Good Burger 2 review (2023)

After his latest invention fails, Dex is welcomed back by Ed to his old job at Good Burger, which is once again put in jeopardy when Dex devises a plan to get back on his feet.

I’m not going to sit here and claim Good Burger (1997) was a masterpiece, but it’s the pure definition of 90s fun. It’s a movie that knew what it wanted to be and succeeded in doing just that, now what happens when you make a sequel 26 years later? Well Good Burger 2 is what you get and unfortunately it’s not very good.

There’s no denying that Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell do a fantastic job as Dexter Reed and Ed once again, there’s a decent amount of jokes that the two make that are genuinely funny. They really try their hardest to keep the movie afloat but unfortunately everything else is a huge problem.

The supporting cast are nowhere near as strong this time around, sure the supporting cast in the first movie weren’t particularly strong either. But they got the job done and were genuinely amusing, everyone is clearly trying their hardest here but all it really amounts to is some very forgettable characters that the viewer really does not end up caring much for. What really hurts the movie in particular is it does more or less the same thing the first movie did, it’s a very identical plot that is tweaked around a bit with very little effort to make it as fun as the original.

Then you have random celebrity cameos such as Kai Cenat, Carmen Electra, Al Roker and if those cameos weren’t pointless enough you have a bunch of other celebrities such as Zoe Saldana and Andy Sandberg in this “Imagine” video parody scene (the famous video that went viral in 2020). It would be one thing if these cameos were actually funny, but that’s not the case here it’s painful and uses a very outdated joke that the internet has already talked about to death.

Overall Good Burger 2 is unfortunately a disappointment, there was a ton of potential to do something different, but they settled with a lazy and nostalgia bait direction that ultimately hurts the movie.

Good Burger 2 is available on Paramount+

3/10 D-

Old Dads (2023)

When a middle-aged father and his two best friends sell their company to a millennial, they soon find themselves out of step and behind the times as they struggle to navigate a changing world of culture, career and fatherhood.

Old Dads is basically if you turned that “old man yelling at the sky” meme into a movie, I hadn’t seen any of Bill Burr’s standup comedy shows before watching this movie. So afterwards I did a little homework and watched a few segments of his shows and well I absolutely understand why even fans of Burr’s shows do not like this movie.

There’s a drastic difference between standup comedy shows and a 104 minute movie, they are two completely different forms of entertainment and that absolutely shows with Old Dads. Outside of the performances from the cast who I did think are really trying to make it work, the jokes fall incredibly flat and it largely ends up being turned into yet another manufactured Netflix comedy. A majority of the movie is about mocking modern culture but then suddenly switches to Bill Burr’s character learning to change which comes out of complete nowhere.

It really feels like a complete cop out, making all the mocking of modern culture look completely pointless. It doesn’t help that Burr’s direction is just terrible, there’s no style, excitement or anything to get really invested in. This is honestly no different than your usual Netflix comedy except it’s mocking modern culture (wow what a huge difference)

Old Dads is available on Netflix.

2/10 F

Dashing Through The Snow (2023)

After a traumatic experience, Eddie Garrick, a social worker, no longer believes in the magic of Christmas. At the request of his estranged wife, he brings his daughter Charlotte to work where a magical adventure begins for them.

There really isn’t a whole lot to say about Tim Story’s latest movie Dashing Through The Snow. It’s the very definition of a forgettable Christmas movie that just sort of exists and has a lot of the exact same problems a lot of modern Christmas movies do. Which mostly consists of slapping a few familiar faces on the movie and not really care about anything else.

It’s nice to see Ludacris attempt to branch out in different roles other then the Fast and Furious series, however that really doesn’t mean all that much when the writing is painfully dull and really does not have the Christmas spirit at all. Lil Rel Howery Santa could have worked if the material was actually funny, he tries his best with what he’s given but it’s nowhere near enough to save this movie from being a chore to sit through.

