The Reel World

“Magic mirror on the wall, who's the fairest one of all?”

“My queen, your beauty is beyond compare, but there is one -- her beauty grows -- from deep within ... Snow White. She is as pure as snow.”

Controversy up front, and this film has had it share of it, starting with the casting of titular character. The casting of Rachel Zegler, a Latina actress, as Snow White, drew criticism, as the character is described in the original material as having skin "as white as snow". This is actually not that uncommon for a Disney live-action. I would even dare to call it commonplace. And while I don’t agree with it personally and actually like the idea of these stories evolving and that they are “open to all ethnic groups", I’m just saying that I am not surprised at this criticism. We saw the same thing with the live-action Little Mermaid.

"We share the same world, don't we? This world you would die to save. It's coming. I've seen it in the probability. Seen it plain as day. All you heroes protecting this world. Do you think you're the only ones? Do you think this the only world? We'll see what happens when you have to protect this place from the others."

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is truly at a crossroads. Since the last Avengers film the studio has released one disappointing film after another. The big tentpole stars and characters have been lost along the way, and that star power has seriously damaged the franchise since that time. Certainly there have been some bright spots. Spider-Man No Way Home was the lone exceptional outing, and the recent Deadpool & Wolverine film was just plain fun.  With Robert Downy, Jr.'s Iron Man. Gone. Chris Evans Captain America. Gone. Scarlet Johanson's Black Widow. Gone.

I’ve never been much for Will Ferrell. His brand of comedy never really resonated with me. I always just found it too ridiculous and outlandish.  I suppose You’re Cordially Invited will be the exception to that rule. While the film does play right into Ferrell’s wheelhouse with the over-the-top antics such as wrestling an alligator, it is actually the dynamic, should I say the rivalry, between Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon that is the highlight of the movie. The film is similar to Bride Wars and the Neighbors, which makes a measure of sense as the director of the latter film is actually the director of this film as well. Further aiding the film’s success is that, like Ferrell and Witherspoon, a majority of the cast all have established comedy backgrounds. Joining Ferrell and Witherspoon was Geraldine Viswanathan (Blockers) as Ferrell daughter and one of the brides-to-be, Meredith Hagner (Vacation Friends) as Witherspoon’s sister and the other bride-to-be, Stony Blyden (Hunter Street) as one of the grooms-to-be, and Jimmy Tatro (Home Economics) as the other groom-to-be.

"What F&#k is a shark doing on a plane?" 

You remember Samuel Jackson back a few years was fighting off Snakes On A Plane, yeah? Well, now we've got sharks on a plane. So how in the heck did they do that? Well, it requires going back to the 1970's when Irwin Allen was the master of the disaster film, and he had a legion of followers. Writer Andy Mason and Director Claudio Fah found themselves a TARDIS and took their behinds to those golden days of movie mayhem. If you are willing to totally throw logic out the window and just hang with these guys for about 90 minutes, you'll have a bit of fun, and likely you'll forget it by the next day. I happened to catch the film yesterday, and ... let me see ... Someone was doing something, and there were sharks on an aircraft of some kind. Let me go and watch it again. Hold on ...

With the end of the year upon us, I felt this was the best time to talk about what I feel was the best film of 2024. First I want to start by saying that this hasn’t been my favorite year for cinema, especially when you look at the kind of films you see at award shows, mostly all those films were forgettable and not anything I feel will become cinematic classics. That being said, when it comes to the horror genre, this has been a pretty great year. For a while I would have said Late Night with the Devil was going to be my favorite horror film of the year, but then The Substance came out, and that just floored me, and I’ve kind of become a bit obsessed with the film. It’s the only film this year that has stuck with me for days and just had me wanting to watch it again so I could savor its visuals, whether they be beautiful or grotesque.

" Well, you can forget what you've learned at training college. Because at the end of the day, there's just one thing that matters in this job - a copper's gut." 

Wallace and Gromit is the brainchild of animator Nick Park. The British filmmaker tried for years to bring his clay creations alive, but on his own finished a mere 10 minutes in a little over 2 years. When he met up with Aardman Animations, he was teamed up with the creative talents he needed to make his dream come alive, and come alive these two characters did indeed. They’ve become an overnight sensation in the UK and now all over the world. I was introduced to the characters with the full length feature Wallace And Gromit In The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit. I have to admit that I was completely won over by the magic of this creation. It’s so simple looking that it almost appears to be child’s play. The truth could not be further from the perception. Stop motion animation goes back to the beginning of the cinema itself.

Not sure if this has ever happened to me before: to like the movie adaptation as much as I like the book itself. Naturally much of this feeling is due to the inclusion of Peter Dinklage into the cast of this film, but that said, I found The Thicket to be among my favorite movie adaptations of this year, which is interesting given the amount of creative license taken with the material. Based on the Joe R. Lansdale western novel of the same name,the film follows Jack Parker, a boy who, after his sister is kidnapped by a violent killer known only as Cut Throat Bill, enlists a fierce bounty hunter named Reginald Jones, who becomes the leader of the group of outcasts searching for the stolen girl. Joining Dinklage is Juliette Lewis as Cut Throat Bill, Hanna’s Esmé Creed-Miles as Lula Parker, Jack's sister, and The Old Man’s Gbenga Akinnagbe as Eustace Howard, an ex-slave who assists Jack.

“Killing is bad. Like, unacceptably bad.”

I had such high hopes for this romantic comedy. I didn’t expect that it would raise the level of the genre, but I figured that it would be some lighthearted fun like in The Ugly Truth or Sex Tape. The unfortunate part is that I feel like it had that potential; it just required better story development. A shame; this really could have been a win for Kaley Cuoco. Not that she needs one; of the big three of The Big Bang Theory, I’d say she’s the one with the fullest dance card. It’s like she hasn’t taken a breath since the series ended. But then again one could argue that she’s always been on the go since her days on 8 Simple Rules. Even so, I really wanted to like this film, and while it had a couple of good moments, the lackluster story development really diminished any traction that the film gained.

“This is a game about winning the points that matter. You beating me is a nice story for you to tell people when you're giving them tennis lessons, but I guarantee you the thing they'll all be the most excited about is that you met me at all. They'll ask you what I'm like. They'll ask you if I'm nice. They'll ask you if we were friends. And then they'll ask you how I did it. They'll ask you and you won’t have no $#*%ing clue what to tell them. And even if you did want to know, I couldn't possibly explain it to you in a language you'll understand, because the thing you learn when you've been operating at my level for as long as I have is that it's so $#*%ing lonely to win this much. Nobody gets it. But everyone on Earth gets what it's like to be you.”

So the truth about this film when I learned about it was I knew it was destined to be a movie that my wife would drag me to the theater to see. I’ve never been one for tennis, and while I have a rudimentary understanding of the game’s rules and how it is played, it falls into the same category as golf; it’s just not that exciting a sport for me.

For just about the past decade I feel Samara Weaving has earned the title of scream queen in the horror genre. She may not be a box office name like Jenna Ortega, but I feel Samara Weaving has a more impressive resume of cool and fun horror films, and she just consistently delivers. Ready or Not in a lot of ways is the film that best showcases her talents, and I thought for sure she’d level up to A-list status, but it seems the movie gods have other plans for her. Thankfully she is still cranking out some fun films for genre fans. Azrael is Weaving’s newest dip into the horror genre, a film that was written by Simon Barrett, who previously wrote the horror gems You’re Next and The Guest, and to sweeten this ghoulish cinematic pot, it is directed by E.L. Katz, who directed the 2013 dark comedy Cheap Thrills. Does this all add up to another genre hit, or is this a dud?