On the Count of Three

On the Count of Three is a 2021 black comedy-drama film, directed by Jerrod Carmichael, from a screenplay by Ari Katcher and Ryan Welch. The film had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival on January 29th, 2021. Annapurna Pictures and MGM's Orion Pictures acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film, which will be released through their joint venture, United Artists Releasing.

Val and Kevin, two chronically depressed best friends, make a pact to end each other’s life when the day is done. But as the two spend the day wrapping up their affairs, the volatile Kevin’s need to confront his trauma sends their orderly plan spiraling out of control.

The cast includes Jerrod Carmichael, Christopher Abbott, Tiffany Haddish, J. B. Smoove, Lavell Crawford, and Henry Winkler.

On the Count of Three made its debut on May 13th, 2022, in select theaters and VOD.

THE GOOD

As soon as the trailer dropped for On the Count of Three I was intrigued. It had the indie feel that always gets my attention, but it also felt like something different which I always welcome as well. It didn’t hurt that they did such a great job with the trailer which I did end up watching multiple times. I had seen Carmichael over the years in small roles, but the initial sell for me was my guy Christopher Abbott, who has come a long way since his role as the pushover boyfriend on the HBO series Girls. I wasn’t able to catch it during its initial limited release, but once it was available to stream on Hulu I was all over it. So, is On the Count of Three worth a watch? Keep reading to find out!

I genuinely enjoyed On the Count of Three, and I thought it was very well done from top to bottom. I’m not surprised in the least that it made such an impact as the Sundance Film Festival. It is one of those movies that when it ends, you find yourself sort of aimlessly staring at the end credits as you try and process what you just experienced. The screenplay is amazing, but for me, the performances undoubtedly steal the show. Jerrod Carmichael and Christopher Abbott have a certain chemistry rarely seen on-screen, especially when it is crucial that the actors come across as genuine otherwise the story falls apart. I thought both delivered masterful performances, but I would give a slight nod to Abbott’s performance considering his character had a bit more depth and you bought into his lifetime of struggle and heartache. It was incredible how fast he could go from calmly chatting with someone to a man who has been pushed to his limit one too many times.

Carmichael plays a complex character who is slightly more in touch with reality compared to his friend, allowing him the opportunity to be the voice of reason when necessary. I enjoyed having the opportunity to learn more about why he felt so hopeless, and I thought Carmichael was able to give the character a very real and relatable on-screen presence. Henry Winkler is fantastic as always in a supporting role, and we even get a brief but great supporting role from Tiffany Haddish. Oh, and J.B. Smoove was a welcomed addition in a rare dramatic role. I’m not sure if On the Count of Three received enough time in theaters to be considered come awards time, but Carmichael and Abbott absolutely deserve recognition for their performances here.

I touched on it briefly, but the screenplay for On the Count of Three courtesy of Ari Katcher and Ryan Welch, was great. Now first and foremost, it can be quite a challenge dealing with such a difficult subject matter. The margin for error is minimal, because once you make the decision to go this route, you can’t afford to screw it up because not only will you end up with a poorly received movie, you will anger and potentially trigger those especially sensitive to the subject matter. I thought they toed the line extremely well, and even though they didn’t shy away from the dark reality of depression and suicide, we were allowed the opportunity to see both sides of the coin. I felt like the story was fairly straight forward yet still complex, adding thought provoking elements for viewers to ponder well after finishing the film. The screenplay is centered on the two main characters and their character development, and I thought it all came together really well and added crucial substance to the story. By the end of the film, I felt personally invested in both characters and I was genuinely on the edge of my seat waiting to see how the story ends.

I have to talk about the technical elements of the film and give a huge shoutout to Jerrod Carmichael in what I feel was a very impressive directorial debut. From the creative camera angles to a raw and immersive shooting style, the guy is definitely talented. I was hoping On the Count of Three stayed true to that indie feel I love so much and it did not disappoint. Even though the driving force for the film is the acting and the dialogue, I loved the soundtrack and the score which I felt helped to add another layer to the film. I mean, Papa Roach’s ‘Last Resort’ really takes me back to my pre-high school days. Even the cinematography helped to drive the immersive element of the film making viewers feel like they are living this last day right along with the characters.

THE BAD

The bottom line, On the Count of Three, is not for everyone, but I am also hard pressed to criticize with the positives far outweighing the negatives. In many ways, this film is very difficult to watch, especially for people who have been personally impacted by depression or suicide. I am a firm believer that the best way to spread awareness is to dive into and shine a light on an issue, but that doesn’t make the experience any easier. Throughout the film the cast talks in depth about why suicide is the answer, and often carries a feeling of hopelessness. More than anything else, I want to make sure the film has a strong disclaimer for people who struggle with or have been impacted by depression and suicide. If you are looking for an easy watch with some funny moments, you may want to sit this one out. Considered a dark comedy-drama, On the Count of Three is probably 85% drama and does not pull any punches. You could argue that the overall tone of the film felt off at times throughout the film, but it was minimal in my opinion, and never took away from the overall experience.

THE VERDICT

A raw, hard-hitting, and painfully authentic look at an extremely difficult subject matter, On the Count of Three takes viewers on a unique and engaging journey while serving as an impressive debut for director and star Jerrod Carmichael. I had high expectations for this movie and it did not disappoint. The performances from Carmichael and Christopher Abbott are just so good, and even though Abbott has been in his fair share of films and television roles, I will be hard pressed to see him as anything other than this character, at least for a while. That’s just a testament to how invested he was in this role. As I mentioned the film is not easy to watch, but the authentic and real-world feel is part of the allure in my opinion.

Bottom line, On the Count of Three will stick with you, no question about it. And as far as dark comedies go, this is top-tier. I was engaged from start to finish, and I really liked how they ended the film although it did leave me with a few questions. Hopefully, I can convince Andrew to check this out sooner than later so we can break it down a bit. If you fancy yourself a well-done indie that will leave an impression on you, On the Count of Three is absolutely worth your time. I can’t wait to see what Carmichael does next.

TED TAKES RATING - 8.9/10

On the Count of Three is now streaming on Hulu. Check out the latest trailer below.

Thirteen Lives

By: Andrew Wing

Thirteen Lives is a 2022 American biographical survival film directed and produced by Ron Howard (Apollo 13, Solo: A Star Wars Story), from a screenplay written by William Nicholson (Gladiator, Unbroken). The film stars Viggo Mortensen (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Green Book), Colin Farrell (In Bruges, The Lobster), Joel Edgerton (The Gift, The King), and Tom Bateman (Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile).

The film is based on the true story of the Tham Luang cave rescue where in June and July 2018, a junior association football team of twelve members, aged eleven to sixteen, and their 25-year-old assistant coach who entered the cave on June 23 after a football practice session, were rescued from the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Chiang Rai Province in northern Thailand.

Thirteen Lives was released in select theaters on July 29, 2022, by United Artists Releasing, and began streaming on Prime Video on August 5, 2022.

THE GOOD

While I was clearly living under a rock back in 2018 as I don’t remember ever hearing about this, I was still excited to check out this movie. One reason is the fact that I actually first learned about this amazing true story after watching the National Geographic documentary film last year by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (Free Solo) which follows the Tham Luang cave rescue. And the second reason for my excitement about this film was some of the names attached. From Ron Howard in the director’s chair to two of the best actors of the 21st century in Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell, I couldn’t wait to check this out once it came to Prime Video. So without further ado, were the big names attached enough to make for a solid survival film? Keep reading to find out!

Before I begin getting into the review, I just need to first start by saying this story is truly incredible. It’s so good and it’s extremely compelling, and after watching this movie, I have no idea how everyone did what they did and saved all of those kids. But now to start the review, let’s touch on some of the big names I previously mentioned, and I’ll start with Ron Howard. Howard is a solid director who has made some pretty good movies, and while I’ll talk more about how he decided to tell this story later in the review, I commend him for just being able to pull this off. This must’ve been a rigorous shoot and just a difficult production process, but he somehow not only made a solid survival film, but he also told a story that needed to be told on the biggest screen possible so props to that.

Now onto the other big names who were responsible for the best performances we got in Thirteen Lives in Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell. Neither of these performances will land in the top five of their careers when it’s all said and done because of how their characters were written, but I still found both performances to be really good. Mortensen was great as he played this I-don’t-believe-in-luck negative nancy Richard Stanton and Farrell was equally as good as he played the more hopeful and positive John Volanthen. I don’t know what more there is to say, but these guys are good at their jobs and they made these guys look like the heroes they truly are.

Aside from them, I really liked all of the supporting performances we got in this. First, with Joel Edgerton, I am a huge fan of his and while he didn’t get a ton of screen time here as he comes in about halfway through, I still thought he did Richard Harris a great service. I also liked Tom Bateman as Chris Jewell and Paul Gleeson as Jason Mallinson, and I won’t name them all, but all of the actors who played those trapped in the cave and their family members were very good and I believed all of the emotions they were going through during what I can only imagine was an unbearable time in their lives.

Also, the cinematography was excellent here. It was completely shot on location in northern Thailand and it really gave me the sense that I was there. The movie was really at its best as we were going through the caves underwater in the murky water and I think a big reason why is simply because of how those were shot. And after doing some digging I wasn’t surprised that it was because it was done by the same guy who shot both Call Me by Your Name (2017) and Suspiria (2018), and that would be Sayombhu Mukdeeprom. All in all, the cinematography just made me feel extremely claustrophobic, which is something I already am via self-diagnosis, and it was just so well done.

In conclusion, the score from Benjamin Wallfisch here was awesome and it added to the feeling I had throughout the entire film. Maybe I’m biased too because Wallfisch actually, along with the legend Hans Zimmer, composed original scores for one of my all-time favorite films in Blade Runner 2049. Some of the other technical elements were fantastic here too, from the sound design to the underwater effects which provided an incredibly visceral experience. Lastly, I just thought this movie was fantastically well crafted.

THE BAD

One of my big problems with Thirteen Lives is just the fact that it was just told in a really straightforward way and it came across as disappointingly straightforward to be completely honest. Now it’s tough for a director like Ron Howard because while you want to make an entertaining film, you still need to stay true to the true story you’re telling, but as a viewer, I just needed more out of this. I don’t know, I’m sure the release of the documentary last year, which is a better overall film, didn’t help but nevertheless I was a little disappointed.

Continuing with the way this story was told, I really had a problem with William Nicholson’s screenplay. Now I already mentioned how I liked both Mortensen and Farrell’s performances in the lead roles, but their characters were still so thinly written and it really hurt the film overall. There was just so much more we could have got from them and it was just a shame to see such talent wasted like that.

And I’d say what makes that last critique I made more annoying is the fact that this movie was two and a half hours long. Now that’s a really long runtime, and I think it was too long, but that runtime just could’ve been used so much better if they did more with Mortensen and Farrell’s characters. Let us know more about what’s going on in their personal lives, give them a character arc, or any kind of motivation, but those in charge didn’t and it resulted in a movie that started off strong but slowly became very dull.

And to shut the door on this review, if you’re claustrophobic and watching people go through narrow tight caves underwater freaks you out, let it be stated that this movie might not be for you because there are plenty of those scenes.

THE VERDICT

Despite good performances from Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell and some amazing cinematography, Thirteen Lives is nothing more than a decently serviceable dramatization of what is a fascinating and inspiring true story.

I just wanted more from what we got from both Ron Howard’s direction and William Nicholson’s screenplay, and the film is done no favors thanks to a long runtime and a superior film, The Rescue, coming out a year prior.

TED TAKES RATING - 6.9/10

Thirteen Lives is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Check out the latest trailer below.

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday is a 2022 comedy film directed by Jay Chandrasekhar, and written by Ken Cheng and Kate Angelo, from a story by Cheng. Chandrasekhar previously directed Super Troopers (2001), and The Dukes of Hazard (2005).

Jo Koy stars as a struggling actor, comedian, and single father who attends a gathering of his loud and dysfunctional Filipino American family on Easter Sunday.

The cast includes Jo Koy, Jimmy O. Yang, Tia Carrere, Brandon Wardell, Eva Noblezada, Lydia Gaston, Asif Ali, Rodney To, Eugene Cordero, Jay Chandrasekhar, Tiffany Haddish, and Lou Diamond Phillips.

Easter Sunday was released only in theaters on August 5th, courtesy of Universal Pictures.

THE GOOD

To be honest, Easter Sunday wasn’t even on my radar prior to seeing the trailer in theaters a few months ago, and I also wasn’t all that familiar with Jo Koy as a stand-up comedian. Nonetheless, as a guy who loves a good comedy, the trailer had me intrigued and wanting to know more. I did a bit of research and learned that the screenplay was loosely based on Koy’s life and struggles as he built a successful career. I also can’t pass up an opportunity to see my guy Lou Diamond Phillips, who starred alongside Mark Wahlberg in The Big Hit back in 1998, in another movie. So, was it worth a trip to the theater? Keep reading to find out!

I would say the answer is yes, but I do say that with some hesitation which I will touch on later in the review. Easter Sunday packs lots of laughs, some great characters, and more than anything else it kept me entertained. I really liked the genuine feel of getting together with family during the holidays, and the spectacle that comes along with it. I can certainly relate to what it is like to have a dysfunctional and very difficult-to-please family, so I was able to connect to the script and the overall feel. The plot was simple but effective and watching all of these charismatic characters with big personalities interact while trying to make it to Easter dinner was fun. I also really liked learning more about Filipino American families. At the root of the story, Easter Sunday is about doing everything you can to make it in life while feeling the immense pressure of seemingly unreachable expectations, and I felt like they got it right.

Overall, the cast for Easter Sunday was great and without a doubt the driving force for the film. Jo Koy leads the way and sets the tone as he gets by far the most screen-time. As I briefly discussed in the introduction I wasn’t all that familiar with Koy prior to seeing this film, but I love his energy. It is clear from the start that the entire supporting cast feeds off his energy. I can’t really decide on who I liked most in the supporting roles, but with Easter Sunday, it really is more of a group effort as they wanted to make the big dysfunctional family believable. I did also really enjoy Lydia Gaston as Koy’s strong-willed and very old-school mother.

Rodney To played such a unique and over-the-top role as Koy’s uncle, but I thought he was hilarious. I also liked Eugene Cordero as Koy’s troublemaking cousin. Actress Tiffany Haddish, who is a favorite of mine, adds some comedic relief in a sort of SNL-type role. I also have to give a shout-out to veteran actor Lou Diamond Phillips, who plays a very funny fictionalized version of himself. And lastly, even though he plays a small but important role, I love seeing Silicon Valley star Jimmy O. Yang in pretty much any role he plays. The guy just cracks me up.

Director Jay Chandrasekhar, widely known for directing and starring in comedy cult classics like Super Troopers (2001) and Beer Fest (2006), is once again a swiss army knife on Easter Sunday. I thought he was great behind the camera, making viewers feel like they were right there with the cast in sunny California. He also plays Koy’s agent Nick, which was a ridiculous yet hilarious role. Chandrasekhar, who played Thorny in Super Troopers, has an infectious on-screen presence no matter how over-the-top his character is.

THE BAD

Easter Sunday was a very funny and overall enjoyable movie, but it did leave a great deal on the table. I won’t dive in too much as the film itself has a fairly straightforward concept, but it still struggled with figuring out and sticking with an identity. I can’t say whether the issues are more with the writing or the acting, or likely a combination of the two, but the emotional element of the film fell flat for me. I mean sure, this is a comedy through and through and I wasn’t expecting an elaborate storyline, but the final act of the film attempted unsuccessfully to get viewers to feel something. I personally thought it all felt very forced, and they would have been better suited to sticking to the primary comedic element of the film. Now, this isn’t a deal breaker by any means, it just keeps Easter Sunday from making as big of an impression as it could have. Plus, I won’t name any names but a few of the supporting cast members left something to be desired as far as their acting talent.

THE VERDICT

A dysfunctional family comedy that shines a light on the humble beginnings of talented stand-up comic Jo Koy, Easter Sunday certainly missed some opportunities but still provides lots of laughs and good old-fashioned entertainment. I had fun with this movie and genuinely enjoyed all of the characters who are the heart and soul of the story. As I talked about I do think quite a few jokes missed the mark, the writing had issues, and sometimes the cast struggled, but with all that being said I have no problem recommending Easter Sunday, especially for Jo Koy fans.

TED TAKES RATING - 6.7/10

Easter Sunday is now playing only in theaters. Check out the latest trailer below.

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

By: Andrew Wing

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is a 2021 American mockumentary film directed by Dean Fleischer Camp (in his feature directorial debut), who co-wrote the screenplay with Jenny Slate (Bob’s Burgers, Parks and Recreation) and Nick Paley. It is based on a series of shorts of the same name written by Slate and Fleischer Camp.

Slate reprises her voice role as Marcel, an anthropomorphic shell living with his grandmother Connie. Fleischer Camp, Rosa Salazar (Bird Box, Alita: Battle Angel), Thomas Mann (Project X, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), and Isabella Rossellini (Blue Velvet, Death Becomes Her) also star.

