Sisu is a show don’t tell entertaining ride from beginning to end.

During the last days of World War II, a solitary prospector crosses paths with Nazis on a scorched-Earth retreat in northern Finland. When the soldiers decide to steal his gold, they quickly discover they just tangled with no ordinary miner.

Sisu is if you took Mad Max Fury Road and John Wick and asked the question “what if it took place during near the end of World War II?” You would get Sisu a movie that admittedly shares a lot of the same elements as John Wick but still manages to be a complete blast. 

Jorma Tommila plays Aatami Korpi a solider who is now a miner and is feared among many rival soldiers some people calling him “immortal” which is quite accurate because this guy picks apart this group of Nazis one by one. Tommila gives a very intimidating performance and really captures the atmosphere the film is going for quite well, the cinematography when combined with the location are very beautiful and makes for some very interesting action scenes. We get to explore around the many battlefields, it has this eeriness to it that is actually quite effective. 

The action scenes are quite fantastic, filled to the brim with gore and lots of pretty strong kills that really make the film a very entertaining ride. The action during the last 10 minutes or so does get a little too silly but I guess it does fit the whole “this man is unbeatable” idea, outside of Aatami Korpi the other characters don’t get much in the way of development. The main villains are Bruno Helldorf played by Aksel Hennie and his subordinate Wolf played by Jack Doolan. The performances from Hennie and Doolan are both very good, the characters however are just ultimately higher ranked Nazis. They aren’t that much different from the ones they are leading, except just lasting much longer in the movie. 

Overall Sisu thematically might not have a lot going on as it is very straightforward and honestly tells you from the trailer what you are getting, but it is very fun film that is really solid. It’s not going to reinvent the action genre but it is yet another solid one from this year. 

Sisu is available in theaters. 

8/10 B+

The Covenant is a solid war thriller with solid performances.

During the war in Afghanistan, a local interpreter risks his own life to carry an injured sergeant across miles of gruelling terrain.

Of the two Guy Richie films that have been released this year The Covenant and Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, The Covenant is by far the better of the two.

While The Covenant is not based on a true story the movie does state that there have been situations where interpreters have put themselves on the line of danger to save injured sergeants. First and foremost the performances from Jake Gyllenhaal who plays John Kinley and Dar Salim who plays Ahemd are both quite fantastic here, the bond between is truly fantastic and while yes it’s a cliched question in movie the whole “how far would you go to save someone who saved your life” thing works here. 

The first two acts are very well done especially when it comes to atmosphere that truly is thrilling and I really have to say for a first time directing a war movie Guy Richie does a really good job of nailing down the atmosphere of war, it might not be up there with some of the greats such as Hacksaw Ridge, 1917 or All Quiet On The Western Front. But it honestly doesn’t need to be, Richie made the atmosphere his own and made it quite interesting. 

Unfortunately The Covenant does suffer from two major flaws the first being the third act, while it isn’t awful as it does keep some thrilling moments which were previously in the first two acts. It doesn’t have a whole lot of development unfortunately, we are introduced to some characters who get about 7 minutes of screentime and then are pretty much never seen again. The action scenes during the third act are nowhere near as thrilling as they were than the first two acts, it turns into an action scene you would expect from over the top action movies. Which yes I get there’s going to be action scenes but I can’t help but feel like that it takes away from the quietness and atmospheric feeling that was in the other two acts. 

Lastly there’s the messaging of the movie, while the movie does have a very good intentioned message that interpreters are important and should be talked about more (which I agree with) when it comes to the War in Afghanistan, it honestly doesn’t explore all that much about the interpreters. Outside of Dar Salim’s character Ahmed we aren’t given a whole lot of information about interpreters and how important they are, it’s only at the end of the movie where some text shows up and then the credits show army soldiers being buddies with interpreters. It’s a shame because I do think the topic of interpreters gets very overshadowed and nowhere near as much attention as it should. 

With that said I do think The Covenant is a solid movie with some really strong acting and Guy Richie trying to do something a bit different with the war movie genre. There’s a lot to like about this one. 

The Covenant is playing in theaters. 

7/10 B

Peter Pan & Wendy is yet another forgettable Disney live action remake.

Wendy Darling, a young girl looking to avoid boarding school, meets Peter Pan, a boy who refuses to grow up. Wendy, her brothers, and Tinker Bell travel with Peter to the magical world of Neverland, where she encounters an evil pirate captain.

I’ve shared my thoughts on the whole Disney live action remake thing that Disney has been doing the last several years, while there are some that are genuinely good (Jungle Book, Pete’s Dragon Cinderella, Christopher Robin and Cruella) a majority of them are just not good and serve the purpose of being made for a quick buck. Peter Pan & Wendy I was hoping would be decent enough since David Lowery did a very solid job with Pete’s Dragon (which honestly could be argued that it’s better than the original), while you do feel Lowery’s direction here it’s nowhere near as strong as it was in Pete’s Dragon. 

