In 2008, during the last month of summer before high school begins, an impressionable 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy learns what his family can’t teach him: how to skate, how to flirt, and how to love his mum.
Didi is directed by Sean Wang which is directorial debut.
It’s really nice to see a coming of age film set in 2008, it can be a bit tricky to make it work or stand out. But luckily Sean Wang has so many tricks up his sleeve that the film works perfectly.
The performances here all around are incredibly top notch, Izaac Wang is the center focus and he gives one of the best performances of the year, between the interactions he has with the rest of the cast, to the emotional moments that pull at your heart strings. He gives such a grounded performance that really brings the viewer into the film, Chris Wang is such a simple yet incredibly interesting character that you quickly fall in love with. Joan Chen is the heart of the film, her performance as Chungsing Wong really does a fantastic job of being a reminder of the sacrifices moms do for their kids. Each and every scene she is in you can see and feel her emotions, it’s truly powerful facial acting and body language that even the little moments are just as investing.
The way the film recaptures the year of 2008 is brilliant we get a bit of screen life elements and we see the classic chatroom or message programs such as AIM. It’s truly impressive how far the film goes with these details, even if these scenes don’t stick around for very long they still have a long lasting impact throughout the film and are incredibly well done.
The writing is what ultimately builds this film together, it’s incredibly grounded, focused and combined with Sean Wang’s direction and script there’s this relatability factor that the viewer can quickly grow towards the film. It’s as if you are transported back into 2008, seeing the daily lives of your friends and family and filled to the brim with memories you hold close from when you were growing up. Even if you didn’t grow up during 2008 you can still connect with the film quite easily.
Overall Didi is a brilliant film, it’s so well crafted, acted and just something truly special!
When fate brings a Belfast teacher into the orbit of self-confessed “lowlife scum” Naoise and Liam Óg, the needle drops on a hip-hop act like no other. Rapping in their native Irish language, they soon lead a movement to save their mother tongue.
Kneecap is directed by Rich Peppiatt which is his directorial debut.
Kneecap is one of I’ve heard a lot about and decided to check out because of that and I’m really glad I did, this is quite different from a lot of music biopics for one thing the members of Kneecap an Irish hip hop trio from West Belfast, Northern Ireland play themselves in the film.
Although the biopic is fictional, the film still manages to be quite grounded especially when you have the performances of Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap and DJ Próvaí playing themselves as I said before. This gives the film the opportunity to really go all out here and that it does.
The music was incredibly well incorporated with some beautifully done music scenes that are so appealing to look at. Speaking of appealing the film itself is very stylized and really goes out of its way to be as energetic as possible.
The performances from the trio are some of the best so far this year, each of them contribute to the film and their bond is just fascinating to watch especially over the course of the film. The dialogue incorporating the music and even some history of Ireland was incredibly clever and beautifully done, there’s so much love and passion here that it almost feels like a celebration to this trio, language as a concept and Ireland.
Overall Kneecap is a fascinating film and definitely one of the best music biopics I’ve seen in quite awhile, it goes for a very different approach that completely works in the film’s favor. Check this one out!
Lifelong best friends Odette, Clarice, and Barbara Jean share an unbreakable bond from decades of weathering life’s storms. Through new shades of heartbreak, the trio are put to test as they face challenging times.
The Supremes At Earl’s All You Can Eat is directed by Tina Mabry director of Mississippi Damned (2009).
The Supremes At Earl’s All You Can Eat starts out promising enough, we are introduced to a group of three friends with a 1960s backdrop, how the three’s nickname “the supremes” was thought of, a bit about their backstory and the introduction itself is pretty charming. Then fast forwarding to present day and we get what feels like a soap opera, even when the movie throws in important topics such as loss, addiction and infidelity. While there are some powerful moments involving these topics, the melodramatic tone the movie opts to go for really lessens the impact which ultimately hurts the movie in the end.
Having that said the performances are quite great and are easily what makes the movie, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Abigail Achiri and Tati Gabrielle all do a fantastic job here and deliver plenty of moments that are genuinely touching. It helps that their characters are likable and do have some interesting conversations between one another like many friend groups do, the voiceover from Ellis-Taylor is also very relaxing and grabs the viewer’s interest rather quickly.
Although a lot of the topics are tackled in a surface level way, I do think the movie does a pretty decent job of working them into the story and bringing emotions to the viewer. Which is mainly done through the characters and the dialogue, as I said before it can feel incredibly soap opera at times but it works just enough to give some sort of reaction out of the viewer.
The Supremes At Earl’s All You Can Eat is available on Hulu!
