Spellbound (2024)

Spellbound (2024)

2/10

 

Starring the voices of

Rachel Zegler

John Lithgow

Jenifer Lewis

Tituss Burgess

 

Directed by Vicky Jenson

 

This is a horrible animation. I do not even understand how they made this animation this way with such bad writing. The only intention that I can get from this production is that it will entertain no one except for children who will not understand what is going on, but like the colorfulness.

Which is very bad work on their part, when the whole idea of how this movie will play out is, “let us make it bright and sparkling, kids will be engulfed by that.” This animation is not meant to be viewed or liked by an adult, because I saw this movie and I felt like punching the TV.

It is the way the animation starts that gets me at first. I told myself, overlook the bad songs, and the very odd CGI, this idea of starting the movie, at the point of the parents being monsters and everyone must work around this to keep the populace in the dark seemed intriguing at first.

Then came the execution of this good idea. The distance between the people that know and the people that do not, and then the incidents which were meant to be funny, just fell by the wayside.

Then came the little girl who must deal with this, she got help from some oracle telling her that the parents are the only ones who can break the spell which has turned them into monsters.

How did the parents become monsters?

They went on a journey to the dark forest of eternal darkness (I do not know if the reason for this journey was justified, but the idea is they went), and it was there that they got turned into monsters.

It is worth saying here that, they are not monsters who know they are parents or aware that they are the king and queen of the land of Lumbria, more of monsters acting like pets.

So, the little girl Ellian (the princess of Lumbria) does not have the time to be a little girl anymore. She and the people who know, spend most of their time taking care of these large monsters.

The time is coming, and the people are getting impatient, so Ellian knows she must come up with a way to turn her parents back. That is when she summoned the oracle and is hit with the news that the parents must embark on a journey to the Lake of Light. It was while on this journey, the monsters got their voices back and had some level of reasoning returned to them.

What can I say, I have wasted time watching an animation this horrible.

IF (2024)

IF (2024)

 

3/10

 

Starring           

Cailey Fleming

Ryan Reynolds

John Krasinski

Fiona Shaw

 

Directed by John Krasinski

 

When there is a movie, which stars Ryan Reynolds, John Krasinski and a wonderful voice cast of Steve Carell, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and others, you will think, this must be good. Then it is about the imaginary friends, which people had when they were younger and have now grown out of, you will accept that you are in for a ride. But sadly, this is a very boring movie. IF is a fantasy comedy movie, that does not offer anything in the fantasy realm to hold your attention, nor anything in the comedy genre to make the movie memorable.

The movie is written and directed by John Krasinski, but the story never took off. It had a very dull start, and never even tried to change pace. The ability to stay awake when seeing this movie is a talent, which I am sorry I was not blessed with. I was only able to see it through to the end thanks to the power of pausing. Yeah, streaming this movie on Paramount+ was the best decision I made when I decided not to go see this in the cinema. It drove me to sleep, and I had a nice nap. Woke up, took it back to where I stopped (where Cal (Reynolds) took Bea to Memory Lane Retirement Home 40 minutes in) and watched it through to the end, and regretted doing that.

IF (imaginary friends) is about a little girl named Bea. Bea has seen her mother pass due to cancer and is now facing the trouble of her father having a heart condition. Bea is only twelve years old and is now staying with her grandmother. On her way home from the hospital, she saw this creature, which did not look real. She followed the creature, which went to her home and ran upstairs to some other apartment. This happened again, and this time Bea noticed the creature was with a man named Cal, and they were on their way to retrieve a large creature named blue. It was there Bea met the creature she saw earlier, a butterfly looking thing, and she faints. She awakes in Cal’s apartment, the one upstairs her grandmother’s, and she meets blue, and learns that blue and the butterfly creature Blossom are imaginary creatures, who no longer have kids, as the kids have all grown up. Cal is trying to see if it is possible for him to find them new kids. The problem is, the kids have to connect with the creatures, and only with this connection can they see these creatures. So Bea decided she too will like to help Cal achieve this, and while going through the motion of visiting her father in the hospital, she is out there, trying to link imaginary creatures to new kids.

As I said, the story looks like it will be an amazing time in front of the screen, but it is anything but that.

Red One (2024)

Red One (2024)

6/10

Starring

Dwayne Johnson

Chris Evans

Lucy Liu

J. K. Simmons

 

Directed by Jake Kasdan

 

The movie has a lot of one-liners for how to be a better person, but not enough actual good plot to make this a good movie, worth recommending to anyone. Funny enough, even though many critics dislike this film, I found it ok.

I felt the movie, did its job of creating an action world, where Santa is like guarded by these top notch, secret service agency of mythical creatures, one step above the James Bond world of gadgetry.

I can tell that the whole macho madness that this movie has can be very annoying, it has so many muscle flex scenes that do not matter to anything useful at all. If you look at the level of CGI in this movie, and the number of A-list actors it has, you can see why many believe Amazon spent way too much.

This is not a box-office breaking movie, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for me, has never been a reason to run to the cinema to see a movie, even though many production companies’ think so.

250 million on production alone, is way too much for a movie, with a plot like this, that to me is not meant to bring in more than half that amount from viewing.