That’s perhaps the biggest problem here, Dashing Through The Snow feels like a very long chore to finish with no actual reward at the end, the characters are very underdeveloped and the journey they go on is just not very interesting at all. I’ll give the movie some points for it’s cast, despite not giving great performances there were some heartfelt moments during the third act that did work. Unfortunately by then it’s too little too late and we have pointless villain subplot (they could have easily went without a villain.)

Dashing Through The Snow is available on Disney+

3/10 D-

Dumb Money (2023)

Everyday people flip the script on Wall Street and get rich by turning GameStop into one of the world’s hottest companies. In the middle of everything is Keith Gill, a regular guy who starts it all by sinking his life savings into the stock. When his social media posts start blowing up, so does his life and the lives of everyone following him. As a stock tip becomes a movement, everyone gets wealthy — until the billionaires fight back and both sides find their worlds turned upside down.

Dumb Money is directed by Craig Gillespie who directed Cruella, Lars and the Real Girl, I, Tonya, Fright Night (2011) and a few others. The movie is based on the book The Antisocial Network by Ben Mezrich and chronicles the GameStop short squeeze of January 2021.

The whole GameStop short squeeze was absolutely insane in just about every way, from the way it happened to what transpired during the whole thing. It was primarily triggered by users of a subreddit called r/wallstreetbets which is part of Reddit. The whole event was spread like wildfire on the internet and for awhile you could not escape the news of the short squeeze, so naturally it was only a matter of time before a movie about it was made.

Dumb Money is a biopic about the event itself and some of the people involved Paul Dano playing Keith Gill the person the movie focuses mostly around, which leads me to say that the cast is quite great. Dano as always does quite a fantastic job here and really captures this sort of role quite well. Pete Davidson, Vincent D’Onofrio, Anthony Ramos, Myha’la Herrold and Seth Rogen are all quite solid as well. Some of them definitely get more to do than others, but as a group with their talent combined they really hit it out of the park.

I do have to give the movie some sort of credit that it did handle the topic of COVID actually quite well. Part of Keith Gill (Paul Dano) and his brother Kevin Gill (Pete Davidson) story is that they are suffering from a tragedy that happened because of COVID, the way it’s handled really comes off surprisingly raw and actually makes the viewer feel for the two. It’s some of the best moments of the movie that I wish the movie used the same sort of energy for it’s other characters.

Because truth be told a lot of the other characters are very underdeveloped, despite having several different plot lines a lot of the characters particularly Anthony Ramos really get the short end of the stick when it comes to development. Which really defeats the purpose of this whole “normal class vs the elite” type of angle, part of what made the whole GameStop situation so interesting is it was a bunch of internet users versus the elite and Wall Street. That sort of feels lost here when a lot of the characters are not given the development they need.

Despite that however I still do think this is a decently fun movie with some great acting, it definitely leaves a lot to be desired and maybe should have waited a few years before being quickly made. But for people who really can’t understand the whole subreddit or Wall Street in general I do think this is a decent movie.

Dumb Money is available on all VOD platforms.

6/10 C+

Quick Lady (2023)

Anne and her estranged train-wreck of a sister, Jenny, must work together to help cover their mother’s gambling debts. When Anne’s beloved dog is kidnapped, they set out on a wild cross-country trek to get the cash.

Quiz Lady was a bit of a surprise, while it’s not anything to write home about. The movie mostly works due to it’s cast and the second half of the movie.

Awkwafina (who gives her best performance in quite awhile) and Sandra Oh are what helps this movie get to the finish line, the chemistry between the two is hilarious plus they work so well together on screen that you actually get somewhat invested into their characters. Will Ferrell is also quite decent here, sure he’s mostly just playing a Alex Trebek type of host. But there’s still a bit of charm to his character and Ferrell actually makes his performance work decently well.

Quiz Lady starts out a bit rough, the first portion of the movie is definitely a “seen that and done better” sort of situation, with a lot of very familiar road trip comedy beats. Luckily the movie does quickly become quite charming and ends up being genuinely funny, there’s some genuinely touching moments Anne (played by Awkwafina) and Jenny (played by Sandra Oh) and the ending does wrap the story up nicely.

