Psychokinesis (2018)

Psychokinesis (2018)

6/10

Starring

Ryu Seung-ryong

Shim Eun-kyung

Park Jung-min

Directed by Yeon Sang-ho

I’ve seen many superhero movies, and so have you. But I can bet you haven’t seen any like this. We often see heroes’ beginnings and the struggles they face in mastering their powers, but this movie takes that to a whole new level.

Instead of the typical hero looking for some tights and jumping off buildings to save the day, why not a hero with no clue? That’s what this South Korean science fiction film is about—a man who gains powers and has no idea what to do with them.
The movie’s comedic moments and action scenes are nothing compared to its story. The weight of the tale, with this man tangled up in trying to save his daughter, is pure poetry. When his ex-wife is killed during a raid on his daughter’s chicken shop, you’d expect him to step up and be a dad. Instead, he’s too busy trying to figure out how to monetize his new powers rather than building a relationship with his daughter.

The plot is so well-written that it fully exploits the dramatic potential. There are many touching moments, and there are times you’ll genuinely fear for Ru-mi’s life, especially since her father comes off as a selfish jerk.

The story introduces us to Ru-mi, a successful cook so popular that she even lands a TV segment praising her skills. Her success is a result of her hard work and her mother’s perseverance to build a life after Ru-mi’s dad walked out on them.
As mentioned earlier, there’s a raid on Ru-mi’s shop because the complex where her shop is located has been taken over by a wealthy corporation. They’re trying to force Ru-mi and the other tenants out, but they’re refusing to leave. During one raid, Ru-mi’s mother is killed while trying to protect her daughter.

Meanwhile, far away, we see Ru-mi’s dad—a good-for-nothing security guard. He drinks water from a stream just as a meteoroid hits the earth nearby, contaminating the water. Through a freak accident, he discovers he has psychokinesis. Shortly after, he gets a call from his daughter—someone he hasn’t seen or spoken to in what I’d guess is over a decade. She informs him of her mother’s death. He goes to be with her and tries to convince her to give up her fight against the corporation to protect her life.
She refuses, and he decides to stay behind, focusing more on monetizing his newfound gift than repairing their relationship.

During another raid, he uses his powers to help his daughter and the other tenants, but the praise goes to his head. He starts planning ways to fight the corporation instead of convincing everyone to leave, even though they’re technically there illegally.
His constant indecision and selfishness drive a wedge between him and his daughter. The movie also introduces other eccentric characters, making it an all-around entertaining ride. The plot keeps you torn between sides—are you rooting for the illegal tenants protesting the sale of their complex, or the corporation trying to take over the property with little regard for anyone’s safety?

How this amazing Korean movie ends is something you’ll have to see for yourself. I can bet you won’t predict the surprise ahead when you watch it.

It’s cool, touching, and all-around entertaining. I’d give it a six out of ten.

Christopher Robin (2018)

Christopher Robin (2018)

7/10

Starring

Ewan McGregor

Hayley Atwell

Bronte Carmichael

and the voice of

Jim Cummings

Directed by Marc Forster

The amazing franchise of Winnie the Pooh and his friends never seems to get old for me. I’ve long been a fan of the silly old bear, and I was thrilled when Disney decided to do a live adaptation of A.A. Milne’s book.

The CGI is awesome, and Ewan McGregor was just as classy as he always is. Jim Cummings, who has been the voice behind the stuffed bear in the animations, was brought back to reprise his role here. To me, it was an added bonus hearing the voice I’ve always associated with Pooh return as the voice of the stuffed bear in this live adaptation.

Before we dive into the plot, it’s worth noting that this story isn’t as soul-searching or on the same level as the animated ones.
To be honest, Disney has mastered the stories in the animations because there are fewer limitations. All they have to do is imagine something and then draw it out exactly as they envisioned. But in the live adaptation, you can see certain constraints they faced. The stuffed animals looked a little different from the ones we’ve come to know in the animations.
That said, even though the story isn’t on the same level as the animations, it’s still wholesome fun. The Disney magic will keep you smiling as you coast through this movie with ease.

The movie starts with a brief party as our stuffed friends throw a send-off for Christopher Robin, who’s heading to boarding school.
After the sad goodbyes, we see Christopher grow into a fine gentleman who has left his childhood behind. He (Ewan McGregor) is now married with a daughter of his own and has lost his sense of fun. The struggle to get ahead and provide for his family has caused Christopher to distance himself from them. Worse still, he’s finding it hard to connect with his wife, and he’s losing his young daughter’s love as she grows tired of always trying to please him.

