Angry Birds 2 (2019)

Angry Birds 2 (2019)

5/10

Starring the voices of

Jason Sudeikis

Josh Gad

Leslie Jones

Bill Hader

Directed by Thurop Van Orman

I wasn’t a big fan of the 2016 Angry Birds video game animated adaptation. It felt mediocre to me, and this sequel is just a small step up. Honestly, I found it hard to keep my eyes open through the whole movie.

I wasn’t expecting much based on how I felt about the slapstick comedy in the first movie. If you enjoyed that style of humor in the first one, then this second part might be for you. This time, we’re introduced to another island run by eagles who want to destroy the other two islands—the birds’ and the pigs’. So, the focus isn’t just on the birds; the pigs join forces with them to take on the eagles. If you’re like me and wondering, “Aren’t eagles also birds? And if they want the bird island so badly, why can’t they just fly there like Mighty Eagle?”—well, this is a kids’ animation, and that’s just my adult mind overthinking things.

The movie’s plot picks up where the first one left off. Red is now a hero, happy to no longer be alone and glad to be needed. The birds continue their battles with the pigs until one day, the pigs find a huge ice ball hurled at them. They investigate and discover there’s another island filled with eagles who want to destroy both the birds’ and pigs’ islands. The pigs offer a truce to the birds so they can face this new enemy together. Red, afraid that this truce will end the conflict with the pigs and, in turn, his stardom as a hero, doesn’t want it to happen. But the pigs force his hand by showing evidence of the impending doom for the bird island during a raid on his home.

Red, along with Chuck, Bomb, and Silver (Chuck’s sister and later Red’s love interest), teams up with the pigs to visit their island. The pigs have stepped up their game, using next-level, sophisticated equipment. They come up with a loopy plan to stop the eagles, but like I said, you’ll need to suspend your adult mind to watch all this unfold.

In the end, I wasn’t impressed, and I don’t see this movie being commercially successful enough to justify a third installment. Maybe that’s a good thing, who knows it does not take much for Hollywood to start working on anything, all they need is a few people to say, “we want to see this.”

Long Shot (2019)

Long Shot (2019)

6/10

Starring

Charlize Theron

Seth Rogen

Directed by Jonathan Levine

Long Shot is a very lovely movie. And "lovely" is the best adjective to describe it. The last time a movie made me feel this way, I was watching The Intern, written and directed by Nancy Meyers and starring Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway.

This film is soft, simple, and gracefully glides through its scenes.

We have an odd couple pairing in Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron’s characters. But what makes this movie so enjoyable is how their differences are handled in the story. The chemistry between them is magical, and it elevates the entire experience. Theron, in particular, is magnificent in her role as Secretary of State, bringing a warmth and charm that makes her character incredibly inviting.

The romantic comedy begins by introducing Fred (Seth Rogen), a journalist who covers quirky, overlooked stories. While his work hasn’t brought him much fame or wealth, it’s given him a sense of comfort and purpose. The problem is that Fred has developed a highly judgmental view of the world and is unwilling to compromise. This mindset leads him to resign when his employer is bought out by a large conglomerate.

Charlotte (Charlize Theron) is the current Secretary of State. She’s just been informed by the sitting president that he won’t seek re-election and plans to endorse her as his successor. However, he needs her to play nice until then. Unlike Fred, Charlotte has had to navigate a world of compromise and half-truths in her political career, and the presidency is her next big goal.

The two are brought together by their shared past. Charlotte used to babysit Fred when he was a kid, and Fred has always had a crush on her. After Fred resigns, his friend takes him to a fundraiser to help him unwind. It’s at this event that Charlotte spots Fred and recognizes him. They strike up a conversation, and she’s reminded of how easy it is to talk to him. After reading some of his articles, she decides to hire him as her speechwriter.

This sets the stage for their shared journey. The pair travel the world as Charlotte works on her "save the planet" initiative, aiming to get 100 countries to join in. Watching them grow closer, navigate the challenges of being in the public eye, and ultimately become lovers is what makes this movie such a joy to watch.

Though Long Shot earned critical acclaim, it wasn’t a financial success. More people need to see this movie because, as far as romantic comedies go, this one is top-notch.