The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on September 3, 2021, and began a limited release in the United States on June 24, 2022, before its wide release on July 15, by A24.

THE GOOD

Words can’t describe how happy I am to be writing this review. Ever since I saw the original trailer for Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, I was immediately hooked. It was just oozing out with that famous A24 vibe that I love so much, and while I had never heard or seen the series of shorts of the same name before that apparently came out on YouTube in the early 2010s, I was still pumped to check this out. Unfortunately though, due to the small size of the film and just its odd premise that certainly wasn’t going to get a lot of people in the seats, I had to wait quite a while before it hit a theater near me, but nevertheless, it did and I was not going to miss my chance to check this out. So without further ado, was this another in the long line of great strange A24 movies, or was this one just too strange to make for a quality film? Keep reading to find out!

I won’t keep you waiting, this was most certainly another quality film from A24. This movie comes to us from Dean Fleischer Camp, and as previously mentioned, he came to national fame after he made the series of shorts that starred the same character that became viral back in 2011. And let me just say this to get the ball rolling, Dean Fleischer Camp is a very talented filmmaker with a unique style. Let’s be real, who thinks of something like this? A talking shell named Marcel? I mean come on! But despite the film’s never-before-seen kind of premise, the movie just worked.

I loved how Dean Fleischer Camp directed this film so much with its mockumentary style and the stop-motion characters. And I will touch on some of the more technical elements later in the review, but his screenplay here was amazing. Sure it’s a thin and simple screenplay, and while that might’ve been a detriment to some, I just thought the story we were told here was extremely sweet and it also had a great message. It just had so much charm and I fell in love with Marcel. I mean the cuteness alone of the character he created will be able to hold the entire movie together for some people. At the end of the day, I was just so impressed with what we got from Fleischer Camp and I’m so curious to see what he does next if anything at all because this was his passion project for sure.

Going off the screenplay, this movie was really funny too. There were a lot of good jokes, and running bits and the movie just had its own sense of humor. The delivery of the dialogue was amazing and the person who did that the best was undoubtedly the voice actor behind Marcel the Shell, Jenny Slate. I recently reviewed Slate’s other film that came out this year in I Want You Back (see my full review here), which I really enjoyed thanks in large part to Slate’s performance and she did it again here. She just brought this character to life in the warmest way possible. Call me crazy, but I really think years from now it could be looked back on as one of the better vocal performances ever because every word that came out of her mouth just made this one of the most endearing characters we’ve ever seen on screen. Maybe it was her improvising or it was included in the script, but there were so many ‘ums’ and other stutters that Marcel did throughout that just added to that level of charm I’ve mentioned now a couple of times.

Now onto the technical elements of this movie that I was blown away by. First with the stop-motion animation which I thought was incredible. I have no idea how they did it, but I will just say it blew my socks off and all the shells looked legitimately real and I hope they get awarded for it. Also, I thought the score we got here from Disasterpeace was really great! It blends in so well that at first I didn’t even notice it but the farther into the movie I got the more I paid attention to it and it just fit the film perfectly. And lastly, the way this film was shot was just flawless in my opinion thanks to the cinematographer Bianca Cline. The way it was shot made the house that it takes place in feel really huge, wondrous, and just big, and I thought that was so smart so we as an audience could try and put ourselves in Marcel’s shoes.

THE BAD

Spoiler alert, I really liked Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. However, to put it in simplest terms, this movie just might not work for everyone. I thought it was charming, super cute, and funny, and that made the film worthwhile for me. However, some people may need more than just those things I just mentioned. Another area of critique could be that the movie was incredibly predictable because once you learn the plot, you just know where this character is going to end up and how the film was going to end. For me though, that really didn’t take away too much from the movie for me as I still had a really good time with it.

Lastly, and this is less of a critique, but more just something I thought could’ve brought this film to the next level, and it deals with Dean Fleischer Camp. So Fleischer Camp not only wrote and directed this, but he also acts in the movie as he is the one that’s filming Marcel in this mockumentary-style movie. And to tell you the truth, I was just so interested in his character if I can even call him that, that I wanted more from him. In the third act we definitely sort of see the camera flip on him and I really liked when that happened, but it sort of didn’t go there fully and I just thought it could’ve gone a little further.

THE VERDICT

Thanks to an amazing voice performance from Jenny Slate that created one of the cutest and most endearing characters I have ever seen on the big screen, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On was remarkable and one of the most charming movies I’ve seen in quite a while.

Slate definitely stole the show, but the stop-motion animation here was fascinating too. And as for the director Dean Fleischer Camp, I thought he crushed it in his feature directorial debut. The story we got here was very simple and cute, but still I was emotionally pulled into it and I loved the lesson the film taught. It’s truly a movie meant for audiences of any age range to enjoy.

TED TAKES RATING - 8.9/10

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is now playing in select theaters. Check out the latest trailer below.

Bullet Train

Bullet Train is a 2022 action comedy directed by David Leitch, from a screenplay by Zak Olkewicz. Leitch, the accomplished stunt coordinator turned director, has proven himself in the action comedy genre with films like Deadpool 2 and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw. The film is based on the novel Maria Beetle (published in English as Bullet Train) by Kōtarō Isaka.

Ladybug is an unlucky assassin who's determined to do his job peacefully after one too many gigs has gone off the rails. Fate, however, may have other plans as his latest mission puts him on a collision course with lethal adversaries from around the globe -- all with connected yet conflicting objectives -- on the world's fastest train.

The cast includes Brad Pitt, Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Michael Shannon, Benito "Bad Bunny" Ocasio, and Zazie Beetz.

Bullet Train made its theatrical debut on August 5th, courtesy of Sony Pictures Releasing.

THE GOOD

Bullet Train is one of those movies that when you see the trailer, your immediate reaction is fu#k yeah I’m seeing that movie! At least that was my experience. Everything about the trailer was exciting and just had that needs to be seen in the movie theater feel, which always gets my blood pumping. My immediate impression of Bullet Train after seeing the trailer was that it reminded me of another bonkers action thriller from 2006 called Smokin’ Aces, written and directed by Joe Carnahan. But did the film live up to the trailer? Keep reading to find out!

I went into the movie theater with what I would consider being high yet somehow measured expectations, mainly because I knew what to expect from the genre and I also knew the screenplay would get a little crazy. But man did I have a blast with Bullet Train, it was just so much fun from start to finish. When you have a talented stunt coordinator in David Leitch who finds his way into the director’s chair, you know things are about to be lit. I talked a bit about his previous films, but man does he have a certain style and just a propensity for well-choreographed fight scenes and as much violence as you can fit on the screen. Bullet Train is extremely over the top and oftentimes borderline corny.

Still, for me, it all worked so damn well mainly because of Leitch’s direction and his ability to have an identity from the start, and his ability to stay on the path. From the action to the story to the dialogue, everything comes at you 1000 miles an hour and you can rest assured you will never be bored during this movie. I loved how we were treated to a ton of great flashbacks as far as how the story all came together which serves as the origin stories for the characters in a way. I also thought considering the premise and just how whacky the movie is, it actually found a way to sneak a bit of heart in there towards the end which I certainly appreciated.

Touching on the screenplay a bit more, Zak Olkewicz did a stellar job adapting the story from Kôtarô Isaka’s book. Olkewicz wrote the screenplay for the 2021 Netflix horror slasher Fear Street: Part Two - 1978, but aside from that, Bullet Train is only his 2nd writing credit, which seems crazy to me. I couldn’t find much online about him aside from the fact that he is the son of the late character actor Walter Olkewicz known for his roles in television, who he cared for during his last days prior to his passing in 2021. Admittedly I haven’t read Isaka’s book but what Olkewicz is able to do here is craft an immersive story that takes full advantage of each and every character. Early on I was worried that the story was going to get a bit convoluted, but once we get to the final act of the film it all comes together perfectly. The bottom line, the screenplay perfectly matched the action and kept my eyes glued to the screen.

Now aside from the incredible work from the director and the writers of the film, the bread and butter of Bullet Train is without a doubt the ridiculously talented cast. First, my guy Brad Pitt simply crushes it as usual, and I really enjoyed his character. His character is given the code name Ladybug, mainly because he can’t seem to shake the bad luck that follows him everywhere he goes. His current job was supposed to be smooth and easy, but when he is involved, nothing ever is. Pitt is able to play this fun and charismatic character who can’t seem to get out of his own way perfectly, and every time something goes horribly wrong for him, you will have a smile on your face.

Aside from Pitt, a great deal of screen-time is afforded to the duo consisting of the great Aaron Taylor-Johnson of Kick-Ass fame, and Atlanta star Brian Tyree Henry. Taylor-Johnson is lowkey one of my favorite actors, and if you haven’t seen Tom Ford’s thriller Nocturnal Animals, you need to. It’s hard to believe that he was the same skinny kid in 2010’s Kick-Ass, but man, just look at him now. Taylor-Johnson and Henry play twin brothers known only as Tangerine and Lemon, yes you read that right, and I really enjoyed both of their characters. Whether it was Taylor-Johnson’s constant criticism of his brother’s decision-making or Henry’s ridiculous yet intriguing Thomas the Train obsession, it all just worked so well and I loved the dynamic between their characters.

Next, I have to talk about Andrew Kojo who plays Kimura, and the film actually opens with his character even though Pitt’s Ladybug is technically the main character. Each character is uniquely interwoven into the story which is part of why it all works so well. I felt for Koji’s character from the start, and man does he deal with quite the draining emotional roller-coaster of a character arch. The legendary Hiroyuki Sanada, who was a straight badass as Scorpion in the 2021 Mortal Kombat film, is arguably the most integral chess piece in this story. Sanada plays a man known only as The Elder and is the father of Koji’s character. I mean, when Sanada makes the decision to get directly involved, you know that the party is about to get kicked up about 10 notches. This dude is the kind of badass that takes on 100 people with a damn samurai sword and walks out without a scratch. At the end of the day, his character was epic and the film does not work as well as it does without him.

Next on the list is a thorn in the side of both Kimura and his father, the supremely confident and vengeful Prince played by Joey King. King, who has been building quite a career since 2006, plays what is easily one of my favorite roles from her mainly because it felt so different. She is that female character swimming in a pool of testosterone, and you never once feel like she is out of her league. I won’t give anything away of course, but she plays a vital role and does one heck of a job.

Zazie Beetz doesn’t get a ton of screen time but as per usual, she makes her presence known nonetheless. Sandra Bullock plays a supporting role too but is also great as usual. Benito "Bad Bunny" Ocasio was also awesome in a supporting role known only as Wolf. Michael Shannon, who I feel is somehow underrated as an actor and actually stars alongside Taylor-Johnson in the Nocturnal Animals film I mentioned a few paragraphs ago, plays the role of White Death. First off he is a bad guy, which should be obvious judging by the name, but man is that a cool-ass name. Shannon easily plays the most formidable and intriguing character in the film, and it was always exciting when he was on-screen. And not just because of his awesome mask which is 2nd to Jason’s hockey mask from Friday the 13th in terms of “don’t F with this guy factor”. His character was central to the story, and I don’t think anyone could have played that role better than he did. Bullet Train also has some amazing cameos, but I refuse to ruin them for you. You just have to experience them for yourself.

Okay so clearly I can’t conclude a review for a movie like Bullet Train without touching on the technical elements of the film, and boy oh boy were they glorious. Earlier I mentioned director David Leitch and the fact that he is widely known for his incredibly well-choreographed fight scenes, and he does not skimp on those here. Every fight sequence was amazing, and not a single character managed to sneak away without lots of blood and bruises, which was just par for the course aboard this train. Leitch even treats us to a fabulous Deadpool intro scene style slow-mo sequence in the final act of the film which I really enjoyed. I thought the editing for the film was money considering that even though it was over 2-hours long, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time and was never bored.

Also, considering the film took place entirely on a train, the cinematography still found a way to be eye-popping while capturing the colorful and massive feel of Japan. This was compliments of Jonathan Sela, who just did The Lost City (our review here), and also worked with Leitch on Hobbs & Shaw, Deadpool 2 (our review here), and Atomic Blonde (our review here). Plus he did John Wick, I mean damn this guy is good. Also a massive shoutout to composer Dominic Lewis who did the soundtrack and absolutely crushed it. A film like this with such a crazy packing and so much action needs a killer soundtrack, and he brings it and then some. I thought the music for the film was just so good, including a seemingly out-of-place but perfect appearance by the song Five Hundred Miles, which previously appeared in Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), where it was treated to a Justin Timberlake and Carey Mulligan performance.

THE BAD

Okay so now it is time to talk about what I didn’t like about the movie. In my personal opinion, Bullet Train is one of those movies that you can’t necessarily say is bad, but you can surely say it isn’t for you. It is extremely violent, over-the-top, and hilarious yet perhaps throws more humor at you than it necessarily needed to, and also from early on, it comes at your pretty fast. During the beginning of the movie, I felt like my head was spinning a bit and I was worried that I was missing certain elements of the story since everything seemed to be moving so fast. Luckily the story came together seamlessly by the end and I was confident that I didn’t miss anything. So yeah, in general, I really thoroughly enjoyed Bullet Train and for that reason, I can’t sit here and pick it apart.

It just had 10 “hell yeah!” moments for every “hmmm not sure why they did that” sort of moments. I mean it is a certain type of genre that you either love or you don’t, but beyond that to say this is a bad movie is a ridiculous notion if you ask me. Especially when you think about the reason why we want to see movies on the big screen in the first place. Also, I honestly wasn’t surprised to see what I consider to be lackluster scores from most critics mainly because they seem to have a difficult time appreciating movies built on violence and humor in this day and age. Bullet Train has a ton of replayability which is part of why I enjoy movies like this so much. I talked about Smokin’ Aces earlier in the review, and after leaving the theater I wanted to go right to watching that again, which is streaming on Peacock Premium if you are interested.

THE VERDICT

Fast-paced action perfectly blended with laugh-out-loud humor, gratuitous violence, and an epic soundtrack matched only by the hunk of steel traveling at blazing speeds, Bullet Train is yet another reminder of why talented stunt coordinator turned director David Leitch is a force to be reckoned with. Leitch is simply a beast in the director’s chair, and this movie was an absolute blast to experience in theaters, as it kept a smile on my face from start to finish. I loved the story, the characters and cast were incredible, and the fun factor was just through the roof. Plus I laughed out loud a ton and as soon as I left the theater I wanted to tell anyone that would listen about the cameos. I mentioned in the bad section that at first things seemed to be a bit hectic as far as the storytelling element, but it all came together leaving viewers with what amounts to one heck of a wild ride. Sure some of the jokes don’t hit, but when you are free-wheeling humor during almost the entire movie, that is bound to be the case.

I absolutely plan to see Bullet Train in theaters at least one more time, and I suggest you make your way over there sooner than later because this is a movie that demands the big screen. You won’t be disappointed. Unless you hate high-energy and extremely violent yet still hilarious movies, because if that is the case, perhaps you should just stay home.

TED TAKES RATING - 8.6/10

Bullet Train is now playing only in theaters. Check out the latest trailer below.

Vengeance

Vengeance is a 2022 dark comedy crime thriller written and directed by B.J. Novak (The Office), in his directorial debut. The film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 12th, 2022. A New England native, Novak was born in Newton, Massachusetts, and is often seen coming or going at Boston’s Logan Airport. A very intelligent guy who actually wrote several episodes of The Office, Novak graduated from Harvard with a degree in English and Spanish literature. He also went to high school in Newton with The Office co-star, the great John Krasinski, also a native of Newton. In an era of streaming services being the most enticing option and theaters harder and harder to reach, Novak was adamant he wanted Vengeance to get a theatrical release. He went to Jason Blum of Blumhouse, who is known for giving opportunities to first-time filmmakers while also giving creative control, and his dream became a reality.

The comedy crime thriller genre-hybrid tells the story of journalist and podcaster Ben Manalowitz who travels from New York City to West Texas to investigate the death of a girl he was hooking up with, landing head first in what could be his biggest story yet.

The cast includes B.J. Novak, Issa Rae, Ashton Kutcher, Boyd Holbrook, J. Smith-Cameron, Dove Cameron, Isabella Amara, Eli Bickel, and John Mayer.

Vengeance made it’s debut in theaters on July 29th, courtesy of Focus Features.

THE GOOD

A few months ago, I was sitting in the movie theater as I often am watching the previews for upcoming films. To be honest, I am often on autopilot as the trailers play mainly because I have seen all of them several times, but this time was different. A trailer played that admittedly felt unusually long at 2 1/2 minutes, but this was something that was new to me and it had me intrigued right from the opening. The trailer for Vengeance was perfectly made, even if it may have given away some of the good parts, and after watching it I knew I had to see this movie. It seemed to have everything, tons of laughs, a cool setting, and what seemed to be a spider-web of a murder mystery that was sure to keep me engaged. Plus, I love me some B.J. Novak from his days on The Office, and who doesn’t enjoy a little Ashton Kutcher from time to time? Release day was finally here and as a Focus Features release Vengeance had a slightly limited release so I had to go out of my way to be able to see it. So, was it worth my time or was I fooled by a well-crafted trailer? Keep reading to find out!

