Category: Daddy Mojo at the Movies

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is a very good movie. It’s a film that’s better than its predecessor, Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Frozen Empire starts with action and very rarely lets its foot off of the entertainment gas. These are important things to state from the get-go because the high hopes for Afterlife were, for the most part, met by audiences and critics. Thus, it’s surprising that Frozen Empire doesn’t fumble the franchise and manages to be a very entertaining film that will exceed the expectations of fans of the first and fourth entries. Moreover, even if you’ve never seen a Ghostbusters film, Frozen Empire is a solid film that delivers popcorn, and escapist fun that people go to the cinema for.

Who ya gonna call, Paul rudd to the rescue

The line between peanut butter and chocolate mixture is a fine one, isn’t it? I try to make chocolate, and peanut butter pretzels every December, and while edible, they always fall short of how perfect they should taste. Christmas horror films are like my erstwhile Reese’s concoction too; if there’s too much horror and gore then it will limit its audience, but if it aims for the funnier route then the jokes have to hit. There’s Something in the Barn has a great premise and nails the first hour; but then, akin to the cake that’s risen well up until the end, it falls just a bit flat.

It’s enjoyable, but we wanted more

Oppenheimer, the film by Christopher Nolan has usurped Russians from Dream of the Blue Turtles as the leading edge of cultural awareness for “father of the atomic bomb”. In that song, Sting flippantly introduced the subject as “Oppenheimer’s deadly toy”. In reality, his relationship was much more complex with nuclear weapons than that; but kudos to Sting for introducing a name to millions of folks who otherwise wouldn’t have heard it until now. Oppenheimer is a big film in the most Christopher Nolan manner possible. It’s a three-hour dramatic tour de force that grabs viewers by their shirt collars and maintains its grip for the vast majority of its run time.

You will remember the first time that you saw it

Why would I go see Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny a second time? Cult classics get better over time, a bad movie that’s just been released doesn’t need to be seen again. Let’s be clear, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is not a cult classic. However, my extended and immediate family loves the Indiana Jones character, and its 90 degrees outside, so what the heck. A second viewing of the film didn’t change my initial opinion of the film, but it certainly explained a couple of aspects regarding the character’s fandom.

Nostalgia bait, this time with family

Cinephiles will remember the time when a movie from a Steven King story all but doomed it to a less-than-entertaining experience. The cinematic world of Marvel Comics has had its own perilous journey. Comic book movies used to be pejorative, but then they reached a relatively consistent phase where they were dependably entertaining. MCU phases 1, 2 and 3 are great examples of that. Then came phase 4 and someone tinkered with the MCU script. While some movies in phase 4 made money, most of them fell far short of expectations and were marginally entertaining. Guardians of the Galaxy was a phase 2 film that defied what audiences expected from a comic book movie. It was weird, had characters that few people outside of the comic book world knew, and seemed out of place amongst a sea of mildly flawed spandex heroes. It was also refreshing. Now, with all of those headwinds spinning around us, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is upon us. Does it capture the MCU magic of old or continue the tedium that phase 3 established?

Don’t call it a comeback…ok, it’s a small comeback