Inside Out 2 (2024)

The film jumpstarts with the now 13-year-old Riley playing with her two best friends on their school's hockey team while also reintroducing us to Riley's emotions from *Inside Out*. The first 30-40 minutes cram a ton of exposition and are also at their funniest, bombarding the audience with continuous jokes, mixed with the highs and lows of burgeoning and burdening puberty. Almost every emotion plays a part in the story, where Sadness, who dominated the first film, has minimal screen time here. Anxiety almost repeats the same mistake, but the writers were smart to break this emotion's presence and time, focusing on the side quest Joy and the original emotions partake in while also splitting the time with Riley's new emotions Ennui, Envy, and Embarrassment. The center of the story focuses on Riley attending a three-day hockey camp, where she is forced to make some important decisions that will shape her entry into high school and expanding social existence. However, due to the structure of the film, the secondary side story—Riley's friends possibly separating versus "cliquing" with the "cool" kids—doesn't seem as important or as fun as watching Riley's emotions visually work overtime. At the same time, this helps the film avoid too many clichés or predictable directions. Regardless, the messages conveyed should be well received by audiences of all ages.

Bad Boys - Ride Or Die (2024)

A huge brain-checked mess of a summer movie. Both Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are too old for this shit but who cares. The plot - Mike Lowrey (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) fight to clear the name of their former captain, Conrad Howard (Joe Pantoliano). The film does get better as it goes along, as do the stunts. Believe it or not, I enjoyed this overproduced, slightly overdirected, and badly CGI-ed gun film. Basically, it's Bad Boys meets Fast and Furious, and it looks like the series might be headed into the same territory as the Vin Diesel films with lots of "family" characters and machinations for guest stars and overlapping storylines to occur. Actually, if both were able to crossover, I would probably be there to watch. Michael Bay makes a cameo, plus more appear. "For Life" is the slightly better film, but this should be the bigger hit.

Immaculate (2024)

This movie uses familiar horror themes, and I appreciate that it delivers most of what it promises. Sydney Sweeney's performance is impressive, and the acting overall is good. It includes the expected cheesy jumpscares. However, I'm not sure if the ending is meant to evoke sadness, or prestige, or if there's a deeper question we should be thinking about. Other than questioning ones faith, or the dangers of an organized entity, or the harm of science/technology when used improperly... What's the moral or lesson of the story? If the film was made to cause uneasiness, the experiment worked!

Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024)

It is a very pretty film to look at (the 3D was excellent), but this is a shell of Po's previous adventures. It's a little too simplified as the Furious Five only appear in the end credits, and Master Shifu's appearances are limited. The majority of the film is Po (Jack Black) and Zhen (voiced by Awkwafina), traveling to meet and defeat the villain, the Chameleon (Viola Davis, who is having fun and trying to make the character's nonsensical backstory interesting). There is a secondary subplot that has Po's biological and adoptive fathers on their own adventure tracking just behind Po, for a reason I can not remember or care about - it just pads the time. This does lead to a very funny scene that had me and the audience howling in laughter. It involved Po's biological father, a bar, and Mahjong tiles. It's not a painful movie to watch, but the time sitting through it is felt. Still, the intended audience, non-discriminating youngsters under 10, should be fine with the end result. I am very surprised this has grossed 500 million (worldwide) so far.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

A slight step aside and down from the previous film, which should have been the finale for the OG GBs characters. Instead, they became the bumpers to make another one. So now we have a mix of the OGs, the kid GBs, and on top of that, like 10 other new or returning characters...there are too many characters that add nothing or affect the outcome of the story in this cut of the film. I suspect a longer cut may appear in the future, as easily this could have been 30-40 minutes longer. Because of this, the first half of the film takes a while to get going, and the mix of laughs and "horror" either works or strains. I did enjoy seeing Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) go through his machinations, and out of all the characters, the golden orb is the most interesting and important. Did I hate it? No, but I was disappointed at how inconsistent it was. Give it a half star higher, seeing the OGs suite up one more time. There is a mid credit scene but no end credit scene.

