In the not-so-distant future, amid a society madly in love with technology, tech giant Pegazus offers couples the opportunity to share their pregnancies via detachable artificial wombs or pods. So begins Rachel and Alvy’s wild ride to parenthood in this brave new world.
Seems like a running theme with some movies I’ve watched recently has been having good ideas but either poorly executing them or not taking them very far. That’s definitely the case for The Pod Generation.
Emilia Clarke and Chiwetel Ejiofor are both solid in the leading roles and are actually the reason why I watched this movie in the first place, the movie presents a lot of ideas with varying degrees of success. It’s a satirical approach to childbirth there’s a bit of comedy that got a few laughs out of me. But the main focus asking moral questions that the film brings up, plus there’s actually some decent world building that i’m actually quite surprised even happened in movie.
Unfortunately a lot of the movies ideas just don’t go anywhere, it’s very surface level at best and the characters aren’t written very well at all. It almost feels like the movie is holding back from going even bigger, the ending while not bad sets itself up to be something huge but ultimately acts like someone retracting a statement midway through the speech or letter they are discussing.
It’s odd, you have some genuinely solid world building that actually does take time to discuss what this world is and how it’s different than our’s but it forgets to discuss almost everything else. It’s a bit of a shame because the movie itself isn’t terrible, there’s a lot of strong moments and the performances from Clarke and Ejiofor as I said before really make this movie. But sadly this is a very forgettable one.
The Pod Generation is available on all VOD platforms.
Ashley and her daughter turn to Matt, her estranged beach bum father, to help escape a ruthless crime boss.
You would be forgiven if you thought The Retirement Plan was a Netflix original, it has a lot of the similarities that make a bad Netflix original an overdone plot, very few good jokes and a chore to sit through.
The cast at the very least does seem like they are having fun, Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman and Ashley Greene definitely try the best they can with such a lousy script that only has a handful of moments that are passable at best.
Honestly the main issues here are the plot is very by the numbers and a majority of the movie has no impact at all, the movie attempts to use many twists and double crosses but none of that really matters since the characters are written so poorly. The interactions between Bobo (played by Ron Perlman) and Sarah (played by Thalia Campbell) while somewhat decent ultimately doesn’t lead anywhere, it’s just another kid gets kidnapped and talks to one of the henchmen sort of subplot.
Not even Nicolas Cage can really save this movie, he isn’t really given a whole lot to work with and doesn’t have many lines where he could use his charm, it’s a very limited action comedy with no substance to it at all.
The Retirement Plan is available on all VOD Platforms.
A fiercely independent pilot fighting to keep her family business afloat starts to fall for the man sent by corporate to ground her operation forever, forcing her to choose between her heart and her family.
Love Is in the Air is yet another Netflix romantic comedy movie and it’s no different than what came before it.
There’s only so much I can really say here without sounding like a broken record, this is basically a Hallmark movie if it were Australian. This movie is also Delta Goodman’s first film role since 2005 (Hating Alison Ashley), to be absolutely fair to Goodman she was the best part about this movie by a lot.
The same can’t be said for the rest of the movie where there is very little to engage the viewer, there’s so little going on throughout the movie that by the time the second half of the movie rolls around the viewer has already checked out. A majority of what happens is pretty much every single romantic comedy cliche in the book, I get these Netflix romantic comedies are supposed to have a formula and aren’t supposed to be well written masterpieces. But can’t they at least try to make these movies have more substance to them?
That’s the main problem Love is in the Air is essentially every bad Netflix romantic comedy movie from the past combined into one and while it’s not the absolute worst in the catalogue it’s a movie that people will instantly forget about after viewing.
Please note that this review does contain some spoilers!
Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrest apart after Nora’s family emigrates from South Korea. Decades later, they are reunited for one fateful week as they confront destiny, love and the choices that make a life.
There is something to be said about films that make the viewer think about their own past or life, films that are so raw you are convinced you are watching two or more ordinary people interact each other while sharing their experiences with one another….one of those films is Past Lives directed by Celine Song. Going into the film I heard it was brilliant and awhile it absolutely was I do think the word brilliant is a huge understatement.
