Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) was a late and (to many) surprise of hit of 2017 (and when I say hit, I mean “almost made a billion dollars” hit) where the movie was just a mindless fun, but it was fun nonetheless. Plus the main characters lead by Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson were really fun to watch, especially him (a nerd in The Rock’s body) and Jack Black (teenage girl controlling Jack Black’s body) made for a few decent laughs, so when the movie ended, you had a good time watching it.

So, what do you do when your movie makes almost a billion worldwide? You make a sequel as soon as possible, where you try to change things up a bit, but not too much, as that’s what people really want, right? Well, kind of… Sequels, especially the comedy ones, are always hard to do, because plenty of times the reasons for the first movie working so well aren’t that simple, they can’t be calculated, or predicted – the movie landed perfectly, there was nothing like it playing in the cinemas (the first movie went against The Last Jedi, my review here, one of the most divisive films ever made, so people who didn’t want to go and see that went to see the first Jumanji instead), it was during Christmas, so this was THE family movie to see… I am pretty sure even the executives of the first Jumanji didn’t predict for it to do THAT well. I am circling around the point, but the main thing about sequels (nowadays) is simple – it’s not really about the quality, but money, the box office numbers. And with Jumanji: The Next Level, that’s unfortunately the case.

This movie is a bit bizarre. The first 20 minutes or so before we go back, are the “necessary evil”, where we need to establish why we are going back to the game, and it doesn’t feel as natural as the first film. But once we are in, we have a twist, where Danny DeVito is inside The Rock’s body and Danny Glover “controls” Kevin Hart, and that was surprisingly great. I really need to take the time to compliment Kevin Hart – I don’t mind him, I even kind of like him, but I never understood why people LOVE him, as he’s always Kevin Hart in every single movie. Which is not bad, it just gets old quite quickly. But in this film, given he had to play/mimic Danny Glover, that forced him to try something completely new and it worked, dare I say this was his best performance I’ve seen. He was, by far, the highlight of this movie. I only wish he’d step out of “himself” more often, tone it down a bit and he might become someone, who I would follow more closely.

Beware, MINOR SPOILERS are coming!

But then, since we NEED to get the characters back exactly in the way they were in the first movie (remember how much fun were you having with that?!) there is a magic switching river, where everybody switches bodies and plays the same characters as before. That’s where the movie lost me a bit. If we were to introduce this “switch”, why not try something else? Why did we have to go back to the same formula as the first movie? Wouldn’t it be more intriguing to see different interpretations of different characters by the main actors? From that point on, it feels like the movie is in “neutral” gear, where it hits all the places it must to “land” safely, but safe is pretty boring. I guess Awkwafina was also funny, but it wasn’t enough and it felt like she didn’t have anybody interesting around to compliment her character in most of her scenes. And this movie’s villain, played by Rory McCann from Game of Thrones is not really necessary for the movie, as he barely does anything…?

Jumanji: The Next Level feels like a movie that was based on half of a great idea, that was rushed through everybody, so the studios can make the quick cash, as soon as, possibly yesterday. Most of the movie feels half baked, and that’s shame as overall, it’s not a bad movie by any means, mainly the first hour. I just can’t shake the feeling that if this film came out later, giving the screenwriters time to work on the story, jokes, and the concept of this movie as a whole, it could’ve been way better than just “ok”. Which is what this movie is – a perfectly ok movie, where Kevin Hart finally proves he can be more than just Kevin Hart. I am really hopping if there ever was to be a third movie (the setup is quite obvious that there should be at least one more movie after this) they will take a more time to work on the story and try to experiment with the game elements.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

Gemini Man is a fascinating movie. On one hand, I wasn’t bored watching the action scenes, I thought most of them were actually solid, I thought most of the CGI was pretty great (definitely not the final scene though, which I will talk about later) and I do like both Will Smith and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, so what’s not love, right? Well, right after I’ve finished the movie, I wasn’t sure about my rating, so I’ve waited a few days and discovered, that there is no standout, as now, only couple of days later, I only remember fragments of the movie, but there is no one scene, or sequence that’d stuck with me.

