A troubled police officer is recruited by the FBI’s chief investigator to help profile and track down a disturbed individual terrorizing Baltimore, Maryland.
To Catch A Killer is if you gave any random cop show you would see on TV a higher budget and made it into a movie, there is honestly very little to say here.
The performances from Shailene Woodley and Ben Mendelsohn are great and there’s a few shots here that are enjoyable, there’s also a few character moments that do work decently well. But a lot of the movie really sticks with the traditional formula of cop shows that is way too familiar for fans of the genre as well as not being very exciting at all.
Honestly had this been a 30 minute TV episode it would have been far better, the pacing would have been far better and the movie wouldn’t had focused on details that quite frankly don’t contribute much to the story. I really don’t have anything else to say here unfortunately.
To Catch A Killer is available on all VOD platforms.
Dom Toretto and his family are targeted by the vengeful son of drug kingpin Hernan Reyes.
Fast X is the first of the three part finale of the Fast & Furious series, the last few installments in the series particularly Fate Of The Furious and F9 were not good. Luckily Fast X is a huge improvement over the two and is just what the series needed to get back on track (no pun intended).
Performance wise Jason Momoa is easily the standout, while everyone else does a pretty solid job (some far better than others) Momoa takes his performance as the villain and goes full on looney tunes with it. It’s incredibly entertaining and surprisingly never gets old, each time he appears on screen he’s always doing something different or has something entertaining to say. He also comes off as threatening to the other characters in a darkly funny way that works quite well, it’s definitely what the series needed.
Daniela Melchior, Brie Larson, John Cena and Charlize Theron are also pretty solid as well, they have limited amount of screentime (outside of John Cena who gets a decent amount) but they are pretty solid. The action scenes are quite a lot of fun, this is definitely some of the best there’s ever been for the series in a very long time, some action scenes do tend to go on for a bit longer than they should but that’s to be expected at this point.
Honestly the main issue mainly comes from the movie falling apart towards the end mainly due to juggling so many different plot lines, which while yes Fast X is the first part of a three part finale It still has some plot lines that aren’t particularly interesting or have very little going on. It’s nice that the movie gave each of the characters at least something to do, whether those things are interesting is very debatable. The ending is definitely abrupt which again is expected and honestly fits the energy of this franchise quite well.
Honestly there really isn’t much else to say Fast X is the very definition of a Fast & Furious film, if you are a fan of the franchise you will absolutely love this one. It does everything an installment of the series should do and for the most part accomplishes it. However if you are someone who is getting sick of the franchise this one won’t win you over, it is definitely a huge step up from the last few movies but anyone who wishes for the quality of Furious 7, Fast Five or Fast & Furious 6 isn’t going to get that here.
A martial artist-in-training believes she must save her older sister from her impending marriage. After enlisting the help of her friends, she tries to pull off the most ambitious of all wedding heists in the name of independence and sisterhood.
Polite Society is a wild ride and it’s definitely a very interesting one that I’ve been quite curious about.
The acting in particular is very strong here Priya Kansara and Ritu Arya have excellent chemistry between one another, director Nida Manzoor does a beautiful job of capturing this sister bond the two have with one another. Manzoor also manages to make it surprisingly raw and touching in a lot of areas, I say surprising because on the surface the movie seem like just a highly energized action comedy film. But there is so much more than that in fact that doesn’t even begin to describe how much character is in the film.
The film does a fantastic job of mixing the coming of age story genre and the action genre with some comedy thrown in as well, action and coming of age are two genres that you don’t often see mix in film but Manzoor combines them in such an interesting way. She gives these characters so much determination take for example the main character Rita Khan (played by Priya Kansara) she wants to be a stuntwoman, so Manzoor works the action genre into that idea and creates some beautifully done action scenes.
The action scenes are electrifying and really grab the viewer’s attention quickly, there’s a lot of character to them and are overall very entertaining to watch. The film does get a bit more bizarre as it goes on and even then Nida Manzoor still holds on to the film and introduces these bizarre scenes sparingly.
Lastly Polite Society has a ton of heart that really does get the viewer to feel for these characters, it’s a very fast paced journey that you honestly don’t want to stop at all. Be sure to check this one out!
Father Gabriele Amorth, chief exorcist for the Vatican, battles Satan and innocent-possessing demons. A detailed portrait of a priest who performed more than 100,000 exorcisms in his lifetime.
I’m definitely a bit surprised with Julius Avery’s (Overlord, Son Of A Gun and Samaritan) The Pope’s Exorcist, while it is very heavily flawed and is quite frankly outclassed by better horror films that have come out this year so far (it didn’t help that this movie came out a week before Evil Dead Rise and Beau is Afraid) I still think there is a whole lot to enjoy here.