Right from the beginning Celine Song establishes this raw and beautiful atmosphere that tells a wonderful story from the eyes of Nora (played by Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (played by Teo Yoo) Arthur (played by John Magaro) is important as well but I’ll discuss that in a bit. Also right from the beginning the viewer is treated to some of the best acting in a film so far this year, Greta Lee absolutely hits it out of the park with her down to earth and powerful performance. It’s the type of performance where throughout the film we really get to see everything about the character in this case Nora, we get to see so many character moments, growth and heart that adds so much emotion to the overall theme of the film.
Teo Yoo similarly gives a powerful performance much like Nora, we get to see so much character moments, growth and heart from Hae Sung. He does a fantastic job of playing this childhood friend type that wants to reconnect, this is where the what if theme of the story comes in. John Magaro plays Arthur who is married to Nora, his performance is fantastic and adds to the whole what if theme. There’s a question throughout the film of what if we did something much differently in our lives and what would the result be? Would it be better than what we have currently?
That’s something Hae Sung constantly thinks about it throughout the film what if him Nora didn’t emigrate to Toronto? What if him and Nora didn’t stop talking when they reconnected in 2012? This only further kicks in when the three go out to dinner which leads to one of the best scenes of the film, Nora translates what Hae Sung is saying to Arthur when eventually Sung flat out tells Nora “what they were to each other in their Past Lives and what would have happened if she stayed in South Korea and stayed together” it’s a very touching moment that completely captures the viewer.
Which leads into the final moments of the film some of the absolute best of any film so far this year. It’s such a grounded approach to the story and really finishes the story on the most highest note it could possibly can. Hae Sung ends up leaving for South Korea but before that Hae Sung and Nora have this beautiful and quite moment of staring at each other in front of Arthur and Nora’s apartment, before the Uber arrives Hae Sung says “that maybe they are currently experiencing a past life” this combined with then asking Nora “what their relationship will be in their next life” Nora’s response is simply “I don’t know” after Hae Sung leaves Nora cries in Arthur’s arms and that’s where the film ends. It’s such a powerful ending that really executes the theme of the film in the most perfect way possible.
Past Lives crushed me in the best possible way. Maybe it’s because I felt the film on so many levels especially the restaurant scene and the ending. Maybe it’s because of the raw chemistry between Greta Lee and Teo Yoo who as I’ve said in this review give some of the best performances of the year. Or maybe it’s because the film explores what if scenarios masterfully.
Whatever it was I’m glad a film like Past Lives exists, Celine Song created something truly special that the viewer is going to remember for a very long time.
Archaeologist Indiana Jones races against time to retrieve a legendary artifact that can change the course of history.
Indiana Jones and the Dial Of Destiny is the fifth and final film of the franchise and serves as a sequel to Crystal Skull. Indiana Jones needs no introduction it’s one of the first films most people think of when they hear the word “movie” or “film” the first three movies of the franchise are fantastic in their own ways, it’s what makes the first three films so rewatchable they all have their own personalities and fantastic moments. Then came Crystal Skull which while it’s not one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen, in context with the Indiana Jones series It’s pretty horrendous. James Mangold (Logan, Ford V. Ferrari, and Lost City Of Z) being in the director’s chair gave me some sort of hope that Dial Of Destiny could turn the ship around and get it back on track…it did not.
The movie does have it’s positives, the acting overall is pretty decent. Harrison Ford and Phoebe Waller-Bridge turn in some solid performances and the rest of the cast do a decent job in their own right. John Williams’s score is of course always great and actually gives the movie the life it needed (especially during a lot of scenes that came off as soulless.)
The major problem with Dial Of Destiny is it really lacks the energetic and spark of the first three movies, it strangely feels much slower and tries to fit in with the modern Hollywood landscape. Which ultimately backfires on it and ends up being a very below average adventure movie because of it, when you combine that with a very lackluster script that doesn’t execute it’s story well you have yourself a slog of a movie.
The character’s are just not great despite the acting and chemistry being quite solid, there was very little character moments and development to make the viewer care for a lot of these characters. As much as I liked Phoebe Waller-Bridge her character was just not well written, that goes for the villains as well who completely lack in memorability.
Overall Indiana Jones and the Dial Of Destiny is better than Crystal Skull but is an incredibly weak closer to the franchise.
Indiana Jones and the Dial Of Destiny is available on all VOD platforms.
When the children of the world’s greatest secret agents unwittingly help a powerful game developer unleash a computer virus that gives him control of all technology, they must become spies themselves to save their parents and the world.