No joke, I would have driven two hours to see this movie, it was that good. Not only did Vengeance exceed my expectations, but the movie as a whole was also so much more than I had anticipated. Although the trailer had me sold, I was expecting a comedy that was maybe an action/thriller hybrid without much substance, and boy was I wrong. The writing for this film is just so, so good, and the characters are amazing and just feel uniquely authentic. I was immediately immersed in the world Novak was able to create with one of the better screenplays in recent memory, and I felt like each character played a pivotal role in the story. In many ways, Vengeance is a character study focusing on raw human emotion, and the overall disconnect between people thanks to the age of social media. Novak who plays the lead role in the film helps to drive this narrative, and he crushes it. I know I am describing a movie that doesn’t really sound all that entertaining, but I promise you it is. Vengeance felt relevant and heavy in all of the right ways, and more than anything else I felt connected to what was happening on-screen, and that is the impact a great film is supposed to have on viewers.

Alright now that I got that out of the way, I will talk about what made Vengeance flawlessly entertaining from start to finish. This film hits in all of the areas that matter, with a great screenplay as I mentioned, a talented cast bringing these characters to life, a fantastic West Texas setting, and just the right amount of calamity. Now the trailer lays the groundwork as far as why the overall backstory of the film is so intriguing, but it does come together in ways not fully shown in the trailer. From the opening scene which is simply a mesmerizing back and forth of sadness masked with insecurity and a fear of commitment between Novak and a character known only as John, played by the one and only John Mayer, we are off and running.

Novak’s character Ben is basically a poster child for what is wrong with people today, and he finds himself on a crash course that will change his life forever. Even though the plot feels a bit over-the-top, at least initially, it holds so much weight than I originally anticipated and had me captivated and wanting more. Plus, once the story unfolds you will take a step back and be like wow, I did not expect that. In many ways, this is a coming-of-age story about family, friendship, and loyalty. And even more than that, it is about the main character coming to the realization that he is living a very unfulfilled life, he is just missing the real reasons as to why that is. Plus, what an ending! I did not see it coming I will say that. Also, the pacing was fabulous and the film absolutely flew by. Andrew is our resident scout for all things relating to the Academy Awards, but I firmly believe Vengeance is deserving of at least a nomination for best original screenplay.

The cast is a huge reason why the film worked so well, and it all starts with B.J. Novak. Thanks to such a great screenplay we feel like we know Novak’s Ben character very early on, and this helps to make the connections to other characters that he meets along the way feel that much more impactful. Now because the premise of the film is that Ben is simultaneously creating this podcast and refers to everyone as the characters in the story, it adds a unique layer of depth for viewers as we see the relationships transform throughout the film. The first connection Novak makes is with Boyd Holbrook who plays the brother of Ben’s late “hook-up/girlfriend”, and I thought he was fantastic in this role. I really like Holbrook as an actor and love that he is starting to get more roles. I actually hope to watch and review last year’s horror movie The Cursed which he also starred in soon.

My next favorite character would have to be J. Smith-Cameron, who most recently broke out as Gerri Kellman on the hit HBO drama series Succession. In Vengeance, the Louisville, Kentucky native plays the loving but no-BS mother of the late girlfriend. Her chemistry with the Novak and the rest of the cast is a big reason why the film works so well. In many ways she reminded me of the character played by Jean Smart in the HBO series Mare of Easttown, which is a huge compliment. Ashton Kutcher plays a pivotal character with a great amount of depth, and I thought he was great in his role. Issa Rae, who is awesome as usual, also plays a very important albeit fairly small role in the film. The supporting cast consisting of Dove Cameron, Isabella Amara, Eli Bickel, and Zach Villa, were all fantastic. I especially liked Bickel in only his first acting role aside from a short film back in 2018. Also a big shoutout to Louanne Stephens, a native of Dallas, Texas, because who doesn’t love a badass no-filter having grandma.

Had a hard time finding an image of my guy Eli Bickel, so here he is with Ashton Kutcher at the films premiere. Credit to Getty Images.

Don’t worry, I didn’t forget about the technical elements of the film, which are a driving force in their own respect. Filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I loved the setting which helped to make the story feel so immersive, especially considering you couldn’t help but feel the culture shock of Ben going from New York to West Texas. We get some great shots thanks to cinematographer Lyn Moncrief that allow the environment the opportunity to be expansive and lived-in which was important. I also loved the soundtrack by Finneas O’Connell as it accurately captured the raw emotion of the more pivotal scenes throughout the film. I also have to give a shoutout to the editing team as not a single scene felt wasted or unnecessary.

THE BAD

If you have been paying attention, it should be obvious that I have very little negative things to say about Vengeance. I suppose you could try and say it is a bit too woke for some viewers, but the beauty of the film is the fact that it makes it a point to show more than one viewpoint or perspective, which is why it works so well. Social commentary is sprinkled throughout, but it never feels out of place or forced. People will likely have mixed thoughts on the films ending in terms of the build-up and ultimate conclusion which is understandable, but I personally really liked it especially considering the element of surprise to go along with the other twists and turns. Plus, the pacing was just perfect in my opinion. I may take some flack for the lack of criticism especially for a debut film, but Vengeance really hit hard for me and made it very hard to pick apart. And you know what, I will take that as opposed to the latter any day of the week. So yeah, I am looking forward to what B.J. Novak does next.

THE VERDICT

An exceptional debut film from writer/director B.J. Novak that may earn him a nod for best original screenplay, Vengeance is a unique dark comedy with considerable substance and flawed yet genuinely relatable characters. I just can’t say enough about the characters that were brought to life in this film, and as far as I am concerned they exist in real life and you won’t convince me otherwise. As high as my expectations were, I did not expect the experience I was treated to when I sat down in that comfy movie theater recliner. The film is as much a comedy crime thriller as it is a raw character study of the lack of true connection in our disconnected world, and the simple fact that we are all so quick to judge each other without taking the time to learn and understand. I felt the transformation that occurred for the lead character throughout his journey of self-discovery, and in a strange way, I felt like it changed me as well. Vengeance is packed full of amazing dialogue that constantly made me take a step back and say wow, that is deep. Novak is stellar behind and in front of the camera, and more than anything else he tells a story that matters and truly resonated for me. It was clear from the beginning this was a passion project for him, and he deserves all of the credit in the world for making his vision a reality.

I know some people will say “I can’t picture Novak as anyone other than his Ryan Howard character from The Office”, but that is just the beauty of it because he perfectly encapsulates that character for this role. A guy who is so easy to dislike, yet you find yourself curious and reeled in any way thanks to his obvious intelligence albeit sometimes condescending personality traits. So many scenes from Vengeance made me feel something which to be honest I did not expect, and for me, that is what film is all about.

Jason Blum and Blumhouse took a chance with B.J. Novak’s debut film, so let’s do our part to support high-quality and original filmmaking by seeing Vengeance in theaters sooner than later, you won’t regret it. I personally cannot wait to see it again.

TED TAKES RATING - 9.2/10

Vengeance is now playing only in theaters. Check out the latest trailer below.

DC League of Super-Pets

DC League of Super-Pets is a 2022 3D computer-animated superhero comedy film directed by Jared Stern (in his feature directorial debut), based on the DC Comics team Legion of Super-Pets.

When the Justice League are captured by Lex Luthor, Superman's dog, Krypto, forms a team of shelter-pets who were given super-powers: A hound named Ace, who becomes super-strong, a pig named PB, who can grow to giant-size, a turtle named Merton, who becomes super-fast, and a squirrel named Chip, who gains electric-powers.

The film's voice cast includes Dwayne Johnson (who also produces the film), Kevin Hart, Kate McKinnon, John Krasinski, Vanessa Bayer, Natasha Lyonne, Diego Luna, Thomas Middleditch, Ben Schwartz and Keanu Reeves.

DC League of Super-Pets made it’s debut in theaters on July 29th, courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.

THE GOOD

Alright so I am a superhero movie guy through and through, I saw The Batman (our review here) and Love and Thunder (our review here) each three times in theaters, so I was pumped for the opportunity to check out DC League of Super-Pets. I have always been a fan of a good animated film, but once fatherhood happened I gained a new appreciation. I couldn’t wait until my oldest boy was able to come with me to the theater so that I could share my love of film with him, so once that day came I started circling the potential movies I could bring him to see. His first movie was Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (our full review here), which is a live-action film and he still did extremely well with it. So of course, we were off and running! Next he saw The Bad Guys, followed by Minions: The Rise of Gru (our full review here). Once he saw the trailer for DC League of Super-Pets, he couldn’t wait to see it and kept asking me when we would be going. I made it a point to get him to the theater the first opportunity we got, so was this yet another home-run for my little guy or did we have to head home early? Keep reading to find out!

First and foremost, I left the theater with a smile on my face and so did my son, who never took his eyes off the screen by the way, so that was a big victory. But let’s be honest, the primary element of this film that had me excited from the outset was the cast of voice actors which is next-level ridiculous, and they did not disappoint. The cast is in my opinion the best part of the film without a doubt, and they all delivered the goods. Kevin Hart was hilarious as expected, and Dwayne Johnson was his usual larger-than-life self even though this time around he was in dog form. I really enjoyed the two of them in the action comedy Central Intelligence so it was great to get them together yet again. Although the vast majority of quality screen-time belongs to Johnson and Hart, we get plenty of work out of the other big names.

First, John Krasinski was magical as Superman which should surprise nobody. Keanu Reeves didn’t get as much time to shine as I would have liked, but he was great as Batman. Ben Schwartz, who recently starred in the hilarious Apple TV Series The Afterparty was really good as the fire guinea pig, with Thomas Middleditch coming through as the ice guinea pig. We get a little bit of another The Afterparty star in John Early as The Flash, Jermaine Clement as Aquaman, Olivia Wilde as Lois Lane, and Kate McKinnon as Lulu. Bottom line, the voice acting was top-notch and left no stone unturned. I can’t help but think how great this cast of actors would be as the actual Justice League in a live-action film.

Obviously with a movie called DC League of Super-Pets, we are going to get more of the pets than the actual superheroes, and that was fine with me. I got a The Secret Life of Pets vibe from the film which helped to get me immersed and also ramped up the enjoyment factor. Plus it was fun to watch Superman’s dog try and toe the same line as his owner as far as trying to hide the fact that he is the famous superhero dog. The humor was consistent throughout and I laughed out loud a ton which is a testament to the writing. Admittedly most of the funnier scenes involved Kevin Hart’s character. Similar to his role in the Netflix original film The Man from Toronto which I recently reviewed (full review here), Hart is yet again trying to piece together his life that seems to fall apart at every turn. Sure, in DC League of Super-Pets he is an adult dog that nobody seems to want to adopt from the animal shelter so all he can think about is escaping his captivity, but it is funny nonetheless. It was so much fun watching all of the down on their luck pets get a chance to have superpowers of their own, and I thought the action sequences were all a blast to experience. The animation was gorgeous as expected, and I loved the amazing and hard-hitting soundtrack which helped to get the adrenaline pumping.

THE BAD

Similar to Andrew’s recent review of The Bad Guys (full review here), I’m not going to spend too much time trying to critique an animated kids movie, although it can be easy to pick apart anything from DC these days. I really enjoyed DC League of Super-Pets, but I did feel like it was missing something to really put it over the top or make it stand out as one of the best animated films of 2022. For example, The Bad Guys was able to showcase a unique style of animation to go along with a fast-paced story and great voice acting, but DC League of Super-Pets just sort of relied on the strengths of the voice cast and the superheroes. I mean as I said the animation was fantastic as expected, it just failed to do anything special. Plus, the story was pretty cookie-cutter and I expected a bit more there as well.

THE VERDICT

A hilarious and consistently fun adventure for the entire family lead by the undeniable chemistry of voice actors Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, DC League of Super-Pets will undoubtedly appeal to superhero fans and pet lovers. I still think it could have been even better as it fails to capture the feel of an instant classic. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed it and my son never took his eyes off the screen which is a huge win for me. I guess I was hoping for a bit more in terms of memorable moments considering the talent involved with the film. Bottom line, DC League of Super-Pets is well worth a trip to the theater as it provides entertainment value for all ages which really is the most important thing, and my son has already said he can’t wait to see it again. Also I know it is tough with kids, but the film does have a pretty cool after the credits scene with Black Adam that is worth sticking around for.

Full disclosure, my son had the final say on the overall rating, which I fully support of course, and honestly I was just impressed he actually stuck with the 1-10 format I laid out for him. So yeah, do yourself a favor and bring the kiddos to check out DC League of Super-Pets in theaters.

TED TAKES RATING - 8/10

DC League of Super-Pets is now playing only in theaters. Check out the official trailer below.

The Bad Guys

By: Andrew Wing

The Bad Guys is a 2022 American computer-animated heist comedy film loosely based on the children’s book series of the same name by Aaron Blabey, produced by DreamWorks Animation Studios and distributed by Universal Pictures. The film was directed by Pierre Perifel (in his feature directorial debut), written by Etan Cohen (wrote the scripts for Tropic Thunder and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa), and stars the voices of Sam Rockwell (The Green Mile, Vice), Marc Maron (GLOW, Joker), Awkwafina (The Farewell, Raya and the Last Dragon), Craig Robinson (The Office, Hot Tub Time Machine), Anthony Ramos (In the Heights, Hamilton), Richard Ayoade (The Watch, Disenchantment), Zazie Beetz (Atlanta, Deadpool 2), Alex Borstein (Family Guy, Ted), and Lilly Singh (Bad Moms, F the Prom).

It tells the story of a criminal group of anthropomorphic animals who, upon being caught, pretend to attempt to reform themselves as model citizens, only for their leader, Mr. Wolf (Rockwell), to find himself genuinely drawn to changing his ways as a new villain has his own plans.

Work on the film started in 2018; the characters and themes drew inspiration from various crime films and anime series such as the Ocean’s Eleven franchise, Lupin III, Pulp Fiction, and Beastars, while the inspiration for the film’s animation style came from Sony Pictures Animation’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018). Production began at DWA Glendale and some additional production assets were borrowed from Jellyfish Pictures, with voice acting being done remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Bad Guys was released in several countries beginning March 16, 2022, and in the United States on April 22, in 2D and RealD 3D formats. It has grossed $245 million worldwide, making it the second highest-grossing animated film of 2022.

THE GOOD

From as far back as I can remember, I have loved watching animated movies. Whether it was Pixar or DreamWorks, I grew up watching their movies literally every night before I went to bed. And while Pixar definitely has the better catalog compared to DreamWorks, DreamWorks still has put out some legendary movies from Shrek to Kung Fu Panda. That said, I was really excited to see their latest film, The Bad Guys. Unfortunately though, with it being released during the last couple weeks of my spring semester, I never got around to seeing it in theaters. Nevertheless, it hit Peacock last month and I checked it out as soon as I could. So without further ado, was The Bad Guys on the level of some of DreamWorks best works like Shrek, or was it more forgettable like their 2013 film, Turbo? Keep reading to find out!

To be honest, it was neither. As much as I liked The Bad Guys, I don’t think it reached the levels of Shrek, because well that’s one of the best animated movies of all time, but it definitely was better than Turbo in my opinion. Why? Well a big reason why was because of the directing we got from Pierre Perifel in his feature directorial debut, and the screenplay we got from Etan Cohen. First with the director, Pierre Perifel, who absolutely crushed it in his directorial debut. I am not often a fan of fast-paced movies, but I really loved how Perifel decided to make this so fast-paced. It worked perfectly with the story because if there’s one thing a heist certainly is, it is fast paced for those involved, and I just thought it made the film work so much better as a whole.

Next with the screenplay we got from Etan Cohen (not one half of the Coen brothers directing duo of Joel and Ethan Coen), was amazing. As I mentioned in the introduction, Cohen drew inspiration from various successful crime films, and the two that I noticed the most in The Bad Guys were the Ocean’s Eleven franchise and a movie I find to be perfect, Pulp Fiction. This isn’t much of a spoiler, but the opening scene takes place in a diner right before “the bad guys” are about to do something bad, and it was just a great nod to Quentin Tarantino’s masterpiece. As for where Ocean’s Eleven came in, it soaked through with how awesome and likable all of the characters were. It was just great stuff from Cohen, it was very funny, and I truthfully think the writing was the best part of the film.

Now for the part you all have been waiting for, something that needs to get talked about with everything animated movie, and that would be the voice performances. All of them were amazing, but the best hands down for me was Sam Rockwell in the lead as Mr. Wolf. I love Rockwell. Whether he was playing the bad guy in The Green Mile or former President Bush in Vice, I think he is one of the very best actors working today, and I’m not surprised that he is great at voice acting too. Other voice performances I really enjoyed included Awkwafina, the actress that actually voice the dragon in Raya and the Last Dragon last year, as Ms. Tarantula, Marc Maron as Mr. Snake, and last but not least, Richard Ayoade as the film’s antagonist, Professor Rupert Marmalade IV.

