When the Primm family moves to New York City, their young son, Josh, struggles to adapt to his new school and friends. All of that changes when he discovers Lyle, a singing crocodile that loves baths, caviar and great music. The two become fast friends, but when evil neighbor Mr. Grumps threatens Lyle’s existence, the Primms must band together to show the world that family can come from the most unexpected places.
Lyle Lyle Crocodile is exactly what you expect it’s going to be, it’s a very familiar story that’s been told before. A kid who is lonely finds a special friend and then wacky antics pursue, however this one is very charming and you really can’t help but smile at the movie. Shawn Mendes’s charming performance as Lyle plus his singing voice combined with the songs is genuinely a lot of fun. It’s hands down the part that completely sells this movie and really brings it altogether, Top Of The World is easily the standout song here as the scene it’s used in is an absolute blast and filled to the brim of personality, plus a lot of the other songs follow suit as well. Javier Bardem is a lot of fun as well and Brett Gelman plays a cartoony neighbor that really works here. There really isn’t much else to say here, the film is straightforward, has a ton of heart and is definitely something kids will absolutely love. It’s not going to break any new ground but it doesn’t have to.
Set in the ’30s, it follows three friends who witness a murder, become suspects themselves, and uncover one of the most outrageous plots in American history.
Amsterdam is one of those movies where I was just not looking forward to reviewing, the main reason why is because of how completely wasted this whole project really is. The film is based on a true story a the business plot of 1933, a political conspiracy that’s goal was to overthrow President Franklin D. Roosevelt. I’m not going to get into it here but I do recommend reading about the story itself as it is a quite interesting piece of forgotten history that a lot of people don’t talk about that much. The positives mostly come from Anya Taylor-Joy who easily steals every scene she’s in, she isn’t incredible in this movie which is mainly due to the horrendous direction but we will get to that. But she does a really solid job of working with what she’s given, Robert De Niro is pretty solid as well. Again like Anya he is not anything spectacular but he definitely tries his best. The rest of the movie however is when things go downhill fast, first off the three main leads Christian Bale, John David Washington and Margot Robbie absolutely have no chemistry between one another. The way the three are written really has the energy of a bad high school play, Bale tries to do this quick comedy routine which isn’t anywhere near funny. John David Washington is just sort of there and Margot Robbie is an interesting case. At times her performance isn’t too bad but then others it really comes off as robotic, I get they were trying to go for this Wes Anderson type style but it almost seems like a parody of someone who thinks they know Wes Anderson’s style. Everyone else in the movie ranges from bad or just having very little to do to even matter, what really kills this movie is the writing and the huge amount of plot points that are squished together. Which is a shame because the true story itself is truly interesting the movie was just done by the wrong director. The writing is very unfocused and moves along way too quickly yet sluggish, which leads to some atrocious editing decisions and very dull direction from David O. Russell who has no idea what he wants this to be, it’s advertised as a whodunnit but really comes off as a very poor attempt of telling an interesting piece of history. Every once and awhile you get a few decent shots but for the most part a lot of it is just dull, it’s not engaging to look at and there’s very little detail to the setting. It’s a shame because had this movie been in the right hands I genuinely think Amsterdam could have been a decent movie, but as it is the movie is painful to get through and something that nobody is going to remember within the next few months.
Ambitious artist Jabari attempts to balance success and love after he moves into his dream Manhattan apartment and falls for his next-door neighbor.
Entergalactic is one of the most beautiful films so far of 2022, I didn’t know what to expect going into this film but wow this definitely impressed. The cast does quite a fantastic job particularly Kid Cudi, Laura Harrier and Jessica Williams, they all put their heart and soul into their roles and really make the characters all the more interesting. By far what sticks out the most is the imaginative and beautiful animation, it feels like a hybrid of 3D and 2D animation but done in such a unique looking way. It makes the film pop out really well and adds quite a lot of flavor to it, there’s certain scenes that completely take you into the film’s own little dream like setting and invests the viewer with it’s visual style. Although the story itself is a very simple love story that has been done before, it still ends up being incredibly charming Kid Cudi’s character Jabari is a character that the audience could easily see themselves as. He’s an everyday citizen who goes through some quite beautiful arcs, the cast easily connecting with their character is what really makes the film standout, there’s truly something wonderful when you see how effortlessly the cast can connect to their characters and create a story that’s truly investing. Lastly there’s the music that just feels like a natural fit to the film the film actually serves as a visual companion piece to Kid Cudi’s album of the same name, which I have to give credit where credit is due. The film manages to standout on it’s own while also being a companion piece. Overall Entergalactic is truly fantastic despite some familiar love story elements the film is truly well done. Check this one out.
Three young women accidentally bring back the Sanderson Sisters to modern day Salem and must figure out how to stop the child-hungry witches from wreaking havoc on the world.
