Movies, Film, and Chili

  Transformers One  is a super-prequel in that it goes back to way before the first one. Optimus Prime is called Orion Pax, that's how way back it is. The film is written and directed by modern animation juggernaut  Josh Cooley  who wrote Inside Out and Toy Story 4 . The writing is really tight and nothing feels left out, also with how Transformers movies go, there tends to be a lot of super elongated transformations. This film is pulled back but still has a lot of stuff going on. Chris Hemsworth  is a great choice for Optimus Prime and his chemistry with Brian Tyree Henry's Megatron is believable. You might remember Henry from Bullet Train . Scarlett Johansson  plays Elita One which Transformer fans will enjoy seeing on the big screen and Keegan-Michael Key  is the perfect choice for comedic relief as Bumblebee or B-127.  The film is what you'd expect and a great origin story for Optimus and Megatron. Result: B+

  Speak No Evil  is a thriller about a family terrorized by another family that invited them over for the weekend. James Watkins ' take on a thriller with political undertones has an odd balance. I would have put the film back in the editorial oven for another fifteen minutes. Regarding shots, they were 'interesting' and could have been a lot worse. He has learned more since The Woman in Black, but not too much.  The writing makes you hate the villain played by the stellar James McAvoy but even more so the unheroic father. Scoot McNairy  nails the weak, pathetic, and unsympathetic husband. He's even more beta having a wife played by the beautiful and former Terminator heroine,  Mackenzie Davis . She's also a full two inches taller than him so it even further cements that she wears the pants in the relationship, but the dialogue has her playing the supportive wife. Despite its writing flaws, Davis and McAvoy really put in work to make the film worthwhile to watch. R

  Jackpot!  is an Amazon Prime straight-to-streaming movie about a dystopian California that has a "purge" like day that involves a lottery. Director Paul Feig  has fallen so far when it comes to modern comedies. This film really tries to meet the "modern audience" but fails to deliver any laughs. His last good movie was Bridesmaids , but that was over a decade ago. The comedy is probably the fault of writer Rob Yescombe  who has never had a good movie. His only "good" example of writing was the video game The Division. John Cena gets top-bill even though he's a supporting character. For a movie with such progressive writing, you'd think Awkwafina would get paid more than John Cena . Cena has lost a lot of muscle mass as he's much leaner than I remember. His delivery of humor is also just bad and his acting seemingly has gotten worse. Awkwafina  does what she can with the material, but she's becoming typecast as the straight character who j

  Borderlands  is a video game adaptation of the game of the same name set in the stylized futuristic world of Pandora. Eli Roth  is a director who looks like the ideal director for the film. The problem was he wasn't given full reigns to take this sort of movie to the heights it could have been. Casting was an issue and it being restricted to PG-13 was another. Roth is a visionary and the film shows it. The CG could have been left in the oven a tad longer but the glaring issue was the screenplay by the unknown and pen-named  Joe Crombie .  The whole cast feels misplaced. Cate Blanchett  looks tired, Kevin Hart  looks like he's just ready for it to be over, Jack Black as Claptrap  is written as annoying, Jamie Lee Curtis didn't even need to be in the film, and  Edgar Ramirez tries to play a villain but his accent is just hard to understand. The only exception was seventeen-year-old  Ariana Greenblatt  who does an annoying but decent job as Tiny Tina . You might remember her

  Beetlejuice Beetlejuice  is a sequel to the dark fantasy horror comedy Beetlejuice. Tim Burton comes back to direct but leaves the writing to Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and Seth Grahame-Smith. Gough and Millar   are best known for writing 2004's Spider-Man 2, and the hit series  Smallville and  Wednesday . While Smith is probably the worst writer on the team having written Pride and Prejudice and Zombies  and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, though I will give it to him that he did write The Lego Batman Movie. While Michael Keaton is the namesake for the movie, the main character is Lydia Deetz , played by returning Winona Ryder. She has a good character arch for a sequel that had a lot going on. There are two villains to deal with, and then there's the best addition Wolf Jackson  played by the talented Willem Dafoe . Burn Gorman  has a small but memorable role as well as a cameo by Danny DeVito that people will remember. You might remember Gorman from Pacific Rim.   Monica