Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

6/10

Starring

Paul Rudd

Carrie Coon

Finn Wolfhard

Mckenna Grace

Kumail Nanjiani

 

Directed by Gil Kenan

 

It felt like this movie was rushed out, even though the last Ghostbuster movie was three years ago. Then it was a thrill to see a CGI of the late Harold Ramis (Egon Spengler). The film did a wonderful job when it came to comedy and science. The all round guckingness of the cast members and the coming together of the crew to save the day, with the addition of the family of the Spenglers was a nice job. Still, it felt like we just got over the first one and here is another.

As you would expect, the acting was cool, it was a wonderful job the cast did in the movie, but this new addition introduced more characters into the mix, and at times it felt crowded. There were too many people involved in stopping this bad guy that it just did not feel right.

The movie digressed a lot from the matter at hand and the matter at hand was a creature called Garraka from thousands of years ago, who was trapped in an orb and kept there to save the world from his anger. Now this creature is no ordinary ghost, the proton packs do not work on this creature, so trying to stop it will require certain skills from the descendant of the people who caught him thousands of years ago.

The movie starts with these new four (Gary, Callie Spengler with her two children Trevor and Phoebe) going about busting ghosts. If you are a fan of the Ghostbusters, you know in doing this, they are also making a mess of the city of New York, and everyone is not happy about it, especially the mayor.

Turns out, Phoebe Spengler was too young to be running around busting ghosts and needed to be benched, which did not go well with her. She was forced to make friends with a ghost in her loneliness.

On another note, the ghost tank in the firehouse is getting full, and they need to transfer the ghosts from there to a new, bigger tank. With all these happening, the orb in which Garraka was trapped was sold to Ray Stanz, who then took it to the company which Winston runs for them to extract the paranormal being in it. But when they tried, it caused so much chaos in the new lab, and almost caused the person working on it to lose a hand to frostbite.

But Garraka wanted out, and he is able to communicate with other ghosts from within the orb to help him get out, promising them anything they wanted.

As you will expect he got out, and we watch the team, now united with the old team and with the new set of casts, try to stop Garraka and put him back into the orb.

I can say, the movie was not bad, but it still felt like it was too soon, and we have had enough of Ghostbusting for a while.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)

 

5/10

Starring

Rebecca Hall

Brian Tyree Henry

Dan Stevens

Kaylee Hottle

 

Directed by Adam Wingard

 

There must have been two reasons for this film to be like this:

1)      Many people must have clamoured for a film with monsters fighting from start to finish.

2)      The rights to the franchises were going to end and Universal had to make a film to keep it.

This was not a good film. The film is so loose that you can actually watch this film with no sound, and you will still understand what was happening and not get lost. The reason for this is, monster fights were from the start to end, and since we already know that Godzilla and Kong are the good guys, anyone else fighting against them, will be the bad guys. So, with no sound, you could actually figure out what was going on. The was no point for sound anyway, no point for dialogue, because all that was basically being said was, Godzilla is gearing up for something, consuming radiation left right and center for something. Since the film cuts to Kong and then back to Godzilla, you can see what the something is, and know what Godzilla is gearing up to fight.

Set three years after the events of Godzilla vs Kong, Kong is seen going about Hollow Earth, discovering more of its domain. We see him come across large creatures like him, and he seems to dominate them all. He meets another ape like creature like him, smaller and from that meet, it became a fight as more ape like creatures like him, his size this time, emerge from the mist and try to kill him. He wins and the little one, which is now like his hostage, takes him to their lair. In the lair we see many more ape like creatures like Kong and the leader, an evil ape also tries to kill Kong. But when he was losing, he summoned a creature like Godzilla which he has control over against the creature's will. With the creature, he was able to cause Kong to drop the battle and run. We soon discover that the people living in Hollow Earth, have a prophecy about this evil ape. He wants to break into our own world and, using the creature he has control of, bring about the ice age.

It was these actions Godzilla was sensing that made him start to absorb all forms of radiation in preparation for the fight that is to come.

The film does have few and far in-between breathing space where the humans talk about waking another creature, which in fact is a Godzilla ally to balance the fight, but all that still can be figured from sight with no sound.

If you just want to see Monster fights with the only aim being to save humanity, then this is for you.

