Tag: review

Movie review: Superman (2025)

David Corenswet

I had initially decided not to watch the new movie Superman, in large part because seeing sequels and reboots is exhausting. Also, I’m not a big DC movie fan, having seen the first two Superman movies with Christopher Reeve, and a couple of Batman films, not counting the LEGO pieces.

I did happen across the Justice League movie from 2017, which utterly confounded me. Superman (Henry Cavill) was dead, but he wasn’t. What the heck?

Two things pushed me into seeing the new flick: my wife wanted to see it, remembering fondly the first Christopher Reeve film from 1978. Also, many people on social media suggested that the new movie was too “woke.” I wondered what that possibly meant. So we attended a Wednesday matinee at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany.

I saw many comments from fans thinking that this Superman (David Corenswet) was too physically weak; he even bleeds!  As somebody who’s known comic books for a long time, part of the problem with Superman historically is that he was too darn powerful. If he could change time and fly to different planets at will, what would keep him humble and “human”? It is a statement when you see Superman lose in the movie’s first battle, to be rescued by his robots and the unruly dog Krypto. 

Villainy

This Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) reminded me A LOT of the tech bros who are “too confident about their ability”. This mixed review: “We are living under the whims of real, insane, egomaniacal, profoundly insecure billionaire supervillains… How can any comic book narrative compete with that kind of real-life villainy?” As the writer notes,  “Yeah, it might not be fair to blame Gunn for not having a crystal ball predicting all the nightmare sh*t that’s happened since January while he was writing and filming this movie.” So, I don’t, and the crap coming down in 2025 America makes the film feel “real,” if not prescient. 

I like Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) and many of the supporting characters quite a bit.

Much to my surprise, there was a point in the latter quarter of the film when I got emotionally attached. Interestingly, Wendy Pini of Elfquest fame, whom I knew from my FantaCo days, made a cogent observation: 

“What if this new Supes movie is VERY good for boys and men?…  I’ve seen dozens and dozens of comments from [my male friends who are comics industry pros] in my feed, which are universally positive. This movie is creating joy for them. They’re using words like hope, kindness, helpfulness, compassion, and light.”

The film is a bit unbalanced here and a little sloppy there, but I’m surprised by how much I enjoyed the movie. On Rotten Tomatoes, it received 83% positive reviews from critics and 93% positive reviews from audiences.  

 

Movie: Materialists

Melanie and Don’s kid

The saga of seeing the movie Materialists began in late June. I went to see Sinners at the Madison Theatre, but my wife opted to see something presumably less intense, which started and ended a few minutes after my choice. I then went to vote at the nearby Primary Day voting site and came back.

When the theater door for Materialists opened, I waited more than five minutes before calling out to her. Yes, she was in there, and she came out, talking to two women, one of whom she vaguely had met before, still talking about the significance of the film they had just seen.

A week or so later, my wife and I went to the Spectrum 8 Theater in Albany. She was willing to see Materialists again, which is quite unusual. I saw and liked it, but I was having a dreadful time figuring out how to write about it. A part of it may have to do with personal biography.

Lucy (Dakota Johnson) is an excellent matchmaker at an upscale company. She is practically a human dating app. Nine of her matches led couples to the altar. She views relationships like transactions and uses that strategy to calm a skittish bride.

But she is taken aback when the perfect 10 unicorn of a guy, Harry (Pedro Pascal), whom she meets at a wedding she had put together, is interested in her. He seems to check all the boxes and would be the obvious choice.

Lucy even takes him to an Off-Off-Broadway production, where her ex John (Chris Evans) performs. He is the antithesis of a rich guy, working catering jobs between auditions while riding around in his barely roadworthy vehicle.

Not a rom-com

I came across an IMDb review: Materialists was not what I expected.

“It’s been marketed like a rom-com – but honestly? If you’re heading in expecting laughs, you’ll be disappointed. What you get instead is a sharp, quietly melancholic study on modern love, dating, and loneliness in the big city. It’s not so much about romance as it is about emotional bankruptcy – the way ambition, money, and appearances slowly chip away at real connection.” Melancholy, yeah.

