At one point, Disney has all the stones for their Infinity Gauntlet. They had the Animation wing, the Live Action one, the MCU, Pixar, and Lucasfilm. When they purchased 20th Century Fox, they seemed unstoppable. I mean they had all the major weapons to rule the box office. What a simpler time 2019 was. Fast forward to 2026, and the outlook isn’t quite the same. Animation is still strong numbers wise (Zootopia and Frozen still print money), but outside of the established franchises, they are struggling to find something new. Strange Worlds and Wish didn’t hit, and Hexed in November will be the next test. Searchlight is doing just fine, but the Live action remakes are thankfully starting to wear on people. Pixar has seemed to lean fully into sequels, so that isn’t great. That leaves us with with the two major chips that ruled the landscape: Star Wars and Marvel. There is the argument that the superhero bubble is on the verge of bursting, and if Doomsday and Secret Wars underperform, that could be the end of the party as we know it. That is dealing in hypotheticals though. We know where Star Wars is at right now. No new films since a controversial Rise of Skywalker in 2019. Seven live action series on Disney+, ranging from excellent to hard to watch. For every Andor and The Mandalorian, there is a Ob-Wan and Book of Boba Fett. Going forward, there is only a second season of Ahsoka that I am sure someone is looking forward to out there, and Star Wars: Starfighter next May. The Warner/Paramount Death Star is being built as we speak. I’m not saying Disney can be the hero to fight it, as they are just as bad, but it really isn’t good that as the studios continue to consolidate down to just a few, one of the monster studios continues to send out a product that is very much not up to the standard that they were once known for. Will the The Mandalorian and Grogumake this statement from my soapbox look foolish? We shall find out. On to the reviews!
Corporate executives on a team-building retreat face a deadly s truggle when their leader turns violently against them.
I thought I was making progress with Horror movies. Just this year alone, I have hit 4 of them going into this film, while I really liked Obsession and Hokum, I feel I may have flown too close to the sun. I really hated this for a host of reasons. The cast is pretty much pintless as no character except Alan Ruck’s Arthur and Odeya Rush’s Ginger really do anything of note. I’ll save you 90 minutes and get a little spoilery. What this film is about is a corporate retreat to a, I guess, remote cabin that is taken over by their old boss who is out for revenge. The “retreat” involves 7 levels to reach “enlightenment”, but a keen observer should figure out it a just a way to easily eliminate a character after every set piece. This leads to my first problem. The big scenes take way too long. Each person has to attempt the task at each level one at a time, and it takes so long because you know the final person will fail and be killed. So it just feels like we are padding the run time. This leads into problem two, but it might be just a problem for me. The film takes great joy in being as gory as it can be. One task is they need to cut out on of their hearts and put it in a jar, and another task is everyone has to remove their left eye, and believe me dear reader, you watch all of these actions close up so you can feel it. I went to my happy place quite a few times in this, and the poor girl a couple seats down from me noped out pretty quickly and hid under the blanket she brought. I wouldn’t be shocked if more than half the budget for the film went towards the body effects, but there is one part where a character is being hammered in the face and you can tell it is a dummy that is being hit.
All of that brings us to problem three: the story. As I watched, I was hoping that this would be going somewhere interesting, and not just one person on a revenge tour. Once we get to the final level and see there is no way to survive it, I just waited for the final person to pull a rabbit out of their hat and make it to the end credits. I don’t even entertain the thought of sitting through the Saw films, but from what I know, this film seems to be trying to copy a bit. The problem is it’s about 20 minutes too long (it’s already 90 minutes), and the loosest of plots just there to do the grossest things. If the objective is it just to make people squirm, then mission complete. If only the point was to make a watchable movie. I have long said there is always at least one good thing about every film. For this one it easy to pick: the film was done.
Once a lone bounty hunter, Mandalorian Din Djarin and his apprentice Grogu embark on an exciting new Star Wars adventure.
As I brought up earlier, it has been 7 years since the last theatrical film release for the Star Wars franchise. You could make the argument that The Rise of Skywalker salted the Earth for theatrical features. How else can you explain up to a dozen scripts for new films and trilogies, and zero actual films going into production. What has been working (kind of) is the Disney+ shows. Chief among them is the 3 seasons of The Mandalorian. While certainly an uneven series, it still has the popularity to drive Disney into going with a feature film, rather than Disney+ special or 4th season. Now, this new adventure with Din Djarin and Grogu are the test to see if there is still the want for Star Wars on the big screen.
