Film Review - Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024)

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is the third film series and once again directed by Jeff Fowler who directed the first two films and Ben Schwartz, Collenn O’Shaughnessy and Idris Elba voice Sonic, Tails and Knuckles as they head to Tokyo to confront the recently escaped Shadow (Keanu Reeves) and not one but TWO Dr Robotniks both played by Jim Carrey and when its double your villains it can be double trouble.

Sonic 3 was the movie I was keen to go and see the most in a cinema since Dune Part Two back at the end of February as I am a big fan of the first two films which like the Paddington and Despicable Me films are the top film franchises for families right now, they both have heart, good natured humour, exciting action and fun villains, the kind of family entertainment that Disney has seriously dropped the ball in delivering recently but the third film in a series is more often than not the worst and even having the same creative team involved doesn’t guarantee a bucking of that trend (see X-Men Apocalypse, Spider-Man 3 and the Dark Knight Rises.)

But Sonic 3 avoids this and does indeed buck that trend as I was very impressed with this movie and a lot of that credit has to go to Fowler and his writing team in Pat Casey, Josh Miller and John Wittington who also wrote the second film in 2022 and this time it feels like they are working together better as a team as this film avoids the exposition dumps that bogged down Sonic 2 at times as well as balancing the heart, humour, action and emotion and third time around this movie feels like a great amalgamation of the best elements of the first 2 films:

- The tight storytelling and Jim Carrey flailing his limbs around of the first film
- The character/story/world expansion and high-speed action of the second film

And that really shines here as it clips along at a good pace while keeping the exposition dumps to a minimum and this creative team is now a much more well honed machine that it can do this without having the storytelling feel like a bunch of stuff strung together by action scenes and the action here is very good as it was in the last film and in a very very refreshing way the action here is properly lit and edited and doesn’t feel like it was all done on a green screen stage or shot through a fog filter on the camera as that has gotten so so so tiresome to see over and over and over again.

Also shining is the cast, the Team Sonic trio play off each other very well be it Schwartz’s humour, Elba’s straight man or O’Shaughnessy’s lovable tech nerd and at times this trinity is tested but you are invested in them same with James Marsden (and watching him here will make you resent all the more how dirty he was done as Cyclops in the X-Men films) and Tika Sumpter as Team Sonic’s parents who are as good as they were in the first 2 films and still have good chemistry together, I also enjoyed seeing Kristen Ritter in a small role as well.

But this movie belongs to two people and the first of those is Reeves as Shadow, this character is a big fan favourite and Reeves delivers very good voice work as a character who’s life mirrors Sonic’s and takes the film into some darker directions which could’ve bogged the film down but thankfully doesn’t.

Then there’s Jim Carrey who plays Dr Robotnik and his grandfather Gerald and he is simply glorious here, one scene in particular was very very funny and like the first two films this team understands the magic of Jim Carrey and how he can make you laugh with nothing more than the frantic flailing of his limbs.

However the more I have thought about this movie since seeing the more I find myself wishing that this was the last Sonic film mainly because this team pulled off the impossible, a trilogy of films where each film built on the last and didn’t drop the ball in terms of the quality as well as taking the story to the highest heights you can go to without it feeling like where Dragon Ball went where the power scaling got so far over the top it made it boring to watch and the only way to go after here is down and I’ve seen that happen too often with many franchises nowadays that I want some to just end and be gone and this is now one of them.

Guys you made a great trilogy of films, why not quit now while your ahead and go out on top, there’s nothing wrong with that.

And so that was Sonic 3 and this trilogy of films has been terrific with great action, villains, characters, humour and emotional moments, I wish all involved had made this the finale and left it at here because it won’t get this good again, 4 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024)

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is a new animated Lord of the Rings film executive produced by Peter Jackson and his Lord of the Rings writers Fran Walsh and Phillipia Boyens and concerns king Helm Hammerhand (Brian Cox) the king of Rohan in a time before the one ring came into Bilbo’s possession and Theoden assumed the throne as horselord, one night at court King Hammerhand kills the king of a rival Rohan clan and his son Wulf (Luke Pasqualino) vows revenge.

The War of the Rohirrim is actually a pretty good film but then again I was more open to it than others I know who were put off from watching it when I told them it was an animated film and the animation here directed by Kenji Kamiyama is pretty good, it captures the feel of Middle-Earth as we saw it in the Lord of the Rings films pretty well even if at times the anime style felt a little janky to watch and lacking that smoothness you want to see from a well animated film.

Also the use of the Rohan theme from Howard Shore’s score was good as well and I quite liked Brian Cox as King Hammerhand and he is a very different king to the late great Bernard Hill’s Theoden but I could see how he leads to Theoden assuming the throne during the events of the Lord of the Rings films.

