Film Review - Hypnotic (2023)

Hypnotic is the new film by Robert Rodriguez and stars Ben Affleck as Danny Rourke a detective who is struggling to get over the disappearance of his daughter Minnie but one day he notices a strange man (William Fichtner) walking into a bank and it will later set off a pursuit as he has the power to psychically bend others to his will.

Oh Ben,

How can you do this to me mate, you now have the distinction of being involved in both my favourite and least favourite movie of the year at least so far because this movie is STUPID!

And not in a good way where you can sit there and laugh at its stupidity like “What does God need with a Starship?” from Star Trek 5 or Martha in Batman V Superman also with Ben Affleck in it or teach the word of Zeist in Highlander 2 where its stupidity became a cautionary tale for a franchise.

No instead we get good old fashioned bad stupidity where you sit there and think “What the fuck is this shit” and I honestly have no clue what Ben saw in this apart from maybe an easy paycheque I mean he does have a family to provide for and he was locked down during the Dark Times of COVID so I don’t 100% blame him for just wanting to act and work but to have this come after Air was so warmly embraced it got a theatrical release instead of just being dumped on Amazon Prime makes it feel worse.

As for the whole psychic thing again it just looks ridiculous especially when you have William Fichtner a great actor who’s worked with some amazing directors just stand there and stare at you like a weirdo I mean that’s how the psychic powers work on this movie people just stand there and stare at each other I mean at least in the X-Men movies you had some hand movements from Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy but here just staring off into space and some cheap Inception style knock off effects.

And so that was Hypnotic and watching it feels like a Hypnosis, when your watching it your watching a stupid movie but when you walk out of it you want to forget all about it and it is definitely my least favourite film of the year so far, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - Fast X (2023)

Fast X is the tenth Fast and Furious film and this time Louis Letterier steps into the directors driving seat after Justin Lin quit during production, this time Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his family face off against Dante (Jason Momoa) who is hell bent on seeking revenge against Dom and his family for the death of his father during 2011’s Fast Five but Dom and his family will have other allies to help them.

Fast X is better than 2021’s Fast 9 and 2017’s The Fate of the Furious neither of which I thought were very good though Fast 9 wasn’t as bad I felt as others thought it was but it also feels very unsatisfying when its all over.

But before I delve more onto that road I want to stay in this lane of positivity and first and foremost Jason Momoa is excellent here and easily my favourite part of this movie as Dante the villain, he is clearly having a great time in this role and he feels like the Joker to Dom’s Batman in many ways and boy does it work.

It was also great to see Charlize Theron in this movie and watching her scenes this time around made me feel all the more disappointed that she isn’t returning as Furiosa for the upcoming Mad Max spinoff as she deserved to reprise that role and I think that is really going to hurt that film when it comes out.

As for the rest of the cast again their fine but sometimes it feels like “here’s this person”, “here’s this person”, “here’s this person” as if their walking on stage on SNL or a talk show and it gets a bit much after the first couple and again the other core family actors are okay but don’t get as much to do except for John Cena who is much better here than in F9.

But back to the unsatisfying feeling on the whole and here is where I have to turn on the indicator into the negative lane as this movie ends in a way that when its over you sit there and think “That’s it, is that all” and not in a good way and a great cliffhanger like the Empire Strikes Back or the Two Towers or a great tease of the next film like in X-Men 2 or Days of Future Past or Dune Part 1 should make you want to crave the next film right there and then you should want to count down the days until it comes out and you should attempt to not drive everyone you know crazy with your anticipation for that next film.

But here that doesn’t take place and personally I would’ve preferred this movie have another 20 minutes added onto it so we got a proper conclusion or another 5 to 10 minutes to give it a much better cliffhanger ending that made us want the next film because I felt kinda cheated when this was over.

As for the car chases again their okay but nothing you’ve really seen elsewhere and done better in the previous films especially Fast 5, 6 and 7 and there’s some good hand to hand fight scenes here but the only one of those I liked was Theron vs Michelle Rodriguez.

