The aftershocks of apartheid reverberate through a South African family as a daughter tries to free her mother from the grip of her mysterious employer.
Good Madam has a lot going for it, the cast is quite great and work really well together. The script is tight and keeps things moving along at a steady pace, it’s very well crafted combined with an atmosphere that is actually pretty creepy and adds so much to the film, the main criticism here comes from the story at certain points loses the viewer. The story is very vaguely told at moments that are quite crucial to fully understand what exactly is happening here, by the final act it becomes a lot more clear as the horror elements do kick in after feeling like they were put in the backseat for most of the movie. Overall Good Madam is certainly not bad just a tad disappointing.
While driving to a party at a grand villa, a wealthy couple on the verge of divorce accidentally hit and kill a young Moroccan man who was selling fossils on the roadside.
The Forgiven has a pretty strong cast that is ultimately the best part about it Jessica Chastain, Ralph Fiennes, Christopher Abbott, Ismael Kanater and Matt Smith are all great and for the script they are given they do a great job. What mainly hurts The Forgiven is that it really doesn’t do anything with it’s topic, being a satire of eating the rich or of the very wealthy is something that could be interesting if done right. But unfortunately The Forgiven doesn’t have the script to back it up, there’s some decent shots here and it’s competently made but script doesn’t offer anything investing and instead is very surface level at best. The basic formula with The Forgiven is the following…present an interesting idea, explore it for about five minutes and then abandon it and finally move on to the next. The Forgiven isn’t a terrible movie as it is well acted and decently made but it’s definitely one that could have been really great.
When a Power Ring is bestowed upon former Marine John Stewart, it leads him on a life-changing mission. With Justice League member Green Arrow and Thanagarian Hawkgirl by his side, Stewart is thrown into a complicated galactic war.
Green Lantern: Beware My Power is the newest installment of the new DC Animated Universe the Tomorrowverse. The DC Animated Movie Universe finished with Justice League Dark: Apokolips War in 2020 (a pretty solid ending) the Tomorrowverse began with Superman: Man Of War a few months later in August 2020 so far there’s been 5 films…Superman: Man Of War, Justice Society World War II, Batman The Long Halloween Parts 1 and 2 and finally Green Lantern: Beware My Power.
Green Lantern: Beware My Power I was a bit interested in mainly due to John Stewart’s version of The Green Lantern who was one of my favorite characters from The Justice League TV series back from 2004. The movie serves as an origin story for the character but unfortunately the writing really hurts this movie. The movie starts out fine enough, it does a decent job of introducing Green Arrow, Hawk Girl and a few others and there’s even some decent action scenes as well. The animation is also pretty solid with a few scenes in particular that are actually pretty well done, the main problem is despite the movie being about John Stewart that gets lost during the midpoint of the movie, he ends up being in the middle of all these other characters and their problems. The focus suddenly switches to them rather than Stewart and just leaves any fan of John Stewart’s Green Lantern very disappointed, the voice acting is at least decent giving each of the characters their own personality. The plot however is very Saturday morning cartoonish outside of a few scenes it really doesn’t dive deep into the characters and is very very surface level. Unless you know these characters you aren’t going to get a whole lot of information about them here. Overall it’s not a terrible movie but it is a pretty disappointing one, that had the writing been a lot better could have made for something interesting.
Green Lantern Beware My Power is available on all VOD Platforms.
Albee and Walker, a young couple on the brink of divorce, embark on a mountain getaway to save their fledgling marriage. Before long, their personal drama also creates tension between their newly engaged Airbnb hosts.
It’s honestly a bit surprising The Wheel is from Steve Pink the same director who did Hot Tub Time Machine (and it’s sequel) plus About Last Night. Because this is something completely different which I’m definitely all for directors trying something out of their comfort zone, The Wheel is just a unfortunate case of having good ideas but just not taking the time to fully develop them. The movie features a couple on the verge of divorce, Amber Midthunder and Taylor Gray are both really solid in the leading roles and come off quite believable as a couple. There’s some strong moments that dive into the divorce and the couple’s issues, but about midway through the movie it sort of starts repeating itself and what other movies like this one have done or said before. The directing is on the bland side unfortunately, outside of a few moments that are actually pretty decent and dive into both main characters. There really isn’t anything here that’s going to invest the viewer.
A paranormal investigator and his production crew gain access to a mysterious, abandoned school but when the thrilling haunt turns deadly, the team must race to uncover the terrifying truth before they become the school’s next victims.
