TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews

The level of emotional complexity is off the charts. Witnessing Fergus really come to empathize with at least one person that he would be expected to despise really underlines the humanity we are all capable of. The love story is deeply emotionally engaging.

Ultimately this does have at least a little bit too much going on. It tries to tackle politics, race and gender all in one. The first and last of them each developed well enough that they could support their own movie but put them both together and they end up not quite delivering.

Everyone is well cast. You don't need me to tell you that the talent is immeasurable when it comes to Stephen Rea, Forest Whitaker and Miranda Richardson. Jaye Davidson manages to steal every scene and leave us wanting more.

There are aspects where this could be more sensitive. It definitely hits the mark when it comes to the IRA. But elsewhere it really struggles and in some ways has aged quite poorly. On the other hand there definitely is more empathy here than a lot of its contemporaries.

It's interesting that this was made during the Troubles and refused to give audiences the clear cut black and white moral that was the style at the time. You will feel something positive for some on both sides. Recommended. 8/10.

I'd like to front load this with positives. Given the subject matter it's no surprise that there is magic in this. Still it is very nice that there is so much of it and that it's handled so well. It's remarkably varied so it never gets old. There's also a very clear set of rules to it that are never violated even once. It has weight and presence rather than simply being a special effects display.

While it is never spectacular it does have arcs and anything that's set up early on is paid off on and further developed over the rest of it. For as often as the Cage goes mega elsewhere he never feels distracting here. Everyone is well cast and Molina is as usual great whenever he plays a villain. It's hard to say who's having more fun, him performing or us watching it.

This could easily get really annoying with the wish fulfillment romance of the dork ending up with the conventionally attractive love interest. Instead they make sure to underline that their connection has something to it. He genuinely does things that she wants and needs, and she is able to get him to come out of his shell. They make each other better and share things and these are good foundations to build long term relationships, romantic or otherwise.

The action is sufficiently plentiful without ending up numbing and tedious as happened with some of its kin. Really the only negative to that is the editing sometimes getting awkward and frenetic. Was there a requirement for exactly how many minutes this had to run and so they had to trim it down there because some individual who doesn't know what they're talking about thought that it would be a good idea to open this with a short scene packed with information that we're going to be told later on anyway when the protagonist is brought up to speed and it would have been so much more compelling if we didn't know until then? That would mean there was mystery for us as well as for him instead of us watching him play catch up.

Beyond that this is about what you would expect, certainly no more and not really any less either. This is based on when it was made as well as by whom. It is an exceedingly white and male movie. If you are not both of those things you are probably just there to support one of them. Perhaps you add exotic flavor, how nice for you. This despite acknowledging right away that not only are there women who can use the supernatural they in fact excel at it.

It would have been extremely easy for this to center on gender flipped versions of the leads and major characters. I am kind of amazed that this is not a complete mess and it does come down to how many talented people worked on it on both sides of the camera. It almost feels like a dare or a contractual obligation. We get it Disney; you want to make even more money off your animated classics so you're doing live action remakes of nearly all of them.

Even so, taking one segment from the original Fantasia and making something feature length out of it is genuinely ridiculous. Yes of course we all know and remember that bit. Even for the wall to wall fantastic stuff throughout that entire thing, that one is a standout. And they do a very similar thing here briefly.

With that said this bears little resemblance. Set in a contemporary city in America and add all the things I've already mentioned where it's completely different. If not for that one sequence in this and the title you might be forgiven for not realizing these two had anything to do with each other whatsoever.

The cg definitely does get pushed at least a little bit too far and ends up inside the uncanny valley. This does not really challenge the tropes and story structure of stuff like this. I appreciate that it's not that much of an insult to a movie made for 9 year olds that if you're above that age you can see where it's going. Even so, kids at that age do appreciate being challenged. Recommended. 7/10.

This one does properly conclude what was set up in dead reckoning. The mcu humor is toned back down to the levels we're used to from these. This does redo certain things most likely as homage. The nostalgia bait can definitely get aggressive, and it'll especially feel overwhelming if you haven't recently watched the first seven.

This has some really amazing acting from at least one performer and everyone is good or better. Like all the other sequels in this series this has at least one stunt sequence and multiple scenes of tension and suspense the top the ones that came before. The first hour of this is a tad slow and there are multiple prolonged bits of exposition dumping. Part of the issue is that it has to bring you up to speed on earlier ones as well as build something new. Recommended. 8/10.