‘Coffee and Kareem’ (2020) Review

'Coffee and Kareem' (2020) Review: Weak Tea. I’ll be honest, I never really gave too much attention to Netflix films. It’s an old fashioned notion, but I could never shake the perception that they were released on streaming services because they weren’t good enough to be released in cinemas. That’s a flawed mentality. Sure there are plenty of mediocre films on Netflix, but there are plenty much worse that make it to the big screen. Take last year’s ‘Stuber’ for example, a movie I wanted desperately to walk out of after the first 15 minutes.I mention ‘Stuber’ because while watching ‘Coffee and Kareem’ I couldn’t help shake that Stuber feeling. It’s got much of that movie’s DNA, an unlikely pair that gets swept up in a high paced action adventure and shoots off bullets and raunchy jokes a mile a minute. When the credits rolled to reveal ‘Stuber’ director Michael Dowse as the director of ‘Coffee and Kareem’, everything came together. Except where ‘Stuber’ fails, ‘Coffee and Kareem’ succeeds.Played by Ed Helms detective Coffee is perhaps the most pathetic cop ever to be seen in a movie. He’s the definition of a buffoon, but he managed to get the interest of Taraji P. Henson’s Vanessa, a fact that doesn’t sit very well with Kareem, Vanessa’s son, played by Terrence Little Gardenhigh. Kareem is just a kid so naturally, he expresses his volatile emotions by acting out. He curses, he’s loud, and he…

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‘The Last Thing He Wanted’ (2020) Review

'The Last Thing He Wanted' (2020) Review: The Long Letdown. As the cinemas continue to be closed and new movie releases remain retired, streaming platforms have had to fill the gap. This week, I caught up with one of the newer Netflix only releases that had everything going for it in terms of cinematic value. A star studded cast, in a political thriller based on a Joan Didion novel, and directed by Dee Rees, the mastermind behind the 2017 hit ‘Mudbound’. Yes you can’t go to the movies, but you can bring the movies to you!At least it seemed that way. Yet watching ‘The Last Thing He Wanted’ may be the last thing you’d want to do as you spend your time at home. As political as this political thriller may be, it’s not the most thrilling film in the world. Most of the film’s 2 hour runtime left me in a disoriented fog as I tried to make sense of the movie’s plot. You follow Anne Hathaway as Elena McMahon, a left wing reporter stuck covering the 1984 Raegan campaign, who has the drive for stories with more weight. When her father becomes too ill to complete a shady assignment to Central America, she fills in his shoes and ends up caught in the midst of the very story she’s dying to tell. Danger at every turn, she journeys on to uncover the details of the plot, despite having multiple opportunities to…

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‘Bloodshot’ (2020) Review

'Bloodshot' (2020) Review: Bloodshot: The Movie: The Video Game. An actor’s association with a part can be so severe, that they cease having a separate identity altogether. Robert Downey Jr may as well be billionaire superhero Tony Stark, and Vin Diesel has been Domonic Toretto for the last 2 decades. There have been other roles here and there, but the most impactful has been a tri-syllabic tree creature. Diesel’s face has no doubt been tied to his Fast and Furious role. So much so that to see him in ‘Bloodshot’ is initially disorienting. A state of mind that persists all throughout the 2 hours of sheer mayhem that is this movie.With its cybernetic soldiers and bullets that seemingly operate through magic, ‘Bloodshot’ may as well be a video game set on auto pilot. At no point is the action supposed to give you a visceral satisfaction. There’s no illusion that these are people in peril as the visual effects are pushed to the limit, delivering impossible sights that fail to resonate. Clearly, director Dave Wilson’s experience as a Visual Effects artist is highly influential. There are even moments the camera lingers to show the process of constructing the imagery in excruciating detail.Diesel is playing Ray Garrison aka Bloodshot, an unstoppable mercenary with nanobots coursing through his veins. He’s bulletproof, super strong, and the perfect soldier. The only thing he’s lacking is charisma. The film gives you a tragic backstory to assign to…

