JoeMama's Movie Reviews

Together Starring Dave Franco, Alison Brie, Damon Herriman, Mia Morrissey Directed by Michael Shanks Movies that feature actors who are already together in real life add an extra sense of realism that cannot be duplicated no matter how great the actors are. "A Quiet Place" proved this with John Krasinski and his real-life wife Emily Blunt playing a married couple, and they're more believable because they actually are. "Together" is one such movie, as real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie play a couple here, but this time there's some serious tensions that threaten to pull them apart - only to then encounter a strange entity that begins pulling them together. Enjoying life in the big city, Tim (Dave Franco) is a thirty-something wannabe musician who can't drive a car, and his girlfriend Millie (Alison Brie) has taken a lucrative teaching job in the country - and Tim seems hesitant to leave his life behind. The two struggle from the get-go, ...

Happy Gilmore 2 Starring Adam Sandler, Christopher McDonald, Benny Safdie, Bad Bunny Directed by Kyle Newacheck Almost thirty years after the original, Adam Sandler reunites the old gang (at least ones still living) for another go-around with one of his most famous characters, Happy Gilmore for a Netflix original movie. Once it was announced, I was wary of it from the start, because a sequel so long after the original almost never works out (with some notable exceptions, such as "Top Gun: Maverick") because the audience has changed, and more often than not the sequels try to live in the nostalgia of the past while ignoring the present. While "Happy Gilmore 2" does that quite often, it also has a charm to it that makes it forgivable. While nowhere near as good as the original, it more than holds its own as a sequel that indeed proved its need to exist. It's been many years since Happy Gilmore (Adam Sandler) won his first golfing Tour Championship, and after a str...

The Fantastic Four: First Steps Starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn Directed by Matt Shakman The Fantastic Four was Marvel's first family, created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee in 1961, and focuses on Reed Richards, his wife Sue Storm, her brother Johnny Storm and Reed's best friend Ben Grimm, who, after going into space, come across cosmic rays that turn them into superheroes: Reed becomes Mr. Fantastic with the ability to stretch his body; Sue becomes The Invisible Woman with the ability to become invisible and generate force fields; Johnny turns into the Human Torch as he literally turns his body to fire and can fly; Ben transforms into The Thing, a rock-like creature with superhuman strength. They've been a staple in comics for decades, but the big screen hasn't been so welcoming - a Roger Corman 1994-directed film has all the earmarks of the cheap feel Corman was famous for; the 2005 and 2007 sequel were decent enough but nowhere nea...

Eddington Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Austin Butler Directed by Ari Aster I got into a discussion with some friends about the new "Superman" movie, and one of my friends felt like it was missing something, where it seemed to want to be more than it was, but held back for some reason. I said it's because it's the first of a supposedly new film universe and they wanted to play it safe, bringing in as many butts in the seats as possible to propel this new universe and make it successful financially. On its face that's not necessarily a bad thing, as the movie itself was still really good, but it shows something that's happening in Hollywood - artists are foregoing their message in favor of the masses, trying to appease as many people as possible to make the fabled "Billion Dollar Club." It also happened in "Jurassic World: Rebirth" with the addition of the family that only slogs the story but also introduces a little gi...

Oh, Hi! Starring Molly Gordon, Logan Lerman, Geraldine Viswanathan, John Reynolds Directed by Sophie Brooks Dating has changed a lot throughout the decades, where now couples are made and broken over online apps or seedy bars, and the concept of "situationship" is all the rage - a romantic or sexual relationship that lacks clear commitment and direction. It gives singles a chance to explore their needs without committing to anything long term, but sometimes that doesn't work out, as one person in the situationship could develop actual feelings for the other than doesn't feel the same way, leading to heartbreak. Or sometimes it leads to a guy being handcuffed to the bed until he's forced to love the girl back. Iris (Molly Gordon) and Isaac (Logan Lerman) have been together for a few months, and they decide to go on a romantic trip to a rental house in the middle of the countryside. The couple seemingly is deeply in love but still getting to know one another, and di...

Dog Man Starring Peter Hastings, Pete Davidson, Lil Rel Howery, Isla Fisher Directed by Peter Hastings Animated films are hit and miss for me, considering a) I'm not a kid, and b) I don't have kids - but I find some very enjoyable on a purely single adult male standpoint, such as last year's "Inside Out 2" and "The Wild Robot," movies that are geared for children but also have deep meanings that adults can understand and help teach their children. "Dog Man" was a movie I wasn't excited about, because honestly it looked bland and boring to me, since I have never read the source material obviously. So it took me a few months to finally catch it on Peacock, and while it's not one of those stellar animated movies as I mentioned earlier, I can admit that I judged it too harshly.  In the town of Ohkay City, Petey (Pete Davidson) is an orange cat who's bent on destruction and especially taking down Officer Knight (Peter Hastings) and his d...