Here is what the plot is about. We are introduced to a world where Santa is real, and he does the whole thing of visiting the kids every Christmas day to give them gifts. It turns out that there is an agency called MORA, who deals with these mythical creatures, led by Zoe (Lucy Liu), they maintain the relationship between us humans and these creatures.

Santa has his own, next level James Bond like secret detail who protect him and run his affairs of being Santa, called ELF (Enforcement, Logistics and Fortification), led by Cal (The Rock).

As you can expect, Santa is not without enemies, and one of them contacted the best tracker in the world, Jack (Chris Evans) to help pinpoint where Santa is. Jack is unaware of who the people who contacted him are trying to track, he just does the job.

Well, Santa is kidnapped, and MORA was able to track the person involved to Jack, now he and Cal must find and rescue Santa to save Christmas.

I know it sounds like every Christmas movie, that gives you the run around and says, they must now work together to save Christmas. Well, it is like every Christmas movie, with Jack being the unbeliever, who gets to see that his actions have consequences.

It is an okay movie as I said, but it is very hard to say, run and go see it.

Gladiator 2 (2024)

Gladiator II (2024)

 

6/10

Starring

Paul Mescal

Pedro Pascal

Denzel Washington

 

Directed by Ridley Scott

 

This is an ok movie, fun to watch, I cannot say if it is worth your time or not, but not seeing this movie will not be written that you missed a masterpiece.

Now in case you want to be surprised, about who Lucius is, then do not read on because everyone who knows about this movie already does, so for you Spoiler Warning below.

The movie takes place sixteen years after the events of the first movie Gladiator (2000), Maximus (Russell Crowe) is dead, and now we see the events after his death. There was shared knowledge in the first movie, that Maximus was the father of Lucius (whose mother is Lucilla), and this movie shows us that Lucius was sent away by his mother to protect him from assassins.

This movie fails to rise above its predecessor. The first Gladiator movie was a 10/10 in my book, this movie had more action scenes than it, to make up for the lack of a deep story. But even though the action and blood were more, the lack of deepness in the plot hurt the movie overall feel.

For me, it was like, they took the first film and decided to redo it, but change some things.

The main eye-catching thing about this movie is Denzel Washington. Another sad thing about this movie for me was, when it started, and I heard the intro music, I was like Hans Zimmer is back. Later as the movie progressed, I felt, this isn’t Zimmer, then did my check and realised he did not come back to score the movie, because he did not want to.

The plot to me was the only led down in this movie, it was like the action was the focus and the plot, no matter how half-baked, was wrapped round it.

Lucius is living in a land called Numidia, which got invaded by the Romans, and he was enslaved. He was then and the rest of the slaves were taken to a stable, where Macrinus noticed him, and took him under his wing.

Lucius had a goal to kill General Acacius, because he led the army that invaded Numidia where his wife was killed in the invasion. So, he is on a revenge hunt, and was promised that he will get his time for revenge if he rises in the Gladiator ring. As you can see, all these are just ideas from the first film.

So we get to watch, just like in the first film, the plot to reign in Rome, the plot losing its grip, the Gladiator getting his fight, and the end where that is the only thing concerning more death that they decided to change.

Sitting down to watch this movie is a decision to not compare it to the first film, because it does not measure up to the first film’s plot, acting and depth.

Moana 2 (2024)

Moana 2 (2024)

5/10

 

Starring the voices of

Auliʻi Cravalho

Dwayne Johnson        

 

Directed by David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller

 

Fifteen minutes into the movie and absolutely nothing was happening, I was bored and absolutely confused on what the point of all the cultural significance that is being bestowed on Moana. It was like, the writers felt, they needed to elevate her more, after all she has done in the first Moana. Moana 2 is a cash grab, it is Disney being so much in need of a win, that they decided to just turn what was meant to be a series for Disney +, to a movie, just to get a box-office win. Moana 2, like this predecessor, is a CGI animated feature movie, featuring the voices of Auliʻi Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson.

So, what do we the unfortunate movie watcher get? Too much bone and so little meat. A forgettable experience in the movies, with songs that do not stick to the tongue like the ones in the first Moana movie in 2016.

The succinct plot is that Moana has been searching for other people like her own people on the island, so that they can connect (connect the people of the ocean). Because of her heroic adventure with Maui, she has been elevated to the person who will connect the people of the ocean. Problem is, after the events of the first movie, she has been searching for others and has not been able to find anyone.

Like all movies go, during the ceremony she gets a revelation, which I always wonder, when these ancestors come to visit to give us directions on our path, why not just tell us what to do. Give us a map and be very direct. Why be cryptic and send Moana to find a light to guide her to find the people of the island of Motufelu, which was sunk by a storm god Nalo.

To make it more intense, she must do this to save the people on her own island from extinction. So, when does she begin this journey? Well, like almost 30 minutes in, with a crew of people from her island. How does Maui connect? Well, he too is trying to find Motufetu (coincidence isn’t it), and he has some issues with Nalo, and Nalo's chief henchman, has him captured hoping he will reach out to Moana for help. Maui refuses, because he fears for her life, if she comes to help him.

One thing I know is that this movie will rake in millions and probably get to over a billion in the box office, it is possible, but we need better materials and not just Disney doing some spin-off of a series to a sequel.

Not worth the watch.