Talented and cutthroat hairstylists at a competition find one of their own murdered before judging can begin. Winding through neon-lit halls, competitors unspool long-simmering resentments and lies as they search for the killer among them.
Medusa Deluxe is an interesting and actually an ambitious one, there’s a whole lot to like here especially from a technical standpoint but as far as a narrative one? It’s very uneven that really fumbles the ball during the final act.
Medusa Deluxe is done in one take which sounds pretty crazy and it almost works, the problem is a lot of it is a bunch of long takes stitched together that aren’t really particularly interesting. The acting is quite good all around, everyone turns in a very solid performance especially Clare Perkins who got a few laughs out of me.
The filming is very well done thanks to cinematographer Robbie Ryan who’s worked on a number of films such as American Honey, Marriage Story and C’mon C’mon (director of photography for the latter two). There’s an incredible amount of detail here that really sticks out and combined with the one take really makes for some great exploration for the eyes of the viewer.
What holds Medusa Deluxe back is the writing particularly with it’s characters and story, when you take away the technical aspects that make the movie standout. You are left with a very basic whodunnit with characters that really never get explored. We barely get to learn anything about them the movie just introduces these characters and expects you to know everything about them, this becomes incredibly noticeable when the third act rolls around where the movie starts to lose it’s charm and you are just waiting for it to be over.
There’s no denying that a lot of effort went into Medusa Deluxe but without well written characters and a murder mystery that really does not do anything differently it’s only worth watching for the technical parts.
Alex Claremont-Diaz, the first son of the United States, and young Prince Henry fall in love. However, considering their high-profile public lives, they must keep their relationship a secret at all costs.
Red, White & Royal Blue is based on the 2019 novel of the same name by Casey McQuiston. I got to say I really did not expect much from Red, White & Royal Blue, I’m always down for a gay romantic comedy but the trailers really made this one look like it was going to be a very formulaic romantic and comedy and nothing more. Luckily this was a surprise and it ended up doing a lot more than just that.
Red, White & Royal Blue has a lot going for it, particularly the cast who all do a pretty fantastic job here Nicholas Galitzine and Taylor Zakhar have fantastic chemistry between one another. There’s so much heart put into their performances and this down to earth type of feeling that you can’t help but love. Uma Thurman is also quite fun here and gives a very exciting performance.
What really helps the film is the amount of love and heart that’s put into it, the performances are genuine and while a bit formulaic is at the very least entertaining when it comes to the execution. The movie does go on for a bit too long in some areas with a 1 hour and 58 minute runtime the pacing towards the end does get rough.
But at the very least what’s consistent is the performances, chemistry and a handful of very touching moments that are genuinely effective.
Red, White & Royal Blue are available on Amazon Prime Video.
Ever Wong’s summer takes an unexpected turn when her parents surprise her with a trip to Taipei for a cultural immersion programme.
Love in Taipei is a romantic comedy and Paramount+ original that sure does exists, there really isn’t a lot to say here outside of a few positives.
The main one being the performances from Ashley Liao, Nico Hiraga and Ross Butler, all three give decent performances that actually do have a few heartfelt moments that are genuinely touching. It’s just such a shame outside of maybe Ashley Liao’s character Ever Wong, we are given not a whole lot information about the other characters.
Everything else here however is done in a very harmless but uninteresting way that really doesn’t bring the viewers attention to the screen, the movie is supposed to be a self-discovery type of story which sure is done quite a lot but could still be interesting. Unfortunately Love in Taipei sticks to playing way too safe and by the numbers that it starts to hurt it in the end. There’s cute moments and Liao’s character having decently written interactions with other characters, but that’s all you are really going to get with this movie.
Love in Taipei just exists, fans of romantic comedies may get something out of this one. But for anyone looking for anything different you will be disappointed.
In the not-too-distant future, the last two men on Earth must adapt and evolve to save humanity.
Biosphere is definitely an interesting one both in it’s premise and the direction it ends up going, I’ll give credit where credit is due it’s quite different for sure.
