Buddy Review

 

A group of kids realize they are trapped in a 1990s children’s show and must try to escape their seemingly malevolent capture, a giant anthropomorphic talking unicorn. Meanwhile, a suburban mom questions her sanity as she starts to believe she had a third child that everyone has forgotten.

The filmmakers did a great job, not only with recreating the look and tone of a late 90s show, but also with how well they’re able to flip back-and-forth between it feeling wholesome and too uncomfortable to be scary.

Keegan-Michael Key plays Buddy, and he also does a fun job, switching from funny to darkly comedic to very intimidating, almost like from Barney to Robert De Niro in Cape Fear.

I was very impressed with all of the child actors, who all had a great amount of range, going from broad and silly to too intensely scary in a second.

Cristin Milioti plays the suburban mom, and she’s very good at playing unhinged and paranoid but also very sympathetic and really loving at times.

It was nice seeing Topher Grace pop up in this; he plays Milioti’s husband, and he’s good at being funny and snarky, and I thought Grace brought a lot of empathy to the character.

Clint Howard has a small role in the film, and this is one of his weirdest roles I’ve ever seen… And for Clint Howard, that’s really saying something lol, but I have to give him props for committing to a role

I thought the climax felt a little rushed and sort of teased a sequel setting up a sequel, but I thought the very end had a fun Twilight Zone twist ending kind of feel that was simple but very effective.

Buddy is a very different but creative movie that has a lot of creative people working on it in front of and behind the camera that juggles a lot of different tones and a great cast who give strong performances. It's not perfect, but it’s still very good.

I give it four stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️, but before I warned, it does get pretty BUD-arre at points 😂

Coyote vs Acme Review

 

After years of trying to catch the roadrunner and failing due to defective Acme products, Wile E. Coyote sues the Acme corporation with the help of a small claims lawyer (played by Will Forte).

I would describe this film as Who Framed Roger Rabbit meets John Grisham‘s The Firm, but with Looney Tunes characters. Now those projects are three very distinct tones, and I was very impressed with how the movie is able to blend all three pretty seamlessly into a cohesive and enjoyable whole.

Growing up, my two favorite Looney Tunes were the Tasmanian Devil and Wile E. Coyote, so it’s nice to not only see Wile get the spotlight, but also for a character who only talks using signs, the film really nailed his character and added a surprising amount of depth and sympathy for Wile while also feeling true to his original concept of “coyote wants to eat tasty bird." Also, if you were wondering if my other favorite tune makes an appearance, I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll just say… I left the theater happy.

I also appreciated how other popular Looney Tunes characters were worked in; they each played a role in the overall mystery that felt very organic to the story and made good use of their personalities. Also, this isn’t a huge thing, but there is something I’ve always kind of wondered about Granny that this movie finally answered, so I appreciated that.

The CGI in the film is very good; it’s clearly CGI, but the way it’s animated, the cartoon characters feel two-dimensional and tangible in this world, not to mention they make a few deep-cut character callbacks with some of the tunes who show up in the background that I appreciated. Now there are a few shots and a few characters that do look like impressive early PS3 graphics, a little stiff and bulky, not to mention you can clearly tell which characters were created just for this film, but overall it’s not really distracting, and you’re able to stay submerged within the story throughout.

I’ve always felt Foghorn Leghorn is an underrated Looney Tune, so it’s nice to see him in a fun villainous corporate executive role.

I was pleasantly surprised with Will Forte in the movie, not just because he gives a funny and sincere performance, but because growing up, I usually did not care about the human characters in Looney Tunes movies, like I’m there for the Tunes lol, but his story of an underdog, who is scared to try things because he’s scared of losing and how his character's arch ties into Wile and about never giving up, I thought got pretty deep at times, and I never thought I’d say a movie about the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote was “emotionally sincere” lol

John Cena plays Acme’s lawyer Buddy Crane; he is very funny at playing an overly slimy dude, a bro version of a lawyer.

I like how powerful they showed the Rose Runner; like, I’m half convinced he could survive a nuclear explosion lol.

I like and appreciate all the Looney Tunes references throughout the film, like the use of the Looney Tunes theme and naming the lawyers after famous Looney Tunes creators (Avery, Jones & Maltese).

Lana Condor plays Will Forte's niece, and she’s going to film more of a straight man all the whacking around her, but she brings a lot of heart and motivation for the Forte character.

