Review: “Wild Robot”★★★★★

DreamWorks Animation's “The Wild Robot,” a gorgeous computer-generated cartoon with a human heart beating beneath its sleek, avant-garde surface, comes at a time when audiences seem more worried than ever about being overtaken by artificial intelligence. It's ironic that the film, a charming family fable adapted from the first book in Peter Brown's open-ended series, includes no human characters of note. Instead, “The Savage Robot” focuses on an overzealous automaton named ROZZUM 7134 (or simply “Roz”), whose personality stems in part from Lupita Nyong'o and the rest of the DWA performers. Together with “How to Train Your Dragon” co-director Chris Sanders, they imbue this robot - basically, two spheres, four limbs and more tools than a Swiss Army knife - with maternal instincts and something that could pass for a soul.

And that's because The Wild Robot, written and directed by Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon) performs a sly, absorbing and extremely effective sleight of hand: the more time we spend with the robot - the more its programming is trained with new inputs, to use the jargon of generative AI - the more it underscores the deep, inarticulable, sacred wells of human feelings, the exact things that cannot be programmed or manufactured. The fact that this film, based on Peter Brown's book series, does so while remaining a highly enjoyable and delightfully detailed story about a misfit, amidst a community of charismatic woodland creatures, makes it one of the best animated films of the year, rightly considered an Oscar favorite.

The journey leads her to cross paths with some of the most rambunctious animals in this remote place, including a fox named Fink (Pedro Pascal), an opossum named Pinktail (Catherine O'Hara), a grizzly bear named Thorn (Mark Hamill) and a beaver named Paddler (Matt Berry). He also quickly learns that nature is a scary place. One of the many wonderful things about Sanders' adaptation of Peter Brown's book is how little this film fears death, which used to be a subject that children's fiction helped little ones understand, but now seems forbidden in animation. Nature is lovely, but it can kill you.

Nyong'o's voice is impeccable and vital to Roz's journey. At the beginning of the film, Roz's voice is relentlessly cheerful, with a robotic edge that reflects how Roz excels in a natural setting. As The Savage Robot progresses, Nyong'o adds more emotion to Roz's voice, leaving her feeling angry, insecure and exasperated. The end result is a voice full of feeling, but with traces of roboticism; it's the culmination of a breath-taking high-wire vocal performance.

This is a film that is replete with unexpected humor - often in the form of jokes about how easy it is for animals to die in the wild - but also feels deeply felt in every frame, and only rarely in a way that seems at all manipulative. The visual artistry of the painterly compositions is reflected in other elements as well, from the stellar voiceover work (especially Nyong'o's, who finds nuance in what could have been a cold vocal turn) to Kris Bowers' propulsive score. You can tell when a project like this is done for profit and when it's done out of artistic passion, and everyone involved in “The Savage Robot” has poured their hearts into it. It shows. You hear it. You feel it. And that really matters, especially in an age when so much children's entertainment seems like nothing more than a cynical drive for profit. It's made from the heart in every way. And that's what allows it to connect with yours.

Funny, heartfelt and often breathtaking, The Wild Robot delivers the kind of all-ages animated entertainment that will delight children and leave a lump in the throat. And it delivers on the promise of a great animated feature: expressing universal truths-love that defies logic, feelings that come from places we don't understand, the bittersweet bargain of letting someone go so they can flourish-through the inorganic. If only all robot stories had this great humanist vision.

Review: “Deadpool & Wolverine”★★★

The film, which brings together Ryan Reynolds' wise-cracking, loud-mouthed Deadpool and Hugh Jackman's ferocious Wolverine, fulfills the wishes of fans eager for this long-awaited movie to exist. 

“Deadpool & Wolverine” is an action-packed and entertaining Marvel movie, but one that relies too heavily on cameos and hero moments which could be better executed.

When I walked out of the theater, my immediate thought was that “Deadpool & Wolverine” felt like “Fanservice: The Movie.”

If you've spent the last seven years desperately waiting to see the return of Ryan Reynolds as the Merc with the Mouth, spewing lewd remarks and foul dialogue every other second and blasting bad guys with his arsenal of weapons, you'll be well served here. Alongside Hugh Jackman (who remains an excellent Wolverine), the film makes for a fun buddy comedy in which the two leads are more than willing to tear each other apart when one of them strikes a chord.

The Deadpool character has always been, and remains, meta. He's all about winking at the audience and breaking the fourth wall. There's also his damaged face, which he once described as "pepperoni flatbread," his unpronounceable language, and his self-healing powers, but mostly he's all about winking at the camera.

Already paired in a series of Marvel comics, Deadpool (Reynolds) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) form an entertaining, albeit explosive, cinematic couple. They have a lot in common: both are self-healing, both have authority issues, both have monster-sized substance abuse issues. But their differences - knives, stabbings and punches in hand-to-hand combat in the back of a Honda minivan - are what give the film play. And por jugo I refer to the blood; with gore and risqué gags, the film earns until the last month of its 15 certificate.