Spy Kids: Armageddon is the fifth Spy Kids movie and serves as a reboot to the series, a reboot that was absolutely not needed as well as offering nothing new to the series.
Look I’m well past the age demographic of these movies and I did not go into this movie expecting a masterpiece, however Spy Kids: Armageddon completely misses so much of what made Spy Kids so fun in the first place. I’m not going to act like the Spy Kids movies are well written pieces of cinema but at least the first two had charm too it.
With Armageddon there is very little charm, the cast don’t work nearly as well at all. Zackery Levi and Gina Rodriguez as the parents are uninteresting and really phone it in. Connor Esterson and Everly Carganilla as the leads have some decent moments and at the very least do seem like they are having some bit of fun in certain scenes.
It doesn’t help that Armageddon reuses so many plot elements from other movies and makes them worse, for example there’s the part when the family has to fend off skeletons which is from Spy Kids 2, the movie being centered around video games and set inside a video game that’s Spy Kids 3D. Heck even character traits are reused such as a lot of the jokes being at the expense of the brother, the parents not telling the kids they are spies and the sister having a comeback roast. It’s absolute laziness and wants to come off as a throwback type of movie but it isn’t really a throwback when you are just using the exact same ideas but only somehow making them worse.
Everything else that isn’t reused is quite forgettable, some of the action scenes for some reason take themselves a bit too seriously which is completely odd considering the whole point of why people like the first two Spy Kids movies is they don’t take themselves seriously. It’s a very odd tone shift that completely doesn’t work at all.
Overall Spy Kids: Armageddon was a terrible reboot that offered nothing new to the series, I’m sure the age demographic will get a kick out of this one. Everyone else not so much.
While driving with his two kids, a man receives a phone call from an unknown assailant who claims there is a bomb in the car. Unable to exit the vehicle, he must now follow a series of twisted instructions while trying to figure out how to survive.
Retribution is the third remake of the 2015 Spanish film El desconocido (I haven’t seen that one so I won’t be comparing) this movie is also another you guessed it Liam Neeson action thriller that is in the same vein as Non-Stop, The Commuter, The Marksman, Blacklight, The Ice Road, Run All Night and so many others that have released the last 5 or 6 years.
It’s gotten to the point where I just have very little to say about these movies because a majority of them are the exact same thing just tweaked around a bit, I guess Retribution isn’t as bad as some of the others but that doesn’t really mean much.
Liam Neeson gives a fine enough performance but you can really tell his heart isn’t into it anymore, at least with Non-Stop, The Commuter or Run All Night you can at least tell he genuinely cared and gave a pretty strong performance. With this one you don’t feel that at all, a few moments pop up every now and then but it’s not enough to call his performance good. The rest of the cast do a fine enough job and manage to push the movie to the finish line particularly Jack Champion and Lilly Aspell.
Everything else could honestly be boiled down to generic Liam Neeson action thriller movie elements (the action scenes are actually not awful it’s just they aren’t really noteworthy), they are the same sort of thing they have been in other movies. There is the ridiculous twist that you can easily see coming from ten miles away, it makes very little sense if you think about it for more than a second, I’m not sure how this was executed in the original movie but I’m willing to place bets that it was much better executed and didn’t end up being ridiculous.
Overall if you like these Liam Neeson movies you are going to probably have a decent time with this one, if you are hoping this one is going to be any different than the other movies you are going to be disappointed.
A teen links the mysterious disappearance of his sister to a supernatural game that’s played in elevators.
It’s been said time and time again that making movies based off of Creepypastas (basically just scary copypasta stories) always end up being awful most notable Slender Man (2018). Creepypastas had a huge boom in the early 2010s to the late 2010s but have now died out. Elevator Game is based off of the ritual creepypasta story where if you go into an elevator and press a certain combination of floors you can end up in some dimension with ghosts. It’s a neat idea for a film but unfortunately it’s executed in the most painfully dull way possible.
Rebekah McKendry who did a solid job directing Glorious (2022) is in the director’s chair, the one positive Elevator Game has going for it is the filming. There’s actually a decent number of shots that actually don’t look half bad, if there’s one thing to be said McKendry and cinematographer Brad Crawford have a nice eye for shot composition.
