Moana 2


Moana journeys to the far seas of Oceania after receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors.

This movie was a decent watch with good animation but honestly felt kind of like a rushed money grab kind of sequel.   The first half felt very forced and just kind of mailed in with both the story and the songs.  The second half had much more action but like this felt a lot more like a straight to blu-ray kind of a sequel then a wide release if that makes sense.

I would somewhat recommend people checking this out.   It is not a must watch by any means at all and ultimately will be a pretty forgettable Disney animation movie which will land it as a disappointment overall I would think.


Wicked


Misunderstood because of her green skin, a young woman named Elphaba forges an unlikely but profound friendship with Glinda, a student with an unflinching desire for popularity. Following an encounter with the Wizard of Oz, their relationship soon reaches a crossroad as their lives begin to take very different paths.

I loved this show and was pretty skeptical about seeing it turned into a movie.   It was also massively and excessively marketed that I was afraid I would be disappointed by it just because.   I was dead wrong on both accounts.  This movie was AMAZING and could easily be one of if not the best musical turned into a movie . . . . well at least the first part of a musical at least.   The casting was perfect, the singing amazing and it somehow did not bother me that part 1 of the movie was longer than the entire broadway show.   That is very impressive.  

I would definitely recommend people checking this out.   It was an amazing watch and easily one of the best movies of the year even after all the hype/marketing.  

Gladiator II


Years after witnessing the death of Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Lucius must enter the Colosseum after the powerful emperors of Rome conquer his home. With rage in his heart and the future of the empire at stake, he looks to the past to find the strength and honor needed to return the glory of Rome to its people.

When I first heard about this movie I thought that it was total desperation to go back to the well 25 years later but they actually pulled it off excellently.  They did it in a way that actually made it make sense for the large time gap.  Only two knocks I could make against the movie iis that maybe they should have made Connie NIelson age like a day or so since it's been 24 years.  Also - maybe Denzel Washington could have attempted to try like a slight Roman accent?   Just seemed kind of out of place.  But outside of those two things the story was great, the acting was great (especially the one goofy twin emperor that stole every scene he was in) and the action was awesome.

I would definitely recommend that people check this movie out.  It was a very enjoyable epic movie just like the original.   Very pleasant surprise!

Red One


When a villain kidnaps Santa Claus from the North Pole, an E.L.F. (Extremely Large and Formidable) operative joins forces with the world's most accomplished tracker to find him and save Christmas.

This movie had been slaughtered by critics so I expected it to be completely horrendous.  But it was exactly what it was supposed to be - a Christmas spirit action movie and it was honestly fine for what it was.   The casting was pretty good and the messages that they wanted to send got across.  The action was a little bit much at times but it was a decent watch.

I wouldn't necessarily say it's a must see or that anyone should rush off to see this.  I also wouldn't say that it is horrible and should not be seen.  If you like Christmas movies then check it out.  It definitely is more testosterone filled than usual Christmas movies.

Anora


Anora, a sex worker from Brooklyn, gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.

This was a weird and artsy movie but also a very fun and pretty funny spiraling ride.  Mikey Madison was great.   The continuing turns were great and the random new characters that entered the story were great too.   The movie was a little longer than it needed to be but it was an enjoyable and very profane ride.

I would recommend people checking it out.  It's a very hard R rating because of the sex and nudity but was a great watch.


Heretic


Two young missionaries become ensnared in a deadly game of cat and mouse when they knock on the door of the diabolical Mr. Reed. Trapped in his home, they must turn to their faith if they want to make it out alive.

This movie was boring as hell.  The trailer actually made it look kind of cool and creepy but none of that stuff really happened until the last 20-30 minutes.   Prior to that it was like 90 minutes of religious convos all theological and philosophical.  I nodded off like 4 times trying very hard to stay interested and it just was not happening.  

I would not recommend anyone bothering with this.  Especially not if you were interested in watching based on the trailer.  That was complete false advertising basically.   LOL

Absolution


An ageing gangster tries to reconnect with his family and fix the mistakes from the past, but his criminal lifestyle soon threatens to destroy everything he holds dear.

So it's Liam Neeson playing the same role he has been doing for the last 15 years but with memory loss.   That's it.  Literally nothing else to say about it.

No - I would never recommend people checking this out.  Unless you love Taken 82 - Memory is no longer one of his particular set of skills concept.   

Here


Multiple generations of couples and families inhabit the same home over the course of a century.

Um . . . . .  this was a good premise . . . . . . for like a museum exhibit.   Like the filming of the same room no matter what through all those years and different times/families was a cool idea and I enjoyed the filming style that it created.   But like outside of that it was just a blatant series of heartstring pulls.  Like this would have been a much better 15-20 minute exhibit at a museum but did not remotely have the legs to be a quality movie.

I would not really recommend anyone bothering with this.  It's not bad but it's really not too much more than an interesting filmmaking premise.  Very much lacking substance.