We Have a Ghost is a flawed but fun gateway horror movie.

The discovery that their house is haunted by a ghost named Ernest makes Kevin’s family a social media sensation. But when Kevin and Ernest get to the bottom of the mystery of Ernest’s past, they become targets of the CIA.

Christopher Landon really has shown he’s quite a great director in recent years. He went from Paranormal Activity The Marked Ones and Scout’s Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse to Freaky and the Happy Death Day movies. So how does his newest film We Have a Ghost stack up?

Let’s start as usual with the performances, I got to say David Harbour is quite great here. He doesn’t speak out the movie and instead uses his facial expressions to tell his character’s story which I have to give credit where credit is due is not an easy task. He really does a great job of building his character and really making him charming to the viewer, his bond with Jahi Di’Allo Winston is also really beautiful as well. Sure it might be another one of those “child or teenager befriends a creature or something supernatural” type of story but the two really make it entertaining and charming.

Jahi Di’Allo Winston and Anthony Mackie are also pretty great, as I said before Winston has a beautiful bond with Harbour. Mackie just has some really strong screen presence here, the humor can definitely be a bit hit or miss but for the most part I do think they get the jokes down pretty well. The movie is definitely a gateway horror movie which as I said before in my reviews while I’m not a huge fan of the sub-genre I’m glad it exists. We Have a Ghost is actually one of the better ones, mainly due to the combination of dramatic moments, comedic and a few horror ones as well.

The glaring problem however is it’s 2 hours and has absolutely no business being this long, this is what ultimately really holds this movie back from being anything more than just a harmless movie. You really start to feel it’s length by the time the third act rolls around and the third act is what you expect it to be. Luckily Christopher Landon’s style is present here and one thing Landon is quite good at is he knows how to entertain an audience, and there is tons of moments here that do just that.

Overall while We Have a Ghost isn’t one of Landon’s strongest movies it’s at the very least quite fun, this is something I will probably never come back to but I am glad to have watched it.

We Have a Ghost is available on Netflix.

6/10 C+

The Amazing Maurice is not so amazing.

Maurice is a streetwise ginger cat who comes up with a money-making scam by befriending a group of self-taught talking rats. When Maurice and the rodents meet a bookworm called Malicia, their little con soon goes down the drain.

Would you believe if I told you that The Amazing Maurice was at the Sundance Film Festival? I didn’t see it at the festival mainly due to two things, one the movie looked horrible and two it was coming out very soon anyway. And I don’t think I needed bragging rights for The Amazing Maurice of all movies.

Anyway the movie itself is quite honestly about what you would expect, while it’s definitely not as bad as I thought it was going to be. As it does have some genuinely interesting ideas floating around, the rest of the movie is just more on the bland side. Perhaps the most baffling thing about it is Hugh Laurie voicing Maurice, there’s some unintentional funny moments that really make Laurie quite fitting for the role plus he honestly does not do a half bad job. He works with what he has with the script and actually makes the most of it, in fact the same applies quite well to the rest of the cast. Particularly David Thewlis as The Rat King.

The animation while not anything good could have been a lot worse, does it look like one of those mobile game ads you frequently see? Yes but here it’s not as bad or very obvious, as they do try to change it up at times and some darker tones or get creative with the animation.

Honestly what really hurts the movie mostly is the narration, the fourth-wall breaks and the writing, the movie attempts to be a bit darker which I guess makes sense since the movie is based off of a book that was a twist on the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale “The Pied Piper.” Which may seem a bit off putting to some since the movie sort of marketed itself as this cute cat movie, which I’m all for the movie being a bit darker. In fact that was the movie’s strongest elements by far, it’s just when they mixed with fourth-wall breaking jokes and some very forgettable writing it became sort of an identity crisis.

The fourth-wall jokes really don’t land and as said before really don’t match the tone that some of the movie is going for, the characters are just sort of there. None of them are particularly memorable outside of Maurice himself and The Rat King everyone else doesn’t get a whole lot to do.