Speaking of spoilers, the film is full of some welcome cameos that Disney has done an exceptional job of hiding. I won't spoil them, but I will reiterate that when the TVA sends our heroes to the Void, they end up in a world of useless things. Even cameos are cool in the superhero industry. When I saw them, I wondered if I was reacting to the real performances and incidents on screen - which are, in general, totally indifferent - or if I was just responding to the surprise of seeing them. In other words, is it the film or the marketing? For better or for worse, we live in a world where that question has ceased to matter. Deadpool would probably have a joke about it. Oh wait, he has it. It's this movie.

Review: “Twisters”★★★

Twisters Review - The '90s blockbuster gets a second wind in a teeth-chattering sequel.

Minari director Lee Isaac Chung's disaster flick delivers a good dose of meteorological mayhem.

It's been nearly 30 years since the meteorological mayhem of Jan de Bont's Twister, and the premise of this late sequel remains much the same. The most minimal veneer of science is deployed (in this case, filling a tornado with a chemical to tame it) as justification for two hours of teeth-chattering special effects and SUVs tossed around like an angry child's Tonka toys. Lee Isaac Chung directs this acceptable disaster movie, a change of pace and direction after the delicate, cerebral approach of his previous film, Minari.

Daisy Edgar-Jones plays Kate, a Midwestern farm girl who had a sixth sense for tornadoes until a tragedy took her away from storm chasing. Lured back to work on a weather mapping project, she meets Tyler (Glen Powell), the cowboy tornado keeper and YouTube star who rides storms the way other people ride rodeo bulls. The chemistry between them is perfect, but the real fun is watching the buildings open up like sardine cans.

The new film continues Hollywood's relentless stream of sequels, prequels, reboots, revivals, remakes and spinoffs.

The original Twister may not be a great movie, but the years have made it look better and better – for the same reasons that a vintage Gap jacket looks like a designer garment. Now that stores only sell clothes made from plastic sheeting and surgical staples in fast-fashion gulags, what used to be considered basic construction – things like finished seams and sturdy material – become downright luxurious by comparison. By the standards of 2020s content swill, many of the elements that made Jan de Bont's 1996 film a meat-and-potatoes blockbuster now seem almost artisanal, and I don't just mean the practical effects, which involved huge wind machines and tractors dropped from helicopters, and which have held up remarkably well.

This weekend, another variant hits theaters: “Twisters,” directed by Lee Isaac Chung (after his Oscar-winning “Minari,” 2020) and starring several of today's most promising or rising stars, including Daisy Edgar-Jones, Anthony Ramos and the star of the moment, Glen Powell. Loosely related to 1996's “Twister,” it's somewhere between a sequel and a remake: it departs from the concept of the original, but doesn't require substantial knowledge of the first film.

An overwhelming strength of this new version: Its visual effects are impressive and immersive. The tornadoes look like the real thing, something the original couldn't achieve because the technology didn't exist 30 years ago. Similarly, the film's storyline illustrates how storm chasing has changed since “Twister.” There is also a greater sense of urgency for the characters, as storms are now more frequent and severe.

I can't say that I loved all the main story arcs. Some of the secondary characters are very one dimensional, stereotypical and quite uninteresting. Most of Tyler's crew falls into this category. The actors weren't necessarily bad, but you just didn't care about them. I know when I can't remember the names of the characters we've spent the last couple of hours with, they're just not that interesting. Other than the three main characters, I couldn't tell you the names of any of those characters.

It's unclear why Edgar-Jones, who exudes the Britishness of a Liberty of London party dress, keeps getting cast in very regionally specific American roles. But the film's verisimilitude of her Oklahoma accent, whose intermittency may or may not be deliberate, is less of a problem than the fact that the film revolves around her character's ability to rediscover her ability to read time. 

Pulled back to her home state from New York City by an enterprising former colleague named Javi (an ultimately underused Anthony Ramos)-whose obvious infatuation places him at the sharp end of a malformed love triangle once Tyler enters the scene-she gradually overcomes her survivor's guilt in a journey less emotional than a series of scripted vignettes to endure. Every time Tyler strolls through a scene with his specially equipped truck and entourage (consisting of Brandon Perea, Sasha Lane, Love Lies Bleeding star Katy O'Brian and TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe), he seems to be in a much funnier movie than the one we're treated to, which can never square its gleefully destructive spectacle with its guilty insistence on showing the human cost of that spectacle.

