JoeMama's Movie Reviews

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...