Overall The Amazing Maurice is definitely not as bad as expected, there is definitely some level of wanting to make the movie itself work. But is dragged down from bland writing and unfunny fourth-wall breaking.

The Amazing Maurice is available in theaters.

4/10 D+

Die Hart the Movie is a mess.

Follows a fictionalized version of Kevin Hart, as he tries to become an action movie star. He attends a school run by Ron Wilcox, where he attempts to learn the ropes on how to become one of the industry’s most coveted action stars.

Die Hart the Movie I somehow didn’t hear about up until Friday when it got released and that’s mainly due to a friend of mine who said that the movie was also released (I did the usual out today posts on Twitter I do that every Friday). The premise of the movie did have me a bit intrigued, I do like the whole idea of actors and actresses playing themselves…but this was rough.

The positives mainly come from John Travolta and Josh Hartnett who are both very fun and really try their best with such an unfunny script. Everything else is very hard to sit through, Kevin Hart is once again just not funny at all. Every single joke that Hart has made in the past is shown here and if it didn’t work back in the other movies it most certainly doesn’t work here.

Perhaps the most noticeable issue is how strange the editing is or how much of a mess of the story is, well when you find out that this movie is just an re-edited version of Die Hart the TV series from Quibi things start to make a lot more sense when it comes to why the movie is such a gigantic mess. I can’t comment on the series since I haven’t seen it (I hadn’t even heard of it until doing research a few days ago) but trying to cram in everything from a series into a movie that has horrendous pacing was never going to work.

Die Hart the Movie is available on Amazon Prime Video.

2/10 F

Quick Reviews: At Midnight and Maybe I Do (2022)

Fate brings ambitious hotel manager Alejandro and movie star Sophie together when the shoot brings them to Alejandro’s hotel. Despite their radically different lives, Alejandro and Sophie begin to secretly meet at midnight.

At Midnight is directed by Jonah Feingold who’s previous film I actually really liked which was Dating & New York, so despite a not very good trailer I was hoping that I would actually like At Midnight…that did not happen.

At Midnight is essentially a huge romantic comedy plot point checklist, it checks all of the key moments that need to happen and doesn’t bother to make itself standout among a very crowded genre. Monica Barbaro isn’t bad here but she isn’t enough to save the movie from being very forgettable, the writing is about what you expect it’s painfully dull and despite being 1 hour and 40 minutes it’s a complete chore to sit through.

It’s unfortunate because I do think with a far better script and much more focus this could have been a decent little romantic comedy, Diego Boneta and Monica Barbaro are honestly not bad here and do have a few moments of great chemistry. But unfortunately the rest of the movie is really holding that back from being even better.

At Midnight is available on Paramount+

2/10 F

With their relationship at a crossroads, Michelle and Allen invite their parents to finally meet. As it turns out, their parents already know each other, maybe a little too well.

In hindsight I should have probably skipped this one after I saw the terrible reviews Maybe I Do was getting, but the cast was just too interesting to pass and I was very curious how they can screw up this bad with a great cast.

The main issue with Maybe I Do is it presents itself as a comedy but lacks so much charm, there’s a few jokes that might get a chuckle out of you, but for the most part almost all of the jokes fall flat. The idea of the movie itself might be interesting at first, but it quickly becomes repetitive as it goes on. The movie doesn’t seem to know when to properly utilize it’s own idea and do something interesting with it.

The lack charm also comes from the characters who are one dimensional, the performances are all forgettable. They aren’t necessarily anything I would call bad, but despite the cast being quite strong very little is done to show their talent.

Maybe I Do is available on all VOD platforms.

1/10 F

Somebody I Used To Know is a decent romantic comedy!

On a trip to her hometown, workaholic TV producer Ally reminisces with her ex Sean and starts to question everything about her life. Things only become more confusing when she learns Sean is getting married to Cassidy, who reminds her of the person she used to be.

Somebody I Used to Know is definitely a bit better than expected, while it is still very flawed the movie does manage to stay above the ground mainly due to a lot of factors.