Sterling K. Brown and Mark Duplass are quite hilarious here and are the strongest parts of the film, there’s tons of genuinely charming jokes and dialogue between the two and you quickly grow to really like the both of them.
The story is mainly up to the imagination of the viewer, we really don’t get to learn much about the world building or the cause and even nature of the environmental apocalypse. However that doesn’t stop the movie from being genuinely entertaining and quite a lot of fun for what’s given to the viewer.
The direction it takes is quite interesting which I won’t spoil here, however some viewers might be able to get a pretty good idea of where it’s going early on. That doesn’t change the impact of when it actually does happen, Biosphere is a creative little movie that I do recommend giving a go.
When Audrey’s business trip to Asia goes sideways, she enlists the help of Lolo, her childhood best friend, Kat, a college friend, and Deadeye, Lolo’s eccentric cousin. Their epic, no-holds-barred experience becomes a journey of bonding, friendship, belonging and wild debauchery that reveals the universal truth of what it means to know and love who you are.
I knew very little about Joy Ride going into it, all that I really knew was that a lot of my peers really liked it and I have to agree there it’s quite a hilarious ride.
What sells this movie is the cast Ashley Park, Stephanie Hsu, Sherry Cola and Sabrina Wu all do a phenomenal job here with the each of them having their own unique personality and humor to really make this for everyone. It’s such an incredible balance that really has been noticeably absent in a lot of comedies, so it’s quite refreshing to see that be present here. The characters themselves are written quite well and do give off this feeling that they really are friends, outside of the mandatory “fallout” scene where it does feel incredibly forced. However that really does not stop these characters from being very entertaining and truly exciting to watch.
The humor is quite great especially in delivery, which the cast is fantastic at there’s so much excellent comedic timing here that it actually shocked me in a few ways, there’s one scene in particular that is quite bizarre that is so much fun and I truly can’t help but love it due to just how insane and hilarious it really is.
The third act is definitely on the weaker side of things, as I said earlier the “fallout” scene feels incredibly forced and I don’t think everything in the third act really comes together all that well. Still it is enjoyable by no means bad, you still have the incredibly entertaining characters and humor to keep you invested. Plus it ends on a great note when it comes to Audrey’s (played by Ashley Park) journey.
Overall Joy Ride is a quite solid film that I had a blast with, it stumbles a bit in the third act as mentioned before it still sticks the landing in the end.
The unbelievable tale of one of America’s most fascinating phenomena — Beanie Babies. Flashing back to the ’90s and early 2000s, an in-depth look at how the era-defining zeitgeist came to be.
The Beanie Bubble is yet another film released in 2023 about a very popular brand or product, so far we have had Air which was about Air Jordans, Tetris which told the incredibly wild true story behind the iconic game, BlackBerry which told the rise and fall of the once popular cellphone and Flamin’ Hot the story about the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, the story told ended up being a huge lie outside of a few details. Tetris, Air and BlackBerry were fantastic films that did a fantastic job of telling the story of these products in very creative ways. Flamin’ Hot was definitely the worst of the bunch, while it wasn’t terrible it was a very beat by beat biopic that really did not do a whole lot.
The Beanie Bubble is about the Beanie Babies and the craze that was going on in the 90s, everyone I grew up had at least one of these guys heck I had a bunch of them. So I was pretty interested to see how this movie would go and while I will say that this is better than Flamin’ Hot (at least this movie is not based on a total lie), but very strangely this movie suffers from some of the exact same problems.
Let’s start with the positives because there is a decent amount to really like here, for starters I do think the cast does an excellent job with what they are given. Zach Galifianakis, Elizabeth Banks, Sarah Snook and Geraldine Viswanathan all give excellent performances that each add to the movie quite well, the three leading ladies for most of the movie aren’t in any scenes together so it’s quite neat to see them together later on in the movie.
Ultimately the main point with this movie is showing that the founder Ty Warner did not give any credit to three women who helped design and think of ideas for the Beanie Babies the three women being Robbie, Shelia and Maya. Which is a very important detail to talk about, unfortunately the conclusions of the movie are way too simplistic and reductive to really leave the viewer with any kind of impact.
