Spectral (2016)

Spectral (2016)

6/10

Starring

James Badge Dale

Emily Mortimer

Max Martini

Directed by Nic Mathieu

Spectral is a movie that swings high with a badass dude who has an Iron Man-level brain and can make weapons out of scrap parts. This sci-fi flick is about a U.S. war in Moldova, where American soldiers are being massacred by something invisible to the naked eye.

The production budget for this film has to be massive, given the scenery, artillery, and costumes on display. The acting is top-notch across the board, and the movie seems to be set in an altered present where human tech is highly advanced. You might need to brush up on your Einstein for this one because, in between all the jargon, there are some elements of truth. Don’t get carried away thinking about aliens when watching this film—spoiler alert: it’s not aliens. It’s something more creative than that. The writers weren’t trying to take the easy way out on this one.

The movie kicks off with American soldiers being killed by what looks like a ghost. They can’t see these things with their naked eyes, but when they adjust the settings on their helmet goggles, the ghosts become visible. These ghosts are highly dangerous. When they come into contact with a human body, the person’s organs freeze stiff, their outer body burns, and they die instantly. These ghosts can phase through walls, leap great distances, and even damage movable objects.

Enter the expert: Dr. Mark Clyne (James Badge Dale), the man who created the goggles. He’s called to Moldova to figure out what the soldiers are seeing before they die. Meanwhile, the U.S. government suspects that Moldova has developed a new form of camouflage technology and wants it for themselves.

The central challenge of the movie is stopping these ghostly entities, and Clyne is determined to find out where they’re coming from. Alongside him is Fran (Emily Mortimer), a CIA agent sent to secure the technology so the U.S. can adapt it for their own use. Naturally, the plan involves sending a bunch of soldiers to try and capture one of these ghost-like things. You’d think common sense would kick in when soldiers see their colleagues dying to something invisible and unstoppable—like, maybe run? But people can be weird under pressure.

The movie is ok, it is not a masterpiece. It is something you can watch any time, but you do not need to go out of your way to see it, if you have not seen it.

Child’s Play (2019)

Child’s Play (2019)

6/10

Starring

Aubrey Plaza

Gabriel Bateman

Brian Tyree Henry

Mark Hamill (voice of Chucky)

Directed by Lars Klevberg

The new Child’s Play reboot is cool after a patient wait to see Chucky go rogue. It starts small, with Chucky building his way up from killing a cat to an all-out massacre. The movie is fun to watch, and the change in the plot and Chucky’s origin is refreshing, but you might wish it had been creepier from the early stages. It takes a while for Chucky to get obsessed with handling his obstacles—and eventually, even Andy becomes an obstacle as Chucky tries to please him.

I enjoyed the movie, and fans of the old franchise will likely enjoy it too. Yes, you might miss the idea of a serial killer’s soul possessing a doll, but honestly, that concept felt overused to the point of exhaustion. Notably, neither Don Mancini (the creator involved in all the original Child’s Play movies) nor Brad Dourif (the voice of Chucky in all seven previous films) are involved in this reboot. Instead, Mark Hamill voices Chucky, and he’s absolutely magnificent.

The changes are obvious from the get-go. Instead of the Good Guy Doll, we have the Buddi doll. In the original, the Good Guy Doll was just a doll possessed by a serial killer’s soul, making it kill. Here, the Buddi doll is a broken toy that glitches its way into becoming a serial-killing doll.

The story begins in the factory where these dolls are made. An employee, wanting to get back at the company (or maybe his line manager), decides the best way to do this is by removing all the safety features from a Buddi doll before shipping it out. This causes the doll to malfunction, and when it’s bought, it’s quickly returned to the store because of its glitches. The store clerk who receives the returned doll is Andy’s mom. As a single mom trying hard to make ends meet for her and her son, she sees the free doll as a great deal and takes it home for Andy.

Andy immediately notices something is off with Chucky, especially when the doll tries to strangle their cat for scratching Andy. Andy tells Chucky not to do that again, but the doll’s behavior only escalates. Chucky always wants to play, but Andy has made new friends, and the doll doesn’t like that. Chucky decides to make Andy happy by eliminating anyone—or doing anything—it believes will keep Andy to itself as his best friend.