To close the good section of the review, it’s time we talk about the film’s animation. Once I read that those in charge drew the inspiration for the film’s animation style from Sony Pictures Animation’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, another film I consider to be perfect, that came out back in 2018, I just knew I was going to love its animation, and I absolutely did. All of the landscapes of Greater Los Angeles were great, and all of the anthropomorphic animals looked flawless. It was right on the level with Pixar when it came to how good the film worked, and I just can’t get enough of animated movies.

THE BAD

I won’t lie, I hate critiquing animated movies. Unless it’s a movie like The Emoji Movie, a movie I thought was an absolute dumpster fire, but we can save that for another day. When it comes to The Bad Guys though, I genuinely had a really good time with it, but there’s just a certain ceiling these films can reach, and I think this movie hit theirs. For starters, the story is just deliberately preposterous, you can tell about halfway through how it’s going to end, and while I liked the film’s pacing, others may find it way too fast. At the end of the day though, I had a good time with it and I would absolutely welcome a sequel!

THE VERDICT

DreamWorks Animation Studio’s The Bad Guys is a fast-paced, funny, and family friendly heist comedy that has a lot of laughs, but also a lot of heart. The voice performances we got here were perfect, especially Sam Rockwell’s, and the film’s sleek animation style kept the energy high from start to finish.

I’d have to say that my favorite aspect of the film was the writing, and a big reason why is because it contained a lot of cool references to other crime films of the past like Pulp Fiction and the Oceans franchise. Other than that, I was just really impressed with this and I would love to see more of these characters in the future if we could be so fortunate.

TED TAKES RATING - 8/10

The Bad Guys is now available only on Peacock. Check out the latest trailer below.

The Forgiven

By: Andrew Wing

The Forgiven is a 2021 drama film written and directed by John Michael McDonagh (The Guard, Calvary) and based on the 2012 novel of the same name by Lawrence Osborne. The film stars Ralph Fiennes (Harry Potter film series, The Grand Budapest Hotel), Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty, Molly’s Game), Matt Smith (The Crown, Doctor Who), Ismael Kanater, Caleb Landry Jones (Get Out, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Abbey Lee (Mad Max: Fury Road, Old), Mourad Zaoui, Marie-Josée Croze, Alex Jennings (Babel, The Crown), Saïd Taghmaoui, and Christopher Abbott (The Sinner, Catch-22). Elizabeth Eves and McDonagh produced the film through their House of Un-American Activities.

The film takes place over a weekend in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco and explores the reverberations of a random accident on the lives of both the locals and western visitors to a house party in a grand villa.

The Forgiven had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2021, and was released in the United States on July 1, 2022, by Roadside Attractions and Vertical Entertainment, and is scheduled to be released in the United Kingdom on September 2, 2022, by Universal Pictures and Focus Features.

THE GOOD

The Forgiven has been on my radar for pretty much a whole year. I heard about it first when it was announced that it was going to premiere at TIFF, and it was obviously premiering with a lot of anticipation given who the two stars of the film were in Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain. Fiennes is one of the most prolific actors of the past thirty years which really started after he broke onto the scene back in 1993 in Spielberg’s Schindler’s List. Last year though he was in one of the biggest movies of 2021 in No Time to Die, which Ted reviewed (see full review here), and he is just one of the best in the business. It also stars Jessica Chastain, the reigning Best Actress for her performance in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, which I reviewed (see my full review here), so needless to say, I was excited for this. But were those two big stars enough to make this the solid drama I have been waiting almost an entire year for? Keep reading to find out!

It unfortunately did not, but it certainly was not those two actors’ fault. I will get into some of my big complaints with the movie later in the bad section of the review, but let’s first talk about what I liked. To no one’s surprise, the best thing I liked about The Forgiven were the performances. Ralph Fiennes absolutely won here. He is such an amazing actor, and he put that on full display. His character, David Henninger, is a pretty unlikeable guy, and Fiennes as an actor just plays a villain so well. From Voldemort in the Harry Potter films, to his role in the lesser known black comedy In Bruges, one of me and Ted’s favorites, to now this, the guy can just play a piece of shit. As for Chastain, I wanted more from her character, and there’s a little sneak peek of what is to come later in the review, but everything she gave us was as marvelous as you’d expect. She really is one of the top actresses in the game right now, and she has been on a heater for a while now.

It wasn’t just those two though, we got a lot of solid supporting performances too. I was amazed by the Moroccan actor Ismael Kanater for what he brought to the screen here. This was the first I had ever seen of him given that he primarily stars in Moroccan films, but damn was he good. He was so intimidating, but also so emotional that you felt for his character with everything he had gone through. I also liked both Matt Smith and Christopher Abbott, two young actors on the rise, and speaking of young actors on the rise, let’s talk about Caleb Landry Jones. Landry Jones is one of the best young actors out there today, and twenty years from now when is a multiple time Academy Award winner, his role in this probably will have been forgotten, but I thought he stole all of the scenes he was in. He just goes for it as an actor as he always dials it up to 100 and that is something I absolutely respect as a cinephile.

I unfortunately don’t have a ton of good things to say about The Forgiven aside from the acting performances, but I will show some love to the tech side of things. First, the cinematography we got here was astounding. The film took place around the Sahara Desert, and while I would never want to travel there because of the heat, the beautiful scenery and the massive landscape which was perfectly captured almost had me willing to go for it. And second, the music in the film that was done by Lorne Balfe was really good. There is one theme that plays from the opening credits to the last scene in the film, and I was a big fan of it. It really fits the setting and it just gets you locked in. But that is no surprise given how good Balfe is, who is known for composing a big budget film like Mission: Impossible - Fallout, and also the hit Netflix series The Crown.

THE BAD

The Forgiven is a fine movie. It’s a decent drama with great performances, but I’ll be completely honest, I would never suggest this movie. And the main reason is because it is such a bore. The film moves so slow, and I was just checking my phone a little too often and my eyelids felt heavier as the film went on. I don’t know why, the movie isn’t even two hours long, but I just couldn’t get enthralled into the story that was being told and I just didn’t vibe with it.

Don’t get me wrong, there are things I still respect about the film and I appreciated some of it. I’m actually curious to read the book of the same name that the film is based on, just so I can see if the movie didn’t do a good enough job of telling the story and making it entertaining enough, because I got a feeling that’s the case. Oh, and one more thing, I said in the good when discussing Chastain’s performance that I wanted more, and it’s because I did. Nothing is more annoying than watching films with these great casts and then seeing that they don’t make the most out of it. Now Chastain was good, but her character just took too long to get interesting, and it’s a real shame we didn’t get to see more of her knowing how talented of an actress she is.

THE VERDICT

Despite great performances from Ralph Fiennes, Jessica Chastain, and the rest of the supporting cast, The Forgiven from John Michael McDonagh lacks both punch and pace and it results in the movie being a bit of a bore.

I respect the film for what it was going for. It had an intriguing setup and a gorgeous setting in the Sahara Desert, but considering what this could’ve been, I’d be lying if I said this film wasn’t a slight disappointment.

TED TAKES RATING - 6.3/10

The Forgiven is now available to rent or purchase on demand. Check out the latest trailer below.

The Man from Toronto

The Man from Toronto is a 2022 action comedy from director Patrick Hughes, from a screenplay by Robbie Fox and Chris Bremner, and a story by Jason Blumenthal. Hughes is no stranger to action comedies as he previously directed The Expendables 3 (2014), as well as the Hitman’s Bodyguard (2017), and Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard (2021).

A case of mistaken identity arises after a screw-up sales consultant and the world’s deadliest assassin—known only as The Man from Toronto— run into each other at a holiday rental.

The cast includes Kevin Hart, Woody Harrelson, Kaley Cuoco, and Ellen Barkin.

The Man from Toronto made it’s debut on Netflix on June 24th, 2022.

THE GOOD

If you have been paying attention, Netflix has been absolutely churning out original content many of which have had a massive budget. Andrew has been on an absolute tear as far as original Netflix film reviews, including the action thriller The Gray Man (full review here), the sci-fi thriller Spiderhead (full review here), the animated action comedy The Sea Beast (full review here), and lastly the romance drama inspired by a Jane Austen novel Persuasion (full review here). So yeah, there is lots of content at your disposal regardless of audience or genre preference. Which brings me to the action comedy The Man from Toronto, a film that

I am admittedly quite late on watching and reviewing, but I beat Andrew to it so I will take all of the small victories I can get. This film was on my radar very early on too, but it felt like something my wife and I would both enjoy so I waited to try and watch it with her, but with two kids under the age of four, the reality set in that it was never going to happen. So I picked a night that the kids were finally asleep and the house was in decent working order and fired up what I hoped would be worth just shy of 2-hours of my relatively valuable time. So, was The Man from Toronto a swing and a miss for the streaming giant? Keep reading to find out!

Alright listen, action comedies serve a very specific purpose, and above all else that is to entertain. Are we expecting an elaborate screenplay or awe-inspiring cinematography? I mean no, not at all, sure those elements would be nice and all but that simply isn’t the reality with this genre especially when we are talking about a direct-to-streaming release. What I want is an enticing cast, and a fun premise that I can casually sink my teeth into, and with that being said, The Man From Toronto delivered as far as my expectations. I’m going to try and take a page out of Andrew’s playbook and focus on what drew me to this film in the first place, and that is without question the cast.

An action comedy starring Kevin Hart and my man Woody Harrelson who I have been obsessed with since the insane 1994 crime thriller Natural Born Killers, I mean lets go!! I know that Jason Statham was originally set to take on the role of the aforementioned “Man from Toronto”, but due to scheduling conflicts he had to back out and Harrelson was subsequently cast. Talk about a clutch pivot replacing a bald white guy with another less athletic but still highly sought after bald white guy. Great move casting team. Kevin Hart is clearly known for his comedic roles, and he seems to thrive when the actor playing opposite of him brings a certain level of raw intensity that he can play off of and Harrelson certainly does just that. Harrelson is a unique actor in many ways considering that he actually has some comedic chops to mix in with his ability to play a “serious” role, think Zombieland for example.

I realize I have strayed from the point I was trying to make, but the bottom line is Kevin Hart and Woody Harrelson worked very well together. I loved how they played off each other, and as corny as the film often was as far as premise and believability, it all came together nicely and the fun factor remained in the green throughout. I enjoyed the backstories for both characters with Hart as a high-energy and personable guy trying to make it as an entrepreneur but failing at every turn with his ridiculous ideas, and Harrelson as a very regimented and extremely dangerous hitman.

In many ways the characters were similar to the original Ride Along in terms of dynamic, just replace Ice Cube with Harrelson. Hart was hilarious, and Harrelson was constantly trying to turn him into someone who is actually believable in the role of a hitman with a reputation similar to that of a Greek God, and it did not go well. Hart thrives in these fish-out-of-water type roles which allow him to utilize his outlandish comedy style he is so widely known for. Bottom line, the two leads had great chemistry which is the primary reason why The Man from Toronto worked so well and was never boring.

The film is carried by the leads, but still has a fun supporting cast to round things out. Jasmine Mathews plays Hart’s significant other, but she has a pretty small role along with Kaley Cuoco who plays her friend. Both were good here but aren’t given a ton of screen-time. I really enjoyed the character played by Jencarlos Canela as he helped to aide the comedic element along with Hart’s character. I also enjoyed Pierson Fode’s character who plays The Man from Miami, who is, yes you guessed it, a rival hitman who is from Miami. Fode, who is fairly unknown as an actor, seems to be gaining some traction after this role which is nice to see. Fode also played a small role in a few episodes of the latest season of the FX drama series Animal Kingdom, which is a favorite show of mine. Which brings me to veteran actress Ellen Barkin, who plays a pivotal role in the Animal Kingdom series as well. In The Man from Toronto, Barkin takes on the role of Harrelson’s handler, and I just thought she was great.

THE BAD

The Man from Toronto is far from perfect, but seriously who is surprised by that? This is one of those movies that you go in knowing what to expect, and if you don’t, I guess that is on you. The premise is next-level ridiculous, the special effects are subpar at best, and the acting from the majority of the supporting cast feels like something that would barely make the cut in a B-movie, but guess what, it works. I honestly went into this movie hoping for mindless entertainment with lots of laughs, and that is exactly what I got. I mean sure it was slow-moving at times and probably could have been better closer to the hour and a half runtime, but that wasn’t a killer by any means. So yeah, I’m not going to invest a ton of time picking apart a movie that for my money did exactly what I was hoping it would do.

THE VERDICT

An action comedy anchored by the effective pairing of Kevin Hart and Woody Harrelson, The Man from Toronto provides plenty of laughs throughout and kept me engaged from start to finish. As I talked about in the review, the premise is pretty far-fetched and so much of what happens feels very unrealistic, but I was expecting that to be the case. I enjoyed watching these hardened criminals basically melt in awe of this notorious hitman as if they were teenage girls at a Backstreet Boys concert, and I had so much fun with the backstories of these characters. I felt like the writing team had fun with the concept and were more concerned with taking advantage of the talents of their leading men which was the smart play if you ask me.

If you go into this movie expecting an experience that will stick with you long after the film ends, you will be disappointed. The Man from Toronto is a popcorn action comedy that will satisfy fans of the genre, and if I’m being honest, I would go as far as saying I would welcome a sequel.

TED TAKES RATING - 6.9/10

The Man from Toronto is now streaming on Netflix. Check out the latest trailer below.

Not Okay

By: Andrew Wing

Not Okay is a 2022 American satirical black comedy-drama film written and directed by Quinn Shephard (feature film debut was Blame back in 2017). It stars Zoey Deutch (Why Him?, Zombieland: Double Tap) in the lead role, with Mia Isaac, Nadia Alexander (The Sinner), Embeth Davidtz (Mad Men, Ray Donovan), Karan Soni (Deadpool, Deadpool 2), and Dylan O’Brien (Maze Runner trilogy, Love and Monsters) in supporting roles.

The film follows Danni Sanders (Deutch), a young woman who desperately wants to be famous and beloved on the Internet, only for her efforts to lead to her mistakenly gaining fame as a survivor of a tragedy.

Not Okay was released on July 29, 2022, by Searchlight Pictures on Hulu.

THE GOOD

Ever since I saw the original trailer for Not Okay, I was hooked. Right from the get-go, you could tell that this movie was going to go directly at our society today and attempt to make points about what life is like on the Internet nowadays. Plus, it starred Zoey Deutch in the lead role, someone I am a huge fan of who I think is underrated, and also Dylan O’Brien. There’s just something about O’Brien that I like, and yeah maybe the Maze Runner films weren’t the greatest, but I still enjoyed them because of what he was able to bring to the table. So without saying another word, let’s see if Not Okay achieved its mission with what it set out to do with the film, or if it failed miserably. Keep reading to find out!

I think it got the job done. I think it definitely could have been better, but I’ll touch on that more later in the review, but for now, I want to praise it. Not Okay was a fun movie, and I loved all of the performances, but it was also very dramatic and I loved how they were able to switch the tone of the film from time to time. A big reason they could do that so well was because of Quinn Shephard, the writer and director of the film. This is only Shephard’s second feature film (I have yet to see the first), and I was really impressed with what she did here. This is one of the most modern movies I have ever seen, and I think that’s why I enjoyed it so much. But I wasn’t expecting all of the dramatic and more climactic moments of the film to hit as hard as they did just because of Shephard being somewhat new to this, but man was I wrong. All in all, I was just really impressed by her and I look forward to watching what she does next!

As good as Shephard made this movie, it was taken to the next level by Zoey Deutch. This is the second film of Deutch’s I have seen this year after The Outfit (see my full review here), another film that she starred in alongside O’Brien, and one of my complaints with that film was that we didn’t get enough Deutch in it. However, with Not Okay, I got as much of Deutch as I could ever have asked for, and I loved every second of it. I was just blown away by what she was able to do here, and while she usually has been more of a side character thus far in her career, I really see this film being a sort of breakout role for her that shows the world that she has what it takes to be a leading lady in a film. Seriously though, she did it all in this. She was hilarious and charming at times, but she was also evil and alarming at the same time. At the end of the day, I just thought it was a flawless performance from Deutch and my fandom of hers just continues to grow at this point.

Now onto the supporting characters in Not Okay who all made their presences felt. First with my guy Dylan O’Brien because duh, I thought he was awesome in this. He plays the comedic relief character Colin who is a social media influencer who is inked up and loves smoking weed, and he was just so fucking funny with every line of dialogue he spoke. There is one particular scene that my Mainers will love in this too, but I won’t spoil it. The next supporting performance that needs to be mentioned belonged to newcomer Mia Isaac. Now I said that Deutch’s performance was a breakout one, and the same can be said for Isaac’s. She was phenomenal here as she played a character who survived a school shooting and Isaac just expertly conveyed the character’s emotional trauma she was going through. And lastly, I really liked the performance Nadia Alexander gave us in this. Alexander, who is actually writer/director Quinn Shephard’s partner in the real world, was great as the most normal and best human being in the film.