There is actually handful of things to like here, most notably some of the performances and the filming, David Lowery does what he does best and makes the film very stunning, while Neverland can be dark a lot of the time it does make that up with some quite strong visuals and beautiful shots. The performances that standout here is Jude Law as Hook, Ever Gabo Anderson as Wendy and Alyssa Wapanatahk as Tiger Lily

Jude Law really sells it as Hook he can be intimidating but also be goofy which actually does a pretty solid job of capturing the character, he honestly seemed like he was having an absolute blast playing Hook so that probably helps as well. Alyssa Wapantahk does a pretty solid job as Tiger Lily, while it’s not a performance to write home about she does a very decent job of capturing the character. Finally there’s Ever Gabo Anderson who’s definitely going to be a future star, she does really good job capturing the character of Wendy and ends up having some of the best scenes of the movie. 

Where Peter Pan & Wendy falls short is memorability there’s a lot of scenes here that don’t really have anything of note going on, Alexander Molony is just not a very good Peter Pan, while he isn’t flat out bad he doesn’t really bring anything new to the character. His performance is more dull than anything else and technically gets the job done but that doesn’t make it good. 

It’s also quite clear when the direction of the movie seems very lost, I hinted at earlier at that while there are some very beautiful shots here Neverland is still very dark and dreary, I’m not exactly sure what is making recent Peter Pan adaptions have this idea that Neverland was a depressing place, Neverland is an adventurous, lively and whimsical place where you never grow up. Although I will give credit Neverland does look far better here than it did in Pan (2015), at least with this movie you have Lowery’s direction and style. 

Overall Peter Pan & Wendy isn’t something I would call bad, it just has a lot of flaws that sadly stack up and ultimately hold this movie back. It’s far better than a lot of the recent Disney live action remakes and it’s a huge improvement over Pan (2015) (then again that’s not exactly hard when you have a scene where the pirates randomly start singing Nirvana’s It Smells Like Teen Spirit). 

Peter Pan & Wendy is available on Disney+ 

5/10 C

Ghosted (2023) is a disaster

Cole falls head over heels for enigmatic Sadie, but then makes the shocking discovery that she’s a secret agent. Before they can decide on a second date, Cole and Sadie are swept away on an international adventure to save the world.

I said in my review for You People (2023) that over the years I’ve been much more positive when it comes to bad movies especially in my reviews. And I still stand by that (even if that was just a few months ago) I can recognize that there was some level of attempt in a lot of movies that I reviewed not favorably…however Ghosted is one of those movies where it truly breaks the camel’s back because this is quite honestly one of the worst looking movies I’ve seen in a very long time. 

Let’s start with the acting Ana de Armas and Chris Evans have no chemistry at all, it’s completely dull has no personality to it, tries way too hard to balance some serious moments and comedy but completely falls flat on it’s face. The performances are not good either Chris Evan’s is for whatever reason trying to be Ryan Reynolds 2.0 and Ana de Armas is given very poor material to work with. 

The writing absolutely does feel like it was written by an AI, it honestly baffles me that someone read the script and gave the okay, there’s cameos that are incredibly pointless, humor that insults the viewer’s intelligence and a bunch of plot points that have been done far better elsewhere. What really kills this movie however is the action scenes and the camerawork, there’s so many unconvincing shots of Ana de Armas and Chris Evans together it truly looks like they weren’t on set together at all. The level of just not caring is truly incredible with this movie, heck the fact this was directed by Dexter Fletcher director of Rocketman is truly beyond parody. 

Ghosted goes through every single predictable plot point you can think of and executes them in the worst way you can think of, what makes this even worse is that the movie itself is incredibly dull and devoid of any personality. At least with some bad movies they do have a personality where you can somewhat be entertained by them, but here? Nothing at all! 

Ghosted is available on Apple TV+ 

Disgrace To Cinema F

Rock Dog 3: Battle the Beat for some reason exists.

Hoping to inspire a new generation of rock stars, Bodi joins a musical competition show and becomes an overnight TV personality sensation.

Rock Dog 3: Battle the Beat is directed by Anthony Bell the same director who directed Norm Of The North: Family Vacation. That in itself should tell you the quality of this movie but I’ll talk a bit about it anyway. 

Rock Dog is one of those movies that got sequels for no real reason, while the first movie wasn’t atrocious it was most certainly not good either. It was on the very forgettable side of things for the most part, the sequel Rock Dog 2: Rock Around The Park was just a garbage direct to DVD sequel, that I honestly couldn’t tell you what happened in it. Rock Dog 3: Battle the Beat quite honestly falls in line with the previous movie, it’s a whole lot of nothing when you really get down to it. 

