Loki, the God of Mischief, steps out of his brother’s shadow to embark on an adventure that takes place after the events of “Avengers: Endgame.”
Loki is the third of the MCU shows on Disney+ and it’s hands down the best one yet, it took me awhile to finally sit down and actually come up with a review for this show due to figuring out what I ultimately felt about this series. Let’s start with the performances which I thought were all really strong, Tom Hiddleston once again does a fantastic job as Loki and arguably the best he’s played Loki in the MCU so far. I personally thought he was on a whole other level here, it’s possibly due to the script that gives Hiddleston a lot to work with and turn much as he can into something truly interesting. Hiddleston’s chemistry with Owen Wilson in particular was a standout whenever the two were on screen together there was bound for jokes that were actually quite great, some interesting back and forth dialogue and some character moments. Speaking of which Owen Wilson does quite a great job here, I’ve always liked Wilson being in more dramatic roles, what’s interesting in this case is how the balance of comedy and drama really works. One doesn’t over due the other both blend very well together and this is the type of series it really works, finally there’s Sophia Di Martino who does quite a fantastic job I’m very excited to see what they do with her character as the MCU goes forward (as well as Season 2 of Loki). She really brings a lot to the show and her chemistry with Hiddleston is top notch, each of the episodes felt different and unique to one another. I will admit the series did take a bit to get going towards the beginning but once it got off the ground it stayed in the sky, the final two episodes in particular are some of the highlights. Everything that it’s been building up to starts to happen and then we finally get to the final minutes of the last episode…which is easily some of the best the MCU has ever done. It has a huge reveal and a “oh crap!” moment that really shows that phase 4 of the MCU has just begun. Loki is what is going to cause some movies that are coming out soon or next year to take place. It’s truly an effective moment that really changes everything. Overall the series itself is quite fantastic, this is definitely something to go into without knowing too much, it’s definitely one of the most interesting parts of the MCU so far!
All the episodes of Loki are now available on Disney+
Based on Disneyland’s theme park ride where a small riverboat takes a group of travelers through a jungle filled with dangerous animals and reptiles but with a supernatural element.
Jungle Cruise is the type of movie where I was expecting to absolutely hate it, while the movie is heavily flawed I couldn’t help but have a lot of fun with it. I’ll start with what I really liked, what made this movie worth watching through the end for me was Emily Blunt. I might be biased because she’s my favorite actress but she really did a solid job in her role, she looked like she had a lot of fun in the role and was very entertaining throughout the movie. The Rock also does a really solid job as well, if there’s one thing that can be said about The Rock it’s that he knows how to sell a movie to the audience. He’s pretty great in front of the camera and always looks like he’s having the time of his life, which fit this movie quite well. The jokes had their moments of genuinely being funny which was mostly the puns (again I might be biased since I love puns) finally I liked that the movie kind of just goes nuts towards the end like yes there are some stylistic choices that were terrible (I’ll get to that) but there are the moments are genuinely enjoyable that make for a really fun movie. As I said before Jungle Cruise is heavily flawed and some of the stylistic choices are some of the major problems, at times the movie tries to be way too serious Jessie Plemons plays one of the villains and I feel like his character feels completely out of place. It also doesn’t help that he wasn’t very good either, other weird choices include going back and forth between being comedic and being serious. Which I’m not saying a movie can’t do that, the editing just sort of made it very awkward in this case. Everything else in the movie such as the writing weren’t bad by any means just nothing really noteworthy, it did the job and that was about it. Overall Jungle Cruise could have been a lot worse, it’s a fun movie to put on during a lazy afternoon. It got the job done and sometimes that’s all a movie needs to do.
Jungle Cruise is now available in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access!
The bodyguard Michael Bryce continues his friendship with assassin Darius Kincaid as they try to save Darius’ wife Sonia.
This is another case where studios will make a sequel out of almost anything, The Hitman’s Bodyguard was generic action comedy that had good actors in it (Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson) they had great chemistry but that was about it. The sequel Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard is more less the same thing, except a few new cast members are added and the jokes aren’t as funny. Morgan Freeman definitely phones it in and it’s very telling from his role, the chemistry between Reynolds and Jackson is at least still decent enough. There are jokes that do land but the problem is that it takes awhile to get to said jokes, a lot of this movie is just a whole lot of nothing. The action is fine I guess but it really isn’t anything to write home about. I really don’t have much else to comment on, as I said it’s almost the same thing as the first movie only that this one is slightly weaker.
