Widows: Elizabeth Debicki Out Acts Every Single Person In This Film

Widows is a crime thriller film directed by Steve McQueen. The plot follows a group of women who find out posthumously that their husbands were highly successful thieves, however now with their husbands gone local mobsters are seeking to collect their debts and its up to the widows to pay.

I thought this film was good and well done to a point. I enjoyed seeing the women have to carry out a heist with little experience, it was interesting to see them progress and become stronger together. I thought 2 of the lead actresses gave good performances and that one was underused and maybe even miscast.

Viola Davis was a strong anchor for the film and played the no nonsense with an emotional vulnerability type very well, Michelle Rodriguez was fine, but was certainly the weakest member of the cast, she had very little to do and the film wasted her for the most part. Finally you have Elizabeth Debicki, who for me was the strongest member of the ensemble, her storyline was harrowing and Debicki conveyed that well.

The supporting cast also helped boost this film up, with a lot of the wider talent adding nicely to the central three characters and fleshing out the world as whole. In this regard Daniel Kaluuya was terrific, being a very menacing side villain.

My issue with the film came when it revealed that Davis’s characters husband was still alive. This is a second act twist that I find undermines a lot of the film and takes away from the character motivations. Is the twist shocking? Yes, but does it do anything more than that, no not really.

Overall, a potentially strong crime film that is let down by a miscast and underused Rodriguez and a silly twist that adds very little to the narrative beyond a cheap shock.

Pros.

Debicki

Davis

Kaluuya

The tension and the transformative journey

Cons.

Rodriguez

The twist

3.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

The War With Grandpa: It Is Not A War It Is A Slaughter

The War With Grandpa is a family comedy film directed by Tim Hill. The plot sees a boy (Oakes Fegley) and his grandfather (Robert De Niro), go to war over a bedroom, when the grandfather moves in with the family.

The premise of this film is lame, and the tame nature of it stops it from ever doing anything truly memorable as far as the war is concerned. I get that this is a family film, but it feels scared to say word like hell, really? It is the tamest film I have seen in a long while.

The war feels fairly one sided in terms of hearts and minds, as the kid is a brat from the get-go and has no redeeming qualities. The performance by Fegley is woeful and is easily crushed by De Niro, even though this is clearly a paycheck role for him.

De Niro manages to capture quite a lot of good sentimentality and actually hit me in the feels by the end of the film, this is much better than something like Dirty Grandpa as it is far more dignified for him and he gives a fairly good performance. I enjoyed all the nods to De Niro’s gangster films that are peppered in throughout I thought they really added something.

I can’t talk about this film without talking about Uma Thurman. She is the star of this film, even if she only has about twenty minutes of screen time. She is both unintentionally hilarious, and just a joy to watch. When she is on screen hamming up her performance it is always good for a laugh. She was easily my favourite character.

Overall, too tame to be enjoyed by some, schlock for the most part and clearly a paycheck for De Niro, but it does have its moments and Walken and Thurman steal the show.

Pros.

Uma Thurman

Some genuine emotion

Christopher Walken

Cons.

Too tame, the war doesn’t feel exciting

The kid is an unlikable brat, you don’t feel torn between the two for a second

3/5

Reviewed by Luke

Scooby Doo And The Samurai Sword: The Curse Of The Stereotype

Scooby Doo and The Samurai Sword is an animated family film directed by Christopher Berkeley. The plot sees the gang head to Japan so that Daphne (Grey Griffin), can attend a martial arts competition. Of course once they get there a vicious old samurai spirit wreaks havoc.

A few Scooby Doo reviews ago I was praising the fact that they started having the monsters and the supernatural elements turn out to be true, but now it is getting to a point where than is becoming a crutch; they have gone too far the other way. There are now officially dragons in the Scooby Doo canon.

That aside this is just a very bog-standard affair, there is nothing hugely good or bad about it, it is just what you would expect for slightly over an hour.

I am sad to report that this goes the same way as Monster of Mexico with its over reliance of tired stereotypes. Most of the Japanese characters in this film are caricatures, that you have seen before. This to me reeks of lazy writing. Furthermore, this film goes a step further and as well as Japanese stereotypes brings in other nationalities to also reduce to their most base form.

Overall, the poor/lazy writing brings this one down for me. It could otherwise have got a very middling score, but now gets a lower score.

2/5

Reviewed by Luke

Phineas And Ferb The Movie, Candace Against The Universe: Ashley Tisdale’s Finest Performance

Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Candace Against The Universe is an animated family film directed by Bob Bowen. The plot sees Candace (Ashley Tisdale), get abducted by aliens whilst trying to bust her brothers, naturally Phineas (Vincent Martella) and Ferb (David Errigo Jr.), mount a rescue mission. However, once they find her, they find that she is no prisoner and has finally found people who appreciate her. Or has she.

I assume this film is the end the series, I don’t know as I haven’t kept up with the series for over 5 years, but if this was a conclusion to it then it works well to end things. If this is a just a film that will lead into the next series ignore this point. It did have an air of finality to it.