But alas this movie like the Hobbit trilogy from 10 years ago just cannot light the beacons the same way that the Lord of the Rings films did, the storytelling is okay but nothing you didn’t see during the battle of Helms Deep in the Two Towers and you just get that feeling while watching this movie that as much as I liked it you would rather just watch the Lord of the Rings movies again.

And if I were David Zaslav the head of Warner Brothers I would take an axe to The Hunt for Gollum which is the next spinoff in the works because we already know what happens, Ian McKellen told Frodo and the audience “I looked everywhere for the creature Gollum but the enemy found him first” there it is in one sentence, there is no need for a 2-2.5 hour film about this one sentence.

And that was the Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim which I enjoyed for the most part but its just more of the same from a franchise that is doomed to repeat the mistakes of Star Wars in that it created a groundbreaking trilogy that defined what movies can be for a generation and then every attempt to follow it up ends in failure, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Kraven the Hunter (2024)

Kraven the Hunter is said to be the last film in the Columbia Pictures Spider-Verse that doesn’t have a Spider-Man in it and is directed by JC Chandor who you might remember from such films as A Most Violent Year and Triple Frontier and concerns the aforementioned Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) who is on the trail of gangsters who have kidnapped his brother (Fred Heichinger) but he also has to contend with his past as the son of a powerful mafia boss (Russell Crowe.)

Kraven the Hunter is not a terrible movie per se but it is another film that feels dull to sit through and lazy in its production and what makes this feel worse is that this has talented people at the helm, Chandor is a good director but here it feels like he was handed a script from the Columbia Committee and told to make the best of it and if you’ve seen A Most Violent Year or Triple Frontier you know this guy is capable of so much better about morally grey characters and exciting action and this film falls very very short in both regards.

And again this comes down to the script, Richard Wenk wrote the Equalizer films and those films got better and better with each entry while Art Markum and Matt Holloway co-wrote Iron Man in 2008 so they can do good work but here it just feels like they went “okay what have we got/let’s do this/okay done” and its so dull, Taylor-Johnson is a good actor and watching him here I could see why he’s been whispered as the new James Bond but all he really does here is spout some lines, stare into the camera, scowl a bit and leap around and punch things real hard.

As for the rest of the cast they’ve been much better elsewhere, I love Ariana DeBose especially in West Side Story but here she just plays the legal ally to Kraven and finds herself caught in his storyline, Alessandro Nivola plays the Rhino and that character just looks stupid in live action (the 2018 PS4 Spider-Man game did a great rendition of this character that so easily could’ve been adapted to here but that would require giving a damn) while Heichinger is okay but only really exists to setup another character.

As for Mr Russell Crowe well I remember when he was a fun actor to watch but instead he’s just doing a smorgasbord of silly accent recently be it a Russian one here, a Romanian one in the Pope’s Exorcist (where I did enjoy him) and Con the Fruiterer in Thor: Love and Thunder and regrettably he doesn’t kill someone with a landline telephone.

And so that is Kraven the Hunter and again it isn’t terrible but when the studio putting it out releases the opening 8 minutes online it screams a lack of confidence and well it ain’t hard to see why they gave up on it, its dull and by the numbers and if these comic book movies are going to continue to justify the existence they’ve enjoyed for the last 15-20 years they need to be much much better than they have been and that includes DC and Marvel Studios, 1.5 out of 5.

Film Review - Super/Man the Christopher Reeve Story (2024)

Super/Man the Christopher Reeve Story is the first film to be released under Warner Brothers’s new DC Studios label now headed up by James Gunn and Peter Safran but this is a documentary about the life of the late great Christopher Reeve who played Superman in 4 movies from 1978 to 1987 then suffered a paralyzing spinal cord injury in 1995 following a horse riding accident and then sadly passed away in 2004 aged only 52.

For so many of us of a certain age, Christopher Reeve didn’t just play Superman on film he was Superman in life especially in the years following his accident as he began to become an advocate for those like him with paralysing disabilities and this documentary captures all of this wonderfully and right from the start I felt very emotional and that continued more than once throughout my watching of this doco.

We also see ample amounts of footage of the late great Robin Williams who was a friend of Chris’s since their time at Juilliard together and he too is now no longer with us and at one point you see an interview of Robin with Oprah Winfrey where he talks about visiting him in the hospital after his accident and I nearly started crying because Robin was so gifted, so quick off the mark and had such a razor sharp mine and a big heart that it reminded me that we lost one of the greats when he passed away 10 years ago.

