At the Movies with Kane and BN

[Kane52630]

Ron's Gone Wrong

Hasta la vista, Absalom?

It's a classic boy and his dog story with a robot that tries to deal with the social media age. It's unfortunate that it was released after The Mitchells vs. the Machines which did a much more masterful job at the commentary on technology and the humor. That being said, they do a great job at the beginning with them introducing B-bot and how everyone is obsessed with trying to get one. They also set up Jack Dylan Grazer's character who plays the main kid pretty well, but the thing that keeps this movie afloat is Zach Galifianakis voicing the main defective B-bot who is excellent. Once it got to the 2nd half, the movie stops being clever and starts becoming cookie cutter where it feels like you're watching E.T all over again. Still, there's plenty of stuff to enjoy even though you're better off watching Mitchells vs. the Machines.
3/5

 

[Kane52630]

Voyagers

Whoever said this was Among Us but horny was right on the money, but I would also add it's a pretty mediocre adaptation of Lord of the Flies in space. It's got a pretty decent opening premise that uses children in isolation as a means to use them for a expedition to colonize another planet. Once it gets into the Lord of the Flies scenario the movie becomes actually more of a generic YA novel like Neil Burger's other film, Divergent. It's unfortunate that the movie loses its mind pretty quickly and you don't really get to like anyone on the ship and you kinda know where it's heading. I'll give it some points for some of the performances and the production, but overall, it's a dull mess.
2/5

 

[Kane52630]

Val

A pretty good doc that's a introspective look inside Val Kilmer's life through the years from his own footage that he recorded and kept. I really dug how they use his son to narrate the doc using Val's words. At its best, this gives you a behind the scenes look at some of his notable projects (namely the infamous The Island of Dr Moreau set) along with his life outside of movies. At its worst, it feels like a pretty big vanity project. What I think the doc tries to set out is to showcase his love being an actor and filmmaker, but also him reckoning with how his prima donna attitude kinda cost him his career along with his throat cancer. Overall, a pretty inspiring doc even though it doesn't dig as deep it as wants to.
3.5/5

 

[Kane52630]

Luca

This is probably Pixar's most breezy and laid back addition to their library. It's a charming coming of age story that weirdly feels less like the other Pixar films and more like a Studio Ghibli film like Ponyo even right down to the animation designs. They do a great job making use of the Italian coast setting and I really dug how they took chances with their animation and do something new. The obvious themes are pretty well done and I like how they kinda use Plato's cave allegory. Overall, while I don't think it'll crack my top 5 Pixar, it's definitely up high enough.
3.5/5

 

[Kane52630]

Bo Burnham: Inside

A very interesting experiment of a stand up special/musical/sketch comedy hybrid that can only make sense in a pandemic where it all takes place in one singular room. I feel like Bo Burnham selfaware style comedy (that falls into deep existentialism) definitely worked on me and how making this special also took a toll on him as well. Not everything that he put up on here completely worked for me, but the commitment to the bit was pretty good. Also, more importantly, how he managed to produce these skits with the limited resources he had at his disposal which was super impressive. Overall, thoroughly entertained by it just by the filmmaking process of it alone.
4/5

 

[Kane52630]

Encounter

Sadly a mixed bag of ideas for this scifi thriller that borrows heavily from Midnight Special and Bug. There are aspects of this movie that really worked like the paranoia and and other moments that completely dropped the ball. Structurally, it's very disjointed and once you figure out the movie before the 2nd act, you're just following Riz Ahmed and the kids journey on what you exactly expect to happen. That being said, It's got decent performances by the cast especially the two kids who do carry the film. Overall, it was pretty meh. It's a shame that Riz Ahmed was dealt with a mediocre script to work with that didn't fully utilize what the movie could have been.
2.5/5

 

[Kane52630]

The Unforgivable

A somewhat half-baked character drama that also happens to be a cheesy revenge thriller that feels like it's juggling too much. It's got a stacked cast and I thought the performances by everyone including Sandra Bullock was really good. The parts I dug the most was the ones that focuses on slow building character stuff with Sandra Bullock's character getting her life back after getting out of prison. However, I thought almost everything that had to deal with her past coming back for revenge was kinda silly in a Lifetime channel melodramatic sense. It felt like two different movies with two different tones competing with each other and almost both cancel out. Overall, it's another mixed bag.
2.5/5

 

[Kane52630]

tick, tick…BOOM!