This impersonal exaltation of heroic exploits leaves an unexplored dilemma at the heart of the film. A key detail, in the traumatic opening sequence, raises questions about the ethics and risks of scientific research. When Kate, Javi and their colleagues manage to throw a load of polymer through the funnel of a tornado, they observe that, instead of shrinking, the tornado grows. The scene introduces the heartbreaking possibility that the test has not only failed, but caused damage. Yet over the course of the film, Kate, for all the guilt she feels over the death of her friends, never once considers that her method of taming the tornado might have turned her into the Dr. Frankenstein of meteorology, whose miscalculations created a more monstrous storm. If she harbors a shred of self-doubt or a glimmer of scientific awareness about it, the film never suggests it. Instead, she's a porcelain heroine just waiting for a white knight to give her confidence and further embolden her spirit of experimentation. For all its concessions to modern times, “Twisters” doesn't advance much at all.

Review: “Exhuma”★★★★

Exhuma” is the kind of film that leaves a lifelong impression, due to its compelling storyline and impressive production quality. Although its horror elements are not quite overt, the entire film is shrouded in an unsettling atmosphere capable of sending shivers down your spine. With an atmosphere of constant tension, it keeps you on the seat's edge throughout. While weaving together themes of spirituality, the supernatural and Korean-Japanese history, Exhuma stands out as a compelling occult horror movie that is well worthy of viewing.

“A shaman and a geomancer must lift a dark curse and exhume a corpse from a mountaintop tomb on the border between South and North Korea in this dense folkloric horror.” 

Less than a week after its release, “Exhuma” became the highest-grossing Korean film of 2024 to report so far, ousting Timothée Chalamet-starring “Wonka” from the top spot after its delayed release in Korea. The other big film of the moment, Chalamet's “Dune: Part 2,” has been second in Korea for three consecutive weekends, following in the wake of “Exhuma.”

With almost a month later, this makes “Exhuma” $67.8 million from 9.3 million ticket sales, crossing the nine million mark four days ahead of last year's top-grossing Korean film, a historical drama titled “12.12: The Day”. This makes “Exhuma” the highest-grossing Korean occult horror film by far, and also places it among the top 25 highest-grossing films in the country. 

The plot begins with Hwarim (Kim Go-eun), a shaman, and Bong Gil (Lee Do-hyun), called in by Park Ji Yong (Kim Jae-cheol), a wealthy Korean-American, to diagnose the mysterious illness afflicting the family's newborn son. Upon Hwarim's arrival, it becomes clear that a sinister curse has plagued the family for years. To tackle the task, he enlists the help of Kim Sang Deok (Choi Min-sik), a geomancer and Feng Shui expert, and his apprentice Ko Young Geun (Yoo Hae-jin). Together, the four decide to break the curse by excavating the body of the family patriarch from his mountaintop grave on the border between North and South Korea. As they delve deeper into their investigation, the characters encounter a series of inexplicable events that blur the boundaries between the physical and supernatural worlds.

What does set Exhuma distinctly apart is its rich and detailed cultural symbolism. While Korean author Na Hong-jin scratches the surface as a crash course in Korean folklore, Exhuma keeps poking and digging some more, uncovering a history of ritual beliefs and practices, bones and all. Drawing on Korean shamanism, Buddhism, Christianity and related traditions, such as feng shui, cremation rituals and myriad omens, the film benefits from a basic and nuanced understanding of Korean spirituality. However, the script excels at articulating its rules, ensuring easy comprehension and an exacerbated terror that will leave you wanting to delve even deeper.

Either way, positive word-of-mouth will help “Exhuma” more in the long run, and that's especially true of genre films like this one, which are often more likely to translate into international hit. Horror tropes are universal to some extent - everyone gets scared - and the visual aspect can help attract casual viewers more visually averse to subtitled cinema. South Korean films, in particular, have a great reputation in the horror genre, and there's also the fact that scary movies, in general, continue to attract a more reliable - not to mention more money-earning - audience after COVID. Think “Five Nights at Freddy's,” “Scream VI” and “M3GAN,” to name just a few from last year. 

But don't let the cultural immersion scare you off: the film is also a multivocal mix of horror subgenres that everyone can sink their teeth into. The story, told in two parts, goes from a run-of-the-mill exorcism nightmare to an unexpected creature feature with an unmistakable narrative style.

This movie offers outstanding performances, particularly Choi Mon-sik as Kim Sang Deok. As a geomancer and Feng Shui expert who guides families on burial sites, his performance is exceptional. This occult horror seamlessly blends omens, feng shui, spirits and shamanic practices into a captivating narrative. Jang Jae Hyun's expert direction and Lee Mo-gae's cinematography enhance the immersive experience. Thanks to its depth and departure from typical horror tropes, this film stands out and is gripping.

Review: “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”★★★★

The “Planet of the Apes” universe is extraordinarily thoughtful, even insightful. If science fiction places us in a universe that is different enough for our mental barriers just to be overcome by daring questions, the “APES” films are one of the best examples.

At the start of the 1968 film, star Charlton Heston explains, “I can't help thinking that somewhere in the universe must be something better than man.” One might expect, from a movie like this, that “better” species to be the apes. But as it turns out, we may have to keep looking. 

