Month: December 2021

Released: October 2021

Director: Ridley Scott

Rated R

Run Time: 153 Minutes

Distributor: 20th Century Studios

Genre: Historical Drama

Cast:
Matt Damon: Jean de Carrouges
Adam Driver: Jacques le Gris
Jodie Comer: Marguerite de Carrouges
Ben Affleck: Pierre d’Alencon
Alex Lawther: King Charles VI
Marton Csokas: Crespin

As much as I am a huge fan of movies, I am also a big history buff.  To me, history offers up some of the most incredible stories ever told.  It’s one of the reasons why I love historical movies.  To me, movies that are set centuries or even thousands of years ago are windows into a world that no longer exists.  When done properly, these kinds of movie are just as compelling as any story that’s being told today.  When done poorly, they come across as a bad joke(Pearl Harbor, I’m looking at you, bitch).  The most important thing to remember when making a historical movie, is to make sure it’s a good movie first.  Accuracy isn’t as important as getting the audience engaged.  If you can do that and be historically accurate, even better.  In fact, that should be the goal.  The problem with historical accuracy is that the further back you go, the more diluted history becomes.  Trying to make an historically accurate film based on events that happened a thousand years is going to be nearly impossible.  What you need to do is be authentic to the time period, which means doing the proper research into what people were wearing, how the government worked, and how society operated at the time.  THAT’S key.  You can do whatever you want with a story that’s set in the Dark Ages as long as you get the period and dates right.  You get that right and make the story compelling, and I’m totally on board.  That is the case with Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel

Set in 14th century France, The Last Duel tells the story of three individuals: Jean de Carrouge, Jacques le Gris, and Jean’s wife, Marguerite de Carrouge.  During the backdrop of the Hundred Years’ War, Jean de Carrouge marries the daughter of a nobleman that betrayed France in the past.  Finding that he’s nearly broke, Jean goes to war for France on multiple occasions.  During one of those battles, Marguerite is left alone in their estate when she’s assaulted by Jean’s old friend, Jacques.  Returning home, Jean learns from his wife that she was violated by Jacque while he was gone.  Enraged, he declares his intent to fight Jacque to the death to avenge his and his wife’s honor.  That’s pretty much the gist of the story.  What makes this so interesting is that the story is told three times throughout the course of the film but from different perspectives.  The first one was from Jean’s point of view, the second from Jacques’s view, and the third from Marguerite’s experience.  In many cases, this kind of structure wouldn’t really work, but for this particular story, it’s amazing.  It’s not without its problems though.  When you’re telling the same story from multiple perspectives, there’s a strong chance that certain elements will get repeated, and that does happen.  But, from each perspective, you learn more about what’s going on between the characters and the events that followed.  This story is based on the actual final duel between Carrouge and Gris towards the end of the 14th century.  It was the last legally sanctioned duel in France’s recorded history.

What stands out about the story is the fact that one woman, Marguerite refused to be silent about her assault.  What you have to understand is that up until very, VERY recently, like in the last 70 years, women were expected to be obedient and subservient to men.  If you thought that things were bad in the last century, think about how women were treated during the 14th century.  So, when somebody comes out and says that The Last Duel is nothing but #metoo drivel, you have to understand the historical context on which this film was made.  It was very rare for women to speak out when they’ve been wronged, and if they were convicted of lying to the courts, they would have been burned at the stake.  So, yeah, things HAVE improved for women, but there’s still a long way to go.  But it impresses me that even during the 14th century, one woman had the guts to stand up for herself, even at the cost of her own life.  So, for all of those anti-woke folks out there, you might want to keep that in mind.  It’s an incredibly powerful and effective story that is incredibly relevant.