A biopic musical drama about Jonathan Larson by Lin-Manuel Miranda that definitely feels like it was made solely for theater kids everywhere. It's a musical style that I don't really care for so while I wasn't feeling most of the musical cues, I did appreciate how well it was constructed and edited together. The movie for me was at its strongest when it's dealing with the friendship of Andrew Garfield and Robin de Jesús and how that all resolves. Everything else kinda feels like it's filler even though most of the performances are also pretty good. Overall, while it's not my thing, I thought it was decent enough.
3/5

 

[Kane52630]

West Side Story

Spielberg is truly back.
It's a phenomenally directed remake of a classic musical that has a lot of ambition. It was fun to see Spielberg return to his old bag of tricks of making movies and creating shots and from the moment the movie started, you can tell he was fully committed to deliver something only he can make. The performances are really well done with Ariana DeBose, Rachel Zegler, and Mike Faist being the standouts. I also like the touch of this movie not having subtitles because you still understand the moments as it happens even if you don't know Spanish. It surprisingly has great pacing especially for for a 2 and a half hour movie, it really does fly by. Overall, really well done.
4/5

 

[Kane52630]

National Champions

A surprisingly little gem of a sports drama movie that takes a look inside the business and political side of college sports (in this case football) and the lack of compensation for the athletes. It takes a Aaron Sorkin approach to the style and execution of the script that might seem a bit too soap opera-ey to some, but for me it worked. It's also a great exercise of filmmaking considering the covid restrictions this had... which means the entire movie was filmed at a real hotel in New Orleans and it was interesting to see how much they can stretch the production value. I thought Stephan James, J. K. Simmons, and Uzo Aduba were phenomenal in it and they all carried the film. While the whole movie seems to be moot considering they did change their policy, it still works as a look back at how broken the system was for college athletes. Overall, it's definitely a worth watch if you're a fan of sports dramas or a fan of bottle films.
4/5

 

[Kane52630]

Zone 414

Guy Pearce goes from ripping off Snake Plissken in Lockout to now ripping off Rick Deckard in Zone 414. This was an extremely derivative scifi noir (mainly from Blade Runner) that doesn't really offer anything new. It's one of those movies that you kinda know every move it makes, so any surprises to the plot doesn't fully land. The only thing holding this movie together is Matilda Lutz's performance who's clearly way overqualified to be in a movie like this. Also there's a bizarre and overthetop performance by Travis Fimmel that I can't tell if it's good or not. And despite the low budget, they do a good enough job with the sfx on the androids and some of the sets. Overall, it's a mostly dull knockoff with some a couple of good moments.
2/5

 

[Kane52630]

Mainstream

It's Gia Coppola's halfbaked idea for a satire about social media culture that desperately wants to be Sidney Lumet's Network for a new generation. This tries to say something about how shallow and empty social media fame is, but it doesn't fully understand how it got there and what the target audience are interested in. It has a very narrow view on what is popular on the internet and social media. That being said, what I did like was the performances by Andrew Garfield, who's chewing all the scenery, and Maya Hawke. There's also some interesting direction and camera work that I dug but those moments are few and far between. Overall, it's a swing and a miss.
2/5

 

[Kane52630]

Habit

Painfully atrocious. It's a movie about a drug deal gone wrong that thinks it's somewhere between The Big Lebowski and a overly stylized grindhouse flick, but it ends up being more like a fake movie that you see in another movie with even worse acting chops. I don't even know if they tried humor in this movie but I don't think any of that worked. It doesn't help that Bella Throne can't act and doing the bland narration on top of it makes this movie almost unwatchable. Overall, it's probably one of the worst movies of the year.
0.5/5

 

[Kane52630]

Dear Evan Hansen

Who knew Ben Platt playing a high school kid is probably not in the top 5 things wrong with this movie conceptually. I know it's based on a musical, but it's wild that this plot feels like it came from a sitcom where you're watching someone live through a lie while everyone else are so incredibly dumb to believe it. And on top of it, this has some of the most awkward out of nowhere musical acts I've ever seen in a movie. I suppose it's trying to make some uplifting message, but it just feels tone deaf and ill advised. I feel like the only performance that sorta worked was Nik Dodani and maybe Kaitlyn Dever. Overall, it's one of those movies where you're shocked that people thought this was a good idea.
1/5