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, follows the successful reboot franchise that was launched in 2011 with Rise of the Planet of the Apes and became a trilogy starring Caesar, an intelligent and peaceful leader of the apes played by Andy Serkis. A brilliant and expressive motion capture was used to create realistic CGI animals. Wes Ball, the director of The Maze Runner trilogy, has stepped into this series with an installment that is not exactly a reboot, but instead jumps back in time, with different characters, marking a new twist. Whatever it's called, this action spectacle resorts to the same dazzling movement capture, but doesn't bring anything new or particularly interesting to the fore.

Looking at the state of the earth, one wonders if the apes could do worst. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes presents a reign-and a movie-almost free of humans, and while that ape-ridden planet isn't necessarily getting any worse, it's definitely not an improvement. Same old search for power, same old questions about whom we can trust, and, unfortunately, the same old movie.

The new story is set so many generations after Caesar's death that Noa, the ape-hero played by Owen Teague (It), has no idea who he was even though he benefited from Caesar's legacy. Noa's home is a quiet, wooded place where the ape villagers have built tree houses made of branches. They haven't discovered technology, but they are much more fluent in English than before.

In the film's first major action scene, Noa's village is attacked by horseback-riding apes wearing rusty masks and wielding torches and taser-shaped spears. The scene is cleverly orchestrated to make us part of Noa's horror as they set her village on fire and take the survivors prisoner. Wes Ball brings fresh blood, new ideas and superb motion capture to this high quality summer blockbuster.

The latest film, “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” takes up the story exactly where that trilogy ended: with the death of Caesar, the ultra-intelligent chimpanzee who has led the apes away from what's left of humanity and into paradise. (The scene was a direct quote from the story of Moses leading the Israelites to the Promised Land, but dying just before he could step foot there.)

History, of course, has a habit of repeating itself, whether in ancient Rome or Egypt, and in the proclamations of Proximo Caesar one detects a bit of Ozymandias: Look upon his works, ye mighty ones, and despair! “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” is set in the future, but, like many works of science fiction, such as ‘Dune,’ ‘Battlestar Galactica’ or Walter Miller's ‘Canticle of Leibowitz,’ there is a sense that all this has happened before and will happen again.

Whether Caesar ever existed is unknown to Noa (Owen Teague), a young chimpanzee whose father, Koro (Neil Sandilands), is the leader of his clan and an avid bird breeder. That clan has its own laws, mostly having to do with how to treat the birds' nests, and that's all Noa and his friends Anaya (Travis Jeffery) and Shona (Lydia Peckham) have ever known. 

One exception is Mae (Freya Allan), a young girl Noa and Raka (Peter Macon) meet on their way to the settlement of Proximus. She's not much of character, and mostly represents the question of whether apes and humans can trust each other and coexist. The film's role of William H. Macy, the other human character, plays a man who has survived Proximus' capture by reading books to him, a skill the apes have not yet mastered.

If you've seen War for the Planet of the Apes (2017), the final installment of Caesar's trilogy, you may be surprised at how derivative the final stretch of Kingdom is. Once again, a ruthless leader holds apes prisoner in an abandoned weapons depot. This time everything is rusted from the passage of time and the ruler is Proximus instead of Woody Harrelson's Colonel, but still. Can't they come up with anything better to set off the inevitable explosion?

Coming behind the impressive CGI, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is the definition of generic, the two hours and 25 minutes it runs. The conclusion heralds a sequel that offers a more intriguing conflict, but that doesn't help us now.

Review: “Kung Fu Panda 4”★★★

"Kung Fu Panda 4," like the previous releases in this Dream Works franchise, is over the edge of it’s own capabilities.

Once again starring Jack Black as the naïve martial arts master Po, the animated film combines comedy and action sequences with a message of kindness, inner space and self-discovery. 

[Watching "Kung Fu Panda 4," a sequel that's probably going to make a zen temple full of money, –I kept thinking at the time: " it's got everything it's supposed to do," This cool fourth chapter of an action fairy tale at least according to the manual of exemplary animated box-office hits.]

Po kicking ass amidst pasty cooking ramblings; a geeky sparring partner, an androgynous-looking fox named Zhen, voiced by Awkwafina, who spends the film barbed-swapping with him; As Po and Zhen set out for the Chameleon’s palace in faraway Jupiter City, Po’s two guardians –his biological father, Li Shan (Bryan Cranston) and adopted father, Mr. Ping (James Hong) follow him in comical pursuit as the movie went on, all I could think was  –where’s the skadoosh?

In this film, directed by Mike Mitchell, Po faces his new responsibility as spiritual leader of the Valley of Peace, taking the place of his mentor Shifu (Dustin Hoffman). Shifu urges Po to name a successor, but Po is reluctant to give up a life of kicking ass in exchange for handing out wisdom. 