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‘Onward’ (2020) Review

'Onward' (2020) Review: My Magic Brother The world of ‘Onward’ is the familiar mixed with fantasy. On the one hand you have all the usual signs of modern day city living, but on the other, the creatures often seen only in the books of Tolkein. It’s a world where magic once existed, but has been left behind in favour of technology. It’s a fascinating world, one that you see through the eyes of young Ian Lightfoot. A high school kid who’s just turned 16. His birthday gift, with the help of some forgotten magic, is the chance to spend a day with his father, who died when Ian was too young to know him.  The magic doesn’t go well, and Ian ends up with only half the man his father used to be. His lower half to be precise. Unfortunately, the legs and feet of any person don’t make for good conversation. Ian must find a way to restore his father fully, before the spell wears off at sunset. Thankfully, his older brother Barley is a nerd for all things mystical (or in this case history), and takes him on a quest to find the Phoenix Gem.Barley and Ian are played by Chris Pratt and Tom Holland, and initially their performances are what you’d expect. Chris is larger than life and Ian is as nebbish as they come. As the movie goes on, their differences become their strength. With the help of some…

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‘The Invisible Man’ (2020) Review

'The Invisible Man' (2020) Review: A Clear Classic 2018 saw the release of an amazing action film called ‘Upgrade’. Initially I reviewed it as being “some of the most imaginative, fun and wildly expressive” action I’d seen in a long time. Sadly, since ‘Upgrade’ there hasn’t been anything to quite scratch the itch it left behind. There have been superb action movies no doubt, but none that make you question the nature of the filmmaking itself. Thankfully, director Leigh Whannell is back once again making ‘The Invisible Man’, and has cemented himself as one of the most interesting directors working today. From the film’s opening titles you can tell you’re in for something special. Waves crash over a seemingly empty space, only to reveal invisible text as the water trickles over it. From there, we’re introduced to a distressed damsel Cecelia making what is obviously a very methodical escape from an abusive relationship. It’s here that the film introduces you to one of its primary weapons of tension. Silence. With each step Cecelia is in danger of waking her captor. You know nothing about her, but the filmmaking alone makes you root for her survival, and fear for her safety. After that point, the film goes on to show a woman suffering from an extended period of trauma. Elisabeth Moss deserves accolades for her performance. She’s vulnerable, frightened, and at the same time, paints a picture of a person unable to shake the feeling…

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‘Sonic The Hedgehog’ (2020) Review

'Sonic The Hedgehog' (2020) Review: My Friend Sonic Movie trailers are a funny thing. They’re meant to get you hyped, but there’s a balance to making a good one. Show too much and you ruin the movie. Show too little, and there’s nothing to get excited about. Show your character as a mutated freakish version of his beloved design, and you inspire so much outrage that you’ll be forced to set back your release date by 3 months and increase your budget by $5 Million trying to fix a cgi disaster. A bad trailer can literally ruin your film’s chances of success, which has little to no bearing on the quality of the film. Though it can sometimes affect how you see the movie. In the case of Sonic, a part of me always wondered how it would be if we had the narrow eyed, human teethed monstrosity we initally were exposed to. Then again, that’s the same part of me that wishes ‘Sonic The Hedgehog’ was a bad film, worthy of ridicule. Instead, it’s actually a well made children’s film.This being a film about a furry alien with super speed, it’s starts off with a quick paced action scene, abruptly halted by my favourite storytelling device, narration. Ben Schwartz hurls the audience all the way back to the beginning. An adorable baby hedgehog speeds through a realistic rendition of the video game world familiar to fans of the source material. Soon after,…

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‘Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)’ (2020) Review

'Birds Of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)' (2020) Review: The Merc With Make-Up I think Harley Quinn just became my favourite superhero. This isn’t exactly a new development. The character has been a cult favourite since her first appearance on the Batman Animated Series, all the way up to getting her own animated series at the end of the last decade. She was the saving grace of Suicide Squad, even giving Will Smith a run for his money for scene thievery. Now, four years after her debut film, the character takes the reigns all to herself, with ‘Birds of Prey And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn’It’s an arduous title, but one that audiences will be gleeful in repeating. ‘Birds of Prey’ is only an hour and 49 minutes but in that time it establishes itself so strongly. Yet the language of the film is a known one. The movie has the dna of ‘Deadpool’, ‘Scott Pilgrim vs The World’, combined into the mutated one of a kind masterpiece that is ‘Birds of Prey’.This hyper violent, abundantly colourful romp is also the deep and touching story of a woman breaking free of her abuser. Harley Quinn is once again played by Margot Robbie, and instead of pining after the Clown Prince of Crime, she’s having to make a go of it on her own. It’s something that she’s not sure that she can do, nor is the…

