Mike Bresnahan

It's strange to see critics and audiences alike gushing over this film. Especially considering the 1st installment was largely overlooked (definitely by critics) and for my money the 1st movie is exceptional. We go into this movie around 8 years after the final events from the original movie. Ben Affleck (The Accountant) is first seen letting the managers of an algorithm based dating service know that he has cracked their code. This is right after dozens of women see Affleck and flock to his table for speed dating (he is the most handsome guy there) Only to be turned off do to his "condition" which as we know he is an anti-social mathematical savant who is also highly trained in combat. This scene among others feels like it comes from a different movie altogether. There is an entire 20 to 25 minutes later in the film that give "The Accountant" and his brother Braxton (John Bernthal) some real time to bond. This is another part of the movie that feels separate (and at times forced) from the rest of the film. This film is much more overtly comedic than the first film. In the 1st movie the dialogue is slick and the comedy comes without effort due to Affleck's strange demeanor and his awkwardness towards other's. Here you can see the writers really trying to insert comedy it doesn't feel quite natural. Lastly, We get agent Marybeth Messina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) who figured out the puzzle from the first film. She has now been promoted to deputy director of the FBI treasury department (Apparently with silent assistance from the Accountant) She needs help from The Accountant to solve the newest puzzle which in turn causes him to reach out to his brother Braxton for help. I honestly found the motivation to solve this case a bit strange and the plot was difficult to follow. It takes a while to figure out why any of these characters are doing what they are doing. They place themselves at great risk and for what exactly ? It's a bit blurry. What saves the film is the performances from Affleck and Bernthal. They have incredible chemistry together. The scenes with just the 2 of them are pretty great even if some of the scenes feel like they were added late on in the editing room. Ultimately this installment fails to live up to the first film from 2016. I enjoyed it because I enjoy Affleck and Bernthal. Frankly, I don't necessarily understand what all the fuss is about. Worth watching ? Yes (especially if you loved the 1st one) 3 stars

Not a surprise this is rated so high by the left wing critics. The series does well by hooking you in with a great first episode. However late into episode 2 most viewers will realize this is a feminist viewpoint on the made up term "toxic masculinity" hidden behind a family crisis/drama. The series even name drops Andrew Tate. While I am not actually a fan of his and I find some of his actions despicable he has yet to be convicted of any crime. Most likely Tate would be within his legal right to sue the production company involved in the making of this series. Episode 3 which is a 1 shot episode with interactions between a 13 year old boy accused of murder and a female psychologist. The boy comes close to violence a few times and tries to intimidate the female. These scenes made me gag honestly. The series would lead you to believe that because this boys father is "a man's man" and the boy watched porn and video's of Andrew Tate it made him capable of violence against a female classmate. I'm sorry the story is not believable. Lastly - So disappointed in writer/director/star Stephen Graham. I was a true fan of his. His role in the movie "Snatch" (2000) The Irishman (2019) and his star turn as Al Capone in Boardwalk empire (HBO series) made me really enjoy his performances. I watched the series specifically for him. To realize after the fact that this was his creation is just sad really. I wonder, will Netflix put out a documentary about the domestic terrorists shooting up and fire bombing Tesla dealerships and charging stations ? Will it include grown men beating up 60 year old women just because they drive a Tesla. Can't trust Netflix anymore. They have only 1 viewpoint. 1 star - because 1 episode was good