That’s honestly the major problem here and what I hinted at earlier when I said that The Beanie Bubble suffers from some of the exact same problems as Flamin’ Hot it’s a very typical biopic that follows a lot of familiar beats and really doesn’t do anything to standout. The Beanie Bubble at gets the edge mainly due to trying to say something about giving credit, but even then it’s told in a way that is way too simplistic.
Depicting the aftermath of a sleepover birthday party hypnotism gone wrong as best friends Megan and Paige, along with soon-to-be step-sister Veronica, wake up with absolutely no memory of the night before.
The Slumber Party is a DCOM (Disney Channel Original Movie, I’m just going to use DCOM from this point going forward) that was released on Disney+ a day later. I haven’t reviewed a whole lot of DCOMs but I’ll go ahead and talk about this one since it was on Disney+.
Anyway The Slumber Party is basically a PG version of The Hangover, I’m already not the biggest Hangover fan out there. But I will say that this movie actually did have it’s positives. The cast is at least charming and actually do feel like they are friends as opposed to some other DCOMs (I’ve seen some of the latest DCOMs but as I said before I just haven’t reviewed them), there’s a few jokes here that did get a laugh out of me but like some of the later DCOMs a lot of the jokes are just not very funny.
The Slumber Party is also the fourth movie this year to use Bonnie Tyler’s song “Holding Out For A Hero” Tetris, Shazam: Fury Of The Gods and The Super Mario Bros Movie being the other three. The use of the song here is fine, it gets the job done but honestly really demonstrates how overused the song is really becoming. Obviously this isn’t the movie’s fault as they really couldn’t have predicted that many other movies would have used it in the exact same year. It’s just frustrating that’s all.
Side tangent aside the main issue is the movie is ultimately just The Hangover but with kids in it, there really isn’t anything else here to really stand out. Having that said this is absolutely a movie where I do think younger audiences will love it, it’s completely harmless and I can imagine it does get the job done by entertaining it’s target audience.
A year after her divorce, 32-year-old Helen Carpenter lets her brother persuade her to sign up for a wilderness survival course. Through this experience she discovers that you have to get lost to find yourself.
Happiness For Beginners is yet another Netflix romantic comedy movie, while it is a lot better and a bit more focused than some recent ones. It still runs into some of the exact same issues.
Ellie Kemper gives a very solid performance as well as the rest of the cast, the filming is actually quite decent here maybe it’s because the movie largely takes place during a wilderness survival course which gives us some shots that are quite nice to look at.
The main issue here is predictably it hits all of the very typical Netflix romantic comedy story beats that have existed and will continue to exist, the characters don’t have quite enough development isn’t quite enough for the viewer to really latch on to.
I really don’t know what else to say here, each time I review these movies it gets much harder to say something that I haven’t already said. This one just has Ellie Kemper in it and is a bit better than a lot of the other ones that have been released.
Barbie and Ken are having the time of their lives in the colorful and seemingly perfect world of Barbie Land. However, when they get a chance to go to the real world, they soon discover the joys and perils of living among humans.
A live action Barbie film has always been talked about for years, it was bound to happen at some point in time it was just a matter of who was going to be involved and who was going to make the film into something really special? When Greta Gerwig who previously directed Lady Bird and Little Women (both fantastic films) was announced for the project I knew almost immediately we were going to get something truly beautiful. I’m really glad to say that’s what ended up happening here, there is so much to absolutely love here and so much that is surprisingly really moving.
Starting with the cast which are all absolutely fantastic in their own way, even if some of the cast don’t get much screentime such as Dua Lipa and John Cena they are still such a treat to still have and are still a lot of fun. Margot Robbie as Barbie or Stereotypical Barbie gives one of the most charming and fun performances so far this year, she was made to play Barbie and that really shows here. She adds a huge amount of surprising depth to the character especially during the second half of the film where there’s a few dramatic moments that are actually quite impactful to the viewer.
