Migration (2023) - Movie Review

While Illumination managed to pull themselves out of their recent funk with the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, I was still a bit sceptical about whether that would be a fluke or not. It’s highly unlikely that the studio would be able to keep bringing back the geniuses behind Teen Titans Go! To The Movies for every release going forward, and given their previous track record of trying to relive past glories, there’s just something about how generic this film comes across on first glance that had me worried. Well, that and being written by Mike White, whose last animated venture was with the generation-defining disaster of The Emoji Movie. However, not only does this manage to keep up with that Mario-mentum (oh shush, I liked that one), but it taps back into what I originally started liking about Illumination Studios specifically.

Renfield (2023) - Movie Review

I reckon we’re in somewhat safe hands here because, no matter how this turns out, there’s little chance of this being the worst Dracula fanfic I’ve reviewed on here. We also have director Chris McKay, who has a healthy pedigree for legitimising the fanfic mentality in mainstream storytelling, from his ambitious work on Robot Chicken to the IP free-for-all of The LEGO Batman Movie (before Warner Bros. went way the hell too far with that idea for films like Space Jam: A New Legacy), and of course, Nic Cage as Dracula. Honestly, I could have just left it at “Nic Cage as Dracula” and that would’ve been enough to sell why this deserves to be watched… but that would still be leaving out a lot of the surprising delights of this feature.

The Bad Guys (2022) - Movie Review

Time for another unorthodox heist film, so soon after the anti-heist of The Duke, and I was quite torn initially going into this. On one hand, it’s the latest DreamWorks animated release, and if nothing else, they also manage to provide interesting material to dig into, even if it doesn’t always hold up alongside its competition. But on the other hand, we have writer Etan Cohen, whose rather inconsistent track record reached a serious nadir a few years back with his work on the unbearably smug Holmes & Watson. As much as I love heist films, this really could go either way and… well, it kinda goes for both of them?

Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings (2021) - Movie Review

Now this is more like it! After how underwhelming Black Widow turned out, I was fully prepared for the MCU to be stuck in another middling point re: Phase Two, but I’m happy to report that this film turned out pretty damn well. Where that assessment gets a little odd is with how there’s a weird level of similarity between Black Widow and Shang-Chi. Like Black Widow, Shang-Chi was trained at an early age to be an assassin, and he has also been spending all the time since trying to separate himself from his past. Except here, it manages to correct the lack of personality that held back Black Widow, and it’s not just in the acting where that effect takes place.

Jumanji: The Next Level (2019) - Movie Review

The formula that made Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle work is so brain-crappingly simple, it’s still bizarre to think that the numerous video game-centric films to come before it hadn’t cracked it. It took one of the most common and innocuous aspects of video gaming, the act of playing as a pre-designed character, and used to deliver some of the best body-swap comedy I’ve ever seen. I still can’t get over that it featured Jack Black acting like a Valley Girl, a combination that should’ve soured me from the guy’s work forevermore, and still managed to bring out the belly laughs. And with its sequel, it doubles down on that same formula and manages to do even better.

The Farewell (2019) - Movie Review

I’ve gotten into this a fair bit in past reviews, but suffice to say, I really can’t stand Liar Revealed plots. The ones where the entire story hinges on characters intentionally keeping secrets from each other, mainly for the sake of giving the third act a chance to engage through breaking the artificial tension created. It’s incredibly distracting to see in pretty much any movie, as it turns whatever comes after the deceptive moment into a prolonged waiting game. It’s tedious, and the kind of narrative nonsense that can turn me right off from properly enjoying a work of fiction. Enter this film, where none of the usual gripes apply.

Crazy Rich Asians (2018) - Movie Review

The plot: Asian-American Rachel (Constance Wu) is invited by her boyfriend Nick (Henry Golding) to attend his best friend's wedding in Singapore and meet his family. However, Rachel discovers that Nick's family are among the richest business magnates in the region, and while she's coming to terms with that fact, she also has to deal with Nick's mother Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh) insisting that Rachel is the wrong girl for her son.

Ocean's 8 (2018) - Movie Review

The plot: After spending the last five years in prison, professional thief Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) has only one thing on her mind: Pulling off a high-profile heist at the upcoming Met Gala. As she recruits her team, including her partner Lou (Cate Blanchett), fashion designer Rose (Helena Bonham Carter), jewellery maker Amita (Mindy Kaling), fence Tammy (Sarah Paulson), pickpocket Constance (Awkwafina), hacker Nine Ball (Rihanna) and the unwitting celebrity patsy Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway), Debbie plans to steal a highly-valuable piece of jewellery that, if they can pull it off, will have them set for life.