In conclusion, there were a lot of other things I appreciated when it came to Not Okay. It was edited very nicely and I thought it flowed smoothly for a 103-minute-long movie, so shout out to Mollie Goldstein. The cinematography we got of New York City from Robby Baumgartner was solid, and the music choices for the movie that were done by Pierre-Philippe Côté helped tell the film’s story. Oh, and one final thing, I just really appreciate Searchlight Pictures and all the other distributors for taking a chance on an original story from a young filmmaker like this that really needed to be told because we need more films like this that are able to both tell important messages and still be somewhat entertaining.

THE BAD

If you haven’t caught my drift by now on how I felt about Not Okay, well you must have skipped a paragraph or two. For real though, I had a good time with this and I was pleasantly surprised. However, when it comes to films that try to make points about society, you need to grade how they did, and I would give Not Okay probably a B there. It did a good job and we can definitely come away from the film with ideas, but where I think this film got hurt was the fact that it almost tried to tackle too many provocative ideas, and what ultimately ended up happening at least for me was that they didn’t fully land on all of them.

Now that’s a tall task, but for example, I think it really showed itself at the end of the film. I don’t want to give too much away, but I was just expecting something totally different. I’m not saying that I was expecting the main character to get vindication for what she had done or that she even deserved to, but I just didn’t see her story ending the way it did. But hey, that’s the challenging thing when you make movies about really unlikeable “protagonists”, and you never know, maybe we will get a sequel and see what happens next for the Danni Sanders character.

THE VERDICT

While it never fully committed to the seriousness of the points it was trying to make, Not Okay is still a wickedly funny satirical black comedy from writer/director Quinn Shephard that features a star-in-the-making kind of performance from Zoey Deutch as the villainous Danni Sanders.

I was really impressed with Shephard’s filmmaking style, I loved Deutch, and I thought all of the supporting performances were incredible from Mia Isaac’s breakout role, to Dylan O’Brien’s absolutely hysterical performance of a character that resembles Pete Davidson in today’s world.

TED TAKES RATING - 7.5/10

Not Okay is now available only on Hulu. Check out the latest trailer below.

Persuasion

By: Andrew Wing

Persuasion is a 2022 American drama film directed by Carrie Cracknell in her feature film directorial debut, from a screenplay by Ron Bass (who wrote the screenplay for Rain Man) and Alice Victoria Winslow, based on the novel of the same name by Jane Austen. It stars Dakota Johnson (Fifty Shades film series, Suspiria), Cosmo Jarvis (Lady Macbeth, Calm With Horses), Nikki Amuka-Bird (The Omen, Old), Mia McKenna-Bruce (The Dumping Ground, Get Even), Richard E. Grant (Withnail and I, Can You Ever Forgive Me?), and Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians, Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins).

The film takes place eight years after Anne Elliot (Johnson) was persuaded not to marry a dashing man of humble origins, Captain Frederick Wentworth (Jarvis). However, when they meet again, Anne struggles with attempting to seize her second chance at true love.

The film was released on Netflix on July 15, 2022.

THE GOOD

I have been doing a lot of Netflix and chilling recently. Three of my last four reviews were on Netflix films, my most recent being on the animated adventure film The Sea Beast (see my full review here), so I figured I might as well make it four out of five with Persuasion. I watched it with my girlfriend, who was definitely a little bit more excited about it than I was, but nevertheless, I was pumped to see Dakota Johnson again who was amazing in her other film that came out earlier this year in Cha Cha Real Smooth (see my full review here). And while I have never read a Jane Austen novel, I have liked a lot of the films from this century that were film adaptations of her work from Pride & Prejudice in 2005 to Emma in 2020. So with all that said, was Persuasion another in the long list of great film adaptations of Austen’s work, or was this a bad apple? Keep reading to find out!

You’ll just have to wait a little longer for that answer, but if there is one thing I can say for certain about Persuasion, it is that Dakota Johnson is on quite a roll. Seriously though, ever since leaving the Fifty Shades films in her rearview mirror, she hasn’t really missed. And while I didn’t like this movie as much as some of her ones from the past year, her performance was still very good. Her accent was fantastic, and she just brought the character of Anne Elliot to life in such a believable way, and I’m saying that without having even read the book. I honestly thought she carried this film from start to finish, and I just continue to be impressed by Johnson as an actress and I cannot wait to see what she does next.

The second best part of the film in my opinion after Johnson’s lead performance was the production and costume design of the film. First, with the production design, it was just ridiculous. That’s honestly probably my favorite part of these types of movies is just getting teleported back in time and getting to see how luxurious everything was. And as for the costumes, those were quite luxurious too. Sure, you can go ahead and make fun of me for praising the costumes everyone was wearing, but I’m an Oscar guy, and they have an award dedicated to costume design, so I’m not ashamed. Truthfully speaking though, the costumes in this were top-notch and it could definitely be in the mix when it comes to getting a nomination which would make it the second Jane Austen film adaptation to do so in just three years after Emma got nominated back in 2020.

Continuing with the visuals of this film, they really didn’t skip a beat because the cinematography we got from Joe Anderson was great. I don’t know where the film was shot, but wherever it was, I need to go there before I die because some of the shots were beautiful. There were some other technical elements that need some love too. As for the editing, I thought it was well done by Pani Scott, as I thought the film flowed nicely. And lastly, all of the music in Persuasion was solid too from the score we got thanks to Stuart Earl and also a soundtrack that included “Quietly Yours”, by Birdy.

THE BAD

Alright, time to be the bad guy. This movie is fine. My girlfriend enjoyed it, and she is going to be mad at me over this, but I just had a lot of problems with Persuasion as a whole. For starters, I thought the entire rest of the cast aside from Dakota Johnson just didn’t provide much of anything. Cosmo Jarvis, who plays Captain Frederick Wentworth, probably has the second most screen time, but I just didn’t like that casting. I didn’t buy his character, and I just hope his next performance is something different. Also, none of the supporting actresses stood out to me, and what was arguably more annoying than any of that, was the fact that they had Richard E. Grant and Henry Golding, two fantastic actors, in the cast and they were both terribly underutilized here in my opinion.

The next problem I had with Persuasion is one that I am seeing a lot more of from other critics than my first personal complaint, and that is the criticism of them trying to over-modernize the source material into the film. And after watching the movie, I can agree with that without having even read the book because there’s no way some of the things said in this film were said in a novel from the early 19th century. I mean I get it, you have to try and appeal to the target audience, but trying to be like Adam McKay’s The Big Short with all of the fourth wall breaks was not how to do it. There were so damn many times Dakota Johnson was talking to me via breaking the fourth wall and I was getting so irritated, and that speaks volumes considering I liked her performance. I don’t know, maybe we as a film society just need to take a break from Jane Austen movies, because I for one am not begging for one anytime soon after this.

THE VERDICT

Despite another above-average performance from Dakota Johnson, Persuasion just wasn’t my cup of tea. The visuals and the music were very well done, but the underutilization of some big name actors, the over modernization of the source material, and the way too many fourth wall breaks just made this movie unfortunately quite forgettable.

TED TAKES RATING - 5.5/10

Persuasion is now available only on Netflix. Check out the latest trailer below.

The Sea Beast

By: Andrew Wing

The Sea Beast is a 2022 computer-animated adventure film directed by Chris Williams (Bolt, Big Hero 6), who co-wrote the screenplay with Nell Benjamin (most noted for her work in musical theater) and produced with Jed Schlanger. The film stars the voices of Karl Urban (Thor: Ragnarok, The Boys), Zaris-Angel Hator, Jared Harris (The Crown, Chernobyl), and Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Blindspot, Homecoming).

It tells the story of a young orphan girl, Maisie Brumble (Hator), who joins a group of sea monster hunters on their search for the elusive Red Bluster.

The film began a limited theatrical release on June 24, 2022, before debuting on Netflix on July 8, 2022.

THE GOOD

Going into 2022, The Sea Beast wasn’t even on my radar. Even going into this month, I hadn’t even heard a peep about it. But it didn’t take long after it was released on Netflix to see that it was getting good reviews everywhere. And after finally watching the trailer, I was hooked. It felt like Pirates of the Caribbean, yet only an animated version and that was right up my alley. Seriously though, I grew up watching the Disney Pixar films just like everyone else my age, but in the past couple of years I have fallen back in love with all animated movies, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Also, this movie has been getting some early buzz when it comes to getting a Best Animated Feature nomination at the Oscars next year, and me being the Oscar fanatic I am, I just couldn’t resist. But enough of the chit-chat, let’s dive into this review!

Alright, I won’t beat around the bush, The Sea Beast was a fun time! It was an epic adventure of an open sea ship battling against giant sea monsters, so what’s not to love about that? I was really impressed with Chris William’s direction here, and I wasn’t surprised when I saw that he had previously worked on two other solid animated movies in Bolt and Big Hero 6. Speaking of being impressed, I was very impressed by the sense of scale this film had. It was large, and it really felt like a Pirates of the Caribbean tale, but only in an animated PG version. But what was arguably more impressive was how well developed all of the characters were, and that’s just a huge testament to William’s direction and the screenplay we got from Nell Benjamin.

Another reason we loved these characters other than how well-developed they were was because of the voices behind them. The best voice of the talented voice cast was without a doubt Karl Urban. He just has an iconic New Zealand accent, and it’s impossible not to be a fan of it. You’ll agree with me if you watch the Amazon superhero series The Boys, which is probably one of the best shows out right now, but I’d say the audiences between that show and this movie wouldn’t be too similar, so I’ll stop myself. Another great voice in the cast was Jared Harris. He just has a great voice too that’s perfect for animated movies, and he was excellent as the antagonist in this. And finally, I’d be remiss to not bring up the vocal performance from the young Zaris-Angel Hator who voices the main character here. She was fantastic and she was a huge reason why the movie worked so well.

At the end of the day, this is a computer-animated adventure movie that is meant for kids but can definitely still be enjoyed by anyone, so I won’t be writing a dissertation on this. That said, I can’t finish highlighting things I enjoyed without talking about the animation in The Sea Beast. I really found it to be stunning and I loved the look of all of the sea monsters we got in this. I was utterly captivated whenever they were on the screen, and it’s no surprise how good the animation was given who was behind it in Sony Pictures Imageworks and Netflix Animation. I’m pretty sure the last time Sony and Netflix teamed up on an animated movie, it was for The Mitchells vs. the Machines (see my full review here) which was easily my favorite animated movie from last year.

THE BAD

Just like I won’t be writing a dissertation on this because it’s ultimately a movie meant for kids, I also won’t be critiquing it a bunch. This movie is a lot of fun and I had a good time with it. That said, there is one big problem with it that made me take off a lot of points, and that is the film’s runtime. It comes in at just under two hours, and if you’re asking me, that is way too long for an animated movie.

When I was about to hit play on Netflix, I saw the runtime and I audibly gasped. I mean it was well-paced and it flowed nicely, but the movie is meant for kids at the end of the day, and most kids have a short attention span, so I was just confused why they decided to have this be so long. I also thought some of the sound work was a bit choppy from time to time but other than that and the runtime, this movie was smooth sailing.

THE VERDICT

Backed by stunning animation and a great voice cast led by Karl Urban, The Sea Beast is a computer-animated epic adventure of open sea ship battles against giant sea monsters that was a good time from start to finish and a pleasant surprise.

Sure, it could’ve been much shorter if you ask me, but nevertheless, I’d still recommend checking it out as audiences of any age range will be able to enjoy this one.

TED TAKES RATING - 7.7/10

The Sea Beast is now available only on Netflix. Check out the latest trailer below.

Spiderhead

By: Andrew Wing

Spiderhead is a 2022 American science fiction psychological thriller film directed by Joseph Kosinski (Tron: Legacy, Top Gun: Maverick), with a screenplay by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (Zombieland, Deadpool), based on the dystopian short story “Escape from Spiderhead” by George Saunders and first published in The New Yorker. The film stars Chris Hemsworth (Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Endgame), Miles Teller (Whiplash, Top Gun: Maverick), and Jurnee Smollett (Birds of Prey, Lovecraft Country).

The story follows inmates in a luxurious prison who participate in experiments involving mind-altering drugs. Principal photography took place in Australia in 2020.

Spiderhead premiered in Sydney on June 11, 2022, and was released on Netflix on June 17, 2022.

THE GOOD

I never thought it’d be over a month after the release of Spiderhead that I’d finally watch it and review it, but hey life gets in the way sometimes. Nevertheless, I finally got to check out this science fiction psychological thriller, which by the way is basically my two favorite genres rolled into one, from the great yet underrated Joseph Kosinski. I love Kosinski. I’ve seen all of his films, and I’m assuming most people reading this saw his other film that came out earlier this year, a little film by the name of Top Gun: Maverick (see Ted’s full review here) that just recently entered into the top twenty of highest-grossing films of all time at $1.29 billion. Other than Kosinski’s inclusion though, its cast was led by two of my favorite actors at the moment in Miles Teller and the God of thunder himself, Chris Hemsworth who is having himself quite the summer with this, and Thor: Love and Thunder (see Ted’s full review here). That said, was my love for all the guy’s included in this enough to make me actually enjoy the movie? Keep reading to find out!

It wasn’t great, but I still enjoyed it. This movie was interesting, there was a lot to take away from this, and while I don’t think it was Joseph Kosinski’s best work, I still appreciated what he went for with this. He built this world with incredible scale, but more than that, he kept me intrigued from start to finish which says a lot. As I said, I am a big fan of his, and he has clearly already shown he can do these big-budget IP movies like the two I referenced in the intro, but it was great to see some diversity from him with this. This was something totally new from him, and while I don’t think he crushed it, he still gave us a good product and he stood out. All in all, Kosinski continues to show us that he is here to stay, and is one of the most exciting filmmakers working today.

Next with the screenplay we got here from Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. I won’t lie, the screenplay wasn’t perfect which I will go into more detail about later in the review, but it is extremely hard to make a film out of a short story. That’s a tall task, but they pulled it off and pulled it off rather well. The screenplay in this movie was engaging, and thrilling, and kept me locked in and wanting more. I was fully invested in all of the characters and I wanted to see where this journey led them, and that is the main thing I think writers go for with anything they write. I just can’t wait to see what these two guys write next because they continue to build themselves up quite the resume.

Now onto the performances we got in Spiderhead. It’s only right that I start with Chris Hemsworth because I thought he stole the show here. I absolutely love Chris Hemsworth and he is a big reason why Thor is my favorite Marvel superhero. That said, as much as I love him in those movies, I am going to need more of this from Hemsworth. He is way too often typecast, people forget that he can act, but that’s okay because he shows us here. I loved everything about his performance here. His range was wild as we got to see him play the devilish antagonist of a scientist in Spiderhead and he just did a fantastic job!

Next with Miles Teller, an actor I truly adore. I really don’t think Teller has ever had a bad role, and yes I know he was in the Divergent film series and also the terrible remake of Footloose, but I thought his performances in those movies were good. His favorite performance of mine though was undoubtedly in Whiplash back in 2014, and I just can’t get enough of the guy. I don’t know what more there is to say about him. I was buying everything he was selling here, maybe except for the part where he fought well against Hemsworth, but in all seriousness, he was funny at times, and he also crushed it in the more dramatic scenes where he was either breaking down emotionally or going toe-to-toe with Hemsworth’s evil character.

As for the technical elements of Spiderhead, it didn’t skip a beat. I mentioned the scale of the film when talking about Kosinski, but it was legit. The film takes place in the most luxurious prison you’ll ever see, so with that said, shoutout to the production design team on this. Also shoutout to the cinematographer Claudio Miranda who has gotten Academy Award nominations in the past for films like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Life of Pi, two beautiful films. And lastly, this film has a rocking soundtrack full of deep cuts, so if you need a reason to check this flick out, there it is!

THE BAD

Time for the not-so-fun part of the review. Now I liked Spiderhead, there is no debating that. I respect what Kosinski and his writers were going for, and I have no bad things to say about the acting performances we got, but there was one thing that really hurt the film in my opinion. And that was just really the entire second half of the film. The film’s premise was weird, but despite that, I was feeling the premise at first and I was locked in. But right towards the halfway point, you could feel the film losing momentum, and that ultimately led to the ending falling completely flat, and that was really unfortunate and disappointing. I don’t know why, but I just think whoever called the shots at the end of the day wanted to play it safe, and I will talk a bit more about what I thought were some undercooked ideas the film had in the next couple of paragraphs.

I also just have to get this off my chest, but Spiderhead felt eerily similar to one of my favorite films from last decade, Ex Machina from Alex Garland. I absolutely loved that movie, and a big reason was because of how much of a sci-fi it was. And to get back to the undercooked ideas quip I had with Spiderhead, it was definitely more of a mystery thriller than science fiction, and I really think it would have been better if they included more science fiction elements into the movie.