The movie ends with room for a sequel, but with its slow start at the box office, it’ll need to make a huge splash overseas for that to happen.

Sky High (2005)

Sky High (2005)

6/10

Starring

Kelly Preston

Michael Angarano

Danielle Panabaker

Kurt Russell

Directed by Mike Mitchell

If you haven’t been blessed to see Sky High, I beg you to do so. The movie isn’t spectacular, nor is it some groundbreaking masterpiece, but the idea of superheroes having a superhero school? Great. Then you have heroes getting married, having super kids, and those kids going to superhero school? Ah!!! You have to see it.

It reminds me of something we all love: The Incredibles (2004) and Incredibles 2 (2018). Sky High came out after The Incredibles (2004), and both are from the Mouse House (Disney). The movie plays with many dynamics and flaunts girl power way back in 2005. We have a character named Layla, who is all about girl power, vegetarianism, and pacifism.

Then there’s Will, the son of the superhero duo The Commander and Jetstream. Will is something of a regular guy who’s lying to his parents about having powers so they can be proud of him. The only person who knows the truth about Will’s lack of powers is his best friend, Layla.

It’s time for Will to go to high school, and children of heroes attend a special high school hidden in the sky called Sky High. There, the kids are grouped by their powers into Heroes or Sidekicks. It’s at this point we learn the truth about Will’s superpowers—he doesn’t have any. Even though his parents are the most popular heroes in the world, their son has no powers. He’s relegated to sidekick duty, along with his best friend, Layla.

Will also has eyes for a girl at school, Gwen. Without spoiling the whole movie, things don’t go as Will planned for his high school life as a sidekick. When he’s attacked by an arch-enemy he didn’t even know he had, Will has to develop quickly to protect himself. Along the way, he makes friends with the sidekicks, but as the movie progresses, we see him mess things up and put his relationship with Layla on the line. We also get to see Daddy’s demons come back to haunt him.

Sky High is a cool film, and it’s a huge surprise that it didn’t spawn a sequel. It seems like there were so many threads the writers could’ve pulled to make tons of movies and spinoffs. Well, we know Disney—they’ll probably remember this gem in their archive one day and turn it into an animation or a TV series. Until then, Sky High is always a joy to watch.

Toy Story 4 (2019)

Toy Story 4 (2019)

10/10

Starring the voices of

Tom Hanks

Tim Allen

Annie Potts

Tony Hale

Directed by Josh Cooley

This animation is just amazing, and all I felt while watching it was a deep level of nostalgia. It’s funny, interesting, and very thrilling. At first, the focus on Woody made me feel like the animation was getting derailed, but then the introduction of Forky and the return of Bo Peep completely captivated me. I didn’t want the reunion between Woody and Bo to end.

The movie stays true to the idea it established in the first Toy Story (1995): toys exist to be played with and bring joy. That said, I felt like they dumbed down Buzz Lightyear’s intelligence a bit just to add some jokes. This wasn’t the same Buzz we saw in Toy Story 2 (1999) or Toy Story 3 (2010). And like the previous movies, the ending of this one sets itself up in a completely new dimension. You never see it coming, and when it hits you, the emotions make you wish, “It ain’t so.”

But the way the animation always writes Woody as someone who finds a way to take care of his crew and his kid is something I never get tired of seeing.

Toy Story 4 is a computer-animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It’s the fourth installment in Pixar’s Toy Story series and their twenty-first full-length production for Disney.

The story picks up after Toy Story 3 (2010). We see Woody facing something familiar from the first Toy Story—being left out of playtime. This time, though, Woody is more mature and handles it a little better than he did before.

Bonnie is starting kindergarten, and Woody decides to tag along by sneaking into her backpack. At school, he secretly helps her by providing the materials she needs to make Forky. Bonnie loves her new toy, but Forky is suffering from an existential crisis. He desperately wants to go back to being a spork, and Woody is hellbent on making sure Bonnie stays happy. She’s found joy in Forky, and Woody is willing to do anything to keep her from being sad again.

