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This is exactly the cheeky type of comedy that we needed. Ridiculously campy, hilariously self-aware, and the type of 'noir' comedy that the world needs right now.

Neeson's character, the son of Leslie Nielsen's character from the original, is the same level of competent (not a compliment, not really), and he is teamed up with Paul Walter Hauser's character, the son of George Kennedy's son, as they find themselves in a weird set of related cases involving an evil billionaire who plans to "restart" the world using a P.L.O.T. device (really). This device shows up very early on, right after Neeson's entry in the get-up of a young school girl, and tells us exactly how this movie is going to go.

Which, of course, if you're seeing this movie, you probably know. There is some detective work and action, but most of it is our leads - and Pamela Anderson - just totally straight-facedly dropping puns and well-written, obvious jokes with the deadpanniest of deadpan expression and literal translations of non-literal phrases. And it is an absolute blast in the process.

The science of this PLOT device obviously doesn't stand up to anything real, and most of the humor is absolutely absurd. But it has been a while since we've had anything really like this (Pink Panther movies with Steve Martin, I guess?), and man, we really needed this. Maybe we can bring back the spoofs that aren't just no-name folks doing direct-to-streaming movies (though those are fine too) - it's just nice sometimes to have a big name doing something so out there (I mean, we've all seen that scene of Neeson in Ted with the Trix, so we know he can do deadpan humor; and getting a whole movie of exactly that was brilliantly planned by whomever decided on this).

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Housefully 5 - the Housefull movie that they decided to turn into a whodunnit and that they also decided to Clue-ify, with 2 endings. Sure, why not, right? I sat through 5A and part of 5B, before realizing that the first 2 hours of the movie are exact same, and also eventually realizing that the Priyadarshan-level, and very much drawn out, ending was also the same, twist aside.

Like, literally the same - which leads to problems, for example, when they show someone's foot stepping on the SIM card or chip or whatever. This ends up being a key plot point (sort of) in determining the killer in 5A, but then gets completely retconned in 5B when they show the same scene and yet later show us someone putting the chip on the shoes after the fact to frame someone. I guess this is the problem when you decide to film 2 endings but don't want to make the effort to make sure the few small changes between them are kept consistent. (I also don't recall, in 5B, them really making note of who had those pens, which again becomes sort of a major point that is irrelevant in 5A because they act like only 1 of the pens exists.)

I was much less into the songs than a lot of others seem to be. Of course, I was also really not a huge fan of the - well, whatever this sort of semi-antagonistic relationship is between our leads and even less so of just how ridiculously the actresses plots and treatment is. I mean, Housefull as a series has shown clear signs of the "women are just here for sexual appeal" from the start (more so as it progresses, I feel), but it got completely ridiculous here. Lucy's entire presence, for example; also, Nargis Fakhri's role. Essentially, the actresses are largely wasted and are just here because movies call for both actors and actresses. Short of fake accents and some yelling, I don't think they provide much of anything to the investigation - or really, the story at all (they do get to hurl a couple insults at each other and at others, so there is that - I guess).

The relationship switching ("my wife is not my wife, she's your wife") has been another mainstay in this series, and so of course, the minute the leads show up, you know things are going to switch and Jacqueline is going to end up with Akshay (ridiculousness that comes with knowing the most famous leads will end up together). This doesn't play as huge a role in this movie, of course, given that the 2nd half of the movie turns into a "find the killer" story, and it does actually for a moment provide the most laughs (when Riteish is running around yelling "meri Kaanchi," when Kaanchi has been introduced as Akshay's wife).

This cast is, as one would expect for the 5th movie of a "series" of entirely unrelated movies, completely bloated. Dino Morea shows up for a minute. Shreyas Talpade too, though he has even less to do despite surviving the whole movie than the actors who show up and are killed off. Chitrangada Singh also is just sort of there. Fardeen Khan too. And Sanjay Dutt and Jackie Shroff, complete with the Khalnayak music in the background. Nana Patekar, who they for some reason decide to give a Marilyn Monroe moment, I guess to make it clear that his pretty awesomely written character is not above the absurdity of everyone else in this movie. And guest appearance Bobby Deol. And essentially 'dead from the start' Ranjeet. Johnny Lever, who ends up in a fridge and gets to relive his time in that one random Govinda/Urmila movie where they do the same to him. Chunky Pandey, returning as Aakhri Pasta. Monkeys and a parrot, who has some sort of 'Om Shanti Om' regeneration thing going on (that's the music in the background) as they try - and fail - to get revenge for their previously deceased ancestors, whom Akshay killed off in other movies.

It would, of course, never happen - but this one could really have benefited from making Akshay the bad guy - his character, like in all the movies in this franchise, is never really good enough of a person for you want root for him as the hero. Sure he's a private detective here, they tell us, so he does get a moment of sleuthing (after getting into a slapping war with 2 monkeys), but really, not a huge fan.

While the 'motive' in 5A may be a bit stronger than that in 5B, I overall liked the 5B twist better. The absurdity of clues in 5A - down to the "they stepped on a cracked SIM card and it stuck to their shoe" is ridiculous; I much liked 5B's "it was planted there after the fact" (even if, again, 5B still showed us the scene of someone stepping on it and it sticking to the shoe). The explanation for the calling in of Jackie and Sanjay's incompetent-ish cops also makes more sense. So too does the 'multiple similar pens' thing. I don't know, I just thought the twist in 5B was better handled and flew a bit better overall.

