While I have kept the Box Office page updated each week, I did have to take another break on reviews a bit. So here is a quick lightning round of what I missed since Project Hail Mary in March:
Really Good: The Drama; Lorne; Exit 8; The Sheep Detectives
Good: They Will Kill You; Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice; The Super Mario Galaxy Movie; Normal; Hokum, The Devil Wears Prada 2; Michael; Apex
Not So Good: Hunting Matthew Nichol; Outcome; One Spoon of Chocolate;
Hide the Kids: Balls Up; Animal Farm
That brings us up to date with #53 this past Monday. On to the reviews!
A young Russian filmmaker becomes an unlikely advisor to Vladimir Putin as he rises to power in post-Soviet Russia, navigating the new era’s complexities and chaos.
There is a quote I heard a few years ago that I think applies here: “The cardinal sin of any movie is being boring.” That was what this film most certainly was. That isn’t due to Paul Dano though (sorry Quentin). Dano plays Vadim Baranov, the titular “Wizard”, who is fictional Russian government figure. What the trailers want you to also know is Jude Law plays Vladimir Putin, but the trailers are misleading. Putin is, at best, in this film for 25 minutes by my count. The focus here is on Baranov. The person here who gets the second most screen time is Alicia Vikander’s Ksenia. Ksenia is Baranov’s on and off love interest, and every time she shows up, the film grinds to a halt. That highlights the issue I have here. So much of this film is just Baranov having conversations with other officials. This isn’t an issue most times, but here the conversations are not that interesting, and with the tone that Dano uses for the character, it put me to sleep a couple times. I wasn’t alone in the theater as we all heard someone snoring through most of the second act. There is an interesting story somewhere in this slog of a two hours, I’m sure of it. The other issue here is making a “biopic” film involving a still in power world leader. The American version of this would be a Stephen Miller film involving Trump. We don’t really need these films if they aren’t going to say anything good or bad. As they don’t really have anything to say in the film we have, it just feels like a boring waste of time, or a film’s cardinal sin.
The fan favorite champions — now joined by Johnny Cage himself — are pitted against one another in the ultimate battle to defeat the dark rule of Shao Kahn that threatens the very existence of the Earthrealm and its defenders.
While Kremin wax boring, MK2 wax anything but that. The one similarity I could see here is neither has a solid storyline. That is why one goes into a Mortal Kombat film though. You go for the fight sequences and the gruesome finishing moves that are famous in MK. That is what have here in this sequel to the 2019 reboot. For all the issues I had with that one (inventing a new character to be the main, no actual tournament), this sequel fixes them. For new characters, we get Johnny Cage, Kitana, Jade, and Shao Khan. Also known as some of the most popular fighters in the series. Our two main characters we follow here this time are Cage (Karl Urban) and Kitana (Adeline Rudolph) and both storylines work pretty well. That is probably me just taking my feelings of the video game into play, but that makes me the target audience I guess. This was just violent fun for two hours, and had a great time. Of the fight sequences, the one that stands out the most is the showdown between a resurrected Kung Lao and Liu Kang. The setting for it felt like you were playing the game, and the fight choreography was on point. Yes, my rating might be higher than most will give it, but that reflects how much I enjoyed it, and also frankly how much a lot of films have disappointed me. In terms of what this film needed to do, it was a flawless victory.
A group of international passengers en route from Los Angeles to Shanghai are forced to make an emergency landing in shark-infested waters. Now they must work together in hopes to overcome the frenzy of sharks drawn to the wreckage.
In quite a lot of survival films, we get a lot of preamble before the plot can kick in. That isn’t a problem here. In this, we get about five minutes to meet our pilots (Aaron Eckhart and Sir Ben Kingsley), and get very brief moments to point out who our focal characters will be. Half of that 5 minutes is cut always to what will doom the flight very soon. The plane crash is a gnarly thing here, but it also kind of just drags on until we have seen all the red shirts die and leave us with our survivors the film has already pointed out. The premise is a promising one with a plane crashing in the middle of the ocean with the only thing coming for them in the immediate point after the crash were sharks. The CGI sharks were kind of goofy to me at points, but the point I will give the score of the film is the music of an attack kicks in every time someone goes in the water, regardless of there will be an attack. The bad part of this though is we know Eckhart is making it to at least the third act, and both of the two kids are shark proof (this isn’t that kind of film). We also have the rude antagonist that everyone hates that you know a shark is coming for eventually. So, what I’m getting at is this was a predictable film that had some uber violent sharks eating people. It wasn’t a bad time at the theater, but it wasn’t a great one either. It just kind of happened. There isn’t much a premise like this can do though. There is only so much story you can get when you paint yourself into such a corner this film does. You either get the predictable end where they get saved, or the bleak everyone gets eaten ending. Again, this isn’t that kind of movie.
With no major wide releases next weekend, it could be another weekend for films to pick up more money.
- The Devil Wears Prada 2
- Mortal Kombat II
- In the Grey
- Michael
- Obsession
There is a new Tournament this week! That will begin on Wednesday over on the socials. Review schedule wise, it’s a true Mystery Monday, Obsession on Thursday, and a possible double header on Saturday depending on what the Monday film is.
Mitten Film Nerd 
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