Feels like nowadays whenever a new found footage movie comes out it always ends up being one of the three….either really good and one of the best in a very long time, very bad or very forgettable and does nothing to help the genre grow. Infrared falls into the third category, it’s not terrible as it does have the atmosphere that it’s going for but the main issue like a lot of modern found footage horror movies is it takes forever for something to happen. Half this movie is waiting for something remotely interesting to happen which doesn’t until the last 15-20 minutes or so, the idea itself actually led to a few moments that heavily reminded me of Grave Encounters which I thought “oh cool so that means this movie is going to do something more with this right?” Unfortunately the movie does barely anything with it and just continues building the very bland characters. Overall there really isn’t much else to say here Infrared is not the worst found footage movie out there but it is one of the most forgettable.
Infrared is available on all VOD Platforms.
4/10 D+
A platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan become trapped in a cave and are hunted down by a deadly creature.
Honestly The Prey: Legend Of Karnoctus isn’t as bad as expected, it’s just a very bland “group of characters (in this case soldiers) have to survive against some monsters” type of movie. There’s a Danny Trejo and a Adrian Paul (Highlander series) cameo which are kind of neat and don’t over stay their welcome. Outside of that there really isn’t much else to this movie, the acting is not that bad, the cave setting is actually a really good idea on paper it’s just not executed as well as it could have been. There’s some fun moments here that are entertaining enough, but this isn’t the type of movie I would recommend unless you are a die hard fan of these types of movies.
The Prey: Legend of Karnoctus is available on all VOD platforms.
Two siblings who run a California horse ranch discover something wonderful and sinister in the skies above, while the owner of an adjacent theme park tries to profit from the mysterious, otherworldly phenomenon.
Jordan Peele continues to show how he can take the horror genre in several different directions, Nope is Peele’s third film having Get Out and Us under your belt is truly fantastic but how on earth do you top all of that? By creating something that may seem straightforward at first but is quite expensive and massive when you get into it. For starters the cast here are brilliant, Daniel Kaluuya is once again fantastic here and is a absolute powerhouse of an actor as usual, the exact same can be said for Keke Palmer. I believe I have said this before in one review but it needs to be said again, whatever role Palmer is in she always ends up delivering a fascinating performance and here is no different, in fact I would go far as to say this is her best performance yet. Steven Yeun is also quite great here even if he isn’t really a major character here, there’s a lot of moments with his character Ricky that are truly some of the best moments in the film and really expand his character. Lastly there’s Brandon Perea and Michael Wincott who are also really great as well, both play really fun characters and are actually quite hilarious as well. Nope is Peele’s biggest film yet it’s a massive film that explores quite a lot from the setting that the film takes place a horse ranch near a theme park in a desert, the atmosphere is masterfully done. It constantly has the viewer looking around for clues as to what’s going to happen, in fact while the movie does of course have a huge script there’s a lot of moments where the filming tells the story. A ton of quiet moments really put the film in the viewer’s mind to digest it all, the score is incredibly booming especially during the final act that really shows just how powerful the score is. Peele also does a fantastic job of combining several different genres and other directors as well as films like Jaws. Such genres include horror, sci-fi, western and thriller it’s not easy combining so many different genres but Peele and everyone involved do it effortlessly. The sci-fi elements are far different than what is usually done with the genre it’s impressive, as far as director styles or director inspirations there’s a huge mix of Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, M.Night Shyamalan, Alfred Hitchcock and John Carpenter. Spielberg mainly comes from the third act being a huge spectacle and the creature of the film sharing lots of similarities to Jaws. Hitchcock and Carpenter come in with the suspense of the film (some could argue the score is partly Spielberg and Carpenter), Shyamalan comes in with some of the characters and a few of the shots, finally there’s Kubrick who is definitely the cinematography (beautifully done here). But what makes this even better is Peele took each of those genres and directing styles I just mentioned and made every single one of them his own, that is something that is so hard to do. Overall Nope is truly a fantastic film that really reminds me on why I love film so much, it’s such a well done film that will keep you on the edge of your seat! See this film!!
When the CIA’s top asset — his identity known to no one — uncovers agency secrets, he triggers a global hunt by assassins set loose by his ex-colleague.
Anthony and Joe Russo have a second go at directing a film post MCU and much like Cherry it falls flat for different reasons. The positives are the cast (minus Chris Evans who I did like at first but the more I thought about his performance the more I didn’t like it), particularly Ryan Gosling and Ana de Armas (it’s just a shame her character was poorly written) and there’s a few actions that are decent enough but when compared to action films that have a far smaller budget that look far better you really notice a difference. Which is by far the biggest issue with The Gray Man….where did the budget go? That’s the question that kept popping into my head throughout the movie, the budget is supposedly $200 million dollars and while yes I realize that majority of it more than likely went towards getting the cast. It’s still baffling to see how ugly the movie is despite being a $200 million dollar movie, most of the action scenes are terrible combine that with poor writing that does nothing to standout among a very crowded genre and you have yourself a terrible action movie. This year alone has had films that have a far less budget that look much more appealing to look at, The Northman for example has a budget of $70-$90 million dollars and looks far more appealing, is much better crafted and the action scenes are far better. Moving on from the budget issues there really isn’t much else here, the movie plays out exactly how you think it’s going to. The pacing and running time do not blend well at all, this is one of those movies where you feel the running time going by painfully slow. The pacing puts a lot of moments in the movie at a complete and sudden stop that really derails the movie from moving on, overall The Gray Man is a very forgettable action movie that offers nothing new to the genre. It might not be one of the absolute worst movies I’ve seen this year but it is one of the most forgettable.
