Sundance Review: Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls

Onyx the Fortuitous, is struggling. He’s misunderstood at home and work, but his dreams for a new life seem to be answered when he lands a coveted invitation to the mansion of his idol Bartok the Great for a ritual to raise the spirit of an ancient demon.

Unfortunately Onyx The Fortuitous and the Talisman Of Souls did not do it for me at all, once again I don’t have a whole lot to say here mainly due to the fact this based off something I have never heard of up until I saw the movie.

Onyx The Fortuitous is a character that Andrew Bowser he also plays the character, he’s character that has a very dedicated following online. And apparently this movie was a Kickstarter project so I do give the much earned respect Andrew Bowser and his team deserve for making the movie actually happen. Unfortunately the said movie isn’t that great, while the cast is pretty fun particularly Olivia Dudley and Rivkah Reyes who actually do bring some decent performances and everyone else seems to be having a lot of fun. The rest of the movie has a lot of jokes that fall completely flat plus if you have no idea who Onyx is like I did you are not going to get a lot of the in jokes among other elements as well.

What really does put the nail in the coffin is the pacing combined with the running time, this was much too long and I get they wanted to make something more grand and special for the character. But sometimes online characters work far better in shorter video format and that’s definitely the case here, it starts to become very repetitive after awhile and just makes you keep checking the time when it will be over.

I’m sure die hard fans will love this but for everyone else not so much unfortunately.

Onyx The Fortuitous and the Talisman Of Souls currently has no release date.

4/10 D+

House Party (2023) this party is a bust.

Aspiring club promoters and best buddies Damon and Kevin are barely keeping things together. Out of money, down on their luck and about to lose the roofs over their heads, they need a huge windfall to make their problems go away. They soon decide to host the party of the year at an exclusive mansion, which just happens to belong to none other than NBA superstar LeBron James.

House Party (2023) is a reboot and remake of the 1990 film of the same name, this is yet another confusing case of remaking something just because they could. House Party (1990) was a fun little movie that while may not be anything incredible it didn’t need to be, it’s one of those movies where you just sit back and vibe with it. Plus it’s such a late 80s and very early 90s movie that you just can’t help but have fun with it, so how does the remake stack up? Well let’s see.

Honestly the movie did have a bit of potential at the beginning, there’s at least some genuinely great jokes here that did get a few laughs out of me. Jacob Latimore and Tosin Cole are truly giving it their all here but the script really lacks in the humor department outside of a few jokes and mainly results in cameos. Yes House Party (2023) is one of those movies where it heavily relies on cameos, it servers nothing more than for the viewer to point at the screen and say “hey I know that guy!” I’ve said before that it’s a very cheap tactic that some movies use to avoid storytelling. Having that said the movie isn’t as bad as it could have been, the main issue here is that the whole movie is just bland.

It completely misses the fun elements of the original and instead goes for a very dull cameo fest, the acting isn’t even that bad it’s the script as I said before that’s really holding it back. At the very least it does seem like the cast had an absolute blast making the movie.

Overall House Party (2023) is a remake that just exists, while it could have easily been a lot worse, that reallt doesn’t mean anything when it completely misses the vibe the original had.

House Party is currently in theaters.

4/10 D+

The Drop has a bizarre premise but weak execution.

A married couple face a marriage test when one of them drops a baby during an island wedding.

We are two weeks into 2023 (at the time this was written) and we already have a movie where the main premise is that a young woman drops a baby during an island wedding, an idea that instantly makes the movie standout but does the rest of the movie help back this up?

The best thing I can say about The Drop is that it at least looked nice, which is mainly due to the location the movie was shot in a small beachside town in Mexico called Sayulita. There were some genuinely beautiful shots that do give the movie a bit of personality in some areas, Anna Knokle and Jermaine Fowler give fine enough performances that are easily some of the movie’s best moments especially the interactions between the two. Everything else however is a lot of wasted potential, the whole idea of someone dropping a baby is something a cringe comedy should excel at executing however that just doesn’t happen here. Instead there’s a lot of terrible jokes that go on for way too long, the pacing is a drag and a lot of the time ends up over explaining a joke. The attempts at dramatic moments are very mismatched when you remember the premise of the movie, even if you took away the premise the drama bits aren’t exactly memorable. A lot of it is your usual romantic comedy bits that have been done far better before.

