Shazam! (2019)

Director: David F. Sandberg. Cast: Zachary Levi, Mark Strong, Jack Dylan Grazer, Asher Angel, Djimon Hounsou. 132 min. Rated PG-13. Fantasy/Comedy.

Any polishing of the currently rusty superhero sub-genre is welcome. Well ... maybe not any. Shazam! is a nice rejuvenation of the 70's TV show, but doesn't keep the material available to kids, as profanity, violence, and themes of killing your own family members keeps it just short of an R rating. So, besides Deadpool, if you're not making a superhero movie for kids, then who are you making it for? We're living in an era where you're prone to cringe and worry, when the POTUS speaks on prime-time TV, or superheroes and super-villains duke it out on the screen.

Mo says:

Welcome to Marwen (2018)

Director: Robert Zemeckis. Cast: Steve Carell, Eiza González, Gwendoline Christie, Janelle Monáe, Leslie Mann. 116 min. Rated PG-13. Japan/USA. Biography.

What I've never been able to wrap my head around, is Robert Zemeckis still being a child - and I don't mean that in a good way. He's determined to show us "cool" ... without substance; always seeking out the most eye-popping glamour or newest movie-making technology. This film continues the trend: based on a true story (documented in the 2010 film Marwencol), he uses CGI animation, shocking imagery, and topless Barbie dolls, to attract our attention to a man's recovery from a brutal hate crime. Strange how you'd train under a mentor like Spielberg, and hardly grasp his film-making maturity.

PS: Another documentary-to-live-action transformation, after Zemeckis turned Man on Wire into The Walk. Enjoyed The Walk immensely better than Welcome to Marwen.

Mo says:

Us (2019)

Director: Jordan Peele. Cast: Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss. 116 min. Rated R. USA/Japan. Horror/Thriller.

I know you shouldn't score a movie based on a director's other merits, and I know Peele's Get Out probably created insurmountable expectations. But coming out of Us, I found myself unsatisfied for at least a minimum of logic to the dark science-fiction the film's horror is based on. And when that's missing, you're left with an overlong home invasion movie, supposedly a metaphor for how America destroyed itself. Of course, a nice ending twist suggests Peele is replacing Shyamalan for cool twist endings - but long story short, the director is not in control of his material here ... at all.

PS: You'll find references to The Shining or DePalma's split-diopter shots, but somehow I kept being reminded of It Follows. Lo and behold, I later discover the two films were shot by the same cinematographer.

Mo says:

The Mule (2018)

Director: Clint Eastwood. Cast: Clint Eastwood, Dianne Wiest, Taissa Farmiga, Laurence Fishburne, Bradley Cooper, Michael Peña, Andy Garcia. 116 min. Rated R. Crime/Drama.

In his "last movie" for the nth time, Eastwood tells the true story of a 90-year-old who became a drug cartel mule. Perfectly cast as a clueless but self-assured nonagenarian, Eastwood once again manages to pull it off, and attract our sympathy as a man who has selfishly ignored his family all his life in pursuit of some trivial dream. And of course, there is a fulfilling ending to the story, but again, Eastwood made me wonder what motivated him here to think: I have to make this movie before I die ...

Mo says:

Creed II (2018)

Director: Steven Caple Jr.. Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Dolph Lundgren, Brigitte Nielsen. 130 min. Rated PG-13. Sports/Drama.

Amazing how Rocky movies never lose their charm - at least enough to watch the next installment. We've watched Rocky movies all our lives, and even the worst ones remind us of specific life periods; a fact which the franchise makes full use of. Imagine: after Apollo's son is trained by Apollo's trainer's son to go up against the son of Rocky's nemesis in Rocky IV (and predictably, loses), Rocky takes it upon himself to train him, again, to fight, again (wild guess to what ends). And we still watch it. Even Brigitte Nielsen repeats her three-decade-old throwaway role. That charming.

Mo says:

Bumblebee (2018)

Director: Travis Knight. Cast: Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena. 114 min. Rated PG-13. USA/China. Action/Sci-fi.

I watched this just because of its insanely high ratings, but then realized it's just another Transformers movie.

Mo says: