JoeMama's Movie Reviews

Street Fighter Starring Noah Centineo, Andrew Koji, Callina Liang, David Dastmalchian Directed by Kitao Sakurai Growing up there was two epic video games centering around fighting; Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. While Mortal Kombat was more adult oriented with over-the-top gory finishes that I could never accomplish because I didn't have twenty fingers on each hand, Street Fighter was the more family friendly of the two, and also the one with the most unique characters. There was Ken, the hothead Hollywood wannabe; Ryu the disciplined, cultured fighter; Chun-Li with literal thighs of steel; Dhalsim with his extended body movements; Guile with his crewcut hair and military background; Vega the mysterious Spanish fighter with Wolverine claws and a mask; and so many others. I spent countless hours playing (mostly as Chun-Li) and enjoyed it immensely, as each character had their own storyline that was completed after defeating the villainous M. Bison. In 1994, Jean-Claude Van Damme ...

Wicker Starring Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsgard, Peter Dinklage, Elizabeth Debicki Directed by Alex Huston Fischer & Elanor Wilson There was a lot of buzz about "Wicker" months before it was released. The Internet was ablaze with memes about the premise: a Wicker man and lots of wicker sex with Olivia Colman. While that premise itself put butts in seats, the film has a surprisingly heartwarming center about acceptance, true love, independence and the power of femininity.  Sometime during Medieval days, a Fisherwoman (Olivia Colman) lives alone on the outskirts of town, arriving only to sell her fishly wares, but coming off as the town pariah. She's old, unkempt, smells bad, and, most damning of all, doesn't have a husband of her own - something that's valued and prized in the town, especially by the Tailor's Wife (Elizabeth Debicki), who makes fun of the Fisherwoman with the other women. While the Fisherwoman doesn't seemingly want a husband of her ...

Wildwood Starring Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay, Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali Directed by Travis Knight Many people say Hollywood is a soulless machine, designed exclusively to churn out product that'll get the most butts in seats, regardless of its quality. While the cinematic landscape is inundated with superhero movies, sequels, prequels and remakes, audiences clamor for something new - even though those aforementioned genres bring in the most revenue. "Wildwood" is an original idea (taken from a novel, but not a well-known IP) that checks all the boxes, yet bombed opening weekend, proving that while audiences cry out for original content, they're more than happy settling for Big Macs when they could have a fancy four-course meal instead. In Portland, Oregon, Prue McKeel (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) lives with her hippy parents and baby brother Mac, and sees the world through a cynical lens. Although she promises not to take Mac outside when the parents are away...

Clayface Starring Tom Rhys Harries, Naomi Ackie, David Dencik, Max Minghella Directed by James Watkins Movies about villains are all the rage lately, with Sony's "Spider-Man" adjacent films like "Morbius," "Madame Web," "Venom" and "Kraven" hardly making a dent, and Disney villainous spinoffs like "Maleficent" faring much better. DC has its own line of rogue's gallery of villains, including the Oscar-winning film "Joker" (we won't mention the sequel), and "The Penguin" dominating the television landscape. With James Gunn's new lead in the DCU, before we get Batman we get one of his most unique and sympathetic villains, Clayface. While "Joker" obviously took from Martin Scorsese classics like "The King of Comedy," director James Watkins takes license from David Cronenberg and his unique brand of body horror with "Clayface," an R-rated dark horror movie that does ...

You Can See Everything Starring Elizabeth Holmes, Nathan Fielder, Billy Evans, Lance Oppenheim Directed by Lance Oppenheim & Nathan Fielder Documentaries are fascinating because they shed light on a topic, person, or event that we've heard about through news articles or other means of investigations, and usually we get a deeper sense of the subject because of it. It's a genre that's specific and has no room to stray away from its intended purpose, and while some excellent ones have been done (including the likes of "Free Solo," "Hoop Dreams," "Summer of Soul" and "An Inconvenient Truth"), one has now taken the title of best documentary ever, and that belongs to Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim's "You Can See Everything." It managed to subvert expectations for a generic documentary and took me places I never expected, resulting in a second act that feels almost like a David Finch mystery than documentary, and one I ...

The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless." This is taken from Ecclesiastes 1:1-2 in the Bible, and was traditionally thought of to be written by King Solomon, the most intelligent and powerful man in the world at that time. He had amassed vast wealth, women, and property, and supposedly wrote this book at the end of his reign, proving that you can have all the earthy riches of the world but in the end find it all meaningless.  This is also the opening sequence in the Mario Ricciardi-directed follow-up to his fantastic debut film "Midwest Sessions" called "Dead Man Walking." The film follows a company man named Joe (played by Thomas Kushner) who is tasked with an assignment - travel across the Midwest to deliver legal documents to a mysterious purchaser whose documents could hold cosmic implications. Ricciardi is well known for blending ...