Ryan Gosling gives such a fascinating performance, Gosling plays Ken who is just so entertaining to watch. His singing performance of “I’m Just Ken” is a highlight of the film and really gives one of the most energetic moments in a film so far this year, much like Barbie we see a lot of development from Ken and while there isn’t as many dramatic moments with Ken there’s still some that really are quite powerful and give the character a lot of depth. Finally Ken is just a whole lot of fun to watch, Gosling’s performance gives so many laughs that add up quickly, the balance of Ken being hilarious and his attitude later of the film is truly spectacular and is only boosted from Gosling’s performance.
America Ferrera gets a moment towards the end that is truly beautiful and really matches the tone the film is going for (which I’ll get to in a bit), Will Farrell actually gives one of his best performances in quite a long time. He’s genuinely hilarious here and he adds a lot of the satire elements to the film since he plays the CEO of Mattel, he also gives the viewer some quite great laughs as well. Lastly Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Alexandera Shipp, Emma Mackey and Hari Nef as the various Barbies are all a lot of fun. Sure they don’t get the most screentime but it works for the film since they are all quite entertaining and actually contribute to the film with their own personalities. Rhea Pearlman also gives some of the most powerful moments of the film that leaves such a massive impact on the viewer.
The production design, filming and just the overall look of the film is incredible, this is exactly what you would think when you think of somebody saying “Barbieland” pink, colorful and this world that you the viewer can quickly grow attached to. There’s so much attention to detail in every single shot of the film and matches the satirical and goofy nature of the characters, the world building is straight to the point while also being quite entertaining. You quickly learn the many parts of Barbieland and the film does a fantastic job of building them up for future scenes.
The music is phenomenal it has this stage performance type of feel to it that I truly wasn’t expecting at all, there’s tons of songs here that are truly well done particularly “Dance The Night” by Dua Lip, “I’m Just Ken” which Ryan Gosling sings as mentioned before and “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish which is one of the most touching scenes of the film, it’s such a meaningful scene that really gives Margot Robbie’s Barbie a huge amount of development along with such a strong acting moments from Rhea Pearlman and Margot Robbie. All of the songs match each of the scenes they are in and really do a fantastic job of telling the story along with the writing.
Finally there’s the themes of the film I mentioned earlier about the tone the film is going for and while it is this Saturday morning cartoon a long with a comedic satirical tone. The film does talk about feminism and the patriarchy, the film does this in such a passionate and very caring way that really makes the viewer invested, I’m not going to say what it says because that is sort of a moment where you really need to see it to get the full impact. But honestly what makes it truly special is the film is so lovely and earnest about what it’s saying. There’s so much passion and heart poured into it’s message that is truly touching and ends up being quite meaningful which makes the message relatable and easy to connect with.
Overall Barbie is phenomenal, Greta Gerwig truly delivered something incredibly special, combining elements from her previous films with Barbie and some new ones was very clever way to make the film work!
Owen Browning is a straight-laced bank manager about to marry the love of his life, Parker. When his bank is held up by the Ghost Bandits during his wedding week, he believes his future in-laws who just arrived in town are the infamous outlaws.
I’ll give The Out-Laws this…it’s better than Tyler Spindel’s last two Netflix films The Wrong Missy and Father Of The Year. However that is really not saying much when you think back to how bad those two movies really were.
I can at the very least say with The Out-Laws there was a small level of attempt (and I mean very small) to try and make something work but that’s mainly through Pierce Brosnan and Ellen Barkin, who are mainly funny due to them seeming like they don’t want to be on set (outside of a few moments). Adam DeVine like in most cases comes off as very unlikable almost immediately, his performance is extremely annoying spewing so much bad writing that is only made more insufferable due to his dreadful performance. Nina Dobrev isn’t horrible but she’s barely given anything to work with that could make into something interesting and compelling.
The writing is what seals the movie’s fate, it’s the exact sort of comedy you would expect from a Happy Madison and Netflix crossover. It’s the type of comedy that is so desperate for a laugh that it will just throw random, bizarre or flat out obvious joke that the viewer saw coming from a mile away and hope it sticks. If anything the only interesting about this movie is how anyone looked at the script and Adam DeVine’s performance and thought this was somehow a good idea.
Jerome Reviews... 