The plot is a bit overdone for the target audience of young children, although the scriptwriters have been careful to make it work for newcomers: no previous Kung Fu Panda experience is necessary. It begins with Po's rise from his role as Dragon Warrior to spiritual leader of the valley, taking over his mentor Shifu (no expense has been spared on the vocal cast.) But before he can name his successor, Po stops Zhen (Awkwafina), a street-smart fox thief. The two make a brilliant doublet: Black is adorable and Awkwafina is terrific as a cynical prankster.

Even after 16 years of Po, you'd like to hear Jack Black's voice laden with that youthful exuberance, rather than the wise old man aura he exudes here. You also wish the film had better jokes. Mitchell, who co-directs with Stephanie Stine, doesn't stage the action fights with the surreal freedom that animation allows. Po complies, but I'm sorry it's not funny. as Po would say –"Skadoosh!". 

The filmmaker has accomplished a very complicated task: paving the way for a new direction for the franchise, find new ways to entertain ourselves by reminding us of lessons such as "It's never too late to do the right thing" and ending it all with Tenacious D's Black-led version of Britney Spears' "...Baby One More Time." –Embrace the change.

Review: “Godzilla X Kong: New Empire”★★★

The Monster-verse (also styled as MonsterVerse) is an American multimedia film franchise and co-series starring Godzilla and other animated spin-off characters owned and created by Toho Co, Ltd, as well as King Kong. The franchise consists of five films and two television series that were produced by Legendary Pictures, with Warner Bros. Pictures distributing the films and the series released for streaming on Netflix and Apple TV+. This franchise has received a generally positive critical reception and has grossed $2.522 billion worldwide at the box office.

The Monster-verse, an expansive cinematic universe, kicked off its legacy with Godzilla in 2014, followed by Kong: Skull Island in 2017, Godzilla: King of the Monsters in 2019 and the epic Godzilla vs. Kong showdown in 2021. In the latest, director Adam Wingard returns to lead the monster spectacle in the next release, the biggest in the franchise.

Kong, who lives in Hollow Earth, where most of the film takes place (Hollow Earth is a land that I've never really liked the idea of, as it seems like the earthly version of a storage basement), is assumed to be the last of his kind, but discovers an ape boy who actually looks like an homage to the plush creature from the 1967 Japanese film “Son of Godzilla.” This gorilla boy leads Kong to a tribe of hostile, ragged apes living in a slave society presided over by King Skar, an evil ape with spotted red hair who is as tall as Kong and wields a skeletal bone whip that looks like it was made from the backbone of a sea serpent. He also commands, as a personal weapon of mass destruction, a bizarre gigantoid creature that is like a stegosaurus that has been left in the frozen and, in fact, its main power is a breath ray that can turn anything, including the mighty Kong, into ice.

And then there's the essential way in which “Godzilla x Kong,” the fifth entry in the Monster-verse, plays a great deal like the umpteenth installment of a superhero franchise. The film is peppered with occasional creature battles, but for the first 90 minutes it mostly devotes itself to coloring the backstory of its world-construction. (Godzilla and Kong have a complicated connection to their place in the on-earth cosmos, and the story goes through great lengths to transform them from enemies into comrades.

The original release date of April 12 had placed Godzilla x Kong in a good position, offering it a clean path to secure the top spot at the box office, without opposition from major releases. With the new March 29 release date, the film still enjoys a vacant opening slot, which guarantees minimal competition on its opening weekend. Even with the change, Godzilla x Kong is expected to dominate the box office, given the absence of significant rivals on March 29.

Where the last film succeeded was director Adam Wingard's judicious modulation of tone, which removed the dark foreboding of Gareth Edwards' crazily self-serious 2014 offering and brought the fun that Michael Dougherty's lousy sequel failed to deliver. He's wisely brought back for more and it's refreshing to see that he keeps matters light, his film a cheeky burst of color at a time when too many blockbusters of this scale are lost in obscurity (it's surely the most pink Godzilla movie to date). But the script, crafted by a team of three who are also trying to keep their cool, is far less effective. Of course, human time is never going to be a priority in these films (Wingard even admitted it would be even less important this time around), but the dialogue often goes from merely superficial to actively terrible. In attempting to align itself with Wingard's wit, the screenplay punishes in-jokes so amazingly, shamefully humorless, that we find ourselves just imploring Godzilla to silence all of them with one of his feet.

Review: “Iron Claw”★★

The Iron Claw has scored a major achievement for an R-rated film. A24's new drama, written and directed by Sean Durkin, follows the breakneck rise and tragic fall of the Von Erich brothers' wrestling dynasty in the 1980s. The cast includes Zac Efron as Kevin Von Erich, Jeremy Allen White as Kerry Von Erich and Harris Dickinson as David Von Erich, along with Maura Tierney, Lily James, Stanley Simons and Holt McCallany. 

