Alex Mangual

A current streaming original sequel on Amazon Prime. Taking place almost immediately after the events of the last entry, our torn apart lovers, Nicole Wallace & Gabriel Guevara, are reunited due to the impending nuptials of their besties, Victor Varona & Eva Ruiz, but their reception is a cold one w/the incidents of the last films encroaching upon them as they finally let bygones be bygones. Playing like the Spanish version of the 50 Shades of Grey series (minus the S & M overtures), the film is supposed to be well made & well cast trash but the story is so slight & the performances so robotic, you almost wish AI would've had a say in the construction.

A 2012 kung fu epic (an epic in the filmmaker's mind) about a weird world where a judicial figure roams the lands stopping feuds between martial arts houses but when a younger man joins up in the ranks (after being a witness to some violence his sister went through) he must decide between his duty & his desire for revenge using his mighty bow to settle the conflict. While nimbly directed the film is awash (how can it be awash when it clocks in at 90 minutes?) in weird asides & moments of confusion which doesn't do anything for the final assessment of this affair.

An amiable comedy from Aziz Ansari (Netflix' Master of None) currently in theaters about a poor schlub, essayed by Ansari, who works at several dead end jobs (he works at a task rabbit concern) when things start to go into the crapper prompting a lower tier angel, played winningly by Keanu Reeves, decides to change his circumstances by switching Ansari w/a successful businessman, Seth Rogen, & see where things go which works out wonderfully for Ansari but Rogen, not so much. This comic conceit plays out wonderfully & Ansari smartly makes this particular meal a nuanced one where the uneasy edges of the narrative unfortunately mirrors today's workforce a bit too closely but don't the best satires hold a grain of truth just waiting to be mocked?

A current Amazon Prime streaming original on the peerless John Candy. Using home movie footage & talking head interviews w/the people who knew him & worked w/him we get a blissfully balanced portrait of the comic genius who also had many a skeleton in his closet. Mounted by actor Colin Hanks (son of Tom) who also made an excellent doc on the demise of Tower Records called All Things Must Pass in 2015, the right man was picked for the job who gets the right people to say the right thing w/Candy sometimes putting a cherry on top of his own sundae which becomes particularly disheartening when we hear the doubts that racked him even though his own screen personas (even in god awful movies) still would warrant a watch.

Oscar nominee Keira Knightley gets her Hitchcock on in this currently streaming Netflix original based on a novel by Ruth Ware. Knightley is a reporter who gets an invite to a yacht trip where a rich socialite, who's dying of cancer, is about to make an announcement where her estate will go w/her helpful hubby, Oscar nominee Guy Pierce, by her side. Navigating the hither & yon of the rich hoi polloi on the boat which includes Art Malik (the villain from True Lies), Kaya Scodelario (from the Maze Runner series) & Hannah Waddingham (from Ted Lasso), Knightley may not be exactly in her element but she endures but one night after hearing a noise, she emerges from her cabin to see a woman going over the side. A woman, when she reports the incident to everyone, no one remembers & since CCTV has been turned off to protect the guests' privacy, no footage of the victim exists. Will this setback curtail Knightley's investigation? What do you think? Pretty solid for the most part (even though it borrows elements from Rear Window & The Lady Vanishes), the film only falters in its last lap towards the finish where some character thrust (Knightley corners the villain at the end & when they don't get their comeuppance tout suite, she rolls her eyes) would've been more appreciated but for the non-discerning viewer out to waste a couple of hours, why the heck not!

From 2019, Ip Man, now played by Dennis To, has resurfaced in a hodgepodge adventure which borrows from a lot of sources but due to its short run time, feels like an overstuffed turkey late for the oven. To, a cop, & his wife are about to have their first born but those pesky Japanese have invaded & instituted a citywide decree to curb the power of the martial arts schools specifically focusing on the Axe Gang (Kung Fu Hustle's also rampaging gang). When the head of the gang is killed, his daughter blames To but then when she realizes the Japanese are behind it, her fellow compatriots side w/her enemies & nearly kill her until To shows up to rescue her. Meanwhile another fighter has insinuated himself into To's life, who practices a form of drunken style (he's quite adept when he's inebriated) & due to his irascibility, To encourages him to stay w/him after his wife gives birth. After having an underling murder the town's sheriff, the Japanese feel they have the upper hand but when To engages the Japanese champion to fight in a public match, things look dicey for To. W/added narrative wrinkles like To donning a mask to become an avenger of sorts (shades of Donnie Yen's turn in Legend of the Fist) you can see where the tale will have you unbuttoning your trousers to burp & after so many Ip Man films & TV series out there, this one feels like the most superfluous (even after Part 3's showcase of having Yen battle none other than Mike Tyson).