To continue, I just think this movie had so much untapped potential. As I have stated a couple of times in this review, this film is based on the dystopian short story “Escape from Spiderhead” by George Saunders which was first published in The New Yorker. Don’t get me wrong, I give this movie a lot of credit for what they put together, but the simple truth is that it is very hard to adapt a short story into a full feature-length film. It’s a tough thing to do, and while I haven’t read the short story yet myself, after reading other critic reviews it seems like there was a lot of cool stuff from the story that didn’t get used as much as people had hoped.

THE VERDICT

Despite a lackluster second half due to a loss of momentum, Spiderhead was still an interesting, engaging watch from Joseph Kosinski with very solid performances from Chris Hemsworth and Miles Teller, and an incredible soundtrack full of bangers.

TED TAKES RATING - 6.7/10

Spiderhead is now available only on Netflix. Check out the latest trailer below.

Lamb

By: Andrew Wing

Lamb (Icelandic: Dyrio, lit. ‘The animal’) is a 2021 folk horror film directed by Valdimar Jóhannsson, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Sjón. An international co-production between Iceland, Sweden, and Poland, the film stars Noomi Rapace (Millenium series, Prometheus), and marks Valdimar Jóhannsson’s feature-length directorial debut. Rapace and Béla Tarr act as executive producers.

The film follows an Icelandic couple who live with their herd of sheep on a beautiful but remote farm when they discover a mysterious newborn on their land. But when they decide to keep it and raise it as their own, this unexpected development and the prospects of a new family which they thought would bring them much joy, turns into something else entirely.

After premiering at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, the film was released in Iceland on September 24, 2021. It was selected as the Icelandic entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards.

THE GOOD

I won’t lie, I thought I was done reviewing films from 2021, but once I saw that the Icelandic folk horror film Lamb was available to stream on Showtime, I just couldn’t resist. Also, it is an A24 film, and if you ask anyone that knows me, they will know that I live and die by A24. Being a true cinephile, I love all aspects and genres of film, and all of the A24 films carry an unexplainable vibe that definitely isn’t for most audiences, but I just eat it up. That said, the trailer for this was about as A24 as it could get, so I knew I had to check it out and eventually review it. So without further ado, let’s find out if this was another banger from A24, or if it was simply too weird and offputting to make for a quality film.

I’ll hold off on answering that for a bit, but just to start, I’ll say this movie is unlike anything I’ve seen before. I mean it didn’t take much considering the film follows a human/sheep hybrid with a mostly human body and a lamb’s head and right arm, but still, it was just so surreal. And I know I said I’d keep you waiting for a little, but I lied because to answer the question I posed, this is a high-quality film despite the wacky subject matter. And a big reason why it is was because of the director, Valdimar Jóhannsson, who had quite the feature-length directorial debut. Talk about going for it on your first movie, I mean this movie is so darkly imaginative. He brought to life this movie in a way that was so haunting and atmospheric, and I loved how he chose to have this be very slow-moving, and also extremely nutty in a way. All in all, Jóhannsson made a fan out of me, and I cannot wait to see what he does next.

Now Jóhannsson put this movie together in a way that not many other directors could have in his debut, but what took this movie from average to above-average was Noomi Rapace. For those who don’t know her, Rapace is a Swedish actress and she is a really big deal overseas. She is an amazing actress and she was actually the famous girl with the dragon tattoo before Rooney Mara was in David Fincher’s Americanized version. Nevertheless, Rapace showed why she is one of the top foreign actresses today by her performance as María in this. This story is bizarre, and the only way it would’ve worked was if the lead was totally bought in, and she was. It really felt like she had raised this creation her entire life and had a deep personal connection to it, and I was just blown away by what she did here. If there is one reason to watch this movie in the first place, it is her performance hands down.

There is no denying that Rapace took home the grand prize here, but the other two performances we got are from supporting actors Hilmir Snær Guõnason and Björn Hylnur Huraldsson. Guõnason’s character is the husband to María and it was incredible watching his character’s journey from beginning to end, and seeing how he came to love this creature was impressive. As for Huraldsson who I thought had the slightly better performance, well he plays the husband’s brother who apparently used to have a thing with María in the past. His performance was great and he really played the bad guy role so well. I also thought he looked so familiar and after doing some research, I found that he had a role in the Netflix fantasy series The Witcher that I watch which stars the man of steel himself, Henry Cavill.

In closing, I got to show some love to the top-notch technical side of things when it comes to Lamb. First, the cinematography we got here from Eli Arenson was phenomenal. Iceland is such an astonishingly beautiful country and I will never get tired of watching movies that take place there, and I just thought Arenson captured it in a way that helped the story dramatically. Also, the music like in all of the A24 films was fantastic and it made you feel uneasy in all the right spots. And lastly, it goes without saying that the VFX team absolutely crushed it here. They brought this human/sheep hybrid to life in a way that felt uncomfortably real and I probably will never look at lambs the same way again.

THE BAD

Alright, this is tough. If you’ve gotten this far into the review, you saw the poster, and you read the film’s premise, so you know what you are dealing with, and what you are dealing with is a very strange film. I’ve said it, and I’ll say it again but it is literally about a human/sheep hybrid. Like that is fucking weird, and if you can’t do weird movies, then this movie isn’t for you and I’d totally get it. I will say though, that if you like horror movies, good cinematography, and want to see some amazing acting performances, then you should just dive right into Lamb because you won’t regret it.

Now that that is out of the way, let’s get into some of the problems I had with the film. There weren’t many because it’s a high-quality film as I have said, but it isn’t flawless. First, as I do with all horror movies, I have to judge it by how much it scared me, and while it had a few scenes here and there, I just didn’t particularly find the film scary at all. Now I was uncomfortable, but that is different. It’s frustrating too because there was one scene about midway through that was pretty terrifying and I thought it was about to get batshit crazy, but it really didn’t and I think after seeing it that if it did, this movie could’ve gone from good to great.

The second and bigger problem I had with Lamb was the ending. I don’t know, by the time the final act rolled around I was highly invested and it felt like we were getting to the point where there was a price that needed to be paid, and while it was paid I guess, it just wasn’t in the way I had hoped. Maybe others will like how things wrap up, but I just felt it to be such an underwhelming conclusion to a film that had such a compelling start.

THE VERDICT

Despite the film’s bizarre premise and what I thought was an underwhelming conclusion, Lamb is a folk horror film that is haunting and unsettling. It is an interesting debut from director Valdimar Jóhannsson that has me eager to see what he does next, and it’s backed by amazingly bought-in performances from the cast, especially Noomi Rapace, and some stunning cinematography of Iceland.

It’s a tough film to recommend because it certainly isn’t for everyone, but I’d suggest keeping an open mind and checking it out because it definitely wasn’t what I was expecting and you can’t go wrong with A24.

TED TAKES RATING - 7.6/10

Lamb is now available to watch on Showtime. Check out the latest trailer below.

The Gray Man

By: Andrew Wing

The Gray Man is a 2022 American action thriller film directed by Anthony and Joe Russo (Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame), from a screenplay the latter co-wrote with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame), based on the 2009 novel of the same name by Mark Greaney. The film stars Ryan Gosling (La La Land, Blade Runner 2049), Chris Evans (Avengers: Endgame, Knives Out), Ana de Armas (Blade Runner 2049, No Time to Die), Jessica Henwick (Iron Fist, The Matrix Resurrections), Regé-Jean Page (Bridgerton, Sylvie’s Love), Dhanush (prominent Indian actor who works in Tamil cinema), Wagner Moura (Elysium, Narcos), Julia Butters (American Housewife, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Alfre Woodard (12 Years a Slave, Clemency), and Billy Bob Thornton (Bad Santa, Fargo).

Produced by the Russo brothers’ company, AGBO (Extraction, Everything Everywhere All at Once), it is the first film in a franchise based upon Greaney’s Gray Man novels. The film focuses on the CIA agent Court Gentry (Gosling), who is on the run from sadistic mercenary Lloyd Hanson (Evans) upon discovering corrupt secrets about his superior (Page).

An adaptation of Greaney’s novel was originally announced in 2011, with James Gray (The Lost City of Z, Ad Astra) set to direct Brad Pitt, and later Charlize Theron in a gender-swapped role, though neither version ever came to fruition. The property lingered in development hell until July 2020, when it was announced the Russo brothers would direct, with both Gosling and Evans attached to star. Filming began in Los Angeles in March 2021, before wrapping in Prague that July. With a production budget of $200 million, it is among the most expensive films ever made by Netflix.

The Gray Man began a limited theatrical release on July 15, 2022, followed by its digital release on Netflix on July 22. The film will be followed by a sequel with Gosling reprising his role and a spin-off.

THE GOOD

I have yet to read the book, but ever since this project was announced back two years ago in July 2020, I have been beyond excited. The main reason being the two actors who were attached to star in the film in both Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans. I mean it really doesn’t get much better than that, to be honest. I mean Gosling is my second favorite actor just behind Adam Driver after seeing him star in two of my all-time favorite movies in La La Land and Blade Runner 2049. As for Chris Evans, I love everything about him. He is Captain America for christ's sake, the man is a living legend. More than that, the man can legitimately act. Don’t believe me? Go check out Rian Johnson’s 2019 whodunnit Knives Out, which is another one of my favorite films from the past five-plus years. Aside from those two guys, the fact that the Russo brothers were going to direct an action film was phenomenal because they clearly know how to do that after directing probably four of the top ten MCU films. Despite all the good things it had going for it, the Russo brothers did direct Cherry last year, a movie I thought was quite bad, so I had a tiny bit of skepticism. Nevertheless, I checked it out the first thing I could, so keep reading to find out if it matched my otherworldly expectations, or if it was another post-Marvel dud from the Russo brothers!

It was neither. It, unfortunately, didn’t match my expectations, but that’s more of a me problem and it doesn’t take away from the fact that was a good movie that was really entertaining, that was also a massive improvement over Cherry! I think the reason I didn’t vibe with Cherry was that it was more of a drama movie than the Russo brothers have done before. There is no denying that their bread and butter is action and they put that on display in The Gray Man. I will address the action scenes, in particular, a little later, but the scale of this movie was massive. They used all of their $200 million budget and gave us one hell of an enjoyable watch. It truly was a tactically aggressive and almost brawny assassin action film that just proves that when it comes to making an action movie, these two guys are at the top of the food chain.

Enough about the Russo brothers though, it’s time to talk about the main selling points of the movie, Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans. First with Gosling, as he is the lead actor in The Gray Man. Gosling crushed it here, and as much as I liked Chris Evans, he carried the film for me. Gosling just has this natural stoic toughness that we have seen from him in all of his films that is unexplainable, and that’s why I love him and he is one of my favorite actors. Now I hope he keeps taking dramatic roles in the future so he can get a damn Oscar which he might do in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie which comes out next year, but at the same time, I would have nothing wrong with him starring in more action movies because the dude is a beast. No wonder he is married to Eva Mendes. 

Next with America’s Ass himself, Chris Evans. First things first, if you aren’t a Chris Evans fan, you just have something wrong with you. Evans captured our hearts from the first time he played Cap, and we were all crying in Avengers: Endgame when he passed his shield down to his best friend Sam Wilson. If you say you weren’t, you’re just lying to yourself. Aside from the MCU though, he has shown just how talented of an actor he is, especially in Knives Out when he played the antagonist. And his performance in that was a huge reason why I was so excited to see him play the villain in this, and he did not disappoint. He can just play a smug piece of shit so well, and while I still thought we should’ve got more from his character, I loved everything he brought to the table here. 

Now with this being an action thriller from the Russo brothers, you know we have to talk about the action scenes. I thought they were fantastic and they really kept me interested in this movie. They were all entertaining and engaging, and the fight choreography was fantastic. To be specific, the first fight scene that introduces us to Gosling’s character Court Gentry, and the last fight scene between the two stars of the film were incredible and lived up to the hype. More than that, the whole last act of the film was fucking awesome as it was just straight action from start to finish.

THE BAD

As much as I enjoyed watching two of my favorite actors on screen, there is just no way I can call this an above-average action movie. There were great fight sequences, don't get me wrong, but it was just nowhere close to competing with some of the best the action genre has seen like the John Wick franchise and the Mission: Impossible film series. Those movies are truly elite and have some of the best singular films the genre has ever seen, and I was expecting The Gray Man to be on that level, but it just wasn’t. However, I will definitely still keep the faith and hold out hope because as I mentioned, it’s already been announced that the film will be followed by a sequel with Gosling reprising his role and a spin-off series too.

Now that that is out of the way, we need to discuss what I thought were the two biggest problems with the film. First with the script, which I thought was most definitely a clichéd one. It’s tough because the writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have proven in the past with MCU films that they can write a good script and balance out the drama, action, and humor, and while it wasn’t terrible, it just wasn’t good enough. As I said, it was full of clichés and other stereotypes we know too well from other action films, and it was at its worst in the first thirty minutes of the film if you ask me. From the encryption keys to the data leaks, it was just all stuff we as an audience are tired of seeing, and if you throw in some of the other cringy dialogue we got too, it just felt like lazy writing to me.

The second main problem I had with The Gray Man was its pacing. I have seen other critics refer to the film’s pacing as “breakneck pacing”, and after watching it, I can agree with that. It just moves way too fast, and it reminded me a lot of, to refer to another action film, John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, the movie I find to be the worst of the John Wick franchise. It was even worse in The Gray Man though because of this being the first film of the franchise that's main duty was to entertain, which it did, but to also introduce us to the characters and develop them. And at the end of the day, as much as I loved both Gosling and Evans’ characters, they both could’ve used more character development, and so could the majority of the rest of the cast, especially Ana de Armas’ character.

THE VERDICT

Despite it not reaching the levels of the John Wick franchise or the Mission: Impossible film series due to a stereotypical script and some poor character development, the Russo brother’s book-to-screen adaptation of The Gray Man is still a thrilling piece of entertainment that sees two of the best in the business in Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans go face-to-face on the big screen.

All in all, I thought Gosling and Evans carried the film with their chemistry, but the action sequences were as great as you’d expect considering who’s in the director’s chairs.

TED TAKES RATING - 7.4/10

The Gray Man is now streaming on Netflix. Check out the latest trailer below.

Nope

By: Andrew Wing

Nope is a 2022 American science fiction horror film written, directed, and co-produced by Jordan Peele (Get Out, Us) under his Monkeypaw Productions banner. It stars Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out, Judas and the Black Messiah), Keke Palmer (Akeelah and the Bee, Hustlers), Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead, Minari), Brandon Perea (The OA), Michael Wincott (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Crow), Wrenn Schmidt (For All Mankind, Boardwalk Empire), and Keith David (The Thing, They Live). In the film, two ranch-owning siblings (Kaluuya and Palmer), with the help of a tech salesman (Perea) and a renowned cinematographer (Wincott), attempt to capture and sell video evidence of an unidentified flying object.

Peele officially announced his then-untitled third directorial film in November 2019. Palmer and Kaluuya joined in February 2020, with Yeun being cast the next month, and Peele revealed the title in July 2021. Filming took place during fall 2021 in northern Los Angeles county, before wrapping in late November.

The film premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on July 18, 2022, and was released in the United States on July 22, 2022, by Universal Pictures.

THE GOOD

The time has finally come! Ask anyone close to me, and they will tell you that Nope was easily my most anticipated film of 2022. The number of times I watched the incredibly ambiguous trailer, and forced those close to me to watch it just so I could hear Daniel Kaluuya perfectly utter the phrase “what’s a bad miracle?” was probably unhealthy. I mean how could I not be excited? It is the third directorial film from Jordan Peele who this time was taking on my favorite personal genre, science fiction, and it also had him reuniting with Kaluuya who was the star of his 2017 debut film Get Out. The hype for this film was absurd and I saw it as soon as I could, so the question is, did it live up to the hype? Keep reading to find out!

Without any hesitation, the answer is yes. It did live up to the hype. Jordan Peele man. The guy is a truly talented filmmaker and after Get Out in 2017, Us in 2019, and now Nope, he hasn’t even come close to missing. What he has done in the past five years is remarkable, and that is why he is already through three films, one of my, and I’m sure many others, favorite directors working today. It is just his pure originality when it comes to his storytelling that is so unique nowadays when so much of what we consume comes from other IP, and you can tell he has a true love for the horror genre. The other thing I love about Peele is his ambition as a filmmaker and storyteller. He is not just one of the most exciting filmmakers we have today, but he is one we truly need. He means something to us as cinephiles as all of his movies mean something and say something, and that was exactly what he did with Nope in his third outing as writer/director.

Peele’s direction in Nope was honestly flawless in my opinion. The way he crafted this film was amazing. It was a spectacle to tell you the truth and it honestly felt like I was watching a cinematic event. He clearly had a strong grasp on both the sci-fi and horror genres just with the way he paid homage to previous legendary films. I’ve already mentioned that I love my science fiction, but I really am not too big on horror just because nowadays it has become so gore-based. But with Peele in this, he focuses more on the supernatural horror which I think is scarier, and more than that, he does horror in a way that folds society in on itself and makes us look at how scary we are as human beings. And Jordan Peele has mastered that and does it better than any other director out there. Also, as the director, he was able to test some of the best talents in the industry with very heady and highbrow concepts, and we really see those with his script. 