The movie itself - well, it is part of the Housefull franchise for a reason. You get exactly what you would expect from a 5th movie in that series, even if they've gone from ridiculous comedy to ridiculous comedy in a murder mystery.

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Lindy Booth is back (as a guest star)! Yay! Hopefully we can see more of the original team as well!

"The next season is only getting bigger" - The Librarians: The Next Chapter Season 2 guest star annoucement.

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I say this a bit facetiously, because I have loved essentially everything the MCU has given us, but - "we are so (fucking) back!"

By shifting to a different universe (for the time being), this movie was able to break free of all the expectations that come with any other MCU movie - especially now, in the post-Endgame setting (like, for example, Eternals and all the "where were they during everything else?" questions) - and just tell its story. And tell, it does!

Similar to the recently released Superman, this movie doesn't start off as an origin story - at least, not entirely. We do get the basic story in some exposition early on (though, we don't see it happen, more just hear it in the background) - instead, we're starting 4 (of course) years after the fact. They're already known superheroes, loved by the world. (Of course, if you want the origin story, there are 2 not-so-great movies that gave this a go previously.)

This, of course, is bound to change - even superheroes have their detractors. And it does, after the emergence of the Silver Surfer and her warning about Galactus (who is, thankfully, not just a cloud). They go out to confront him and he offers to leave their planet alone - in exchange for their son. This, of course, is a non-starter for them - made even more so by the backstory they provide us (difficulty getting pregnant, etc.). So they have to return to Earth - plus a kid, minus a "you're saved" statement - and the fallout is immediate.

People, of course, turn on them and call them selfish - though 99% of them would've made the exact same decision if it was their kid in the scenario. Of course, no one thinks like that though - because, as much as they want to call the family 'selfish,' they are just as selfish.

What I really like, though, is that this movie doesn't drag this out forever. Sure we all feel it for a bit - but this is a beloved group of superheroes that everyone does want to still love. So when Sue Storm goes out and speaks to them, from her heart, and promises to fight, they're on board again. Given the state of the world right now, and given what is going on with the other superheroes and how much people immediately think the worst whenever something happens (see Spider-Man, for example), it is nice to see how her words impact the crowd and how they react to that. They trust these superheroes - they've put their lives on the line multiple times in the last 4 years to help them, so they deserve at least a little bit of leeway. And yes, the end of the world would suck, but demanding someone give up their child to stop it (if you could even take a world-eater's word) is downright evil. Not the type of thing god would forgive you for.

Of course, the villain isn't an idiot, so he's able to avoid their trap and wreak some havoc (though, unlike other superhero movies, they had enough foresight and warning to evacuate). What he isn't able to overcome, of course, is a mother's love.

Her speech to the crowd about family, and the "family first" chemistry we see between the leads the entire movie, is excellent. So frequently these types of stories involve betrayals (maybe due to brainwashing) or some inter-family drama. This movie keeps it largely to a minimum, focusing instead on it as a strength and on keeping things pretty sci-fi (which is fucking awesome).

I absolutely loved this movie. It's easily one of the best post-Endgame movies and, honestly, it's probably one of the better ones in the entire MCU. While it isn't exactly 'street-level,' it manages to remain firmly grounded even while including travel light years away (again, maybe because there's no other MCU lore they need to really address since this is set in another universe). It never feels like they're just going space-hopping just because they can, or are expanding things too far. Instead, the Fantastic 4 get to be themselves - and it is a hell of a ride.

The comedy is a lot of fun, too. Typical MCU style. The Fantastic 4 theme music in the movie is absolutely haunting and a total blast. That mid-credit scene was absolute chills. I could've gone for more of Natasha Lyonne, but I guess there wasn't much scope for that, sadly. Paul Walter Hauser was fun too. Absolutely love the casting for this movie, and the chemistry between the 4 is so great.

100% love this movie, and between this and Thunderbolts*, the transition between phases of the MCU is ending/starting strong. CANNOT WAIT for the next movie.

Also, unrelated - the pre-movie trailers included the next Avatar movie, which I only point out because I had no idea it was ready to release in a couple of months, and Now You See Me: Now You Don't, which I'm super fucking excited for and didn't realize the trailer was already ready to drop. So, so excited for this!

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For what I think was supposed to be some sort of spy thriller, the thrill was very subdued - and dare I say lacking for a good part of the movie.

Rami Malek's revenge-driven analyst - who has apparently designed all their spyware and is surprisingly adept at making bombs, but completely a mess when it comes to killing people - sets out to avenge the death of his wife (in some sort of weird hostage situation that didn't seem to amount to much more than her death) by blackmailing his "cover everything up" unethical superiors in the CIA (or FBI, or whatever) into training him for his mission of killing the 4 people responsible for his wife's death. Yet, for this apparent grief, he spends most of the movie just sort of glaring at the screen and not showing much, if any emotion - flat affects his way into things, mostly.

They put Fishburne on the case, who tries and pretty much concludes "you're not a killer" before Rami escapes away to Europe and starts off on his mission, alone. People die, through his actions - one is hit by a car when running from him (after he tried to coerce her into talking by using pollen in an enclosed space to try and suffocate her), another when he uses math to crack the glass in the "in the sky" swimming pool the guy is using, and a 3rd when he uses a bomb (after getting the information he wants, this time around).

