Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes

Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.

I have never really been a fan of movies that are heavy cgi.  Like it takes away from it all.  I'm all for special effects but prefer them to be kind of grounded.  These recent Planet Of The Apes movies throw all of that out the window.   This is absolutely brilliant CGI where you legit believe everything that is happening on screen.  As for the franchise I always enjoy the entries.  They don't stick with you like other franchises and I tend to forget a bunch of stuff that happened between installments but there are very enjoyable watches whenever they come out.  This one was no different.

I would definitely recommend people checking this out.  It is a very enjoyable watch.

The Garfield Movie

Garfield has an unexpected reunion with his long-lost father, a scruffy street cat who draws him into a high-stakes heist.

This movie is 100% what you would expect.    Cute story with morals, some good laughs for an animated movie with great voice casting and a good escape for the family for a couple hours.

There really isn't much else to say about this.  I would recommend any family or people with kids going to see this movie.

The Watchers

A 28-year-old artist gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. Finding shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are stalked by mysterious creatures every night.

This was pretty much a textbook Shymalalalanalalalanaalanalan movie.  There was a lot of build.  At times it was kind of good.  At others it was eh.  And this one in particular was a lot more predictable than usual.  Regardless, it was not worth the payoff and you stop caring like before you get even halfway through the movie.  

I would not recommend anyone bothering with this movie because its really not worth the time or money.

Furiosa

Snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers, young Furiosa falls into the hands of a great biker horde led by the warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel, presided over by the Immortan Joe. As the two tyrants fight for dominance, Furiosa soon finds herself in a nonstop battle to make her way home.

Fury Road is one of my favorite movies in the last couple years and just such an absolute rush of pure adrenaline for 2 straight hours.  I was hoping for that and this was not as intense.  Normally that would lead to a disappointing review but this movie still massively delivered in a different way.   It had plenty of all out action but also put a lot more into character development and an actual story and delivered on those as well.  It made for the movie to be a little bit weird pacing wise and didn't need to be as long as it was.  It also used alot more CGI than Fury Road but like I said even with those comparison knocks it was still an awesome watch.

I would definitely recommend people checking this out.  I see it easily being one of the more enjoyable movies of the summer.

IF

After discovering she can see everyone's imaginary friends, a girl embarks on a magical adventure to reconnect forgotten IFs with their kids.

This was a very enjoyable and heartwarming movie about growing up, imagination and family.   John Krasinski is pretty much becoming one of my favorite directors with A Quiet Place being perfection suspense wise and this being perfection whimsy and imagination in a Wonka like way.   The voices were awesome and the story and pacing were great too.

I would absolutely recommend people checking this out.  It was a great watch for people of all ages.

The Bikeriders

Over the course of a decade, a Midwestern motorcycle club evolves from a gathering place for local outsiders to a sinister gang, threatening the original group's way of life.

This is a weird movie to review.  The acting was great.  The authenticity of it was great.  The narration of everything was great.  But like the movie's story progression was non-existent.  There were like zero ups and downs.  It was just like you were there for a random length of time with the characters.   Like instead of a story it was just go hang out with the biker gang and shoot the shit.  It was very strange and kind of ruined what could have been a really awesome movie had this not been the case.

I would not really recommend anyone rushing to see this.  Like I said - the acting was good but this movie is nowhere near a must see and it surely is not the epic it was advertised as.  Pretty disappointing.

The First Omen

A woman starts to question her own faith when she uncovers a terrifying conspiracy to bring about the birth of evil incarnate in Rome.

Yet another exorcism movie.  Like literally one came out two weeks ago?   Nothing special about this one.  More of the repetitive same old stuff that honestly bores the hell out of me too much to ever be seen as scary at all.

I would not recommend people bothering with this at all.  It's very much a waste of time.

The Fall Guy

After leaving the business one year earlier, battle-scarred stuntman Colt Seavers springs back into action when the star of a big studio movie suddenly disappears. As the mystery surrounding the missing actor deepens, Colt soon finds himself ensnared in a sinister plot that pushes him to the edge of a fall more dangerous than any stunt.

This was a fun summer movie.  Lots of action.  Lots of laughs.  Fun characters to root for and plenty that you want to root against.  The chemistry was totally there between the leads.  My only knock would be that the movie could have been shorter.  Like 20 minutes shorter.  The pacing dulled a lot of the laughs that would have been much funnier in rapid fire kind of situations instead of long pauses after and what not.  And it's a shame because this could have been a must see movie with that slight tweak.

I would still recommend people checking this out.  It is a very fun watch and ride for the audience but it could have been even better with quicker pacing.