For starters the performances are all around pretty solid, the standout is Alison Brie by far who really does give a strong performance. She has a ton of moments where she shows even with a script that isn’t breaking any new ground, she can still make it a bit interesting especially during the third act.

The direction from Dave Franco is a lot better this time around than it was in The Rental, there are times here like in The Rental where the movie does seem a bit lost in it’s direction. However that’s only during the first act, afterwards it’s smooth sailing from there. The writing while it does jump the shark a bit ends up surprisingly decently written, there’s some comedic bits that are eye rolling but the dramatic bits are actually pretty solid.

Somebody I Used to Know isn’t going to break any new ground and there may not be a whole lot to it, but it is a decent enough movie that I recommend checking out if you really like romantic comedy films.

Somebody I Used to Know is available on Amazon Prime Video.

6/10 C+

Quick Review: Your Place Or Mine (2022)

Debbie and Peter are best friends and total opposites. She craves routine with her son in LA, but he thrives on change in NY. When they swap houses and lives for a week they discover what they think they want might not be what they really need.

What can I even say here? Your Place Or Mine is yet another bland and forgettable Netflix romantic comedy movie that adds nothing new to the genre at all.

The biggest problem here is the chemistry between Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher while their performances aren’t terrible, the chemistry is just not there. There’s so many moments that completely take you out of the movie due to how nonexistent the chemistry really is, the characters themselves aren’t well written either. They mainly serve as the usual romantic comedy characters that go through the usual arcs and that’s it, the writing has it’s moments where there are some display of Witherspoon’s and Kutcher’s talent and how strong they are as performers. But those are so far and few in between.

Your Place or Mine is available on Netflix.

3/10 D-

You People is bad

A new couple and their families reckon with modern love amid culture clashes, societal expectations and generational differences.

Over the years I’ve been much more positive when it comes to bad movies especially in my reviews. I can recognize in a lot of cases there was at least some level of attempt to try and craft something interesting or good. You People is not one of those movies.

The only positive I can give this movie is Eddie Murphy, Nia Long and Julia Louis Dreyfus who honestly try their hardest with such an embarrassing script that wastes such a great cast. There’s so many issues here that really played into how terrible You People ended up being but if we are going to talk about the worst it’s two major things, the writing and the horrendous comedic timing.

I’ll start with the comedic timing mainly due to how flat out in your face it really is, something that you quickly notice about this movie is it builds a joke and doesn’t seem to know how to end it. So it continues the joke until the movie has no choice but to move on, there’s this one scene where Jonah Hill and Sam Jay are talking and they name drop Drake at least 9 to 11 times (yes I kept count) that whole joke was for one scene that ultimately didn’t add much to the plot. There’s so many other scenes like this that drag a joke on for far too long and each and every time it’s worse than the last.

Then there’s the writing that is just abysmal, as I said before some of the actors try to make it work but it just doesn’t work at all, there’s a lot of celebrity name drops, attempts at cringe humor that just end up being completely embarrassing and a first act that is very fast paced for some reason. Which doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense because the movie is 1 hour and 58 minutes, so why was there a need to completely brush through the first act? We don’t get to see Jonah Hill and Lauren London bond very well at all, so how is the viewer supposed to buy in their relationship?

You People is by far the worst movie I’ve seen so far this year, I know that’s not saying much since we are only a little bit in the year. But this just really baffled me to be quite honest.

You People is available on Netflix

1/10 F

Shotgun Wedding is a bare bones action comedy.

Darcy and Tom gather their families for a destination wedding, but the ceremony gets put on hold when gunmen take everyone hostage. Now, they must do everything they can to save their loved ones — if they don’t wind up killing each other first.

Shotgun Wedding was originally going to be released into theaters, in fact it was supposed to come out in June of last year. Amazon Studios bought the rights to the movie from Lionsgate in March 2022 and now here we are today as it released on Amazon Prime Video and it’s not exactly hard to see why.

