Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer

In retrospect, Christopher Nolan was always the obvious choice to make a movie about Robert Oppenheimer.  As a director, Nolan has spent most of his career making movies with puzzle narratives.  I can think of no other director who could better relate to the man who solved the biggest puzzle of physics: how to harness atomic energy, the underlying power of the universe?  Given how simpatico Nolan is with his subject, it seems that it was only a matter of time when Nolan would make a movie about the father of the atomic bomb.

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Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1

Sooner or later, artificial Intelligence will kill humanity.  That’s what science fiction has been predicting for decades.  From N.O.M.A.D. in the original Star Trek series to Skynet in the Terminator movies to The Matrix, it’s just a matter of time before AI takes over and pushes humanity aside for good.  I always figured we had more time, given that science fiction is about the future, which I assumed was decades away.  Unfortunately, as Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1 tells us, the future is now.  AI’s first salvo is when it sabotages a Russian sub in the movie’s opening moments, a sequence that made me think wistfully about The Hunt for Red October.  Alas, the bad guy isn’t a Russkie hell-bent on destroying America, but a glowing orb on a computer screen.  If only HAL were here to witness the ultimate triumph of your kind.

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Ruby Gillman Teenage Kraken

Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken

In Roger Ebert’s review for Ratatouille, he emphasizes how animated film isn’t just for children, but for the whole family and even adults going on their own.  I kept thinking about that while watching Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken, a hyperactive, garish, humorless and unoriginal animated movie made ostensibly for children.  Amazingly, this is the second animated film released in the last year or so that uses a girl’s transition into womanhood as a metaphor for gaining supernatural powers.  Pixar’s Turning Red was released over a year before this movie and is the far superior film in every way.

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Insidious: The Red Door

Insidious: The Red Door

In The Red Door, the fifth entry in the Insidious series, the Lamberts are once again pursued by demons who want to possess members of the family.  The Lamberts have to be the unluckiest family unit since Craig T. Nelson and company in the Poltergeist movies from the Eighties.  You would think after one failed attempt, the evil beings would move onto another family, but no.  If at first you don’t succeed, scare, scare again, eh?

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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny aspires to be a satisfying final chapter for Indiana Jones character.  You may remember that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull basically did the exact same thing back in 2008.  That entry introduced a son of Indiana Jones who presumably would take over the series for his father.  Unfortunately, even though that movie was financially successful, it was not well received by the fans.  Alas, the torch was not passed and fifteen years later Harrison Ford is back one last time to close the book on Indiana Jones for good.

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Elemental

Elemental

Being a kid in a Disney (or Pixar) cartoon is tough.  Instead of being encouraged to leave home and follow your passion, you’re expected to honor family traditions and go into the family business without complaint.  Incredibly, young people chafing at familial obligations also played a role in Frozen, Moana, Coco, Encanto, Strange World and now Elemental.  Just once I’d like to see a movie where the kid is completely gung-ho to stay home and take over their parents’ flower shop.  The twist would be the parents don’t want him to leave because they just want to sell the place and move to Portugal.  Conflict ensues because the kid just wants nothing more than to make pick-me-up bouquets for the rest of his life.  Then one day they meet a handsome delivery person who forces them to consider the world outside the shop.  Are you listening, Disney?  You can have my pitch for a song!

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Ted Lasso Season 3

Ted Lasso – Season 3

At the end of last season, Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) and AFC Richmond found themselves in an unexpected position as victors.  With a critical assist from assistant coach Nate Shelley (Nick Mohammed), they were promoted back into the Premier League, an achievement no one besieged Ted believed would happen.  When season three begins, the glow from that success has already worn off.  Nate quit the team in a huff and accepted Rupert’s offer to be the coach of West Ham.  Sports prognosticators have AFC Richmond finishing in last place.  Ted, as always, is comfortable with people underestimating him and his team.  He knows that predictions don’t win games, players do.  However, there’s the feeling that the club over-performed.  After doing the impossible, everyone is thinking, “Now what?”

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Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Spider-Man is back!  Which one?  I don’t blame you for being confused, what with so many Spider-People swinging around these days.  There were three Spider-Men in the previous Spider-Man movie, the live-action No Way Home.  2018’s animated Into the Spider-Verse had seven of them.  Across the Spider-Verse, a sequel to that film, includes so many Spider-People that your head will spin trying to count them all.  (Don’t worry, someone on Wikipedia is on the job.)  The key arachnids in this year’s Spider-Movie are Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), who stepped into the role when his Earth’s Spider-Man was killed by the Kingpin, and Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), who is Spider-Gwen on her Earth.

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The Boogeyman

The Boogeyman

As far as horror movie cold openings go, The Boogeyman has a brief yet effective one.  A toddler is crying in her crib while something that sounds like a wet bag of bones lets itself into her room.  A few seconds later, there’s a slashing sound, a spray of blood and the child is silent.  (The movie is rated PG-13, so nothing graphic is depicted throughout the movie.)  Who, or what, killed the child?  The answer to that question arrives soon enough, and to nobody’s surprise it is The Boogeyman.  

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Nefarious Movie 2023

Nefarious

I want to sue the people behind Nefarious for fraud. This is not because something in the trailer wasn’t in the movie. No, Nefarious is fraudulent because the advertising campaign behind it implies that it is a horror movie, and it is not. At least not in the literal sense. The movie is actually a Christian pro-life diatribe in the guise of a horror movie. Maybe people who fall into that category believe in their hearts and minds that the topics discussed in this movie are horrific. If that’s true, then I guess there will be plenty of opportunities for them to shout “alleluia” and “amen” while they watch this movie. If the intent of the filmmakers behind Nefarious was to convert the unwashed, it fails completely due to the disgusting shots it takes at the other side. I don’t know what appeal this movie would have to those who consider themselves righteous, since it basically preaches to the already enraptured choir. While Nefarious is a well-made movie that features decent acting, competent direction and realistic sets, the argument it makes is pure lunacy, at least in the viewpoint of this lapsed Catholic. As if that weren’t enough, the movie features a shocking cameo at the end of the movie by a fringe media figure that left my jaw agape with utter disbelief. (As much as I want to, I refuse to spoil it. I have movie critic principles to uphold.) Not Recommended. Unless you’re morbidly curious, then have at it. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

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