Coyote vs. Acme is my biggest surprise of the year; it takes a premise I’ve seen joked about throughout my life in many forms and makes something pretty unique and heartfelt, without forgetting about the comedy in honoring the characters. I give the film an enthusiastic four stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and like the coyote falling off a cliff. I’m glad this movie is making such a “big bang” with audiences lol

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma Review

 

A filmmaker (Hannah Einbinder) is hired to direct a new installment of the slasher franchise “Camp Miasma" and becomes fixated on casting the actress (Gillian Anderson) who played the final girl in the original film, including staying with her at her house, which is also the lake where they filmed the original movie.

I was really impressed with the style of the film. First of all, the director is great at recreating the look and feel of 80s slasher movies. But also you can tell she had a lot of different visual influences (examples: Wes Anderson, Joel Schumacher, Michel Gondry, and David Lynch), and she’s able to mix all these different styles together without having them contradict each other and make them feel like a cohesive whole.

Speaking of directing, there’s one part where we follow the killer, and it’s completely shot with this interesting close-up shot that I thought was pretty inventive and felt like a cool music video.

Hannah Einbinder was good at playing this dorky doe-eyed director that’s excited about tackling a franchise she loves, and Gillian Anderson brought a lot of charisma and gravitas to her role, not to mention you’re never quite sure if she’s normal or kind of crazy. How Anderson plays with that was pretty convincing and well done.

I was impressed with the world-building and how they set up the fandom and all the different ties to the “Camp Miasma Franchise” (different VHS movies, a tie-in video game, trading cards, a Little Death bobblehead); it felt very authentic to actual slasher movie franchises and got really close to mirroring the Friday the 13th franchise, to the point they’re almost copying the same movie titles and designs for the DVD menus… I’m surprised Sean Cunningham isn't about to sue somebody lol.

Sarah Sherman and Dylan Baker have small roles in the film, and I thought they had pretty funny dialogue and delivery.

The director (Jane Schoenbrun) makes a lot of references to 80s horror movies, and I have to say she has pretty good taste, like she makes some pretty obscure deep cut references that only someone like me would catch, which I appreciated.

The film touches on a lot of different ideas (fandom, nostalgia, sensuality, identity), so many that I wish it had focused on a few of them and had fleshed them out a bit more. Like there’s a somewhat supernatural explanation hinted at to what’s going on, and it’s an interesting concept, but they don’t really explore it as much as you’d hope, and for a film that has so many unique concepts, the actual story and plot are pretty straightforward. It’s still enjoyable and interesting, but I feel like the movie could’ve done more to make it feel even more unique.

Also, at certain points, we just watch characters watch sections of the original Camp Miasma. And like I said, it’s impressive how well they re-create it, and I found those sections enjoyable, but it also doesn’t add as much to the overall story; it could’ve used that screen time to explore some of the things I previously mentioned that could’ve been developed more, but that’s more of a nitpick than anything.

So the main villain and icon of the Camp Miasma franchise is called Little Death, who wears a white hazmat suit and has his big metal contraption on his head that looks like an air conditioner, and they go into Little Death's backstory, and while it’s fine for a slasher icon backstory, from where it ends, they never explain what’s on his head or how we got it in between the end of his origin and him starting slashing people. Again, that doesn’t really take away from the movie, and it’s a nitpick, but it is something I noticed.

Kevin McDonald and Patrick Fischler make cameos in the film, and it’s nice to see them pop up. McDonald brings a nice bit of humor, and Fischler has a nice little homage to his character from Mulholland Drive.

The ending is fine; it could’ve been more interesting, but what we got wasn’t too bad. I’m just sort of a plain regular ending.

Also, I’ve never seen a movie more in love with KFC; like, I half expected the film to be dedicated to Colonel Sanders lol.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised by Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma; it has a lot of love and passion for its subject matter, the actors all do a solid job, and the directing is very unique and creative. The story could’ve been fleshed out a little more, and I have some nits here and there, but if you’re a fan of these kinds of movies, I think you’ll definitely get some kind of enjoyment out of it. I’ll give it a low four stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️; it’s definitely… Cut above a normal slasher. 🩸🪓 😂

The End of Oak Street Review

 

A family from 1982 has their entire neighborhood transported back to prehistoric times, and now they must fight to survive.

The film has great attention to detail re-creating the 1982 aesthetic, both practically with the sets and costume/hairstyles, but the way the camera moves and uses different shots like split diopter or zoom in to convey tension feels very authentic to movies at the time.

The plot is simple: survive and not die, but there are a few quiet moments where we see the characters dealing with their own emotions about the situation, and those were well done.

I like the design of the dinosaurs; they went for a more realistic “closer to birds” look (so they have more feathers and beaks), which gave them a more unique feel, and there were some creatures included besides dinosaurs that not only was I surprised by for real lol, but they definitely helped vary the types of attacks up.