Hocus Pocus 2 finally releases after several years of the being on those “sequels that should have been a thing by now but haven’t” lists, there’s honestly not a whole lot to comment on here as Hocus Pocus 2 is about the same as the original. Which might be good for people who absolutely adored the first movie, I was never a huge Hocus Pocus fan it’s a fun little movie but that’s all it really was for me. Hocus Pocus 2 falls in the same line, Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy are still quite fantastic as the Sanderson sisters and are clearly having a blast, the entertaining atmosphere is still quite great and keeps a lot of the atmosphere from the first one, the flaws mostly come from the characters and the jokes really not being as strong, I get they wanted to put in the whole modern setting idea in the movie and at times it works. But other times it really mirrors what a lot of other movies do with this exact plot line, so it definitely leads to a lot of “seen that and it’s been done better before” type of moments. The overall message is charming enough and there’s some cute moments towards the end that did put a smile on my face, there’s definitely some level of charm that went into this movie that can be appreciated. It just falls a little short of being a little too identical to the first movie.
In 1988 best friends Abby and Gretchen navigate boys, pop culture and a paranormal force clinging to Gretchen. With help from a mall exorcist, Abby is determined to compel the demon back to the pits of hell — if it doesn’t kill Gretchen first.
My Best Friend’s Exorcism has some really interesting ideas but doesn’t do nearly enough with them, Elsie Fisher and Amiah Miller are hands down the best part of the movie. They work with the script they are given and make the most of it, there’s some decent shots here and there that compliment the movie fine enough as well. The main issue here is the writing which has no idea what it wants to be…a horror movie or a horror comedy, the comedy is just not funny at all. A lot of it is jokes that try yo bring this 80s horror movie feel to it but completely fall flat due to this whole 80s horror vibes being very overdone at this point. It’s perfectly fine to have an 80s horror movie throwback film but you can’t just expect it to succeed without doing anything with it. It just sort of exists here and underneath all of that is a familiar exorcism story we have seen countless times before, it’s a shame because I hear the book the movie is based on is quite enjoyable and had the writing been a lot more focused this could have ended up being a very fun movie.
My Best Friend’s Exorcism is available on Amazon Prime Video.
In 1967, John “Chickie” Donohue leaves New York to track down his army buddies in Vietnam and share a few beers with them, but instead is confronted with the horrors of the war.
I went to the “Regal Mystery Screening” which basically the premise is that it’s a movie that hasn’t been released yet, when I saw the Apple TV+ logo pop up on the screen I knew immediately what it was going to be. The Greatest Beer Run Ever tells the crazy true story of John “Chickie” Donohue during the Vietnam war the guy decided to go deliver his friends who are fighting in the war beer in Vietnam to show that his town supports them. It’s a truly interesting story that that I found quite fascinating, the movie does a decent job of telling the story. Zac Efron is truly great here, while it did take about 20 minutes to get use to his performance (it comes off as annoying during the first 10 minutes) after that he delivers so much charm to his performance, Russell Crowe plays Arthur Coates a photographer/journalist during the war, while he doesn’t get a huge part up until the third act he still quite incredible. He really puts in a lot of power and emotion that really sells his part, speaking of the third act that’s by far the strongest part about it. During the third act Donohue learns a lot about the great horrors of war, such as politicians/the government lying and witnessing civilians being killed. There’s some very powerful moments here that are truly fantastic and actually made me shed a tear, what is a bit baffling however is how the majority of the movie plays out as a comedy. Sure there’s some war stuff in between the comedy, but those particular scenes are played for laughs unlike the ones in the third act. I completely understand what the movie was trying to go for here, but I don’t think it balances out all that well. For what the comedy is there are some pretty decent jokes here that did get a few laughs out of me, to be completely fair though I would imagine it would be sort of a challenge to make a movie about a guy going to Vietnam to deliver beer to his friends without using comedy. So it’s not necessarily the comedy that’s the problem it’s mostly some of the jokes not being very funny and the third act being far more interesting in comparison. Overall The Greatest Beer Run Ever is a decent movie about a pretty insane true story, I definitely think the movie could have elaborated more on Donohue’s change from being pro war to questioning what is going on during wars, as it does feel like the movie ends right when we are about to get some more information on that.
The Greatest Beer Run Ever releases tomorrow on Apple TV+
Lily is a typical 150-year-old lovelorn vampire who’s looking for the man of her nightmares — until she lays her eyes on Herman, a 7-foot-tall green experiment with a heart of gold. It’s love at first shock as these two ghouls fall fangs over feet for each other in a Transylvanian romance. Unfortunately, it’s not all smooth sailing in the cemetery as Lily’s father has other plans for his beloved daughter’s future, and they don’t involve her new bumbling beau.