That's when he decides "meh, screw killing" and the last guy - the one who actually shot his wife - he just gets arrested. I guess it's okay but Rami makes him feel the moment of hopeless his wife felt, or something like that.

I think the problem is that thrill is largely offset by Rami's clearly "out of his depths" main character, who is shown as essentially an "in over his head" nerd who just doesn't look the part of a distraught, angry revenge-seeking husband. It's too methodical for someone who hasn't done this nearly enough for it to be so methodical.

The rest of the cast - including Rachel Brosnahan and Jon Bernthal - feel largely wasted. Laurence Fishburne gets a bit more screen time, but not much. At least the idiot up top gets his just desserts (sort of), but it's an unfortunate reality that those types of actions are not fictional and most of the people behind them get away without even a slap on the wrist.

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Seven years after the decently thrilling 'Raid,' Ajay Devgn's character returns in Raid 2. While this is clearly a continuation story - see the constant references to, and appearance of, Saurabh Shukla's character, there is a change in the actress playing the wife. Which is nothing new - this also has happened in the Singham series, and is just the typical trend in Bollywood in general. Which I guess works because they're pretty small roles that don't really do much - though, here, Vaani Kapoor's character does actually get do something, whereas in Raid Ileana D'Cruz just kinda sat around and worried.

Riteish Deshmukh plays the antagonist here and gives it a damn good go. It isn't the first time he's played villain - Ek Villain, Marjaavan - this time giving us a somewhat grounded (in that he's not overly fantastical) go as your typical sleazeball, 'good to the eye, horrible behind the scenes' politician. Similar to Shukla's character in the first Raid, his character has got a loyal army of brainwashed townsfolk who view him as a god - which he runs on, as it allows him to do all the sleazy stuff that evil politicians (redundant?) do.

Of course, this is bound to come back and bite him in the ass and - after a couple of missteps that throw Ajay into conflict with a lot of folks - it does exactly that, while we also learn that Ajay's character has more up his sleeve (though, we do get hints of that throughout).

Ajay's on a string of sequels - Golmaal, of course; Singham; Son of Sardaar 2; Drishyam - and of them, Raid felt like the one that least needed a sequel. That's not to say this is bad, but 7 years out, another story of "self-absorbed, deified politicians are evil" is - while as relevant as ever - not bringing much different. Sure, he hides his treasures in different places and is a different kind of sleazeball than Shukla's character, but in the end, it's still just a man taking advantage of people to accrue insane amounts of wealth. Again, not saying this is bad - and seeing the story play out is decently entertaining - especially the one-up-manship between the 2 leads.

I also don't understand, in the ending, why Shukla is back in the prison after having been out for almost half the movie and just variably showing up. But that's a small point, and I guess maybe they're trying to set up another sequel where Riteish sets up for more revenge - but for this series, that might be overkill - because Ajay here is a straight-forward incorruptible income tax officer, not a supercop, and at best, it would just turn into another Drishyam-like character. Which, well, we've already got him in Drishyam for that "brains over brawns" approach. Aka - good movie, but not sure where they'd go with another sequel, unless it shifts away from Riteish's character almost completely (like it did with Shukla's character from 1 to 2 here). Also, not sure how many continuity changes in the wife character they'd be able to pull off in the lead actress before someone would just be like "WTF"...

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Well, this was decently fun and a pretty good start to the new DC universe. It's not entire all-the-time fun, which is a slight change from the early MCU movies, but is in keeping with the current state of the world right now and is still more than a lot of the prior DCEU movies (not that those were bad - I did find myself decently entertained by most of the movies). But this just brings us a much different feeling than the darkness that has come with so much of the DCEU (and even other prior DC movies - especially Batman).

Mostly, though, James Gunn does a good job of giving us a (mostly) self-contained movie (much like his GotG movies were in the MCU) and a very good intro to a fun Superman, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olson, the Justice Gang, and Krypto. The colors are brighter than we're used to with DC; we're not so far gone into villainy in this universe (see: Justice League) that everything has to feel so dark, allowing Superman to maintain his humanity and his desire to help everyone; and the fight/flight sequences are great. Especially, I really really liked the sequence where Superman uses his eye lasers to take down the Raptors while doing a full 360 spin and also the sequence where Mr. Terrific takes on the Raptors right before they enter the pocket universe. Such awesome sequences!

Luthor's maniacal, egotistical character is well portrayed (but then, I also like Jesse Eisenburg's more crazy portrayal) and the amount of research he's done to prepare to fight Superman is clearly evident. Like, his dislike of Superman is so evident in all the actions we see of course, but also in all the preparation that we only catch glimpses of. But, of course, this fails - because he fails to realize that Superman probably has more humanity in him than Luthor has himself.

As Gunn has stated - we've seen Superman's origin story so frequently that we really don't need to see it. So I'm glad that this one just skips ahead - we don't see him on/leaving Krypto, we don't see his childhood in Smallville, we don't see him coming out to the world as Superman, and Lois Lane already knows Clark Kent's secret identity. No, all of that has already happened - and is told us in the opening text - and we're able to immediately jump into the story. Huge fan of this in the setting where we've seen the origin stories so frequently (Superman, Batman; one could also argue this for Fantastic Four, though in that case, they keep changing the origins ever so slightly).