According to IMDb’s trivia, this movie has been in development since the 90’s and it shows, as the story definitely feels like a stereotypical 90’s action/drama, where there is one man, who’s THE BEST at what he does, until somebody wants to kill him (no less than government’s officials) so he goes on the run with a woman, who was supposed to spy on him, but since he is THE BEST, he immediately knows she’s agent… but this time, the twist is… clones. And that’s no spoiler, as the official trailer pretty much spoiled it for everyone. Still don’t understand the logic behind that, but I guess if you advertise the fact Gemini Man has twice the Will Smith any other Will Smith movie ever, you make twice the money…? Well, that didn’t work…

There are two major things that I had issues with – the story and the CGI. Let’s break it down, shall we?

The story is really, really basic. What I mean by that is, if you ever seen an action movie from past 30 years or so, you will not be surprised by literally anything that happens in this movie. This movie might have been in development for the last 30 years or so, but the script was written in 90’s and than nobody touched it since, just pile of papers, collecting dust, while the CGI got better. The script feels unoriginal and predictable, which makes it boring. And just the action scenes will not save your otherwise boring movie… I mean, they potentially could, but then your action scenes would have to compare to movies like The Raid (2011) or John Wick (2014) to even stand a chance, as these two franchises are perfect examples of what really great action scenes can do for a really simple story, but this movie ain’t it.

Let’s talk about the CGI… I don’t know if it’s just me, but it seemed the longer the movie got, the worse the CGI was. When the clone first showed up, I thought it looked a bit “rubbery” but it was still pretty great job. But then it seemed like the movie was running out of money, time or both, so the further in the story we’ve gotten, the poorer the clone looked like, and then the very last scene happened, which was… funny, yet disturbing and a bit embarrassing at the same time…? I mean honestly, I don’t know whether they had to do the CGI for the last scene 1 day before releasing the movie into the cinemas or something like that, but holy shit, that was… something. It’s almost like having a decent dessert, where when you start eating, you think to yourself “alright, it’s not the best dessert of my life, but it’s decent” but the more you have, the weirder it gets, only for you to discover at the very end it was actually a piece of fake plastic, that somehow managed to trick you. And then you feel strange, and tricked and full of… well, plastic.

That’s what Gemini Man is in a nutshell – a strange, weird dessert, whose last 5 minutes sink the entire selling point of this movie – the CGI. It’s so distressingly bad, I am honestly still not over it. I was thinking about posting a picture below, but then I thought to myself, no, I should not do that. I don’t want to take this “surprise” from anybody who might consider watching this movie for the first time. I want them to be as shocked as I was/still am. And isn’t this what being a movie fan is all about? We should all suffer I mean share things together. 😉

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

The sequel literally nobody asked for, for a movie, that was slightly better than everybody expected, came… and went, as I didn’t really see anybody talking about it, to be honest. And yet, it made almost half a billion dollars, so somebody did see it. Go reckon…

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is another Disney retelling an old story with darker twist to it, except this time, it’s a sequel to a darker retelling of an old story, where especially the first half of this movie is really dark. And I am not talking about the material, I mean it’s so dark most of the time you can’t really see what’s happening on the screen, as most of the action takes place at night! Whoever is making these choices, as plenty of movie seem to “share” this problem, can that person just… don’t do that anymore? Thanks.

But the second half improves the setting (mostly day) and surprisingly, the movie became watchable, and even entertaining. Most of it was due to watching Angelina Jolie, as I do miss seeing her on the big screen and I wish she would act bit more. I have never understood the hate she sometimes would get, I do think she’s a great actress, when given opportunity (see movies like Gia, Girl, Interrupted or Changeling) and she’s obviously not bad to look at either.

Other than that, this movie won’t really surprise you, as we are given pretty much the same as last time, the story follows a clear path, where we know from the get-go who’s bad, who’s good and that Maleficent is still in between and her daughter (played by charming Elle Fanning) is what keeps her grounded. I did like their dynamic and scenes, just wish they would have more of them. But given the fact where they went with the story, I feel like there was a room for improvement, I am not going to spoil it here, but for me, the villain didn’t have to tip their hand so soon, it would have been a pretty cool reveal to discover what actually happened and who’s responsible. And I know, it’s Disney, it’s a fairy tale sequel, so I can’t judge it as harshly, but that could have been a really decent reveal.