What this documentary also reminded me of is my feelings about those who play Superman on film after Christopher Reeve and that feeling is not that they must just be good in the role but they also have to be worthy of that mantle because of Reeve and the way he embodied that character both on film and in life with his advocacy for those like him and that has been a mixed bag as while Brandon Routh couldn’t do it, Henry Cavill absolutely did and my main feeling watching him as Superman in 2013 was “He is Worthy” and I never thought that would happen but sadly WB didn’t treat him right as he deserved to be.

If I have one complaint about this documentary it is some comments by Superman producer Pierre Spengler and at one point he makes mention of the fact that Superman II was not as good as the first film and boy did that make me a little peeved because he and the Salkinds were responsible for that by firing Richard Donner and his team from II WHEN THEY ALREADY HAD 75% OF IT FILMED.

And reading Tom Mankiewicz’s full script for Superman II left me in no doubt that had Donner been given the leeway he had richly earnt and deserved in 1979 to properly finish Superman II his way I have no doubt Superman II would be sitting alongside the Empire Strikes Back, Godfather Part II, Aliens and Terminator 2 as the gold standard for how to do a sequel to a blockbuster hit.

That aside when this documentary was over and I let my emotions flow through me I knew this was going to be one of my movies of the year and it definitely will be, 4 and a half out of 5.

To read Tom Mankiewicz's full script for Superman II which includes the scenes he and Donner never got to film click on this link: http://superman.rossiters.com/s2_main.html

Film Review - My Old Ass (2024)

My Old Ass is written and directed by Megan Park and stars Maisy Stella as Elliot a young girl celebrating her 18th Birthday and preparing to go to Toronto for College and on her birthday night she gets high on mushrooms and sees her 39 year old future self (Aubrey Plaza) who tells her to be nicer to her family and avoid a man named Chad (Percy Hynes White.)

My Old Ass was a movie I avoided seeing in the cinema mainly because of the title, it was one of those titles that I thought was a little weird and other movies were playing at the same time that I wanted to see more but given this is an MGM/Amazon production it landed on Prime Video and I decided to catch up with it.

And I am very glad I did as I had a really fun time with this movie and began to regret not seeing it on the big screen with a crowd as firstly this movie is very funny and more than once I laughed out loud and those laughs would’ve been great when caught with the infectious laugh of a cinema crowd’s laugh and while there is a lot of coarse language that will bother some viewers it didn’t bother me and the films humour works very well.

What also works very well is the time travel element, Stella is good as Elliot’s young ass while Plaza is as good as her old ass and knows what to reveal and what not to reveal and I thought to myself “She’s following the Doc Brown rule regarding time travel” and that was that you shouldn’t know too much about your own future even though the future is not set and there’s no fate but what we make for ourselves and both Stella and Plaza have very good chemistry together despite doing most of their scenes through speaker phone calls.

And lastly this movie has a surprising amount of heart to it as well, the scenes with Old/Young Stella also have a sense of poignancy to them that Park balances very well with the comedy and the time travel elements of her storytelling, the young ass is about to go and live her life while the old ass has been there and knows what will happen so she passes on a few things for her younger ass to do a little differently and many of us I’m sure would like to be able to do just that at times I’m certain.

And so that was My Old Ass and don’t try to stare at your bum you’ll just hurt yourself trying but do watch this pair of old and young asses in this funny, heartfelt and fun time travel comedy, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Moana 2 (2024)

Moana 2 is the new Disney Animation film (though it was originally going to be a streaming series on Disney Plus before being retooled to become a film) and once again sees Auli Cravalho as Moana once again exploring the seas around her home island and one day she finds out about a cursed island that if freed from its curse could reunite the vast waters of her home and so with a gallant crew she sets sail to break the spell with the help of the Demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson.)

Moana 2 is not a bad movie per se but the more I’ve let it sit in my mind since seeing it it is also one that I wish was so much better than it is, the film has some good animation and action moments especially in the third act climax and Cravalho and Johnson still play off well together as Moana and Maui and there is some good humour in there as well.

But the films storytelling suffers from the change from a streaming series to a feature film as the first half of the film is a mess where it feels like so many scenes and character moments and storyline development is on fast forward as it goes by so quickly it feels like the film is rushing through all of this stuff to cram it all in under a 2 hour runtime and at times it felt like whiplash as the moments are here were clearly meant to be their own streaming episodes before being cut and pasted together in this movie edit version of the story.

Eventually the second half of the film finds its rhythm and pace much better but I also can’t help but feel that the second half probably would’ve been the last episode or 2 of that abandoned Moana streaming series as that feels the most coherent and connected in terms of its storytelling and character work and action climax.