Inside his book, adventurous Harold can make anything come to life simply by drawing it. After he grows up and draws himself off the book’s pages and into the physical world, he soon learns his trusty crayon can set off more hilarious hijinks than he thought possible. However, when the power of unlimited imagination falls into the wrong hands, it will take all of his creativity to save both the real world and his own.
Harold and the Purple Crayon is directed by Carlos Saldanha director of Ice Age (2002) (Co director), Robots (2005) (Co director), Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006), Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs (2009), Rio (2011), Rio 2 (2014) and Ferdinand (2017).
This won’t be a surprise to many but Harold and the Purple Crayon is terrible, just the idea of a live action adaption of the 1955 children’s book by Crockett Johnson leaves a bad taste in your mouth. What’s interesting is that at one point this was going to be animated film which would have been far more appropriate and make more sense as well. Steven Spielberg was even involved at a certain point to help with the project, but instead we got this mess which is quite easily one of the worst movies of the year.
The performances here are just awful, Zachary Levi in particular turns an already terrible movie into something incredibly obnoxious, throughout the movie he plays the usual annoying man child type of character that if you thought couldn’t get any more annoying this movie will show you how much worse it gets. The idea of having Harold as an adult was a bad one to start with, but to make him an obnoxious character who has no character outside of being loud and annoying. The rest of the cast while not as bad as Levi aren’t much better, Jemaine Clement plays an incredibly one note villain (yeah there’s a villain in this movie I’m not sure why either), Lil Rei Howery could have gotten a few good jokes in there if the script wasn’t so horrible and everyone else just sort of exists.
For a movie that’s about using your imagination, Harold and the Purple Crayon certainly lacks the imagination and creativity of it’s source material. This is just a mishmash of terrible family movie cliches from the last several years, slapped into a beloved children’s book adaptation. The writing is horrendous, there isn’t one line here that is at least chuckle worthy, creative or has anything to really say.
The storytelling is especially horrible due to giving us a story that quite frankly did not need to be told, I don’t think anyone was really begging for a continuation of the book where Harold grows up to be a man in his 40s and act obnoxious for 90 minutes. If anything this is a complete one eighty from the book that quite frankly misses the entire point of its source material.
Overall had they stuck with an animated adaption I think there could have been something here, but instead we are given one of the laziest and worst movies of the year.
Harold and the Purple Crayon is available on all VOD platforms.
Four freshmen in high school get ready for their first school party, they’re preparing themselves for something unfamiliar and terrifying.
Incoming is directed by Dave Chernin and John Chernin which is their directorial debut.
Incoming is Netflix’s version of Superbad (2007), Booksmart (2019) and Good Boys (2019)…not in a good way either.
This movie is another one of those coming of age story comedies that has a tons of parties and is raunchy, but lacks so much comedic power that you start to wonder what was the point of this? I’ll give credit where credit is due, the acting isn’t the worst as there are a few scenes that are decent enough. But nobody here gives a memorable performance that manages to stick out to the viewer, the writing doesn’t give these actors and actresses breathing room to actually deliver something of note.
If you have seen any coming of age film comedy you have already seen this one, there’s a lot of scenes here that are very similar to the films I mentioned at the beginning. The only slight difference here is the plot is tweaked around a bit (even that’s being generous), Project X (2012) just has overall better party scenes and Superbad (2007) and Booksmart (2019) are just overall better written and actually hilarious.
Deadpool’s peaceful existence comes crashing down when the Time Variance Authority recruits him to help safeguard the multiverse. He soon unites with his would-be pal, Wolverine, to complete the mission and save his world from an existential threat.
Deadpool & Wolverine is directed by Shawn Levy director of Free Guy (2021), The Adam Project (2022), Real Steal (2011), Date Night (2010), Night At The Museum (2006) and many others. Deadpool & Wolverine is the 34th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and serves as a sequel to Deadpool (2016) and Deadpool 2 (2018).
A Deadpool 3 was inevitable it was just a matter of when it was going to release especially due to Disney buying 20th Century Studios, some people thought it would never come out and some people thought Disney would tone it down. I actually liked the last two Deadpool films, am I as crazy about them as I was back when they first came out? Not at all, but for what they were they were fun enough films that had a lot of positives. Deadpool & Wolverine I would say is around the same although I do think it’s not as good as the first film.
Before I start I do want to put a spoiler warning as there are going to be spoilers so be aware!