Overall, this movie is almost exact definition of the word “average”, but average by Disney’s standards. That means, you can clearly see how much money they threw into it, the movie looks good, the special effects were alright, and the talent involved was great. But it’s only because of Angelina Jolie and her dominating this role, I’m slightly over-rating this movie. If it wasn’t for her, this could have been a dictionary definition for the expression “an average movie”.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

Let me start this review by answering the question from the title – no. Extraction is a decent action movie, where the one unbroken shot elevates it above others, so it doesn’t blend in with your typical “one man against city/army/bunch of camels” type of action movies. I just wish they had spent an equal amount of time on the script as they had on that unbroken shot.

I can’t help but feel that this movie is trying so hard to be “the next” John Wick or The Raid both of which are great action movies, full of stunts, focusing on hand combat, action pieces with long takes, where the story takes a back seat and you are there to enjoy the ride. And both of these movies had a successful sequels, which established and flashed-out their worlds even more (the reason I’m mentioning this is the obvious sequel bait ending, and it looks like it worked. Heads up, the article contains spoilers for this movie).

But where those two have succeeded and Extraction didn’t, is they weren’t relying on JUST one action piece, or one great sequence. Both John Wick and The Raid have several things that make them great, they are not remembered for “one really cool scene”. Whereas this movie will be remembered for that one, I don’t mind admitting, pretty kick ass scene. According to the IMDb trivia, it lasts 11 minutes and 30 seconds and trust me, you can feel it, in the best possible way as that’s THE part of the movie that tries to convince you, “hey, I am different, you better pay attention!” But everything around that is just… ok…?

Chris Hemsworth is still as buffed as he is charismatic, so he carries this movie on his massive shoulders with no issues, but I swear they wrote his character by opening the “Cliches and Whatnot, 101 Screenwriting Tips for YOU” book and took way too much from it, as he embodies almost every single cliche imaginable. Don’t believe me? Let me checklist it for you:

• Ex-soldier of kind? ✔
• Has a dead kid? ✔
• Is the only one crazy enough for this job? ✔
• Using pills for different injuries? ✔
• Doesn’t care about whether he lives or dies as he’s got nothing to live for? ✔
• Doesn’t blink when gun is pointed and shot into his face? ✔
• Grows attached to the person he’s hired to protect? ✔

And I could probably come up with a few more, but I think you get what I am trying to say. Extraction is a tale of three parts – the beginning left me hopeful, the single-take action sequence left me pumped up and wanting/expecting more, and everything else after that left me bored.

The next paragraph or two will contain SPOILERS!

What I did appreciate (except the single-take action sequence already mentioned) is that this movie wasn’t shy from getting dirty, where the kills are convincing and fights are usually not edited to pieces, so for the most of the movie you actually know where everything/everyone is, so that was a nice surprise. Did it have to be almost 2 hours? No. Would I rate it slightly higher, if the movie had the balls to give Chris “hero death” and not this open ended, sequel biting thing that happened? Yes.

And that’s the main difference between this movie and the other two great ones mentioned before – those were not planned as sequels, they stand on their own, and they had bit more meat on the bones, and that always helps, even if your movie is branded as “mindless entertainment”. More meat is nice, it gives the viewer something more to chew on, rather than the unpleasant experience of biting into a bone really quickly, realising the meal is not as appealing as it looks like.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

In order for you to understand what I mean by the “Genie Actually” comment, let me talk about the original Aladdin (1992) movie first.

We all know today, that the original is a decent movie, that’s made “above-its-pay-grade” amazing by Robin Williams and him only. His stand-up comedy persona was perfect fit for the role of Genie, and he managed “to steal” this movie without going overboard and even though he’s the best thing about the movie, you still remember Aladdin, princess Jasmine, Jafar and others, because it’s not just about the Genie. And that is the most fascinating thing about the original film, even though we all love Genie, he’s not there THAT much, so we can focus on the main story with Aladdin and also see both of them bond and develop friendship throughout, where we can see Genie actually caring about Aladdin, whether he lives or dies, whether he gets Jasmine or not.

While watching this movie, I was entertained enough, Will Smith actually did a good job, but there was something I couldn’t get over, something I couldn’t put my finger on. And then it happened – the party scene, where Genie talks to Aladdin and says:

Oh, well, you gonna need to go back to the room, then. You’re not messing up my night.