The film based on true events begins in the early 1980s the Von Erich brothers were stars of the Texas wrestling circuit, a period that is recreated in the film with a glowing sheen, as if the entire story were taking place inside a giant tanning booth. And at least for a while, it seems that Fritz's stubborn ambition (born of a long-perceived slight in his own career) to have his boys all be champions seems attainable. 

Kevin, the self-proclaimed protector of his younger siblings and occasional narrator of the film, seems to be the clear contender to take home the belt. But then, his brother David (Harris Dickinson) steals his thunder with his performances in post-fight interviews. Kerry (The Bear's Jeremy Allen White, incredibly enthusiastic and giving new meaning to Original Beef of Chicagoland), was going to be the family's first Olympic athlete-"he's training to throw the discuss for the U.S. team" - "until the Americans withdrew from the 1980 Moscow Olympics.”

Individually, as characters, they are not especially compelling; they certainly have less texture and complexity than the protagonist of another 2023 wrestling film, Cassandro, the Gael Garcia Bernal-starring portrayal of real-life gay wrestler Cassandro the Exotic. But Durkin draws our attention as much to the dynamics between the characters as to the characters themselves: the way the love between the brothers miraculously prevails, despite Fritz's divide-and-conquer strategy of pitting his boys against each other.

Early in the film, over dinner, Fritz lists his sons' current rankings from favorite to least favorite, accompanied by a reminder that positions can always change. McCallany, square-shouldered and square-headed, usually plays tough guys, but he's always had a good comic vis, and his performance in that moment is funny, appropriate for times that are still optimistic. The iron claw allows Fritz's degree of corrosiveness to emerge slowly, though some of it is evident even then in how hard he is on Mike, the youngest and smallest of the four. Fritz tells his sons that nothing can hurt them if they become the toughest, strongest and most successful, though all they seem to do is get hurt as their father pits them against each other, always having a favorite son who he hopes will go on to become the heavyweight champion of the world. Kevin works the hardest, but when he is unable to get up fast enough from a brutal knockdown during a major bout, Fritz defers to David, who is better in interviews and on the microphone during fights. Later, it is Kerry who becomes the favorite son after his Olympic dreams end with the U.S. boycott of the 1980 games and he returns home and joins the family business. In the role of his devoted and desiccated mother, Doris, Maura Tierney simply shrugs off the increasingly ugly dynamics of the household.

The Von Erich saga is too vast and bizarre to contain in a single film: among the details The Iron Claw omits is that Fritz was born Jack Adkisson but changed his name to present himself as a Nazi heel in the ring, a decision that became the source of the supposed curse that hangs over his family. But by simplifying its story to emphasize the tragedies that accumulate over time, the film risks reducing its characters to martyrs who suffer and die in the name of toxic masculinity. Durkin is a gifted filmmaker who tends to approach his characters from a distance: there are moments in all three of his features where the people on screen look like still-moving insects being methodically pinned to a board. In The Iron Claw, that restraint is calculated.  The film hovers above the sincere innocence of Kevin, through whom most of the action is channeled, a distance that is further underlined by Durkin's decision to give his film the rich yellow tint of an aging photograph. But then, at the end of The Iron Claw comes a sequence that departs from all of the above and unabashedly plunges us into Kevin's mind in a moment of intense grief. It's heartfelt, corny and absolutely devastating, and it makes you long for a film that wasn't so intent on keeping its tragic protagonists at arm's length.

Ultimately, The Iron Claw ranks relatively low on the overall domestic box office chart for the year. Roughly 75 2023 films have passed the $20 million milestone, from The Pope's The Exorcist ($20 million) to the smash hit Barbie ($636.3 million), and The Iron Claw could very well fall below the Top 50 by the end of its run. However, as an adult film, its prospects are much better.

Review: “Ghostbusters: Afterlife’s Sequel. Frozen Empire”★★★

“Ghostbusters: Afterlife ” was directed by Jason Reitman, whose father, Ivan Reitman, directed the first two films in the 1980s and was in line to take over the third. After many years, following many more studio notes, a new director, Paul Feig, was brought in and the third film became a female-led reboot. 

Before it was even released, the reboot became the target of trolls and racists, a casualty of the culture wars. But, like the pesky apparitions that haunt this series, profitable franchises (and even barely profitable ones) rarely truly die in Hollywood, and “Ghostbusters” is simply too silly, too smart about the comedy-sci-fi fantasy genre being potentially lucrative to stay buried for too long. 

Nearly 40 years after “Ghostbusters” became a huge hit - one that launched a lucrative franchise that spanned film and video games, Sony is proving that the “Ghostbusters” story doesn't have to be a relic of the past. 

–“The Ghostbusters: Afterlife” the second-to-last big-screen installment of the sci-fi comedy, grossed $44 million in its domestic box office debut, - a solid start in unpredictable pandemic times. 