Old Henry (2021) is a call back to many great westerns that have come before it. In fact if you didn't know the characters in the film were modern actors this film could be mistaken for one of the great mid 20th century westerns that starred actors like John Wayne , Gary Cooper or even Clint Eastwood. That's not a bad thing. This film is directed by Potsy Ponciroli (great name BTW) And the title of the film Old Henry is also the namesake of the main character played by Tim Blake Nelson. This film has so many things going for it. An incredible performance by the lead. An especially gripping turn from our villain Ketchum (Stephen Dorff) and a breakout performance from relative unknown Scott Haze as Curry. The thing about Old Henry is that he ain't that old and in fact he may not be all too "Henry" either (more on that later) Warning ***spoilers ahead*** A seemingly inconsequential old farmer named Henry lives way out in Oklahoma territory near or about 1906. He lives with his son Wyatt (Gavin Lewis) and gets regular visits from his neighbor and brother in law Al (country music star Trace Adkins) we find out later that Henry's wife passed on about 10 years earlier. They live a peaceful existence which on a normal day is only disrupted by Wyatt's longing for a more exciting and fulfilling lifestyle. This peaceful existence is shattered when they come upon an injured rider who has been shot and who happens to have a satchel filled with cash. This man we find out is being hunted down by 3 of the last men anyone would ever want to be hunted down by. These men claim to have the right to said satchel of cash. These men are posing as law enforcement and will stop at nothing to get access to Curry who they well know is being harbored by Old Henry. A “supposed” innocent farmer who just wants to be left alone to tend to his cattle and raise is son right. Ketchum along with his henchman Stilwell (Max Arciniega) seem to be the only men who have a feeling they haven't stumbled across a random farmer here. Well maybe not the only 2 men....Through a series of flashbacks and some dialogue between Henry and Curry we start to believe that Old Henry may in fact be someone else. Someone with real world significant importance. Its 1906 so you perhaps may have some idea already. This movie is incredibly well acted and well shot. Like I mentioned earlier in this review you feel like you are in the old west. That is a testament to the costume and set design. The overall tone of the film and the background soundtrack also add an extra element which gives the powerful scenes that much more of a punch. Mostly I thought this movie was great. Especially giving TBN the lead role (It's about time you reckon ain't it Hollywood?) For me this movie could not be anything other than a 5 star rating. Great acting, Great characters, Great costume design and beautiful scenery. Great everything really. I don’t actually have many gripes at all. The only thing is the movie feels a lot like Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Putting real life famous people in situations with fictional outcomes. Since this movie came out 2 years after Once Upon A Time the director obviously took Tarantino’s idea. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and call it an ode to Quentin. Either way 5 stars – Easily

This movie is one of the most awe inspiring , visually striking, thought provoking and downright heart wrenching movies ever made. The cast is absolutely sensational. Matthew McConaughey gives more than likely his best performance ever. Jessica Chastain as "Murph" is a close 2nd for best performance in this film. She once again shows she has the most incredible range of any actor male or female. It's hard for me to call this Christopher Nolan's best film. He has so many gems. For me Memento will probably always be my favorite. However, this film is better than any of his Batman films. It manages to be a movie all about space and time and the need to find suitable planets as Earth is dying. However, the main core of the movie is the human relationships. Between Cooper (MM) and Murph (JS) but also Cooper and Dr. Brand (Anne Hathaway) and so many other's. What comes first the survival of all of mankind or making sure your immediate loved ones are safe and secure ? This movie asks questions of its characters that are near impossible to answer. What if you left Earth with a 25% chance that you land on a planet with life on it and a 75% chance of sure death ? Dr. Mann (an uncredited A-list actor) faces this very situation. Does he have a point ? Is he evil ? After all he is just looking to survive along with the billions of people on Earth. This film makes you think. It makes you think about your loved ones. It makes you think about what you would do in implausible situations. Most importantly you wont stop thinking about this movie long after watching it. It's been 10 years and I still do not think it has been topped visually and creatively. This is one of the best films ever made. 5 stars - easily

This movie is just more leftist lunacy. Rotten tomatoes again gives a useless rating. I thought 17% critics score for "Reagan" was abhorrent, especially since their fake reviews didn't line up with the audience who scored that movie literally 81% higher. This film is all about a young and very confused teenage girl who is homosexual or maybe bi-sexual ? Or possibly be pan ? she later contemplates. What is pan ? I don't want to know. Honestly I started tuning out very early on when the 3 girls started talking about the world being filled with nazi racists. I'm not sure what the filmmakers were thinking with introducing language like that into a supposed coming of age tale. That's a clear POV of the writer/director. The world is not filled with evil nazi's. People are not evil just because they don't agree with your worldview. This film does a great job of alienating most of it's potential audience fairly quickly and does almost nothing to get it back. This is partially do to the main lead. This is just not an actress that can carry a film. At least not this film with it's poor and lazy writing. It also continues to be cringey and uncomfortable for anyone who isn't a very progressive liberal. Would I recommend this film to anyone ? No not really. I actually only made it to the end because I am working from home and I couldn't find anything else to watch in the background. Zero stars