When a planned family getaway to a place from his childhood is disrupted by work commitments, his wife and daughter go without him.
While Christopher is trying to navigate his work duties, Pooh wakes up and discovers that his friends are missing.
He decides to visit Christopher—something he doesn’t usually do—but it seems necessary since he can’t find his friends. Pooh ventures into the human world and meets Christopher, who struggles to understand how someone he believed to be imaginary could be standing before him. Pooh fills him in on the missing Piglet, Rabbit, Eeyore, and others. Christopher tries to get Pooh out of his life, but Pooh still needs his help to find the others.

The whole movie is amazing and funny. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and you will too if you go see this with your family.

Night School (2018)

Night School (2018)

6/10

Starring

Kevin Hart

Tiffany Haddish

Directed by Malcom Lee

Night School is a cool movie. I’m not usually a fan of Kevin Hart’s style of comedy, but this drama setup was fun to watch. Seeing him play a struggling man trying to get his life together to keep it on track was just epic.

What I enjoyed most is how the movie didn’t go the way you’d expect when the characters were introduced. It had some over-the-top characters, but they all fit well with the narrative the movie was trying to deliver.

The plot follows a man named Teddy Walker (Kevin Hart). Teddy drops out of school after realizing he struggles to concentrate during tests. He decides to take his life into his own hands and make it without a GED.

Years later, he becomes a successful salesman at a barbecue grill store. He’s also in a relationship with a wealthy woman named Lisa. To keep up with her lifestyle, he develops schemes to maintain his status. Teddy was living way above his means, but he was in love and wanted to marry Lisa.

After a proposal gone wrong turns his office into a fire hazard, Teddy loses his job. His boss bails on the company, and now Teddy has to find another job while lying to Lisa that everything is fine.

His best friend, Marvin, offers him a job at his company—but only if Teddy can get a GED. Teddy, believing he can charm his way into anything, tries to front the job title. He convinces himself he can get his old school to give him a certificate without doing the work.

When he shows up at the school, he discovers that someone he once bullied—who now hates him—is the new principal. That’s not the only obstacle; the night school teacher (Tiffany Haddish) also isn’t falling for any of Teddy’s charms.

Now faced with the reality of actually doing the work, Teddy still tries to find shortcuts to getting his GED.

The movie never goes the way you’d expect, which makes it cool and entertaining. Directed by Malcolm Lee (Spike Lee’s brother), whose last film with Tiffany Haddish, Girls Trip (2017), was also great, this one is worth checking out.

The movie is cool, the characters are fun, and it’s a great watch if you take the time to see it. And if you are like me, who don’t find Kevin Hart funny, this will take you a second to get into it.

The Meg (2018)

The Meg (2018)

3/10

Starring

Jason Statham

Li Bingbing

Rainn Wilson

Ruby Rose

Directed by Jon Turteltaub

Here’s a movie with a marketing campaign that was anything but small-scale. We all knew about its production and release. My belief that overly aggressive marketing often hides something came true when I finally saw this movie.
The movie isn’t spectacular, it isn’t amazing, and it’s just an overly glorified B-movie that you can easily go through life without watching.

I learned a new word: Megalodon. It’s a type of shark that existed millions of years ago.
The Meg is based on this prehistoric creature and is adapted from the book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten. The movie isn’t spectacular, and it’s not very inviting, with long delays before anything happens. To be honest, it feels like an expensive B-movie.

The acting was okay, but the delivery could have been more entertaining. The movie is like a roller coaster—sometimes everything is on the rise with some exciting moments, and other times it just drags.

Here’s the plot: During a deep underwater rescue, our lead, Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham), leaves a man behind. He does this because he believes the rescue would have ended with everyone dead instead of just one person.
Fast forward five years, and a billionaire is sponsoring an exploration into the deep ocean. This simple exploration leads to the release of something no one expected—a shark. But not just any shark—a Megalodon.

Add to this some weird moments where everyone in the movie has an emotional breakdown, and the movie keeps going up and down. Aware of the problem, the billionaire and his crew try to stop the Megalodon.
About an hour into the movie, they think they’ve got everything under control—until they discover they have to deal with more than one Megalodon.

Somehow, they make it out of the water safely, but then the billionaire has a stupid idea: he thinks he has enough men and firepower to deal with the problem. This aspect of the movie was predictable and did not add anything to the movie.
Using your wealth of movie knowledge, you can probably guess what happens to him and his plan.

The movie isn’t good, and I can only regret watching it.
It’s directed by Jon Turteltaub, who has had a better career making much better movies than this. This movie is more of a money grab for the studio using the lead actor as a reason for people to go see this movie.

Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween (2018)

Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween (2018)

4/10

Starring

Wendi McLendon-Covey

Madison Iseman

Jeremy Ray Taylor

Caleel Harris

Directed by Ari Sandel

Slappy, the evil ventriloquist dummy from the Night of the Living Dummy books, is back. The idea of making a standalone sequel that you can jump into at any time and still enjoy didn’t turn out to be a good one. Compared to the first Goosebumps movie from 2015, this one isn’t as fun.

I wish the movie had picked up where the last Goosebumps movie left off. The way this one ended was too loose and dull to set up any excitement for a third part. With the financial struggles it faced during its opening weekend and the lack of positive response compared to the first, a third movie seems unlikely.

The plot starts by introducing the family Slappy is going to torment. The main issue with this plot is how it blurs the line between the supernatural and the real world. It all feels muddled, and watching Slappy interact with humans comes off as more silly than scary.

Our trio of main characters are Sonny, Sarah (Sonny’s sister), and Sam (Sonny’s best friend). Sam is dropped off at Sonny’s house to be looked after by Sonny’s mom while his dad is out of town.
The boys start a business helping people get rid of their junk. They get a call to clean out an old house, with the deal being they can keep anything they find.

While clearing out the junk, they come across a book, open it, and—surprise—Slappy appears. They decide to keep him but accidentally bring him to life. Slappy decides he wants to be part of their family, and his idea of helping them involves “taking care of” their problems. The catch? Slappy’s methods are far from humane.

When the trio realizes Slappy is evil, they try to get rid of him, but that doesn’t go well. Slappy decides to bring things back to the way he likes them by creating his own family of evil creatures. This time, he brings to life costumes from a Halloween store.

In a weird and somewhat stupid coincidence, the trio manages to dig up information online about the events of the first Goosebumps movie. Now, they have to find R.L. Stine (Jack Black) and work together to stop Slappy.

The movie isn’t amazing. Unlike the first one, where monsters were everywhere to keep you entertained, here you have to wait until halfway through to see any real action.

The attempt to keep this family-friendly ended up making the movie something I wouldn’t recommend. It lacks the fun and excitement that made the first one enjoyable.

Smallfoot (2018)

Smallfoot (2018)

4/10

Starring the voices of

Channing Tatum

James Corden

Zendaya

Common

 

Directed by Karey Kirkpatrick

Smallfoot is an animation for kids. The story and plot are so tailored to children that only they will truly enjoy it, which, in the end, made the movie feel a bit sad for me. The animation comes from Sergio Pablos, the animator behind the highly successful Despicable Me (2010) franchise.

For me, this is an apple falling far from its tree, if you compare this movie to his writing work in Despicable Me (2010). (Pablos’ the writer of this animation, also worked with Disney as an animator for their movie Tarzan (1999)).

The most annoying thing about this animation is how much time it wastes breaking into songs. Yep, it’s a musical animation that uses songs to fill the emptiness of weak scripting. The plot is a reversal of the classic Bigfoot search. While many people are out there looking for Bigfoot, believing it exists, imagine Bigfoot looking for you. The movie is about Yetis—who could be Bigfoot or the Abominable Snowman—believing that Smallfoot (humans) exist.

The lead in this movie is Migo (Channing Tatum), who’s excited about becoming a gong ringer. In the Yeti world, the gong ringer is responsible for waking up the sun.
Migo’s family has been tasked with this job, which involves launching the Yeti at a distant gong that he’s supposed to strike with his head.

One day, while Migo is practicing with his father, he gets distracted mid-air and lands far off course. There, he witnesses a plane crash on the snowy mountain. He investigates and sees a human, whom he calls a Smallfoot. He runs back to tell everyone, but there’s a problem.

In Yeti society, everyone follows the teachings of the Stonekeeper, who says Smallfoot don’t exist—along with other made-up rules.
The village chief and Stonekeeper try to disprove Migo, but the chief’s daughter, Meechee, believes him. She takes Migo to her secret hideout, where she’s formed a small club of believers who think Smallfoot exist. They even have human items to prove it.

Migo and the group of believers decide to venture down the mountain to see if humans really exist.

On the human side, there’s Percy, a wildlife enthusiast trying to capture footage of mythical creatures to boost his TV ratings. He’s the one who encounters Migo, and some weird but funny things happen as they form a friendship that could potentially unite both worlds.

The animation isn’t particularly classy, and the plot is very lowbrow. I can’t, in good conscience, recommend this movie to anyone.