There really isn’t much else to say about Quiz Lady it’s a charming comedy that is pretty straightforward and ends on a decent note, it’s definitely not going to break any new ground but it’s a fun little movie.

Quiz Lady is available on Hulu.

6/10 C+

Quick Review: Susie Searches (2023)

Susie is an awkward college student with a failing true-crime podcast. She seizes the opportunity to boost her popularity by solving the mysterious disappearance of Jesse. a campus heartthrob. With her star on the rise, events soon take a dark turn as she digs out the truth and finds herself in over her head.

Susie Searches is if you took Nancy Drew and parts of the whole obsession with true crime some people have and put them together. Not a whole lot to say here but there’s a few things worth mentioning.

The acting is actually quite decent here, Kiersey Clemons gives a solid performance and is very charming in the leading role. She’s genuinely funny and really fits the role well, Alex Wolff is also quite great and works very well with Clemons. Although Rachel Sennott is only in a handful of scenes she completely steals every scene she’a in, Sennott also works incredibly well with Clemons and the two are truly exciting to watch on screen.

The movie itself is decent enough, admittedly the third act does fall flat a bit due to shifting tones a bit too often, however the mystery itself combined with the movie’s entertaining dialogue makes the movie move at a decent pace that never drags out the plot. Honestly what saves this movie is mostly the charm, the characters have charm to them and the dialogue works incredibly well.

Susie Searches is available on all VOD platforms.

6/10 C+

The Kill Room is a forgettable thriller.

A hit man teams up with an art dealer for a money-laundering scheme that unwittingly turns him into an avant-garde sensation.

Not exactly sure what to say here, The Kill Room sort of just disappeared when the release date was announced and then quietly released at the end of September. I was curious mainly due to the cast which consists of Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Joe Manganiello, Maya Hawke and a few others.

The Kill Room has a surprisingly great setup the movie uses an art gallery as a money laundering scheme, a little cliche in some areas during the beginning but the movie actually had a decent start. The acting is overall not bad here, Uma Thurman and Samuel L. Jackson being on screen together is neat and they both give solid performances. Maya Hawke and Joe Manganiello are pretty solid here as well, the cast really does a great job despite a very bare bones script.

Unfortunately the middle portion of the movie is very rough and really doesn’t offer anything new to the heist movie genre, the ending luckily does have a couple really neat scenes that are actually quite enjoyable and luckily as I said earlier there’s the performances that save the movie from falling off a cliff. But ultimately there’s just not a whole lot here to comment on and not a whole lot to really explore.

The Kill Room is available on all VOD platforms.

4/10 D+

Slotherhouse a joke that runs for far too long.

Senior Emily Young wants to be elected sorority president. She adopts a cute sloth, thinking it will help her win, but a string of fatalities implicates the sloth.

Everyone loves a good “it’s so bad it’s funny movie” I’m sure you might have seen at least one and probably have a favorite. Movies like Thankskilling, Zombie Cats From Mars, Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes, Llamagedeon, Birdemic and a lot of others are prime examples. There’s some successes that go on to be quite memorable and then there’s ones that fade into obscurity mostly due to trying way too hard to be the next talked about movie on social media. Unfortunately Slotherhouse falls in the latter category.

Slotherhouse is a satire of the whole sorority house slasher movies, except the killer is a killer Sloth. It’s funny for about 20 minutes with the Sloth puppet being quite hilarious and some of the uses of social media in the movie are actually quite funny.

The problem here is the movie tries way too hard to be the next cult film, it wants to be that movie that gets websites such as Buzzfeed to write an article that says “Someone made a movie about a killer sloth 😂😂” that sort of stuff happens on it’s own and shouldn’t be forced or else you completely miss the point on the whole “killer object or bad killer animal” genre.