You know, The more I think about this film the more I like it. I think in my head at first there was a wide range of where this movie could be ranked. As low as a 2 but no higher than a 3 however, strangely I end up giving it a 4. That means it has something to it that perhaps I didn't fully appreciate when I watched it. Humor yes, but this movie has charm. It also has definite re-watchability. Jady (The epic Peter Dinklage) and Moke (Josh Brolin) are twin brothers (but of course) That are different in so many ways other than height. However, there is a bond there from an early age. It shows the brothers were close but their mother took off on them literally because she was on the run from the cops for stealing some emeralds and let's just say their lives were destined to go in 1 direction from there. Flash forward some years and Moke has his life cleaned up. A job, A beautiful wife (with a baby on the way) and a nice house. Jady.....not so much. Soon the pair will be re-united and hilarity will ensue. I won't throw out anymore spoilers. That first part is the very beginning and pretty much the jumping off point. The movie is truly about the characters. It also stars a deranged and not so smart corrections officer named Farful (played rather hilariously by Brendan Fraser) The boys (Moke and Jady) mother Kath (Glenn Close) who feels like she has been in everything lately. She is still brilliant. Moke's wife Abby (Taylour Page) who knows and understands Jady and Moke's background and past issues but as long as Moke is there for Thanksgiving dinner and is a provider for her and their baby is willing to stick with her man because she loves him. A descent cameo for Marisa Tomei as Bethesda who keeps a pet Orangutang in her home. Also a small role for M. Emmett Walsh as Farful's important/rich father. He unfortunately passed away at the age of 88 before the movie's release. The movie is a comedy through and through. There is family drama in there as well but even that is played mostly for laughs. What I found fun about this movie is the cast in contrast with the type of films they typically do. For instance it's not often you get to see Josh Brolin in a comedy that doesn't take itself too seriously like this one. I found him to be rather good in this role. Same with Peter Dinklage. Yes he is funny in Game of Thrones and other things but usually in an entirely cynical way. Lastly Brendan Fraser. He was doing comedies back in the 90's but I can't think of any of note lately. So this was a cast of characters who looked to be having fun. That's noticeable on screen. In the end that's what this movie is. It's fun. There is some bad writing mixed in but mostly the jokes landed for me. Most importantly would I watch it again ? Most certainly. 3.5 stars - recommend to anyone who are fans of these actors and fans of comedy movies that do not take themselves seriously in any way.