Superman Starring David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi Directed by James Gunn Superhero origin stories are so repetitive that everyone knows so well there's no point in re-telling them. We all know Batman lost his parents in an alley due to gun violence, Spider-Man lost his Uncle Ben, and Superman was an alien baby from a dead planet who crash landed in a Kansas cornfield and raised by John and Martha Kent. Every time a superhero movie or universe is rebooted we get these origin stories all over again, which no one really cares about. James Gunn realized this after providing three of the best Marvel Cinematic Universe's movies with the "Guardians of the Galaxy" trilogy and instead re-re-re-re (pretty much) introduces us to the Son of Krypton in a unique way: by already having him established as the world's most famous hero, thrusting us into the story right away and never losing its focus. After Superman (David Corenswet) stopped an invas...

Jurassic World: Rebirth Starring Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend Directed by Gareth Edwards It's been 32 years that we've experienced dinosaurs in one form or another with "Jurassic Park" and "Jurassic World," and much like those big behemoths of history, their returns have been diminishing. If the first film taught us it would be a bad idea to clone dinosaurs for the here-and-now, each subsequent sequel taught us that, like ole Jud said in "Pet Sematary"  - "sometimes, dead is better." That's not to say these aren't enjoyable, popcorn-fed action films, but the heart and soul of the franchise died years ago. Now, we get another trip to Jurassic Park with a new group of people who are as stereotypical as they come, looking for the most obvious MacGuffins, featuring the worst bad guy ever, and overfilling the movie with needless subplots, characters, and other characters that could've easily ha...

The Life of Chuck Starring Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Mark Hamill Directed by Mike Flanagan Stephen King is synonymous with horror, being one of the most prolific and talented horror writers of our time. Yet he's also written some very thought-provoking and powerful dramatic works, some of which have been adapted to the big screen like "The Shawshank Redemption," "The Green Mile," and "Stand By Me." Proving himself more than capable to transcend genres, King in 2020 wrote a series of small novellas that he compiled into a work called  If It Bleeds  which includes "The Life of Chuck," and while it's not going to be remembered as fondly as the three aforementioned films, it's an uplifting, moving, and mysterious tale of one ordinary man who shows us that the true joys in life come with being true to yourself. Chuck (Tom Hiddleston) is an ordinary man working an ordinary job, but his life has an interesting twist to ...

K-Pop Demon Hunters Starring Arden Cho, Ahn Hyo-seop, May Hong, Ji-young Yoo Directed by Maggie Kang & Chris Appelhans The world has been paying so much attention to Disney and their ebbs and flows when it comes to their animated movies that they practically ignore any other studio's projects. Sony Animation has had some stellar results, including an Oscar-winning movie ("Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse"), and Oscar-nominated movies that should've won ("Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse," "The Mitchells vs. The Machines"). They quietly produce some stellar outings (with notable exceptions, as all animation studios do), and now they released "K-Pop Demon Hunters" onto Netflix almost silently, but the movie has blown up and has become a strong Oscar contender all its own - and it is excellent. For generations, demons have stalked and preyed on humans, taking their souls to their ruler Gwi-Ma (Lee Byung-hun). Yet for every generation...

M3GAN 2.0 Starring Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Amie Donald, Jenna Davis Directed by Gerald Johnstone Horror movies are notorious for churning out mindless, soulless sequels in the hopes of making more money on established IPs that pretty much rinse and repeat what happened before. Each one becomes less and less effective with the precious few, and there's no risk taken in them - they know what people want to see, and they keep putting them out again and again with diminishing returns. Then there's other horror movies that were clearly a one-and-done, but due to overwhelming popularity they decide to milk it for all its worth, putting out sequels that make no sense. "M3GAN" was a surprise horror hit back in 2022 due to the titular AI killer putting forth killer dance moves on TikTok that drew the younger audiences in droves (and changed the original R-rating to more youth-friendly PG-13). The ending sort of opened it up for a possibility of  a sequel, but it was r...

Elio Starring Tonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Remy Edgerly, Brad Garrett Directed by Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi & Adrian Molina "Elio" has been a movie that's been in production for awhile, and I remember seeing a trailer for it a few years back. But the writer's strike, director changes and changes to Pixar as a whole kept the movie on the shelf until this summer, and pitting it against juggernauts like "Lilo & Stitch" and "How to Train Your Dragon" pretty much doomed the original IP from Pixar from the start - plus a lackluster advertising campaign. The result was something everyone expected: it was a box office flop, but a monumental one for Pixar - it was the company's lowest-grossing movie in its 30-year history. For all the times people clamor for original ideas, they tend to shy away from them in the end, and that's a shame when it comes to "Elio." While it doesn't offer anything new, its story of love, loss, acc...