Film Review - Blue Beetle (2023)

Blue Beetle is the latest DC comics film to come out this year after Shazam: Fury of the Gods and the Flash with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom to come out in December (I can’t believe that kept its release date instead of Dune 2: Long Live the Fighters but I digress) and stars Xolo Mariduena as Jamie Reyes a young university graduate wanting to find a good job so he can help his family including his sister (Belissa Escobedo), his Mama (Elpidia Carillo from Predator), his Papa (Damian Alcazar), his Nana (Adriana Barraza) and his Uncle (George Reyes) but one day he finds an Alien Scarab that then bonds itself to his body and that gets the attention of the head of Kord Industries (Susan Sarandon) who wants the Scarab for her own purposes.

Blue Beetle isn’t a bad movie in the least and I had a lot more fun with it than I thought I would but if you have seen the preview you have more or less seen the movie in a condensed form as it just hits every single beat these movies have hit so often especially in the last 15 years since Iron Man and the Dark Knight in 2008 which led to the genre being so thoroughly mined for every version of this concept that this just feels way too late especially with James Gunn hoping to salvage the DC franchise with Superman Legacy.

And this again is not a bad movie mainly because the family dynamic works very well in this movie and brings a lot of heart to it which has been sorely missing in the Fast and Furious franchise no matter how many times Vin Diesel says Family in a low monotone voice since the passing of Paul Walker 10 years ago and all of those actors play off of each other very well, I particularly liked Lopez as the Uncle and Barraza as the Nana who may have an interesting past of her own.

As for Xolo as Jamie/Blue Beetle he is very good and holds his own very well and he has good chemistry with Brune Marquezine as Jenny his potential love interest but as for Susan Sarandon it really feels like she took this part for the cash and a lot of her line readings sound that way at times as this role does very little for her.

And so that was Blue Beetle and look its perfectly fine and a better movie than Shazam 2 or the Flash were but if you saw the preview you more or less saw the movie and there’s nothing new here and this genre has been so hollowed out now that its time for a rest from it all for a while despite the well done family plotline, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - A Haunting in Venice (2023)

A Haunting in Venice is the third Poirot film to star and be directed by Kenneth Branagh and sees Poirot living in Venice in 1947 semi retired when an old friend of his an author (Tina Fey) invites him to a séance hosted by a former Opera singer (Kelly Reilly) which will also host a psychic (Michelle Yeoh) who can talk to the dead but when she herself is found dead Poirot becomes determined to find the murderer.

A Haunting in Venice unlike Knives Out 2 has actually gone to movie theatres and the film is better for it as this movie has much more of a horror mystery vibe and it really works very well with the dark lighting, the winds crashing against the Venice bay, the pouring rain, the shadows in the house and the hints of something darker regarding the history of the house itself and Branagh directs these moments very well even if at times he does one too many Dutch angles.

Also effective is the cast, Branagh is a great actor and he is clearly enjoying playing Poirot but he also has a better ensemble than he did in Death on the Nile starting with Kelly Reilly aka Beth on Yellowstone and when she first came on screen in this movie I lit up and thought “That’s Beth :D”, Fey at times feels like she’s playing an ancestor of her character on the Only Murders in the Building TV series but she is fun as well while Yeoh has a small role but makes the most of it, I also enjoyed seeing little Jude Hill from Belfast in a supporting role and Camille Cottin, Emma Laird and Riccardo Scamarcio are good in their roles as well.

And so that was A Haunting in Venice and it’s a good time at the movies especially in the lead up to Halloween and if you like murder mysteries or Kenneth Branagh as I do, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is the newest Ninja Turtles film only this time it is animated and is co-written by Seth Rogen who also voices Bebop the Mutant (Rocksteady is voiced by John Cena), this story sees the Turtles wanting to be accepted by the human world despite their father Splinter (Jackie Chan) not wanting them to go there but when the villainous Superfly (Ice Cube) plans to mutate the animals of the world so he can take it over its up to the Turtles and their only human friend April O’Neill (Ayo Edibiri) to stop them.

Mutant Mayhem is good fun and shows that the Ninja Turtles are best suited to the world of animation instead of live action where those films were very hit and miss either because of the storytelling or the Turtles themselves not looking that great in the real world but here animation suits them well and I had a smile on my face for most of the running time.

As for that animation well it is good and it certainly has a unique style to it but it also at times feels like an imitation of the animation styles you see in the Spider-Man: Spider-Verse movies and those movies use this style better as it feels more polished as oppose to sketch book which happens here and is a little noticeable at times.

Also the Turtles themselves are a good unit here and don’t have a lot of the darker tones the live action films sometimes wrote them to have, I do miss the group of the early 1990s animated series but these are a good second and the voice actors Nicholas Cantu, Micah Abbey, Brady Noon and Shamon Brown Jr work well together although Jackie Chan as Splinter is inspired casting but sadly isn’t given the martial arts backstory the original animated series gave him and he feels wasted as the typical concerned dad.