The CGI is very impressive throughout; all the creatures look very realistic and well detailed, but I also appreciated how in a lot of shots you wouldn’t see the whole dinosaur, you’d only see their back scale or tail sticking out; it really added to the mood and feeling that danger could be behind any corner.

The family members are all going through their own bits of life drama, nothing crazy, but just feeling stuck in life or wanting something they don’t have; it never gets to the point where it feels overdramatic or out of place, although there are a few moments where I thought, "Y'all are doing this now? Can you save it until after you’re out of danger of being eaten? lol

I know this isn’t surprising, but Anne Hathaway is very good in the movie lol. She has to portray a lot of different emotions and sometimes has to switch between them in an instant, and she makes them feel very realistic and is able to portray a lot by only doing little facial movements.

Ewan McGregor’s character is very down to earth and likable but also not the smartest tool in the shed and not good at making choices, so there’s definitely some complexity to his character where at some points you like him and at other points you’re like, "Dude, you've got to start thinking more."

Maisy Stella & Christian Convery play the children, and for such young actors, both are very good at conveying complex emotions in a very subtle but realistic/sympathetic way, plus they have a fun chemistry as bantering siblings.

The family also has a dog, and the movie uses the trope of “Oh no, the dog might be in danger; I gotta go out into an area full of danger that I shouldn’t and was told not to make sure he’s OK." Now, that trope can be very hit or miss as far as the character is making dumb decisions based off it, but luckily, this film never gets too ridiculous with it, like at least the characters are smart and cautious when making that decision, and you can see where they’re coming from.

Also, the dog's name is “Starbuck” and is directly named after the character from the 1970s Battlestar Galactica show… It doesn’t affect the movie; I just thought that was kind of cool.

The film mostly focuses on the family, but there are a few supporting characters, who are all pretty good, except there’s one neighbor who’s pretty much just there to be a jerk to an unreasonable amount so later when he gets attacked, you don’t feel bad. This character felt a bit one-dimensional, but I liked the actor, so it wasn’t too bad.

The action was very good; the director was very good at playing with tension, getting cool and dynamic shots during the fighting, and creating some pretty fun and suspenseful chase scenes. Plus, for a PG-13 film, some of the attacks can get pretty crazy, like there was one part that even though I saw the film in an empty theater all by myself, I still said out loud, “Oh God damn," at one point lol.

The music is good; they play a few songs, and the time that we're there is nice to listen to.

The movie isn’t too long and moves along at a nice pace; it’s very efficient with its storytelling, and the explanation of what happened is simple but understandable and doesn’t need a whole lot of explanation.

The very end is a little bit of a mixed bag; they try very hard to tie everything in a nice neat bow, but it raises questions and ideas that they don’t really go into that I wish they had.

The End of Oak Street is a fun summer film with good acting, fun action, and creature designs, not to mention some good twists along the way. I give the films a high three stars; it’s nothing you have to rush out and see, but when you do, I think you’ll enjoy it ⭐️⭐️⭐️. It's quite… Dino-mite! 🦖🦕😂

Spider-Man: Brand New Day Review

 

Following the events of No Way Home & Stephen Strange’s spell, no one can remember Peter Parker, but Spider-Man is a celebrated hero of New York. Now Peter must deal with a body-hopping villain while simultaneously running into his old friend and girlfriend that have both physical and psychological effects on him.

Right off the bat, of all the Tom Holland appearances, I think they really nailed the tone of the character the best here. Some of the most successful Spider-Man stories are about him having heavy responsibility on his shoulders and him trying to find a balance between helping others and his personal life, and his struggles in the film, felt very grounded and had some surprisingly sweet moments.

I think the film has the best web slinging in a Spider-Man film; the swings and camera movements are very kinetic, everything has a great sense of scale and pretty impressive CGI, and they even work in a lot of stunning and clever artistic shots that help convey the characters' emotions in clever ways.

Since 2004, I’ve been waiting for a Spider-Man versus Scorpion fight, and while it might not have been everything I ever hoped for (22 years is a lot of hoping lol), it was still pretty fun to see and had some cool moves and camera work.

Never thought I’d say this, but I think this might be tied with Tobey Maguire‘s outfit as my favorite Spider-Man costume; it’s simple yet distinct and feels like it’s right off the page.

I quite enjoyed the cinematography; the use of dark shadows and contrast to sun-tone lighting really helped make the images pop and gave everything this stylized grounded in gritty look that I’m always happy to see in a Spider-Man project.

The director (Destin Daniel Cretton) brought a lot of creativity and style to the direction but also got very enjoyable and nuanced performances from the actors.