The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard is now available on all VOD Platforms!
4/10 D+
Batman pursues a serial killer with the assistance of Police Officer James Gordon and Attorney Harvey Dent. But when the killer takes on the criminal family of the Falcones, Harvey Dent gets caught between the fronts.
Batman The Long Halloween, Part Two is almost identical to it’s predecessor only that this one has more action than drama. Which is exactly what I expected and quite frankly what most people were expecting, like it’s predecessor the voice acting, animation and the dark atmosphere are all really strong and make this movie standout as well. Despite having a lot of action there is also a lot of great character moments that do help in the character development area, the action scenes were quite great as well. Not much else to say, as I said everything I said about the first movie can be applied to this one, so if you loved the first movie you will definitely love this one.
Batman The Long Halloween Part Two is now available on all VOD Platforms!
7/10 B
When Bodi and his band ‘True Blue’ leave Snow Mountain, to tour with pop sensation, Lil’ Foxy, they learn that fame comes at a price.
I know it’s very cliche to say “who asked for this”but it most definitely applies here, Rock Dog was some bad animated movie that came out in 2017 and soon after it’s release it disappeared. I guess someone thought it was a good idea to make a sequel which is ultimately a very pointless one. The animation is extremely cheap it heavily reminds me of those Youtube kids videos animation which is not a good thing, the movie reuses tons of character models as well. The writing is garbage and the story is very predictable, what else do I really need to say? It’s Rock Dog 2 a sequel that nobody asked for.
Rock Dog 2: Rock Around The Park is now available on all VOD Platforms!
How is it August already? So to cut to the chase, August’s lineup is not the strongest sure there’s the obvious ones like The Suicide Squad, Coda, Candyman and a few others but it’s not as big as some of the other months have been. With that said the ones that are on the list I am really excited for, so let’s get right to it!
As always let’s start at the bottom and work our way up to the top!
Starting off there’s Mortal Kombat Legends Battle Of The Realms which is a direct sequel to Scorpion’s Revenge which came out last year (and it was quite a strong movie) it even made my best list last year! I’m glad they are doing a series of animated Mortal Kombat movies, I said in my review for Scorpion’s Revenge that I would love to see what they do next and here we are, can’t wait! It releases August 31st on all VOD platforms!
Cryptozoo I saw back in January at the Sundance film festival, this is one of the ones I’ve been waiting to rewatch for quite sometime. I even said in my review that I want to rewatch it mostly due to how strange and bizarre it really is. This is the type of movie that’s almost guarantee to divide audiences. It releases on all VOD Platforms August 20th!
Homeroom is a film I wanted to see at Sundance but due to my schedule being filled up I couldn’t get the chance. Luckily It has a release date, it looks really solid and I’ve heard it was great! It releases August 12th on Hulu!
Respect is finally going to release this month, Jennifer Hudson is going to do a fantastic job in her role as Aretha Franklin! Not much else to say here! It releases August 13th in theaters!
Reminiscence looks really promising between a really great cast (Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson), a really interesting premise and what looks like a pretty neat atmosphere. I truly hope this movie is great! It releases August 20th on HBO Max and in Theaters!
Annette a film that premiered at Cannes film festival and was met with very divided opinions, some people say it was a waste of time but appreciated the filmmaking. While others say it’s quite incredible and a lot of fun to watch. I’m very excited to check this one out!! Annette releases in theaters August 6th and on Amazon Prime Video August 20th!
There’s not a whole lot on The Witcher: Nightmare Of The Wolf, besides the trailer which is quite great! I do love The Witcher Netflix series and it does seem like they are taking a similar step like they did with the Castlevania Netflix series only that this is a movie. Which I absolutely loved the Castlevania Netflix series so here’s to hoping this is just as good!! It releases August 23rd on Netflix!
Demonic is Neil Blomkamp’s next film his last full length film was Chappie in 2015 this time he’s tackling the horror genre which I have always wanted to see how Blomkamp does the horror genre. The trailer itself looks very promising so I’m pretty excited about it! Demonic releases August 20th on all VOD Platforms!
While I was working on my list I had no idea what to do with Don’t Breathe 2, the marketing has been very awful however that’s because the trailers are misleading the film. Some people linked me to a interview with the director of the first movie Fede Alvarez pretty much saying the marketing is very misleading, I’m willing to trust Alvarez in this case plus he’s co-wrote this movie and he is one of the producers. I’m very excited for this one, I’m a huge fan of the first film that was a surprise hit in 2016! Don’t Breathe 2 releases August 13th in theaters!