Russell Crowe gives quite a fun performance with tons of darkly hilarious moments that actually work quite well in the movie’s favor, the rest of the cast does a fine enough job sure they sort of just fill the typical exorcism horror type of roles but the material they are given allows them to actually work with something.
The second half I would definitely say is the strongest part, the movie throws everything it’s got and for the most part is a whole lot of fun. The first half does suffer from typical exorcism horror story beats that have been done far better elsewhere, with that said Russell Crowe truly makes the movie as I said before. He adds his own goofy tone to the script when he feels it’s needed while also making the narrative serious as well.
There really isn’t that much else to The Pope’s Exorcist, it’s a very traditional exorcism movie that has it’s positives and is actually genuinely fun. It’s not something I’m ever going to come back to anytime soon. But with so many terrible exorcism movies that have nothing really to them this was a breath of fresh air.
The Pope’s Exorcist is available on all VOD platforms.
From Olympic Gold medalist to World Heavyweight champion, boxer George Foreman leads a remarkable life. He finds his faith, retires and becomes a preacher. When financial hardship hits his family and church, George steps back in the ring and regains the championship at age 45, becoming the oldest heavyweight champion in boxing history.
George Foreman is a very interesting man that had a very inspiring boxing career where he made such a fantastic comeback, his childhood rough but he didn’t let that stop him at all. His story is truly an inspiring one that I am glad to see is still being told, however Big George Foreman unfortunately falls apart in a lot of ways that do ultimately hurt the movie badly.
The cast did a decent job Khris Davis who plays George Foreman does a pretty good job here, but is unfortunately held back from being even better due to the script just not letting this movie be more than a Wikipedia article but in a movie. That’s quite honestly the main issue here a lot of this is very surface level stuff that can be easily learned from Foreman’s Wikipedia page.
I have to echo what some other critics have been saying but I absolutely do think that this movie would have been a lot better if it was either a documentary or a miniseries, that way they could focus on some of the biggest parts of Foreman’s life rather than quickly moving on from them. A lot of the boxing scenes are fine enough but just are severely lacking atmosphere and tension, it’s supposed some of Foreman’s big moments yet there’s very little power to them.
While the dialogue isn’t necessarily terrible, it lacks a lot of what could have made this biopic so interesting. It plays on the line of being way too safe and doing anything memorable, Big George Foreman is also way too long with a run time of 2 hours and 13 minutes the pacing does not help in this case. There’s definitely moments here that do shine quite well, but unfortunately those are very far and few in between.
Big George Foreman is available on all VOD platforms.
Carl Nargle, a local treasure with a soothing whisper of a voice, hosts his own painting show on Vermont public television. His art has attracted the attention of many women over the years, especially those who work at the station. However, when a new painter gets hired to revitalize the channel, Carl’s own fears regarding his talents as an artist are brought to the forefront.
If you don’t know a single thing about Paint and you just heard about it you would think that it’s trying to be a biopic about Bob Ross the famous painter who had a very highly viewed TV show, however that’s not the case. It’s a biopic about a man named Carl Nargle who happens to be a lot like Bob Ross. However that ultimately starts to confuse the viewer as it is quite clear that they have Owen Wilson try to do a Bob Ross impression.
Honestly Paint could be summed up as a 90 minute SNL skit that is incredibly unfunny, the best thing I can really say is Owen Wilson can be enjoyable at times and I don’t think the rest of the cast are particularly bad either. It’s mainly the script that is filled to the brim with unfunny jokes is what wrecks this movies.
A lot of it is so tonally inconsistent either and wants to claim it’s about a guy named Carl but also wants to be this parody of Bob Ross, the switch in tones from trying to have dramatic moments with dry humor that doesn’t blend well at all turns this movie into a gigantic mess that refuses to come together.
Paint could have been interesting if it had far better writing and actually had focus on what it truly wanted to be, instead of going for the throwing ideas at a wall and seeing what sticks approach.
Two ballers, opposites who are seemingly miles apart, find they might have more in common than they imagined possible.
Remember how earlier this month I talked about Cube (2021) being a very pointless remake that is barely different from the original? Well here’s another remake that follows from some of the exact same problems (only worse) White Men Can’t Jump is a remake of the 1992 film of the same name. Even if I’m not that huge on the original I still think it’s a solid movie that had a lot of great chemistry that was genuinely funny, Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson had fantastic chemistry that really felt natural so it would be very hard to try and capture that sort of chemistry again.
White Men Can’t Jump (2023) suffers from a lot of issues and a lot of them have to do with the script and the very lacking chemistry between Jack Harlow and Sinqua Walls, Harlow and Walls are definitely at least trying to make the bond between the two work. But unfortunately it doesn’t quite work outside of a few moments that are admittedly some of the best parts about the movie.
