Avengers: Endgame

Movie Review:  Avengers: Endgame

***SPOILER FREE*** since…well, forever!

Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame marks the 22^nd film in the MCU, the 4^th and final (straight up) Avengers film, and the 2^nd to the last film in Phase 3.  It also marks the 1^st time in the MCU that a film doesn’t include a visual teaser during the mid or post credit sequence.  Something to keep in mind for you folks that can’t wait any longer to pee after the 3-hour 5-minute run-time. However, if you can hold out, do so, while there’s nothing visual besides a nice send off for the actors, there is an interesting audible clue given at the end.

Now, I’m simply DYING to share what happens and how I feel about it (once I manage to process everything), but I’m not going to ruin this even film for anyone.  I’ll just be content to say, Endgame is as epic, far reaching, emotional, funny, heartfelt, thrilling, exciting, and all around satisfying as I, and no doubt you, hoped and more.  From the first, “Oh $#@!,” moments of the opening sequence (I’m talking literal here, throughout the theater gasps and exclamations of,” Oh, $#@!” resounded) to the final bittersweet end, Endgame delivers and is about as perfect as it can be. 

Avengers: Endgame, is indeed the type of cinematic experience you don’t watch, you live.  And I loved every glorious second of it.  Judging by the frequent gasps, cheers, applause, groans, swearing, laughter, and sniffling (not all due to allergies), the packed audience concurred. 

Great script, awesome musical score, stunning visuals, and killer acting.  Surprises upon surprise of who’s who and interactions that left me smiling and /or misting up.

Everything in this film is apropos, servicing the current storyline, setting up for the next, and resolving/settling any lingering bits and pieces from the last 11 years.  Where the MCU goes from here?  No idea, but its been one helluva ride to date and I can’t wait to see what happens next. Until then, I’ll bide my time until I can hopefully catch this one on the big screen one more time (at least) and add it to my personal collection.  I’m already planning on doing a Marvel marathon. Squee! 

Avengers: Endgame’s tagline is, “Whatever it takes.” The film took eleven years, is worth every moment, and delivers on every front.  Never lagging, always engaging, deeply satisfying.  Perfection.  Whatever it takes, get your @$$ to the theater, see this one in all its epic glory on the big screen as intended.  

Marvel, the Russo brothers, and the cast and crew have stuck the landing.  Thank you all for an epic adventure for the ages. 

A perfect 10.

Pet Sematary (2019)

Movie Review: Pet Semetary 

More years past than I like to admit, while visiting my sister over summer vacation, I was introduced to the world of Stephen King.  I’ve been a fan ever since.  Devouring his books (although I’m currently a bit behind in my reading) and watching the films based on his works.  While King’s writings, with few exceptions, don’t disappoint the adaptations based on them have been hit and miss prospects at best.  The original 1989 version of Pet Sematary, is one of those adaptations that, to put it mildly, fell woefully short of expectations.  The 2019 Pet Sematary with nowhere to go but up, again raised my expectations for another thrilling/scary adaptation.

Stephen King/horror fans rejoice!  Matt Greenberg and Jeff Buhler have done Stephen King and Pet Sematary justice in this reboot.  Largely following the original book storyline (there are a few tweaks here and there) the eerie, supernatural world of the Creed family is brought to life in all its glory and morbidity. Beautiful, bright cinematography expertly juxtaposed against creepy, dark horror, exceptional lighting, all tied together with spectacular foreshadowing and a brilliant musical score.

Pet Sematary 2019 is visually and thematically dark, thrilling, and twisted fun.  Plenty of amazing jump in your seat “gotcha” moments.  Even when you KNOW $#@! is about to go sideways, all the expectation and bracing in the world fails and you still react with heart pounding recoil and chills.  Granted I’m a wuss when it comes to scary movies, but Pet Sematary had me and other audience members muttering under our collective breaths, swearing, and hell no-ing throughout. 

As with any good film, there’s good character development, emotional context, dialogue, and relatability.  As with any good horror film the story, no matter how fantastical, the characters’ actions, reactions, and emotions are grounded in reality. There’s a dash of dialogue/situational humor as well, bonus!  

A rousing round of kudos for the cast.  Amy Seimetz (Stranger Things), Jason Clarke (I kept thinking he should know better after Winchester), and John Lithgow bring it and bring it hard.  Fantastic performances. No shock there.  The real surprise for me is Jete Laurence as Ellie.  I’m not familiar with this young actor, but she did an amazing job of going from cute/typical kid to scary A.F. 