So for starters the biggest positive of the film and the one who steals the show is Hugh Jackman who returns to play Wolverine from the X-Men films and the Wolverine films, he’s just as a great as he was in those films and shows that he still has it. There’s a few scenes in particular that standout quite well, Jackman adds some much needed emotional depth to the film. Granted it’s not anything mind blowing but it’s something and Jackman’s great acting is able to get the viewer invested which was part of Jackman’s portrayal of Logan/Wolverine in the first place. Ryan Reynolds is perfectly fine here, he isn’t anything special. But he works well with Hugh Jackman and there’s some comedic bits that do work between two, but then there are moments that are eye roll worthy that do end up hurting the movie in the long run.
The cameos I have to say this time around were actually fun, usually with a lot of the recent Marvel films it really does feel like they are shoving cameos in just for the audience to point and say “oh my god I know that guy.” While yes that argument can be used here, at the very least the cameos themselves are given more to do rather than blink at the camera, say a one liner and then leave. They actually tie into the story decently well and while some are definitely better handled than others I do think for the most part the movie does a decent job with them.
I’m not going to name every single cameo as there are quite a few of them and some of them such as Sabertooth who’s played by Tyler Mane (from X-Men (200)), really only serve as henchmen for the main villain Cassandra Nova (played by Emma Corrin) and then quickly get disposed of, sure it’s really cool to see that he’s here but that’s really all you can really say about him.
The main ones worth mentioning here are Chris Evans as Johnny Storm from Fantastic Four (2005) and it’s sequel Rise Of The Silver Surfer (2007), Jennifer Garner as Elektra from Daredevil (2003) and Elektra (2005), Wesley Snipes from the Blade trilogy (1998-2004), Dafne Keen as Laura/X-23 from Logan (2017) and finally the biggest surprise which I will say was quite clever of the film Channing Tatum as Gambit from the Gambit film that was planned but never ended up coming out. All of these performances at least contribute something to the film, Dafne Keen in particular shows some really great acting here especially the bonding moments between her character Laura and Wolverine. It’s some of the best moments of the movie with some nice character development that was very needed. Channing Tatum is a delight to see even if Gambit is given the least to do out of the bunch, Tatum is clearly having a blast doing this performance which in turn makes it a lot of fun to watch.
As far as everything else goes it’s pretty alright, the action scenes combined with some of the song choices are quite fun, one of the biggest standouts being Bye Bye Bye by NSYNC which happens to be the opening of the movie. So it does start out with a huge bang. The humor is definitely one of the weaker parts about this movie, while there are some hilarious moments a lot of it is the exact same thing from the previous two movies. Which I get it the movie is pulling from the source material and that’s just how Deadpool’s personality is but it really is a bit repetitive at this point and does start to really to become incredibly noticeable very quickly.
I will say the end credits combined with clips of the old 20th Century Studios Marvel films and behind the scenes footage of those films while using Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) by Green Day (I’m surprised it took a film from the MCU this long to use a Green Day song) is actually quite nice. Does it scream graduation slideshow? Absolutely but growing up with these movies despite the wide range of quality and seeing them go like this is decently touching.
Overall Deadpool & Wolverine is fine for what it is, a lot of it is the same thing the MCU has been doing for the last couple years. But at the very least this one is entertaining, I’m probably not going to ever revisit it this movie but it made for a satisfying watch.
Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust have been running a successful operation by all accounts. However, when Anxiety shows up, they aren’t sure how to feel.
Inside Out 2 is directed by Kelsey Mann which is directorial debut. Inside Out 2 is the sequel to Inside Out (2015).
Inside Out 2 was always going to happen at some point, the first film was met with immediate love both critically and financially. It’s become a huge favorite among Pixar fans and while it might not be one of my absolute favorites of Pixar I still really do like the film. I think the same can be really said for Inside Out 2.
Inside Out 2 is quite similar to the first film and the plot is very similar which is not too much of a problem since the movie itself is very charming and endearing, however there are times where it’s a bit frustrating to see it keep things a bit too safe. Plus the movie doesn’t quite have the emotional punch that the first movie had. Having that said the positives really outweigh the negatives so let’s get into those.
The cast is great and the characters are just as fun as they were in the first film, Maya Hawke plays a new character Anxiety who steals the show. Maya Hawke absolutely nails it here and completely captures the character, Anxiety plays a lot like Joy did in the first film but luckily the chemistry between the two characters is quite fun so it doesn’t leave the viewer feeling bored or that they have seen this before.
The animation is beautifully done and adds a lot of attention to detail, the scenes with Riley are touching and have the awkward situations you would expect, there’s some strong emotional moments here that makes the viewer fall in love with these characters all over again. I also do think it’s clever they added emotions mainly due to Riley going through puberty which is a theme in this film change and how to go through it or embrace it. Really nice messages here that are absolutely relatable to a lot of people.