Their chemistry just doesn’t capture the same sort of magic that Snipes and Harrelson had in the original, as I said earlier the chemistry in the original felt natural while with this one is a lot more manufactured and really does not come together at all. As far as writing goes while it’s fine to try and not be an exact copy of the original, the changes in the script they went with are very questionable.
Having pop culture references such as Tiktok really doesn’t fit here at all and once again comes off as wanting someone who’s watching to point their finger and say “they said Tiktok” the script also wraps up like a Disney channel original movie, such as talking about very half baked morals that if you took them out wouldn’t change a thing.
Lastly there’s the trash talk which the original did have, but at least the original’s trash talk was executed in a somewhat raw way so the viewer could feel the impact. But here while the lines may seem harsh the viewer doesn’t feel anything due to it being executed so poorly, the power, confidence and intimidation is just not there at all to make these lines work at all.
Overall White Men Can’t Jump (2023) is yet another example of a remake that did not need to be made, the main question when the credits rolled in my head was “why was this made?” I know it’s a cliched question to ask with a lot of bad remakes, but I think it fits appropriately here considering that this is absolutely a remake that nobody asked for.
A womanizer and a gold digger team up to pursue two robot versions of themselves.
I really don’t have much to say here, Robots had a lot of potential to be interesting but sadly it doesn’t amount to much.
Shailene Woodley is definitely trying here and the movie itself at least looks decently made, there’s a few shots here that are nice to look at. But that’s where the positives end.
Somehow the movie makes the concept of Robots taking over incredibly dull, with a very tacked on political message that really does not come together at all. The movie quickly turns into a mess, the road to get to the end of the movie is a rough one. I absolutely hate using this word in my reviews but Robots is about as boring as watching paint dry, there is very little going on and none of the characters are given proper development.
Serial killers Johnny and Clyde are madly in love and on an endless crime spree. They set their sights on robbing crime boss Alana’s casino, which is under the guard of her demonic warrior.
Johnny & Clyde is what happens when you take everything that made Natural Born Killers so disturbing, looney and interesting then proceeded to replace it with the most dull elements possible.
Outside of Megan Fox (who needs to fire her agent immediately) there is absolutely nothing here that many Bonnie and Clyde clones haven’t already done, this goes for a more Natural Born Killers approach where they try to capture the performances of Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis.
But the movie almost immediately falls flat on it’s face due to the writing being truly terrible in every single way you could imagine, I’m sure Avan Jogia and Ajani Russell are both fine actors they are just given material that I don’t think any actor could have really made it work. A lot of it reads as early 2000s bad fanfiction that wants to be edgy. One of the lines is literally “We could be the darkest fairy tale of all time”
There’s so many plot holes as well even to the point where they start to throw ideas at a wall and somehow come up with a demon, it makes very little sense but the rest of the movie doesn’t make sense so why bother right?
I’m not exactly sure what the overall goal of Johnny & Clyde was but if it was to make you want to watch Natural Born Killers instead then it accomplishes it’s goal quite well.
Living on an island off the Cornish coast, a wildlife volunteer’s daily observations of a rare flower takes a dark turn into the strange and metaphysical, forcing her to question what is real and what is a nightmare.
Enys Men is one that I’ve been excited for quite awhile now and I definitely think the film sort of follows in the same vein as Skinamarink and The Outwaters which is a very good thing especially if you are into experimental horror films.
I honestly have no idea what exactly happened in Enys Men as the film really keeps it up to the viewer’s interpretation quite a lot, every now and then you will get some narration or dialogue. But mostly the viewer is on their own which quite honestly works in this case.
Mary Woodvine who’s in the leading role does quite a fantastic job, she gives a raw performance that can be quite chilling at times especially when you combine her with the landscape and overall atmosphere. Speaking of which the atmosphere is quite haunting, it’s similar to the atmosphere of Skinamark except rather than having a nightmare like feel to it this one has more island combined with a dream or unknown type feel. There’s a mystery of what’s really real and what isn’t, as the film continues on you start to slowly but surely figure out what is actually real and what isn’t.
The entire film is shot on a 16mm camera and it really does a fantastic job of telling the story, there’s certain shots where the film will have the setting in this case the island to tell the story and sometimes that’s all you really need. You don’t need to film twenty different actions going on at once you can let the atmosphere and setting tell the viewer what they need to know.
There’s also the mystery of what this island used to be? Who use to live here? What did they do? So many questions that are definitely hinted at with just the right amount of visuals and shots but at the same time doesn’t flat out tell the viewer what happened.
Enys Men is definitely not going to be for everyone, with that said if it sounds like your thing and you love experimental horror films then you will more than likely love this one.
Jerome Reviews... 