Tramell Tillman as Bill Metzger (the head of damage control) gave a very interesting performance; he seemed both very aloof and very calculating at the same time.

I like how New York City has adopted Spider-Man as their town hero; it helps make the city and its residents feel like their own character.

Liza Colón-Zayas plays Spider-Man police contact detective Jean DeWolff, and she brings a nice down-to-earth vibe to the film, and she and Peter have a fun dynamic.

I quite enjoyed Spider-Man and the Punisher’s dynamic; Jon Bernthal and Tom Holland have a lot of rapport and very good comedic timing when working off each other. I do think the characterization gets a little too mushy towards the end, and there is a bit of plot hole that doesn’t really take away from the movie but when you think about it, it’s like… Oh yeah, that definitely would’ve happened.

Zendaya as Michelle does very good job. Her portrayal of the character as sort of like “Ali Shetty in The Breakfast Club, but with a twisted sense of humor and genius intellect” is makes for some pretty funny moments and layers to her character. Plus obviously her and Tom Holland have some pretty good chemistry

There is a small cameo from another Marvel character; I won’t spoil it, but I thought it was fun, and it’s nice when they show up.

I enjoyed films opening montage of Peter fighting different villains. It’s always nice when you get to see multiple characters show up, and re-creating classic covers was a nice touch. Some of them I wish I’ve been in the movie more, but it was nice they showed up.

Mark Ruffalo plays the Hulk, and I think this is one of his better Bruce Banner performances; he plays the character very reserved, but you can see the gear turning behind his eyes, but the biggest standout… Both literally figuratively is the Hulk scenes, this is classic Hulk that I enjoy and seeing him fight other Marvel characters, (especially some of my favorites) was a real treat

I liked how “Peter’s changing powers” was wolverine into the story, not only because it’s nice and fitting to see Peter do science stuff, but how it was worked in as a metaphor for his emotional journey throughout the film.

Jacob Batalon as Ned Leeds doesn’t get a whole lot to do, but he’s funny when he’s on screen, and he, Tom Holland, and Zendaya all have really natural and nice chemistry together.

I do have some critiques for this movie, my biggest… I did not like the villain, there was some interesting mystery at first, but then when things got revealed about them, it really took most of the tension out of it because I knew there were things that would it would not happen with this character that made the plot very predictable. Plus, and they almost have a complete character personality flip, like when they first show up, they just sound like generic bad guy, but then when we explore their backstory, they feel like a completely different person with different quirks and way of speaking. Not to mention that they did some pretty messed up things, like they got an man hit by a car, that guy might have walking issues, for the rest of his life, but they really gloss by a genericd I’m like “don’t pretend that didn’t happen. I know what happened. I was there. lol”. Plus, it leads into Marvel’s biggest problem, which is they’re inability to focus on the story they’re telling and them trying to insert set up to another project that will come out in 2 to 5 years. And even if it’s setting up something I am looking forward to, I’m not here for that right now, I’m here to enjoy this character and their world and supporting characters because I have to  wait like 2 to 5 years for a Spider-Man movie to come out and I’d rather spend the 2.5 hours I get with Spider-Man then spending almost a 3 setting up the next big project,. It feels like Marvel is constantly opening a bag of chips and then leaving it half eaten and then opening a new one and then you’ll look around and there’s all these half eaten bags of chips lying around, like finish what you’re working on before starting a new one.

One of the most enjoyable parts were the action sequences, with the Hulk and and especially the last big one, the choreography, the way that camera moved, the way it built tension and used it surroundings, it was all top-notch and feels very rewatchable.

Also, there is something that could’ve been fixed by the villain that I’m surprised they didn’t do, but I’m interested to see how it affects things in the sequel.

Also, there is something included in The Hand story that I wish they had elaborated on more to give more context on something, but that’s more of a nitpick.

Overall, this movie really delivered on what I like in a Spider-Man movie and even surprised me in a few places; the filmmaking is top-notch and I like this direction they’re taking the character. I do wish they had gone with a different villain, even though I get what they were going for, and how they worked it in did fit the story they were telling, but I wish they had found another way to tell the story because again the villain just didn’t really work for me, felt very predictable on where the story would go with them, and glossing over a couple of the darker things the character does. That being said, I like Peter Parker‘s personal drama, Spider-Man’s action sequences, the overall tone, vibe, and even the humor. I give Spider-Man brand new day low four stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I think that if Marvel is open to the criticism and does a better villain next time, we may get one of the best Spider-Man movies ever out of it. But what we’ve gotten with Brand New Day is still pretty good.