The new story follows the heroic efforts of the crypto-zoological agency Monarch as its members face off against a battery of god-sized monsters, including the mighty Godzilla, who collides with Mothra, Rodan, and his ultimate nemesis, the three-headed King Ghidorah. Read more
The documentary opens on a farm facing great devastation and the looming question, ‘How did we get here?’ Do the farmers then ask if attempting to farm in harmony with nature is an impossible dream? We cut back to 2010 and meet the farmers, Molly and John. They were the perfect, happy, couple living in Santa Monica and working in their chosen professions. Read more
“A Dog’s Journey” is a new feature that is a direct relative to ‘”A Dog’s Purpose”. The central theme of both movies is a secret ability for canine companions that have a reincarnation method to take an immortal soul into the bodies of various puppies. These dogs live with their owners, but they remember the commands from prior owners. Such as, in “Purpose”, a young dog knows to find his first owner (a young boy), and he gets back to him when the little boy is now a man. In “Journey” that older man gives the old dog a final command to watch out for his granddaughter.
Ethan (Dennis Quaid) and Hannah (Marg Helgenberger) live on a Michigan farm with their dog Ethan calls him ‘Boss Dog’ (voiced by Josh Gad), but the dog’s name is Bailey. Ethan was the young boy who turned into an older man, and a series of dog’s all held the soul of Boss Dog. And in the prior movie, Josh Gad said endless cute things when he gave the various dogs an inner voice. Now they live on the farm with their daughter-in-law Gloria (Betty Gilpin). Her husband was killed in an accident just before her little daughter was born. Ethan and Hannah really love their granddaughter CJ, and they want to help Gloria.
Gloria is succeeding at being the Worst Mother Ever, but she gets tired of Ethan and Hannah trying to help. She takes CJ and leaves to live in Chicago. Ethan knows that the old dog Bailey does not have any more time in this world. So he gives ‘Boss Dog’ a new command – Watch over little CJ wherever she is on the world. In a few years, ‘Boss Dog’ shows up in a little puppy named Mollie. Even a little girl dog needs to have a Josh Gad voice, ya know. Grade school aged CJ (Abby Ryder Fortson) finds Mollie and adopts her new friend. She keeps Molly from her mom, Gloria, at least for a while.
Molly does her best to help CJ growing up strong. She tries to steer CJ to be with her school chum Trent (Ian Chen) and away from away from loser boyfriends. Molly even learns a useful skill; she trains to have an ability to detect the smell of cancer in a patient. But one day Molly dies, and CJ fights with Gloria so much that she decides to move out. Now much older, CJ (Kathryn Prescott) is now out of school, and she lives in New York City. Again, she gets her share of loser boyfriends. But one day she finds that an older Trent (Henry Lau) has also moved just down the block. Boss Dog had spent some time as a large dog in Pennsylvania, but now he knows it is time to move on.
Boss Dog winds up as a little stray in New York City. He meets up with CJ all over again. But now he is a little dog named Max, so CJ has now idea that the voice of Josh Gad is floating around in Max’s head. Max knows that he know has his true purpose, to keep CJ safe in the world. But Max remembers things as his time as Molly and the things she learned. So he is worried when he discovers that Trent has that weird smell like cancer. Trent needs treatment, and his current girlfriend cannot handle the pressure. She bails and leaves CJ to take care of Trent.
Trent gets better and soon CJ hears from her distant mother Gloria. She has been getting better and wants to be a part of CJ’s life. CJ and Trent discover some old letters with the address of an old Michigan farm. Could it be that farm that CJ barely remembers? What if her grandparents, Ethan and Hannah, still are there? What would it like to go back home? Boss Dog knows, because he has done it before in the lives of multiple dogs.
“A Dog’s Journey” is wonderfully creative way to show that the bonds between a dog and its owner can become inseparable. Even if it is nothing but wild speculation, it has a nice reassuring feel to the continuity. There is no way to now what a dog might be thinking, so the goofy dialog that Josh Gad has each of the many dogs is just perfect. Sometimes the dog might be thinking back to a prior life and an important commitment. But he could just as well be thinking about bacon. The overall effect of the story could bring a few sniffles, especially if you have ever really cared for a dog – and then have a dog go out of your life.
This is very wholesome movie that should give you all the feels. All the animals are very cute and cuddly. Even when they get a big wide-eyed face with an especially goofy grin. And here I am referring to Dennis Quaid, as well as most of the dogs. This movie is almost daring you not to like it. That is one bet that I do not want to take.
So you might as well go to the movie theater. Sit. Stay.