Overall Inside Out 2 is quite great, i definitely think if they are going to continue with a third film they are definitely going to have to step it up and not make it another “Joy and other emotions get separated from the headquarters” but the film is charming, has a strong message and is crafted incredibly well.
Sparks fly between a marketing executive and a NASA official as he makes preparations for the Apollo 11 moon landing.
Fly Me To The Moon is directed by Greg Berlanti director of The Broken Hearts Club (2000), Life as We Know It (2010) and Love Simon (2018).
Definitely not as bad as I anticipated but still very forgettable and ends up not really amounting to all that much, it’s sort of a shame because I do think at least half of this movie is pretty alright. When it focuses on the space stuff it’s pretty decent, when it focuses on the romance it’s about as bland as you can really get with a romantic comedy.
Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson are both great here, both incredibly charming and have the charisma to back it up. The chemistry can be a little mixed at times due to movie switching back and forth between drama and romance. However the two for the most part are able to adapt to the switch in tone which is mainly thanks to the two’s star power.
The biggest problems with Fly Me To The Moon is the previously mentioned switching back and forth in tone and the pacing, the rest of the movie is unfortunately not able to adapt well to the tone switching which leads to a lot very messy scenes that just don’t grab the viewer’s attention. The running time being 132 minutes long is incredibly ridiculous and could have easily been trimmed down into a 90 or so minute movie that would not have over stayed it’s welcome.
Overall there isn’t much to be said about Fly Me To The Moon, there’s a decent amount to like and maybe you will walk away getting something out of it. But unfortunately this one is a bit too much on the forgettable side to recommend.
Fly Me To The Moon is available on all VOD platforms.
Mike, a down-to-earth construction worker, is thrust into the world of super spies and secret agents when his high school sweetheart, Roxanne, recruits him on a high-stakes US intelligence mission.
The Union is directed by Julian Farino director of The Last Yellow (1999) and The Oranges (2011).
I’m not sure whether it was intentional or accidental but releasing three action comedy films that went on three different streaming services so closely together was an incredibly bad idea. The Instigators, Jackpot and now The Union, everything I said about the former two movies can be applied to The Union.
The only real positive here is Halle Berry who tries her absolute best with the script she’s given, but unfortunately her performance can only do so much as the rest of the movie is so incredibly dull that it makes watching grass grow look more investing. Mark Wahlberg has no chemistry with Halle Berry, the movie tried but completely fails due to just how dull Wahlberg’s performance is here. At this point in his career Wahlberg is turning in performances that are very identical to each other that you could be forgiven if you mixed up his roles and that’s very much the case here in this movie.
As far as the plot goes it’s a very typical spy action movie that is filled to the brim with cliches, it leans towards comedy for the first 20 minutes or so before giving up on that entirely and settling with a painfully cliched filled spy action movie. Everything that’s done here you have seen one hundred times elsewhere, none of the characters are interesting and the plot itself is lacking in so much substance.
I’m not entirely sure what else you say here except that The Union is this week’s “you will forget about it by Monday morning” type of movie.
In the near future, a ‘Grand Lottery’ has been newly established in California – the catch: kill the winner before sundown to legally claim their multi-billion dollar jackpot.
Jackpot is directed by Paul Feig director of Bridesmaids (2011), The Heat (2013), Spy (2015), Ghostbusters (2016), A Simple Favor (2018), Last Christmas (2019) and a few others.
Jackpot is basically a comedic version of The Purge franchise an interesting idea for sure and it’s executed fine enough but there’s really nothing incredibly strong going on here.
John Cena is the one who’s carrying this movie and manages to push it to the finish line, while not every joke lands a lot of the humor from him is quite decent. None of the jokes are anything you are going to be quoting with your friends but at the very least he manages to make it fun for the most part. Awkwafina is actually not bad here, this is the first time in awhile where I haven’t felt incredibly annoyed by her character or her playing herself. Granted at times she does slip and feels like she’s playing the same type of role again, but for the most part she does a decent job. She actually has solid chemistry with John Cena which is what I think really benefited her this time around.
The concept itself is pretty fun, there’s definitely some shining moments that show a lot of potential, but unfortunately the movie doesn’t really have the spark it needs to make this a really fun ride. The writing is what hurts this movie the most, the last half of the movie turns into your very typical action comedy that really does not do anything for the genre. It’s like they had a really good idea going with the first half of the movie and then did not know how to finish the movie so they threw anything at the wall to see what sticks.
Overall there really isn’t much more to be said, Jackpot isn’t a bad movie as it definitely has its moments and the acting is actually not bad here. The movie itself is just a very below average action comedy, that will entertain you for a little bit before being quickly forgotten about.
Jerome Reviews... 