The entire movie revolves around the lengths Woody is willing to go for Forky.

The Toy Story franchise has been a financial juggernaut for Disney, and each time a new film is released, it tops the box office and outperforms the previous installment. What I love is how the story grows with time. We saw Andy grow into an adult, and now we see Bonnie starting kindergarten.

I don’t know if Disney will make a Toy Story 5, but if they do, I’ll be there to watch it. This is an animation that has found a way to entertain at every turn. Take the time to go see this movie with your family.

Men In Black: International (2019)

Men In Black: International (2019)

5/10

Starring

Chris Hemsworth

Tessa Thompson

Directed by F Gary Gary

Great chemistry. Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson did a movie that just had that—great chemistry and cool special effects. The movie builds on the dynamic they already established when they played Thor and Valkyrie in MCU’s Thor: Ragnarok (2017).

The sad thing about this movie, though, is that it was a drag. It missed its step along the way, especially compared to the tale we loved when we first watched Agent J (Will Smith) and Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) in their black suits saving the world. This MIB tries to play on that same formula. In the first Men in Black (1997), Agent K showed Agent J (the rookie) the ropes. Here, it’s similar, but with Agent M (Tessa Thompson) as the rookie, who seems more grounded, and Agent H (Chris Hemsworth) as the veteran who has lost his way.

We first see Agent H and High T battling the Hive in Paris. Later, we learn they won that fight, propelling H and T to superstar status in the MIB world.

More than twenty years earlier, a little girl named Molly witnessed the MIB use neuralyzation on her parents, making them forget the alien that was in their house. Molly helped the alien escape, and from that moment on, she became obsessed with finding the people in black suits. She put her life on pause, taking jobs that made it easier for her to track anything resembling alien activity so she could investigate. When an incident finally gave her the chance, she used it to infiltrate the MIB—only to get caught.

Here’s the thing: she did something no one has ever done—located the MIB base and even made it through the front door. So, when Agent O interrogated her, she passed and joined the team on probation. O sends her to High T’s branch in London, where she partners with H to protect Vungus, an alien royal family member who also happens to be H’s friend.

Things got ugly fast. Vungus was murdered, but not before slipping something to Agent M for safekeeping and hinting that something was off about H. The two identify the culprits and try to apprehend them, but they fail. Things get trickier when it’s discovered that Vungus gave M a device, and she hasn’t told anyone about it. Agent C decides to investigate, with T’s approval.

The movie has its funny moments, especially when the leads have to battle H’s former love. From that point on, the movie becomes fun to watch—full of thrills and suspense—but you have to wait about eighty minutes to get there. Then, the movie ends with a cheesy, anticlimactic finale.

The odd thing about this movie is that I feel it might end up being one of those films we appreciate more later on. Right now, though, it’s been a commercial failure, and any hope of rebooting the franchise seems to have died here. Unless the studio has some trick up its sleeve to turn a profit, this might be the last MIB we see for a while.

Murder Mystery (2019)

Murder Mystery (2019)

6/10

Starring

Adam Sandler

Jennifer Aniston

Luke Evans

Directed by Kyle Newacheck

I can’t remember the last time I watched an Adam Sandler movie and actually laughed or was interested in seeing how it would end. I probably wouldn’t have even watched this one if Jennifer Aniston wasn’t in it. I felt she had the Midas touch that Sandler’s movies have been missing lately—and I was right. Murder Mystery takes its cue from old-school Agatha Christie-style storytelling for the first thirty-five minutes, with Aniston delivering on the comedy. After that, the movie gets a little too serious for its own good, but it still kept me glued.

The last Adam Sandler movie I saw was in 2012, and for seven years, I avoided his starring roles like the plague—until now.

This movie is about lies and mystery. Sandler isn’t trying too hard to be funny here; Aniston does the heavy lifting, and she does it incredibly well. With memorable actors, sweet dialogue, and a fun time, here’s the plot, which starts with Nick Spitz (Adam Sandler).