So I understand why some folks, looking for a sweet rom-com, might be disappointed. I’ve read that Johnson’s performance was flat, but I think it was dead on. The “real tension[ is] in her. What does she actually want? Love, comfort, validation? Or just a life that looks good on paper?”

This is also why Lucy was so tone deaf when dealing with the bad date one of her clients experienced.

The funniest part of the movie was the clips of the clients noting their attributes and what they were looking for. (I was going to give an example, but it doesn’t read as funny.)

The Rotten Tomatoes reviews were 80% positive with critics and 67% with audiences. All I can say is that I believed these people, especially Lucy. Dakota Johnson, by the way, was the response to a recent JEOPARDY clue. HOLLYWOOD HODGEPODGE $400: She’s the actress seen here with mom Melanie Griffith and grandmother Tippi Hedren.

Oh, I liked the cave people, too, who appeared in the beginning and then the end credits.

Movie review: The Life Of Chuck

based on a Stephen King novella

The description of the movie  The Life of Chuck on IMDb: “A life-affirming, genre-bending story based on Stephen King’s novella about three chapters in the life of an ordinary man named Charles Krantz.” The movie starts with Act Three, and the characters in the film wonder, Who IS this guy, Chuck?

One gets a sense of Chuck as portrayed by four actors: Tom Hiddleston, Jacob Tremblay, Benjamin Pajak, and Cody Flanagan. It also stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Carl Lumbly, Mark Hamill, and Mia Sara as his grandparents, and Karen Gillan as perhaps his last dance partner, who also gave fine performances. 

All that said, I don’t know how to review it without wrecking it utterly. One fan reviewer: “I want to leave my critique relatively vague as I believe the hook of the film works best going in without knowing much.” I did like it a lot. 

Here’s a meh (5/10) fan review on IMDb that actually gets to the crux:  “If you like movies that make you think about life, that make you contemplate existence, you will very much enjoy this. I personally don’t normally go for movies like that… but I would say The Life of Chuck is about as good as they come.”

Untidy

Diane Cameron, whom I know, wrote on Facebook: “Now, if you are the kind of person who needs to know what a work of art means, or what a poem means, or have a satisfying tidy feeling after a movie, skip ‘Chuck’. It will make you crazy. But if you like questions more than answers, and fabulous actors and some great dancing, and maybe to chew on a movie for a few days, then ‘Chuck’ is your next movie.” I’ll buy that. 

Another reviewer wrote, “I left the film feeling a mix of joy and melancholy and appreciated the artistry that brought me there.” This is also true.

 On Rotten Tomatoes, it received an 82% positive rating from critics and an 88% positive rating from fans. Mick LaSalle wrote, “The movie is maudlin and pessimistic and features a mildly sardonic voiceover narration by Nick Offerman that only serves to distance us from the action.” Well, no, on every count.

Ruth Maramis, by contrast, noted: “This poignant existential drama doesn’t just spoon-feed you everything but leaves room for interpretation as we connect its profound themes to our own experiences. Great seeing Hiddleston flaunt his killer dance moves.” Yeah, that.

See it if you’re not looking for tidiness. My wife and I saw The Life Of Chuck at the Spectrum 8 in Albany on the evening of June 27; the theater was 3/4 full. 

Sunday Stealing is F.A.B. again

Ringo, Linda, Carlos, Alison, and Mick

Welcome to Sunday Stealing.

Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!

Since it’s the 4th of July weekend, we’re going to keep this simple. We stole this from a blogger named Idzie, who called this the F.A.B. (film, audio, book) meme, so we’re F.A.B. again.

Movies

F. Film: What movie or TV show are you watching?

On Monday, my wife and I visited the Spectrum Theatre in Albany to see the comedy Caddyshack. Neither of us had ever seen it before, but we heard that it was very popular in 1980 when it came out. We were mostly unimpressed. Chevy Chase’s character was somewhat interesting, and Rodney Dangerfield was funny for a while, but Bill Murray seemed to be in another movie. I had to start looking at why so many find the film beloved.

The Wikipedia post was helpful: “The film was met with underwhelming reviews in its original release, with criticism towards the disorganized plot, though Dangerfield’s, Chase’s, and Murray’s comic performances were well received. Roger Ebert gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, ‘Caddyshack feels more like a movie that was written rather loosely, so that when shooting began, there was freedom—too much freedom—for it to wander off in all directions in search of comic inspiration.'” If you’ve ever talked with a person who’s stoned, you’re not, and they think everything is hysterical? That may be this movie.

