"Action Point" R
The raunchy Johnny Knoxville story of kind of a younger bad grandpa is set in the early 1980s at the most terrible theme park in the world, Action Point, named after notorious east coast park Action Park. The wrap around is old man Knoxville narrating the story to his daredevil granddaughter, who has a broken leg in a cast. Now in his late 40s, he is too old to be the Jackass daredevil himself, so he and Chris Pontius direct the awful park. It is worth a rental, but possibly proves why there will likely not be a fourth Jackass movie, as they are just too old.
"Incredibles 2" PG
Some 14 years have passed since the Marvel rip off Incredibles, and the sequel acts like there hasn't been but a minute since the last film, and Jack Jack the baby somehow retcons it so his powers are yet to be revealed. Then Mr. Incredble plays Mr. Mom while his wife, Elasti Girl, is pulled into some kind of corporate hero cult. Itis an okay movie, but the icky stuff about the Dad knows best, but is bungling, and the Mom going to work because, the 50s, and that didn't happen then, kind of distracts from the visuals. The chase scenes are the best in cartoons, but the story lacks some polish, and has a villain so obvious that it's as if the studio cut out most of her back story, which it did. Now we know the whole Dad works and Mom is the home maker story was even cheesy in the 1980s, when Mr. Mom came out, of which this is borrowed from, but still. It's okay if you try to ignore that, and the tired Father dude is a bumpkin stereotype, and baby wrecks the house stereotype, and creepy nanny lady stereotype.(It seems like the Simpsons and Family Guy and South Park already did it).
"Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom" PG 13
Three years after the retcon of the JP franchise, the park is crushed, like at the end of movie 3, and the plot of Joe vs the Volcano is crossed with Carnosaur meets the Haunted Mansion. These things are not like the other, but not completely trash. The story has charming leads, but they don't seem to like each other, and the skip to the last two thirds being a dinosaur attack on a bunch of rich dudes at a mansion is a beautiful disaster waiting to happen. It isn't all bad. It is worth a rental. They chose not to have dinos raging through a city, which would have been awesome, and chose just an out of nowhere mansion. The director likes those.
"Ant Man and the Wasp" PG 13
Marvel's Infinity War is happening at the same time Ant Man joines up with the Wasp to stop the Ghost, a phase shifting creature with similar powers to theirs, and yet, Ant Man is on house arrest, and must somehow save the world. This seems oddly shoehorned into the other narrative as though the producers convoluted their heroes into a corner and had to go back and claim somehow the ant guy was actually able to escape the end of IW. Seen enough of these to know that, and Captain Marvel, are happening precisely because of that some convoluted ending, and would be moot if it happened any different. Still, the Ghost idea was interesting, and the motivation of a Marvel villain in constant turmoil was interesting. It also had good wry humor. However, it is odd that the lead lady looks so vastly different with a changed hairstyle, and possibly some other cosmetic changes. She really looks changed from the actress in the original.
"Sorry to Bother You" R
First time director Boots Riley tackles mature and satirical subject matter in this Oakland based fantasy thriller comedy, very similar to the works of Richard Pryor and Rudy Ray Moore, the 'real original kings of comedy'. Luckless hero Cashius (Lakeith Stanfield) is cast into a telemarketer cult office in a weird Twilight Zone version of Oakland where he must put on a 'white man's voice' to become a power seller at the business and go to 'the top levels' of the parent company. Parodies brilliantly race relations stereotypes, makes fun of pop culture and media culture, and even rips on some of the craziest ideas people get for making a fast buck. This comedy fantasy then spends the last half going insane, when our hero, Cash, makes it to the big office and is fed fake coke, and begins to stumble into the 'save horse scandal' of the evil white mastermind, who had enhanced luckless workers into 'horse men'. That is just so insane! Bojack Horsemen insane. So far, this is comedy of the year. It is what a modern Pryor movie would be, if he were still living. It also looks the part of those old 70s exploitation films, and the Dolemite films (Moore). Worth owning on bluray.
"Hotel Transylvania 3" PG
Cute sequel to the comedy series which started around 2013.Mavis takes Dracula and the whole gang on a cruise aboard a Titanic like ship into the Mermuda tringle, and then to Atlantis, while along the way, Erika the Captain and her cyborg Grandfather are trying to get him. Harmless enough movie.
"Mission Impossible Fallout" PG 13
By movie number 6, (and why they didn't make the joke MI6 is beyond ridiculous), Tom Cruise is getting long in the tooth and too old, but still does his own stunts, and Jackie Chaan like broke an ankle on the set, so the movie was delayed for weeks. The final film is a tense action thrill ride, with an excellent set of chases, on the level of the top 10 chases of all time. They're not the best, but they're up there. Follows several tired spy escape cliches, the double, and triple cross, the masked man gag, the mistaken identity gag, the nuke timer ticking down, and the traffic action gag. No, they do not blow up, but they should have. That 15 minutes remaining took them 31 minutes, the greater half of the long final act. Also if Hunt never got caught before, he's not going to die in this one either. James Bond and Arnie fought with helicopters. James Bond dangled from sheer cliffs. Crusie flies into oncoming traffic in France on a motorcycle. Bond chases on rooftops and trains. Yep, you've seen it before, but it's entertaining.
"Christopher Robin" PG
Not to be confused with the 2016 movie, Goodbye Christopher Robin (not seen), this is a cynical version of Hook, where Chris has grown up and become a boring work obsessed man, and his family goes to the cottage while he works, but Pooh bear appears and sends him on an adventure to the cottage to meet his destiny. Either he's completely nuts, or all of this is really happening. It would be a god bet he's gone nuts. It's a nice movie though, despite the washed out looks of the stuffed characters, and it is good that they have return of Cummings doing some of the voices. Something is missing though. And that same street from Potter to Paddington to the upcoming Mary Poppins keeps getting used to the point that it's really obvious.
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