Jon Favreau’s “The Lion King” is very much like Gus Van Sant’s “Psycho.” It’s a glossy, new setting, with a bold new cast, but when you cut right through the nostalgia lenses, it’s basically the same movie all over again. “The Lion King” doesn’t leave a lot of room to surprise its audience, as it basically plays it safe and copies the original film almost verbatim. Why watch a remake of “The Lion King” when you can simply stay home and watch the 1994 original? I can’t think of much of a reason, save for the all star cast.
Category Archives: Movie Reviews
A Good Woman is Hard to Find (2019) [Fantasia Festival 2019]
If you’ve ever seen Sarah Bolger act, it’s stunning how she can go from innocent to cold as ice in a second flat and make it believable. Seriously, check out the under seen “Emelie” for proof. What she does in “A Good Woman is Hard to Find” is portray the quintessence of the lengths parents are willing to go through to protect their children. Not only diving head first in to violence, but the willingness to delve in to darker corners of our own humanity, and what we’re capable of sacrificing in order to create a future for our kids.
No Mercy (2019) [Fantasia Festival 2019]
The path to redemption is a long and arduous one that can obviously test us and our resolve to the very core. With the South Korean “No Mercy” we see the unfolding of a path of redemption for a woman who has very little in life and is about to see her only good thing be taken away by human cruelty. A mix of “Taken,” “Drive,” and “Dead Man’s Shoes,” Lim Kyoung-tack’s action thriller is a beautifully made, engrossing, and often riveting journey of a woman who is willing to go deep in to the darkness to retriever her sister, and might not have a way back once she’s fulfilled her goal.
Critters Attack! (2019) [Fantasia Festival 2019]
Critters fans have had slim pickings for a very long time, with lack of real printings of the original film on home media and new films coming together. Now in 2019 we finally got two new installments, but together they don’t really amount to much of a great “Critters” movie sadly. While “Critters Attack!” is waves better than “Critters: A New Binge” it’s still never as good as “Critters” parts one or two. It’s only an okay offering that’s right there beside “Critters 3.” That’s about as glowing as a recommendation that I can give it when all was said and done.
Summer Night (2019)
In the nineties once the indie scene broke out and directors like Steven Soderbergh and Richard Linklater perfected the chatty character piece with young adults, every director came out of the wood work with their own. Some titles like “Clerks” and “Beautiful Girls” became classics while stuff like “Mixed Signals” and “Let It Snow” fell to the wayside– for very good reason. “Summer Night” feels like a screenplay taken from 1995 that was retrofitted for a modern audience. And that’s not entirely a compliment.
Crawl (2019)
Sometimes it’s not about re-inventing the wheel when it comes to giving movie fans a great time at the movies. You just have to give them something entertaining and with some semblance of substance. While “Crawl” is something we’ve seen before, it has that special touch that only Alexandre Aja can inject. The same thing he did for Piranhas in his remake of “Piranha,” he does for alligators in “Crawl” offering a wonderful survival thriller that’s also a subtle commentary on global warming.
Weird Science (1985): Collector’s Edition [Blu-Ray]
“Weird Science” is the film from John Hughes that’s managed to age the worst from his repertoire. Even “Dutch” can be considered somewhat more accessible than what “Weird Science” doles out. While it’s not a bad movie at all, “Weird Science” has gradually become an eighties comedy that has to be taken in the context of its decade. This is still a very strong air of misogyny and chauvinism within “Weird Science,” but it still works as a fun eighties romp with banner performances by its collective cast.