Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

broderic on June 4, 2022

If you need to watch one multiverse movie this year make it Everything Everywhere All at Once. But if you need one from the Marvel Cinematic Universe then I guess Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness fits the bill. The former is the better movie. The latter is just okay.

To be honest, I should’ve written this review a while ago, so I don’t really know what to say as my memory of it is hazy. I guess I should’ve also watched the Scarlet Witch series to get how much her grief has done to her. It’s really so long ago that Everything Everywhere All at Once is just about to be released on video and streaming services.

Anyhow. Be a completionist and watch this film to piece together the next phase of the MCU. And go watch Everything Everywhere All at once because it is that damn good.

3 of 5 stars.

Everything Everywhere All at Once

broderic on April 10, 2022

With a title like Everything Everywhere All at Once, the movie better be epic. Yes, it certainly was, but also quite strange that it was at once intimate in scope. It went from multi-verse spanning to personal and family dynamics. All of it big and all of it small.

The movie stars Michelle Yeoh as a Chinese immigrant owner of a laundry mat. She’s got business trouble — the IRS is auditing her business records. She’s also got family trouble — a disappointed father, a weak husband, a daughter she barely understands. Worlds collide with lots of fun, weird, thrilling moments occuring. It turns out she is the One who can bring about peace among the multi-verse. Her husband is at turns suave, strong, engaging, besides his passive self, and wants to activate her power. Her daughter she still can’t figure out. They are all there to either save or destroy all universes and to either save or destroy their family.

The movie wants to reckon with the current situation of the world. Lots of disagreement. Lots of misunderstandings. It wants to reckon with a family’s disfunction. Much disagreement. Much misunderstandings. This movie is about both big and small things.

The way it all comes together is amazing. Kung fu action pieces. Hilarious alternate universes — hot dog hands and a raccoon version of Ratatouille. It’s the multiverse movie to watch.

Too be honest I teared up. It was really that good. Also, the return of Shortround, Ke Huy Quan, moved me. Where has he been? He was really good in this. Went from being Jackie Chan to being Tony Leung. For this 80’s kid, it was great seeing his face on the silver screen once again.

I am glad I went to see this film. I went in not really knowing much, which only increased my surprise to how good it was. It’s been a couple years since really wanting to see a film in the theater. I’m happy to have seen this one.

5 of 5 stars.

What Happened to the Movie Reviews?

broderic on January 22, 2022

I haven’t blogged this year. I don’t know when I will. What used to sustain this blog when I had nothing to write about was my commitment to writing a “review” for any movie I watched in the movie theater. I haven’t been in a movie theater since last year, and I am still afraid to go to one. Therefore, the movie reviews have dried up.

It was fun to go the theaters and watch a movie. Though the films may be good or bad, it was always enjoyable. The darkness. The popcorn. Two hours to be entertained. Or not. I liked watching movies, but nowadays not so.

You would think that since I am trapped in home because of the Corona Virus that I would watch movies from home. You would think, but I don’t. I am really bored with it all. Streaming television. Streaming services. Streaming. It’s just makes me bored, and when I’m bored I am lazy.

Maybe one day we’ll be past this Corona Virus pandemic and I’ll be able to go back to watching movies in the theater. I wonder if I will still be writing this blog.

I don’t have anything else to write about beyond that. For today.

“You drank too much of Max’s Spookadelic punch, and wound up makin’ out with that girl from accounting that smells like garbage.”

broderic on September 17, 2021

Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings is just one of the upcoming movies to kick off the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s a kung-fu flick and also a superhero movie as well. It’s got an all Asian cast, which is a first for an MCU film. It is also a film that starts out good, but then falls down upon itself as it fits into a Marvel film with a big bang of an ending.

I thought the action wasn’t bad. I wish we would get more kung-fu flicks in the west. I found it lame that we had to get the big crazy fight at the end — like it had to justify its existence as an MCU movie. I would’ve loved to have seen Tony Leung be more badass. I found that he was somewhat wasted with a disappointing arc. I want to see more and we are going to get a sequel. I guess I’ll watch.

3 of 5 stars.

Godzilla vs. Kong

broderic on April 7, 2021

It has been a year since I’ve seen a movie in the theaters. Only something big can get me to risk it in an enclosed space with people even while the rona is still romping around. Big as in kaiju big! Godzilla vs. Kong.

I was watching the theater’s site for how many people will show up for the opening Friday. The cheaper tickets in the cheaper auditorium was filling up, so I took a chance and bought a seat in a slightly more expensive auditorium, the one I don’t really like, but it had not many people watching. Plus, they close out the seat next to you. I didn’t have to worry as there maybe was about a dozen people watching in the auditorium that could’ve seated eighty.

I was completely worried. I did not feel comfortable all the while I watched the film. I wonder if I am infected in anyway. But it was fine to be back. I really went for the popcorn. That is all different as I couldn’t pour my own butter so it wasn’t as great as I was hoping it to be.

The movie was fine. Lots of action. No idea why they needed people. Kind of copped out in the end. Meh for the first film to watch in the theaters. Maybe I won’t worry too much for whatever’s coming, and maybe it will be a much better film.

3 of 5 stars.