Dune Part Two (2024)

At 2 hours and 46 minutes, I enjoyed getting lost in this one. Some of the changes made by Denis Villeneuve work, although those that have read the text may object to some of the swings made - didn't bother me. It does get a little GoT-ish towards the end, but I enjoyed it, was vested, and left satisfied. Hopefully, a third and fourth movie caps out this part of Paul's adventures properly.

Madame Web (2024)

It's not the worst ever, but it's definitely a bad, no-good movie. One of the many problems with the film is its blandness and lack of excitement. Things just happen after characters speak in exposition dumps to explain the story to the audience, and there is very little to no build-up in motivations or actions. Then, there is a lack of clarity for certain plot points! For example, what was Constance Webb's actual job? The villain, Ezekiel, was "cursed" by taking the spider and had certain abilities, but did he receive these abilities from the "curse" or by being bitten by the spider? When did it happen? Why was Zosia Mamet trapped on the set of Person of Interest behind a wall of monitors? Was she a victim of reshoots and script changes? The same for Emma Roberts? Why were there so many Pepsi product placements? Who was this made for? No one in sight had a clue how to explain characters' powers or existences. In the process, they dumbed down this story to a glass of distilled water. I have no issues with the actors chosen to play their roles, but everything seemed as if studio representatives visited the production every day, sat everyone down, and proceeded to scream and threaten them for hours. Then, with 20 minutes before breaking for the day, yelled, "ACTION!" and used whatever footage that was shot. The side effect: it made every actor appear as if they were sleepwalking on camera. Every product placement, acting choice, story beat, camera angle, scene edit, special effect, musical clue, sound effect, the hair, the make-up, the props, the costumes, ANY reference to Spider-Man, the MCU, or ANY pop culture reference was WRONG, misplaced, bad, bad, bad, BAD!!! Strangely, Madame Web never dragged, as many disagreeable movies do, which is a mystery within itself. Funny, the most important thing Web does is teach CPR! Sony needs to know they f'd up! Noting how negatively the film has performed, this version of the Spider-Man universe is all but deceased. There are no mid or end credit scenes. ¡Viva la muerte!

Oppenheimer (2023)

The better part of Barbenheimer as Barbie started out strong and then crashed through the soapbox while biting its own tongue - a gynecological joke was not the best editorial choice in my eyes or a way to end an already lengthy five-joke film. Note, although it may have made a ton of money, Barbie will not be the darling of the year-end ball. Just watch Oppenheimer!!! A historical drama that is cut like a thriller, it is exhilaraing, then sad and exhilaraing again! I truly hope Robert Downey Jr. gets the node here because he is amazing as a character you initially think is one thing and then becomes something else entirely. This and The Dark Knight are Nolan's best- so far! A bunch of honorable mentions; Past Lives, Eileen, The Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon, Theater Camp, Maestro, May December, Godzilla Minus One, A Thousand and One and about four more that I've heard are great but that I have yet to see...this, in a sneaky way was the year of the actor but many were not paying attention.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

For me in 2023, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was the most disappointing films of the year. The character of M.O.D.O.K. was also wasted, which I will never forgive the MCU for. After a fun and promising first Ant-man film, the sequels have been hard to watch. Yet, I still have a little faith that the series and MCU films in total will bounce back financially and critically, but there might not be enough butts in seats to save this version of the "Universe" as a whole. This honorable mentions are terrible films, but I got what I deserved, and the disappointment was warranted. They are, Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey and the awful Children of the Corn remake. In fact, Corn is right up there with Resident Evil and the Terrifier sequels as some of the worst film franchises.

Saltburn (2023)

Excellent, fun, scene chewing acting all around, but this is not a thing. It's funny how Gen Z thinks this is a gross out. 😝 Have you seen any horror films from the last 45-plus years?! Politics aside from how doomed we are because this GEN refuses to look back or understand history (that we will repeat)..the movie was a little lacking and wavers between fine to pretty good. Also, watch "Promising Young Woman," which I think is the superior of the two films. STOP trying to make reaction posts to get views and cut the crap! Directed by the actress that played Pregnant Barbie, Emerald Fennell.