura acting as this second in command figure with Dunst who tries to keep the group together is investing to watch. While McKinley’s character doesn’t get a lot of development, McKinley’s performance itself is more than enough to make up for it as it is pretty charming in some areas.

The atmosphere of the film is truly masterful, throughout the whole film and the journey we are sent on with Lee, Joel, Jessie and Sammy the suspenseful atmosphere is felt. Anything could happen at any given moment it’s investing the whole through but there’s one particular moment that really shines. I purposely left out Jesse Plemons’s performance until right now because while he does only get one scene, the scene is a masterclass of suspense. Combine that with his acting, the lines of dialogue that are used and the camera focusing on each of the character’s reactions and you have yourself a wild ride of a scene.

The film’s world itself is quite investing as well, I do like that the film shows the relics of the Civil War taking place. Buildings left abandoned, some completely intact and others completely ruined. Heck sometimes during the journey we encounter towns that flat out pretend the war does not exist. This might be a bit biased since I’ve always had a fascination with abandoned buildings and areas, but I do think the film does a really great job of showing the horrifying feel of these certain areas.

Overall Civil War is a quite fantastic film, it’s filled with suspense, excellent performances and investing dialogue that really grabs the viewer’s attention incredibly quickly!

Civil War is available in Theaters.

9/10 A