Everything else however is your very typical teen themed horror movie and not the fun kind or ones where we get some interesting character development, most of these characters are here to be killed off and that’s about it. Which would be fine if the kills were at least decent but that’s not the case (outside of one kill). The pacing combined with the incredibly weak script doesn’t do this movie any favors either, it’s yet another Youtubers/influencers get themselves in a bad situation type of deal and if you have seen at least one of these types of movies you have seen this one.
We get some backstory on why the ghost haunts the elevator but it’s not nearly enough for the viewer to really care, it’s honestly quite a shame because I do think with a far better script and a more interesting approach to the story Elevator Game could have been a decent movie.
After years of being sheltered from the human world, the Turtle brothers set out to win the hearts of New Yorkers and be accepted as normal teenagers. Their new friend, April O’Neil, helps them take on a mysterious crime syndicate, but they soon get in over their heads when an army of mutants is unleashed upon them.
At this point when a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film is released you kind of know what to expect, some of the movies over the years range in quality and there’s always at least some fun to be had (whether it be so bad it’s funny or genuinely fun.) So I went into Mutant Mayhem with the same mindset and in a very interesting way the focus is not only on the action or jokes but there’s an emotional core to it as well.
For starters I truly think casting actual teenagers as the turtles really benefited the film, there is some surprisingly touching moments between the four that the viewer really connects with and really makes you believe that they genuinely care about each other. Nicolas Cantu, Micah Abbey, Brady Noon and Shamon Brown Jr. all do a fantastic job as the turtles and bring so much energy and heart to the roles. We don’t often really get to see the teenager side of the turtles in a lot of these movies, but we get to see that a whole lot here which makes the film quite fresh.
There’s even this coming of age element to the film, the turtles wanting to be accepted into the human world. It’s a very interesting take that sure might not be exactly a brand new idea but it’s a much different direction from what we usually get from these movies and it works really well here. The jokes aren’t entirely the center focus here even with the supporting cast like Seth Rogen (plays Bebop), John Cena (plays Rocksteady) or even Ice Cube (plays Superfly), there’s a strong balance of comedy and more dramatic moments that is carefully done throughout the film.
The animation is also stunning, much like The Bad Guys or Puss In Boots: The Last Wish it’s inspiration comes from the Spidrer-Verse movies yet makes the style it’s own. Between the attention to detail, to the character’s emotions and actions there’s so much detail to the animation that really paints a beautiful picture.
Overall Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem puts the series in a different direction that is absolutely welcome, excellent character moments, energetic animation, touching moments and so much more make this movie worth the ride.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is available on all VOD platforms.
Two teens hatch a risky plan to save their families when an occupying alien species leaves most of the planet impoverished and unemployed.
Landscape With Invisible Hand is Cory Finley’s third film his previous two being Throughbreds (2017) and Bad Education (2019) two incredible films with the former being one of the best films of the 2010s. Unfortunately Landscape With Invisible Hand does not reach the same level of greatness as Finley’s previous two films even on it’s own the movie is a mishmash of interesting ideas done with painfully dull execution.
The performances from Asante Blackk and Kylie Rogers are both solid and are by far what carries the movie to the finish line, Tiffany Haddish gives a fine enough performance (definitely one of her best in awhile) and the side arc that the movie explores with Haddish’s character is one of the brighter spots of the movie. Even if the end result doesn’t end with a huge bang like the movie thinks it’s going to.
There’s a lot of ideas here such as exploring class inequality, traditional family roles, race and art in general but none of it is really explored in greater detail. Instead they all sort of get lost in the movie’s absurd worldbuilding that ultimately doesn’t amount to anything compelling. The aliens themselves look neat but we are really never given a lot of background about them, it doesn’t help that the tone becomes incredibly inconsistent. One moment there will be an attempt talking about one of the topics I mentioned and the next will be one of the aliens attempting to crack a joke.
The pacing is what really hurts the movie the most, it’s way too slow and only draws out as long as it can because it wants to shove as many ideas as possible yet doesn’t touch most of them in greater detail. It’s a bit of a shame because I do think Landscape With Invisible Hand could definitely work, but as it stands it’s a very messy Sci-Fi movie that doesn’t know what it wants to be and is overall very forgettable.
Landscape With Invisible Hand is available on all VOD platforms.
Jerome Reviews... 