Harold Ramis, a first-time film director, noted that “In the DVD documentary, TV Guide had originally given the film two stars (out of four) when it began showing on cable television in the early 1980s, but over time, the rating had gone up to three stars.” Maybe it’s better with repeated viewing.

Music

A. Audio: What are you listening to?

This being July, some of the birthdays are those of Ringo Starr, Linda Ronstadt, Carlos Santana, Alison Krauss, Mick Jagger, and Jim Stewart. So I’ll play Linda, Santana, and the Rolling Stones. Who’s Jim Stewart? He co-founded the legendary STAX Records with his sister Estelle Axton. I also play a lot of compilations of Beatles covers, and I have many of them.

Photograph – Ringo Starr

Telling Me Lies -The Trio (Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris)

Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen – Santana

Maybe – Alison Krauss

I Am Waiting – The Rolling Stones

Green Onions – Booker T. and the MG’s

You Can’t Do That – Harry Nilsson

Text

B. Book: What are you reading?

My friend Fred Hembeck wrote so kindly about former Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, who died recently at age 73, regarding Fred’s participation in the Fantastic Four Roast and Fred Hembeck Destroys the Marvel Universe, I thought I’d read the book The Marvel Universe According to Hembeck.

Please come back next week.

Movie review: SINNERS

Michael B. Jordan and Michael B. Jordan

Admittedly, I was wary about seeing the movie SINNERS.  I can be a bit squeamish when it comes to a film described as vampire horror.  My friend Steve Bissette had recommended it when he saw it in April, but that type of film is more in his wheelhouse.

Then my daughter, likewise squeamish, viewed it in Cape Town, South Africa, in June, just before returning to the States. She said I had to see it because it was about the black experience in America, and it was about music.

So I went to the Madison Theatre near my home on the hottest day of the year, Primary Day – they have $5 films on Tuesdays! – while my wife, the most squeamish of the three of us, saw another flick at the same venue.

How do I describe this film? The IMDb notes: “Trying to leave their troubled lives behind [in Chicago], twin brothers (Michael B. Jordan) return to their hometown [in 1930s Mississippi] to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.”

That doesn’t tell you much. Bissette wrote: “A rip-roaring fusion of masterful visual storytelling and toe-tapping music, writer-director Ryan Coogler’s first original blockbuster reveals the full scope of his singular imagination.

“Wildly primal, big and bold, fueled by pain and rage, by community and family, throbbing with love and sex and joy, infused with magic. A sumptuously textured, unmissable howl of a passion project.”
It’s about time
Someone named Corey Creekmur commented on Bissette’s Facebook page: “It’s such a rich sequence. It seems to be drawing upon African models of time, occult notions of time (such as the way vampires move outside of human time and share memories), and rich notions of musical and cultural continuity across eras. (It seems evocative of Sun Ra and George Clinton’s mystical, time and space traveling visions.) It’s dazzling in any case.”

Oh, it’s Afrofuturism, at least in part, which does not become clear to me until near the end.

It was well-acted by all involved. The scenes with the twins, Smoke and Stack, looked realistic. Special kudos to Miles Caton, who is all of 20, for playing the pivotal role of Sammie. And the music is excellent; I have, of all things, Rocky Road to Dublin, stuck in my head.

The Rotten Tomatoes reviews were 97% positive among critics and 96% positive among audiences. Some suggested that at 137 minutes, it was about 15 minutes too long. But I think the time built up the tension and better established the characters.

An audience reviewer on a site thought the vampires were silly, rather than scary-looking. I thought that was the point. The vampire’s life was alluring at some level.

Bissette is right about this: “if (and oh, you should) you catch SINNERS in the theater, be advised NOT to leave when the first of the final credits appears…

“The real ending to the film is mid-way through the final credits” (at least three of the dozen and a half folks in my theater left too early and missed Buddy Guy!), “and after the credits crawl conclude, a sublime post-credits sequence that sent me out of my seat positively elated follows” (I was in an otherwise empty theater.)
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