The acting in this film is second-to-none.  The Last Duel has some of the strongest performances of the year.  Matt Damon as Jean de Carrouge is fantastic, and he rocks a mullet, so bonus points for that.  Adam Driver is brilliant as Jacque le Gris.  Driver gets some pretty decent laughs during his segment, but he’s just as intense as Matt Damon.  Ben Affleck as Pierre d’Alencon is great.  Aside from the fact that he’s got blonde hair in this movie, Affleck really gives d’Alencon that level of sleazy, yet charming bravado that you would expect from a French count.  Everyone brings their A-game to this movie, but the real standout here is Jodie Comer as Marguerite.  She gives an incredibly powerful and nuanced performance here.  Not only can Ms. Comer stand with the big boys, but she outdoes them in so many different ways.  I would be shock if she wasn’t nominated for Best Actress for The Last Duel.  The chemistry that all these actors have with each other is what really makes this movie work.

The Last Duel earns its R-rating by a country mile.  This is one of the most brutal and violent movies that I’ve seen all year.  It’s even more so, because not only are the battles handled realistically, it’s all based on actual events.  It’s gritty, grimy and extremely bloody.  The first battle with the English towards the beginning of the movie is one of the most brutal battle sequences put on screen.  When the perspective shifts to Jacques’s point of view, it’s still the same, but from different angles.  While most of the battles are pretty brief, they are savage.  Matt Damon and Adam Driver really hold their own in those battles.  The titular duel at the end of the film, however, is the pièce de résistance of the film.  Matt Damon and Adam Driver really go at it here, and in full armor, no less.  Granted, the armor is made of lighter material than what the real warriors used, but it still makes for a visually spectacular and epic sequence.  While the drama of what happened to Marguerite is at the very core of the film, Ridley Scott knows his way around a battlefield, and it shows.  It’s that good.

The Last Duel bombed at the box office.  Hard.  As a result, Ridley Scott made some…comments about why the film did as poorly as it did.  I think his arguments were about youngsters and their “Twitties” and “Facebooks.”  There’s a number of reasons why this movie didn’t do very well.  First of all, the subject matter is very unsettling, even for a period piece.  Seeing a movie about a woman being sexually assaulted, is not exactly great marketing material.  It’s incredibly unsettling and disturbing at times.  Honestly, the trailers and marketing campaign, really didn’t do a good job of explaining what this movie was about, so it probably confused people.  On top of that, the movie is two-and-a-half hours long.  There are times when it feels like it.  You’ve also got the #metoo folks and the anti-feminist folks out there complaining about the movie, saying that it glorifies rape.  It really doesn’t, but again, you have to understand the historical context here.  This stuff happened on a regular basis way back when.  Do I think the movie should’ve done better at the box office?  Absolutely.  It’s fantastic.  But for Ridley Scott to blame the audience for the dismal failure of his movie seems kind of disingenuous.

The Last Duel is not a perfect movie by any stretch of the imagination.  There are a couple of nitpicks that I have with it.  First off, the Rashomon-style of multiple perspectives for one story, as I had mentioned, has a tendency to not only overlap, but also repeat certain elements of the movie.  Seeing Marguerite’s sexual assault twice was incredibly unnecessary.  Once was enough.  You didn’t need to show it again to get your point across.  That was a big problem for me.  This being a Ridley Scott film, there are a few moments where the film becomes a little self-indulgent and those moments could’ve been cut out to bring the run time down a few minutes.  Ultimately, though, Ridley Scott knocks it out of the park, again, with The Last Duel.  This guy is better than most when it comes to period pieces.  His attention to detail is extraordinary, and while I might not agree with what he says about the audience, he’s an absolute master of his craft.  This is a movie that needs to be seen.  Great acting, great battle sequences, and a thoughtful and powerful story round out one of the best movies of the year.  So, yeah, I recommend it.

Released: December 2021

Director: John Watts

Run Time: 148 Minutes

Rated PG-13

Distributor: Sony Pictures

Genre: Action/Adventure

Cast:
Tom Holland: Peter Parker/Spider-Man
Benedict Cumberbatch: Doctor Strange
Zendaya: MJ
Jacob Batalon: Ned
Alfred Molina: Doctor Otto Octavius/Dock Ock
Jamie Foxx: Max Dillon/Electro
Willem Defoe: Norman Osborne/Green Goblin
Marisa Tomei: May Parker
J.K. Simmons: J. Jonah Jameson