Nick has just failed his detective exam for the third time. Feeling terrible about it, he lies to his wife, Audrey (Jennifer Aniston), claiming he passed and even got a raise. He also tells her he’s been planning a honeymoon for them. This lie leads him to fly them both to Europe, where they meet Charles Cavendish, an aristocrat (Luke Evans). Charles invites them to join him on his yacht.

On the yacht, they meet Charles’s family, who have a complicated relationship with his billionaire uncle, Malcolm:

• Charles’s ex, Suzi, is now marrying his uncle, Malcolm.
• Malcolm’s son, Tobey, is a nobody who just wants to inherit his father’s money.
• There’s also the Colonel, who saved Malcolm’s life years ago by rescuing him from a bomb.
• Juan Carlos, a race car driver and Malcolm’s godson.
• Grace, an actress.
• And finally, Sergei, the Colonel’s bodyguard.

All these people are present when Malcolm disowns everyone from his will and leaves everything to Suzi. Just as he’s about to sign the will, he’s murdered. You’d think the movie would focus on Nick and Audrey (a crime novel addict) solving the murder on the high seas. But that’s not what happens. They dock, and more people are killed as the movie progresses, making Nick and Audrey the prime suspects.

The movie was released on Netflix and is doing incredibly well, setting a record for the biggest opening weekend as of June 2019.

See You Yesterday (2019)

See You Yesterday (2019)

6/10

Starring

Eden Duncan-Smith

Danté Crichlow

Directed by Stefon Bristol

The movie is your typical, predictable time travel story meets Black Lives Matter. We even get a cameo from Michael J. Fox, who delivers his iconic line, “Great Scott!” To me, that is all the movie has to offer, everything before and after that was a complete waste of my time.

Think about any time travel movie you’ve seen. Now, try to remember the one problem they all have in common: when you try to change something in the past to create a better future, it always comes with baggage.

You can tell this is a low-budget Black film experimenting with the science fiction genre. I liked how the director and co-writer, Stefon Bristol, kept me invested in seeing how the movie would end. That said, I wasn’t a fan of the ending, where the lead character gets lost in her desire for a perfect outcome.

The film is packed with science jargon, some of which feels muddled but makes sense within the world created for this story. Add to that some science-y gadgets with 80s-style special effects, and acting that could’ve used a bit more polish, and you’ve got See You Yesterday.

The plot follows a teenager named C.J. and her best friend, Sebastian. Both are obsessed with time travel and have been working on making it happen for what feels like years. By taking things from their school lab and building other components at home, they manage to create a backpack-like device that allows them to time travel.

They decide to test it out and quickly learn the consequences of interfering with past events. You’d think this lesson would deter them from trying again, but when C.J. loses someone to a police shooting—a Black person killed without probable cause—she becomes hellbent on saving that person’s life. The challenge is, every time she tries, she gets a new outcome that doesn’t give her the present she wants.

The movie has its share of plot holes, especially with the time travel mechanics, many of which are similar to issues we’ve seen in other films tackling the same concept. Still, if you’ve got the time, you can catch this movie on Netflix. You’ll appreciate the look and the ideas the film is trying to convey.

And, of course, it reinforces the lesson we’ve all learned from time travel stories: messing with time never gets things right without some serious repercussions.

iBoy (2017)

iBoy (2017)

5/10

Starring

Bill Milner

Maisie Williams

Directed by Adam Randall

Rape is not an issue anyone should take lightly. This movie uses it as the main angle for the entire plot, and that didn’t sit well with me. While the idea of a revenge film about a boy who gets shot in the head and turns into a kind of mutant is intriguing, the execution falls flat. The film localizes his perspective—he lives in the dark, gang-filled streets of London, and his actions reflect the limited worldview of someone shaped by his surroundings. That’s an A+ for concept, but a D for execution.

This movie is painfully annoying and stupid. Our guy gets shot while trying to make a phone call, and part of the phone gets stuck in his head. His brain fuses with the phone’s CPU, turning him into a human-computer hybrid. And that’s putting it mildly. As the movie progresses, he becomes so advanced that he can control anything with electrical wiring. Then he takes it up another notch, gaining the ability to manipulate electromagnetic waves. His entire view can become digitized if he wants, and while that might sound cool, it’s just over-the-top silly.