And here is where I will delve into my biggest issue with this movie and that is its storytelling, don’t get me wrong it isn’t awful but its also another origin story and it’s not that interesting anymore, if your going to do this just do it like Tim Burton’s first Batman movie in 1989 did where the Turtles are already established as heroes and then do a brief backstory explainer later in the film and also it does a lot of the acceptance ideas that I didn’t find to be all that interesting especially in this time where were trying to celebrate difference in people a lot more than we used to.

And lastly as for the villains, their okay but nothing overly special though Ice Cube is pretty good as Superfly and the other mutants are fun to watch as well.

And so that was TMNT: Mutant Mayhem and it’s a good time and I enjoyed myself enough that I feel its worth watching, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Equalizer 3 (2023)

Equalizer 3 is once again directed by Antoine Fuqua and sees Denzel Washington return as Robert McCall who now lives in Italy and is enjoying retirement but when his home village is attacked by a gang wanting to take it over to build a hotel and casino development McCall once again hears the call to action.

Equalizer 3 is good fun and I think this series has built on itself with each film, I didn’t care much for the first film it just got too silly for me while the second film I liked more but this third film is my favourite of the three and firstly the Italian setting works really well here, you get to see the cafes, the churches, the seaside bays and it makes it feel inviting and also makes you want to go there for your next holiday.

Also the film knows what it is, it is a fun action movie where you watch Denzel murder people for 2 hours and you sit there in your cinema seat and go “YAAAAY” and cheer and grin like an idiot and he does some very cool killings here though this time he uses the shadows of the night and strikes swiftly like he’s a slasher movie killer and I never got bored of it while watching it.

And so that was Equalizer 3 and its good fun and if you liked the earlier films you will like this one as well, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Asteroid City (2023)

Asteroid City is the new film by Wes Anderson and takes place in a fictional desert town called Asteroid City in 1955 where Jason Schwartzman finds himself in so he can take his son (Jake Ryan) to a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet event led by General Gibson (Geoffrey Wright) but when an Alien lands one night and steals a small meteorite the town is placed into quarantine for 7 days.

Asteroid City is a film that while I’m not the worlds biggest fan of Wes Anderson I really enjoyed it but its not without problems but before I delve into those I want to talk about what I did like and firstly the production design and set design is very good here, this town looks and feels fictional yet also very real at the same time, you feel the desolation and isolation of the town yet there is also a diner, a hotel, a garage and even an observatory to monitor alien life in the universe.

Also the quarantine scenes are really good here though they will test the patience of some movie goers but I what I liked most about those scenes is that was how the dark times of the Coronavirus felt like, your locked down, everything is shut and you have to make do with the circumstances you find yourself in and the sense of drift that developed is very well realised here in those scenes.

The film also has a very game cast not just Schwartzman and Wright but also Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston (one day he’ll be playing Walter Cronkite in a movie), Edward Norton, Steve Carrell (taking over from Bill Murray who caught Covid before filming began), Jeff Goldblum and Liev Schriber as well as Tom Hanks among others and all of them are very good though sadly I didn’t love Maya Hawke who sometimes struggled to adapt to Wes Anderson’s directorial style and sounded like she was talking on fast forward at times.

And here is where I will talk about my main problem with this movie, the films structure goes back and forth between the Asteroid City scenes and the scenes of the actual play being made by Edward Norton’s character and this back and forth structure didn’t really work for me I’m sorry to say, it just felt too intrusive and I wish that we just got a bookend structure instead as those playwright stage scenes didn’t really work for me, they felt too inside the beltway and I just wanted more of the Asteroid City scenes.

All that said I really liked this movie but it won’t be for everyone but that’s Wes Anderson for you you go with it or you don’t and I’ve done both over the years, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Strays (2023)

Strays is a new comedy starring Will Ferrell as the voice of Reggie a dog who is hated by his owner (Will Forte) and one day he is abandoned and comes across Bug (Jamie Foxx) who teaches him what it means to be a Stray dog but Reggie is determined to get his revenge on his owner by biting off his most beloved part of his body.

Strays was a movie I was really looking forward to mainly because the preview for it was one of my favourites in the last while, it sold me on the film and made me laugh.

And happily the film did not disappoint, this is a very fun movie especially with a decent sized cinema crowd and firstly the laughs come hard and fast and I found myself quite a bit behind my mask in the cinema, Ferrell is much better here than he was in Barbie and that’s really because he’s the centre of the film instead of an afterthought, Foxx is also good fun as the street wise Bug while Isla Fisher and Randall Park are also good fun as 2 other dogs who join Reggie and Bug.

Also the film has a surprising amount of heart to it, much more than I thought it would though when you see multiple close ups of Reggie and think “aww he’s a cute doggie” you’ll find yourself wanting him to achieve his goal and the story regarding Bug worked for me as well.

But if there is a scene stealer it is Forte as Doug who is a horrible owner and he plays that very well and is a better villain than most I’ve seen in a while and I want that to be fixed please.

And so that was Strays, its very funny has some heart and closeups of cute doggos and a great villain, I had a lot of fun with this one, 3 and a half out of 5.