That was the moment, where a tiny light bulb appeared above my head, turned itself on with a pretty cool sound effect and it all clicked (does this happen to anybody else btw, or should I see a doctor about that…?) – this isn’t Aladdin movie. Sure, it’s named Aladdin, and it pretends to be about him, but the main star is Will Smith. Ever since he appears on the screen, he doesn’t seem to go away, and makes himself focus of most of the scenes. And when your movie shifts focus like that, you kind of notice, as it halts everything else. Suddenly, I’ve noticed how because of the movie focusing more on him trying to steal the movie, we don’t really have the bonding experience like in the original movie, so when the “drowning” scene comes along, it almost feels unearned for Genie to save Aladdin.

Nobody will ever recreate that magic from the original movie, not because it’s something that genius, or because Robin Williams is sadly not with us anymore, but because they didn’t plan to have Genie “steal” the movie the way he had! Even though they recognised what they had with Robin’s unique performance, they didn’t go overboard with it, so as amazing as his portrayal of Genie was, he was still the supporting character. This movie feels split, as ever since Will-Genie comes into it, he overtakes the entire movie. And it becomes quite tiring after a while, as Will Smith is funny, but not “balls-to-the-walls” funny. Also, just noticed something else supporting my theory about him being the main star – go and look at the movie’s posters with multiple characters – whose head is the biggest on all of them? Who stands out the most? I know he’s the most “profitable” star in this movie, but still…

Other than that the movie improved on nothing, they gave princess Jasmine one song about empowerment (which I actually quite liked) but her character is almost identical to the one from the original movie. Naomi Scott tried her best though and I’m hopeful and excited to see her in more movies going forward.

One last thing – all due respect to Marwan Kenzari, (the new Jafar) but he wasn’t menacing at all – don’t know whether it was his choice, or maybe Guy Ritchie (yes, it’s directed by Guy Ritchie, I mean, why? How? What?) told him to tone it down, but he definitely seemed to be a “downgrade” from the original, as his animated counterpart was much more menacing.

Overall, Aladdin is a slightly better than average movie, bringing (almost) nothing new to the story and making over 1 billion worldwide at the box office. Wonder how long will this work for Disney with these live action remakes…

That’s all for this fancy-schmancy rendition of Aladdin! What did you think? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

This movie could’ve been a disaster. Movies based on video games tend not to be great, and adaptations of different animes also don’t seem to win plenty of fans over. But somehow, Pokémon Detective Pikachu manages to not only be watchable, but also fun(ish)?

Let’s face it, it has something to do with Ryan Reynolds and his “performance” as Pikachu, where somehow it just works for him to be this big, yellow, ball of fluff and sarcasm.

This movie is not GREAT by any means, but I don’t think you will regret watching it either. It’s a good movie for the entire family, where if you grew up with the original Pokémon TV show, you might rate this slightly higher. Even now, while writing this review I’m not sure how I will rate this movie.

On one hand, it’s a nice, clean, family movie, with pleasant run time, good casting and pretty good mystery. I also liked what they’ve done with Mewtwo. On the other hand, the true Pokémon fans will probably be disappointed we didn’t get to see any proper battle, the obvious bad guy was fairly obvious from the very beginning and now, a mere day later, I can only recall one pretty good sequence that stood out (not going to spoil it, let’s just say really, really big Pokémons might have something to do with that).

It’s also a never good sign where you’re trying to write a review for a movie and struggling to come up with anything, as the movie isn’t great, but it also isn’t terrible, it just IS.

I feel like given everything I’ve said, I now know how I’m going to rate this film, but I need to stress out, I was surprised by this film, as I’ve expected this to be way, way worse than this. If you’re looking for something decent to watch, you might like Pokémon Detective Pikachu, just don’t expect anything more from it than a decent movie with really cute and fluffy Pikachu, voiced by the always reliable (at least over the past 5/6 years) Ryan Reynolds.

That’s all for this one? What did you think? Do you think there will be a sequel? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

I have mixed feelings about The Player. On one hand I respect Robert Altman, I loved the unbroken opening shot where movie people are talking about unbroken shots in different movies (“I haven’t seen that one, I only watch American movies”) and I do love the “meta” thing Altman has going on (more on that later).