The movie is based on a book of the same name by Kevin Brooks. Our hero, Tom (Bill Milner), goes to school with Lucy (Maisie Williams), the girl of his dreams. He’s head over heels for her, and one day she asks him to come over for tutoring. On his way to her place, he sees some men leaving her apartment—apparently after raping her. He picks up his phone to call the cops but gets shot in the head. Pieces of the phone’s CPU fuse with his brain, giving him extraordinary abilities. The rest of the movie focuses on his quest for revenge against the men who hurt Lucy.

You might argue: if Marvel and DC can make movies about weird incidents giving people superpowers, why can’t anyone else? True, why not? Other films have explored sci-fi concepts with humans gaining abilities beyond normal comprehension. Think of the Unbreakable series (Bruce Willis), Chronicle (2012), The Matrix trilogy, Sky High (2005), or even John Wick (let’s be honest, that guy isn’t normal). Whether you want to admit it or not, there have been movies about humans with extraordinary abilities done far better than this.

The acting in iBoy might have been decent, but the story was too simplistic, and the plot felt like another superhero movie that missed the mark.

I Am Mother (2019)

I Am Mother (2019)

6/10

Starring

Clara Rugaard

Rose Byrne (voice of mother)

Hilary Swank

Directed by Grant Sputore

I Am Mother is an interesting sci-fi thriller that twists and turns, leaving you wondering what the bigger picture is by the end. The movie is a catalog of controversies, and deciding which side to take as the story unfolds isn’t easy. Even when it ends, it plants the thought that there’s still more to the tale than what’s been shown.

Seeing Hilary Swank was a breath of fresh air. Her face is one that sticks in my mind when you think of magnificent performers. The movie only features three humans, so keep that in mind if you decide to watch it.

We spend the first half of the movie watching Mother (a maternal robot) raise a girl, teaching and nurturing her as she grows into an intelligent young woman (Clara Rugaard). About halfway through, we meet another human, a woman (Hilary Swank). The last human we see in the film is a baby.

Here’s the plot: In the distant future, humans have made a mess of Earth and become their own worst enemy. A contingency plan was put in place for such an event—an AI was created to repopulate the planet once humans wiped themselves out. This AI is accompanied by thousands of fertilized embryos, waiting to be brought to life.

The movie begins at the point where the AI counts down to human extinction and starts the repopulation process by bringing a girl to life. Throughout the movie, we refer to her as Daughter.

Daughter grows up to be a bright young woman, knowing only the robot as her mother. Mother tells her there’s no life outside their bunker and that the atmosphere is too polluted to survive. Daughter believes this but can’t help wondering. One night, while struggling to sleep and considering breaking the rules, something unexpected happens: a woman knocks on their bunker door.

For the first time, Daughter faces a challenge beyond Mother’s teachings. What should she do when another human needs help? This is also the first human Daughter has ever seen and the only person she’s spoken to besides Mother. Her instincts kick in, and she helps the woman—an act she knows Mother would never allow if she had been the one to find her first.

The movie is captivating and grows on you, making time fly as you watch. It’s not perfect—there are moments where the writers seem so caught up in their mystery that they forget to keep the story on a clear, engaging path. That said, the acting is top-notch, and the director clearly had a firm grip on where he wanted the film to go. It’s a fine film to catch on Netflix any day.

Anna (2019)

Anna (2019)

3/10

Starring

Sasha Luss

Luke Evans

Cillian Murphy

Helen Mirren

Directed by Luc Beeson

Anna is a spy film with no thrills and a tiresome plot. Watching it reminds you of another Luc Besson movie, Lucy (2014). The sad thing here is that Lucy was fun. In Lucy, the action was fast-paced, intense, and engaging. The plot wasn’t complex, but it was simple with well-choreographed fight scenes.

What’s there to like about Anna? Is it the boring and bland plot, or the action scenes that lack the heart-pounding excitement every action scene needs? If you’ve seen the trailer and expect something cool like I did, get ready to be disappointed.