Monkey Man (2024)

Monkey Man (2024)

 

7/10

Starring

Dev Patel

 

Directed by Dev Patel

 

This is Dev Patel directorial debut, and he also co-wrote this film. This action thriller is your typical 80s revenge film plot, with some modern additional creativity of adding more than the intent for revenge, but a deep-rooted reason for it. The idea that one man can work his way with some luck and well-placed friends on the low end of the income ladder, can be far-fetched, but I like the way the film tries to make it possible, if you do not think too hard on it.

The film has a political tone, with some very graphic violent scenes, which may not go down well with the Indian community it is set in. The film shows how Third World countries are being degraded by corruption, discrimination, and poverty. How people under the guise of spiritual backing and leadership mindset take advantage of the system to gain power. It also shows how the corrupted officials, who are meant to keep things in check, further aid these people to become more influential and powerful.

I like how the film teases you with what seems like violence that will make you think, is this what people are saying is too violent? Then around thirty-seven minutes into the film, you will see some violence that will make you go, ohhh!!!

The film is about Kid/Bobby/Monkey Man (Dev Patel), who watched his mother and the people of his village massacred. He never forgot the face of the man who caused him to have such a difficult life without the love of his mother, and wants revenge. The film starts with Kid in a Monkey Man mask, getting beat up in an underground fighting ring. We soon learn that this was a rigged fight, which he does for money. The moment he had enough money, he began his plan for revenge. This plan included, getting a job with a woman who supplies girls and drugs for the high and mighty in the political sphere. Then after getting the job, grow in the ranks to become one of the servers in the VIP lounge. When he is in the VIP lounge, the first opportunity he gets, kill the man responsible for his mother’s death. Halfway into the film, he did all this, except killing the man did not go as planned and he failed. We are halfway into the film, and he is now on the run. The rest of the film is how he gets his life back on track and, as this is a revenge film, get back on focus to fulfil his lifelong desire for revenge.

The film had a very difficult time coming to light, because of the fear that it will not be well received by the Indian community. It is thanks to Jordan Peele and Universal Pictures, that we get the opportunity to see a film that was completed back in 2021. When Netflix acquired it back then, they changed their mind because of the fear of backlash. In the end, seeing the film has been a thrill. It is fun to see a film now, which even though has the 80s revenge idea, was done with some class and cultural root.

It may (or will) not end up being one of those blockbuster movies for everyone to go see, but I can assure you that, if you go watch this film, you will very well enjoy it.

The Beekeeper (2024)

The Beekeeper (2024)

3/10

 Starring

Jason Statham

Emmy Raver-Lampman

Josh Hutcherson

Bobby Naderi

 

Directed by David Ayer

 

The Beekeeper is a Statham style action film for his fans. But do not be fooled by the ratings. This film is so bad it is borderline irritating. The dialogues are just what you get when you let chickens peck away on a keyboard. The overuse of the words, bees, beehives, and beekeeper is amazing, it was almost impossible for there to be a scene where dialogues are involved and one or more of these words are not said loudly. If you are a Statham fan and love this ridiculous action film style he does, then this film is for you, if you are like me and want to see a good film, then this is a miss.

The film plot is not manageable, and the execution is laughable. I understand that he must be a top-notch unstoppable guy, but there is a point when it started to look ridiculous. It got to a point where his replacement was sent to deal with him, and the fact that the person sent as his replacement was so useless in handling him was laughable. Everyone is a joke, which made the film annoying, he will work into a place where people got guns, and they are shooting (missing) and he will work up to them or sneak up and kill them.

Anyway, the film is about a character named Adam Clay (Statham) who as the film puts him is a beekeeper. Beekeepers are great killers the U.S. government created to handle things that are beyond the matters they can handle normally or covertly. Adam is retired, and he lives the rest of his life alone tending to bees. The idea that the character and his replacement are actually beekeepers is laughable.

Well, one of Adam’s friends and neighbour killed herself after she got scammed to wire money to scammers. So, Adam decided to track down the people who were responsible and kill them. I will blame the lady, who not only wired away her money, but money from a charity she chaired, if she did not kill herself she probably would have been sent to jail.