Its an A24 film so the production value was there as it always is. The premise was even pretty cool. I went in cold on purpose. I almost wish I didn't. I probably wouldn't have wasted my time on it. I thought this movie was going to be something that it absolutely wasn't. It dealt in what was possibly intended as subtext but it just came through as preaching to a very specific target audience. Who is the target audience ? If you watch the film you will be able to pick it up. The acting is fairly descent. I had no issue with the 2 main characters Owen (Justice Smith) or Maddy (Phoebe Bridgers) Although that's not their name anymore as they continue to state later in the film. When I say "they" I mean Maddy. The 1st issue is how utterly boring the 1st half of the film is. I kept waiting for something to happen. I was close to turning it off but it would keep slipping in a creep factor that led me to continue just to see if the film would reveal itself to be a worthy horror film. It never did. What the movie is trying to tell the audience. More specifically the youngsters who are confused about their sexual identity is that time moves very fast in life. Don't wait to long to become who you always knew/felt you were supposed to be. The movie tells us Maddy is a lesbian early on. However, her deep and throaty voice and her wish to mirror the stronger more masculine character in the mysterious TV show the movie is based on "The Pink Opaque" would indicate she may believe she is someone else completely. She likens Owen to the more afraid and more feminine character in the show "Isabel" played by Helena Howard. Towards the end of the film we are meant to realize that Maddy indeed took the risk that Owen was not willing too and was probably the better for it. Owen's life seems depressing and almost fake. More subtext !!! Wooohooo !!! I was going to give this a 1 star review. I really think this movie was pretty lacking in anything that makes horror enjoyable. Some of the dialogue meant to be serious came off as laughable. For example : "Maddy disappeared a month later, They found her TV set burning in the backyard" (says Owen with a straight face) In an A24 film I don't think that's what they were going for. Owen continues to break the 4th wall in the film which is fine. I just don't think they necessarily needed to do it. He was already the narrator of the events on screen. I'm going to settle on 2 stars because of the production value and there were some genuinely creepy moments towards the end of the film. This was a swing and a miss from A24. Hopefully they go back to their roots in their next project. Am I confident that will happen ? Not especially. Hollywood as a whole is in need of a makeover. I thought A24 was immune to the craziness in our country impacting it's films but I was incorrect. 2 stars

I'm sure I'm in the minority here but I just didn't connect with the story. The fake midwestern accents, the after the fact interview framing of the story. Mostly the main character. Austin Butler had zero emotion. Maybe that was the point but it made me not care about him. Not to mention I find him to be a mediocre actor already. Tom Hardy as (Johnny) easily the best part of this film. The story is about a motorcycle club in the mid 60's - early 70's in Chicago known as the Vandals. A former member who left the club (while it was still safe to leave) Is interviewing the wife (Jodie Comer) of a prominent former member Benny (Austin Butler) In effect this makes Benny's story the main plot. I know this movie was based off a book but I think if they cut Benny out of the story and made Kathy (Comer) Johnny's wife, the movie would have been a lot better. Johnny created the club from scratch and Kathy says the early days were the golden years of motorcycle riding. The problem is we barely see any motorcycle riding in this movie. A lot of partying, fist fights and hanging out at their bar. Also Johnny for some reason acknowledges Benny as his 1 day successor simply because he was quick to through his fists at a picnic with rival clubs in attendance. Benny's ascendancy in the mind of Johnny doesn't feel earned and even though the story is about Benny he has what seems like 12 total lines of dialogue throughout the whole movie and the expression on his face never changes. He also eventually leaves the club without telling anyone (including his wife) and while gone leaves Johnny exposed. Was he supposed to be the hero ? As the years go by the club devolves into more of a gang where drug dealing and even murder become part of it's nature. This is mentioned briefly in the interview with Kathy. I won't spoil any further. The acting : Austin Butler just gives a bland and dull performance as Benny. Jodie Comer does much better. I didn't totally buy the accent but I still think she played the part as well as she could she's a talented actress. Michael Shannon as "Zipco" critically underused. What's the point of adding Michael Shannon to your cast if you aren't going to use him. Norman Reedus as "Funny Sonny" he was a thrown in character to basically prove a point that Kathy makes in her interview later in the film nothing more. Lastly, Tom Hardy. He sort of replays his character in Lawless (2012) in terms of his voice/cadence but he just has this incredible screen presence and he out acted the lead character by miles. Personally I found the movie a bit boring and uninteresting. Especially the climax of the film. I kept wanting more from this movie but it was never capable of giving it to me. Frankly I'm not shocked at the reviews being so good from the critics as they are no longer impartial but I am a little surprised by the audience scores being so high. Then again they could all be bot accounts. For me its 2 Stars