This is a movie about a KGB agent trying to get out. Instead of giving us a focused, determined character like Hanna (2011), we get Anna—a supposed female badass whose screen time is more devoted to unnecessary sex scenes than to building a compelling plot. Another annoying thing about this movie is that it’s way too long and feels like a drag.

The plot revolves around Anna’s life, which feels like a conspiracy waiting to happen—a vibe you get as things start to unfold. But when the conspiracy finally plays out, you’re left wondering why you invested so much time in the first place.

Anna has a dark past that led to her recruitment into the KGB. There, she’s assigned to work as a model while carrying out high-profile assassinations, using her beauty as a weapon. Her handler, Alex, has a secret desire to head the KGB—a dark ambition we don’t learn about until Anna gets into trouble with the CIA and is tasked with killing the KGB head. Alex sees this as his opportunity to climb the ranks. Meanwhile, Anna wants out of the KGB. She’s been promised freedom by both the KGB head and the CIA, who want her help.

I’ve seen better spy films, and I wish I could forget this one. The movie isn’t doing well at the box office, and after sitting through it, I can see why. I expected better from Luc Besson, but even the best filmmakers have their off days. Anna is a mistake, and Besson’s idea of this movie is lost to me the viewer, as it is filled with so much fluff and never seem interested in going straight to the point. I like Besson, and I hope his next movie live up to the high standards he’s set for himself as a filmmaker.

Child’s Play 2 (1990)

Child’s Play 2 (1990)

4/10

Starring

Brad Dourif as voice of Chucky

Alex Vincent

Jenny Agutter

Gerrit Graham

Directed by John Lafia

Here’s my problem with Child’s Play 2: Chucky’s ability to overpower people. He’s not sneaking up on them to slice them up—no, he just magically has the strength to overpower them. If you recall, Chucky is a doll, and a doll with that kind of ability is so unrealistic that it makes everyone in the movie look stupid.

How was he able to tie Andy to the bed? He tied the boy’s legs and hands and even gagged him. Then, he managed to tie up another man in his car, binding his hands too. It’s like Chucky doesn’t just have super strength—he might as well have extra hands.

Then there’s the issue of continuity. If you’ve seen the rest of the Child’s Play movies, you’ll notice that everything in this film is absolute nonsense. The whole “time running out for him to transfer to another body” thing? That doesn’t apply in the movies that follow. It’s not even mentioned again.

This second movie in the franchise might not be the worst, but it’s just plain dumb. Yeah, it doesn’t have the dark humor plastered all over the screen like the others—or maybe it does, and I just mistook it for stupidity. Either way, it doesn’t bother to make sense of what’s happening on screen.

The plot follows the events of the first film. The company that made the Good Guy doll takes the Chucky doll (the one possessed by a serial killer) back to their factory. Chucky was badly burned by Andy in the first movie, and the company is trying to figure out what went wrong with the doll to wrap up an ongoing investigation.

While the doll is being repaired, some kind of electrical energy—I guess from the voodoo—fries the men working on it. The now-repaired doll begins what seems like an impossible task: finding Andy, who’s now in the child services system. Andy’s mom is briefly mentioned as being institutionalized, which is just sad and annoying.

Andy is in the system, and somehow Chucky calls and gets his location. I don’t live in America, but if it’s that easy to find someone, then that system is broken. Chucky locates Andy and discovers that the foster home already has a Good Guy doll. So, he destroys that doll, buries it, and takes its place.

Now Chucky is in the house with Andy, and things quickly go from weird to tragic.

After watching all the movies, I can say only the first film is worth the aggravation. The rest are just plain dull.

Three Men and a Little Lady (1990)

Three Men and a Little Lady (1990)

5/10

Starring

Tom Selleck

Steve Guttenberg

Ted Danson

Nancy Travis

Directed by Emile Ardolino

After the success of the first film, you can’t expect the studio not to make a sequel and cash in on the money moviegoers would happily spend to see the trio and Mary again. The sad thing is, this movie isn’t anywhere close to the first one and lacks the charm and energy that made the original enjoyable.