For the most part, I was really digging this film. The action sequences are all interesting and fun to watch, and the creature effects are pretty good too. The main lot of the film involves Mando being hired by the New Republic for another mission. He needs to find and Imperial Commander that is in hiding. To do this, he makes a deal with the Hutt Twins to find their nephew Rotta (Jabba’s son) in exchange for information. When Mando makes the choice to alter the agreement and cut out the Twins for reasons, they want revenge. That is what carries us through the second half of the film. We have a lot of both Mando and Grogu together, but there is a standout section of the film where Grogu has an adventure on their own that plays a little like a silent film. This might have been the only non-action part of the film that really worked for me, and adding the Anzellians (the best part of Rise of Skywalker) to his solo quest. It doesn’t last as long as I wanted it too, but I appreciated that it was there. A common issue I have seen other bring up that is pretty clear when you watch the film is kind of one that Game of Thrones had in the last season. We will be in one area and the characters will talk about where they need to go and how they will get into that area. Then, in the very next scene, they are just at the new area. By having the looks of a season of a television series as a solitary film, it means that those pesky planning and travel sections have to be cut so we can get right back into the plot and action sequences. If the sections were are popping into to weren’t so interesting, this lazy plotting would be a real issue for me, but here it is what it is.
For most of what I an come up with of why this just doesn’t feel big enough, there is a simple argument against it. I will get into this a little more in a post later this week, but the simple fact is that The Mandalorian and Grogu was never going to be that film. Grogu was going to be adorable as always, but Din Djarin has never been an enthralling character. That isn’t Pedro Pascal’s fault either. That character, like most of that species in the franchise as just hunters, that’s it. There isn’t a real interesting side to them except they are excellent fighters. That means if you are making a film, it leads you to have action sequences, but not a lot of use of dialogue between them. That is what we have here. I can see why this is so disappointing to some Star Wars fans, but this was better than I thought it was going to be. Granted, I have had low expectations for this since it was announced, but once that awesome Ludwig Goransson score hits, I was sent right back to what I loved about the series way back in season one. Sometimes it is just nice to be in the world and see what is happening without caring about the big picture where the fate of the universe is at stake. Sure, I can want more, but at this point I don’t think Star Wars is capable of that anymore, so it’s about enjoying what we have. On that front, I enjoyed quite a bit of this and I’m guessing it will get it’s real purpose when it hits Disney+, where it belongs. This is the way.
Follows Jack Ryan who reunites with CIA operatives to navigate a treacherous web: of betrayal against an enemy who knows their every move, facing a past they thought was long put to rest.
Much like Mandalorian, the current Jack Ryan series has been a successful series on Animal Prime starting in 2018, and rather than a 5th season, it is now a feature film. Unlike Mandalorian though, Ghost War is still on Prime and not getting a theatrical run. One would assume this is a scheduling and cost move rather than a desperate attention move like Disney seems to be doing.
Watching this it was very clear this a streaming film. There was a definite difference between this Jack Ryan film and the theatrical ones, like Clear and Present Danger or The Sum of All Fears. What we are dealing with here is a very small cast of characters and a very small stakes mission. We are even reusing locations more than a usual Jack Ryan film. Krasinski is still effective as Ryan, and Wendell Pierce is good again as James Greer. New here is Sienna Miller as a MI6 officer who has personal knowledge of what Ryan is going up against. What that is something I have kind of seen before in a Mission: Impossible film. So for me this was a predictable story that had to be carried by the small cast of characters. For the most part, it worked. While theatrically the Jack Ryan series has not succeeded recently (2014’s Shadow Recruit failed to revive the franchise), the Prime series did succeed on the small screen. Perhaps, after this film, that is where it should stay.
Interesting matchup next weekend. There is no real new threat to take the top spot, and Mandalorian is said to be looking at a big drop off. Something has to flinch.
- Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu
- Obsession
- The Breadwinner
- Michael
- The Devil Wears Prada 2
It is the rare dull week between Memorial Day and the June slate, so it is a time to hit some smaller films. A I Love Boosters / Passenger doubleheader is up first on Memorial Day, then it’s a Saturday triple header of Pressure, The Breadwinner and Backrooms. Having to stack films is a side effect of two mid week Tiger games on Tuesday and Wednesday night. Odds are not great that all will be winners, so perhaps one of them will let me down. It is not often where a week is all positive. Maybe it will be next week.
Mitten Film Nerd 
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