Sometimes dead is better.  And sometimes remakes are superior.  Both hold true of Pet Sematary 2019.  This film is raw, thrilling, suspenseful, and creepy.  It’s also a case study in hitting up Zillow BEFORE buying a house (I’m just saying, could’ve saved a lot of grief). 

This is a remake done right.  One that entertains and will stay with you once you’ve left the theater.  In the mood for a good fright?  Don your best animal mask, form a procession, and pass the deadfall to the nearest theater and catch Pet Sematary. 

It’s a pulse pounding 10 from me.

4/21/19 ADDENDUM:

Forgot to add, that while I normally advocate staying through the end credits of a film, here, I have to say do so with caution. The theme song that plays is a major earworm that will have you singing along in no time. Took me about four hours to get it out of my head....You've been warned!

Little

Movie Review: Little 

I love movies like Freaky Friday, Big, 13 Going on 30, and many others of that genre.  I became a big fan of Marsai Martin, the talented young actress on Black-ish. Discovering that the now fourteen year- old is the executive producer and driving force behind Little in conjunction with some cute trailers, seemed like a safe bet and a needed trip to the movies.

I’m not going to pussyfoot around with this, I lost BIG on that bet.  So much so, I really don’t feel like taking the time or making the effort to write a review.  So, this one will be short and not so sweet folks.  I wanted to like Little.  I really did.  I tried my damndest to get into and enjoy the film, but, for all intents and purposes, Little is a 109 minute, boring @$$ dumpster fire, best to be avoided. 

Lousy pacing.  Flat, unimaginative characters and no character development.  It was just plain sad.  Regina Hall, Issa Rae, and Martin are all better than and deserve better than this movie.  There are a few “cute” and even fewer funny moments, but they are so few and far between, odds are you’ll have nodded off or walked out before most of them.  Goodness knows I struggled against doing both.

The soundtrack is the best thing about this film, but even that stops halfway through as if they’d given up even trying to salvage the project.  By the time it kicks in, it’s a classic case of too little (pun both intended and not) too late. The only other saving grace are the outfits, they’re pretty sweet.  But even that isn’t a complete success. There are some seriously butt ugly shoes messing those up as well.

Sadly, this endeavor is a 2 from me.  A complete disappointment. I can’t even recommend Red Box or streaming on this one.  Your time would be better spent listening to Spotify while watching paint dry. 

Missing Link

Missing Link

I hadn’t really planned on seeing Missing Link it looked like one of those animated films that could go either way.  Really good or really awful.  So, I went back and forth on whether or not to see this one on the big screen.  Being a stop motion animated film from Laika (Kubo and the Two Strings) put me over the top so I gave this on a try.

While to stop motion animation looks amazing, the colors and textures are out of this world, and the fluidity of the film looks akin to CGI, Missing Link falls short on overall narrative and character development.  The narrative is choppy and unevenly paced and suffers the dreaded “drag” at the beginning as you await the setup so the story can begin.  The same can be said of various moments throughout the film as well.  The characters, in particular our “hero” Hugh Jackman’s Sir Lionel Frost comes off flat and one dimensional for the bulk of the film.  Belaboring the point of him being a selfish d--- until the last few moments of the movie undermines the character’s arc, so his “evolution” comes off as a bit forced and hollow.  As for the other characters, Mr. Link (Zach Galifinakis), Adelina Fortnight (Zoe Saldana), and Mr. Stenk (Timothy Olyphant), well they’re almost totally linear as well and suffer the same fate.

Despite these shortcomings, when Missing Link works, it really works.  The story is thoroughly engaging, cute, sweet, charming, and emotional.  Topping that off, it’s visually and verbally witty and outright funny.  All of which made me wish the film was more consistent throughout.  There is some good action and thrills as well, emphasis in the third act. 

I didn’t love Missing Link however, despite its shortcomings, I did in fact enjoy it.  When all is said and done, I found myself wanting more and interested in further adventures with its characters.  SPOILER ALERT!?  Not!  Something the ending left open to that very possibility.  

All things being equal for me Missing Link is a solid 6, borderline 6.5. 

Us

Movie Review: Us 

Jordan Peele’s Get Out freaked my freak on so many levels it’s crazy.  Needless to say, I’ve been anxious/excited to check out his sophomore film release, Us. The trailers looked creepy as all get out, and being a big scaredy-cat, I waited until I had a weekend where I could see it and have plenty of time to still get a good night’s sleep.  This was that weekend.