Krypto's go as a "not a good" dog is entertaining - and its cool to see dogs, of course. Overall, the story tends to go a bit slow as it focuses less on an action/comedy overlap and more on just humanity and "when you fall, stand back up." It quickly introduces the Justice Gang and the idea of the pocket universes - would love to see more of Mr. Terrific - and, very briefly, Supergirl. It's quite a bit of fun but also remains grounded, without getting unnecessarily dark - and while it isn't overly comedic, we do get a couple of fun sequences (a cameo or 2, for example). And yes, it is sometimes a bit comic book-y - see that Superman spin/laser sequence above - but, then, this is a comic book movie. And it does a good job of keeping that reality in mind.

I wasn't a huge fan of the Peacemaker character in The Suicide Squad movie - or, at least, I didn't think he was the character that needed a spin-off show out of everyone there - but I guess I may have to give the show a watch now. Will be interesting to see how they wrap that show - borne out of what was essentially one of the seemingly 'throwaway' films at the end of the DCEU - into this new DCEU, which it would appear to be a part of.

Good start for this new universe.

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The Xpose wasn't by any means my favorite Himesh Reshammiya movie - even with it being a whodunnit (though, honestly, the ending of that whodunnit was such shit) - so it isn't like I had huge expectations going into a movie that was essentially throwing out random shit like "the Xpose universe continues" (or whatever). And yet, even with the essentially zero expectations - no. Just no.

There is literally no connection to the prior movie - for better or for worse.

When they say "80s type ki picture," I guess they just mean that there are numerous cut scenes that cause jumps in the story and make it seem horribly edited and disjointed (but then, we also saw this in his Karz remake, Karzzzz) and that most of the fight sequences and car/motorcycle chase scenes look horrifically fake - which is crazy when they clear had the budget to do extensive traveling for filming and for some visual effects. They just decided to spend the money on visual effects to 'gloss up' the clearly fake fight sequences, which make them look even more fake and unsettling and overall jarring. It is not a recommended experience. Meanwhile, the failed attempts at comedy by Johnny Lever are very 90s - and very reminiscent of the types of scenes Johnny Lever would actually get in the 90s and 00s. Painful.

But mostly - god was this boring. The movie starts and within the first 7 minutes, we already have like 5 people show up simply to be killed off immediately. I'm pretty sure 80% of Himesh's character's lines are vague attempts at "one liners" - most of which are shit. Also, his entire entry sequence is just a montage of numerous pathetic one liners and numerous partial fight sequences - it feels like something that was edited together by someone like me, aka someone with no experience in putting together this sort of thing. In terms of 'hero entry scenes,' it really falls short of much of anything that I assume they were trying to go for.

Not all, though, I'll admit. I love the one that loosely translates to "the storms that blow people like you away are the storms that we dry our clothes in." Great line. But it took an entire movie's worth of cheap dialogues just to get a couple of decent ones in. Trying too hard. The irrelevant love story just jumbles things up - and the whole bullshit of her just standing in the middle of a gunfight being like "I won't leave until you say you love me" just completely pushed me over the edge (that's a lie, I was already over the edge by that point). That final bit, when Prabhu is like "I don't have a gun and a true man wouldn't kill an unarmed man" nonsense was, I guess 80s, but also fucking stupid. This man just admitted to killing your weaponless father and weaponless brother - just shoot him and put us out of this misery!

The songs are, by Himesh standards, really poor. I did like the 'barsaat' song at the beginning, which copied a tune from a song in Vijaypath. Hookstep Hookah Bar had a decent set of lyrics, occasionally, but the chorus and the dance steps were blah. Tandoor Days was essentially a medley of small bits of a bunch of not great songs. Dil Ke Taj Mahal Mein was okay, I guess, but the placement of the song in the movie was just utter bullshit - and whiplash, given that we went from tension (that was marred by a not-funny attempt at Johnny Lever comedy) to Prabhu Deva saying "scene change" and then this random song where good and bad guys were dancing together despite the fact that they were all just at each other's throats. There's Butterfly Titliyaan, which is probably the best/most entertaining of the whole lot, but that one is saved stupidly for the end credits and is interrupted by numerous fucking pointless mid-credit scenes.

There was 1 random-ass scene where Sanjay Mishra gets a "double role" type character (think Johnny Lever in Soldier), but this plot point never shows up again - and hell, the character is gone, replaced by the twin we've already met, almost as soon as he shows up. What was the point of that - no idea. But then, that's true for most of the movie. Sunny Leone's acting is miserable, and this whole undercover cop-turned traitor-turned "I only turned traitor for the money to help my brother who is in the hospital" nonsense also just disappears as soon as it shows up. And then, she does too. Before that, though, there's a sequence where she and Himesh are being shot at by Prabhu in a helicopter and she ducks down to be protected by the car - but then you see that she ducked down IN FRONT of the car, aka the direction that Prabhu is coming from, aka she's just ducked down and stopped moving right in front of the gun! Like, what?! Prabhu Deva's villainous character is also just plain boring, and his randomly breaking into dance doesn't change that.

Laila tells her sister, upon point blank questioning, "no I don't love Ravi" - then forces them to break up with emotional blackmail, and then blames her sister for everything and says "I conspired to break you guys up because I hate you and because I loved him." Like bitch!, she literally asked you if you loved him!

