Film Review - Black Adam (2022)

Black Adam is the new DC Studios film and Dwayne Johnson stars as Black Adam who is given the power of the wizards from Shazam and is later imprisoned but 5,000 years later he is reawakened in his homeland of Kahndaq and it draws the attention of the Justice Society (Pierce Brosnan, Aldis Hodge, Noah Centineo and Quintessa Swindell) who seek to stop him fearing the worst about what he will do to the world if not stopped.

 

Black Adam is not a bad movie but its also a very mixed bag of a movie that is also all over the place in terms of its script and first I have to start with Black Adam himself now Dwayne Johnson has been wanting to play this character for a long time and at times it kind of shows but there are also fair chunks of this movie where it feels like he’s in a strait jacket and just stands there all solemn and stern without any of the natural likeability and charisma Johnson has on screen and I wish one direction or the other had been picked and stuck with instead of having a bet each way with the character.

 

Next there’s the Justice Society, they have their moments for sure but all too often feel like a bad ripoff of the Avengers in the Marvel movies, Dr Fate in particular has some great moments and Brosnan is a lot of fun in the role but all too often it feels like he’s imitating Benedict Cumberbatch’s Dr Strange same with Noah’s Atom Smasher who feels like a very bad imitation of Ant Man without any of the likeability and good humour Paul Rudd brings to that role.

 

Swindell’s Cyclone has some fun moments with her powers but she isn’t used as much as she should be while Hodge’s Hawkman deserves his own movie as he feels almost wasted in the role and deserves a lot better.

 

And lastly the storytelling here is a real mess, there’s this whole story about a magical crown and a kid and it really conflicts with the Black Adam vs Justice Society story and the two never really mesh together as a cohesive whole and like the other big DC film the Batman earlier this year this movie gets to a point where it naturally ends and you feel good and your ready to walk out of the cinema but then it throws on like a just discovered last reel a big action setpiece that feels totally unnecessary and I was bored throughout that whole finale.

 

And so that was Black Adam and its not terrible but it’s also very messy and scattershot as a movie and part of me is getting over all these superhero movies now, back in 2016 we had DC starting up, we had X-Men movies and we had the Infinity Saga near its peak now there’s no real competition anymore and these movies are starting to get very samey and dull very quickly, 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Barbarian (2022)

Barbarian is a new 20^th Century Fox-sorry-Studios (I will never not be over that sorry) horror film and stars Georgina Campbell as Tess Marshall who books into an Air BnB house in Detriot for a job interview the next day but when she gets to the house she finds someone else a man named Keith (Bill Skarsgard) staying there but both of them get caught in the basement and find a secret door that leads to an underground passage that holds something sinister inside it.

 

Barbarian was an okay horror film and does exactly what it promises on the box, provide some effective scares anchored by a good cast and the scares and atmosphere are very good with lots of dark tunnels, flash lights and sinister goings on down below and all of it is pretty good on a big cinema screen but it will work better with a crowd eager to be scared like with Smile.

 

As for that cast they are very good, Campbell and Skarsgard make for a good likeable pair that actually have a pretty good chemistry together in their scenes while Justin Long is good as well as another character that enters the film some way through and does well with the horror moments he’s given to do.

 

And so that was Barbarian and its pretty good I didn’t love it all that much but Horror fans will enjoy it all the same, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Smile (2022)

Smile is a new horror film from Paramount Pictures and stars Sosie Bacon as Rose Cotter a mental health doctor who is ordered on a break when one of her patients (Caitlin Stacey) commits suicide in front of her with an evil smile on her fact while doing it, afterwards she starts seeing people with the same evil smile on their faces and begins to investigate whether this is her going crazy like her mother did or something more sinister.

 

Smile is great fun with a cinema crowd and watching it on the big screen was great to see the people behind me get scared and squirm and yell out Holy Shit respectfully and some even went out at one point only to walk back in and the film itself is a lot of fun.

 

Firstly unlike Halloween Ends this does have some creative Horror kills that really made me smile underneath my mask (it was a crowded session so I mask up per the norm for me) and that creepy looking smile only adds to the fun and I was doing my own big glad smile in my seat though there is one moment with a Cat that I did not like.

 

Secondly the film has a good cast anchoring it, Bacon is very much the product of her parents and makes for a good lead, Jesse T Usher is also pretty good as her fiancée Trevor while Caitlin Stacey’s brief role will be a very memorable one.

 

If you get the chance to go and see Smile I highly recommend it as its great fun in a dark cinema with a crowd and remember to practice your best Smile heheheheahahahahahaha, 3 and a half out of 5.