The Night House looks really solid, I’m glad that it finally got release date! It has a lot of potential from the trailers, Rebecca Hall looks great and the story seems very interesting! It releases August 20th in theaters!
Speaking of movies that took forever to get a release date…Ema I’ve heard is quite fantastic, I’ve been avoiding trailers mostly due to people saying “the less you know about this movie going in the better” the plot sounds interesting so I’m down! Ema releases August 13th in theaters (and I think VOD don’t quote me on that)
No Man Of God I saw back in March for the SXSW film festival, It was one of my favorite films of the festival and I’m quite excited to rewatch it again. It’s definitely one of the best films about Ted Bundy, Luke Kirby and Elijah Wood both do an incredible job, I highly recommend seeing this one when it releases August 27th on all VOD Platforms!
Candyman is one of my most anticipated films of the entire year, I’ve been waiting to watch it since last year. The trailers are fantastic, the cast looks incredible and it does look like they are doing something different which is quite great! Candyman releases August 27th in theaters!
Every passing day I get more and more excited for The Suicide Squad, from the early reactions it sounds fantastic and a whole lot of fun. There’s also this wonder of “which characters are going to survive and which aren’t” it’s truly all a mystery which I really like! The Suicide Squad releases August 6th in theaters and on HBO Max!
Finally there’s Coda which I saw back at Sundance in January, in fact it was the very first film I saw at Sundance…..and it was one of the best films I saw! Coda is still sitting in my Top 10 Best Films Of 2021 list. It’s truly an incredible film that is such a win for representation when it comes to deaf actors, I cried at least 3 times during the film and I absolutely can not wait to watch it again! Please watch this film when it releases! Coda releases August 13th on Apple TV+
And that’s all she wrote! Despite only having 13 films on the list, August still looks like it can be fantastic when it comes to film! What will you be checking out this month? Are there any movies not on the list you are excited for?
All the rules are broken as a sect of lawless marauders decides that the annual Purge does not stop at daybreak and instead should never end.
The name “Forever Purge” makes sense because spoiler alert they confirmed another one will be made since this one made a ton of money (at the time this was written). The Purge movies at this point have become worn out at this point, I really like The Purge Anarchy and I have a lot of fun with Election Year. But that’s where the series ends for me, while The Forever Purge is an improvement over “The First Purge” it’s still lacking what some of the other movies had. The main issues with The Forever Purge come from the writing, characters and how they aren’t even trying with the political commentary anymore. Look I wasn’t expecting masterclass writing from a purge movie but this was ridiculous, there’s definitely some unintentional hilarious moments but a lot of it is incredibly basic and does very little to keep the interest of the viewer. I will give the movie credit that it does have some decent action scenes, but that’s all they are decent action scenes with nothing really to them. The characters are just not interesting at all, a bunch of them are either stereotypes or are about as interesting as a cardboard cutout, Ana De La Reguera is the only one who I thought did a decent job and at least had some sort of character (that’s being generous) I actually don’t think the acting was all that bad it was the writing that gave a lot of these actors nothing to work with. Finally there’s the political commentary that is an absolute mess in this one, they don’t even try a lot of it boils down to “oh he or she said that! That’s a real issue!” Congratulations you named a real world issue and did absolutely nothing with it, that’s pretty much this entire movie. I get what they were going for with this one but they completely failed, luckily for this movie it is entertaining at times so it does have that going for it. But really is almost the same exact thing as some of the other Purge movies only the plot and characters are different. If you are a fan of the franchise you will probably like this, otherwise don’t bother with this one!
The Forever Purge is now available on all VOD Platforms!
Over the course of six weeks during the summer of 1969, thousands of people attend the Harlem Cultural Festival to celebrate Black history, culture, music and fashion.
Summer Of Soul is a fantastic and very wonderful experience, seeing a lot of footage that was thought to be lost be rediscovered and shown to the public. Especially when it’s about the topic of summer of 1969 where thousands of people attended the Harlem Cultural Festival. The documentary is exactly what the description says it’s about, it’s a huge celebration of Black history, culture, music and fashion and every minute of it is glorious. I have said before how I like lost media being found and then being released to the public, this is a prime example of that. The footage shown is absolutely beautiful, it feels like you are there at the festival with everyone just having a great time. It’s time capsule that’s truly beautiful and captures so much about a community coming together and just having fun while talking about important history and issues. I highly recommend giving this one a look if you haven’t already.