In scenes in which the director, Gil Keenan, who wrote the script with Jason Reitman, ponders what it would feel like to let the dead dematerialize forever, the film seems to be asking its fans if they are prepared to release Peter Venkman, the parapsychologist played by Bill Murray, from the pursuit of the dead when it is clear that his soul is not. 

“The Ghostbusters: Afterlife” featured the estranged daughter of Harold Ramis' Egon Spengler, a single mother named Callie (Carrie Coon) and her teenage children Phoebe (McKenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard). After the death of their paterfamilias, the family fended off his killer, the dusty Sumerian Gozer, with the help of a high school psychics teacher named Gary (Paul Rudd) two young friends, Luck (Celesta O' Connor) and Podcast (Logan Kim) - yes Podcast; and first generation Ghostbusters, Ray Stantz (Dan Akroyd) Winston Zeddmore (Ernie Hudson) Dr. Venkman (Bill Murray) and the sassy secretary, Janine (Annie Potts). 

Whatever element of entrepreneurialism there once was in the Ghostbusters franchise has long since been exorcised, but that's okay: Hollywood assumes that audiences no longer want to be surprised, and it's probably right. 2016's all-female “Ghostbusters” wasn't all bad, but it got caught in the crossfire of the culture war, while the 2021 reboot “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” looked like a mash-up of the original 1984 film and the ‘Stranger Things’ TV series, and did well enough to spawn a sequel: ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.’ The new film is professionally made, well acted, quite entertaining, and possesses no earthly reason to exist other than the care and feeding of intellectual property. 

Review: “Argylle”★★★

Director Mathew Vaughn is known for directing action thrillers, as well as producing films alongside fellow director Guy Ritchie. The success of "Lock and Stock" (1998) and "Snatch" (Pigs and Diamonds, 2000) encouraged Vaughn to make the leap to directing with "Laker Cake" (Organized Crime, 2004), a mafia thriller in which he ran the risk of staying in the shadow of his friend was then when he decided to venture into fantasy cinema with 'Stardust' (2007) the brilliant adaptation of a story by Neil Gaiman which was followed by a superhero action comedy (Kick Ass: Shut up Kick Ass, 2010) and the film X-men: First Generation (2011) one of the best superhero movies. 

This would help turn another stylish Mark Millar comic into a franchise for the director of Kingsman: Secret Service: The Golden Circle, The King's Man and now 'Argylle' (2024) a spy novel, which has been a colossal and lumbering misfire structured as a cross between a Matryoshka doll full of shocking revelations and a partially undone knitted piece, resembling the rejected and incoherent cuts of the Kingsman series.

The narrative is driven by the question of who manipulates whom, though ultimately it's easiest to conclude that the script manipulates the viewer, in the film Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard) is in the midst of writing the fifth volume of a series called: "Argylle," but the film begins with another quick bait-and-switch: a brief segment starring Henry Cavill as Aubrey Cavill as Aubrey Argylle, the Bond-like hero of Elly Conway's novels, and his villainous opponent, a faux-Bond played by pop star Dua Lipa. 

All this explains to some extent the puzzling existence of "Argylle" Conway, in fact: she has also been tricked: she is actually Aidan's colleague, a real spy named Rachel Kyle who was brainwashed by members of the Division, pretending to be Conway's parents, into her false identity as a novelist, and wrote her novels based on details of her own siege as a spy named Rachel Kyle, memories she had apparently repressed after an accident. 

The clues were all there: not only does "R Kelly" sound a bit like Argylle, but the last four letters of Argylle (and Kelly) spell "Elly" backwards. We can suspect why Elly Conway essentially wrote homoerotic fan fiction about herself by making her protagonist and her partner - boyfriend both male characters at a later date. The point is that Elly was always Argylle. 

This theoretically could be a fun movie, but it's all so self-conscious and self-admiring, with key action sequences turned null and void by being played on two levels, the imaginary and the real, so they cancel each other out, then the Argyllle book series 2 and 3 are highly arguable, - only one thought comes to mind: the series could be done much better. 

Argylle opens at the box office to mixed reviews and grossing $18 million, whereas Apple company has been releasing original films since 2019 and the production house won the Oscar for Best Picture with "CODA" in 2021, Apple has only recently released its own big-budget productions. The first two, Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon" and Ridley Scott's "Napoleon," have been relatively successful. 

"Killers of the Flower Moon," although it has not been as profitable, grossing $156 million worldwide, was one of the most lauded films of 2023 and was nominated for 10 Oscars. "Napoleon," released in November, has grossed $219 million worldwide, meaning it hasn't been profitable either. However, both have boosted Apple's reputation and prestige, but the same has not been true of "Argylle," perhaps because it is a complicated thriller featuring performances by Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell and Henry Cavill. 