And so that was Fast X and this family isn’t your fortress this time around nor does the Way of Petrol feel satisfying instead it feels like a beginning without an end and the car feeling like a home your stuck in before your birth and after your death, 1 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Evil Dead Rise (2023)

Evil Dead Rise is the newest entry in the series and stars Alyssa Sutherland as Ellie the Mum to 3 kids, Bridget (Gabrielle Echols), Danny (Morgan Davies) and Kassie (Nell Fisher) and they have to move out of their apartment building as its due to be torn down as its condemned but one night Danny finds an old book under the parking garage and it’s a horrible book that could swallow his soul.

Evil Dead Rise is good fun on a big cinema screen on a dark night and first Lee Cronin who wrote and directed the film does a good job of doing something a little different with the Evil Dead mythology, this doesn’t get as goofy as Army of Darkness from 1993 does nor does it have that strange sense of humour 1987’s Dead by Dawn did this one plays a pretty straight bat with its horror elements and there is a whole lot of blood on display here that justifies the films R18+ rating here in Australia and I enjoyed what was done here for the most part.

Also the old apartment building makes for an effective location as its dark and claustrophobic and helps to amp up the horror scares when their asked for in the film plus the old architecture is good to look at and it makes the building feel more lived in and run down.

But if I have one fault it is sadly the cast, don’t get me wrong their not bad in their roles its more that they don’t really look American or New York City based for the most part it, they look more like their from Australia or New Zealand and it makes me wish that this movie took place in either Sydney or Wellington instead as that would’ve made more sense at least for me.

And so that was Evil Dead Rise and it’s a groovy time at the cinema with a crowd and fans of the Evil Dead should enjoy themselves for the most part, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 (2023)

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 is the third Guardians film and the last film to star this cast (Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff and Dave Bautista) and be written and directed by James Gunn and this film sees Rocket Racoon (Cooper) critically injured in an attack by Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) so the other Guardians race to save his life which brings them into conflict with the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji.)

Guardians 3 was a movie I had mixed hopes for going into for while I loved Volume 1 in 2014 I didn’t care for Volume 2 in 2017 and it was decent and entertaining but nowhere near the first film plus I felt I had said my goodbyes to this cast along with the MCU as a whole with Avengers Infinity War and Endgame so could this film deliver the goods or would the Guardians series go the way of others where the first film was good but the sequels fell rather short.

Well I did enjoy it but its not without problems but before I delve into those I do think that this movie is a good, solid entertaining movie that does its job well enough and hits its marks just fine, the cast are good as they have been in their roles in the last few films and James Gunn does a good job writing and directing the film and delivering the usual visual effects action moments that actually do look a bit better here than they have in the last few MCU movies and TV shows.

But those problems and there are 2 big ones I had with this movie:

- The first of those is James Gunn’s sense of humour, now like I said Gunn did a good job writing and directing the film on the whole but his sense of humour has always been a little edgy owing to his background in the Troma production world and it’s a style of humour that doesn’t really work for me now most humour in movies especially nowadays rarely if ever works for me but here it put me off a fair bit at times and left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

- And the second is the numerous scenes of animal cruelty in this movie, this movie is very much about Rocket and his backstory which was hinted at in the first Guardians film and is very much front and centre here and while some scenes reminded me a lot of the early scenes from Babe in 1995 the more these scenes went on I felt that the dividing line had been crossed for me as it was too much and look I love dark movies but I think now more care needs to be taken when depiciting violence against groups like women, children and animals.

And if I could say one thing to James Gunn regarding his upcoming Superman: Legacy movie for Warner Brothers I would say to him PLEASE dial down the edginess for that film, as someone who loves Supeman I don’t want another dark or edgy Superman movie, Bryan Singer and Zack Snyder gave us those with Superman Returns and Man of Steel and they failed not only as movies in their own right but failed to be worthy of the legacy of Richard Donner and Christopher Reeve and I hope that this new movie he’s making will bring back that heart, that wonder, that majesty and that Humanity of Superman because lord knows we need it now more than we ever have.

And so that was Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and it’s a good solid end for James Gunn’s time on this series and his main ensemble cast but his darker tendencies hold it down for me and I hope he does away with them for Superman: Legacy, 3 out of 5.