And as someone who loves Disney Animation so much it feels disappointing that fans are served up this when other studios who for a long time I felt were the ones who were not delivering the goods like Disney used to with their films are now setting the standard I mean recently we’ve had:

- Transformers One
- The Wild Robot
- The 2 Sonic films
- The 2 Paddington films
- The Despicable Me series

And all of those listed above have set the standard in my eyes in family entertainment on the big screen and Disney between this movie and Wish and Strange World and Encanto just aren’t measuring up anymore and I can’t help but think that Disney as a studio has become so big that it can’t fail and also so fearful of upsetting anyone that their not taking the swings and the risks that a leaner and more tightly focused studio like Paramount and Universal and StudioCanal are and I know thus movie will probably make a lot of money but sooner or later Disney will no longer be able to play it safe and will have to start taking some risks and swings again.

And it also doesn’t help that this movie is opening only a week after Wicked which like the other family movies I listed above is delivering the kind of musical/family movie magic that Disney used to excel at and that film isn’t afraid to wear its politics on its sleeve, develop a proper villain, have strong musical numbers and work for young and old audiences alike as well as take its time to properly tell its story within a films runtime requirements and this movie just isn’t good enough.

And that is how I feel about Moana 2 it isn’t a bad movie but it’s simply not good enough anymore, CIC (Paramount and Universal’s umbrella holder here in Australia during the 80s and 90s) and StudioCanal are delivering much better in this space and Disney has to shed its bloated size and get back into shape if its going to get back on top again as this kind of “it’s good enough” mentality has to stop especially when movie going is as expensive as it is right now, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Wicked (2024)

Wicked is based off of the long running Broadway musical and is directed by John M. Chu who also directed In the Heights, the story concerns Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) who is born with green skin and frequently the subject of bullying by other kids and scorn by her governor father but one day she finds herself enrolled in Shiv University a prestigious school run by a headmistress (Michelle Yeoh) who recognises her potential as a sorceress and there she meets Glinda (Ariana Grande) and they become friends for the most part.

Wicked was a movie that I didn’t have huge hopes for mainly because I’m not a big musical guy, don’t get me wrong I love Grease, Little Shop of Horrors with Rick Moranis and Steven Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story but those are really about it and the previews for this film seemed to want to advertise it as a straightforward fantasy film rather than a musical.

But to my surprise and delight this movie is really good and thoroughly enjoyable and a very large part of that is down to 3 performances the first of those is Grande as Glinda who is simply wonderful here, she has this nice and sweet persona on the surface but sometimes her inner bitch can come to the surface in the right circumstances and Grande dances both sides of that character very well plus she does some great singing as well and her physical comedy as well is superb, doing hair tosses and pratfalls in a way that makes me hope she gets a good comedy role in the future.

Also Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz is inspired casting and if you know how that character ultimately plays out you can see why Goldblum was a great choice and he does the role very well.

But for me the heart and soul of this movie is Erivo as Elphaba, I’ve always enjoyed seeing her in movies since I first saw her in Bad Times at the El Royale in 2018 but since then I haven’t seen her in as many films but here she finally gets a good role to shine in and boy does she do so not just with her acting where you can see the seeds of what she will ultimately become grow more and more inside of her as the film goes on but also in her singing where she hits some incredible high notes.

In fact watching her and Grande reminded me a lot of when I first saw James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender as the young Professor Xavier and Magneto in X-Men First Class in terms of character becoming friends only for their differences in seeing the world and the people in it driving them apart to become enemies and Elphaba in particular reminded me a lot of Magneto from the X-Men movies.

However, there are a couple of issues I had with the film:

- The first of those is that at times the film feels it’s 160-minute length and that mainly came for me with the transitions from the dramatic moments to the musical numbers now don’t get me wrong the songs are very good but the way the film transitions into them felt a little jarring at times as I would get into a dramatic scene and then I would be pulled into a musical number and feel pulled out of the mood I was in during the dramatic moments.

Now great musicals like the ones I mentioned above handle that transition well but here not so much.

- And secondly this movie looked a little too clean visuals wise now that isn’t to say the film looks bad it does not there’s some great production design and costumes on show but it feels like it’s hidden behind the standard digital grey that keeps showing up more and more and more in movies nowadays and I can’t help but feel that if that wasn’t there then this movie would look far more colourful and magical than it does.

But perhaps this speaks to a wider problem within the industry itself and that is you only have a finite number of Visual Effects companies taking on more and more work be it movies and television and streaming shows/movies that they can only roster so much time onto one project before having to quickly move to the next one to get that ready for release and this has to change as 10-15 years ago this problem didn’t really exist and it has to stop because more and more projects are suffering as a result.

And so that was Wicked and it is a really enjoyable time at the movies despite some slight stumbles, 3 and a half out of 5.