Summer of Soul is now available in Theaters and on Hulu!
A bouncer with an anger-management problem goes on a revenge-fueled rampage after the murder of a friend.
When the trailer for Jolt was released online I wanted to be excited but knew this was going to be a trainwreck, while Jolt is not one of the worst movies to come out of this year so far it’s definitely one of the most forgettable and cliched. Despite dealing with a terrible script Kate Beckinsale gives it her all and does the best she can. My main two problems with this movie are the bunch of moments where Jolt tries to be funny and falls flat on itself and the camera work combined with the editing when it comes to the action scenes. Jolt does what Taken 3 did with the action scenes and editing which is make it as messy as possible so the viewer can’t tell what’s going on whatsoever. Sure every now and then the movie has a couple okay shots but they aren’t anything to write home about, as for the jokes the movie tries to thrown in….good god. Look I get action movies have their jokes and cheesy lines, but none of what was shown in this movie was funny or creative. It was a bunch of “a lot of other action movies have done this, let’s do it ourselves” I genuinely have no idea what they were trying to for here but whatever it was it failed.
Violinist Finley Sinclair travels to an Irish coastal village to begin her semester studying abroad. At the bed-and-breakfast run by her host family, she encounters Beckett Rush, a handsome actor who’s filming another installment of his medieval movie franchise. As romance sparks between the unlikely pair, Beckett ignites a journey of discovery for Finley — transforming her heart, her music and her outlook on life.
I’ll give credit where credit is due at least Brian Baugh improved from his last movie “I’m Not Ashamed” with that said Finding You is still a terrible movie. This movie is a whole lot of nothing that is somehow 119 minutes long, the performances are awful, the pacing is abysmal. What completely destroys this movie is the writing, this feels like somebody wrote a fanfiction and accidentally sent it to a movie studio and the movie studio in question thought this was for a movie. There’s so many different subplots going on in this movie and not one of them has any good development or is the least bit interesting, speaking of which the characters have no chemistry at all. That’s probably mainly due to how this movie feels like a badly written fanfiction as I said before. I really don’t have anything else to say, it’s one of the those movies that feels like a studio releases because they have nothing else to release. Give this a skip..
Finding You is now available on all VOD Platforms!
A man and his wife encounter mysterious clowns while filming a documentary in the woods of North Carolina.
Behind The Sightings releases have being in release date limbo since 2017 when it was supposed to come out. I can easily see why this took so long to release….it’s horrendous. Making a found footage movie based on the Clown Sightings of 2016 is a really interesting idea that definitely had tons of potential. Unfortunately Behind The Sightings completely falls flat on every single level to deliver, right from the beginning the acting is already at a huge low point it feels like nobody tried. It doesn’t get any better at all either, the writing is a huge mess filled with annoying characters and tries way too hard to be scary by using endless amount of jumpscares that you can see coming miles away. What’s even worse is the pacing, it’s amazing that this is a 81 minute movie but feels like an eternity. It’s dreadfully put together so many scenes that feel unnecessary, the last act of the movie is nothing but screaming that tries way too hard. I really don’t know what else to say because Behind The Sightings is a whole lot of nothing, give this one a skip.
Behind The Sightings is now available on all VOD platforms!
When a sea plane is destroyed in a freak accident, five people find themselves drifting on a raft. At the mercy of the tide and with no hope of rescue, the helpless situation takes a horrifying turn when they are terrorised by a ravenous great white.
The sad thing here is I was actually excited for Great White, I was hoping that we would finally get another serious actual very good shark movie like The Shallows (2016)….that did not happen here, Great White can be summarized like this….annoying as hell characters, horribly written story that has been done better a thousand times before, piss poor directing that has no style to it at all. Horrible acting and writing sure there’s a few so bad it’s funny moments but nowhere near as much as you would hope in a bad shark movie. The major problem with this movie is it wants play both ways have serious moments and then try and throw ridiculous scenes in, but what seals this movie’s fate is it isn’t even mainly about the sharks. The Sharks are kind of thrown in there as an afterthought it’s more melodrama and arguing between the terribly written characters, the last 15 minutes are somewhat enjoyable but let me tell you that is not enough to save Great White. Even if you are a fan of bad shark movies I don’t recommend this one, you are better off watching Sharknado 5 times before you watch this one once.
Great White is now available on all VOD platforms!
Jerome Reviews... 