“John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum” is further look into the violent and bloody world contained in the ‘Extended John Wick Universe’. This is where hand-to-hand combat is on steroids, and where beatings, stabbings and shootings have been given growth serum, and where the over-the-top violence has been ‘Turned Up to 11’ (to paraphrase “Spinal Tap”). In other words, it is a beautiful ballet of bullets, bloodshed, and battles. In the previous two movies, John Wick has delivered an action-packed and stunt-driven extravaganza of fights and chases. Based on the internal logic where a secret society of assassins live and work in our world – yet they are apart from reality. Now with Chapter 3 – the Wickian wave is cresting over the mere movies that have a few stuntmen. This is Zen Level pure action and adrenaline, perfected to its finest.
John Wick (Keanu Reeves) finds himself at odds with controlling leaders of all the assassins, the group called the High Table. Wick had broken the rules, because he shot and killed a member of the Table in a place called the ‘Continental’. This is a luxury hotel and safe space in downtown New York. It is run by Winston (Ian McShane) who is an old friend of Wick’s. Winston and the concierge at the Continental – Charon (Lance Reddick) – gave Wick a head start. But Wick now has a bounty on his head of $14 million. Anyone who gives Wick any help will pay the price. Wick turns to an old mentor, the Director (Anjelica Huston). Wick has an item that he can use to trade for safe passage to Morocco.
In Casablanca, Wick finds another old partner named Sophia (Halle Berry). John Wick holds a ‘marker’ that forces the other person to help out in time of need. Sophia and Wick approach a member of the High Table. Wick asks if there is a way to get back into the good graces. He is ‘excommunicado’ and he might be able to meet with The Elder (Saïd Taghmaoui). But Sophia and her attack dogs come under attack, along with Wick, so there is a massive fight in the bazaar. Back in New York, The Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon) comes to anyone who helped Wick. She speaks for the High Table, and she will extract a High Price. She visits Winston at the Continental. She talks with the Director and extracts a price. She also finds the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) – who had supplied Wick with a weapon. Each one that she meets must vow a fidelity to the High Table.
The Adjudicator also finds a special assassin named Zero (Mark Dacascos). He is given the task to hunt down John Wick and apply a permanent resolution to Wick’s bounty. Wick comes back to New York, but he must personally kill Winston to earn his forgiveness. Zero and Wick find each other, and the fur begins to fly. Wick finds Winston, and Wick decides to press pause on the “Killing Winston” part of his punishment. The High Table is ready to take down Wick, Winston, Charon and Zero – who are all hanging out in the Continental. Wick has a small request (“Guns. Lots of Guns”), and Winston might be helpful in that area. So, the High Table sends a SWAT team to the hotel to take care of business…
John Wick has now had a total of three movies. All have been directed by Chad Stahelski and written (at least co-written) by Derek Kolstad. Stahelski is a former stantman himself, and he did much of the stunt work for Keanu Reeves in “The Matrix”. They have a solid core foundation to come up with the most intense sequences of fighting and mayhem that has ever been put down on film. Add to this Ian McShane and Lance Reddick (who have been in all three films) and there is an easy understanding between the actors and stunt people and the director that makes impossible action scenes come to life. The result is a mind-blowing visual overload that will not let you look away.
Naturally, a movie like this might too violent or over-the-top for many people. There are some who cringe at seeing guns and cannot stand the casual use of firearms as weapons. But should you find yourself wanting to see expertly done action and stunt-work, then “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum” will be the mother’s milk of murder and mayhem. So, if you are not a sad-sack, pajama-wearing granola-munching peacenik – then grab yourself a Red Bull Slushie and put your brain and hold for couple of hours. It will be worth it…
“All Is True” is a love poem, neh – a Love Sonnet – to the veritable Bard of Stratford-on-Avon. Yes, William Shakespeare is in his retirement years. He is spending these years not at Sun City West playing golf, but instead puttering around in his garden bemoaning his deceased son. His long-suffering wife and his two daughters are beset with Old Will’s presence after many, many years. For all those years, he has been living in London – writing and directing at the Globe Theater. But when it burns down, his whole life is put in disarray, and he retreats back to his humble abode. It is actually a pretty nice estate, because he has spent years being the world’s most successful playwright and poet. His patrons have lavished Shakespeare with enough to make his life very comfortable in his sunset years. Now, if he could only stop driving his family crazy…
William Shakespeare (Kenneth Branagh) has returned to his hometown, back from being a major success in London. The theater that he had founded has burnt to the ground, and he no longer has any reason to be there. He gets back to his wife Anne (Judi Dench) and his daughters. Susanna (Lydia Wilson) is married to a Puritan, so that means she is not happily married. Daughter Judith (Kathryn Wilder) is unmarried and is considered an ‘old maid’ with a tart tongue and a shrewish attitude. Will is back and he really starts to think about his son, Hamnet. He had died nearly two decades ago, while William was in London making the theater magic happen. Shakespeare did not allow himself to grieve properly, and now the loss of his son hits him hard. That was his family legacy, in his passing down of the family name to continue the Shakespeare greatness. With his daughters, they will not retain the family name, so there is a possibility that the Shakespeare line will be snuffed out.