Sharing more of the plot will ruin the film for anyone who actually wants to see it, but I can tell you the film is not worth the time for anyone who just wants to have a good time seeing a film.

In the end, the film sets itself up for a second part, with many more insane things for Statham’s character to do. With the kind of money it made from the release, I believe a second part will not be far away from production.

Damsel (2024)

Damsel (2024)

 

5/10

Starring

Millie Bobby Brown

Ray Winstone

Nick Robinson

Shohreh Aghdashloo

Angela Bassett

Robin Wright

 

Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo

 

Damsel is not one of the most spectacular fantasy films I have seen and even though the story lacks the needed plot lines and deep background to make you more able to be invested in the idea of it, it redeems itself a bit with the play hunt between the dragon and Elodie (Millie Bobby Brown).

Other than that, for a short film run (which is magnificent) the film has its boring moments. It is not well paced, and Millie seems to be the only thing good about this film. Her acting and investment in her character made the film bearable. She deserves a lot of praise for her role as a leading lady, for she carried this film.

The special effects were not the best in this film, but in the end, I will have to admit when the film introduction was out of the way, and she was in the dragon’s lair the film had my attention. It has been a while since I have seen a new film which made me stay to the end, and me not skipping to the end as this is Netflix production on their platform, I have such luxury.

The film’s plot is spread over the length of the film (to create a surprise feel), but I will give you a brief of what the Queen of the land where the dragon tortures shared.

The dragon she said has been terrorizing their village and killing its people, so the king went to the dragon’s lair to confront it with his men. The dragon killed them all as you would guess, but spared the king and made a deal with it, which is to revenge the attack on her lair by killing all the king’s daughters, from one generation to another.

So, if you have seen the trailer of this film, you already know how Elodie found herself in the dragon’s lair. If you have not seen the trailer, I will not share it here in case you want to be surprised on how she got there.

Once she was in the liar, she was in the dragon’s game of play hunt. The dragon has been doing this for generations to all the girls who are dropped in her lair. She chases them and allows them to think they can escape, then when she is tired of the taunt it catches them and burns them alive.

Elodie was lucky, when she was to be burnt, someone caused a distraction.

In the end, Netflix has a film that many will see if they have the time, even though I say it is an OK film to see, it will be very hard for me to recommend it.

Michael (1996)

Michael (1996)

3/10

Starring

John Travolta

Andie MacDowell

William Hurt

Bob Hoskins

Robert Pastorelli

 

Directed by Nora Ephron

 

When I was much younger and saw Michael, I could not fully understand or put my hand on it, what I did know was that the film did not make the same impact I expected from seeing a John Travolta film.

I blamed it when I was much older on my inability to fully comprehend and understand the film itself. Seeing the film now, with my adult eyes, I can say this is one of the most pointless film about an angel I have ever seen.

Are you trying to tell me that the archangel Michael is so jobless, that making two people fall for one another and be in a relationship was more important than other things in life.

The story is so lacking any form of cohesion that I cannot imagine I allowed my sister to talk me into seeing it, all to find out that she also did not find the film at all entertaining, and only wanted to see it because as children we were huge fans of John Travolta.

What is Michael about? That will be a question from anyone who is blessed to not have seen this film back when it was made.

Michael is about the archangel of the same name (played by Travolta) who came down to aid an old lady with her issues. That was the start of the film, as two popular journalists for the National Mirror were sent to get Michael to Chicago. It was when they meet him that we come to see that Michael had other reasons why he was here on earth, and why he specifically wanted to be chaperoned by these three from the National Mirror. Two of the people sent to pick him were popular journalist Frank and Huey, there were told by their boss to take along Dorothy, a lady who their boss claims is an angel specialist.

When they got to the location where Michael was, they were shocked by his behaviour and his manner of speaking.

Michael was staying with the old lady he came to help and decided to go along with them to Chicago.

He refuses to fly, settling for a road trip instead, or have his picture taken until they get to Chicago. The journey to Chicago is what the film is about, and we see soon that Michael, even though he is an angel, remove that thought of this claim being a lie, had other intentions and desires for this trip.

His behaviour and mannerism on this trip were not exciting, but borderline annoying, and their stops made no sense in the way Michael chooses to handle things happening around him.

It felt like a horny angel wanting to sleep around.