“I’m an air traffic controller. It gets very stressful, so once a year I flip out and punch my fist through a radar screen, and I get sent here.”

broderic on September 9, 2020

Bill & Ted Face the Music is the first movie that I have seen in a long while. I did not see it at the movie theater. I paid to watch it at home.

Paying for first run movies this way is going to be the wave of the future. We’ll never go back to sitting in the dark with a couple dozen strangers staring at the large silver screen. Who wants to laugh and then inhale someone else’s COVID-19? Sadly, I would as I think the experience of watching it at home on my television diminished the awe. It was literally watching television and not a film.

So the third installment finds Bill and Ted needing to write that hit song that would unite the world. They had spent 20 years not writing it. They thought they had, but it wasn’t it, so we got the sequel to the sequel. Again some time traveling hi-jinks ensue. Add in their daughters and more historical dudes and the phone booth, which is very anachronistic nowadays, and you have a righteous romp back to simpler days.

The film very much would like to make these troubling times better. It wants us to feel that we can overcome these roadblocks. It was written for us to have fun in the days of Trump, but now after it was delayed, it was written for us to smile in the Covid-19 Days. That’s what I felt. Some happiness to spend time with some characters that I sort of been attached to for most of my life. I need it. We need it. Bill and Ted make it happen.

3 of 5 stars.

I Did Buy Some Hot Sauce

broderic on July 24, 2020

Yes, I did. Bought ’em from that site on that “Link of the Day” earlier this month. And since I have no movies to review because there are no movies in theaters anymore, I guess I’ll go about and review a purchase made on the whims during the season of the rona.

Anyhow, I purchased the following:

I’ve only really tasted the first two on food. The third one I’ve tasted just to see how hot it was. The last one is still sealed. I guess that this “review” will cover the first two.

My favorite and the one I’ve used the most is the mustard. I’ve put this on my hot dogs — Polock Johnny’s sausage. It was great. Slightly hot on the tongue, but then the heat kicks in later. The Heatonist gave it 4 of 10 on the heat scale. I guess that’s correct, because I haven’t gone for the high end of the heat scale. It is hot, but flavorful.

The Humble House concoction was described on the site as sriracha-like. Yes, it does taste similar, but it doesn’t have the same heat on the tongue as the sriracha with the rooster on the bottle. The Heatonist gave it 3 of 10 on the heat scale. Yes, I agree as well. Maybe a 2.5? It’s not that hot. I also put this on the polish sausages thinking it would be like spicy tomato ketchup. I want to try this in a ramen. I guess I’ll buy some cup noodle to try it.

Adoboloco’s is heat on the tongue. I guess that’s to be expected of the ghost pepper. I’m not too sure what to put this one on. Perhaps some grilled chicken? Ooo! Fire up the barbie!

I’m looking forward to feasting with these hot sauces. I’m also wanting to buy more, but the fridge would be filled with them, and I need the space for other things. Why don’t you go buy some and let me know if these fit your palate? Or go buy some others to let me know if they’re worth it.

#stayspicy

1917

broderic on March 5, 2020

1917 is not just a year, but a movie that competed for Best Picture at the 2020 Oscars… It didn’t win.

But that shouldn’t stop you from watching this film. It’s not the best and it does have some problems, like the fact that it is trying to be one continuous take which is an artifice that is distracting, but it is rather entertaining.

3 of 5 stars.

Bad Boys for Life

broderic on February 8, 2020

Bad Boys for Life was missing the Micheal Bey. The swirling cameras. The spinning shots. The larger than life poses. I wanted Beyham to remind me, “Bad boys for life!”

This film is trying hard to become like the Fast and the Furious films. It’s trying to pivot to being a franchise. It introduced a back story which was ridiculous. It filled in the past 20 years with stories and characters that look interesting but. And it gave us one of the most outrageous twists I have seen in films since… Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. No not a child of Palpatine, but something equally dumb. It’s also set up for a sequel which I guess continues the franchise, but what a nutty premise to get to the end and to start again.

Hopefully, Beyham returns.

3 of 5 stars.

Weathering With You

broderic on February 7, 2020

Weathering With You is Makoto Shinkai respectable followup to his fantastic, world-wide hit, Your Name. It also follows the template to much of his work: star-crossed lovers, separated by a distance, eager to realize the fate that was meant to be. Sometimes it adheres to it too much as this one really just reminded me of the previous film. His style could be a blessing or a curse. I found it rather pleasant and kind of wish for more.

Weathering With You is about a ‘weather girl,’ a girl that can control the weather. In this instance, rain. In the Japan of the film, it is a rainy season that lasts every season. The people wish for it to stop and only one person can make it pause for a few hours — the ‘weather girl.’

At first, she is a myth pursued by the main protagonist as a reporter for a shlock paper. He had run away from his home in the provinces. He was taken in by the paper’s owner/writer/editor, and he was tasked to debunk that myth. He founds out that it wasn’t. That it was real and he’s all for protecting (and profiting) the girl.

When the citizens take too much from her, the protagonist protests and wishes for her to stop using her powers. Let the rain fall so that he can continue to love her.

I did like the film. I wish it wasn’t too much like his previous. I’m hopeful that the next Makoto Shinkai anime is something different. I’m hopeful that it is also familiar.

3 of 5 stars.