The positives come from Jennifer Coolidge who despite given not a whole lot to work with still manages to be pretty funny and still have some great comedic charming. Coolidge’s charm really works here and easily steals the show, Jennifer Lopez isn’t too bad here either although I would argue her performance is a step down from last year’s Marry Me. The rest of the cast isn’t too bad either, in fact all of them really try their hardest with such a lacking script that’s heavily restricting them from doing anything memorable.

The major issue here is that Shotgun Wedding is about as dull as you can get with a action comedy, the action scenes are not memorable or aren’t very fun at all. The comedy is mostly restricted to Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel arguing over and over again, which while it might be funny for about 3 minutes it quickly gets very old. If anything the actual comedy comes from the side characters. There’s some genuinely funny bits from the side characters that actually work decently, the other major problem is the script. There’s just not a whole lot here to work with, if the goal was to make an action comedy movie well this sure is an action comedy but it’s missing quite a lot on what makes a good action comedy.

Overall Shotgun Wedding is very forgettable and such a waste of potential with such a great cast.

Shotgun Wedding is available on Amazon Prime Video.

4/10 D+

Sorry About The Demon is a forgettable horror comedy.

A young man struggling with a broken heart learns that his new place is full of restless spirits.

Sorry About The Demon is a horror comedy that exists (yeah I got no intro for this one), the movie attempts to poke fun of a lot of the common haunted house movie tropes we see a lot. Does it do that well? Yes and no this one is definitely a mixed bag.

The cast is decent enough which is probably the best thing going for the movie, there’s some genuine attempts at humor some of which are pretty funny at times mainly during the first half that does seem like it’s committing to making fun of a lot of tropes. When the second half rolls around that’s when things start to fall apart, it just sort of becomes exactly like the type of movies it’s poking fun of. Which is a bit disappointing because the whole set up for the movie is quite hilarious, I also do think the movie focusing on being way too lighthearted a lot of the time really hurt the movie. I get it was clearly trying to appeal to wider audiences but sacrificing humor that could have worked so much better, writing and character moments that needed much more time to develop wasn’t exactly a great choice.

As I said at the beginning Sorry For The Demon sort of exists, outside of some decent acting, a promising first half and a few jokes there really isn’t much to offer here.

Sorry For The Demon is available on Shudder.

4/10 D+

Sundance Review: Theater Camp

As summer rolls around again, kids are gathering from all over to attend AdirondACTS, a scrappy theater camp in upstate New York that’s a haven for budding performers. After its indomitable founder Joan (Amy Sedaris) falls into a coma, her clueless “crypto-bro” son Troy (Jimmy Tatro) is tasked with keeping the thespian paradise running. With financial ruin looming, Troy must join forces with Amos (Ben Platt), Rebecca-Diane (Molly Gordon), and their band of eccentric teachers to come up with a solution before the curtain rises on opening night.

Theater Camp is a mockumentary style film that pokes fun of theater camps but at the same time brings this nostalgia factor into the mix, which is mainly the reason why the film succeeds.

If Theater Camp were just another mockumentary it would still be great due to other factors but I don’t think it would stand out anywhere near as much, luckily directors Nick Lieberman and Molly Gordon put in a little bit of everything that everyone can relate to. Sure a lot of it is things theater kids will most definitely remember from their early years, but even if you were just in one play for the middle school or elementary school you went to you can definitely relate to this film.

The performances are truly fantastic here, Ben Platt, Molly Gordon and the kids give tremendous performances that really capture the spirit of the film and the spirit of theater in general, there’s a lot of in jokes that Gordon and Lieberman make sure to put in. Even if you did one play in your life you will get these jokes, the singing voices are fantastic with each of the songs complimenting the film quite well especially the last one which really wraps the film up very nicely.

Lastly the film is just genuinely really fun, there’s truly so much love and effort put into the film that really puts a smile on your face by the end of the film. It captures the fun and chaotic nature of theater so well and makes it a blast, this is one I highly recommend!

Theater Camp has no release date.

9/10 A