When it comes to movie reviews, I generally don’t like throwing around hyperbole for the sake of hyperbole.  It usually serves no real purpose, but there are occasions when it really does apply to certain things.  The term “game changer” is an example of hyperbole, especially when it comes to movies and movie sequels.  I’ve read and seen reviews of movies where critics often claim that certain movies are game-changers in terms of narrative and visual effects.  Are they, though?  Are they, really?  Now, to be fair: The original Star Wars film was a game-changer in nearly every way, not just in terms of visual effects, but in how movies were made.  Decades later, Marvel and Disney changed the game when they created the MCU or the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Nothing like that had ever been attempted before, at least not on this scale.  So, is the new Spider-Man: No Way Home film a game-changer?  Visually, not really.  In terms of the narrative, it very well could be, but I’m going to try and avoid spoilers for the new movie, because there’s a lot to unpack.  I saw this film yesterday, but I needed an extra day just to wrap my head around it.  Was it worth it?

No Way Home picks right where Far From Home ended with Spider-Man’s secret identity being revealed to the world by Mysterio, the villain of Far From Home.  This has the effect of turning Peter’s life upside down along with his friend Ned and girlfriend MJ.  Because of that, Peter seeks out Doctor Strange so he can make people forget that Peter was Spider-Man, but as Strange is casting the spell, Peter inadvertently botches the spell.  Later as he tracks down the person that he needs to talk to in order to get into MIT, he’s attacked by the supervillain Doctor Octopus.  Soon, other villains like Electro and Green Goblin appear to wreak havoc.  It turns out that by botching Strange’s spell, Peter accidently caused other universes to start spilling over into his, revealing the existence of the Multiverse.  I won’t say anymore of the plot, because there’s a lot that happens here, but it’s done in such a way that it’s easy to follow.  Honestly, this is the best story for Tom Holland’s Spider-Man yet.  It takes Tom Holland’s Peter Parker into darker and more emotional territory, having the audience see a side to Parker that we haven’t seen before.  It’s a tricky thing to balance so many supervillains in one movie, but when it’s handled correctly, it’s amazing.  Thankfully, the three main supervillains in this movie, Doc Ock, Electro, and Green Goblin all get their moment to shine and are given a real reason to be in this particular universe.  The other two supervillains, Sandman and The Lizard are pretty much sidelined until the final battle, but it was still cool to see villains from every era of Spider-Man.  John Watts has done an extraordinary job in balancing the humor, the action, and the emotional impact of this movie.  I won’t spoil anymore, but let’s just say the stakes have never been higher for Peter Parker.

When it comes to acting, I think Spider-Man: No Way Home is one of the best movies in the MCU right now.  Everyone is fantastic.  Zendaya and Tom Holland have excellent chemistry as MJ and Peter, and their relationship is one of the greatest aspects of this film.  It’s the same between Peter and Ned, played by Jacob Batalon.  J.K. Simmons was always awesome as J. Jonah Jameson in the original movies, so seeing him here is a real pleasure.  J.K. Simmons IS Jameson, as far as I’m concerned.  Alfred Molina returns as Doc Ock, and it’s like he never left the role.  Doctor Octavius was probably the most human villain that Tobey Maguire’s Parker went up against, and it’s amazing to see Molina in top form here.  Jamie Foxx returns as Electro.  I’m going to be truthful with you:  I didn’t like Electro from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 with Andrew Garfield.  He was too goofy-looking and wimpy.  HERE, the character is much more of a threat, but still comes across as a human being.  Tom Holland is the best he’s ever been as Peter.  His character gets put through the ringer in this movie, but that’s also a necessary journey for Peter Parker to truly become Spider-Man.  The real scene stealer of the film has to be Willem Defoe, who returns as Norman Osborne, a.k.a. Green Goblin.  At 66, Defoe hasn’t lost a step, and like Alfred Molina, the character of Green Goblin fits him like a well-worn glove.  The way the characters are all balanced out makes for a surprisingly coherent film.

