Drive-Away Dolls (2024) Film Review

In search of a fresh start, two women embark on an impromptu road trip to Tallahassee, Fla. However, things quickly go awry when they cross paths with a group of inept criminals along the way.

Drive-Away Dolls is directed by Ethan Coen which by himself and not with his brother Joel Coen he previously directed the documentary Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble In Mind (2022).

Drive-Away Dolls is a very bizarre one, it has a lot of what make the Coen brothers films so great but also feels like it’s in it’s own world. I can easily see why this one is quite divisive however I came out of this one quite liking it, but will say there are parts of it that didn’t quite work for me.

The best part of the film hands down is the cast, everyone here turns in absolutely bizarre and quite energetic performances that I can’t help but love. Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan have this natural chemistry almost immediately at the film’s beginning moments, the comedic timing between the two is excellent, they bounce off of each other incredibly well and their overall performances range from being goofy (in a good way) to being highly energetic and genuinely hilarious. The rest of the cast like I said earlier are just as great, Colman Domingo in particular who although doesn’t get a lot of screentime is still quite solid and actually delivers quite a few laughs throughout the film.

Drive-Away Dolls goes for this bizarre and energetic feel which for the most part works quite well, it’s a very fast paced film that’s only 84 minutes long and manages to wrap the story up in a fair amount of time. That being said I do think choices such as the screen transitions that look like something out of Microsoft Word are a bit too much. I get that the joke is that it’s supposed to be bad and you can absolutely make the argument that it fits the film, however I do think the joke runs dry after the first time or two it’s used. Granted this isn’t really something that completely ruins the film (far from it) as the strong performances and solid humor overshadow it, it’s just something worth pointing out.

The character’s personalities are quite entertaining, you have a lot of characters who are so out there and can go completely insane in a matter of minutes that it actually fits the world Ethan Coen and Tricia Coen wrote and want the viewer to explore. Granted outside of Jamie (played by Margaret Qualley) and Marian (played by Geraldine Viswanathan) we don’t get the most character writing however I do think the fact the viewer doesn’t know too much about the other characters outside of the leads actually benefits the film’s whole bizarre nature.

Overall Drive-Away Dolls is bizarre and quite a lot of fun, as I said before it’s definitely not for everyone. But I think it really works as a breezy and entertaining comedy.

Drive-Away Dolls is available on all VOD platforms.

8/10 B+

French Girl (2024) Film Review

Gordon is a hopeless romantic whose proposal plans are put in jeopardy when his girlfriend gets swept away to Canada by a job offer from her ex. Determined to keep their love alive, he leaves Brooklyn, N.Y., for her hometown, only to find himself out of his depth while trying to charm her hard-to-impress, French-speaking family.

French Girl is directed by James A. Woods and Nicolas Wright which is both their directorial debut.

The only reason why I know French Girl exists is because I saw a few people on Twitter poking fun of the trailer and trust me the trailer makes the movie look like one of those movies where you watch it just to see how much of a disaster it is. Unfortunately this movie is very forgettable and is basically another meeting the parents type of romantic comedy.

Performance wise Zach Braff, Evelyne Brochu and Vanessa Hudgens are all okay. They do what they can with such a very dull script there’s a couple moments where there is a bit of comedic potential but unfortunately a majority of this movie is filled to the brim with cliches.

If you have seen any movie where someone is meeting the person they are dating parents and then trying to impress them, then you have already seen French Girl. You could probably take a good guess what ends up happening in this movie and you would probably be correct.

Honestly if it hadn’t been for the cast I definitely feel like French Girl would not be talked about at all, it’s a very stale romantic comedy that really has nothing going for it.

French Girl is available on all VOD Platforms.

3/10 D-

Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024) Film Review

Po must train a new warrior when he’s chosen to become the spiritual leader of the Valley of Peace. However, when a powerful shape-shifting sorceress sets her eyes on his Staff of Wisdom, he suddenly realizes he’s going to need some help. Teaming up with a quick-witted corsac fox, Po soon discovers that heroes can be found in the most unexpected places.