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Most Snubbed: 7 Movies I Thought Deserved Oscars (2020) Edition

2019 started out as a less than excellent year for movies. It was a startling surprise when the middle of the year rolled around and ‘Avengers Endgame’ was still in the working top 5 films for listmakers worldwide. Eventually, there came a cavalcade of quality films that created one of the most competitive and consistent collections for a year in a long time.And the Academy still managed to get it wrong.That may be a little underhanded. To be honest the Academy had its work cut out for it this year. And at first glance, the list of film’s assembled as the year’s very best is a film buff’s dream. A comic book movie has been given the most nominations of the night. Scorcese has a near 4 hour crime epic starring, De Niro, Pacino, and Pesci. Quentin Tarantino, Hollywood’s biggest hollywood nerd making a movie about...hollywood. And most importantly, Bong Joon Ho getting the white-spread recognition he’s always deserved. Dig a little deeper though, and there are still some egregious snubs.I write this list every year, so I like to keep an eye out for contenders that I certainly think deserve attention, but are likely to fly under the Academy’s radar. This year, I thought I could’ve given it to Eddie Murphy in Dolemite, Taron Edgerton in ‘Rocketman’, George Mackay for ‘1917’. I really struggled to choose one of them. Then the Academy pulled a fast one on me and made this the…

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‘Dolittle’ (2020) Review

'Dolittle' (2019) Review: Talking To No One 2020 is not even a month in and we already have not only one of the worst movies of the year, but a strong contender for a spot on the worst of decade list. Yet unlike so many films as bad as this one, it seems ‘Dolittle’ is a victim of its own ambition. The casting is inspired, the visual effects impressive, and it’s led by the leading man of the last decade, Iron Man. Everything points to ‘Dolittle’ being a runaway hit. Would that it were so simple. Upon opening, the film shows promise. The tale of Doctor Dolittle and his wife traversing the world unfolds is beautifully simple animation. It’s a touching beginning to what is otherwise a turgid and unmitigated disaster of a film. After a lifetime of adventures, Dolittle became a shut in after the death of his wife, keeping his genius from the world at large. If only his film took the same approach, keeping itself from the viewing public.From that point, Dolittle becomes the target of two persistent children. One, an animal lover bringing an injured squirrel to the good doctor’s attention (Thanks to the guidance of a talking parrot voiced by Emma Thompson who, bless her heart, is giving the performance of a lifetime). The other, the child assitant to a child queen who has suddenly fallen ill, and is resistant to conventional medicine. The only answer is of…

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‘Bad Boys For Life’ (2020) Review

'Bad Boys For Life' (2020) Review: Ride Till I Can't No More In the 25 years it’s existed, I’ve never seen a film from the ‘Bad Boys’ series. If you asked me the names of the characters, I would have said “Fresh Prince & Martin”. Still, even with my limited knowledge, I could tell you of a few iconic moments. The time Mike & Marcus intimidated Marcus’ daughter’s boyfriend, the time they burst into a KKK rally guns blazing, or even the iconic shot of the duo with Martin Lawrence exclaiming the exact moment when things got real. All of these moments I know from ‘Bad Boys’ because whatever you may say about the series, it’s without a doubt iconic, with moments that transcended the cinematic experience and became part of a culture. Like Luke denying Darth Vader’s fatherhood, or Don Corleone making an unrefusable offer. ‘Bad Boys For Life’ knows this, and manages to reference its iconic moments far better than most long awaited sequels. Sequels like this tend to operate under a considerable amount of pressure. Coming back to the franchise the movie has to not only be a loving homage to what came before, but also innovate with new ideas so it doesn’t feel like a rehash. To that end ‘Bad Boys For Life’ is successful. Giving you more than enough that’s new, and organically weaving in the old. Old is the name of the game in this film.…

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