Tag: Movie Review

News of the World Makes It’s Call on Home Video

I believe this movie is about Kidd’s depression getting the better of him. He’s on the road a lot to hide from what he can’t bear to be around.

News Of The World (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital)
Available to order on Amazon USA

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Universal Studios Entertainment
Spoiler Alert

Sometimes no news is better than fake news in the one subplot featured in Paul Greengrass‘s movie, News of the World. The film is imbued with a subtle reminder of race relations while life in the wild west was hard. The Civil War is over, and people are still trying to figure out what side they are truly with. The collision between the cowboys, indians, and immigrants makes up one layer of this movie adaptation of Paulette Jiles‘ novel of the same name. Another is about the journey of one very lonely individual.

Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Tom Hanks) is a Confederate veteran of the US Civil War, and after losing this battle, he has no reason to fully live. To make ends meet, he travels from town to town to offer his services as a town crier of sorts. He reads the local paper out aloud in town halls, to deliver the news to those who can’t read. Plus, he hasn’t seen his wife in years. Hanks’ performance makes me wonder if Kidd is kidding himself about his occupation. He sees home as a disease. Johanna (played by Helena Zengel), to whom he has to deliver to her next of kin, proves to be more of a boon than a bane of his life.

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Back to the Past with Wonder Woman 1984 and the Future of the DCEU

Diana’s role as a curator or director of antiquities in all the films she’s been in suggests she’s an Indiana Jones type figure. I’m game with seeing sequels about her adventures to rescue lost artifacts like the Dreamstone and continue to deal with tricksters wanting to keep them in play to ruin humanity.

Wonder Woman 1984 | Reelviews Movie ReviewsBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Limited Release
Please check local listings for theatres screening near you

Wonder Woman is a heroine for all ages, and Gal Gadot is embracing the character lock, stock and barrel. In the comics, she represents the independent woman. The first film gave us hints of where she came from, and this sequel continues down a similar path.

The prologue is set back in the island paradise of Themyscira and teaches the very young Diana Prince (Lilly Aspell) an important virtue–you can’t take shortcuts to get ahead. Perhaps including being careful in what you wish for should be added too. The rest of the film attempts to explore the latter in Max Lord (Pedro Pascal), a business executive with less than stellar credentials. He wants a high life. The fact someone loved him enough, and they had a son suggests he was truly happy once. But he’s a single parent, and I’m curious why he isn’t with his kid more. The picture isn’t complete. Just why he is interested in ancient artifacts is not made clear either.

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On Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and How to Avoid It

Scary Stories to TellBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

  • Spoiler Alert

Alvin Schwartz‘s goal of writing stories inspired from folklore from around America is almost forgotten in the cinematic adaptation of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Just as quick as it entered theatres, it’s getting harder to find it as the seasons change, and October approaches. Just why it’s released early is because spending time at the movies during Halloween month is very crowded! Plus, it has to compete against IT, Part 2.

Executive Producer Guillermo del Toro, Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan’s vision was left to the Hageman Brothers to finesse. The movie’s name is appropriately titled and its author, Sarah Bellows, was essentially writing these tales to entertain herself. The reason why she took to the horror genre is easy to guess. She had no one else to interact with and what she lays down are manifestations of a deep resentment of her life and family. One might say she and HP Lovecraft can make a happy couple. Some of her tales suggest a horrible outlook on her life and what she thinks lay around in the small town of Mill Valley, Pennsylvania. Its sordid history is appealing when Stella (Zoe Colletti)–who shares a similar obsession with the genre–shares this fact to Ramon (Michael Garza), an individual seemingly on the run from something.

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Getting into the Holiday Spirit with Anna and the Apocalypse

Anna and the Apocalypse is an enjoyable romp around the Christmas tree. There are times we do not know who is chasing whom given the two different villains in this work

Anna and the ApocalypseBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Anna and the Apocalypse is an enjoyable romp around the Christmas tree and it’s a crazy enough concept where making it a musical works. Plus, there are times we do not know who is chasing whom when considering there are the two different villains. Maybe the ornaments or gifts can prove useful to combat zombies but what about the other obstacles?

Not even playing Michael Jackson’s Thriller can prove to stave them off. I have seen dance-offs in a live performance from a different tale and it’s a marvel to watch. The music was rockin and I wanted to hear more. The melodies in this movie are joyous enough to toe tap but ultimately the focus is with the coming of age story.

In this movie, we are immediately warned of an impending (zombie) epidemic but for the titular character, earnestly played by Ella Hunt, she ignores it. Other stakes are at work; she wants to break out of the expected (to go straight to college) after high school graduation and explore the world. But the destiny has other ideas. The world soon falls apart. The coming of it to the small town of Little Haven in Scotland is inevitable. Before she knows it, everyone she cares for will either succumb or die. Such is the norm for this genre.

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Finding a Place to Belong at Monsters University

As a prequel, this film makes for the perfect lead-in to Monsters Inc., but as a standalone product, there’s not much to this film that simply explains how one big eye surrounded by a mound of green flesh and a fluffy blue bear has become bosom buddies.

Monsters_University_poster_3Expectations were low for some long-time PIXAR fans going in to see Monsters University. In fact, they were smaller than the green imp, Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal). He has these grand ambitions to be a Scare-a-lot even though he is better suited to be Care Bears material. The joke is on him when he finally arrives at the prestigious Monsters University. He is there to learn how to be scary and that is one tall order for the most tamest beast to grace this monster-verse.

Even James Sullivan (John Goodman) is more about fluff than flights of fancy as he tries to buffoon his way through college life.

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The Croods Go Crazy!

The Croods is more than a Flintstone Family conundrum, and it explores the problems siblings face with their parents.

The CroodsWriter/Creator Chris Sanders shows that he rarely strays far from what he knows is a good tale. In what he crafted for The Croods is more than a Flintstone Family conundrum, and it explores the problems siblings face with their parents.

But this movie is one tough rock to crack. It doesn’t have the same appeal as Sander’s breakout directorial hit, Lilo & Stitch, or his phenomenal adaptation of Cassandra Cowell’s How to Train Your Dragon. When the story has to deal with five characters attempting to share equal screen time, the problems of managing a cohesive family drama versus sit-com ala The Munsters is evident.

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