Wife Anne has had many years to mourn her son and will not accept that hubby Will is just now getting around to it. After all, when Hamnet died, Will was consumed with the hustle and bustle of the Globe Theater. He was too busy writing “The Merry Wives of Windsor” at the time and could not get back to see Hamnet laid to rest. Now, Shakespeare has remnants of letters and poems created by Hamnet when he was younger, and alive. There was a rough but noticeable talent in his writings, and William is mourning the loss of not only a son, but the one who could have carried on the new family tradition. But Anne is stoic and steadfast, and she knows whatever secrets that Hamnet held are also dead. Judith has some shocking news for her father, and he does not know how to begin to understand what happened, and how his son died.
During this hubbub, there is a visit to the estate by an old friend and very wealthy patron of William Shakespeare. The Earl of Southampton (Ian McKellen), who is a noble by birth and a scoundrel in nature, comes to meet his favorite British poet and playwright. The Earl never needed to put on airs or persuade people to respect him. It was his due by his heritage. Shakespeare, on the other hand, was humble and born into poverty. His father was involved in scandal and he was frowned upon. So, Shakespeare has worked mightily to polish the family name. But both of his daughters have brushes with bad reputation and gossip. So, the cycle starts over once more. When the Earl of Southampton finally leaves William to his situation, he wishes him well. He wants him to remain true to his recent work in London as a genius, and not wallow in the backwater tides of the local countryside.
Kenneth Branagh plays his man-crush William Shakespeare with an intensity and a ton of prosthetic makeup. He does wind up looking like the historical portraits of The Bard, so it is a fitting appearance. Branagh really loves him some Shakespeare. So much so that he lives to direct movies adapted from Shakespeare, or star in movies adapted from Shakespeare – or mostly star in and direct movies that are adapted from Shakespeare. Branagh finds a suitable match with Dame Judi Dench playing Anne Hathaway, the woman who married William Shakespeare. These two are wonderful on-screen and play well against each other. Along with the cameo role of the Earl of Southampton, Ian McKellen has a twinkle of mischief in his eyes as he builds up and berates Shakespeare. They also are great in the same scene.
In Phoenix, playing exclusively at the Harkins Scottsdale Camelview.
Told from a wildly original, fresh and modern perspective, Booksmart is an unfiltered comedy about high school friendships and the bonds we create that last a lifetime. Read more
NEON Presents ‘THE LODGE’
With an 81% on the ‘Tomatometer’ you know this is a must watch! In the middle of a blizzard and trapped in the family’s remote cabin, two children and their soon-to-be stepmother are suddenly confronted with an evil force. Has it been there all along or is it from her past?
Starring Riley Keough, Jaeden Lieberher, Lia McHugh, Alicia Silverstone, and Richard Armitage.
Directed by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala (Goodnight Mommy).
http://www.fandango.com
Evil resurfaces in Derry as director Andy Muschietti reunites the Losers Club—young and adult—in a return to where it all began with “It Chapter Two.” The film is Muschietti’s follow-up to 2017’s critically acclaimed and massive worldwide box office hit “IT,” which grossed over $700 million globally. Both redefining and transcending the genre, “IT” became part of the cultural zeitgeist as well as the highest-grossing horror film of all time.
Because every 27 years evil revisits the town of Derry, Maine, “It Chapter Two” brings the characters—who’ve long since gone their separate ways—back together as adults, nearly three decades after the events of the first film.
Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain (“Zero Dark Thirty,” “Mama”) stars as Beverly, James McAvoy (“Split,” upcoming “Glass”) as Bill, Bill Hader (HBO’s “Barry,” “The Skeleton Twins”) as Richie, Isaiah Mustafa (TV’s “Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments”) as Mike, Jay Ryan (TV’s “Mary Kills People”) as Ben, James Ransone (HBO’s “The Wire”) as Eddie, and Andy Bean (“Allegiant,” Starz’ “Power”) as Stanley. Reprising their roles as the original members of the Losers Club are Jaeden Martell as Bill, Wyatt Oleff as Stanley, Jack Dylan Grazer as Eddie, Finn Wolfhard as Richie, Sophia Lillis as Beverly, Chosen Jacobs as Mike, and Jeremy Ray Taylor as Ben. Bill Skarsgård returns in the seminal role of Pennywise.
SOCIAL MEDIA:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/itmovieofficial
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ITMovie/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itmovieofficial
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WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE
Based on the runaway bestseller, Where’d You Go, Bernadette is an inspiring comedy about Bernadette Fox (Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett), a loving mom who becomes compelled to reconnect with her creative passions after years of sacrificing herself for her family. Bernadette’s leap of faith takes her on an epic adventure that jump-starts her life and leads to her triumphant rediscovery.
Director: Richard Linklater
Writer: Screenplay by Richard Linklater & Holly Gent & Vince Palmo
Based on the novel written by Maria Semple
Producers: Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson, Ginger Sledge
Executive Producers: Megan Ellison, Jillian Longnecker
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Billy Crudup, Kristen Wiig, Emma Nelson, James Urbaniak, Judy Greer, Troian Bellisario, Zoe Chao and Laurence Fishburne
SOCIAL MEDIA:
#Bernadette
Official Site: Bernadette.Film
Facebook: /BernadetteFilm
Instagram: @BernadetteFilm
Twitter: @BernadetteFilm
http://www.fandango.com
In the opening scene, we see a six-year-old boy, fresh home from school, walking into his mother’s room to discover her in bed. Clear to the audience because of all the pills scattered about, she is dead. The scene would have been fine had he thought her simply asleep and covered her, but it went another direction. That direction was to have her know she was dead and calmly cover her as if as was well. He gives her a kiss and says goodbye. It doesn’t feel believable as the boy is much too young to understand. The moment feels contrived and so very staged. If he had been an older child, I could see the scene working but what’s being set up is that the boy has little feeling about death. The theme of this movie is teen suicide. In the most overt way, it has been explained to you exactly why the main character has come to be who he is.
Then we move to the little boy having to face life alone with a drunken father. He screams to the child that she left them both and to forget she was ever alive with lines such as, ‘Don’t ever say her name to me!’ That immediately put me off because the script was talking to me as if I wouldn’t have understood the story had these elements naturally unfolded. Doubting that the viewers would ultimately understand the plot, the director, instead, chose to pound the topic into our heads in the first few minutes rather than let us discover the truth as it all plays out. His doubt in us made it a struggle to win me back.
Ten years later we see that for the same boy, Jesse (MacKenzie), things haven’t gotten much better. He’s now sixteen and not only has his situation not improved, but things have also become less desirable. He simply exists as a punching bag for his father, fellow students, to the world entire… with one exception. Jesse has a best friend named Sarah (Eichenberger). She’s also the narrator of the story. Through Sarah, we see strength and direction. Jesse tells her everything. She’s beautiful but he isn’t interested in her as a girlfriend. That’s because he isn’t interested in life. Jesse and Sarah have a nice day planned at the lake. He shows her some of his artwork. Suddenly, they’re jumped by some of their fellow high school students who tease Jesse and hold him under water. Sarah sees that Jesse doesn’t struggle. He lets them do whatever they want to him, seemingly welcoming death if it comes to that. This doesn’t go by unnoticed. Sarah questions his lack of willingness to fight back. He tells her, ‘We all gotta go sometime.’ Shortly after, he tells her his plans of taking the ‘cowards way out’ as his mom did. She feels betrayed at the revelation. It’s a heavy burden for her to carry, especially after he shows her how he’s planning on doing the deed. His intention alone is frightening to her but then he shows Sarah the tool he’s going to use, as well. He tells her the date and time he’s doing it and not tell anyone or, ‘I’ll do it sooner.’ That’s a friend! She gets desperate and, surprisingly, her promise of sleeping with him if he doesn’t kill himself doesn’t discourage him. Was it supposed to?
I have to add that knowing this was made by an extremely young filmmaker will help you forgive some things. Regardless of that fact, it ultimately doesn’t make for great entertainment. The acting, especially by MacKenzie, fit the character but he’s encased within a story that wants to be special yet labors at how to be anything but ordinary. With such a formulaic tone (something it was attempting not to deliver) and weak structure, this teen melodrama is a pass. Had it been made by a seasoned crew behind the scenes it, most likely, would have been more engaging and worth consideration. As it is, it’s too typical of its genre and has the earmarks of a squad of individuals uncertain of how to work a manageable script. I’d most especially like to see Walting learn what his actors are capable of before casting his next film. I’m not suggesting anyone involved in ‘Just Say Goodbye,’ say goodbye to their craft. There’s always next time. And with as much work as Walting put in to be the new kid on the block, I’m certain he’ll be developing his skills rather nicely. I’ll happily say goodbye to this film and say hello to anything he does next.