First things first, this script is wholly original. Now I’m sure some people might have a few problems with the script just because of how the film ends which I will touch on later in the review, but as a whole, this script was magnificent. It was full of tension, and this dark and eerie vibe that made your skin crawl, but it also contained a lot of humor and just the perfect amount of social commentary. All in all, Jordan Peele is the fucking man, and I would love to see him get Oscar nominations for both his direction and his original screenplay because he deserves it.

Jordan Peele will definitely get the most praise for Nope, and deservingly so, but goddamn are all of the performances across the board amazing! I never thought I’d say this in a movie that starred Daniel Kaluuya, but I have got to start with Keke Palmer because she was the absolute standout of the film for me. Yes, that’s right I said Keke Palmer, the actress that most of us know from her days as a child actress for both her roles on Nickelodeon and also some stuff on the Disney channel. But she has grown up since then, and with her performance in this, I’d say she is about to break out as a star. I was just buying everything she was selling here. She was funny, dramatic, and her chemistry with Kaluuya was phenomenal. I honestly can’t see any other actress in her role which is crazy to say, but she carried this film, and I can’t wait to see what she does next.

Now onto the guy that rightfully deserves the first billing he got here, and that is Daniel Kaluuya. Kaluuya is so damn good in this, and while it might not have been as good as his performance in Get Out, it was such a completely different performance and that is arguably more impressive. He plays the character OJ, a very shy and reserved person who just keeps to himself, and I was blown away by what Kaluuya did with his character. Honestly though, and I don’t think I’m crazy in saying this, but Kaluuya might be a top five actor in Hollywood at the moment. I mean he is definitely a top five favorite actor of mine, but who in the past five years has put out as many incredible performances as he has? Maybe Adam Driver, and I couldn’t resist because he is my favorite actor, but from Get Out to Queen & Slim, to Judas and the Black Messiah which earned him what I think is the first of many Oscars for him, to now this, Kaluuya is an absolute superstar and I cannot wait to see what is next for him.

Kaluuya and Palmer definitely were the best of the bunch when it came to the performances in Nope, but there are so many other supporting performances that need to get mentioned. Steven Yeun was fantastic as he gave us his most confident performance I think of to date as the sort of secondhand antagonist in the film. And I know I said Keke Palmer might break out as a star after this, but the same can be said for Brandon Perea, an actor I had never seen before, who played the tech salesman, Angel. Perea was pretty much the comic relief character alongside Palmer here, and he was really funny, but there was something else about his performance that just made his character so great and just someone you wanted more of. And to finish on the performances before we get to the technical elements of Nope, I have to touch on Michael Wincott’s performance. Similar to Perea, I had never heard or seen him, but he crushed it, and boy oh boy does he have an intimidating voice.

In conclusion, being the cinephile that I am who appreciates all aspects of film, I need to highlight Nope’s technical elements, specifically the music and the cinematography. First with the music that was done by Michael Abels. Abels did the music for Peele’s previous two films, and just like in those, the music was great here. The music really enhanced the dark and eerie feeling I briefly mentioned earlier, yet it somehow felt grander and larger than any other score he has ever composed. I just hope he and Peele work together on all of Peele’s future films because they just get it. Oh, and speaking of Peele and his collaborators, he needs to keep working with the film’s editor Nicholas Monsour because the film was perfectly edited and flowed very nicely.

Now onto the cinematography which Hoyte van Hoytema did. I am such a sucker for some good cinematography, and while Roger Deakins (Blade Runner 2049, 1917) is the absolute GOAT, van Hoytema is right up there with the best of them. Other films he has shot include Her, Ad Astra, and three Christopher Nolan films: Interstellar, Dunkirk, and Tenet, and Nope is in my opinion one of his best works. I am no cinematography expert, but I’d assume it’s a challenge to shoot something that is not there but is there in post-production thanks to the visual effects, which were outstanding by the way in Nope, but it really felt like van Hoytema was just shooting UFOs, and that combined with the way he shot the beautiful Agua Dulce desert in northern LA have me wanting him to get a Best Cinematography nomination so freaking bad.

THE BAD

News flash: I loved Nope. As I said, it lived up to the hype, and I really got everything I wanted out of this film. I won’t listen to anyone who calls it bad, but I will say there are definitely some areas where one could critique. The first is the fact that this just wasn’t as good or rather as impactful as Peele’s first two films, both of which I would give very high ratings. However, the biggest critique the film has was the ending and how it wrapped up. I was fine with how things ended, to tell the truth, but I’d be lying if I said it wrapped up just how I wanted it to. 

Also, after reading a ton of other reviews on the film, I have consistently seen people blasting the film’s subplot that deals with Steven Yeun’s character’s backstory. It was definitely weird, and maybe it didn’t make perfect sense and you had to wait a while to know more about it, but I was able to put the pieces together and see how it connected to the story as a whole. Lastly, it also was probably a good fifteen minutes longer than it needed to be as it had some unnecessary scenes. All that said, I still ate this movie up, I cannot wait to rewatch it, and I will spend the next six months praying that it gets a Best Picture nomination!

THE VERDICT

In his third outing as writer-director, the brilliant Jordan Peele’s Nope is a sci-fi horror that is an absolute spectacle that needs to be seen on the biggest screen possible. Sure, maybe it doesn’t hit the same marks as his previous two films, but his ambitious direction and beautifully original screenplay that is full of horrifying, yet intriguing concepts and metaphors on today’s society make me say this is one of 2022’s best thus far.

It also features another great Daniel Kaluuya performance, and one from Keke Palmer that absolutely stole the show. Aside from that, the technicals are all top-notch, from the VFX to Hoyte van Hoytema’s mind-blowing cinematography, to the terrifying creative sound work, and a breathtaking score from Michael Abels.

TED TAKES RATING - 9.2/10

Nope is now playing only in theaters. Check out the latest trailer below.

Elvis

By: Andrew Wing

Elvis is a 2022 biographical musical film directed by Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!, The Great Gatsby), who co-wrote the screenplay with Sam Bromell, Craig Pearce, and Jeremy Doner. The film follows the life of rock and roll icon, singer and actor Elvis Presley, told from the perspective of his manager, Colonel Tom Parker. It stars Austin Butler (The Dead Don’t Die, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) in the title role with Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan) as Parker, and Olivia DeJonge (The Visit, The Society), Helen Thomson (Kangaroo Jack, A Man’s Gotta Do), Richard Roxburgh (Van Helsing, Hacksaw Ridge), Kelvin Harrison Jr. (Waves, The High Note), David Wenham (The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, 300), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Let Me In, The Power of the Dog), and Luke Bracey (Point Break, Hacksaw Ridge) in supporting roles.

It was announced in 2014 that Luhrmann would be directing an Elvis Presley biopic, though the project was not officially announced until March 2019. Butler was cast in the title role that July, beating out several high-profile actors. Filming began in Luhrmann’s native Australia in January 2020, but paused from March through September following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Filming wrapped over a year after it began, in March 2021.

Elvis premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 25, 2022, and was released theatrically by Warner Bros. Pictures in Australia on June 23, 2022, and in the United States on June 24. The film has so far grossed over $159.4 million worldwide against its $85 million budget.

THE GOOD

It seems crazy that we are just now, 45 years after his death in 1977, getting a biopic on the rock and roll icon Elvis Presley. I mean the man was a sensation and he is arguably the biggest and most popular singer right up there with Michael Jackson to be completely honest. Despite the long wait though, we finally got a biopic on Elvis and it came to us from the one and only Baz Luhrmann. Luhrmann hasn’t made as many films in his directing career as say Martin Scorsese, but the guy absolutely has his own style and he clearly has a profound love for music, so I thought he was the perfect choice to direct this film. Also, once I saw the initial trailer for Elvis and saw Austin Butler as the titular character, I was blown away and I couldn’t wait to check this baby out and see how he would portray the “King of Rock and Roll”! Despite all of my excitement, it is just the truth that there have been some bad biopics so far this century, and you throw in the fact that Luhrmann has been known to make a stinker a time or two and that Butler has never been in the lead role in a feature film before, there was definitely a chance this could be a disaster. So without further ado, was this the flop that some people were projecting, or was it the Elvis biopic we have all been waiting for? Keep reading to find out!

I won’t keep you waiting, It was definitely the one we have all been waiting for. Now I, like many others, have definitely been feeling a little bit of musical biopic fatigue after Bohemian Rhapsody in 2018, Rocketman in 2019, and last year’s Respect (see my full review here), but Elvis was the best of all of those I think. I enjoyed it a lot and it was just a good time for lack of a better phrase. Ever since seeing it, I have been singing “Suspicious Minds”, my personal favorite Elvis song, on repeat. And the reason I found it to be the best of those other musical biopics I mentioned is mainly because it had undoubtedly the best lead performance of all of them, and that belonged to Austin Butler.

Now despite his good looks, before this movie Austin Butler was definitely not a household name. He was in an episode of iCarly way back in the day and also some stuff on the Disney Channel, but he really impressed me back in 2019 as he played the serial killer member of the Manson family, Tex, in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. All that said, after his role in this, Austin Butler’s name will never be forgotten. There is no denying that Austin Butler is the best part of this movie. Absolutely none. 

I really don’t think there could have been a better casting choice because he does look a lot like Elvis, but it was so much more than that. It never felt like he was just doing some lame impersonation of Elvis, but rather you could tell he did his homework and just got lost in the role. He just feels so effortless in this role and I really felt like I got a sense of Elvis’s personality thanks to Butler’s portrayal. He nailed the voice, the dance moves, and all of the stuff he needed to get right, and because of that, he damn well better get a Best Actor nomination at the 95th Academy Awards. I’d be fine if he won, but it’s way too early to predict that because for the rest of this year we still have films coming out that feature some star big name actors like Leonardo DiCaprio, Hugh Jackman, Adam Driver, and Christian Bale just to name a few.

Now onto the crazy Australian that is Baz Luhrmann. Like I previously mentioned, he definitely has put out some stinkers and I have mixed feelings about him as a director, but I’d say this was one of his better products he has ever put out. What he does worked here truthfully because the movie was really energetic, colorful, and just hard not to be entertained by. Also, like I said, the man clearly has a deep passion for music and I did appreciate greatly the way the music was handled here from the touches of modern soundtrack to the way he did all of Elvis’s music to also make that sound more modern. All in all, I really liked how Luhrmann did all of that and his style worked basically perfectly here.

Continuing with the music as a whole, the musical sequences we got here are incredible. I really liked how they tried to hit on Elvis’s love for the crowd, and they did that very nicely in all of the musical sequences. They just did a brilliant job at showing the excess of all of that and really showing how much of a performer Elvis was. I mean really the best scenes of the movie were the ones where we got to watch Elvis passionately perform, thrive on stage, and just be true to who he is. Every time he took the stage he was trying to prove who he was as an artist and the musical sequences did that exceptionally.

There were so many other things I liked about Elvis that I just needed to touch on. First, the costumes were truly glorious and this movie will definitely be in the running for that at the Oscars. I also loved the production design in every scene, and I just can’t say enough about the sound in this movie from start to finish. And lastly, even though I didn’t love Hanks’ character that he plays in a fat suit that I will touch on more later in the review, the makeup in this movie was still very good. Oh, and the Doja Cat song “Vegas”, which incorporates elements from Big Mama Thorton’s “Hound Dog”, was awesome and it will likely get a Best Original Song nomination too.

THE BAD

Alright, here we go. I never thought I’d be saying this but the hands down worst part of this movie was Tom Hanks. I know, you can call me crazy. I’m not taking anything away from Hanks, because he is truly one of the greatest actors of all time, but boy oh boy this was not it. Hanks was fine I guess and I’m sure people will like his performance because he is Tom Hanks, but I really think the main problem was just that he got cast in this in the first place. Now I know you need star power to get people in the seats, but I mean they could’ve picked literally anyone else. I mean there are a bunch of overweight actors in Hollywood they could’ve picked, or they could have just picked someone who is actually Dutch. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but it was just such a distraction seeing Tom Hanks play the antagonist of Colonel Tom Parker with a Dutch accent in a fat suit, and I thought he was so so out of place.

Also, I brought up the fact that Baz Luhrmann has his own style because he definitely does, and while I think I vibed with it more than I usually do, I could still definitely see people being annoyed by it. For example, the first act of the movie truly might give you a headache or even whiplash just by the way it was edited and the way it zooms through Elvis’s life at extremely fast speeds. The editing in this movie as a whole was just insane. There is a lot of wacky shit, a lot of split screen stuff, wild transitions, and I just wasn’t a fan of all the overediting. That said, I would put money on it getting a Best Editing nomination because the Academy is stupid, so much so that Bohemian Rhapsody, a terribly edited film, actually won for Best Editing back at the 91st Academy Awards in 2019.

My last complaint I had with Elvis is that it is basically a Wikipedia page biopic if that makes sense. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the final product but it follows his entire career told through the perspective of his manager. Now I still enjoyed it, but there’s no taking away the fact that Elvis was a pretty generic musical biopic in terms of the story. We just moved way too fast, which is weird given the film’s way too long of a runtime, and it left us with a very general impression of Elvis at the end of the film rather than the personal or lasting impression we wanted it to have on us.

THE VERDICT

Despite the generic storytelling, wacky editing, and what I thought was a bad Tom Hanks role, Elvis is still one of the best musical biopics we’ve gotten in the past few years, thanks mostly to Austin Butler’s unbelievable transformative performance as the “King of Rock and Roll”! Butler just crushed every aspect of this role and he is more than deserving of a Best Actor nomination.

Aside from that, Baz Luhrmann’s style was perfect for this story, and he gave us one of the most energetic and colorfully vibrant movies in recent memory. He also gave us some great musical sequences and a banger of a soundtrack too, but more importantly, Luhrmann does achieve the film’s goal of giving the audience a deeper appreciation of Elvis.

At the end of the day, I do think that audiences already have been and will continue to dig this movie a lot, and if this continues to be a mega hit like Bohemian Rhapsody was back in 2018, it might even be able to nab one of the ten Best Picture nominations, but we will just have to wait and see.

TED TAKES RATING - 8.1/10

Elvis is now playing in theaters. Check out the latest trailer below.

Where the Crawdads Sing

Where the Crawdads Sing is a 2022 mystery drama film directed by Olivia Newman, from a screenplay written by Lucy Alibar. Newman is best known for her debut film, the 2018 Netflix original drama First Match, which she wrote and directed. Where the Crawdads Sing is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by author Delia Owens. Published in 2018, the book was selected by Reese Witherspoon for her book club helping with the trajectory that would eventually lead to the big screen. Witherspoon also serves as executive producer on the film.

Abandoned as a girl, Kya raised herself in the dangerous marshlands of North Carolina. For years, rumors of the marsh girl haunted Barkley Cove, isolating the sharp and resilient Kya from her community. Drawn to two young men from town, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world; but when one of them is found dead, she is immediately cast by the community as the main suspect. As the case unfolds, the verdict as to what actually happened becomes increasingly unclear, threatening to reveal the many secrets that lay within the marsh.

The cast includes Daisy Edgar-Jones, Taylor John Smith, Harris Dickinson, Michael Hyatt, Sterling Macer Jr., and David Strathairn.

Where the Crawdads Sing made its debut in theaters on July 15th, courtesy of Sony Pictures Releasing.

THE GOOD

I have been a movie guy for as long as I can remember, more than likely since before I could even walk. I guess you could look at me as Jim Carrey’s Chip character in the movie Cable Guy, partially raised by movies and television shows, just slightly less clingy and certainly not as psychotic. But in all seriousness, movies have always been at the center of my universe. When it came to reading, not so much. I mean sure, I read plenty of books in high school, like the classic The Catcher in the Rye, but that was required. After high school, my interest in reading faded fast, and when people mentioned a book they thought I should read, I would always respond by saying I will watch the movie when it comes out. But as it happened I matured into a productive member of society, and in the process discovered that I enjoy reading a good book.

My love for movies hasn’t changed either, and instead, I found a way to combine the two. I jump at the opportunity to read a book that is either based on a movie that I have always considered a favorite, like Black Hawk Down for example or when a trailer for a movie or series releases that is based on a book I try and read it before the movie comes out, like the Netflix original film The Gray Man (our preview and trailer here), which I am currently reading. When the trailer for Where the Crawdads Sing dropped, all I was hearing was how incredible the book was and how excited fans of the book were for the movie. So naturally, I grabbed a copy of the book, and my wife and I both gave it a read, and boy was it good! She of course finished it first and nagged me to finish so we could have our own little book club discussion. Naturally, my wife and I quickly became a part of the crowd anxiously awaiting the middle of July when the film would finally hit theaters. Well, that day is finally here. Did the movie live up to the best-selling page-turner? Keep reading to find out!

