Movie Review: Power Ballad

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B

A pretty good dramedy. 

In this movie, a former boy band member who is struggling to create a solo career (Nick Jonas) spends a night jamming with a wedding band singer (Paul Rudd). The wedding band singer sings a chorus of a song that he wrote himself. Months later, the former boyband singer records that song and doesn't give any songwriting credit to the wedding singer. When the song becomes a massive hit, it causes the wedding singer to go on a downward spiral. 

With a movie about songwriting, naturally the songs are very important to if the movie works. While the songs here may not be as incredible as they are sometimes treated, they are quite good. They are very nice and pleasant to listen to and while the lyrics may lack much depth, they aren't bad. I can picture How to Write a Song Without You becoming a hit song and people singing along to it. Though I actually admit I prefer the other songs the former boy band singer wrote himself (and which didn't become hits). However, I often find my favorite songs on albums to be the album tracks, so this probably says more about me. The songs themselves are co-written by Gary Clark and the film's director (and co-writer) John Carney. The duo had previously written songs for Carney's previous film, Sing Street (2016). Incidentally, Clark had been a member of the 1980's pop band, Danny Wilson, and Danny Wilson is the name of the boyband singer here. 

The movie does a great job of exploring the two main male characters. There is quite a bit of depth to them, and Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas give truly great performances. Though these characters often do the wrong thing, we relate to them and understand what makes them do it. This keeps a strong emotional connection to these characters throughout the film. 

Unfortunately, the other characters are very underdeveloped. We know pretty much nothing about the other members of the wedding band or the wedding band singer's wife and daughter. This becomes a major problem as the film goes on. It becomes clear that much of the heart of this movie is supposed to come from the love he has for his daughter. Unfortunately, his daughter receives little screen time and in the screen time she has we barely learn anything about her. Because of this, the emotion that is supposed to comes from the scenes revolving around this relationship often simply isn't felt by the audience.   

For a dramedy, this movie also is never that funny. Some of the humor made me smile or chuckle but I never once really laughed, while watching this. 

While I won't give anything away, the ending is fantastic, hitting all the right emotional notes. 

Movie Review: Scary Movie

 

Movie Review: B-

While it may not fully live up to the hilarity of the first Scary Movie (which is still a wonderful comedy), this is still a very enjoyable comedy.

With this sixth entry into this franchise (just one behind Scream, which the first movie was a parody of), the Wayans Brothers, who starred in and wrote the first two films, return here as both stars and writers. 

This film is just what you have come to expect from this franchise. There is simply one joke after another with no time to rest between them. These jokes are dumb, crude, violent and self-referential. With the sheer number of jokes from start to finish, it is only natural that not every joke hits. However more of them hit then don't. There are many moments here that made me laugh out loud. Some of the horror movie parodies are truly hilarious. The Weapons parody was especially hilarious. There is also some very funny slapstick humor here. All the scenes in the hospital are top notch slapstick. However, there are still gags that simply fall flat. Some of these gags go on for much too long. The church scene starts off kind of funny but loses steam as it goes on along. By the end, what started off as a funny scene simply stops being funny long before it ends. There are also times when this movie tries too hard to be politically incorrect or offensive. These gags are rarely funny and simply seem to be just there for shock value (the ICE gag is admittedly funny though, as is one "offensive" murder scene). Considering this franchise was always more concerned with making fun of horror movie tropes and being quite crude rather than actually being offensive, this feels especially unnecessary. 

The ending really didn't work for me here. It is not only not funny, but it seems simply like the Wayans Brothers venting, making it too bitter and mean spirited for this type of comedy. The storyline can also be a bit of mess (some scenes really make no sense in hindsight), but no one is watching this for the story, so that is a minor flaw. 

The first entry is still the best film in the franchise (I am also a fan of the second and third entries) but even if it can't fully live up to that movie, this is still a fun comedy.  

Movie Trailer: The Cat in the Hat

 

Movie Trailer: The Dog Stars

 

Movie Review: Backrooms

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B

An eerie and atmospheric horror film. 

In this movie, a man discovers a series of backrooms behind a wall in his furniture store. 

For the first two-thirds or so of the movie, it plays like an old school horror movie. There is barely any blood or gore and though we get the feeling that something is watching our main character, we are not allowed to see what is actually watching him. Here we see horror filmmaking at its best. Rather than relying on cheap jump scares or gore, this film focuses on creating a sense of atmosphere and dread. Exploring some almost universal fears (confined spaces, being alone and what you can't see), this movie manages to be scarier than many horror films that tend to focus on jump scares or disturbing images. If you were to head home by yourself after this movie, you might just find yourself looking over your shoulder, every time you hear a noise. 

In the last act. this film completely changes into something more philosophical and cerebral. The tonal change doesn't completely work as it can feel very abrupt, almost like we entered into a completely different movie. This act starts by examining something that we heard the main character talk about very early on. To suddenly make this the focus after it had been seemingly suddenly dropped and moved on from makes the tonal change even more abrupt. Yet the themes discussed and brought up in this final act are very intelligent and thought provoking. Unlike many horror films, this will not only leave you with a sense of dread but also a lot of food for thought. And the more thought you give to this final act, the more intriguing and smarter it becomes. The ending will especially leave you with a lot on your mind. However, I must admit that this final act has some pacing problems and can feel longer than it needs to. There is also the fault that when we actually see the “monster,” it simply looks more silly than scary. 

While far from perfect, this is a legitimately scary and thought-provoking horror film.     

 

Movie Trailer: Ice Age: Boiling Point

 

Movie Trailer: Supergirl