 

[Kane52630]

Swan Song

A really well done scifi drama that uses clones as a way to explore individuality and sentimentality. I really like how the director Benjamin Cleary did a great job on setting the world that feels futuristic, but not too far off where technology still makes sense. Between the scifi tech, the story, and the themes, it's very much in the same vein as Black Mirror (particularly the Be Right Back episode) and Ex Machina except this is dealing with clones. Above all else, it has an incredible Mahershala Ali performance where's he's able carry this film twice. I also thought Naomie Harris was good and I also really enjoyed Awkwafina here as someone who's already gone through the cloning process. That being said, I did fine a few things questionable in some parts of the movie that kinda brings this down a bit. However, overall, I thought it was pretty damn good.
3.5/5

 

[Kane52630]

Silent Night

An interesting mix of a Christmas family comedy that also happens to be a bleak apocalyptic drama. The movie walks on a tightrope between those two tones once we figure out the reason of them being together was because of an impending doom. It's definitely inspired by Melancholia only with comedic moments thrown in the mix. For me a lot of those moments didn't completely worked as well as they wanted. That being said, it's got a great cast with mostly notable British actors that did pretty well with what they were given. Overall, it's a movie with an interesting premise that kinda fumbled on the execution.
2.5/5

 

[Kane52630]

Spider-Man: No Way Home

It's one hell of a Saturday morning cartoon.

No Way Home follows right after the events of Far From Home where everyone knows Peter Parker is Spider-Man and for a good 30 minutes, they do go through with the story and you see how his life is forever changed. It's probably the section of the movie that nobody will be talking about, but for me, it's one of my favorite parts. However, once they introduced Doctor Strange and the multiverse, you can see a shift in tone and style with how this movie operates. There's a whole middle and end part of this movie that can be described as one giant overstuffed fan service and while that might be true, some of it really worked in the context of the story while other moments felt way too heavy handed.

I will say there is a thing that they do with the villains in the story that felt fresh and new which is kinda shocking that it took this long for a superhero movie to do it like this. How they deal with Tom Holland's Peter Parker is interesting throughout this movie and while they do some calculated moves in here with certain things, it ultimately worked at the end where you're left excited to see where this goes next. Overall, I actually liked this better than Far From Home and while the Spider-Man fan in me loved all the fan service and callbacks, the heavy handedness of it all kinda drags this down a bit. It's too bad this came out after Into The Spider-Verse which sets the bar for this kind of multiverse drama way too high.
3.5/5

 

[Kane52630]

Nightmare Alley

A phenomenal neo-noir thriller that is a grandiose remake of the 1947 version about a rise and fall of a con man where Guillermo del Toro put his signature touches throughout it. The setting is drenched in gothic noir and art deco where the movie goes from a muddy traveling circus a to rich and brooding Chicago. When you see how this ends, you realize how they did a masterful job setting things up for Bradley Cooper's character where he finds a new life as a carny and learn the tricks of the trade and how he later uses those tricks. I thought the cast was great particularly Bradley Cooper, Willem Dafoe, and Cate Blanchett who feels like she was born to play a 40s noir dame. Cinematography is also a big asset that helps this movie where it moves like a hyper stylized noir in the best way possible. Overall, I loved it. It's probably Guillermo del Toro's most mature feature since Pan's Labyrinth where it has a clear sense of morality and consequences.
4.5/5

 

[Kane52630]

The Novice

A brilliantly crafted and intense psychological sports drama about college rowing. It's a damn great directorial debut for Lauren Hadaway, who also wrote and edited this. She previously worked on Whiplash, so you can definitely see where she drew her influences from. Isabelle Fuhrman really threw herself into this role and it's easily one of the best performances of the year. The attention to detail about having that destructive and competitive mindset is really well done along with how they showcase anxiety is really great and it all shows in the editing. Overall, it's so damn good. It's one of those great hidden indie gems that you always want to find and I can't wait to see where Lauren Hadaway goes from here.
4.5/5

 

[Kane52630]

Benedetta

Paul Verhoeven finally did it, he made Satan's Alley come to life.

Benedetta is probably best described as a extravagant biographical period piece on Benedetta Carlini that also happens to be an erotic lesbian nunsploitation. The commentary is apparent as it examines hypocrisy in the catholic church and government, but it also holds a meta commentary on the pandemic which I thought was very interesting. What makes this different is it's got dark humor to counterbalance the serious aspects of the movie. The performances are top notch where everyone has scenery to chew especially Virginie Efira and Lambert Wilson. Probably the only thing that kinda takes this down a bit is the melodrama goes on for too long and kinda know where this movie is headed. Overall, pretty damn good all things considered even though this is totally missing an end credits music track by Enigma playing Sadness part 1.
3.5/5

 

[Kane52630]

Being the Ricardos

A very dramatized look inside the set of I Love Lucy during the days when Lucille Ball was accused of being a communist while also looking back at how Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz rose to fame all done with Aaron Sorkin's style. While it was hard at first to buy them as these iconic actors, it did eventually work in the context of the story. The movie works at its best when it's showing the process of how they used to make sitcoms back in the 40s and 50s (especially with the table read and the writers room). At it's worst, you can tell this was shot during covid and the direction/cinematography in most of the scenes fell flat. While I thought Nicole Kidman & Javier Bardem did an okay job playing Lucy and Desi, I thought the supporting cast was terrific. Alia Shawkat, JK Simmons, Nina Arianda, and Tony Hale really made this movie tolerable to watch. Overall, a mixed bag of a bio-drama that I ultimately enjoyed.
3/5

 

[Kane52630]

The Matrix Resurrections

A partly ambitious sequel that uses the New Nightmare blueprint to tell a meta story within the Matrix IP. I'll say it starts off pretty strong as it deconstructs the Matrix story and becomes fully self referential. I really loved everything about the beginning to the Jefferson Airplane montage that eventually leads us to the main story. As for the main story where all the facade falls apart, I get where they were trying to head towards, but the execution felt way off. Even Lana herself couldn't match the aesthetic and action from the previous films as it gets into the Matrix of it all. As much as I want to love Jessica Henwick and Yahya in this, they didn't use them effectively as I thought they should (more so with Yahya playing Morpheus who kinda looks lost here and I can't blame him). I'll say this much without spoiling it... Jonathan Groff, as always, understood the assignment and went ham in here. The story does revolve back to the relationship between Keanu Reeves & Carrie-Anne Moss who I thought carried this movie with all its faults. Overall, while I admire this trying to do something different, I fall in the middle between the fans who will love and hate this. All in all, this sequel is more of a supplementarily epilogue to the main three movies where it kinda works.
3/5

 

[Kane52630]

Rumble

Formulaic, predictable, sometimes poorly animated, and yet still somewhat enjoyable. I really liked the concept of having kaiju monsters be in wrestling matches (with boxing rules oddly enough) and the fanbase and structure of the organization be more like the NBA. It uses the cliche underdog sports drama story to propel the main two characters voiced by Will Arnett and Geraldine Viswanathan. Because it's by Paramount Animation, they don't really have a standout animation style, so it feels like they've borrowed the design and style from Dreamworks. Overall, while I thought some parts of it worked, most of it feels generic.
2/5

 

[Kane52630]

Jolt

And the award for most obvious "shot in a generic studio backlot" goes to...

It's an overly stylized revenge thriller with Kate Beckinsale who doesn't seem to age at all with all the hot rage issues in the world. It's somewhere between Crank and Atomic Blonde, but with far more generic writing and action set pieces. I do like how Jai Courtney plays against type in here for most part as the beta to Kate Beckinsale's alpha. The movie goes exactly where you think it goes and it doesn't really leave you much to look forward to other than Kate Beckinsale beating the sh** out of anyone who deserves it (or imagining it). Overall, it's pretty to look at but dull to watch if that makes sense.
2/5

 

[Kane52630]

Mother/Android

A decent post robo-apocalyptic survival drama that borrows heavily from A Quiet Place, The Last of Us, and the Walking Dead. It's obvious before you get to end of this that this movie is more concerned about the subtext (or just text in this case) of motherhood and parent hood than the killer androids running around. The action and tense scenes that do involve the androids are few and far between which is probably the biggest problem in this movie. But i'll say, whenever they do show them, the sfx on the androids are pretty impressive and haunting. It's mostly a quiet film about their journey to get them and their unborn child to safety. I did enjoy the performances that carried the movie and I thought Chloe Grace Moretz and Algee Smith were great together. Overall, better than I expected even though this could have been even more engaging with a bigger budget and a more realized script.
3/5