The Strangers - Chapter 1

After their car breaks down in an eerie small town, a young couple is forced to spend the night in a remote cabin. Panic ensues as they are terrorized by three masked strangers who strike with no mercy and seemingly no motive.

This movie was flawed on so many levels.  It was advertised as a prequel but pretty much played 100000% as a remake.  There was no prequel like info giving background into why they were how they were.  Since it was "Chapter 1" there was zero suspense of the victims surviving.  And it was a million times less scary than the original.  

This was pretty much complete trash across the board.  Big waste of time.

Back To Black

Singer Amy Winehouse's tumultuous relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil inspires her to write and record the groundbreaking album "Back to Black."

This was surprisingly a pretty good musical biopic movie.  For these kinds of movies with me its always the balance of was there that big of a need/demand for this movie plus does it go deep enough into the subject material or does it gloss over.  Finally, the performances of the musical figures has to be great.   On this one I didn't really see the need for a movie about Amy Winehouse but it did a really good job of showing her spiral and not just glossing over stuff.  And the actress playing her did a great job.  I liked her from a previous show I had seen her on and hopefully this movie can put her more on the map.

I would actually recommend people checking this movie out.  It was a surprisingly good watch.

Civil War

In a dystopian future America, a team of military-embedded journalists races against time to reach Washington, D.C., before rebel factions descend upon the White House.

This was a really well done movie but calling it a "dystopian" future doesn't distract from the fact that it seems like this is much closer to a reality than we want it to be.   There was great character development movie with rising tension from start to finish.  I get the whole portraying the reporters in the way that they did in this movie but I actually felt like that took away from it a little bit and held the movie back from being fully WTF level.

I would recommend people checking this out.  It was a edgy and enjoyable watch even though it was definitely a little too close for comfort at times.

Challengers

Tashi, a tennis player turned coach, has transformed her husband from a mediocre player into a world-famous grand slam champion. To jolt him out of his recent losing streak, she makes him play a challenger event -- close to the lowest level of tournament on the pro tour. Tensions soon run high when he finds himself standing across the net from the once-promising, now burnt-out Patrick, his former best friend and Tashi's former boyfriend.

This movie was banking on the sexual tension between the three leads but quite honestly I just wasn't feeling it.  Like it seemed very forced for all of them.  Plus there was a very weird use of loud music at very strange times throughout the movie to try and raise the tension and that backfired too.  

I wouldn't recommend anyone bothering with this.  It could have been so much better and is pretty much just a waste of time.

Abigail

A group of would-be criminals kidnaps the 12-year-old daughter of a powerful underworld figure. Holding her for ransom in an isolated mansion, their plan starts to unravel when they discover their young captive is actually a bloodthirsty vampire.

So there are two ways to look at this movie.   If you are entertained but a violent gorefest of a movie this is actually a decent watch.  Like there was plenty of those things throughout building to a ridiculous over the top ending that went next level with a ton of blood.  However, from a story standpoint when your main swerve that takes like 45 minutes to get to has been blatantly revealed for months in advance by the trailer - that massively takes away from the movie.   Like you are watching the first half knowing what is going to happen even though the characters don't and it makes it pretty silly because of that.  

I would not really recommend anyone bothering with this unless you like seeing tons of blood.  That story spoiler was really ridiculous in hindsight and really ruined the movie.

Tarot

Friends unwittingly unleash an unspeakable evil trapped within a cursed deck of tarot cards. One by one, they come face to face with fate, racing against death to escape the future foretold in their readings.

This movie was basically a version of Final Destination that included Tarot cards.  Like that's it.  Really nothing more to say.

I wouldn't really recommend anyone bothering with this.  There were a couple of decent jump scares but outside of that it was beyond forgettable.

Boy Kills World

Boy is a mayhem machine who's been training to assassinate the bloodthirsty Hilda Van Der Koy and avenge his family's murder. Guided by his sister's mischievous spirit, Boy uncovers one stunning revelation after another as he barrels toward Hilda.

Very confused as to how this was a wide theatrical release.  It's one of those pure adrenaline action movies with some pretty good fight scenes but like barely a story to hold it together.  Plus if you want to do a movie like this where the guy is kind of John Wick-ish but doesn't speak so his inner voice in narrating it - maybe don't have the voice of Bob from Bob's Burgers or Archer be that voice.   It was very strange trying to take anything seriously when such a noticably comedic voice was narrating everything.

I would not really recommend anyone bothering with this.  It's not the worst movie out there but it's really not that good either.  It ends up just kind of being there and making you be like huh when watching it.