Us starts off slow.  REAL slow.  Yeah, yeah, you gotta set up the whole backstory/average family scenario before the $#@! gets real, but the pacing of the first twenty minutes or so drags too much.  The edge of your seat anticipation quickly becomes an exercise is tedium.  Then, FINALLY, much to my relief, Evan Alex’s Jason Wilson utters the line, “there’s a family in our driveway”.  That’s when the film and the real “fun” starts.

First, Us, while a bit bloody and certainly violent, isn’t a standard “horror” film.  It’s definitely creepy/scary but more psychologically so. I categorize Us more towards the thriller end of the horror spectrum.  Something I greatly appreciate and find more disturbing than the standard slasher/monster horror movies.  Much more disquieting and impactful.  As such, definitely not a horror movie for everyone that simply wants blood, gore, and things springing out at you.

Second, as someone with a perverse sense of humor (runs in the family apparently), Us also contains quite a bit of laugh-out-loud humor.  There are some looks, lines, and visuals that had my family and I rolling (a Needful Things experience all over again), probably to the chagrin of the other audience members. 

The soundtrack is stellar.  Reminiscent of old school horror film usage to unsettle and escalate the heart thumping anxiety.  Great cinematography and editing.  The set dressings and costumes (clothing) are subtle to obvious keys to the story and play great homage to the 80s. The plot is a bit convoluted but falls well within the realm of better than most to exceptional. 

Third, there’s the cast.  Exceptional across the board!  Lupita Nyong’o continues her award winning/captivating ways and shows once again why she’s a star.  Winston Duke as the hapless Gabe is the perfect foil for Nyong’o and their chemistry truly grounds the film ramping up the tension/stress of events.  Then there’s the Wilson’s kids, Shahadi Wright Joseph (voice of young Nala in the upcoming The Lion King) and Evan Alex.  Fantastic young actors both and captivating in their duel rolls.  The kids from Dumbo need to take a master class from these youngsters.  I bought into every moment of their performances and loved what they brought to the screen.

Us isn’t perfect, but it’s a damn fine sophomore undertaking.  There are numerous ideas explored though not necessarily explained (your interpretation of what you’re seeing/experiencing is paramount), something that normally irks me as a complete cop out or just bad/lazy writing.  However, here, I feel it works exceptionally well.  Duality. Good v evil.  What’s good? What’s evil? Being your own worse enemy.  How do you escape your personal demons? Can you? Fight or flight?  Lots of questions and so many more.  

Jordan Peele has created a thinking man’s horror film wrapped in a shiny survivalist wrapper.  Us definitely worked for me, is one of those films I’ll be thinking about for some time and is certainly worth repeated viewings.  I’ve got to give this one an 8.

The Best of Enemies

Been in a bit of a slump on the movie front.  Haven’t seen anything lately that really “does it” for me.  While the subject matter is far from light or what I’d normally call “entertaining”, The Best of Enemies starring Taraji P. Henson and Sam Rockwell looked like a good bet for a quality film experience. 

The Best of Enemies, happily, delivers on quality from start to finish.  Based on true events in Durham, North Carolina in 1971 the film follows events that led to public school integration and the resulting stranger than fiction friendship that developed through the fight.  Henson portrays black activist/community organizer Ann “Roughhouse Annie” Atwater, bringing a fearless “in your face” tour de force performance. Going toe to toe with Henson is Sam Rockwell as C.P. Ellis, local Ku Klux Klan leader. Both actors chew major scenery, raise the others’ game, and are mesmerizing.  In fact, the entire cast delivers.  The boisterous in your face moments, balanced by nuanced and subtle facial expressions and body language gives a rich texture to the film that’s quite unexpected.

Also unexpected and welcome is the humanity given to both main characters.  I’m a Sam Rockwell fan (though I am starting to wonder what’s with all the racist roles) from way back, but I didn’t expect to have much if any sympathy or understanding for his character.  Robin Bissell’s writing, however, brings forth the mindset of what could easily be a simply “heinous” character. Understanding and compassion follow, making for a next level film. 

While rough to watch/listen to in places given the context of the movie, overall The
Best of Enemies is at its core an inspirational and uplifting film with an underlying message of hope that’s certainly needed today.  Also, not all gloom and doom, there are sweet/touching/emotional moments along with genuine humor.  A slow paced, character driven film, heavy on dialogue, Enemies never drags or feels forced and my attention never waned.  Good soundtrack as well.

Rich characterization, substantive message, powerhouse performances.  The Best of Enemies is definitely worth a trip to the theater and easily the most enjoyable movie experience I’ve had so far in 2019.  

It’s a 9 from me.