I think I got overexcited on this one and went into it with high flying expectations. I'm going to site this as my reasoning for giving this 2 stars instead of 1. It's a slightly less than competent sci/fi film. However people calling it one of or THE best in the franchise can't have much respect for the franchise. I would say the only film in the franchise worse than this one is Alien Resurrection (1997). Just goes to show you really can't trust the numbers in RT or IMBD that's been true for a long while. If any true fan of this franchise thinks this film is better than Alien (1979) or it's brilliant sequel Aliens (1986) has either not seen those films or has no clue what makes them great. This movie gives me a much bigger appreciation for its predecessor Alien Covenant (2016) which isn't considered top 3 in the franchise but looking back its leaps and bounds ahead of Alien Romulus. The problem wasn't with the cast. Yes they were relative unknowns but they each were descent enough. The problem wasn't with the set design or the production value or even the world building. The main problem with this movie is first it's unoriginal and 2nd It wishes it were Aliens (1986) and calls back to that movie so many times it becomes annoying. Then when they actually did the iconic "Get away from her you b**** line and the actor completely blew it I was about ready to walk out of the theater. Then I thought no not yet I need to get to this intense crazy finish everyone was talking about. So I stayed and waited and waited.....I'm sure it's when the pregnant gives birth to what appears .....well I won't spoil it. Let's just say it was underwhelming and I suppose you could call it a twist ending but by the end I was so bored I didn't really care about the ending. Every kill had been done before in other movies within the franchise and frankly there weren't enough people to kill. Only 5 humans and 1 synthetic boarded the ship you need more than that knowing at least 1 will more than likely survive. Instead of making things original and tense they just throw a lot of any 1 thing at you all at once. Scenes with 40,50 face huggers in the same place. Later 25 or 30 xenomorphs in the same general area. It just wasn't tense and it wasn't scary. It was more like let's just throw a ton of everything at the screen and maybe it will confuse the audience into thinking it's awesome. I read excerpts from articles about people screaming during certain parts. Not in the theater I was in. Mostly people groaned and literally everyone walked out disappointed you could tell by people's faces and the fact that nobody was talking about the movie just filing out in silence. The worst dropped ball was the sound. Both Prometheus and Covenant had their flaws but the music in both films was beautiful and also in synch with the other films from the Alien universe. I didn't even notice it in this movie and that really hurt the experience because it just never felt like I was watching a movie from the Alien franchise. Man I got my hopes up. That's the last time I go into any new movie with expectations that high. This movie had a couple descent things going for it but I've largely forgotten the whole movie entirely and I just saw it 3 days ago. 1.5 stars

I'm shocked that I see so many people rating this as a 5 star movie. I have no idea what movie these folks were watching. I was going to actually be generous and give this 2 stars because there were 1 or 2 creepy moments (including a descent opening to the movie) but I need to do my part in bringing the average down as much as possible. First off - Horror Anthology volume 1 (2013) contained about a 2 and a half minute short in it called "Night Swim" I think the 2.5 minute short was scarier than this feature film. To be fair the director I believe did collaborate with Rod Blackhurst (director of the short) when making this feature length film so it wasn't a ripoff or anything. However, If you watch the short they use the technique of the camera underwater showing that there is someone standing at the surface of the pool followed by the swimmer seeing this and coming to the surface only for there to be nobody there. I think Night Swim 2024 way overuses this. It feels like it happened over 10x In terms of the acting. I'm sorry, I want to like Wyatt Russell so bad I just don't think he is cut out to be a leading man. He certainly didn't have the worst performance but there were some truly awful lines and line deliveries from him. He was just so wooden. Other characters I wondered if they were even actors. The Little league coach who's son has a situation in the pool was maybe the best example of "where did they find this person?" Some of this must be blamed on the writer/director Bryce McGuire. It can't all be on bad acting. The only person I thought did well was Kerry Condon as Eve. She is just a brilliant actress and is one of the only redeemable qualities of this film. In the end it's a Blumhouse picture so the production value is going to be good but that can't save this film. It's not scary it's not thought provoking and the attempt at humor falls flat. Where the are the 5 ratings coming from? It's sort of amazing too me. Then again those could all be bot accounts. What do I know My recommendation Skip this one. It's entirely unnecessary.