The action in No Way Home is some of the best that I’ve seen in an MCU Spider-Man movie.  Obviously, you’re going to have the big special effects set-pieces, but the way they’re written gives them more impact.  While the previous films did feel like Parker was in danger a little bit, the stakes have never been higher for Peter here.  He doesn’t always win, and there’s a moment that changes him.  If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll know what I’m talking about, but it allows the character a darker edge than we’ve seen before.  The bridge sequence with Doc Ock is fantastic, and so is Peter’s fight with Electro.  Again, they just nailed it.  It’s his battle with Goblin where it becomes an outright brawl, which is not something that we see Spider-Man do.  The camera shots are all set up incredibly well, so that we can see what’s going on.  The sound design and music are all top-notch.  There are a few issues here and there with certain logics and decision-making, but those are generally minor nitpicks in what is other-wise an outstanding third entry.

Now, there has been a lot of discussions about how this movie sets up Spider-Man’s departure from Disney’s MCU to Sony’s Spider-Verse.  Without spoiling the ending, it does, but at the same time, it definitely leaves the character in a place where he could still be a part of the MCU from time-to-time, just not as a main character.  The Multiverse, which was teased in the previous film is explored a little bit more, but it’s also leading into the next Doctor Strange film, Multiverse of Madness.  While the Celestials from Eternals are most likely going to be the next cosmic threat that the Avengers face, the Multiverse still has a significant role to play in this phase.  We are seeing a seismic shift in terms of how the MCU is being approached now.  Disney+ shows like Hawkeye, Loki, and WandaVision have introduced elements that could bleed over into the movie aspect of the MCU.  Again, that’s not something we’ve really seen before, and Spider-Man: No Way Home is a step in that direction.  Personally, I thought I would tap out after Avengers: Endgame, but producer Kevin Feige has managed to keep me interested in where the MCU is going.  Is Spider-Man: No Way Home a game-changer.  Not on its own, but it’s part of a larger picture that we aren’t seeing yet.  It could be leading to something that’s as big if not bigger than the Infinity Saga.  I never thought that would actually happen, but here we are.

If Spider-Man: No Way Home is to be Tom Holland’s final foray as Spider-Man, what a way to end his tenure as the character.  Now, what Sony intends to do with the character from here on out is anybody’s guess.  We probably won’t see another Spider-Man film for a while.  If Tom Holland decides to stick around as the character, the possibilities are endless.  While I don’t think that No Way Home is the best Spider-Man film ever, it is now my favorite.  It’s also one of the best Phase 4 movies so far.  I even like it more than Shang-Chi.  There are THREE MCU movies come next year: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and Thor: Love and Thunder.  The MCU’s just never going to let me go, is it?  So, yeah, I definitely recommend Spider-Man: No Way Home.  It’s a movie that you need to see with a big crowd.

Released: November 2021

Director: James Nunn

Not Rated

Run Time: 96 Minutes

Distributor: Screen Media

Genre: Action/Thriller

Cast:
Scott Adkins: Jake Harris
Ashley Greene: Zoe Anderson
Ryan Phillipe: Jack Yorke
Emmanuel Imani: Brandon Whitaker
Dino Kelly: Danny Dietler
Waleed Elgadi: Amin Mansur
Jess Liaudin: Hakim Charef
Lee Charles: Dhelkor

The idea of a “one-shot” movie is not new.  There have been attempts at doing a movie like that for decades.  Most films that have tried tend to not be any longer than say 50 minutes.  Pulling off a one-take scene is difficult enough with the amount of preparation that goes into something like that.  Most scenes like that generally don’t last more than a minute or so, but there have been some really notable exceptions over the years.  It’s even more difficult to do that in an action movie, simply because it’s impractical.  The physicality involved in trying something like that would probably kill people, or at the very least, leave them severely injured and exhausted.  You can do something like that with a dramatic scene and be okay with it, but action?  That’s another beast, entirely.  But it hasn’t stopped people from trying…and failing.  When the war movie 1917 came out, it was a technical achievement unlike any other.  It was a movie that delivered the illusion that it was done in one shot.  It couldn’t be further from the truth, and One Shot does something similar, but on a much smaller scale.