Otherhood (2019)

Otherhood (2019)

5/10

Starring

Angela Bassett

Patricia Arquette

Felicity Huffman

Directed by Cindy Chupack

Otherhood is the kind of movie you watch when you have some free time and just want something nice and homely. It’s not spectacular, and the plot has a weird sort of ending. I think the writers could have done a better job piecing it together. There’s nothing groundbreaking here, and you could argue that the movie loses its way in the middle when the mothers start acting immature. Plus, the way it ends makes it feel like the first half is where most of the fun happens.

Otherhood speaks to the reality of parenting. No matter how hard you try, parents always seem to mess up their kids—whether it’s from too much love, too little, not pushing them enough, or pushing them too hard. The most common issue, which affects almost all of us, is letting the parents’ insecurities dictate how they raise their children. All these styles of bad parenting and their consequences are on display in this movie. That said, the movie does have one thing going for it: three incredible actresses (Angela Bassett as Carol, Patricia Arquette as Gillian, and Felicity Huffman as Helen) delivering stunning performances that make it worth sitting through, just to watch them.

The movie introduces three friends who are mothers, along with their sons, who have been friends since childhood. The sons have distanced themselves from their mothers for reasons you’ll discover if you watch the movie. The mothers, believing they’ve made countless sacrifices for their children, feel they shouldn’t be made to feel like failures.

Every year, the mothers get together on Mother’s Day, and this time, they decide on a whim to go to New York and surprise their sons. None of them were prepared for what they’d find when they arrived. They realize they don’t know their sons as well as they thought and that they’re part of the reason their sons want little to do with them anymore.

The movie delves in a realm of awkwardness at many instances that make you cringe and wish the writers had some sense to know better.

The movie is based on Whatever Makes You Happy by William Sutcliffe and is written and directed by Cindy Chupack (who has written for Sex and the City and Modern Family).

You can catch this movie on Netflix, and like I said earlier, it’s worth a watch when you’ve exhausted all your other viewing options.

Shaft (2019)

Shaft (2019)

7/10

Starring

Samuel L. Jackson

Jessie T. Usher

Regina Hall

Alexandra Shipp

Richard Roundtree

Directed by Tim Story

I can see why this movie wasn’t a hit—it’s so good and so true to what humor really is that the “woke” crowd of this century might have a problem with it. The comedy is natural, and the whole film is a joyride to cinematic promise land. Samuel L. Jackson feels so at home in his character that you totally understand when he implies, “If James Bond were real, he’d want to be me.”

The movie even throws in some hilarious gags, like referencing the time a newscaster mistakenly called Samuel L. Jackson “Laurence Fishburne.” What’s not to like in this movie? The answer: nothing.

The film stars Samuel L. Jackson as Shaft II, Jessie T. Usher as Shaft III, and Richard Roundtree as Shaft (the original). It’s the fifth film in the Shaft series and a sequel to the 2000 movie of the same title, which also starred Samuel L. Jackson.

The plot kicks off in 1989, showing the “equal-opportunity ass-whupper,” Shaft (Samuel L. Jackson), saving his girl and son from a shootout. His girl, upset by the chaos, leaves him and takes their son with her. She raises their son alone, telling him his dad ran off and wanted nothing to do with him. Her way of “raising him right” was making sure he grew up as anti-Shaft as possible.

Fast forward to the present: JJ (aka Shaft Jr.), now grown up and working as a computer analyst for the FBI, is investigating the suspicious death of a childhood friend, which was labeled a drug overdose. Suspecting foul play, JJ dives deeper but ends up on the receiving end of an ass-whupping. Desperate for help, he turns to the one person he knows can handle it—his estranged father.

When JJ shares the details of the case, Shaft quickly connects it to one he’s already working on, involving a drug kingpin. The father-son duo team up, and their investigation leads to bonding moments, with Shaft teaching JJ the ropes. This dynamic is what makes the movie so enjoyable. The witty dialogue keeps you entertained, and when the original Shaft (Richard Roundtree) makes his grand entrance about 20 minutes before the film ends, it’s pure cinematic gold.