Avoid this movie by all cost to save your sanity and probably your innocence.

Ladyhawke (1985)

Ladyhawke (1985)

 6/10

Starring

Matthew Broderick

Rutger Hauer

Michelle Pfeiffer

Leo McKern

John Wood

 

Directed by Richard Donner

 

I enjoyed this film more than I thought I could, and even though the film did not make full use of the cross between sword play and sorcerer, it managed to conjure an adventure romance that entertains. I liked how the film kept some secrets to itself, and only reveals them when you are halfway in.

Matthew Broderick handled the comedy aspect of the film, and his wisecracks at times always hits home.

The film has some nice visuals, and the cinematography is fun to see, the film’s story was what did not make this film go over the top as a classic and bring in the box-office money at the time of release, but it is worth the time I spent seeing it.

Set in medieval times when the church ran the country by using the fear of God, this film takes place in a land called Aquila. This film is about two lovers who got cursed, they cannot see one another from the moment their love is known. When the sun is up, one turns into a hawk and remains a hawk until the sun goes down, but the other than changes into a wolf. So, the two never meet in their human state.

Also happening is a thief named Phillipe Gaston (Broderick), who happens to fall into a hole and used that opportunity to escape from the dungeon he is placed in, on the day he was meant to be executed.

The bishop was not happy about this and sent the captain of the guard with some men to find Gaston and kill him. Gaston was sloppy, and he took his escape for guaranteed and when he was about to celebrate his escape by making an announcement in a bar in another town, it turns out the captain of the guard and his men were in that bar at that time in disguise as regulars. His proclamation of a toast to celebrate his escape, led to them jumping up with swords and catching him, when they wanted to kill him, he was rescued by a man named Etienne of Navarre, the former Captain of the Guard of Aquila.

His presence caused a stir among the men of the guards, and he helped Gaston to escape, he took Gaston with him and gave him the condition to help him find his way back into Aquila, as he has some business with the bishop.

I will be watching this film for a second time, as I enjoyed it that well enough to want to see it again.

Krull (1983)

Krull (1983)

 

2/10

 

Starring

 Ken Marshall

Lysette Anthony

Freddie Jones

Francesca Annis

Directed by Peter Yates

 

Krull is one of those good ideas gone rogue. It starts with a pointless claim about the future saviour, which plants a seed that this film will have a future jump. Then we are dropped into a battle where the good guys carry swords, and the bad guys shoot lasers. In case I forgot to mention, there is no future jump, so the introduction talk was pointless.

This is a film set in another galaxy and time, where our hero’s planet Krull is invaded by aliens. The visual effects of this film made in the 80s are very glamorous and impressive. The story is so silly and ridiculous, I cannot for the life of me understand how someone or anyone would have thought this was worth shooting and not a re-write.

First, we are told, there is a princess who will bear a child that will save the world, then that whole thing is made irrelevant. The princess is captured by the alien leader, and you will not be able to guess why.

The alien leader sent his men to the wedding of the Prince and the Princess, as they wanted to wed to strengthen their kingdoms. After the wedding ceremony, the battle begins and it was a slaughter, as swords have no impact on men with laser guns.

Somehow everyone but the prince survived this ordeal and without any form of character background a man is seen, in the next scene, taking care of the prince’s wounds.

Who is this man, you ask; he is called the old one. That is all the character background we have on him, something you can see or hear if you are blind.

He drops all the hints of follow me to meet a man who will tell us where to go to stop these aliens. So, they head out, and meet someone else, another pointless individual to the whole film.

Then they run into some bandits, how he was able to convince these men to join in his quest, is a miracle only the writer can explain because his words to them made no sense at all.

With these men, they head out to get the needed direction so they can go ahead and stop these aliens from wiping them all out of their planet.

The film’s plot played like when my little niece sits on my lap and tells me a story of a princess. Knowing that a part of my life was wasted seeing this film, is depressing.

Dragonslayer (1981)

 Dragonslayer (1981)

5/10 

Starring

Peter MacNicol

Caitlin Clarke

Ralph Richardson

John Hallam

 

Directed by Matthew Robbins

 

I do not know what to think about this film, it was not boring and even though I felt some of the characters needed more development, I did not feel the need to stop watching.