And that fucking fake ass attempt a heist scene that is not only poorly planned (even the recent disaster Jewel Thief at least spent some time on it), but we see Himesh dress up as the floor tiles (no, literally!) and slowly scoot past the guards (who continue to look straight ahead after the alarm has been raised, despite not seeing anyone; not one since one looks down for the entire like 5 minutes that we are tortured with this scene - intercut with a failed attempt at Johnny Lever/Sanjay Mishra comedy relief), including literally rolling onto this side and somehow sliding past the lasers (physics be damned - Himesh can go from 'at rest' to 'in motion' even without any action by an outside force) and also balancing himself on 1 hand and jumping into the air high enough to avoid other lasers, to get to the protected case, then end up inside without at all breaking the case, meaning that when all the guards fire at him, the glass remains unbroken, and then literally jumping out of the ground-level case and catching hold of the chandelier, without being shot, and then swinging back-and-forth until he jumps out of a high-up window - and into direct sunlight. And I'm pretty sure they've told us its midnight, at that (because who has a gala and a dance performance like that at noon?). This is not 80s Bollywood, this is just a fucking embarrassing scene for whomever came up with this idea and wrote it and approved it and filmed it and went ahead with it and left it in (this scene is actually where I lost it; it precedes the aforementioned stupid girlfriend scene by a good 5 minutes).

I have been on a bender of boring movies and was hoping this would fix that - but it doesn't even deliver the type of ridiculousness-related humor that you frequently get from these types of movies. It's a slog for the entire 2.5 hours that it runs. Whatever, it's done. It's on the level of Karzzz (while this was a horrible remake and randomly cut out scenes while intermittently trying to be a scene-for-scene copy, leading to a lot of random missing sequences, at least the original story which it copied was pretty good) ; The Xpose was, somehow, probably slightly better, but this falls below Damadamm and Radio and Aap Kaa Surroor and definitely very far below Teraa Surroor.

This showed up tagged as a "heist movie" - its not, of course; but also, the heist sequence here might literally be the worst heist sequence in any movie ever made. How they decided someone who has a theme song that is literally just them singing "badass" over and over again would also the be the brilliant, "I don't follow no rules" cop whose plan comes down to "I'll dress up like the floor tile plan," I have no idea - but it is a total clunker in what amounts to a total clunker of a movie. If you really want to see a Himesh movie, go watch Teraa Surroor. Better songs, better story, better movie (not that any of those are necessarily saying much, because they're all shit here; but they're genuinely good in Teraa Surroor).

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Two things to know going in.

First, if you're expecting something like Die Hard, you're going to be highly disappointed. Don't get me wrong - it definitely has some of the feel of that movie. But it has a run time of 97 minutes, and Daisy doesn't enter the building (in her McClane-type role) until over 1 hour into this - which doesn't allow much time for her to get her "Yippee Ki Yay" on. I mean, she still gets to to some extent - there are a couple of nice fight sequences, and the tension of "will they find her or not" and "will she get out of this" definitely does hit its mark. But she spends the majority of the time stuck outside, watching things happen and causing everyone with acrophobia to get high blood pressure just watching the movie - and getting really lucky that her presence isn't completely blown almost immediately.

Instead the movie spends a lot of time on her and her brother, which is fine to an extent - but really becomes a bit much when they use his autism as a result to have him (predictably) ignore instructions left-and-right and to have him build tension by just stopping in the middle of things (like a chase sequence) and be triggered. I mean, I get it and it is probably at least somewhat real, but it does manage to constantly break the action and thrill right as it gets going. Which, again - I don't think is the entire point of the movie. There's an underlying message or two about humanity and the environment, which seem the bigger issue, and her interactions with her brother in these triggered situations also gets a lot of runtime. Point being - while there is action, this isn't necessarily a full-on action movie for the first 66% of the run time.

Second, despite his presence in the trailer and the poster, this movie does not "star" Clive Owen. I mean, he's there, sure - but boy is it brief. Think like Gary Oldman and Jessica Alba in Killers Anonymous. Frustrating.

The bad guy here is full-blown crazy, doing a good job of making a decent point and then ruining it by going insane. I mean, sure, he's got a point that no one is listening to the slightly more subtle (not subtle) actions that folks take, but this probably isn't the answer. I mean, even if it had gone through, not sure anyone would've listened. Especially given the way that the media controls the news and would hide this under the rug pretty quickly. And with people's attention spans as they are, it wouldn't be long before it was "yesterday's news" and a new top story would take over.

Once Daisy gets into the building, things really get going and it is a decent action movie. And I guess if she'd gotten in earlier, it would've been too much like Die Hard and maybe they wanted to avoid that - again, there's more emphasis, I think, on the message about the environment and the fucktards that are ruining it for everyone. Which is fine - but if you go in hoping for a full-on action movie, you might be a little disappointed.

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I loved this concept idea when I first heard/read about it (don't remember exactly) - it may have been the beginning glimpses of a trailer. As a final product, though, it suffers from being pretty predictable. I was hoping there would be more instances of the improv as they tested it out, but instead the movie just gave them 1 scenario before going all-in on that event and just drawing that out into a typical story. I mean, don't get me wrong, they still get to improv - but I would've liked to see more of the 'cigarette buying' type things that we started with - as they tried to hone their craft - instead of immediately jumping in full-on. It also becomes less improv - though they obviously get a couple sequences of that - and a lot of more of "holy shit what just happened" (their thoughts) and running from bad guys.

The 'twist' early on is, obviously, completely predictable. That's just how these movies go. The officers chasing them somehow both being incompetent and competent was, well, also predictably obvious but did have a moment or two.