There’s no way you can watch this movie and not enjoy it. Everything about it screams for a sequel. But given its lackluster box office performance, I don’t think that’s going to happen.

Happy Death Day 2U (2019)

Happy Death Day 2U (2019)

5/10

Starring

Jessica Rothe

Israel Broussard

Suraj Sharma

Steve Zissis

Directed by Christopher Landon

Get ready for some loose threads and a whole lot of panic about multiverse/time loop mumbo jumbo that’ll make you think you’re in for a thriller. Within the first ten minutes, they psych us out with the idea of the universe collapsing. They pull a thread about two entities that aren’t supposed to exist in the same universe, hinting at something horrible about to happen—and then whoosh, we’re in another universe.

That’s how the movie starts. We’re in a different universe where things are changed, and Tree’s mom is still alive. Tree, from the universe in the first movie, is thrown into this new reality where her mom is alive, and the people she knows are different. The problem here is that instead of finding a fresh way to play this out, the writers make us go through Tree’s life all over again, which ends up being a bore.

In this version of Happy Death Day, the plot has Tree making it to the next day. Everything would have been fine, but Ryan Carter’s friend, in his panic to save himself, causes her to relive the day—not the day after her time loop, but the day she desperately wanted to escape: her birthday. If you recall, this was the same day the time loop happened in the first movie.

The movie kind of expands on some characters from the first film while keeping the leads in focus. We also get a dose of scientific jargon about the time loop, and let me tell you, it’s as ridiculous as it sounds. The makers of the first movie apparently felt the time loop wasn’t enough, so they added the multiverse. Yes, get ready for an onslaught of multiverse theories. And for Tree to get things back on track, she has to keep killing herself. Tree comes up with new, creative ways to off herself, but honestly, it’s just boring. The emotional buildup around Tree’s family reunion feels overplayed and forced.

That aside, the plot of this movie isn’t as engaging as the first one because we already know how things are likely to play out. It’s not fun to find out the loop was caused by an experiment gone wrong. My advice? Just watch the first movie and save yourself the pain of sitting through this sequel.

Financially, this movie didn’t perform as well as the first, and honestly, I’m glad. At least we’ll be spared a third installment.

Happy Death Day (2017)

Happy Death Day (2017)

6/10

Starring
Jessica Rothe
Israel Broussard


Directed by Christopher Landon

Happy Death Day is a Groundhog Day-style movie, and its focus is on a girl who’s kind of an ass and, honestly, deserves every bad thing that happens to her. I like how the movie doesn’t make the time loop stop the moment she decides to be good. It only ends when she figures out who’s behind her deaths and stops them.

The movie drags for a while before it gets to the point where she finally starts using her head to solve the problem. That long stretch could have had me nodding off if I wasn’t so curious to find out who was behind the whole mess.

The movie gives off a cheap thrill vibe, so you’ll have to bear with that while watching. You can tell from some of the acting and the setting that this wasn’t a huge financial investment from major studios.

The plot starts with our lead, Theresa (or Tree), waking up in the dorm room of her classmate after what we assume was a night of drunken fun. The guy, Carter, seems like a nice, goofy-looking guy who helps her out, but she dashes out of his room, considering the night a big mistake. On her way back to her dorm and throughout the day, we get to see the kind of person she really is.

When she gets to her room, her roommate makes her a cupcake for her birthday. Instead of appreciating it, Tree tosses it in the trash. We also learn she’s having an affair with a married professor for good grades. The day we’re witnessing is her birthday, and her sorority sisters have organized a party for her.

On her way to the party, she’s lured into a tunnel and murdered—only to wake up back in Carter’s dorm room. She thinks the whole incident was a dream or something and goes through the day again, doing pretty much the same things, only to get murdered again.

Waking up in Carter’s room a second time makes her realize something’s up. She starts to feel like this is some kind of déjà vu. After dying a few more times, she realizes she has to do something about it. She soon learns that every death takes a toll on her health.

The movie was a huge financial success and even spawned a sequel, Happy Death Day 2U, which continues Tree’s story. This movie is average, but you’ll enjoy it if time loops are your thing and you can handle watching a girl waste time for half the movie before things finally get good.