The plot fails again in this second installment. Making Mary’s mom Sylvia’s fiancé the villain was just cheesy. From there, everything goes downhill. It feels like you’re watching three different movies crammed into one.

The first half is Three Men and a Baby with Sylvia. Mary, now grown up, is fun to watch as she adapts to life in this unusual living situation—living with three men and her mother. Then, the movie drops all the fun for the second part, focusing on Sylvia trying to find her own life, a man, and a home since Peter, the guy she fancies (not Jack), is being elusive. The last part of the movie is all about Peter and his intentions toward Sylvia.

About two-thirds of the movie has little to do with the remaining two leads from the first film, Guttenberg and Danson. That means the magical chemistry between the three men is gone. It was that chemistry that made the first film so good. Now, we’re left with a romantic comedy with a weak plot.

As mentioned earlier, the three men and Sylvia are now living together with Mary—a very weird arrangement, indeed. Mary is getting all the love and support she needs, so things seem fine—until Sylvia decides she wants more for herself and Mary. She plans to marry a man who, while wealthy and seemingly stable, is clearly bad for her long-term happiness.

Once Sylvia is in this relationship, there’s nothing the guys can do. Things get worse when they find out the man lives in England and wants Sylvia and Mary to move there with him and his family. The gang decides to do everything they can to sabotage the marriage plans and bring together the two people they believe are meant for each other. Surprisingly, it’s not Jack and Sylvia, but Peter and Sylvia.

In my view, this movie was a mistake. Disney is planning a remake for their new streaming channel, Disney+. I hope it goes back to the roots of what made the first film so memorable.

Three Men and a Baby (1987)

Three Men and a Baby (1987)

7/10

Starring

Tom Selleck

Steve Guttenberg

Ted Danson

Directed by Leonard Nimoy

They don’t come any lighter or sweeter than Three Men and a Baby. The movie features a cast of three men who get a big surprise when two of them wake up to find a baby on their doorstep—a baby that belongs to the third, who’s away filming a movie.

The movie is a gem, filled with comedy and charm thanks to the three leads. It’s the kind of thrill you don’t get often, and it doesn’t rely on the overused trope of people magically becoming great parents overnight, like you often see on TV. These guys struggle from the start, and even though they eventually figure things out, their lives become a living hell as they try to balance everything.

Let me pick up the plot from where I left off. The three men in question are Peter (Tom Selleck), Michael (Steve Guttenberg), and Jack (Ted Danson). Jack is the one who’s away on an acting gig. Peter and Michael are the ones who find the baby in front of their apartment door, where the three live together.

Apparently, the baby belongs to a woman Jack had worked with before. She thought she could handle motherhood on her own, but the pressure became too much, so she left the baby on the father’s doorstep with a note revealing her name (Mary) and the father’s identity. The men immediately take responsibility for the child but can’t reach Jack because he’s out of the country.

Jack had told the other two to expect a package that would be sent to him and instructed them to leave it untouched until someone came to pick it up. Unknown to Jack—who was receiving the package for a friend—it contained something the police were looking for. They traced it to the apartment when it was delivered.

The two men think the baby is the package and can’t wait to get rid of her because she’s a handful and disrupts their lives. How things turn upside down is what this movie is all about.

The movie is based on the 1985 French film Trois hommes et un couffin (Three Men and a Cradle). I haven’t seen the original, so I can’t say which is better. The only downside to this movie is the script. It feels like it dangles weird circumstances just to move the plot along, but the comedy and the strength of the actors make it work.

There’s chemistry between everyone in the movie—from the villains to Jack’s mom and even the sweet old lady next door. As long as an actor had more than one scene, they made the most of it, creating memorable moments and making themselves a joy to watch.

It’s a nice movie, though its sequel, Three Men and a Little Lady (1990), didn’t live up to the charm of this one.