The humour of this film reminded me of more adult fare like Family Guy, which is either a pro or a con depending on how you view that show. The humour for the most part left me cold, but it did manage to get a laugh out of me a few times.

I enjoyed seeing things work out for Candance for once, it was nice to see her side of things as I felt it carried a nice duality to the series.

Overall, a nice flipped perspective that showed the series can still hit the highs it used to.

Pros.

The flipped perspective

I enjoyed the finality to it

It made me laugh a few times

Cons.

More often than not the humour left me cold

It wasn’t as strong as a lot of the classic episodes

3/5

Reviewed by Luke

Lucy In The Sky: The Reason Why Noah Hawley’s Star Trek Film Is ‘On Hold’

Lucy In The Sky is a drama film directed by Noah Hawley. The plot follows Lucy Cola (Natalie Portman), an astronaut who has a great deal of trouble returning to normal life on earth.

This film is the definition of the word pretentious; Hawley thinks that by using some cool transitions and fancy cuts that he can disguise the fact that he has a stinker of a film on his hands. I found the smugness or more aptly the self-importance of this film to be incredibly off-putting. I like Hawley’s TV projects, but yeah this bad, put your Star Trek film on indefinite hold kind of bad.

Portman is okay, she is clearly trying a lot with her performance, but her character come off right from the start of the film as loathsome. The film goes out of its way to try and make her sympathetic, but she just not. By the end of the film you want her to go to prison, she deserves it.

The worst crime of this film is how long it feels, yes it is on for just over two hours which is already quite long, but it feels double that. A lot of the section just feel needless drawn out as though they’re trying to kill time.

Overall, this may be the worst film of Natalie Portman’s career

Pros.

The artsy transitions are cool for five minutes

Cons.

It is boring

The lead is incredibly unlikable

It is smug and in your face with it

It has severe pacing issues

0.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Scooby Doo And The Alien Invaders: Shaggy Wants To Have Sex With An Alien, In Not So Many Words.

Scooby Doo and The Alien Invaders is an animated family film directed by Jim Stenstrum. The plot follows the gang as they find themselves in the midst of an intergalactic game of espionage and romance.

To me this didn’t really feel like a Scooby Doo film it seemed to lose the point. A lot of the Scooby Doo films that came out after the classic series seemed to put Scooby (Scott Innes), and the gang in increasingly ridiculous situations that seem to not understand Scooby doo works. The classic formula is old haunted house the gang investigates and then an unmasking, that works, having Shaggy (Also Innes), fall in love with an alien not so much.

The story of this one didn’t really connect with me either, it left me cold. I have fond memories of it from when I was younger, but it doesn’t seem to hold up now at all. It felt like throwing a lot of things at the wall and seeing what stuck.

The animation reminded me a lot of classic Pokémon which for me was a big pro, though that is not really something I can reward for. The animation without the association is fine it is serviceable, if a little bland. Nothing to write home about.

Overall, another lacklustre Scooby Doo film that lost the point somewhere a long the way, little kids will still love it, but it loses a lot of its adult rewatchability.

Pros.

The voice cast are okay

As is the animation

Cons.

It lost the point of what Scooby Doo is

The story did nothing for me

It didn’t hold up

2/5

Reviewed by Luke

Train To Busan: Giving A Whole New Meaning To The Phrase Rush Hour

Train To Busan is a South Korean horror film directed by Sang-Ho Yeon. The plot sees Seok- Woo (Yoo Gong), and his daughter Soo-an (Su-an Kim), become trapped on a train in the middle of a viral infection outbreak that turns people into yes you guessed it zombies. Things quickly get out of hand.

I have been meaning to watch this film for a very long time and I am glad I finally did. Much like the found footage genre, zombies are played out they have been done every which way from Sunday and there isn’t much new to be done with them, at least so I thought before I watched this film.

Yes, this film reinvigorates, at least for me, the tired bloated corpse of the zombie horror subgenre, proving that there is a way to still make zombies cool and scary. The frantic train scenes where you know it is just a matter of time before the zombies break through the glass doors are frankly menacing and you can’t help but feel filled with dread.

As well as the strong horror sensibilities this film also has a keen sense of familial drama. The father daughter relationship is central to the narrative of the film, and it is fully explored with much more depth than I thought it was going to be. The ending will have you in tears it is that sad.

Overall, a very layered horror film that manages to do multiple things well, being able to both scary you and make you cry.

Pros

Making zombies scary again

The ending

The father daughter stuff

The frantic nature of the zombies and the threat they pose

Cons.

I could guess some of the twists before they happened

4.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Bill And Ted Face The Music: One Last Excellent Adventure

Bill & Ted Face The Music is a science fiction comedy film directed by Dean Parisot. The plot reintroduces us to other favourite rockers Bill (Alex Winter), and Ted (Keanu Reeves), who are now all grown up and have teens of their own. Life hasn’t been so kind to the pair and they still haven’t managed to make the song that will unite the universe, then one day they are told it is now or never and the duo set out on one last excellent adventure to save time and space.

