Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to make your bed. Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the uncom rom com “The Drama,” the outer space antics of “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” and the singular “Dead Lover.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join CTV NewsChannel’s Scott Hirsch to talk about the uncom rom com “The Drama,” the outer space antics of “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” and the singular “Dead Lover.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I review “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” for ctvnews.ca, the #1 digital news publisher in reach!
“I wasn’t expecting a kid-friendly “Super Mario’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” but the film’s emphasis on eye candy and Easter eggs over detailed storytelling or character arcs lessens the movie’s impact…” Read the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” the sequel to 2023s billion dollar hit “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” Mario, Luigi, Peach, and others go on a journey across cosmic worlds.
CAST: Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, and Kevin Michael Richardson, Benny Safdie, Donald Glover, Issa Rae, Luis Guzmán, Brie Larson. Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic.
REVIEW:
Made with Nintendo fans in mind, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is a visually spectacular, but chaotic theme park-style distraction for aficionados that’s light on story but heavy on action.
The last time around in 2023’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” the evil Koopa king Bowser’s (Jack Black) plan to marry Mushroom Kingdom ruler Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) was thwarted by mustachioed plumbers Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day).
Shrunken down to the size of a small toy by Peach and imprisoned in a jar by Toad (Keegan-Michael Key), Bowser’s reign of terror appears to be over until Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie), the power-hungry heir to the Koopa throne, kidnaps Princess Rosalina (Brie Larson) in a mission to save his father and restore his family’s power. “From the ashes of his father’s defeat rises a new conqueror,” he says. “The Bowser name shall be feared once more!”
To prevent the Bowsers from creating cosmic chaos, the brothers team with Princess Peach, Toad, and a green dinosaur named Yoshi (Donald Glover) on an intergalactic adventure to outwit, outsmart and outplay Bowser Jr.
A blast of colorful pop art adrenalin for Mario enthusiasts, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” blazes through its breakneck 95-minute runtime without ever taking its foot off the gas pedal. Packed with Easter Eggs, unexpected cameos, endless merchandizing opportunities and galactic scale nostalgia, it is so overstuffed there’s barely any room to tell an interesting story.
The previous film grossed $1.36 billion worldwide and is the highest-grossing film based on a video game ever, so a sequel was inevitable, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.
Even when the unnecessary additions are fun, as it is with the introduction of Fox McCloud (Glen Powell) from “Star Fox,” the superfluous stuff doesn’t add much to the overall effect. Less would have been more.
Pratt, as the titular character, leads a high-energy, all-star voice cast including Anya Taylor-Joy (Princess Peach), Charlie Day (Luigi) and Donald Glover (Yoshi) but it’s Jack Black and Benny Safdie as Bowser and Bowser Jr. who steal every scene they appear in.
They stand out in a sea of characters mouthing forgettable dialogue because the father and son duo are given most of the movie’s best lines and share a tender familial connection that brightens up their scenes.
Not that there’s anything dreary about “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.” It all pops. But when there are only peaks and no valleys in the storytelling, it becomes overstimulated; all bang and no buck.
Ultimately, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’s” maximalist approach creates something that feels like a sensory experience, ram packed with IP, rather than a proper movie. I wasn’t expecting a kid friendly “Super Mario’s 2001: A Space Odyssey,” but the film’s emphasis on eye candy and Easter Eggs over detailed storytelling or character arcs lessens the story’s impact.
It’s family entertainment, intended for younger gamers and nostalgic parents, but just because it’s aimed at the whole family doesn’t mean it can’t level up.
I join the CTV NewsChanel to talk about the sci fi action flick “Mercy,” the avian drama of “H is for Hawk” and the thriller “Honey Bunch.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to make the bed! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the sci fi action flick “Mercy,” the avian drama of “H is for Hawk” and the thriller “Honey Bunch.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: Set three years from today, “Mercy,” a new sci fi action film starring Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson, and now playing in theatres, sees Pratt play a detective accused of murdering his wife in a world where his fate will be determined by an AI judge. “The future of law enforcement is Mercy.”
CAST: Chris Pratt, Rebecca Ferguson, Annabelle Wallis, Kali Reis, Rafi Gavron, Chris Sullivan, Kenneth Choi, Kylie Rogers. Directed by Timur Bekmambetov.
REVIEW: A movie about AI that feels as though it was written by AI, “Mercy” is a hacky, old school detective story with a technological twist.
