Film Review - The Pope's Exorcist (2023)

 The Pope’s Exorcist stars Russell Crowe as Father Amorth who is the chief Exorcist for the Vatican and his holiness the Pope (Franco Nero) and his talents take him to Spain and an old abbey that is being renovated for sale but a young boy (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney) has also been possessed by a powerful demon one that Father Amorth will have to stop.

The Pope’s Exorcist is sadly not a very good movie and is a bit of a mess tonally at times but whenever Russell Crowe is on screen with his cheesy Italian accent, his scooter and is working his magic as Father Amorth he is actually good fun to watch and you find yourself kind of laughing at the film to a certain extent and his accent isn’t that far removed from his accent in Thor Love and Thunder last year where he pretty much riffed on Con the Fruiterer and he more or less does similar here.

But outside of him the film isn’t very good and first and foremost it wants to be a horror movie but it utterly fails at being scary or horrifying or exciting to watch its just the usual loud noises on the soundtrack, people getting thrown around as if a Sith Lord is in the film and the jump scares which aren’t too bad here but not that scary either and given that 1973’s The Exorcist is an iconic and horrifying horror film it makes you wish this movie could live up to even a tenth of that films effectiveness.

And also as for the storytelling well again at times it wants to be a horror film, at times Crowe’s character is so over the top he feels like he’s in a comedy and then there’s a side story with the Church and Father Amorth that just makes the same confessions we’ve seen before with this kind of film that deals with this subject matter and none of it except some of Crowe’s jokes aren’t that interesting though one of Crowe’s jokes did make me think of a Simpsons gag at one point.

And so that was the Pope’s Exorcist and I Simon Leigh Waite, patron of the Holy Church of the Cinema CAST THEE OUT as this movie is a turkey unworthy of the sacred cinema space but hey at least Air and John Wick 4 are out there at the moment, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - Dungeons and Dragons (2023)

Dungeons and Dragons is directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein who were behind the great 2018 game comedy Game Night and this is based off of the successful board game and stars Chris Pine as Edgin a thief who lost his wife to the Red Wizards and his daughter to his former colleague Forge (Hugh Grant) who plans to revive the High Sun Games but in his possession is the Tablet of Reawakening who can revive a person back from the dead which Edgin wants but to get it he'll need a team of rogues (Sophia Lillis, Justice Smith and Michelle Rodriguez.)

Dungeons and Dragons is a good time at the movies, its fun/light hearted and full of the kind of fantasy visuals that was done in the Lord of the Rings movies but also this directing teams experience on Game Night which reminded me of playing GTA 5 at times during that film feels like a great fit for this material and they do a good job translating it to film.

The humour which in so many films nowadays feels forced and unnecessary is well used here and it helps to make the mood of the film not feel too serious and like a game being played with a group of friends, the visual moments are good here as well especially in the arena during the third act and there is some fun action moments throughout the film as well.

But what makes this movie for me is the cast, Pine/Lillis/Smith and Rodriguez work well together as a group and they each bring something different to their respective parts in the heist, Rege Jean-Page is good as well as Xenk a mysterious knight but this is Hugh Grant’s movie and like in Paddington 2 he steals the show as the slimy villain and is great fun to watch in every scene he’s in.

And so that was Dungeons and Dragons and it’s a good time at the movies, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Super Mario Brothers (2023)

Super Mario Bros is the new Illumination Animation film and Nintendo is now much more involved with this movie which they weren’t with the 1993 live action film that starred Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo and Dennis Hopper, this time Chris Pratt and Charlie Day voice the Mario Brothers who get sucked into the Mushroom kingdom via the pipe warp tunnels and while Luigi encounters the villainous Bowser (Jack Black) Mario comes across Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Toad (Keegan Michael-Key) who work together to stop Bowser’s goal of conquest.

Super Mario Brothers is an okay film but it was certainly much better than I thought it would be for as much as I’m a fan of the Despicable Me series from this studio their work outside of it has either done very little for me or I’ve had no real desire to sit down and watch it and this is alongside the first Secret Life of Pets film from 2016 in being a near sole exception to that rule and that film is easily the better of those 2.

But this film like I said isn’t horrible its just perfectly fine and enjoyable and the main reason for that is Black’s voice work as Bowser he is clearly having a great time voicing this character and when he was on screen I had a big smile on my face, as for the rest of the voice cast their okay Pratt is much better than I thought he would be as Mario and he and Day have some good chemistry.

Anya Taylor-Joy is okay as Peach but her vocal work didn’t really rise above the stuff she was given to say sadly, Michael-Key as Toad is fun but isn’t in the film a huge deal while Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong is fine but nothing special.

As for the visuals well they are bright and colourful and look perfectly good on a big cinema screen but only the Mario Kart segment which is glimpsed in the previews for the film really worked for me, I had a great time with this part as it felt like this weird mix of Mad Max and James Bond but the rest of the visual set piece moments did little for me apart from being fun If forgettable to watch.

And so that was Super Mario Brothers and its fine but forgettable, fun but disposable, fans will enjoy themselves and I had some fun but I don’t think I’ll watch it again, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Air (2023)

Air is the new film by Ben Affleck and he also plays Phil Knight the CEO of Nike in 1984 which is losing ground in the sports arena to competitors Converse and Adidas by Sonny (Matt Damon) sees one night a video of a young rookie basketball player named Michael Jordan and decides to bet the fate of his company on signing this young player to their corporate sports line.

Air is terrific fun and is my favourite film of the year so far and firstly that is down to Ben Affleck in the directors chair the first time since Live by Night in 2017 and that film was okay but suffered from a messy script but this time Alex Convery is on scripting duties and he tells this story very well from the corporate side of things and also from the point of view of Jordans parents and Viola Davis as Deloris Jordan is fantastic and I hope she gets nominated for an Oscar for this work.

And Afflecks direction is confident and assured like it was in The Town and Argo and even Live by Night which was very nicely mounted from a visual standpoint and a technical filmmaking one and the performances across the board here are very good, Damon plays a riff on his character in Ford V Ferrari but he did it well there and he does it well here, Jason Bateman is good as Rob Strasser another Nike executive who isn’t keen on singing Jordan singularly, Chris Messina as Jordan’s sport agent is good as well channelling Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire while Matthew Maher is very good as well as Peter Moore the Nike shoe designer.

And lastly as someone who grew up in the 90s and remembers the dominance of Jordan and the Chicago Bulls and Space Jam (which I love and I don’t care who knows it) this movie brought a lot of that back for me much like Netflix’s 2020 documentary series The Last Dance did and throughout the film I thought of the Like Mike ad that Gatorade did in the 90s.

And so that was Air and its my favourite movie of the year so far, I loved this film and its so good to see Ben Affleck back in the directors chair again I can’t wait to see it again, 4 and a half out of 5.