Movies, Film, and Chili

Glass  is the final in the Unbreakable trilogy. This time Mr. Glass finally sees his masterminded plot to fruition. Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan , Glass is about...well it's about these superheroes. They are supposed to be, at least that's the question throughout the film. It's a hesitation that really cuts the film down from being better. Bruce Willis  returns as David Dunn from Unbreakable. He's better in this than he has been as of recent. That's not saying much, he doesn't really do much of importance. Samuel L. Jackson  returns as Mr. Glass who for most of the film he's just sitting there doing nothing. The film is called class but really it's more about James McAvoy's character in the first half of the movie. James McAvoy plays the same characters from Split. He's great at changing over and switching between them but I got enough of that in Split. After a while, I was just waiting for other characters to d...

Dragon Ball Super: Broly is the next chapter in the Dragon Ball franchise, introducing (again) a character into the canon with Broly. Directed by Tatsuya Nagamine, the same man who brought anime fans One Piece Film Z, but other than that he hasn't done much in terms of movies. The real praise once again goes to the legend himself Akira Toriyama , who extends his universe even further and takes the series into a new leg. Anyone who has invested themselves in his universe will be glad about this addition. One of the promising new characters is Cheelai. She's a white-haired humanoid with green skin and small build. She's not really a fighter but she does seem to be the Chichi to Broly's Goku or Bulma to Broly's Vegeta whatever floats your boat.  There is a bit of inconsistency with certain aspects of the film but only huge Dragon Ball fans will even notice. I imagine this film is going to be confusing for anyone who isn't already a big fan. ...

Replicas  is about a scientist who is the first to transfer consciousness not only into a synthetic body but also into a clone. Frankenstein. Directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff , the film has some problems with the camera choices and flow of the film. The pacing is off and I know not having a big budget isn't the director's fault but the CGI was awful, I did like the practical choices though. This isn't his first film but it has been a decade since his last feature film. Keanu Reeves plays Will Foster, the scientist in question from the premise. He shines as the main character but struggles to convince me of someone in emotional pain. He did physical pain just fine in The Matrix and John Wick. It's always nice seeing Alice Eve  on the big screen. She's underappreciated and really should be getting bigger roles. I remember the first time I saw her as an actress in the Star Trek Into Darkness, especially the trailer. Did you know she plays Mary Walker on...

Escape Room  is presented as a Saw-like game of puzzle solving or your life ends. This time around they remove the gore to get a PG-13 rating and a January release. Adam Robitel is best known as the director of Insidious: The Last Key. Which I 'saw' and meh'd about last year. He also did Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension which I haven't seen. I stopped watching the Paranormal movies after The Marked Ones. There are some camera/direction problems nothing an average movie-goer would notice. Taylor Russell plays the main character Zoey. Don't take any offense, but she has a really hard time going full Aspergers, but once she turns Lara Croft she does a decent job. She also did the over-looked Lost in Space TV series which I still need to watch. I want to see Deborah Ann Woll in more movies after seeing her in this. She was a shining star in this film. She plays a former military survivor with a lot of baggage. You'll remember her as Karen Page from ...

Roma  is about the life of an upper-class family living in Mexico seen through the eyes of a servant in the 1970s. Written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón . Cuarón was born in Mexico and has even said that this film depicts a lot of his childhood. It certainly has a feel like Y Tu Mama Tambien. More average moviegoers might recognize his name from the movie Gravity where he won his first Oscar. He also did the underappreciated Children of Men. The cast is mostly unknowns. The main character is named Cleo and is played by Yalitza Aparicio . She is wonderful and stoic. She is reserved in her emotions to make them more impactful when they do rise to the surface. Her character has to put up with a lot of shit, literally. Her life goes from bad to worse throughout the movie. At the end of the movie, you'll be attached to this maid. The first part is hard to watch because it's just setting up future moments. At the time it just feels like you're watching a ...

Aquaman, another installment into the DC universe of films, and the first time his origin story has been told on the big screen. Written and directed by James Wan , Aquaman is brought to life with beautiful shots and stunning CGI. There were four other writers to make sure that this movie was a hit. DC needed a win and hadn't had one since Wonder Woman. Geoff Johns also helped write the movie and it shows. Jason Momoa  hasn't been this great since he played Kal Drogo in Game of Thrones. The humor is sometimes trying a bit too hard but it's nothing that ruins the movie. He's not a typical Aquaman and that's okay. This movie really isn't for the comic book nerds, they're gonna go see it either way. Amber Heard  is surprisingly decent as Mera. I thought, going in, that she was going to be the worse part of the movie. You might recognize her from Drive Angry with Nicolas Cage. I was worried about Patrick Wilson  as King Orm. His hair was pulled back ...

I went into Venom with really low expectations. I knew Tom Hardy 's accent was a whispering weirdness, and I heard they did some dubbing for how the word "Symbiote" was pronounced and that helped. The film has a lot of technical problems from a directorial aspect. That being said the general movie audience will not notice. The narrative is simple and easy to follow. I imagine most can guess and where it will lead in the end. Tom Hardy doesn't really play   Eddie Brock in a traditional sense of his character but I'm not going to watch Eddie Brock the movie. If I had to place it somewhere along the line of superhero movies I'd put it at #22 right between #23 Watchmen and #21 Ant-Man . It's better than Justice League, BvS, Spider-Man 3, any of the Hulk movies, Thor 1, 2 and much way better than Catwoman. It isn't a turd floating in the wind. It's far from perfect and I walked out not disappointed, but not super hyped either.  B- ...