A current streaming original on Amazon Prime starring Madelaine Petsch (late of Riverdale & one of those The Strangers abominations) & Jason Scipio. Petsch runs an all-girl garage (along w/Katy O'Brian & Madison Bailey from Netflix's Outer Banks) but even though it's a heartfelt, family run affair, her dad left it to her, things aren't going well. Enter Scipio, an envoy from a 'buy it & sell it' conglomerate, run by Jim Gaffigan, who comes into Petsch's small hometown & literally sets up a rival shop across the street which makes things a bit hairy when the pair meet up but the truth of why he's there is set to the side since they initially bond over their love of cars. What amounts to a remake of You've Got Mail (which was a remake of an old Jimmy Stewart flick called The Shop Around the Corner) makes for good eye candy of the humankind but if you tell me Petsch is a mechanic (O'Brian probably would sell the conceit better), I have an East Wing at the White House to sell you (wait a minute!) which doesn't leave much for an audience looking for something a bit better but are settling for something a bit worse.

Currently in theaters is the third entry in the franchise started in 1982 (I'm proud to say I was there in the aisles opening day to see it) now finds the universe in flux since Sam Flynn, the CEO of Encom, essayed by Garrett Hedlund, has mysteriously vacated his post (not to mention his gf, Quorra, played by Olivia Wilde, is never cited even though a picture of her surfaces as some point in the narrative) so the company is now run by a surviving sister, played by Greta Lee, whose partner & sis succumbed to cancer & is in a race to solve the permanence issue (objects & people can be brought from the digital world to ours but can only subsist for 29 minutes or so) while Encom's rival, played by Evan Peters & his mother, Gillian Anderson, are trying to reach the same goal since their company is already out of the gate w/presenting unbeatable personnel & hardware to the military (in the form of Ares, a super soldier played by Jared Leto). Already being lambasted in some circles as another failure from the Mouse House, the film, if you know what you're in for, still delivers w/dazzling visuals & score (provided by Nine Inch Nails) which takes its basic plot to the nth degree when you realize a video game is being concretized for the real world.

The current streaming juggernaut from Netflix. What do you get when you combine the ubiquitous earworms coming from South Korea & an us vs them fable as humans battle supernatural creatures, I guess this crowd pleaser. Focusing on a trio of songsmiths who as a sideline are fighters for the good of humanity (something that has been passed down for years & years) they face their worst enemies in the form of an all-boy band who not only can warble a catchy tune but threaten them for the Idol Awards. Not only are they demons in disguise but their continued popularity also threatens the human race unless our beloved trio can get their poop together to pull out a song which'll trump all comers. Not necessarily my cup of tea (since I have been gravitating to South Korean movies & TV series but music not so much) is still undeniable in its bounciness & straight forward narrative which can't be a bad thing even for someone as curmudgeony as I am.

The 2025 follow-up to the Philippou (Michael & Danny) Brothers (their first Talk to Me from 2022) from earlier this year. Following a pair of siblings (Billy Barratt from Apple +'s Invasion & newcomer Sora Wong) who come to the care of Oscar nominee Sally Hawkins after their stepfather buys it during a shower. Settling into the new digs pretty easily (Hawkins takes a shine to Wong right away), the pair seem to be putting their past trauma in the rearview but something's off, namely a third child, Jonah Wren Phillips, a misshapenly bald mute who Hawkins warns the other 2 to avoid but come on, how can they? Hawkins, who we come to learn lost a daughter in a pool drowning, is dabbling in reincarnation (as evidenced in videos she watches when the kids aren't around) in hopes of transferring her daughter's spirit into a new vessel w/Wong fitting the bill. Jarratt starts to get wind of the weirdness & soon enough a race is on to find out what Hawkins is up to. More a peon to people in pain who let said pain get out of control no matter the fallout deepens this horror film's message as it has more on its mind than the usual multiplex fare which signals, if the Brothers continue on their path, will continue releasing hair raising opuses that ultimately make you think as you collect your spilled popcorn from your apartment's floor.