One Shot follows SEAL team leader Lt. Jake Harris and a squad of soldiers as they are tasked with recovering a prisoner from a CIA Black Site so they can prevent another terrorist attack on American soil.  After a heated conversation between CIA analyst Zoe Anderson and head honcho Jack Yorke, the base comes under attack from a group of radical insurgents, intent on capturing/killing Amin Mansur, the man wanted for questioning.  That’s pretty much it for the story.  It’s a get in/get out kind of movie and it’s surprisingly effective.  One Shot is not going to win awards of any kind for story-telling, let me be clear.  We’ve seen this story hundreds of times.  What we haven’t seen a lot of, is an action movie presented like THIS.  After 20 minutes, the movie kicks into high gear and is a non-stop thrill-ride to the end.

The inherent problem with one-take sequences is the amount of preparation that is needed to set them up properly.  The long ones, in particular, can be problematic if not planned right.  But for a full feature-length film?  The problems involved with something on that scale are enormous.  But, as 1917 proved, it’s almost impossible to do something like that and make it worthwhile.  For physically demanding action sequences, you’ve got to have cuts and edits.  It’s incredibly impractical to do so otherwise.  Now, to be fair, Tak Sakaguchi did a 77-minute long single take action sequence for Crazy Samurai: 400 vs. 1, but that’s pretty much an outlier.  He had to sacrifice a lot to be able to do that.  He had to really simplify that action choreography and re-use the same stunt-men over and over again.  But between action sequences, we saw his character get a drink and take a bit of a breather, because the actor also required it.  It was an interesting experiment that really only works on one viewing.  One Shot, like 1917, uses multiple long takes, but they’re edited in such a way that it looks like a single take.  Unlike 1917, where you could pretty much guess where the cuts were, I couldn’t tell you were they were in THIS movie, that’s how good the editing is, and the pace of the film makes sure the audience doesn’t notice.  So, what 1917 and One Shot are doing in terms of editing is what you should be doing for movies like this.  A true one-take is simply not feasible, especially if somebody screws up with the acting or action.  You would have to start that sequence all over again, and that takes time and money.  It’s the main reason why these kinds of shots aren’t attempted more often.  It’s great when they get it right, but it’s horrendous when they don’t.  Thankfully, One Shot got it right.

Thankfully, the action in this film is top-notch.  With actor Scott Adkins involved, you can bet your bottom dollar that he’s going to be throwing everything he’s got into it.  He’s actually pretty convincing here as a SEAL team leader.  Some might complain that he’s not showing off his acrobatic skills and flashy kicks, but that’s not what the character’s about.  The character of Jake Harris is a special forces operative, so his fighting style has to be extremely close quarters, and that doesn’t leave ANY room for spinning hook kicks or crazy flips.  It’s down and dirty and it’s really satisfying, thanks to the efforts of Tim Man, who has collaborated with Adkins before on other movies.  It’s brutal, fairly realistic, and the most important part: You can see it.  Despite the cameraman moving in and out of the action, you can still see a lot of what’s going on.  I was actually impressed with the amount of action that I could see in this movie.  The cameraman will periodically move from the good guys to the bad guys and back again, making what’s happening clearer.  The best parts are when Scott Adkins goes lone wolf and stealthily takes out multiple enemy combatants and takes on the bad guys’ leader and second in command.  It’s outstanding, and it’s bloody.

It has to be said:  I don’t necessarily think that Scott Adkins is an a-list actor.  Far from it, but with the right material, he can be the best option in terms of physicality and acting.  His performance in this film is pretty solid, even though I don’t find his American accent all that convincing.  But everybody else steps it up, particular the SEAL team.  These guys are cool.  But the best performance in the film has to come from Waleed Algadi, who plays the prisoner Mansur.  While Ashley Greene’s character is the moral compass here, it’s Waleed’s Mansur who is the heart of the film, strangely enough.  When you understand why he’s there and what his endgame is, you begin to understand his motivations.  The villains are suitably ruthless, as they have no compunctions about shooting innocent people.  Jess Liaudin is the main bad guy, Hakim Charef.  He and his henchman, Dhelkor(Lee Charles), are surprisingly intimidating, and they give as good as they get when fighting Adkins.

