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.

Film Review - Dracula: Voyage of the Demeter (2023)

Dracula: Voyage of the Demeter is based off of the log of the wooden ship Demeter from Bram Stokers Dracula novel and stars Corey Hawkins as a doctor who gets a job on the Demeter which is transporting some private cargo from Carpathia to London but one of those crates has the mark of the Dragon on it and it could lead to a dark time on this voyage.

Voyage of the Demeter isn’t the best horror film you’ll see but its also pretty solid and much of that is due to Andre Ordeval’s direction, he doesn’t rely on loud noises/quick cuts or jump scares as much as others do but instead he is actually willing to let the scenes breathe a little and build tension with the crew on the ship and the Demeter makes for an effective location as its out to sea with no sign of land and no other ships to come to its aid.

Also what works is the cast, though Hawkins at times sounds a little out of place with his accent he makes for a good doctor on board as does David Dastmalchian as the ships first officer, Liam Cunningham is also very good as the ships captain and Aisling Franciosi is good as Anna who has found her way on board and may have a strange connection with the beast Dragul played here by Javier Botet and he too is good in his role.

And so that was Dracula Voyage of the Demeter and it’s a good solid horror film that should satisfy fans enough for them to enjoy it, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Gran Turismo (2023)

Gran Turismo is directed and co-written by Neil Blomkamp who came to prominence with 2009’s District 9 and is based off of the long running Playstation game series and stars Archie Madekwe as Jann Cunningham an avid Gran Turismo player who qualifies for the GT Academy where he will have the chance to become a proper racing car driver and is being spearheaded by Nissan executive Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom) but coaching them is former driver Jack Slater (David Harbour.)

Gran Turismo is far better than it has any right to be and a lot of that comes down to Blomkamp’s work on this movie, yes this is a classic underdog story but he finds a way to make it work for people who are familiar with playing Gran Turismo and people who haven’t, he also does some very interesting stuff with the films car race moments where at times you see the place indicator like you would in the game while at times the camera is positioned like the view on the track in the game.

What also helps is the cast, Madekwe makes for an appealing lead for the most part even if at times his deep voice makes his line readings sound a little stiff, Djimon Hounsou and Geri Halliwell are solid as his parents but the standouts in this movie are Bloom and Harbour who play off each other very well and have good scenes on their own, Harbour in particular is a lot of fun as the grizzled veteran ala Robert Duvall in Days of Thunder.

And so that was Gran Turismo and it’s a fun solid movie that does its job and doesn’t skid off the track, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - The Meg 2: The Trench (2023)

The Meg 2: The Trench sees Jason Statham return as Jonas from 2018’s The Meg and this time he and his team are planning to dive into the Trench, a previously unexplored area of the ocean floor but after an illegal mining operation detonates a thermal breach, Megalodon Sharks start swimming through and its up to Jonas and Co to save the day from the giant Sharks.

The Meg 2 is a bit of a mixed bag movie wise, I didn’t hate it per se but I also had issues with it but before I delve into those I will mention what I did like and that is mainly the films action sequences with the various creatures, they are fun to watch and have a snappy pace to them and I was rarely bored while watching the Stath fight the Sharks.

But what did bore me to some extent was the films script which desperately wants to be the new Aliens for a new generation in that you have returning characters, a bigger scope to events, a derelict station and a team struggling to survive before fighting it out in the last act but instead it feels more like the recent Jurassic World movies where those films became so bogged down in near pointless corporate intrigue sideplots that you didn’t have any interest in them at all.

And instead you just wanted a fun 90 to 100 minute The Stath vs The Giant Shark movie where the Giant Sharks run amok and the Stath has to fight them and save the day and countless sea goers from being gobbled up and those moments here are fun but don’t work as well as they should.

And so that was The Meg 2: The Trench and its fun in places and boring in others, 2 and a half out of 5.