I do like the idea of one of the characters wanting to create a singing competition only because they miss people saying rude comments and overall being nasty to each other, there’s one or two jokes here that got a slight chuckle out of me but that’s quite honestly about it. 

The characters are about what you expect and the whole idea itself isn’t well put together, it’s watered down due to being in a movie that’s aimed for much younger audiences. Had this idea been used in something else (heck I’m pretty sure The Simpsons or Family Guy did this exact same sort of thing before) where it had the freedom to tell some much better material I think this could have been genuinely funny. 

Everything else from the characters and writing there’s just not a whole lot to talk about, Bodi is more less the exact same character from the previous movies and doesn’t really go under any development here. I really got nothing, I guess since Norm Of The North has been dormant since 2020 somebody randomly picked another very bad animated movie series to give a sequel to (in this case another) and I guess Rock Dog was the pick this time around. 

Rock Dog 3: Battle the Beat is available on all VOD platforms. 

1/10 F

Suzume blends reality and fantasy masterfully.

A modern action adventure road story where a 17-year-old girl named Suzume helps a mysterious young man close doors from the other side that are releasing disasters all over in Japan.

Going into Suzume I knew very little outside of Makoto Shinkai being the director who’s previous work is very impressive particularly Weathering With You and Your Name both of which are very fantastic films. Suzume continues to show how incredible Shinkai is as a filmmaker and really surprises the viewer as well. 

The voice cast are all fantastic here and really deliver some very beautiful moments especially during the final act of the film, what makes the film standout quite a lot is that it pulls you in fantasy combined with some coming of age and road trip movie elements. But then slowly starts to introduce some reality type of elements such as losing a loved one, by that point the film has pulled you in making the viewer be treated to some very crushing scenes that are filled with emotion. 

As always when it comes to Makoto Shinkai’s work the animation is absolutely stunning, it’s a combination of reality and this dreamlike world that takes the viewer on an adventure while never letting go. There’s so much detail to the animation and the character’s as well that really bring the film together and only bring the viewer closer to the characters. 

There’s many creative ideas here that are very well developed, Shinkai takes ideas or plot points we are familiar with such as the road trip premise or the coming of age genre and completely makes it his own. We also get to meet several characters even if some of them aren’t in the film for very long, the humor and Suzume’s interactions with the characters makes up for that. When the film reaches it’s final act it starts to introduce a lot of hard hitting themes that can be very relatable to the viewer and is quite a beautiful way to bring the film together. 

The film has the theme of struggling with loss, how we cope with loss and that letting go can be okay, Suzume as a character goes through this and is absolutely well written. She’s a character that easily connects to the viewer mainly due to just how masterfully written she really is. 

Overall Suzume is a beautiful blend between fantasy and realistic elements that all come together to create a beautiful film. 

Suzume is available in theaters. 

10/10 A+

Renfield is a flawed horror comedy that could have been more.

Renfield, the tortured aide to his narcissistic boss, Dracula, is forced to procure his master’s prey and do his every bidding. However, after centuries of servitude, he’s ready to see if there’s a life outside the shadow of the Prince of Darkness.

Renfield immediately got me very excited once I saw that Nicolas Cage was casted as Dracula a role in which he was born to do, but how does the overall movie fair? 

Well let’s start with the positives, as I hinted at earlier Nicolas Cage knocks it out of the park as Dracula. While his screentime could have been a lot more whenever he absolutely takes advantage the role when he shows up, it’s classic Nicolas Cage at his finest and his performance honestly shows why he’s such a fun actor to watch on the big screen. 

The same can be really said for Nicholas Hoult like Cage he’s a lot of fun and when you combine the interactions between Hoult and Cage you truly do get some entertaining results, the Mortal Kombat like kills are quite incredible as well. They were quite unexpected given that the trailer made the movie come off as just another horror comedy, but there are actually some quite brutal kills here that are quite exciting and combine it with some really solid action scenes as well. 

With that said the movie does have it’s flaws that do ultimately hurt it, the humor mostly just doesn’t work here unfortunately. There’s a lot of parts with Cage that work well but just about everything else especially with Awkwafina who gives a very forgettable performance doesn’t quite work. The chemistry between Hoult and Awkwafina is just not there at all, they really tried to shoehorn this whole love interest subplot that really doesn’t fit well at all here. 

That also leads into the main problem with Renfield as the movie goes on it starts to become a mess, there’s a lot of ideas floating around that the movie barely touches on or does absolutely nothing with. There’s this whole family plot with Camille Chen’s character Kate and Awkwafina’s character Rebecca that once again is just sort of there, a lot of the third act throws stuff at the wall to see what sticks. 

Despite the review sounding negative I did have fun with Renfield, it’s a fun movie for what it is. It just could have been a whole lot better had the script been much more focused. 

Renfield is currently in theaters. 