Set in the near future, “Mercy” follows LAPD homicide detective Chris Raven (Chris Pratt) one of the main proponents of a new technology-driven justice system. In a city overrun by crime and civil unrest, the Mercy Program is projected to offer fast, unbiased justice, acting as judge, jury, and executioner to prisoners presumed guilty until proven innocent.
As one of the public faces of the Mercy Program, Raven talks up the IA-based system, braying that the Mercy Capital Court will help clean up the streets. “I am proud to have sent the first suspect for trial here,” Raven says at a press conference. “And I will continue to send more until the message is received.”
The concept is simple. The accused have ninety minutes to present evidence and convince the AI judge (Rebecca Ferguson) of their innocence. If they fail to reach the 92% innocence threshold, they will be immediately executed so the good folks of L.A. County can “sleep at night” secure in the knowledge that they are safe.
Reven is all for it until he is accused of murdering his wife and set to face the judgement of the system he once championed. “I shouldn’t be here,” he says. “I loved my wife. I didn’t kill her.”
An attempt to breathe new life into a detective procedural, “Mercy” earns points for shaking up the genre, but any goodwill that comes along with that soon disappears under a fog of ludicrous twists, central casting characterizations and frenetic headache-inducing visuals.
In a movie filled with dubious storytelling choices, perhaps the biggest is the charisma killing decision to to keep Chris Pratt strapped to a chair for most of the running time. The action happens around him, like he’s sitting on a giant green screen, floating amid the body cam and surveillance footage as he uses his detective skills to prove his innocence. Playing the strapped-in, troubled cop with a dead partner and a drinking problem, doesn’t allow Pratt to use the charm that made him a star.
Ditto Rebecca Ferguson, seen here as though she handed in the head-and-shoulders performance as a digital judge via a Zoom call. She’s meant to be a cold, authoritative figure, void of emotion, and while she pulls it off, the icy demeanor dulls the character’s impact. “I was not designed to feel,” she says, and it shows.
Stranger than the casting decisions is the film’s take on AI. What begins as Hollywood sending the message that the clock is ticking, and if we don’t act AI will kill us—a message embraced by much of the creative community—becomes muddled near the end. No spoilers here, but the film’s point-of-view inexplicably changes from the idea that humanity, though imperfect, is superior to artificial intelligence to something akin to having sympathy for the artificial intelligence. It’s a polarizing topic and the film disappointingly fails to take an interesting or consistent stance on AI’s ethics and impact on the world.
“Mercy” is slick and face-paced but no amount of style and high-octane imagery can disguise the film’s fatal flaws.
I joined BNN Bloomberg to talk about the weakest Memorial Day long weekend in nearly three decades.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
LOGLINE: Lasagna-loving, comic-strip cat Garfield returns to the big screen with a new voice, courtesy of Chris Pratt, and a new adventure. After being abandoned by his street cat father Vic (Samuel L. Jackson) as a kitten, the orange tabby leads a life of leisure with easy-going Jon (Nicholas Hoult) and canine best friend Odie. When Vic reappears, Garfield and Odie leave the lasagna behind to embark on a risky, high-stakes heist.
CAST: Chris Pratt, Samuel L. Jackson, Hannah Waddingham, Ving Rhames, Nicholas Hoult, Cecily Strong, Harvey Guillén, Brett Goldstein, Bowen Yang, Snoop Dogg.
REVIEW: “The Garfield Movie” is a big, action-packed (and product placement heavy) movie that doesn’t really feel like a Garfield movie. It’s a big, colorful action-adventure that will entertain kids, make their eyeballs spin and inspire a giggle or three, but the essence of the character, the sardonic, lazy cat with an obsession for sleeping, has been set aside in favor of a lively, fun character who has little to do with what made the comic-strip popular in the first place.
The new Garfield loses the simplicity of the strip, instead, filling the screen with rapid fire gags and frenetic action. The animation, which feels like a cross between computer generated and the comic-strip, offers up expressive character faces and fun voice work, particularly from Waddingham, who takes a generic villain character and gives her some oomph.
Aside from the father-and-son story, which touches on the importance of family, screenwriters Paul A. Kaplan, Mark Torgove and David Reynolds keep it simple, sentimental and predictable.
“The Garfield Movie” will likely have little appeal for anyone over the age of 10, but has a silly sense of mischief that the younger members of the family may enjoy.