If there’s one real complaint I have about this movie, it’s that the structure of the film and its pacing don’t allow for a whole lot of character development.  The movie almost literally hits the ground running and there’s very little time to take a breather and take stock of what’s happening.  As far as negatives go, that’s pretty much it.  This was a surprisingly good action thriller that doesn’t skimp on the goods and actually has a decent emotional payoff towards the end.  One Shot, I think, is one of Scott Adkins’ better movies that he’s been a part of.  I’m a big fan of indie film-making and James Nunn’s movies are strong examples of how to take an idea and make it work for an incredibly low budget.  If you’re a fan of Scott Adkins, One Shot is a movie that should be on your list.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, it’s getting to that time of year.  The holidays are in full swing(or will be shortly), and 2021 is coming to a close.  It’s hard to believe it’s almost 2022 already.  The irony is, is that 2020 felt so damn long because of the pandemic and social distancing.  Well, things are getting back to normal as far as movie-going is concerned.  Almost.  For the most part, though, 2021 is a hell of a lot better than 2020.  While theaters started to open back up in the fall of 2020, most theaters that survived the pandemic here in the states are starting to see some kind of normalcy, although, some changes in the way movies have been distributed haven’t necessarily been for the better(I’m looking at YOU, Warner Bros.).  I do have to say that actually going back to the movies on a regular basis has been fantastic.  For the most part, the movies that I did end up seeing in theaters were mostly pretty good.  Some were great, others not so much.  As I have done every year, I like to go over some of the best and worst movies that have been released in 2021.  Now, I did put up a Best/Worst Movies of 2021 So Far post about 5 or so months ago, so I won’t include those movies here.  As always, these are MY opinions, and don’t reflect anything but my opinions.  One final note:  I realize that there are still some movies that are going to be released this month, which includes Spider-Man: No Way Home and West Side Story.  Those movies are close enough to 2022, that I’ll include them on THAT list, if I like them enough.  I like to give movies enough room and time to breathe.  Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?

The Best: Dune

As someone who grew up and loves David Lynch’s Dune from 1984, this comes a no-brainer.  I love science fiction.  More importantly, I love high-concept science fiction.  You know, the kind of science fiction that speaks to us about what it means to be human.  It’s no secret that the 1984 film was a hot mess.  Universal tried to turn an incredibly dense science fiction story into a two-and-a-half hour movie, and it didn’t really work.  There was a LOT of stuff that the 1984 film glossed over or left out entirely.  Denis Villeneuve and Warner Bros. made the smart decision to split Dune into two movies.  There’s SO much going on, that doing it in one movie is impossible.  To me, Denis Villeneuve, as a director, is one of the best in the business today, and Dune cements that.  This is one of the most grand-scale epic science fiction movies that I’ve seen in years.  The cast is outstanding, especially Timothy Chalamet as Paul Atreides.  From a visual standpoint, this movie is off the charts.  It’s incredibly stunning.  What makes it even better, is that Mr. Villeneuve made the film accessible to people who haven’t read the books, like me.  With everything that’s going on with the story, it was surprisingly easy to follow and get connected with the characters.  That’s not an easy feat to make with these kinds of movies.  I haven’t seen anything this year that comes close to what Dune has done.  That’s why it pisses me off that Warner Bros. released the film on HBO Max the same day they released it to theaters in the US.  That was INCREDIBLY stupid and short-sighted.  Thankfully, the decision was made well before the film’s release that they would be doing part 2, which is scheduled to be released in October of 2023.  If they could sell tickets to part 2 RIGHT NOW, I would already have mine.