If I want to look at the effects in comparison to what I recall seeing back when I was younger, I will praise the effects for being classy.

The movie had its own way of creating its hero and it also had its own way of killing the villain, something you will not be able to guess from the start, but you will appreciate as it carries on developing.

Each of the characters in the movie strike their own gong of presence and command their own way to be remembered, but I can bet you, the part each will play towards the death of the dragon is not easily guessed.

The film starts with the introduction of the last sorcerer, Ulrich of Cragganmore, who we see practicing magic and with him in his home is his apprentice, Galen Bradwarden. They were visited by a group of people led by Valerian, to come to their aid as their land Urland, is being terrorized by Vermithrax Pejorative, a 400-year-old dragon.

Ulrich agreed to help, but his assistant and helper, tried to talk him out of following this expedition back to Urland, because Ulrich was old and they did not believe he will be able to make it.

But he packed up to follow them, and then one of the king's captains showed up at Ulrich's home before they all set out. He called Ulrich a fraud and doubted his abilities.

 

Ulrich, decided to allow the man to test his abilities, he called Galen, gave him his wizardry amulet and present himself to be tested.

 

How Ulrich with the aid of Galen were able to get to Urland and then take on the dragon are path best left unsaid so that you can watch this movie and enjoy the discovery of it.

In the end, even though the film was ok and worthy to be enjoyed when it was released in 1981, the movie was not a box office success.

This was the first movie to use ILM (industrial light and magic) for its special effects outside of Lucas Films. It got nominated for an Academy Award for best visual effects and lost to another ILM film of that year, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

I do not know if this movie falls in line as one of the classic dragon movies, but it was a fun ride and I worth seeing if you will not be bothered by the effects being from 1981.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)

 Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)

3/10

Starring

Jason Momoa

Patrick Wilson

Amber Heard

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II

 

Directed by James Wan

 

I do not know what this film was meant to be, but interesting is not one of it. It is boring and very hard to enjoy as the film itself seems to be breaking in all forms of continuity and the story it is riding on seems half-baked.

Time wasted in building a brother bond, jokes that never seem to land, and the film wants so bad to be action fantasy comedy, but the comedy makes you yawn in disappointment.

I felt the first Aquaman (2018) was ok, but this sequel is boring to the max, and you can see very much that they cut of Mera (Amber Heard) out of the film as much as they can.

Jason Momoa lack of comedy awareness or good landing is a problem more of the writing than the actor himself. I have never been able to see him do the comedy well anyway, but when the story and crafting is well done, and all he needs to do is to deliver the lines, then he should be able to get it right.

This is the 15th and final film in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). As Warner is planning a reboot of the entire franchise, which will be run by James Gunn, and it will be called DC Universe (DCU), which will kick off with Superman: Legacy in 2025.

The film starts with us seeing Arthur Curry (Aquaman by Jason Momoa) trying to live the normal human life as a father. Spending half his time on land and the other half running Atlantis as their king. We then see David Kane who is trying to get himself together, fix the Black Manta armoured suit and go after Arthur in revenge for his father in Aquaman (2018).

David’s quest led him to discover a trident which was crafted by the king of the lost kingdom. The trident overpowers David’s will and even tough killing Arthur and his family was still the focus of David, the trident wanted to use this goal to free the king and the people of the lost kingdom.

I wonder how the new DC universe will play out with reboots of all the characters, and we can see if James Gunn can create around him a team that will match what Marvel has created in the MCU. I do not have that much faith in their capabilities, but I am very curious to see the film of the new universe.

The Marvels (2023)

The Marvels (2023)

 6/10

Starring

Brie Larson

Teyonah Parris

Iman Vellani

Zawe Ashton

 

Directed by Nia DaCosta

 

The Marvels is a sequel to the 2019 film Captain Marvel, and a continuation of the television miniseries Ms. Marvel. It serves as the 33rd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and I hope it ends the mediocre Disney/Marvel movies we have been served lately, and ushers in a new time when their movies dominated the box office and made everyone queue up to see their movies.