As for the rest of the movie? There really isn’t a whole lot else to be said here, it goes exactly how you think it’s going to and the whole joke about a killer Sloth gets old as the movie goes on which considering the movie is 93 minutes long is not a good sign. The acting and writing as expected are terrible but that should really go without saying and is to be expected when it comes to movies like this.

Who knows I could maybe be completely wrong, maybe a couple years from now Slotherhouse Will become the next cult hit, but for now it’s a very forgettable movie that tries way too hard to get a cult movie status.

Slotherhouse is available on all VOD platforms.

2/10 F

Totally Killer a horror comedic surprise with so much heart and charm.

Thirty-five years after the shocking murders of three teens, an infamous killer returns on Halloween night to claim a fourth victim. When 17-year-old Jamie comes face-to-face with the masked maniac, she accidentally time-travels back to 1987. Forced to navigate the unfamiliar culture, Jamie teams up with her teenage mother to take down the psycho once and for all.

Totally Killer was definitely a nice surprise, when the trailer came out a lot of people were quick to compare it to The Final Girls (2015) which while yes they do share some similarities what they are going for is far different.

Totally Killer is definitely the more gory film of the two and I definitely think goes for a much more comedic angle (although The Final Girls was a horror comedy as well.) With that said the cast here is quite fantastic particularly Kiernan Shipka and Olivia Holt who completely steal each scene they are in and really bring this fun and comedic atmosphere to the film. The rest of the cast also do a fantastic job at capturing the comedic energy the script requires.

The comedic tone matched with some of the more dramatic moments is well done from director Nahnatchka Khan (Always Be My Maybe 2019) she’s able to make the film have a mostly Scream like comedic tone while also giving the more dramatic moments their own focus. She also puts her own spin as well, the film may borrow some elements from Happy Death Day, Back To The Future, Scream and The Final Girls. But Khan makes it her own and brings so much enjoyment to the film.

The characters are solidly written and are quite fun to watch, there’s the occasional hiccup with some of the characters not being particularly interesting. But for the most part the characters are incredibly fun especially Jamie Hughes/Colette (played by Kiernan Shipka) who gets a lot of character development and actually gets some genuinely touching moments as well. The mother and daughter bond is truly fantastic and really moves the character of Pam Hughes (played by Julie Bowen)/Pam Miller (played by Olivia Holt) forward as well as bringing a lot of heart to the film.

Overall Totally Killer is one of the bigger surprises of the year, it’s one that I can definitely see growing a much bigger audience in the near future.

Totally Killer is available on Amazon Prime Video.

8/10 B+

Haunted Mansion (2023) is a terrible and forgettable take on Disney’s ride

A woman and her son enlist a motley crew of so-called spiritual experts to help rid their home of supernatural squatters.

Haunted Mansion is another take that’s based on Disney’s theme park attraction ride The Haunted Mansion. The first movie was of course was the 2003 movie The Haunted Mansion, a silly movie that some people still quite like to this day. Haunted Mansion (2023) however? It’s a complete and total mess as well as being one of Disney’s most forgettable releases this year.

Haunted Mansion has a decent cast and they do the best they can with a script that is incredibly limited, LaKeith Stanfield, Owen Wilson and Danny DeVito in particular are decent enough, what holds them back is the script. Between a lot of painfully bad jokes and product placements such as Baskin Robbins, Burger King, CVS and a few others it starts to become a mess that strangely enough makes very little sense.

At least with the Eddie Murphy Haunted Mansion it had some sort of personality and actually knew what it wanted to be, this one wants to go for a darker tone, have product placements and tell unfunny jokes. It’s not like this movie did not have potential either, the New Orleans setting if it were taken advantage there could have been some really strong moments. The characters are given very little in ways of character traits and development, combine that with such a dull plot that moves at a snails pace and you have a chore of a movie to sit through.

I wish there was more to be said but this is the most nothing movie I’ve seen so far this year, it’s a bunch of product placements and a poorly written script crammed together with some talented actors involved.

Haunted Mansion is available on Disney+ and on all VOD platforms.

3/10 D-