This is a very wholesome watch at a time where we need wholesome watches, it is nice to see the duo back on the screen and it feels like they have never really been away. Winters and Reeves still have strong chemistry and it is fascinating to see them now as middle-aged family men.

I enjoyed the fact this film introduced us to Bill and Ted’s daughters, who are just like them, I thought that was a neat twist. The casting of Bridgette Lundy-Paine and the ever-excellent Samara Weaving is pitch perfect and part of me hopes they get their own spinoff; though that is unlikely. My one issue with them would be that the film never uses them enough and often side-lines them, they need more screen time.

The cameos worked well for me and a lot of the best humour came from them. I enjoyed the Dave Grohl bit, and it was nice to see Death (William Sadler), return. However despite this I found the biggest issue with this film was the comedy. A lot of the time the jokes didn’t land for me and were a bit weak and lame, the film often made me smile but never made me laugh. Comedy is subjective.

Overall, a welcome return/conclusion Winters and Reeves are still great together and the daughters are well cast and interesting in their own right. The comedy is a weak point for me, but I still had a lot of enjoyment from this film.

Pros.

Reeves and Winters are still great

Samara Weaving is a scene stealer

The cameos and returns

The ending and the feeling of closure

Cons.

A lot of the humour didn’t land for me

4/5

Reviewed by Luke

Win It All: Having A Heart Attack Is A Great Way Out Of A Losing Hand

Win It All is a comedy film directed by Joe Swanberg. The plot follows Eddie (Jake Johnson), a gambling addict who is tasked with looking after a bag full of money while an acquaintance is in the big house. Rather unsurprisingly Eddie gambles it all away. After reaching rock bottom Eddie realises he needs to get a real job and start trying to rebuild his life, this is all turned on its head when the guy he was watching the money for gets out early and wants his pay day; one last big score is needed.

Jake Johnson is an often-overlooked actor, he is a very versatile performer and this film proves it. His character is a very obvious slob/under achiever, but he is also far more nuanced than that, he is a broken man who wants to be well again, but the thrill of winning or losing big keeps dragging him back down the hole. He is both sympathetic, yet unlikeable. He is a complex character.

I enjoyed the film quite a bit, admittedly I am a Jake Johnson true believer, so I may be a bit bias. My one issue with it is that, despite telling a story grounded in reality, it feels very Hollywood. By that I mean the way things conveniently work out, things that wouldn’t happen in real life, it gets to a point where it is so unbelievable the drama loses no longer feels real.

Overall, an enjoyable watch, but one that almost becomes fascial towards the end.

Pros.

Jake Johnson

His character and performance

It is fun to watch

Cons.

The ending is absurd

Falls apart if you think about it too much.

3/5

Reviewed by Luke

Mulan: Remove The Dragon Remove The Heart, A Superhero Story

Mulan is a fantasy action film directed by Niki Caro. The plot sees young woman Mulan (Yifei Liu), defy Chinese society by riding off to take her fathers place in battle, thereby becoming a solider and later a legend.

So before I get into this I want to again address my bias. The lead actor Yifei Liu defended the police’s brutal response to the Hong Kong protests, which is a sickening fact, but one I nevertheless tried to remove from by mind while watching so I could stay objective.

On the scale of Disney live action remakes this felt comfortably along side the Lion King. The reason for that is though there are a few changes, that are mostly insignificant and hurt the film, it still feels very familiar to the original animated version.

By removing Mushu and the songs from this film, you get a very joyless experience, that tries to go for realism and sticking to the source folk tale, until it gets bored of that and puts in magic and shape shifters just for the hell of it.

Furthermore, the film totally undermines Mulan’s personal journey by having her already be quite competent right from the off. In the original animated version, Mulan was terrible when she started off and got gradually better over the course of the film, here she starts off already quite a good fighter and then becomes a superhero by the end. I am not kidding with the superhero thing, when she becomes herself, she is cutting down groups of men twice her size in seconds and hitting people with arrows who are incredibly far away with ease; it is deeply unbelievable and laughable when you consider the realism angle.

There is also quite a bit of China pandering throughout, where they will randomly say how great the country is and how honourable and proud its ways are. I found this to be as off putting as bad product placement, but I am not hugely surprised Disney did it as they’re clearly aiming this one more at China than anywhere else.

I found Liu to be a likeable enough lead, the jokes they kept in from the original still worked for a laugh and she had enough charisma to keep the film afloat.

Moreover, the villains were improved from the original, we get a new secondary antagonist introduced, who seems very interesting, but the film does very little with her. The reason I say they’re more improved this time around is because they’re far more imposing and threatening.

In that same vein the action is also well done and is easily the standout point of the film, the battle scenes are well done and well-choreographed, with a clear martial arts inspiration. They were the saving grace of the film.

Overall, a deeply needless film that fails at being realistic and ends up as a pandering joyless experience with some cool fight scenes.

Pros.

Yifei Liu is a likeable enough lead

The villains feel more scary

The action is well executed

Cons.

The failure at realism

It is joyless and hard to get through

The pandering

Ruining Mulan’s arc

2/5

Reviewed by Luke