What I found hard to grasp is everything else – the story is pretty straightforward, so you won’t get lost, but I couldn’t help but feel disconnected from it. I don’t know how to put it in words – have you ever been in a situation where you knew “I should be happy right now” or “I should be sad” but couldn’t, as you were somehow disconnected from the world? That’s how I felt watching this movie, disconnected, emotionally blank. It might’ve been on purpose that we, as just a common viewer, weren’t meant to feel connected to these Hollywood types who refuse ideas on daily basis because “they only have a budget for 12 ideas/year.” If so, the movie succeeded.

The Player does have an interesting story and where I wish it could’ve been bit more “meta”, aware of itself, as it seems somehow disjointed – are we meant to sympathise with Griffin Mill (I honestly wish to see Tim Robbins in more newer movies, as he’s such an underrated actor) even though there is no morality to him? I don’t think the character has one redeeming quality, but then again, the “metaness” (that’s 100% a word!) of this movie comes in where “the bad guy doesn’t have to punished”.

I really liked the meta factor of this movie, where for the entirety of it, people are pitching different movies (Graduate Part II is my personal favourite), usually starring Julia Roberts and Bruce Willis, so we can then see both of them at the very end in the movie that “is not even American movie, this is real, black woman goes to die in a gas chamber, they found out she was innocent and her man tries to rescue her, but he’s too late!” is not so subtle wink at Hollywood and their entire thing about being “real and relatable”. And nothing has changed in almost 30 years, go reckon…

This is one of the movies I can’t wait to re-watch in a couple of years to see whether I feel the same about it as I do now, because who knows? Maybe on my second viewing I’ll find it better than now, but for now, it is, what it is.

That’s all for this one? What’s your favourite Altman movie? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

I need to preface something – I love these kind of movies. Shaun of the Dead is probably in my TOP 20 movies of all time, I even like when cheesy horror meets cheesy musical (I really need to re-watch and write a review for Repo! The Genetic Opera to see whether I still love it the same way I have a decade or so ago), so I was quite excited for this movie. And from a few people I trust on the internet I’ve heard it a pleasant movie, that’s worth watching.

Maybe that’s why I feel slightly disappointed with what I’ve seen. Anna and the Apocalypse is not a BAD movie, that’s not what I am trying to say. It flows well, the main protagonists are likable, I liked that they’ve taken some bolder choices regarding who survives and who dies and when, so far we are good.

My two big issues with this film are these:

1. The music is like something from the High School Musical movies. I’m really sorry to the creators, if that was the intention, but it didn’t work at all. I think it was supposed to add the “cheesy” factor to this movie, but I feel like it’d have worked better if only one or two songs were like that and after we would’ve gotten some kick ass songs. Opera/rock/metal literally any other style than what we’ve gotten for the entirety of this movie, because eventually they all blend together where there wasn’t any standout song. And I was patiently waiting for that ONE scene/song that would stand out above them all, something that would’ve embrace this genre more, something I might be inclined to re-listen after the movie was over, and nothing.
2. This movie wants to have a “heart” so much and I honestly wanted to love it even more, but it falls flat. There was something about it, where for a comedy it wasn’t funny enough, for a horror it wasn’t scary enough, and for a musical it wasn’t good enough. If only the director had managed to blend at least 2 out of those 3 factors successfully, it’d have been a better film with some heart, but it falls flat so many times where it’s supposed to shine (some deaths we were supposed to care about more didn’t hit me as much as they should have).

I feel like by a complete (and I guess unwanted) accident, this film only highlights how brilliant of a director Edgar Wright truly is for making Shaun of the Dead and blending the horror genre with comedy so flawlessly. That movie has no (W)right (see what I did there? Ok, I see myself out now…) to be as brilliant as it is.

I’m really hoping I get to see more of Ella Hunt in the future, as she’s tried her best to make Anna and the Apocalypse work. If it wasn’t for her, my rating would have been lower.

Is Anna and the Apocalypse worth seeing? Let me put it this way – if you have a chance, see Shaun of the Dead first. If you don’t have the means to see it, and your only other choice is this movie, I’d go for it, don’t expect much, maybe you’ll be surprised. I wanted to be, believe me.

That’s all for this movie? Did you see it? If so, what did you think? Am I too harsh, or were you underwhelmed too? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke