Cyns-Corner

Technically, there's nothing glaringly wrong with Oh, Hi. The performances, pacing, and visual style are competent enough. But the film's core premise is not only absurd - it's deeply unsettling. A woman ties a man to a bed after a romantic weekend goes sideways, then refuses to untie him when she realizes they're not actually a couple. From there, it devolves into dark territory masked as quirky comedy. The writing relies on nonsense logic to keep the guy tied up (seriously, the comb thing?), and the film expects you to laugh at what amounts to non-consensual imprisonment. If the roles were reversed, this wouldn't even get greenlit, let alone marketed as funny. The fact that the audience was laughing at his situation made it even harder to sit through. By the time the movie ends with a cutesy "heart-to-heart" and no accountability, I was just done. Hard pass. Livestream discussion/review is available on my channel and a full video review will be available shortly as well.

7.5/10 STARS - Dangerous Animals was Regal's Monday mystery movie on May 26. It's about a serial killer who has an obsession with sharks. The opening scene sets up his character, giving us a little hint about why he is the way he is. Jai Courtney's performance in this scene and the entire moving was chilling in its convincing nature. When the switch flipped, revealing him to not be the easygoing, friendly shark tour guide he seemed to be, it was shocking in its swiftness. We are then introduced to the main character in the story, Zephyr, who is a loner living the van life and surfing every chance she can. She meets Moses, and there's an instant attraction between them but she takes off for an early-morning surf and that's when she gets taken (another scene that was startling when the moment happened, even though you KNEW it was coming). The rest of the movie is basically a survival tale and it flowed well. Dangerous Animals is only about an hour and a half, yet it felt SO much longer. I don't say that as a criticism, but to underscore its effectiveness in making the story SO intense that it feels longer than it really is (like my experience with Warfare). As the movie plays out, we find out more about both Zephyr and her captor and the things that make them similar to one another. Yet at the same time, what separates them. Despite some writing issues that happen in various parts (a character not seizing the upper hand fully when they have the chance, characters being able to bounce back too quickly after an significant injury, and sharks conveniently not attacking in certain moments), Dangerous Animals was a solid horror/thriller/suspense movie with an interesting premise and standout performances, especially by Jai Courtney. Video review will be available on my YouTube channel.

1.5/5 STARS - Karate Kid: Legends was lifeless, soulless, and felt like something written by an AI. The storyline was pretty much a repeat of the original Karate Kid, and while the attempt to meld together the "karate" style from the first one with the style from the 2010 movie introduced by Jackie Chan's character was interesting, as a whole this film falls flat. Hard. The main actor wasn't charismatic enough to carry the film as the lead and the storylines were predictable and lame. Some of the acting was okay (Joshua Jackson), but some of it simply was not (the ex-boyfriend "bully" character). There were multiple times I rolled my eyes at how shoehorned in some plot points were that came across as more cringe and annoying than anything else. I'm not sure why they decided to go with a story like this instead of just giving us a Cobra Kai movie. This was one huge miss - and it didn't have to be that way. Video review will be available on my YouTube channel.