I’ll admit I was nervous simply because of the fact that book-to-film adaptations tend to have an uphill battle when it comes to living up to the expectations of the source material, but I am pleased to report that Where the Crawdads Sing is a very worthy adaptation that was able to bring this amazing book to life. I genuinely enjoyed this movie which for me felt very much like a journey as I re-lived the incredible life of Miss Catherine Danielle Clark, aka Kya Clark, or better known as The Marsh Girl. As I sat there in the theater consisting mostly of women in their late 60s, I was anxiously waiting to see how the story would play out on the screen, and it did not disappoint. Kya’s secluded shack in the marsh was exactly how I envisioned it, and just like when I read the book I was in awe of the tranquil, albeit very lonely, life she led. When a book I really like becomes a movie, I am hit with a hefty case of FOLSO (Fear of Leaving Something Out). Okay sure I just made up that acronym, but it doesn’t make it any less true.

Books simply have too much content to fit in a movie without making it 5-hours long, which is why they are often made into a series or at the very least a two-part movie. For this reason, we as fans of the book and eventual viewers of the film are left hoping they include our favorite parts of the book, but the reality is the powers that be, in this instance being Lucy Alibar who wrote the screenplay, are mostly concerned with including enough to ensure the story feels whole. And I have to say, she did one heck of a job with Where the Crawdads Sing. And it was no simple task as Kya’s journey is told in a span of several years, with important moments in her life taking place from when she was just a little girl, right into adulthood, and eventually leading up to the incident that lands her in a courtroom with her life and the freedom she holds so dear hanging in the balance. Viewers need to see the Kya we fell in love with in the book, and I believe that is exactly what we got with this movie. Just a job well done all around.

Where the Crawdads Sing puts a premium on all of the necessary elements that make or break a film. The casting decisions were perfect making for some stellar acting and genuine chemistry between the leads, the pacing of the story fell into place nicely and unraveled just how I had hoped, the cinematography was fantastic, and the score/soundtrack made everything feel real. The film has some intense scenes with lots of drama and suspense, but also tells a great love story and includes plenty of heartwarming and sometimes very sad moments. You might want to bring a few tissues to the theater just in case. The book tells a fairly elaborate story and jumps back and forth between timelines as we learn more about Kya and her journey, and the film found a way to tell the story in the same way. Just like the book, the mysterious death of a well-known local man and subsequent murder investigation quickly became the talk of the town, particularly once the Marsh Girl became the primary suspect. The film flows extremely well and the 2-hours really fly by, thanks to the fact that the story has so many interesting elements giving screenwriter Lucy Alibar plenty to work with. The book left quite an impression on me, and I am thrilled to say the film did as well.

When it comes to Where the Crawdads Sing, a major plus for the film is the acting which needless to say would make or break a film based on such a beloved novel. Fans of the book already had a vision of what the characters should look like, and I have to commend the casting team for the amazing job they did here. First and foremost, the gorgeous and talented Daisy Edgar-Jones was the perfect choice for Kya, better known as the Marsh Girl. As beautiful as she was fiercely independent to a fault at times, Edgar-Jones felt like she jumped from the pages of the book onto the screen. As a fan of the book it really was quite an experience watching her become this character. She did her justice and then some. This movie simply does not work without the right person in this role, and she was just fantastic throughout. Time and time again I found myself just lost in her eyes, and no matter what when I looked at Edgar-Jones I saw Kya, it was unmistakable.

My next favorite character in the book was also very well cast, and that would be Taylor John Smith who took on the role of Tate. A huge part of Kya’s journey, Tate’s character is a constant presence with quite a unique story arch as it relates to his connection to Kya. Like a lemonade stand on a scorching summer day, I was buying what he was selling. From his infectious smile to his genuinely good-natured demeanor and high character, which translated perfectly from the book, Smith owned his role. Another very important character who is at the core of the film’s backstory is that of Chase Andrews, played by Harris Dickinson. I won’t go too in-depth at the risk of spoiling anything for those of you who haven’t seen the movie or read the book, but he is a pivotal character. Dickinson was tasked with playing a tough role in terms of some of the scenes he is involved in, and he does a really nice job remaining believable even during some of the more intense moments. I really like Dickinson as an actor who was fantastic in the 2021 action thriller The King’s Man (our full review here), which you can now stream on HBO Max and Hulu.

Aside from Kya and Tate, I am fairly confident that any fan of the book would say that the next most important casting decision rested with two other pivotal characters, which would be Jumpin’ and Mabel. I fell in love with Jumpin’s character in the book right from the start, and in each chapter I looked forward to Kya’s next interaction with him. His wife Mabel followed his lead as the two became the beating heart of Kya’s support system. As a girl who was shunned and written off by nearly every other person in her life, she was forced into becoming independent and self-reliant. But even so, Jumpin’ and Mabel sacrificed a great deal to look out for and protect this little girl from the start. I was beyond nervous about who they would cast as Jumpin’, and I thought Sterling Macer Jr. was fantastic in the role. His intentional demeanor and sheer kindness came to life with Macer Jr.’s performance, and that put an ear-to-ear smile on my face. I am so glad he was given this opportunity and he is deserving of some praise because this movie does not work as well as it did without him.

Michael Hyatt, a great actress who is best known by me for her role in the FX series Snowfall, takes on the role of Mabel. Hyatt is known for playing strong roles, and I loved her as Mabel. Her relationship with Jumpin’ was a critical part of the book, and she had incredible chemistry with Macer Jr. in the film. Hyatt is one of those actresses that can say a lot without saying anything at all, she just gives you that look and you know exactly what she is trying to say. So yeah, I was very pleased with how two of my favorite characters were portrayed on-screen. I also really liked the decision to cast veteran actor David Strathairn as lawyer Tom Milton. In order for it to be believable that Kya would open up to a lawyer, it needed to be someone who had a welcoming presence and also someone that really seemed to fit within the world that Kya knew. Milton was a local man who had crossed paths with Kya before, and I thought he nailed his role. Logan Macrae played the role of Jodie Clark and he was incredible as well. Even though he didn’t get a ton of screen time, he was involved when it mattered and I was very impressed with him. He was another one of my favorite characters in the book. Rounding out the cast is Garret Dillahunt who was great as Pa, Jojo Regina and Luke David Blum who did a nice job as young Kya and Tate, Will Bundon who I really liked as young Jodie, Ahna O’Reilly as Ma, and lastly, Bill Kelly who I thought did a very nice job as Sheriff Jackson.

On the technical side of things, Where the Crawdads Sing genuinely impressed me. I’ve touched on it some already, but any book that translates to the big screen has a great deal of ground to cover. First, anyone who read the book is expecting a certain feel for the film, plus readers have already envisioned what the film should look like when appearing on-screen. With that being said, I honestly feel like they knocked it out of the park. Taylor Swift fans will be very pleased with her original song Carolina which she wrote and performed for the film. It is the perfect way to close out the film as it plays during the end credits.

The cinematography from the talented Polly Morgan really made me feel like I was right there with Kya digging mussels out of the marsh in North Carolina, and the score/soundtrack from Mychael Danna set the tone and no doubt helped to bring some tears down the faces of viewers. The weight of the more dramatic or even just more exciting scenes were felt thanks to the film’s soundtrack. The camera work helped to make the story feel more intimate which was great, with several unique and well-intentioned shots to really capture the feel of the book. Director Olivia Newman clearly bought into the vision and made it a reality. The books setting is almost entirely in the marsh and the film sticks with that continuity making for a gorgeous and very satisfying experience.

THE BAD

Believe it or not, I don’t have many things to complain about when it comes to Where the Crawdads Sing, but I guess that shouldn’t be too surprising if you have been paying attention to this review. With sky-high expectations thanks to a best-selling novel that has been devoured by book clubs all over the world, it was going to be a fine line turning it into a quality movie but they managed to do just that, and then some. Admittedly I was teetering a bit during the opening of the film as it sort of felt like they were going out of their way to kickstart the backstory by forcing some of the dialogue, but I soon realized that was necessary as they had to get to a good starting point as quick as possible to ensure the key elements of the story were included. The film did leave out a few key parts that I would have liked to have seen, but screenwriter Lucy Alibar found a way to effectively tell Kya’s story without making too long of a film.

And let’s be honest, the book club crowd isn’t surviving a movie longer than 2-hours, I mean all of that wine at home sure isn’t going to drink itself. And that’s not a diss, I love books and I also love wine. True story. The ending felt a bit rushed, but again it did touch on what made the book so great and gave me the emotional conclusion to the story I was looking for. Although Jumpin’ and Mabel are a big part of the film, I would have liked to have seen a bit more of their backstory that the book touches on especially since they are crucial to the story. I will say that the acting was a bit shaky during the younger years, primarily the actors playing young Kya and young Tate, but it wasn’t that big of a deal as they played a pretty small role all things considered. So yeah, not much else negative to report.

THE VERDICT

An immersive book-to-film adaptation boasting beautiful cinematography and captivating performances from leads Daisy Edgar-Jones and Taylor John Smith, Where the Crawdads Sing defies lofty expectations and delivers an entertaining story of love, loss, and incredible perseverance. Bringing to life the complex and inspirational story of the outcast known as the Marsh Girl, the film prioritized the source material from start to finish which was huge in terms of how well everything worked. I’m honestly confused by the criticism from the majority of so-called critics, but as far as I can tell most of them either haven’t read the book or just like to complain. I’ll admit that the film does feel like in many ways it caters to fans of the book, but as a film based on a hugely successful book, isn’t that sort of the point?

As I touched on earlier in the review, a 2-hour film can’t possibly include everything from the book and it was missing a few things I would have liked to have seen, but that is just par for the course. So many elements of the book that were left out would have required separate build-up easily adding 20 to 30 minutes to the film which is not feasible for the average moviegoer. But at the end of the day, the right decisions were made and the film works very well as is. If you haven’t read the book I HIGHLY recommend it, but you can absolutely see the movie before reading it. To be honest, going that route will not only make it so you can appreciate the movie that much more, but it will also allow you to really get sucked into the book. I had been looking forward to the release of Where the Crawdads Sing for quite some time, and it left me genuinely satisfied and wanting more. I can’t wait to see it again. Ignore the out-of-touch critics who can’t seem to get out of their own way and check this one out in theaters, you won’t regret it.

TED TAKES RATING - 8.3/10

Where the Crawdads Sing is now playing only in theaters. Check out the official trailer below.

Hustle

By: Andrew Wing

Hustle is a 2022 American sports drama film directed by Jeremiah Zagar (directed We the Animals back in 2018), from a screenplay by Taylor Materne and Will Fetters. The film stars Adam Sandler (Happy Gilmore, Uncut Gems) as an NBA scout who discovers a raw but talented player (Juancho Hernangómez) in Spain and tries to prepare him for the NBA draft.

Current Minnesota Timberwolves player Anthony Edwards plays the main antagonist, Kermit Wilts in the film, while Queen Latifah (Beauty Shop, Girls Trip), Ben Foster (Hell or High Water, Leave No Trace), Robert Duvall (The Godfather, Kicking and Screaming), and Heidi Gardner (Saturday Night Live) also star. Icon and NBA superstar LeBron James acts as a producer through his SpringHill Company banner for the film as well.

Hustle was released by Netflix on June 8, 2022.

THE GOOD

For those who don’t know me, I am a huge basketball fan. I played all the way up throughout high school and I even coached a middle school basketball team at my former middle school this past winter, so when I saw there would be a sports drama film revolving around my favorite sport of basketball, I knew I couldn’t miss it! More than that, once I saw the trailer for Hustle and saw that not only one of my favorite actors Adam Sandler was leading the way, but that Juancho Hernangómez, a real NBA basketball player who played on my favorite sports team, the Boston Celtics, for a little bit last year, was starring alongside Sandler, I was so pumped for this! However, as much as I love Sandler, he has been in some pretty bad movies in the past ten years and there have also been some brutal sports drama films in the past decade, none worse than Draft Day, so I was still skeptical about it. So was it another garbage sports movie, or was it one of the better ones? Keep reading to find out!

It was the latter! Just like a film I recently reviewed in Chip‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers (see my full review here), you can go right ahead and chalk this one up as one of the biggest surprises of the year. This movie was just a good time from start to finish. Now like I previously mentioned, there have been some bad sports dramas in the past few years and despite my love for both sports and movies, I really am not the biggest sports movies guy just because of how many bad ones there have been. But this one was absolutely not that. It really was one of the better sports movies, and honestly one of the best basketball sports movies, and a big reason why is because this is first and foremost a character drama focused around Adam Sandler’s character, Stanley Sugerman, a scout and coach for the Philadelphia 76ers.

It’s rare to see a sports movie that doesn’t revolve around someone that wasn’t either a player or a head coach, but what they did worked here and that’s mainly because of the performance we got from the Sandman himself, Adam Sandler. Adam Sandler truly is unlike any other actor. The man is definitely known for his comedy because he has been cracking us up for nearly thirty years, but he has also proven time and time again that he can be a great, and I mean great dramatic actor too. You don’t believe me? Just go watch Punch-Drunk Love, The Meyerowitz Stories, and Uncut Gems. And even if you don’t take my advice and go watch those, you will believe me after watching this because he has done it again. Don’t get me wrong, he has a lot of funny moments, but he just killed it here in all of the dramatic moments. I would love to see him in either Grown Ups 3 or Hubie Halloween 2 because I’ll eat that slop up, but I really would encourage him to keep taking roles like these so he can continue to shut the haters up by showing what he is really capable of. I’ll stop there, but I just gotta say this in case he reads this, I love you, Adam Sandler, you are the man!

As good as Sandler’s performance was, and there is no denying that he carried this film, current Minnesota Timberwolves player Anthony Edwards who plays the main antagonist, Kermit Wilts in the film, was freaking awesome in his first film role. Ever since Edwards got drafted into the NBA a few years ago as the top pick, not only has he got buckets, but he has shown in his media availability that he has an amazing personality and a hilarious sense of humor, so it makes sense that he was good in this. But still, the fact that he played this villain role as good as he did is unfathomable, and I might get some heat for this take, but he reminded me a lot of the Apollo Creed character in Rocky. For real though, his character was a complete a**hole and I hated him and it was because of how well he played this part.

Aside from the performances, Hustle had great writing from Taylor Materne and Will Fetters, and directing from Jeremiah Zagar. It takes a lot to make a sports drama film nowadays feel unique and all of those guys somehow did it. How? I’ll tell you. This movie really stood out to me because of its emotion, its characters, and just all of its dramatic elements. Those in charge just did a really good job at connecting with the audience and making you care about the characters and what was going on in the film. I genuinely cared about the main characters and this movie touched me emotionally. Seriously though, it almost had me tearing up at one point. I could go on, but I was just locked in from the start when it came to Hustle and that is all a credit to those that put it together.

As for some of the other small things that I liked about Hustle, I quickly get to touch on some of the other performances. It was great to see Robert Duvall in his small role because well, it’s Robert Duvall. I also really liked Queen Latifah in her role as Sandler’s character’s wife. I was also blown away by the kid performance we got from Jordan Hull as Alex, Stanley’s daughter. And if you know me, you knew this was coming, but I loved Ben Foster’s role in this too. Similar to Edwards’ character, Foster played just an absolute scumbag that you hated so much and that is all thanks to Foster’s acting chops. Lastly, the film was edited very nicely, especially all of the basketball scenes which is usually not the case when it comes to sports films. But it worked here because they got real basketball players and taught them how to act rather than doing the opposite.

THE BAD

Nobody can say this is a bad movie. Nobody. There is just too much to like here for anybody to hate on it. However, despite how much I enjoyed this movie, it still had an abundance of sports movies cliches, an unnecessary amount of inspirational quotes, montages that run way too long, and just a level of predictability that we have come to expect from all sports movies. That just comes with the territory at this point, but it really didn’t take away from the overall product too much.

One more small critique and I know I brought up how good Anthony Edwards was in his first film role, the same could not be said for all of the real NBA players we got in this, unfortunately. Juancho Hernangómez was fine, but some of the other smaller cameos were just bad. Call me biased here because as I already mentioned, I am a diehard Celtics fan, but all the performances we got from the real 76ers players didn’t do much and what f**k was Kyle Lowry doing in this? The dude literally said one word and I just rolled my eyes when I saw him on screen, but my hatred for Kyle Lowry (the basketball player) is a story for another day.

THE VERDICT

In what is Adam Sandler’s love letter to the game of basketball, Hustle is easily one of the better sports dramas of the past decade and it is just the feel-good film of all feel-good films. Sandler gave us yet another great dramatic performance and he continues to show that he should be taken seriously as a dramatic actor. Other than that, the LeBron James-produced film was unique and extremely emotional, and it also featured a fantastic performance from NBA player Anthony Edwards as the film’s antagonist.

If you are a basketball fan like me, you just need to watch this movie. It caters to fans as it has some fantastic nods to the NBA and the basketball world as a whole with awesome cameos from NBA players and reporters. Overall, this movie works and it is no doubt one of the surprises of the year!

TED TAKES RATING - 8.2/10

Hustle is now streaming only on Netflix. Check out the latest trailer below.