The Worst: Karen

As someone who loves movies, I always try to find the good things in not-so-great movies.  Why?  Because sometimes movies don’t always go according to plan.  So, it is incredibly rare for me to truly hate a movie with every fiber of my being.  That brings me to Karen.  When I first saw the trailer for this movie, I couldn’t believe that it was real.  Like everybody else who saw it, it looked like a joke.  Well, the joke’s on the audience, I guess, because this is a movie that exists.  I wasn’t initially going to watch it, but curiosity always gets the better of me, for one reason or another.  While Dune is one of the best movies I’ve seen in years, Karen is the worst pile of dogshit that I’ve seen in as many years.  It wasn’t so much that the film-makers decided to make a movie out of an Internet meme, it was that they took it so seriously.  This is the kind of thing that would work in a comedy, but Karen isn’t a comedy, at least not intentionally.  Oh, no:  It’s a thriller about a racist Karen making life miserable for a young black couple.  You couldn’t get any more on the nose if you dropped a mountain on it.  It’s poorly directed, horrendously acted, and incredibly ill-conceived.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy bad movies, but Karen is the worst kind of bad movie.

The Best: Raya and The Last Dragon

Raya and The Last Dragon was such a pleasant surprise this year.  It was a lot better than I was hoping it to be.  It looked fantastic in terms of art direction, but the story is really solid and heartfelt, and the characters are incredibly charming.  The real stand-out here is Awkwafina as Sisu the dragon.  She is hilarious as the dragon, and I think that they literally modeled the dragon on Awkwafina’s personality.  This is a film that anybody can watch.  It’s got action, humor, drama, and a really good morality tale about trust.  If you’ve got kids, they’ll enjoy the colors and great animation, and the grown-ups can enjoy the characters and writing.  Easily recommended.

The Worst: Snake Eyes

Disappointing doesn’t even come close to describing this movie’s failure.  Let’s ignore the fact that GI Joe hasn’t been popular as a franchise in YEARS.  Let’s also somewhat ignore the fact that the action in Snake Eyes is hobbled by shaky-cam.  The worst aspect about this movie is that the title character isn’t particularly likable.  In a movie that features one of the most well-known team members from GI Joe as the lead character, turning him into a selfish, back-stabbing dirt-bag was a really stupid move.  I’m not blaming Henry Golding for that.  He did the best job he could with what he was given, but he was given an abysmal script.  The writing is awful.  When you sympathize more with a character that would go on to become of the most notorious villains for GI Joe,  you did something wrong.  There are elements about the movie that I like.  The acting is pretty good.  Specifically, Henry Golding and Andrew Koji.  The action that we can see is also really good.  But some bad cinematography and highly questionable writing tanks a movie that never really would have been successful anyway, considering the last GI Joe movies failed to ignite the box office.

The Best: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Shang-Chi was the first movie that I saw in theaters this year, and I have to say, that I was NOT disappointed.  In fact, I was actually surprised at how good this movie is.  Not only does this movie combine the Kung-Fu and superhero genres, it’s also got some of the most memorable characters that I’ve seen in the MCU in years.  Simu Liu is outstanding as Shang-Chi.  He’s got great charisma and a sense of humor, but he definitely steps up to the plate when it comes to the action.  The bus sequence alone may end up being one of the most iconic moments in the MCU.  It’s that good.  The fight choreography is excellent.  One of the biggest problems that the MCU has usually had was its villains.  Most of them tend to be pretty one-dimensional.  There were some exceptions with Loki, Thanos, and Killmonger, but the rest of them were pretty forgettable.  Well, Shang-Chi gives us Tony Leung’s Wenwu.  Even though Wenwu is the villain, you sympathize with him and his goals, even if they may end up destroying the world, but the film-makers and Tony Leung give him a very human portrayal, so he’s not a cardboard cut-out supervillain.  Awkwafina shows up here as Shang-Chi’s best friend, Katy.  While she is the comic relief of the film, she also some really good dramatic moments.  The writing in this movie is outstanding with great visual effects and awesome fight scenes.