Rob Zombie’s The Munsters is a prime example of a movie where I can see what the director was going for but didn’t end up fully working. It’s clear that Rob Zombie wanted to capture what made the original show so great and at at times he actually did. Some of the sets were quite great and some of the humor actually worked pretty well. There’s some puns in there that made me laugh (I might be biased because I love puns and dad jokes) plus the cast was actually not terrible here, Daniel Roebuck as The Count was hands down the standout. He really did a great job of capturing the character while making the role his own, Jeff Daniel Phillips and Sheri Moon Zombie aren’t bad but every time they share a scene with Roebuck he completely steals the scene, but as I said they aren’t bad in fact they are decent in their own ways. What kills this movie is mainly the pacing and the color that gets to be way too much to the point where it becomes distracting. The color often feels very cheap and feels like it’s about to sell you the newest Halloween costumes at your local Party City, the pacing is dreadfully slow that completely kills a lot of scenes. There’s some scenes that drag out for way too long and end up not really adding anything to the plot, there was definitely charm and some passion put into the movie, but it’s not enough to save The Munsters from being way too slow paced and not very well written.
Sheila, a young woman grappling with suicidal thoughts, discovers that a tanning bed in a nail salon is a time machine. Traveling back 24 hours, she relives the best date night of her life over and over, only to decide that her boyfriend, Gary, needs some fixing. Unaware that meddling with the past could ruin the future, Sheila goes even further back in time to turn him into the perfect man even though he was already pretty perfect.
Meet Cute is yet another Groundhog Day type movie at this point there’s been several films, to be absolutely fair their have some quite fantastic films that take the premise and manage to make it their own (Happy Death Day, Edge Of Tomorrow and Palm Springs in particular). That’s unfortunately not the case here with Meet Cute, the weird thing about the movie is the whole Groundhog Day elements aren’t fully realized despite that being the main idea of the movie. A lot of it is very surface level and doesn’t attempt to even try to go into detail about it’s ideas, the chemistry between Kaley Cuoco and Pete Davidson just isn’t there at all. They both definitely try their hardest with the script they are given but the dialogue does not do them any favors, Kaley Cuoco gives the better performance as there are a few moments where she makes some scenes work.
Drea (Camila Mendes) is at the peak of her high school powers as the Alpha it-girl on campus when her entire life goes up in flames after her sex tape gets leaked to the whole school, seemingly by her boyfriend and king of the school, Max (Austin Abrams). Eleanor (Maya Hawke) is an awkward new transfer student who is angered to find out that she now has to go to school with her old bully, Carissa (Ava Capri) who started a nasty rumor about her in summer camp when they were 13. After a clandestine run-in at tennis camp, Drea and Eleanor form an unlikely and secret friendship to get revenge on each other’s tormentors.
Never did I expect Do Revenge to be one of my favorite films so far this year, I’ve expressed how much the teen comedy genre has become very over saturated with movies that range from being horrible to very forgettable, luckily that’s not the case here. Do Revenge takes the teen comedy genre and brings it back to the days of Mean Girls where there was a balance of over the top and having realistic moments, it throws in a lot of clever and sharp social satire that’s very relevant to the film. Like Bodies Bodies Bodies, Do Revenge does a fantastic job of actually matching how Gen Z talks, acts and thinks. Camilla Mendes and Maya Hawke are both fantastic in the leading roles, both have strong chemistry and a lot of strong character moments that help build their characters. The direction from Jennifer Kaytin Robinson was down to earth while being wild at the same time, it’s the sort of energy that is often missing in teen comedies so it’s very refreshing to see here. Lastly the film itself is just an overall very entertaining film that also manages to say something interesting with its social satire elements, so if you have been looking for a really great teen comedy definitely check this one out.
Marcel is an adorable one-inch-tall shell who ekes out a colorful existence with his grandmother Connie and their pet lint, Alan. Once part of a sprawling community of shells, they now live alone as the sole survivors of a mysterious tragedy. But when a documentary filmmaker discovers them amongst the clutter of his Airbnb, the short film he posts online brings Marcel millions of passionate fans, as well as unprecedented dangers and a new hope at finding his long-lost family.
For a film about a talking shell wearing a pair of shoes Marcel The Shell With Shoes On is one of the most beautiful and meaningful films I’ve seen so far this year. There’s so many themes that this film talks about in 89 minutes that truly feel impactful to the viewer. For starters Jenny Slate as Marcel is truly brilliant the amount of heart and soul she put into the performance is truly inspiring and captures a very human as well, the filming combined with the stop motion is masterful with every sense of the word. It’s absolutely stunning and really connects the real world setting with Marcel brilliantly, then there’s the themes such as a ton of family themes which lead to some very touching moments that are very relatable to viewer. There’s the theme of loneliness living in a huge world looking for the people that you love in this case Marcel is looking for his family. The theme of feeling small is also present one that can feel overwhelming, we all live in a huge world beyond our comprehension which is why some people rightfully want to feel big and explore the world, that’s what Marcel sets out to do in the film. There’s also the theme of finding oneself through a journey you often find out new things about yourself and that’s explored perfectly here, at the end of Marcel’s journey there’s a completely touching ending that Marcel reflects on and learns so much about himself. This is all backed up from the flawless script that will make you both cry and put a smile on your face, it’s such a strong and diverse of emotions type of script that really captures what the viewer could be going through. Overall Marcel The Shell With Shoes on is a powerful film that truly needs to be seen, it’s a very moving film that you will absolutely love.
Marcel The Shell With Shoes On is available on all VOD platforms.
Jerome Reviews... 