Child's Play 3 (1991)

Child's Play 3 (1991)

2/10

Starring

Brad Dourif (voice)

Justin Whalin

Perrey Reeves

Directed by Jack Bender

Whatever the reason was for making this movie, the end result was just dreadful. Child’s Play 3 feels like “Chucky Goes to Army Camp.” The movie is a drag, relying on the general stereotypes of what TV tells us military schools are like. The CGI was a step up from the previous film, but other than that, the movie was a step down. This was the time the studio wanted to milk the franchise and any movie plot goes.

Everything about this movie screams, “Stop watching!” The characters aren’t engaging, and there’s a forced love interest for a much older Andy. For me, this is the worst movie in the franchise, and it wasn’t worth the time spent seeing what it had to offer.

Written again by Don Mancini, the film follows the events of what happened to Chucky at the end of the second movie. This is the third installment in the Child’s Play franchise, with Andy now sixteen and enrolled in military school. Andy’s life hasn’t been the same since the Chucky incidents, and his struggles to return to normalcy are what landed him in military school.

The company that made the Good Guys dolls has also had a rough eight years. The bad publicity from Chucky’s murders forced them to close shop for a while. Now that Chucky was stopped, they decided to relaunch the Good Guy doll line. They restored the old factory—where Chucky’s dismembered body still remains—and packed up the old dolls to be melted down and remodeled into new ones. Chucky’s body was among them.

Chucky’s blood was added to the mix, and the doll made from that batch contained his soul. The first new Good Guy doll from the line was given to the company’s CEO. The doll, now possessed by Chucky, kills the CEO and uses his computer to locate Andy.

Once Chucky knows where Andy is, he mails himself as a package to Andy’s military school. However, a young boy named Tyler opens the package instead of delivering it. Chucky decides Tyler is the perfect candidate for his soul transfer.

Andy soon discovers Chucky’s presence, and the two are pitted against each other. Chucky is after Tyler to transfer his soul, while Andy is determined to stop him.

There are better things in life to do than sit down and watch this film again. If you can’t remember what happened in it, consider yourself lucky.

Bride of Chucky (1998)

Bride of Chucky (1998)

5/10

Starring

Jennifer Tilly

Brad Dourif

Katherine Heigi

Directed by Ronny Yu

This is the movie that gave us Chucky with his face stapled, sewn, and hair done all weirdly. It’s also where Jennifer Tilly entered the franchise as Tiffany, the iconic doll. This installment introduces the idea that an amulet is needed to transfer souls into human bodies—a continuity flaw that doesn’t align with the movies before or after this one.

That aside, the movie is sometimes fun and other times not. It takes about forty minutes to hit its stride, and when it does, it plays it safe. You get to see some wild killings by Tiffany, and the movie keeps things straightforward, making the violence feel believable—something I appreciated more than the over-the-top approach of the two movies before this (Child’s Play 2 (1990) and Child’s Play 3 (1991)).

The CGI isn’t spectacular, and the plot isn’t perfectly sewn together. This movie, along with Seed of Chucky (2004), has nothing to do with Andy, the main human character from the first three films and the last two before the reboot. This is the fourth installment in the Child’s Play franchise.

The plot starts with Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) rescuing Chucky’s mangled remains from a police officer. She patches him up, bringing him back to life in doll form. We see her trailer, which is filled with dolls, showing her obsession. She performs the necessary incantations to revive Chucky, only to be surprised when his intentions for their relationship aren’t what she hoped. In anger, she locks him in a playpen with a female doll. He escapes, kills her, and transfers her soul into the female doll.

Now together, Chucky tells Tiffany she needs him to find his amulet so they can transfer their souls into living bodies. They decide to enlist Tiffany’s friend to help by having him transport the dolls to the burial site of Chucky’s human body, where the amulet is buried with him.

They kidnap the young man and his girlfriend, who are actually trying to escape the girl’s overbearing father. On their journey to the burial site, Chucky and Tiffany kill many people along the way, leading the police to believe the young couple is responsible for the murders.

The movie is easy to follow, with no complexity, and you can enjoy what it brings to the franchise. That said, it’s just average. The film was followed by Seed of Chucky (2004), Curse of Chucky (2013), and Cult of Chucky (2017).