6/10 C+

Jesus Revolution is a flawed but decent faith based movie.

In the 1970s, Greg Laurie and a sea of young people descend on sunny Southern California to redefine truth through all means of liberation. Inadvertently, Laurie meets a charismatic street preacher and a pastor who open the doors to a church to a stream of wandering youth. What unfolds is a counterculture movement that becomes the greatest spiritual awakening in American history.

I’ll give Jesus Revolution credit where credit is due, as far as faith based movies go this was honestly not bad. I’ve reviewed my fair share of Christian movies and a lot of them tend to be on the preachy side, which sacrifices a lot of what makes a good movie such as writing and character. 

Jesus Revolution tells the true story (kind of) of Christian hippie Lonnie Frisbee (played by Jonathan Roumie) and Pastor Chuck Smith (played by Kelsey Grammer) taking part in the Jesus Movement in California during the late 1960s, honestly what sells this movie is the story itself, it’s a piece of history that is quite interesting to read about and for the most part the movie does a decent job of showing how and why it’s so interesting. 

Kelsey Grammer  gives one of his best performances in a very long time here, after being stuck in a lot of movies that just don’t give him the material to land a good performance this is finally performance that shows how great he is as an actor. Jonathan Roumie is also quite great here as well, there’s plenty of moments where he truly shines and really brings the audience into the movie. 

The movie itself is well made and there’s even some shots that are quite beautiful, particularly when the beach is used where you get some gorgeous shots. Ultimately what hurts this movie is it does act like sort of an abridged version of events the movie completely leaves out Frisbee being openly LGBT, was divorced from his wife shortly after the events of the film and passed away from AIDs in his early 40s. It really does not touch a lot of Frisbee’s life as much as you think it would, which is a bit of a shame because his life is quite interesting. I do think the movie does a decent job of talking about the Jesus Movement itself just not very well about the people involved with it. 

Jesus Revolution is available on all VOD platforms. 

6/10 C+

Quasi is a complete and total mess.

A hapless hunchback yearns for love, but finds himself in the middle of a deadly feud between the Pope and the King of France when they each order the misfit to kill the other.

Quasi is a satirical comedy based on the 1831 novel The Hunchback Of Notre Dame and wow this is horrible. 

First off the movie is clearly trying to be Monty Python and the Holy Grail but one of the main things this movie forgot to do that made Monty Python so great was you know actually be funny? Because right from the beginning the humor is dreadful and never improves as the movie goes on, what you are going to get is a bunch of sex jokes, disabled jabs, a bunch of horrible accents, poop jokes and even some modern jokes despite taking place in a period setting the main one being a selfie joke. 

The acting is horrible and quite honestly some of the worst to come out of this year, Adrianne Palicki is definitely the only one who seems to be trying to work with what she’s given but even then it’s not enough to save this movie. Steve Lemme and Jay Chandrasekhar in particular are dreadful, there is absolutely no comedic timing with them combine that with the material they are given it just leads to an overall disaster. 

The writing is horrendous and it’s by far the biggest problem with this movie, a lot of it heavily relies on funny jokes or trying to be completely bizarre for the sake of being bizarre and not in a good way. The weird amount of incest humor towards the end is also just disgusting as well, heck there’s even a drawn out incestuous sex scene that’s supposed to be this one giant joke but completely misses in every single way possible. 

Overall Quasi is incredibly unfunny, poorly acted and an absolute pain to sit through. This is one I definitely recommend to skip. 

Quasi is available on Hulu. 

1/10 F

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always has the nostalgia but not much else.

The Rangers come face-to-face with a familiar threat from the past. In the midst of a global crisis, they are called on once again to be the heroes the world needs.

Power Rangers has been a long running series to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the show they released a special on Netflix which is Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always. I grew up with The Power Rangers even if my first exposure to the Power Rangers was Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, but there was a fair number of seasons that I really liked as a kid Lightspeed Rescue, Time Force, Wild Force and of course the Mighty Morphin series. 

Right off the bat if you are someone going into this special hoping it stays with continuity with the series you are going to be almost immediately disappointed, Rangers who in the series quite clearly gave up their powers have them without any explanation. As for everything else though? You get that here, there’s a large amount of nostalgia and tons of character moments that are quite fun as well. 

It has the same cheesy acting that the show had and follows what made the show so likable in the first place, the one glaring issue that does hurt this special however is that the special effects somehow look worse than they did back when the show first premiered. It’s probably due to kind of missing what made the original series so charming, a lot of the effects here just don’t quite fit the Power Rangers. I understand this was a route they were bound to take but it’s just not that appealing to the eye. 

I do think it’s an overall decent celebration to the series, I can’t say that I didn’t have a fun time with the special. There’s just not a whole lot too it and the effects are very distracting. 

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always is available on Netflix. 

5/10 C