Getting Caught Up in ‘Madame Web’

February 20, 2024

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The Four Madames (CREDIT: Sony Pictures)

Starring: Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Isabel Merced, Celeste O’Connor, Tahar Rahim, Adam Scott, Kerry Bishé, Emma Roberts, Zosia Mamet, Mike Epps, José María Yazpik

Director: S.J. Clarkson

Running Time: 116 Minutes

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: February 14, 2024 (Theaters)

It’s finally here!

Madame Web… what an experience. I can barely believe what I just watched, but I’m so grateful I did.

I can see the future now, but only a thin slice of it, specifically the part in which Madame Web becomes a midnight movie classic.

Half of it is run-of-the-mill meh mediocre. But that other half… It’s like the people who made this movie were half-asleep during all of 2003 and tried to recreate that year through telepathy.

The Amazon is a trip, man. They don’t make realities like this anymore!

Grade: Mike Epps and Emma Roberts Are Weirdly Also in This

Get Stuffed! with Songbirds, Trolls, and a Bloody Thanksgiving Feast

November 15, 2023

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Happy Thanksgiving! Happy Thanksgiving! (CREDIT: Pief Weyman/TriStar Pictures and Spyglass Media Group)

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

Starring: Tom Blyth, Rachel Zegler, Viola Davis, Peter Dinklage, Josh Andrés Rivera, Hunter Schafer, Jason Schwartzman, Fionnula Flanagan, Burn Gorman, Ashley Liao, Max Raphael, Zoe Renee, Nick Benson, Isobel Jesper Jones, George Somner

Director: Francis Lawrence

Running Time: 157 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Kids Killing Kids

Release Date: November 17, 2023 (Theaters)

Thanksgiving

Starring: Nell Verlaque, Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, Milo Manheim, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Rick Hoffman, Gabriel Davenport, Gina Gershon, Tim Dillon, Tomaso Sanelli, Jenna Warren, Amanda Barker

Director: Eli Roth

Running Time: 106 Minutes

Rating: R for Having Some Friends Over for Dinner, and a Trampoline Striptease

Release Date: November 17, 2023 (Theaters)

Trolls Band Together

Starring: Justin Timberlake, Anna Kendrick, Camila Cabello, Eric André, Kid Cudi, Troye Sivan, Daveed Diggs, Amy Schumer, Andrew Rannells, Zosia Mamet, Kenan Thompson, RuPaul, Zooey Deschanel, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Icona Pop, Ron Funches, Anderson .Paak, Kunal Nayyar, David Fynn, Kevin Michael Richardson, Patti Harrison, Walt Dohrn, GloZell

Director: Walt Dohrn

Running Time: 92 Minutes

Rating: PG for Some Mild Worries About Being Eaten Alive

Release Date: November 17, 2023 (Theaters)

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This Is a Movie Review: Under the Silver Lake

May 11, 2019

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

CREDIT: A24

Under the Silver Lake is Inherent Vice crossed with The Shining.

Shaggy dog mysteries (which seem to exclusively be set in L.A.) have their charms, but they also have an underlying sense of frustration because the mystery is most definitely never solved satisfyingly, or at least not transparently. But they act like they want to solve the mystery. In the case of Under the Silver Lake, though, it’s clearly more satisfying to leave everything confusing. With his tendency to beat people up for minor offenses, Sam (Andrew Garfield) is certainly not a nice person, so it’s fitting that he doesn’t find all the answers. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t some sort of “conspiracy,” or at least conspiracy-ish happening or series of happenings, going on. Disappearing Neighbor Riley Keough may be part of only a small portion of the whole tapestry. Sam enters Shining territory as his experience of supernatural occurrences feel inextricable from the real thing. He seems to have crossed through a looking glass wherein he might as well have been a part of all this for all eternity, especially considering his aimlessness. It’s an unmoored journey that I enjoyed.

I give Under the Silver Lake 400 Numbers out of 500 Questions.