Bryce Dallas Howard was excellent and great fun. Nick Mohammed was too - and his character was a big reason that they would've benefited from more practice. Orlando Bloom was fun, but his character's constant attempts at "method acting" and overdoing things just got a bit much - which is a problem when it starts almost from the moment you see him and never lets up. There's A LOT of it. Also, they do the 'fake weapons' gag twice.

It's not bad - I was just hoping to see more varied improv scenarios as they got it, and themselves, figured out.

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Having never played Minecraft, I'm pretty sure this movie - and especially what I assume are many 'fan service' moments - are not exactly aimed towards me. Which obviously means I might be missing a lot of in-universe jokes and references.

So with that caveat - this movie is something. It is definitely a movie, starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa, amongst others, that goes for bonkers and ridiculous. And it definitely gets there, multiple times.

But there were also a lot of "what is this movie?" moments where I was just baffled by how things went. Jack Black's unexplored daytime job as a doorknob salesman, Jason Momoa's never having grown up from 1989, their constant attempts at one-upmanship - it felt like one of those movies where scenes and jokes were written and then they had to figure out how to connect everything, which led to the bits in between.

And then there's the entire secondary plot that is Jennifer Coolidge's character - love her, but what is this entire plot?

I did much enjoy the scene where she tries to create a boat and just gets a block in the water as a villager laughs. That was fun.

I'm not saying it wasn't fun - it definitely had moments (though, also, moments that weren't really fun) - and that I wouldn't watch a sequel - I would - but I'll leave the real determination of enjoyment to the folks this movie was truly made for. As a distant observer, there was some laughs and, while a bit exposition-heavy early on, at least they did sort of explain why things were happening.

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It has been years since I've seen the original animated feature (maybe going back to the original release?), so beyond knowing the basic gist of the story, I didn't really remember a lot of what happened and how it happened. I mean, sure, there was a kid who came across a dragon and eventually saved the day with said dragon, but the rest of it was just completely gone.

And yet, when this movie started - and as it ran - so much of the movie felt like déjà vu. And in a good way at that! Things just kept coming back with a "oh yeah, this is how it happened!" feeling. And it was an absolutely awesome time. The story, so epic the first time around, remains so here. The story telling is great, aided by retaining the same director, and the story itself doesn't suffer from the recent frequent episodes of enshittification (see: most Big Mouse live action remakes) because Dreamworks decided to just, smartly, keep things the same. I mean, why mess with something great.

The casting is great, and all the lead characters do a wonderful job portraying their roles. The emotions are handled well, the dragon CGI is excellent, and there are a couple of spectacular scenes (Toothless going into the fire at the end to try and save him; earlier with the flying sequences, including the one with Astrid) that are absolutely brilliantly shot/framed.

This should be a sign to everyone - if you're going to take a movie and turn it into live action, just leave the story alone. It worked for a reason, and by fucking with that, you're just sort of fucking with what made it a hit (okay, not necessarily, but Big Mouse has made it clear they have no idea what parts of a story to leave alone and what could be changed without causing much harm). I really hope we get a sequel to this; also, I need to go watch the 3rd animated film still.

Absolutely love this one.

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These stories are becoming a dime-a-dozen, and its frustrating because nothing in society changes. I don't mean the action-heavy films, but those films that are like "politicians are bad" and "corruption is bad" and "people treat others like shit" and ... it just keeps happening.

This movie starts with a crazy sequence where 4 guys, digging in a hole, find some gold - and suddenly have the ability to overpower the entire army there and get away. I know you need to build up your bad guy, but, seriously. But anyhow, from there, things skip ahead a bit.

We get "guy cops are cowards" (corrupt, we later learn) and "girl cops try to arrest big baddie" before they get sexually abused/harassed (led by the wife of the baddie, who is equally bad and evil) and locked up to be the future damsels-in-distress.

Then we get the whole Ram/Ravaan thing before they introduce Sunny (our Ram, of course). Due to some train troubles, he ends up in a small shack and gets some idli - but then some hooligans rush past and knock his plate to the ground. He asks them to apologize - they laugh at him. That starts a long stretch of him beating up all these powerful folks who refuse to apologize - until he finds himself in front of evil Randeep Hooda. Hooda realizes how dumb this is and apologizes - but then Sunny sees the women officer's torn clothes still laying on the floor (all these people and no one to clean up their mess?) and goes on to beat up the goons and lead the women out. Hooda, of course, swears revenge - showing at least enough decency upon conceding at the moment to not immediately fire on their backs the minute they start walking out.

Then we go to multiple flashbacks about how fucked up everyone in charge is, and how evil Randeep is, and how they're just wiping out towns, intercut with ongoing action where a bunch of hooligans fail to do anything (well, they kill one of the women cops, because that has to happen). We learn that this has all started because of the discovery of "thorium" in the ground in this part of India, and the promise of much money for the land.

Enraged, our idli-eating stranger walks into the corrupt police station and we get a sequence where he gets overpowered (the cops have no issue with attacking from behind) and the women cops, yet again, quickly become damsels-in-distress. Bad guy's brother shows up, we finally get a flashback of who he is, and then the violence is on.

Honestly - the theme music when Sunny is fighting is pretty great. Beyond that, though, it's all so familiar. Disturbing, but, like, nothing is ever going to change. The powerful and the money-hungry will continue to treat everyone like shit. Certain men and certain women will continue to be the lowest class of humanity. There are multiple dialogue moments that are clearly attempts at being those famous "one liners" but, really, they all fall flat. The story just drags on, going deeper and deeper into how fucked up everything and everyone is, and really just ending with "hope that a superhero-level guy is around to save everything."