Abandoned as a girl, Kya raised herself in the dangerous marshlands of North Carolina. For years, rumors of the marsh girl haunted Barkley Cove, isolating the sharp and resilient Kya from her community. Drawn to two young men from town, she opens herself to a new and startling world. However, when one of them is found dead, Kya immediately becomes the main suspect. As the case unfolds, the verdict as to what happened becomes increasingly unclear, threatening to reveal many secrets.
Where The Crawdads Sing has a lot to like about it, there’s some really strong acting from Daisy Edgar-Jones, Jojo Regina, David Strathairn, Michael Hyatt and Sterling Macer Jr. There’s also the setting combined with the atmosphere that is actually pretty well done here, there’s plenty of thrilling moments that give the setting some sort of beauty to it. The film also does a solid job of building Kya (Daisy Edgar-Jones) as a character and showing her backstory so the viewer can connect with her, the major problems here are the pacing, the romantic scenes and the running time. For starters the pacing drags quite a bit towards the end, when things seem to be wrapping up it just keeps going and really puts the movie at a halt. The romantic scenes aren’t strong enough mainly due to Taylor John Smith’s and Harrison Dickinson’s performances being really nothing special, there’s definitely a few moments that are emotional and quite beautiful they aren’t enough to outmatch the forgettable ones. Then there’s the running time of 126 minutes that definitely overstays it’s welcome, scenes quickly become repetitive and as I said earlier drag on quite a bit. Despite that Where The Crawdads Sing is still a decent enough murder mystery that has a lot of positives.
A terminally ill man and his teenage daughter embark on a road trip from California to New Orleans for his 20th college reunion. While there, he secretly hopes she can reunite with the mother who left them long ago.
The opening line of Don’t Make Me Go is definitely true “You’re not going to like the way this story ends, but I think you’re going to like this story”. Because the rest of the film is truly heartwarming and incredibly raw, John Cho once again shows that he’s currently one of the best actors working today. He plays Max Park who has a terminal disease and wants to connect with his daughter Wally Park who is played by Mia Isaac, this is Mia Isaac’s debut as an actress and she truly hits out of the park, she brings this down to earth style to her performance that captures the behavior and actions of a teenager. The father and daughter chemistry between John Cho and Mia Isaac is truly fantastic here, there’s a lot of emotional moments, a lot of quiet moments and a lot of heartwarming moments that show the many sides of a father and daughter. The writing keeps things grounded while throwing in a few parts that aren’t very grounded but they still fit the story that’s being told, Hannah Marks who previously directed Mark, Mary & Some Other People does a really solid job here. One thing that Marks is truly great at with only two films into her career, is that she’s fantastic at building relationships between the characters in her films it was shown quite a bit in Mark, Mary & Some Other People and it was most definitely shown in Don’t Make Me Go. The only main criticism is the last 10 minutes, the ending really comes out of nowhere and is a gut punch (not in a good way), despite that Don’t Make Me Go is a really solid film that I do highly recommend checking out.
Don’t Make Me Go is available on Amazon Prime Video.
An ageing film star retreats to the Scottish countryside with her nurse to recover from surgery. While there, mysterious forces of revenge emerge from the land where witches were burned.
She Will is a very slow burn horror film but the patience from the viewer is absolutely worth it here, Alice Krige gives a fascinating performance in the leading role and captures the atmosphere of the film quite well. The film mostly tells it’s story through it’s filming, atmosphere and horror elements all of which when combined together telling a fascinating story that adds depth to the characters. The characters are also a key element here that tell the story particularly Veronica Ghent (Alice Krige) who’s past we learn about as well as her trauma, the score combined with the filming creates a very eerie atmosphere that may not leave you jump out of your seat scared. But it will be haunting and at the same time quite beautiful, the direction from Charlotte Colbert is truly impressive and It is clear Colbert knows how to give a film a haunting atmosphere. Overall She Will is not going to be for everyone but for fans of slow burn horror films this will be a very solid film.
Jerome Reviews... 