JoeMama's Movie Reviews

The Invite Starring Seth Rogen, Olivia Wilde, Penelope Cruz, Edward Norton Directed by Olivia Wilde You have to have a whole lot of trust in your actors to place them in one small, isolated setting throughout the entirety of the film and still be able to make fireworks. It's been done before, but also failed as well, and for third-time director Olivia Wilde, casting herself and three of the best actors in the business together definitely produced the fireworks desired. No explosive set pieces, no wild out-of-the-box performances, just four actors doing what they do best with the best material they've been given in decades. Joe (Seth Rogen) is a washed up musician teaching at a small school while his wife Angela (Olivia Wilde) stays at home and tends to their twelve-year-old daughter. They live in a luxurious apartment that belonged to Joe's parents and the two are clearly at odds - he comes home to find out she's planning a get-together with their upstairs neighbors, an...

  The Influencer Project Starring Chiara King, Mike Nybroe, Luca Storm, Alexandr Willaume Directed by Mike Nybroe I'm very glad I'm not a teenager in today's world, where popularity is determined by how many friends and views you get on online platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Where you feel like your self worth comes from complete strangers, and nameless trolls online can severely damage your mental state. Where if you get less than one thousand followers you're seen as a failure, and your whole world revolves around what you film with your phone as opposed to seeing the world for what it is. Chiara King is a real-life "influencer" who's been gifted with trips, gifts, and cash due to her high following, but it also has a dark side as well - in real life, she endured a stalker, and now "The Influencer Project" looks at a fictionalized version of those events with King playing a fictionalized version of herself. While this could be the chance t...

Primetime Starring Robert Pattinson, Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, Matthew Maher Directed by Lance Oppenheim In the 2000s I remember watching "To Catch a Predator" every week, in a time before true crime became all the rage. The series centered on NBC journalist Chris Hansen who, while working with Perverted-Justice, would lure unsuspecting men to a home in hopes of hooking up with a minor (girl or boy) and expose them for the world before having them arrested. It was a massive hit and shined the light on the true darkness that exists in the world, coming from the most ordinary people. The show was abruptly canceled after a major scandal, and Hansen faded into obscurity, but now documentary director Lance Oppenheim takes the dramatic route in "Primetime," and while the premise seems to not make sense, the result is something truly unforgettable - and possibly one of the scariest horror movies of the year. NBC journalist Chris Hansen (Robert Pattinson) is relishing ...

Ice Cream Man Starring Ari Millen, Charlie Zeltzer, Shiloh O'Reilly, Kiori Mirza Waldman Directed by Eli Roth Everyone knows about the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin: a piper who was hired by a town to lead all the rats away returns when he's refused payment and uses his instrument to lure all the children out of the town. It's existed since the Middle Ages and serves as a cautionary tale about vengeance. Horror auteur Eli Roth, fresh off his successful "Thanksgiving," delivers his own modern-day telling of the story, but this time it's an ice cream man who arrives in town after being wronged not to lure the children away, but turn them into psychotic killers. While this is on-bar for Roth, the film itself is surprisingly boring, long, and filled with terrible performances from an extremely thinly written script - not to mention the egregious use of AI. Jared (Charlie Zeltzer) is a kid who's constantly picked on and has very few friends, and after a b...

Psycho Killer Starring Georgina Campbell, James Preston Rogers, Malcolm McDowell, Logan Miller Directed by Gavin Polone Sometimes a trailer comes out that makes a movie so intriguing you can't wait to see it, and once you do you want to give whoever edited that trailer an Academy Award for making a more compelling two-minute video rather than a feature-length film. "Psycho Killer" is one of those movies, who's trailer makes it seem like it'll be an intense cat-and-mouse game akin to "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Longlegs," but instead it turns out to be a wannabe Lifetime movie with more blood. Jane Archer (Georgina Campbell) is a police officer who witnesses her fellow police officer husband's murder at the hands of the Satanic Slasher (James Preston Rogers) during a seemingly routine pullover. Enraged by the seemingly inept ability of the police to track down the elusive killer who's murdered countless people across the country, Jan...

The Uprising Starring Andrew Garfield, Jamie Bell, Thomasin McKenzie, Woody Norman Directed by Paul Greengrass There's never been a more timely story than a movie centering around a once-in-a-generation pandemic with a poor populous struggling to come to terms with the after effects, mixed with economic upheaval and untrustworthy political leadership. This could've been a movie made about 2020, but as history proves, it oftentimes repeats itself with "The Uprising," a fictionalized tale of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 where thousands of peasants, farmers and commoners marched on London to protect corrupt royal advisors, seizing control of parts of the city. With Paul Greengrass behind the camera and Andrew Garfield leading, this should've been a slam dunk hit, but due to Greengrass's filming style not working for a historical peace and, honestly, it being too boring, it felt more like a one-person rebellion rather than thousands.  In 1381, the Black Death ...