The cast is absolutely wasted here and it’s very unfortunate, even though I said Anna Knokle and Jermaine Fowler gave fine enough performances they could have absolutely been a lot better. The script just does not give enough material to work with and really stays on this bland comedy route that really fits the “shoved on to a streaming service” mindset.

There really isn’t much else to say about The Drop, it’s a huge missed opportunity that could have been hilarious had the writing been a lot stronger. I’m not sure how you take a premise such as dropping a baby and make it incredibly forgettable and bland but here we are I guess.

The Drop is available on Hulu.

3/10 D-

Babylon is a beautiful unhinged ride from beginning to end.

Decadence, depravity, and outrageous excess lead to the rise and fall of several ambitious dreamers in 1920s Hollywood.

Part of what I truly love about film is that you will get times when directors go completely off the walls and create something incredibly unhinged. Babylon is definitely one of those cases, this is most definitely not a film that’s going to be for everyone. But It absolutely worked for me, for starters the cast was truly fantastic, I could write an entire post on how or what each of the characters contributes to the film but we would be here all day. Margot Robbie gives yet another really exciting performance that really captures the insane nature of the film, Diego Calva is truly great here as well. His interactions with the rest cast feels very genuine and we quickly see his character Manuel climb to the top as the film goes on, some smaller performances that really stood are Li Jun Li who is just having a ton of fun, P.J. Byrne who gives some of the film’s best comedic moments that are truly hilarious, Jovan Adepo who gives an incredibly solid performance and really dives into his role and finally there’s Tobey Maguire who honestly gives one of the most hilarious performances I’ve seen all year, he is very representative of how unhinged the film really is especially during the final act. The cinematography is beautiful and really captures a lot of the bizarre nature of the film combine that with the film’s overall theme…change and adapt. At the beginning we see (in the perspective of the characters) Hollywood at it’s prime, slowly but surely as new film technique’s are introduced and are the next big thing we see some of the character’s desperately trying to change and adapt, for some they adapt decently well but for others it starts their downfall which leads into some quite powerful moments. The writing really reflects that with a lot of the characters trying to figure out ways to standout in the new era of film, lastly there’s the film’s final moments where we see how far film has come, other characters realizing that they can’t adapt so they completely walk away. It’s truly some really strong elements combined into one bizarre film!

Babylon is available in theaters.

10/10 A+

Strange World is a forgettable sci-fi adventure.

The Clades are a legendary family of explorers whose differences threaten to topple their latest and most crucial mission into uncharted and treacherous territory.

I know this is a common cliche to say in movie reviews of movies that had a lot of potential but I’m going to ask it anyway…what happened here? I will say the animation is very colorful and has a lot of detail to it plus I really liked Ethan (voiced by Jaboukie Young-White) as well as the rest of the cast. They all give pretty solid voice work that adds to their characters quite well, even if some of the characters aren’t exactly that well written. Which is when the problems start to occur…the writing, what you have here is a pretty strong cast that unfortunately has to work with a very lackluster script that really doesn’t offer anything new to the table. A lot of this is a very basic Sci-Fi story of a group of people who get stuck on a planet, there’s some nice representation here (at least when you compare it to Disney’s other films) but that doesn’t help the movie all that much. Ethan is a great character that’s surrounded by a very bland movie that unfortunately doesn’t take the opportunity to explore the movie’s themes, there’s a few scenes that dance around the movie’s themes but don’t flat out want to tell them. Having that said I do think there’s some cute father and son bonding moments here that are effective and are by far some of the highlights of the movie. Strange World is just one of those Disney films that sort of exists, it’s not particularly bad but it’s a very forgettable and uninspired movie that could have absolutely been great had the writing been far better.

Strange World is available on Disney+

5/10 C

Violent Night is a Die Hard clone done right.

An elite team of mercenaries breaks into a family compound on Christmas Eve, taking everyone hostage inside. However, they aren’t prepared for a surprise combatant: Santa Claus is on the grounds, and he’s about to show why this Nick is no saint.