Kung Fu Panda 4 is directed by Mike Mitchell director of Sky High (2005), Shrek Forever After (2010), Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (2011), Lego Movie 2 (2019) and a few others. Kung Fu Panda 4 is the fourth installment of the Kung Fu Panda franchise and is a sequel to Kung Fu Panda 3.

Kung Fu Panda has a been a consistently great series, it might not be some of my favorite animated films but they are always a blast and work mainly due to the mix of jokes, action and the cast. The third movie is definitely the weakest of the trilogy but it still had its charming moments and was honestly a nice wrap up to the story.

Kung Fu Panda 4 is what happens when you try to replicate what the trilogy did but somehow fall short, what mainly works here is Jack Black, Viola Davis, James Hong and Bryan Cranston turning in great performances. Jack Black of course does a fantastic job as Po, even if the writing is much weaker this time around he still manages to squeeze in his charm. Viola Davis plays the villain of the movie which while Davis gives a strong performance the villain “The Chameleon” is just such a disappointing villain. Kung Fu Panda has always had some really solid villains in the past so it’s huge let down to see this one go to waste. The Chameleon is lacking in personality despite Viola Davis’s best efforts.

The action scenes are quite neat combined with the animation complimenting them quite well, there’s no denying the movie looks great. Unfortunately what hurts Kung Fu Panda 4 is the writing issues and the many odd decisions this movie went with. For starters a lot of character absences are very noticeable, which while they are technically in the movie they are turned into nostalgia bait and cameos. Particularly The Furious Five who are pretty much cameos as well as Tai Lung being used for nostalgia bait.

The main idea of the movie is Po deciding who will be his successor unfortunately Zhen (played by Awkwafina is the one, I like the idea of the character but the character development is just not there at all, it doesn’t help that yet again Awkwafina turns in another lacking performance that really just feels like she’s playing herself.

It’s really no wonder there was so much behind the scenes drama with the script and which characters were going to be used in the movie. Because a lot of the decision making feels incredibly rushed and last minute, which is such a huge disappointment because the previous three movies had such great pacing and never felt poorly put together.

Overall there is really nothing that standouts with Kung Fu Panda 4 it has it’s positives and isn’t the worst movie out there, but when you compare it to the trilogy it’s a huge let down.

Kung Fu Panda 4 is available in theaters.

5/10 C

Irish Wish (2024) Film Review

When the love of her life gets engaged to her friend, Maddie puts her feelings aside to be a bridesmaid at their wedding in Ireland. Days before the wedding, Maddie makes a spontaneous wish for true love, only to wake up as the bride-to-be.

Irish Wish is directed by Janeen Damian who previously directed Falling For Christmas (2022).

While I was watching Irish Wish I kept thinking to myself “was I too soft on Falling For Christmas?” The real Lindsay Lohan comeback movie (not Among The Shadows) but then when the credits rolled….I realized I wasn’t soft Irish Wish is just somehow worse.

At the very least Falling For Christmas was a very cheesy Christmas movie that you can put on during the holidays and have a decent time with it. Irish Wish is if you took every single romantic comedy element, blended it into one movie and somehow made each one more forgettable than the last. It’s the equivalent of a Hallmark movie that has nothing new to say or add to the romantic comedy genre.

Lindsay Lohan turns in a fine enough performance as does everyone else, but there’s nothing about their characters that invests the viewer at all. I’m not expecting deep and rich character development from a Netflix romantic comedy, but at the very least make your characters more than walking talking cliches because that’s all they really are here.

Despite my issues I will say you could do a lot worse than Irish Wish, there are some cute moments and the movie itself isn’t necessarily horrendous it’s just very predictable and cliched. The exact same thing I’ve said about other Netflix romantic comedies in the past can be applied here with Irish Wish.

Irish Wish is available on Netflix.

4/10 D+

Ricky Stanicky (2024) Film Review

When three childhood best friends pull a prank that goes wrong, they invent the imaginary Ricky Stanicky to get them out of trouble. Twenty years later, they still use the nonexistent Ricky as a handy alibi for their immature behavior.

Ricky Stanicky is directed by Peter Farrelly director of Green Book (2018), Dumb and Dumber (1994), The Greatest Beer Run Ever (2022), There’s Something About Mary (1998) and among many others.