It feels like 80% of Bollywood is this type of movie now. While this is the first one in recent time, maybe, to really put Sunny in this type of role, it lets him down by making the supporting cast so weak (see the female officers). Hooda is great, but again, this story is just so gruesome that it is hard to sit through. Gore, beheadings left-and-right, fingers cut off, etc. - all displayed pretty gritty. The music, aside from the theme music, is nothing to write about.

I know you're trying to show Sunny as the masala-type actor that has been all the rage recently, but the levels they go to to repeatedly show all the females as nothing but damsels-in-distress (or future damsels-in-distress) is kinda sad. Saiyami Kher's character deserved better. (Also, the abrupt end to the very evil, shitty character played by Regina Cassandra is also just blah. No fight or anything. It's also crazy how she's okay with all this shit happening to other women.)

The scene with the fan portrayed in the above picture was interesting and, somehow, one of the least gruesome fighting sequences in the movie.

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Fun story - I turned this movie on and watched it for a bit before, out of the blue, Anna Kendrick showed up. That's when I was like "oh shit, I accidentally turned on the first movie." This is what happens when you have 8 years between sequels - you completely forget what happened in the first movie. Honestly, John Lithgow's presence for a second made me think "wait," but really, I have no recollection of the first movie beyond it starring Affleck and Kendrick. I mean, I enjoyed it decently enough, but I remember nothing of it. Even JK Simmons' presence was completely wiped from memory.

On the plus side, that accidental intro did clue me in to whom certain folks were, when we saw Simmons and Cynthia Addai-Robinson again this time around. And, of course, Bernthal - though, despite the trailers/images of the movie, I didn't actually even remember him being the first one.

So all that "make sequels sooner, dammit!" gripe aside, this movie is pretty decent. Gritty action flick with a sort of buddy comedy, where the buddies are two essentially estranged brothers - both with very illegal-seeming occupations - that are brought together to go beat up some folks and save trapped folks from a really bad person.

There's also an entire angle about a person who went through some motor vehicle accident-related trauma which messed with her brain and turned her into a relentless, emotionless killer who has lost her memory. Interesting, I guess. I don't know. I just found the whole thing a little bit flat and brutal - though the chemistry between Bernthal and Affleck's characters progressing through the movie was fun to see.

I don't know - I think this would've had more impact if we weren't 8 years out. Hopefully the next one doesn't take another 8 years.

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Honestly, the biggest problem with this movie isn't so much with the movie itself as it is with the movie being branded as a "noir thriller." I mean, sure, it is technically 'noir' - to some extent, at least - but that genre would suggest a lot more detective-led action and thrills. If you go in hoping for fast-paced thrills or any sort of true detective story, you're going to end up bored.

Instead, we have what turns out to be a very slow-paced character study and exploration of aging and guilt, that is set in the backdrop of a murder investigation (which happens only peripherally in our view) and, as it unfolds, a lot of buried trauma. Characters are not whom they seem - or, more importantly, they are much more than they originally appear.

Our lead, who I guess is the 'femme fatale' of the story, doesn't go to the detective with a case - in fact, if anything, it is the exact opposite. But really what we have is a full-on stalker situation (him, not her) that leads to their "chance" meeting at a speed dating event that further devolves into a full dereliction of this detective duties in the name of love (this is not uncommon in movies, I don't feel).

But as things unfold in the end - for him and for us - we learn that all is not that it seems. While we already know she should be a suspect, essentially from the start but especially as the movie intercuts the present with flashbacks to the pre-murder past, we also learn eventually that there is a lot more going on in her life. The twist with the Hayley Atwell angle was good, for sure, but it just doesn't land as huge a impact because of how slowly things unfold in front of us (I say that, but the scene where he opens the bedroom door and really drives everything home is pretty excellent). Of course, the general lack of characters in the story overall keep you from ever getting lost within the "who" or anything, and the concise cast also helps hide the twists a little better.

But, in that, this turns even further from 'noir' and 'thriller' to just a straight up analysis of her, and of memory, and, I think, of internalized guilt.

We also have, very peripherally, a couple of characters who are there just to give us a few more "suspects" (again, for a murder mystery that we have no real reason to think about, as we're not part of the investigation; furthermore, we never really have any reason to suspect them at all, and by the time we're even shown how everything connects for them, we already know who is guilty), but that just feels unnecessary because, other than runtime, it adds very little.

I like the story, overall - I just think if I'd have known that it was less pulse-pounding thrills and more just 2 folks going around doing things at a leisurely pace, I'd probably have not watched it at a time where I was hoping for a bit more action. (The generalization of this as 'noir' let me know there would be some twists coming along, but even with that, this story did a decent job of keeping things well hidden until they were to be revealed.)

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To some end, I think this story is practically interchangeable with any of the stories that this sort of premise brings to mind (even just based solely on the title, as I hadn't seen any trailers). Indiana Jones, I think I saw somewhere; National Treasure, maybe even; really, any such "treasure hunter"-type story - though the one that really jumped to my mind was Uncharted. This may have been further strengthened as the comparison because, despite an excellent cast, the movie is entirely predictable and follows every single 'predecessor' movie in its twists, turns, and even just the basic story.