I guess the makers of Violent Night so people debating whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie, so they said “let’s make our own Die Hard Christmas movie.”

Violent Night is one of the many reasons why i give almost any film a chance to impress, surprise or disappoint. Because this was definitely a huge surprise, when you really boil down to it Violent Night is essentially a Die Hard clone which is nowhere near a new concept. However what makes Violent Night actually standout among the rest is it’s actually really entertaining and genuinely great. David Harbour absolutely nails his performance as Santa Claus sure there have been versions of Santa being a badass before but Harbour brings this classic action movie protagonist charm to it that gives the film the extra push. Violent Night really went for the classic action movie feel and succeeded pretty well, the action scenes are pretty neat, the characters are fun and the gore is actually pretty gnarly. There’s so much entertainment factor here that really makes the film all the more enjoyable, plus the theme of Christmas just gives the film the extra charm. I can easily see Violent Night going on to be a modern Christmas movie classic that a lot of people will watch every year, if you weren’t so sure before on Violent Night. I recommend giving this one a go!

Violent Night is available on all VOD platforms.

8/10 B+

Night At The Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again is a huge step down from its predecessors.

Nick Daley hesitates becoming a museum nightwatchman and Kahmunrah returns to conquer the world.

I’m not going to pretend that the Night At The Museum movies were masterpieces, but the thing with those movies is they were genuinely a lot of fun and had so much charm to them. But I guess this series much like The Diary Of A Wimpy Kid series is getting the soulless animated movie treatment, Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again is a sequel to the last movie (even though the series wrapped up actually pretty nicely but oh well) and any of the charm the live action movies had are completely absent here. What made Night at the Museum interesting in the first place was seeing the wax figures, animals, dinosaurs and others come to life in live action, trying to execute that in 2D animation completely takes that charm and excitement factor away. It’s worth noting that this is the first 2D animated film to be released under Disney since Winnie The Pooh. I love 2D animation and have nothing against it but the animation is just not good here, often times it comes off more like a rejected pilot from the early 2000s and less like something that was actually worked on and released. The voice cast just doesn’t have the magic that the cast from the other movies had, while nobody does a bad job here and they are definitely trying their hardest. There just isn’t anything memorable about the characters in this one. Combine that with a plot that’s another generic “evil villain wants to take over the world” plot and you have yourself a very forgettable movie that a lot of people will just say “oh hey that released” and then never talk about it again.

Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again Is available on Disney+

2/10 F

Streaming Reviews: it’s A Wonderful Binge and Something From Tiffany’s

Many years after their first Binge, Hags, Andrew, Sarah, and Kimi face the realities of adulthood as the annual Binge Day is moved to Christmas Eve. Amidst the chaos, Hags plans a proposal to Sarah, and Andrew deals with his rocky relationships.

The Binge: It’s A Wonderful Binge is a sequel to The Binge which came out in 2020, it was a terrible comedy that really tried to be like a sex comedy from the early 2000s except with drugs and alcohol. It’s A Wonderful Binge is basically the same idea but it’s Christmas themed….and it’s somehow better. There’s definitely better jokes this time around and I do think that the whole Christmas theme opens the door for some entertaining shenanigans to take place, Danny Trejo is pretty funny and the rest of the cast this time around are actually a lot better than they were in the first movie. With that said the movie kind of falls in the same sort of problems that a lot of sequels do and that’s being more less the same thing as their predecessor. As I said before this is just basically The Binge but Christmas, which honestly makes it more like a Christmas special rather than an sequel. Which isn’t entirely a bad thing it’s just something worth pointing out, it still has a lot of jokes that fall flat and once again doesn’t really use it’s own premise to it’s full potential. But at the very least you can say this time around that there was an attempt.

It’s A Wonderful Binge is available on Hulu.

4/10 D+

A woman gets up-ended when an engagement ring that was for someone else leads her to the person she’s meant to be with.