After directing Green Book (2018) and The Greatest Beer Run Ever (2022) Farrelly returns to raunchy studio comedies, which could have great if it was the same level of quality as Dumb and Dumber (1994) or There’s Something About Mary (1998) but unfortunately that’s not what you get here. Ricky Stanicky believe it or not has six writers and has been in development since 2010 and both of these show in the final result.

The one positive here is John Cena who takes a script that is painfully unfunny and manages to actually get a few chuckles out of the viewer, which is mainly due to Cena’s facial expressions and entertaining performance. Zac Efron while not necessarily terrible plays a very okay performance that you quickly forget about after watching the movie. He’s given a few emotional moments and to his credit he does a decent job but the script lacking in character really holds him back.

Ricky Stanicky feels like a throwback to the raunchy comedy era but not in a good way, it uses the most tired cliches (bunch of dick jokes) a lot of it is very tired bits that you would have seen a bunch of in 2010. What does confuse me however is how a pretty straightforward movie like this was written by six people which includes Peter Farrelly himself, the movie itself is very blandly written and really has nothing noteworthy going on. Between being juvenile, bafflingly joyless and drawn out jokes that go on for an uncomfortably long time it really begs the question of what was going on in the writer’s room?

Honestly Ricky Stanicky is the type of movie where the background of the movie is far more interesting than the movie itself, you can easily sum this movie up as a raunchy comedy that missed the time when the genre was at it’s peak. Even if it came out back in the mid 2010s this movie would still be outclassed by far better movies in the genre.

Ricky Stanicky is available on Amazon Prime Video.

2/10 F

Lisa Frankenstein (2024) Film Review

A misunderstood teenager and a reanimated Victorian corpse embark on a murderous journey together to find love, happiness, and a few missing body parts.

Lisa Frankenstein is directed by Zelda Williams who is the daughter of the late Robin Williams. This film is her directorial debut!

When I heard Zelda Williams was going to direct a film I was immediately interested and after watching I absolutely can’t wait to see what she does next, because Lisa Frankenstein is a lot of fun and quite fantastic as well. The film is written by Diablo Cody who wrote Juno (2007), Jennifer’s Body (2009) and a few others. Jennifer’s Body is a film that’s gained a massive cult following over the years and I’ll start out by saying that if you loved Jennifer’s Body then you are in luck because Diablo Cody does the same sort of thing here while being a bit different.

Kathryn Newton gives her best performance so far of her career, she plays Lisa Swallows an incredibly fun character who unknowingly revives a monster which is played by Cole Sprouse, Newton completely captures the style, atmosphere and energy the film is going for. Her screen presence is just so much fun here that really compliments the story being told as well as the atmosphere. Her constant mood changes becomes a quite solid character story that is told throughout the film, granted it isn’t anything incredibly complex but it’s definitely there and works.

Cole Sprouse plays the monster and while he gets pretty much no lines, he’s actually quite great as the monster. The interactions between Sprouse and Newton are genuinely funny which really comes from both their deliveries with the script. The monster is a fun character who over the course of the movie gets a few pieces of character moments which are pretty investing.

The style of the film is fantastic, between the costumes, production design, filming and such it’s all top notch. It’s if you took Tim Burton’s film’s particular Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Warm Bodies (2013) and mixed them together, you get something quite beautiful to look at and actually ends up at the point of being bizarre. If it’s one thing Lisa Frankenstein is it’s a lot of fun, Diablo Cody’s script truly works wonders here and offers so much. Zelda Williams also has a clever eye for style that brings so much chaotic energy to a lot of scenes that end up being genuinely hilarious.

The first act does start out a bit on the slow side, which does stop Lisa Frankenstein from reaching it’s full potential, however that is nowhere near enough to stop it from being a blast of fun. I absolutely love what was crafted here and cannot wait to see what Zelda Williams has in store next.

Lisa Frankenstein is playing in theaters.

8/10 B+

Players (2024) Film Review

New York sportswriter Mack devises successful hookup techniques with friend Adam and their crew, but when she unexpectedly falls head over heels for one of her targets, they all must learn what it takes to go from simply scoring to playing for keeps.