The Worst: Venom: Let There Be Carnage

There’s a group of film fans out there who felt that the Venom films should’ve been rated R.  Part of me agrees, but at the same time, I understand Sony wanting to reach as many people as possible, so an R-rating wasn’t really in the cards.  Let’s be honest here, there have been PG-13 movies that have gotten away with a lot of stuff that would normally earn them that R-rating.  Here’s the thing, though: An R-rating can’t save a movie from bad writing.  THAT’S where my problem with Venom 2 lies.  I enjoyed this movie, almost as much as I did the first one with Tom Hardy.  He’s the real selling point of these movies, playing both Eddie Brock AND Venom.  Let There Be Carnage lets Woody Harrelson in on the action as Cletus Kassidy, who becomes Carnage.  Those two are really the only reasons why this movie is worth watching, but the writing is god-awful.  Some scenes are so cringe-inducing that I almost checked out entirely.  The breakfast scene comes to mind.  If you’ve seen this film, you know what I’m talking about.  The action is fine, with the final battle being one of the most outstanding sequences of the movie.  But the problem is, is that the actors are saddles with a script that really doesn’t take advantage of it’s potential.  The film’s rating really has nothing to do with it.  Again, I did enjoy this movie, but I think it’s almost as bad as Black Widow.

The Best: Ghostbusters: Afterlife

After the disaster that was the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot, I don’t think anybody had any real expectation that the franchise was going to move forward.  At least, not in any meaningful way.  Enter Jason Reitman, the son of the great Ivan Reitman, who directed the original Ghostbusters movie.  Afterlife wisely sidesteps the events of Ghostbusters II AND the reboot, acting as a direct sequel, but also as a reboot in itself.  Now, a lot of people have this movie flack for relying on nostalgia.  I can see how some people might come to that conclusion, but the way Afterlife handles nostalgia is very different from the way that the reboot did.  Afterlife treats nostalgia as kind of a warm blanket to wrap yourself up in, if you’re old enough to remember the original.  The reboot relied on nostalgia just to sell tickets and a gimmick.  Afterlife doesn’t strive to be anything groundbreaking.  It wants to tell a story about the next generation of Ghostbusters, and I think it succeeds.  In a lot of movies, making kids the focus of a movie generally isn’t a good idea, but it really works here, considering the kids’ connections to the original crew.  Mckenna Grace pretty much carries the entire movie on her 15 year old shoulders, and she’s fantastic.  Paul Rudd is likable enough.  The last couple of years have given us some pretty dark and gritty movies, so it’s really a nice change of pace to have a movie that takes us back to a time when it was fun to go the movies.

The Worst: Kate

It seems to be that every couple of months, a movie comes that tries to do what John Wick has done: Give an assassin a reason for revenge.  John Wick certainly wasn’t the first movie to do that, but it was certainly one of the best.  Ever since then, the only movies to outdo John Wick were its sequels.  Nobody else has come close, with the exception of Atomic Blonde.  That’s pretty much it.  Kate is just another in a long line of copycats like The Protege or Ana.  There’s very little here to make the film standout from anything else.  Honestly, the only good thing that Kate has going for it is Mary Elizabeth Winstead.  She’s phenomenal.  Aside from her, the characters in this movie are cardboard cutout villains, and you can see the twist coming a mile away.  The action is pretty decent, but again, there’s nothing here that says, “Remember me!”  But then, Netflix’s action movies have mostly been garbage.  Kate doesn’t change my mind on that.

The Best: Raging Fire

Raging Fire’s director, Benny Chan, passed away from cancer back in August of 2020, making Raging Fire his last movie.  But what a final movie to go out on.  Raging Fire is not only one of the best action movies this year, but it’s one of the best action movies to come out of Hong Kong in years.  While I’m familiar with Benny Chan’s work in the past, Raging Fire is probably his best effort.  Donnie Yen, who co-ordinates the action in the film, is also the lead playing a hardline detective who goes up against a group of former cops-turned-criminals.  It’s a surprisingly hard-hitting action thriller that doesn’t treat its villains like they’re disposable.  The main villain, Ngo, is played by Nicholas Tse, who previously starred with Yen in Dragon Tiger Gate.  Considering that Donnie Yen himself is 58, he’s still going really strong, and his performance in this movie is great.  I have to say that the last 20 minutes of the movie are insane.  If you’re a fan of Donnie Yen, this is a must-see.

I saw a lot of movies this year, but there’s simply not enough time in the day for me to see everything.  These are the ones that really stood out for me.  As I said before, there’s still some movies that are being released later this month including Spider-Man, The Matrix Resurrections, and The Tragedy of Macbeth, which I really want to see.