Sure, this time they're looking for the 'fountain of youth' instead of some other interchangeable treasure, but essentially we have a team - in this case, mostly just Krasinski and Portman, as the rest of the team just stands around standing guard - and we have the moneyman, who is lying about the motivation and is clearly going to turn around to be bad (predictable from essentially the start), and we have the folks on their tails. And they traverse the world, stealing some other relics (paintings, the Wicked bible) and randomly and inexplicably having some others (one of the paintings stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, for example), to go on a 'treasure map on the back of the declaration of independence'-level chase that eventually leads them to the great pyramids and, yes, the desired fountain.

But, of course, it isn't that easy - our hero gets into the fountain but realizes the value of what is in his life and says "no thanks" (though, I don't get what is up with all of the visions he has of the future, which is really random and just kinda gives everything away even before it happens), whereas the greedy bad guy is too selfish to realize and ends up losing himself in this thirst for ... money, I guess. Maybe just power. Not sure.

Despite being a 'constantly on the move' trip around the world, the pace rarely breaks a sweat, just leisurely pacing itself while trying to convince us that things are thrilling and hectic. Some of it, maybe, is just how nonchalantly Krasinski's character comes across the entire movie. Even when he's in trouble, he's not, which really limits any sort of 'thrill' or feeling of danger, and since you know from the start how the twists are going to fall, there's nothing even going there. When the truth is "revealed" (just a few minutes after it was foretold by another character, no less, just to put it into our brains in case we weren't already thinking it), you just yawn it off and await the obvious impending greed-related demise that the character will undergo.

Stanley Tucci has one scene - two if you count the fact that it is essentially replayed again later to add some unnecessary exposition - and Eiza González gets to have a couple of fight sequences (probably the best part of the movie) while constantly being a step behind until she apparently gets a deus ex machina-type moment (okay, not really, since she's in the movie - but she just has a key to "end it," which is ridiculous). They do try to give us some backstory about the siblings, but it is very patchy and poorly explored, which is fine because no one else has any sort of backstory either.

They go on a journey - reminding each other multiple times that life is about the journey, not the treasure at the end - and then the movie shows them going on a journey and coming to value that more than the treasure at the end. The fountain of youth is, apparently, not all that the name would imply it is.

Aside from the couple of fight sequences, the best scene - in terms of how it looked on screen - was the dream-state Krasinski had with the glass that contained the liquid from the fountain of youth (and the eventual shattering of that glass). While the idea of his foreshadowing dreams is both major spoilers (though, again, predictable even without this) and never explained at all, the way this sequence plays out is pretty nice.

The rest of it - sadly, not so much.

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Okay, for the first 2 hours of this movie, I fluctuated between "man this feels long" (much like Saripodhaa Sanivaaram, which I still haven't been able to get all the way through; though, in my defense, that movie is almost 3 hours long, so it doesn't just feel long, it is long), slight annoyance (full-length flashback), and multiple thoughts of "gruesome."

Then, in the final 30 minutes - it becomes EVEN MORE gruesome and gritty - but, also, the action really picks up (gore, too, with blood everywhere and insane amounts of stabbings and mutilations, including a complete beheading and, in one case in the near background, someone essentially getting split in half!), and it becomes a lot more entertaining. (FWIW, I'm usually not okay with that much violence, but I can make an exception, it appears, when I like the actor(s).) The last half hour is essentially completely just Nani literally ripping through people - except, you know, when we cut to the "in love" female cop who is just very adept at making really dumb decisions because love makes her forget all of her training and kills all of her brain cells - in the most macabre of ways. For a good reason, mind you, if that makes it okay. It's more gritty than a lot of the stylized violence that seems to focus more on just being very clean that we see in, for example, Bollywood today. Again - he literally stabs someone with a sword and pulls it all the way up until they've been split in half (he's in our way so we only see the action, not the full gruesomeness of it). He also, twice, pulls of his bloody shirt/jacket to reveal an equally blood shirt beneath it, which I just found weirdly entertaining as a concept.

And, in true 'cinematic universe' spirit, we get a brief return from HIT 2 (Adivi Sesh, and dog too!) for that final fight sequence (think like Singham's appearance in Simmba, or Sooryavanshi's appearance in Singham Again, and not the more extended appearances of Simmba in Singham Again or of Simmba or Singham in Sooryavanshi) - and it is so much fun to get them. When she gets told on the phone that backup was coming but it wasn't the rest of the force, I was a bit confused (I haven't seen the trailer for this movie, but I'm assuming they didn't spoil all the appearances like Singham Again's trailer did), and when Adivi Sesh showed up, I literally exclaimed "oh fuck yeah!"

The movie is almost entirely a single long flashback which, yeah, sucks, so I'll gripe about that. And the story-telling is a bit slow early on - as he goes into a flashback, within the flashback he's already telling - to expositionize why he's doing what he's doing. But eventually that story comes to an end and we're able to get going with the story. And yes, the story is morbid and bloody and horrific - but they do a good job of giving the bad guy(s) the deserved just desserts, and things never get away from them. Prateik Babbar is a horrific villain here.

It does feel like a long 2.5 hours though, because the first half definitely slogs. But when things get going, boy do they get going. At this point, feels like there will be no Bollywood remake of HIT 2 and HIT 3 (not sure who they'd even get for them, though at this point Adivi Sesh has also had a couple of Bollywood appearances I think; it's out of his wheelhouse, maybe, but I'd be down to see Ayushmann Khurrana give it a go) - OTOH, it does seem like they're working on a HIT 4, so that's exciting!