Players is directed by Trish Sie director of Step Up: All In (2014), Pitch Perfect 3 (2017), The Sleepover (2020) and Sitting In Bars With Cake (2023).

Players is a typical Netflix romantic comedy affair meaning there is very little to comment on. The only couple of highlights here are Gina Rodriguez who gives a much better performance than this movie deserves. I also do like the friend dynamics of the friend group in the movie, when the movie is focused on the friends discussing their plans or them just cheering on for one another it’s actually not that bad. Even if we don’t learn a whole lot about Mack’s (played by Gina Rodriguez) friends you still buy their friendship and the group as a whole are charming.

It’s a shame the movie trades that in for incredibly dull romantic comedy cliches, Tom Ellis’s character Nick is not interesting at the slightest and is unfortunately a major focus of the movie. Ellis does a fine enough job but his character ultimately becomes another forgettable asshole character who Mack learns isn’t such a nice guy. If you watch at least 20 minutes of Players you know exactly what’s going to end up happening.

Overall Players has parts of it that could have actually been quite great if they were expanded upon. Instead this is nothing more than streaming movie fodder that will get forgotten about after Valentine’s Day.

Players is available on Netflix.

3/10 D-

Cobweb (2024) Film Review

Obsessed with reshooting the ending of his film, director Kim must deal with the censorship authorities, actor complaints and producers who can’t understand the new ending.

Cobweb is directed by Kim Jee-woon director of The Good, The Bad, The Weird (2008), I Saw The Devil (2010), A Tale Of Two Sisters (2003) and several others.

I’m a huge fan of Kim Jee-Woon’s work, with I Saw The Devil (2010) being one of my favorite films of all time I was very excited to finally sit down and watch Cobweb. While the film is not going to completely work for everyone, it absolutely worked for me and what mainly makes the film work is the amount of passion of it all. Both in Jee-Woon’s direction and the main character Kim Ki-yeol’s passion to finish his film Cobweb the way he wants and make it a masterpiece.

The performances are all fantastic In Cobweb especially Song Kang-ho’s performance as the earlier mentioned Kim Ki-yeol a director who wishes to complete his film the way he wants. What we have here is a very skillfully crafted and quite comedic meta commentary on film and directors wanting to create their vision. The film absolutely nails this down quite well and really delivers some quite memorable moments throughout, the film goes off the rails with its comedy quite often which only compliments the film’s themes quite well.

The clever use of sequences alternating is impressive and masterful work from Kee Jee-woon. The scenes in color depict events that happen while the crew is filming under time constraints as well as censorship, the actors are visibly reluctant and at times are even called in at the last minute. The sequences in black and white are of the studio shooting scenes, it’s a spectacular balance between the two that really paint a powerful picture. Kim Ki-yeol goes so mad he starts boarding up the doors so his actors can’t leave or not have any distractions that get in the way of him making his masterpiece. It’s played in this soap opera and comedic way that makes the film work due to the writing and the performances.

Overall Cobweb is an incredibly fun ride from beginning to end, as I said it may not work for everyone but if it sounds like your thing i recommend giving it a go.

Cobweb is available on all VOD platforms.

8/10 B+

Suncoast (2024) Film Review

A teen living with her strong-willed mother must take her brother to a specialized facility. She strikes up an unlikely friendship with an eccentric activist at protests surrounding a landmark medical case.

Suncoast is directed by Laura Chinn which is her directorial debut. The film is a semi-autobiographical her brother Max was diagnosed with brain cancer when Chinn was a teenager six years after being cared for by Chinn and her family. Max entered hospice care in 2005 at Suncoast a facility in Florida.

Suncoast is a film about grieving and loss, while that might not be a new concept Laura Chinn clearly knows how to put it into film as she has experienced it. The performances for starters really bring out the film’s themes, Nico Park absolutely hits it out of the park with her performance as Doris. Throughout the film we follow Doris in a familiar yet still very fascinating coming of age story like way, we see her go to school, try and make friends, interact with others and have conversations with Laura Linney and Woody Harrelson mostly. Nico Park truly brings such a natural performance that really does feel like a teenager having conflicting feelings about what is currently going on, trying to keep everything inside before just letting it all out in the end. It’s such a touching performance that really captured the heart of this film.

Laura Liney as Kristine is another huge part that holds this film together, her performance as Doris’s mother truly captures a very destroyed and grieving mother who knows her son could die at any moment. Much like Nico Park’s performance there’s this natural element to Liney’s performance that makes it all the more powerful and meaningful, the mother and daughter bond is very raw and comes across as incredibly natural. There’s several moments where the script from Laura Chinn allows Laura Liney to completely go all out and deliver some of the best acting from a film so far this year.

Woody Harrelson’s performance as Paul a protester who meets Doris and builds a friendship with her is touching. While we aren’t given the most development of Paul (expanding upon the protests would have been quite interesting) what makes Paul work as a character is mainly Harrelson’s performance and how likable he is as a character. His interactions with Doris are sweet and actually have some genuinely funny moments that don’t take away from the film’s sadder moments.

The film itself is beautifully written and directed by Laura Chinn, while the movie does have a few hiccups in the road such as not going a bit further with some parts of the film (the protests mostly). That doesn’t take away how natural the film feels and the amount of heart it delivers, there’s so many touching moments that capture the issues of being a teenager. Powerful moments of wanting to grieve are present throughout, it’s heartbreaking story that absolutely captures the audience’s attention and while not being anything new is absolutely touching in every single way possible.

Suncoast is available on Hulu.

7/10 B

Mean Girls (2024) Film Review

New student Cady Heron gets welcomed into the top of the social food chain by an elite group of popular girls called the Plastics, ruled by the conniving queen bee Regina George. However, when Cady makes the major misstep of falling for Regina’s ex-boyfriend, she soon finds herself caught in their crosshairs.

Mean Girls (2024) is directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. which is both of their directorial debut. The movie is based on the Broadway musical of the same name which is based on Mark Waters’s Mean Girls (2004).

It should go without saying that Mean Girls (2004) has built a massive following over the years, it’s a hilarious movie that still holds up today and is a prime example of high school film done right. I can’t comment on the quality of the Broadway show since I haven’t seen it, but it’s worth mentioning I know some people who liked it and others who did not. Despite the trailers not being very good for Mean Girls (2024) the movie itself is actually not bad, it definitely is heavily flawed which we will get into why. But I was decently surprised of how it turned out

For starters, I’m sure this has been repeated countless times in other reviews but it needs to be said how excellent Reneé Rapp really is as Regina George. Almost immediately when she enters the movie she completely captures what made Rachel McAdams’s portrayal so great, she puts in this natural feel that is striking, genuinely funny and has beautiful as well as exciting screen presence. Rapp captured this more modern Regina George while also having the spirit of the original, it’s truly great to see and definitely think Rapp’s performance is one of the highlights of the movie.

Auli’l Cravalho as Janis is quite great as well, while the script doesn’t change her character that much Cravalho is able to make it work with her acting which is quite great. Tim Meadows and Tina Fey reprise their roles from the original, both of which are quite great, they do the same sort of thing they did in the original movie but it’s nice to see them back.

The musical element of the movie is pretty great especially combined with the choreography and each of the songs matching the tone of each of the scenes, granted I don’t think any of the songs hit it out of the park. But they are fun to watch and are quite entertaining in their own right. Once again Reneé Rapp truly shines here.

Honestly the major problem here is the movie heavily relies on the original, it reuses a lot of the same scenes, same dialogue and even same jokes. While it is nice to see some of those iconic scenes and moments again, it does feel a bit cheap like the movie is holding back from doing something different. It’s a bit frustrating because that really does not give you a whole lot to comment on, sure there are a few moments where the movie does make certain scenes it’s own by putting it’s own twist on it. But it’s not enough to really say that the movie is much different from the original.

Despite that however I do think Mean Girls (2024) is decently fun, I’m sure this will go on to be somewhat of a cult hit especially by younger audiences. It’s a great time that I do think could have been better.

Mean Girls (2024) is playing in theaters.

6/10 C+