Note: "Argylle" was released with the idea of starting a new franchise, but controversy arose when Taylor Swift was rumored to be involved, as many diamonds and cats appear in the film: Despite Internet rumors. Swift had nothing to do with the movie. 

Review: “Gran Turismo” ★★

Since the late '90s the "Gran Turismo" racing games for Play Station have grossed billions of dollars rivaling some movie franchises at the box office, Neill Blookamp (the director of District 9 and Chapie) delivers a commercial film based on the true story of Jann Mardenborough a "Gran Turismo" enthusiast who became a professional racing driver by signing a contract with the automotive brand Nissan.

Mardenborough's leap from the video game, which is more of a pixelated simulator project to professional circuit racing competitions was an effective advertisement for Gran Turismo to something more than a game, but Jann's transition was not all smooth for director Neill Blookamp's challenge, Jann (Archie Madekwe) a teenager from Cardiff (Wales) faces an apprenticeship on the racetrack, the story of this driver is also the story of a young man proving his worth to his family and other skeptics.

The film begins by resembling video game levels as Jann races around the world to get his contract with Nissan, in the early sequences we see how Jann's father (Djimon Honsou) talks to him about how in the world of video games there is no future and takes him to a railroad yard, Jann eventually wins a contest held by Nissan to recruit their promising "Gran Turismo" players - His mother played by Geri Halliwell Horner, is a bit more encouraging, eventually Jann wins a position in the company's racing academy overseen by a tough engineer, Jack (David Harbour) and a virtuoso marketer, Danny (Orlando Bloom). Once again Jann exceeds expectations and beats out a more TV-ready competitor for the chance to compete professionally.

In his next race as Mardenborough's real-life driver did in 2015, there is no shortage of training and competition, what follows is a formulaic sports story, against all odds, that touches on all genres and clichés (on-track rivalries, raiding outsiders, tensions between private lines and public personas, ecstatic highs, tragic lows, and inevitable third-act resurrections) while conversing a spark of invention, thanks to the peculiar virtual/physical dichotomies of Mardenborough's story about this central paradox, Blookamp visually blurs the line between simulated and "real" racing throughout when young Jann is playing in his room and the graphics conjure a virtual vehicle around him turning his house into a racetrack. Later, when he hits the road, the real world is reimagined as a game replete with flashing graphics ("2nd place," "Goal reached!") glitches and familiar console views reminiscent of the clever visual loops in Jon S. Baird's recent Tetris film.

At first glance the story Based on Jann a young Cardiff Wales is a story of a video gamer turned racing driver, which may seem like a left turn for a filmmaker whose career has been built on fantasy and adventure and how his video game prowess is positioning him on the best racing circuits. While the narrative roots may be "real" this is essentially The Last Starfighter with fast cars, rather than spaceships. Unsurprisingly, Speed Racer (the manga/anime hit that the Wachowskis adapted to the screen in 2008) gets a cheeky name revision. To what seems a bit unoriginal, however, for "Gran Turismo" fans it's a good time to dust off that steering wheel and get back into the simulator.

Review: “Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom” ★★★★

In the second release of Aquaman directed by James Wan has become a new top box office film for DC, this has maintained high expectations for upcoming releases, such as Superman Legacy, which has a 2025 release date, this was confirmed by the new CEO of DC Studios James Gunn.

"Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" is the sequel starring Jason Momoa where he teams up with Patrick Wilson who stars as the villain Orm in the first movie. Also Black Manta (Yaya Abdul-Mateen II) returns stronger than before.

The release of Aquaman caps a difficult and transitional year for DC superhero films filled with box office disappointments. The film was expected to open between $32 million and $42 million but was estimated at $28 million by Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. also had a No. 2 movie of the weekend, "Wonka" and one of the top holiday releases, "The Color Purple" a buffet of big movies that theaters badly needed especially without any new Walt Disney Company or Paramount films. On Monday, Warner Bros will likely hold 3 spots in the top 5.

It's never good for Hollywood or movie theaters when Christmas Eve falls on a weekend day, but the last time Christmas fell on a Monday, in 2017 "Star Wars The Last Jedi" dominated the four-day charts with $71.5 million in its second weekend.

The latest chapter in the current iteration of the DC Comics Universe got off to a less than splashy start, with $13.7 million opening day grosses at 3,706 locations thanks to screenings in large-format theaters like IMAX.

If we add to this news of a production with many problems (including those from Variety) growing rumors of superhero fatigue and poor viewer response, as indicated by a b-grade from research firm Cinema Score, there is little expectation that "The Lost Kingdom" will achieve a multiplier 5 times that of the original "Aquaman" film, with $355 million in North America and over $1 billion worldwide.

In spite of expectations, "Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom" is a recommended sequel for fans of the DC Universe. It has incredible visual effects that make it appealing to all audiences and an action-packed story for Warner Bros and the DC Universe, is a smooth ride with more to come as the third part of Aquaman, which is still possible and expected to be starring Jason Momoa again.