One thing that stands out in this film is Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan / Ms. Marvel, she was 10/10 in this film and the only thing that mattered. When she was not on screen, I craved to see her. The film also had Monica Rambeau. We know Monica from the first Captain Marvel film as the daughter of Carol's late friend Maria. Monica always looked up to Carol and can manipulate the electromagnetic spectrum, powers she gained during the events of WandaVision. There is an abandonment dynamic between Monica and Carol, which I felt the writers should not have made a thing. Why can we not have Disney characters who are actually good at keeping in touch, it is a thing for Disney.

The film plot is based on an incident that took place many decades ago when Carol Danvers destroys the supreme intelligence which led the Kree empire. The destruction led to a civil war on the Kree planet Hala. Which led to the destruction of the planet’s natural resources, and their sun, water, and air.

Dar-Benn a new leader of the Kree discovers one of the Quantum Bands and intends to use it to take away these natural resources from other planets to Hala to save her people still living there. Her user caused the powers of Captain Marvel, Monica, and Ms. Marvel (who wears the other Quantum Band) to be entangled. Now the three must work together to stop Dar-Benn. The film end has an after-credit scene, that introduces a new reality about other characters in the Marvel acquired universe.

This film missed so many opportunities to be great. I cannot understand why they decided to even attempt some of the character developments and their subsequent actions. Here is an opportunity to have three women with powers from all diversity try and save the world, and Disney blew it. Instead turned it to a film with too many dialogues about connecting and working together, when such should not be there, if they made Carol a better person from the onset than they did.

The character of Carol Danvers was turned to an asshole who doesn’t seem to understand you are supposed to listen sometimes, and made to be so annoying, that it was so hard to look away and you wanted less of her persona on screen.

The film failed in the box office and even story wise, it did not bring the needed effect they wanted, but just made the film look like something they should have given more professional writers to work on who will focus on better power development and good authentic stories, instead of trying to prove a point with diversity and women empowerment.

Wish (2023)

Wish (2023)

3/10

Starring the voices of

Ariana DeBose

Chris Pine

Alan Tudyk

Angelique Cabral

 

Directed by Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn

 

Wish is Disney's 62^nd theatrical animated production, and it follows their abysmal 61^st animated production, Strange World. Wish is more pathetic than their last production Strange World, and the horrible story is not something you will expect from the mouse house. But for a long time since Zootopia (2016) and Moana (2016), Disney has struggled to create an animation that will make you want to see a second part with the same characters facing another animated adventure. This film has forgettable characters, that leave no impact to the viewer and the film all together is so poor, and it is the last thing you will think Disney can produce.

Wish is a combination of CGI and has a feel of the old traditional animation. They added some singing to it, which fails to matter the way the songs of Encanto captured the world who could not stop talking about Bruno.

The story is about a magician who lives and runs an island as a king. People travel far and wide to come live on this island because and when they are eighteen, they give him their wish and once a year he chooses one of the wishes to grant.

The sad thing is, when he takes their wish, he erases their memory of it, leaving them with a feeling that something is missing in their life. Asha is a seventeen-year-old young lady, whose dream was to be an apprentice to the magician, King Magnifico.

Upon her interview, she discovers all the above about the wishes of the people taken from them and asked why the King never give the wishes back. She could not understand why Magnifico would not let people work on making their dreams come true, since he would not assist. This created a wall between the King and his would-be apprentice. In her sadness she makes a wish on a star, the star comes down to her and Magnifico notices that someone on his island is using magic. In his fear of losing control over what he has built on this island, he turns to the dark side to be able to capture this person and bring the whole island back to his control.

By the time the film ended, I felt Disney needed to stop production of all these lame excuses for a film and just go back to the old ways, even their revenue shows that these new ways of production do not work.

There is something wrong with the present times, that being bad even must be coated to make it look a bit sweet. I remember back when I was younger, when Scar killed Mufasa, or when Bambi’s mother was shot, you can tell how cruel the world is, and we were forced to face it head on as kids. Even when they decided to soft pedal these dark themes, we still had clear and obvious bad characters depicted as cruel, like in the Yzma in Emperor’s New Groove or Hades in Hercules. There was a distinct way you can tell bad from good. Things have changed now, that being bad has been remixed to being misunderstood. Everyone is trying to be politically correct and fit in to the common trend of being hip, which is ruining all Disney titles be it from Marvel, Pixar, or Disney animation.