Something From Tiffany’s is what happens when you make an actual decent and far more competent Hallmark Christmas movie, while it’s very flawed and shares a lot of the exact same problems a lot of Christmas movies do. It’s mainly the cast who are truly charming that gives the movie the extra push it needs, Zoey Deutch is pretty decent here and really works her magic well here. She easily connects with everyone else and it’s the many bonds she has that really makes the movie work, Kendrick Sampson and Leah Jeffries in particular are very fun and give some genuine performances. As far as everything else goes it’s nothing too crazy, the writing is about how you would expect and the movie does play out in a very predictable way. But at the very least it has the charm going for it and there was some genuine love put into this one, definitely not the perfect Christmas movie but at the very least a decent one.

Something From Tiffany’s is available on Amazon Prime Video.

6/10 C+

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is bigger in scale and mystery than the first film.

Tech billionaire Miles Bron invites his friends for a getaway on his private Greek island. When someone turns up dead, Detective Benoit Blanc is put on the case.

When Knives Out came out in 2019 it was a huge hit, Rian Johnson took the whodunnit genre and did something completely new with, plus the cast just really made a lot of the film. Since then people immediately wanted a sequel and well here we are, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery in a lot of ways is better than the first film. For starters it’s definitely bigger in scale and you immediately get that impression when the film starts, the cast in this film much like the first film is really strong here and blends completely well together. Everyone does a fantastic job here but the standouts include Daniel Craig who once again is fantastic as Benoit Blanc, heck he’s better here than he was in the first film. He delivers even more clever lines, some really great jokes and brings this old fashion whodunnit type of feel to his character. Janelle Monáe is truly great here and blends pretty well with Daniel Craig especially the scenes dedicated to the two of them, Kate Hudson is just having a blast as well as Madelyn Cline who are two very fun characters. Finally there’s Edward Norton who’s character is very well written and the satire element really shines through. The filming is quite well done and really compliments the whole film’s atmosphere, much like I said about Craig’s performance Glass Onion has a very old fashion whodunnit film type of feel to it. Rian Johnson really does a masterful job of balancing the familiar type of elements while adding an incredible amount of new elements that make the film much more interesting, the writing is very clever and slowly but surely builds the whole mystery of the film. Heck the mystery itself is on a bigger scale than the first one, which leads me to how Glass Onion can be best described “bigger scale” something often that a lot of sequels forget to do is how they can make things bigger granted bigger doesn’t always mean better. In certain films it shouldn’t matter much if the sequel stays about the same, but with Knives Out it was interesting to see whether they were going to keep things about the same as the first movie or were they going to make things even bigger and make a lot of character moments, plot development and even the writing more grand? They chose the latter and completely nailed it there’s so much creativity here that really shines through the film and even opens up to more potential in the future with more installments. If you liked Knives Out you are absolutely going to love Glass Onion, it’s everything a sequel should be and should do.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery releases December 23rd on Netflix.

10/10 A+

The Menu is a delicious and clever satire.

A young couple travels to a remote island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises.

When going into The Menu I expected it to be great given the praise the film got at the Toronto Film Festival, what I wasn’t expecting was for it to be a truly fantastic film. What mainly pushes the film to extra levels is the performances the standouts being Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Fiennes and Hong Chau, Anya Taylor-Joy continues to show that she is one of the most interesting actresses currently working today and gives yet another strong performance that she really dives deep into. Ralph Fiennes and Hong Chu are both incredibly intimidating but at the same time strangely hilarious, Fiennes really gives this performance where immediately when you see him on screen he gives the viewer an uneasy feeling. It also helps that Fiennes and Chu work incredibly well together and their character’s personalities just blend so well together that it creates a haunting image. While The Menu may seem like another film that critiques the rich, it’s actually a bit more than that, it critiques food influencer culture which admittedly I have next to no knowledge of, but the film critiques it and says never hold someone you never met on a pedestal. It says this in pretty haunting ways that completely build the film including some kills that are actually pretty shocking and quite effective, atmosphere is truly thrilling and definitely one of those atmospheres that has the abandonment type feel, the film takes place on a island where it’s completely abandoned besides the characters involved. Combine that with some truly effective suspense that quickly gets under the viewer’s skin, some cleverly written dialogue and some incredible performances and you have yourself one hell of a film. Overall The Menu is truly fantastic and one of the best films of the year, make sure to seek this one out!

The Menu is available in theaters.

10/10 A+