Multiplex Madness
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
⭐️⭐️
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
Director: Gil Kenan
Starring: Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckeena Grace, Kumall Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, Celest O'Connor, Logan Kim, Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts
I'm pretty much resigned from the idea that Ghostbusters will ever be the great franchise that it probably had the potential to be. I let a lot of that attachment go when Harold Ramis passed away and it was clear that if the franchise came back, it would have to reconfigure itself. Which it did. Twice. Both with very, shall we say, colorful discourses about their approach. People will have their preferences as to whether the 2016 reboot or the legacy sequel Ghostbusters: Afterlife is a better movie, but it fully depends on what you'd like Ghostbusters to lean into. The 2016 sided pretty heavily into madcap slapstick comedy, and while it worked in places (and in others it failed miserably, but that's an entire other conversation that I won't get into, because that movie remains a hot button topic for some stupid reason), that's not what made the original Ghostbusters work. The first Ghostbusters was an apocalyptic fantasy movie that had comedy derived from the idea that blue-collar shlubs were the ones who stumbled into it and saved the day. It was very Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein in that manner. Afterlife was a closer approximation of this, though blending it with an homage to an Amblin-style rural kids fantasy is questionable, but that movie is better than it should be.
Afterlife wound up being the chosen route by Sony Pictures, and here we have Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, which takes place three years after Afterlife and now the Spengler family and their friends have taken up the mantel of Ghostbusters in New York City. Exactly how or why they did this is unknown, because they lived in Oklahoma and the last time I checked, the Ghostbusters business had been shut down for decades (not to mention ghosts only seem to break out when something apocalyptic is afoot, so business ebbs and flows anyway). I'm not even sure why they would want to be Ghostbusters, either. I get why Paul Rudd would, because he's a Gen X fan boy, but why is Carrie Coon here? I don't have any impression as to why this business would interest her. Why is she allowing her kids to do this? And now New York just happens to have a regular ghost problem again, after decades of not needing Ghostbusters? This is a lot to imply happened in between movies that Frozen Empire just waves off. But I digress, even though I'm ten minutes in and my inner screenwriter is pulling his hair out.
Accepting all of that, Frozen Empire sees the discovery of an orb that contains another demonic entity bent of spiritual chaos, which of course gets unleashed as the film goes on so the Ghostbusters can save the day. It's the Ghostbusters formula of the first two movies that Afterlife sidestepped, which could be a positive or a negative, depending on your point of view. On the plus side, this is a comfort food storyline that is adequately entertaining for Ghostbusters veterans, but it's also same-old-same-old for those who think the only good movie is the first one (or none at all, but those people probably shouldn't be watching the fifth Ghostbusters movie if they don't like Ghostbusters). The movie feels muted and through-the-motions, with a couple of inspired moments along the way. Mckenna Grace, who is the best thing to happen to this franchise since 1984, continues to shine, and she has a subplot with a ghost girl that is cute and charming. The movie's comedy is also successfully funny most of the time, it's just drowned out with mundaneness and pandering references. It's hard to pinpoint what exactly goes wrong with this movie, because elements of it feel like the correct ones, displaying a Ghostbusters movie that feels like it's what a Ghostbusters movie should be, but does so without much (if you'll pardon the pun) spirit. If you're going to coast for the ride, the movie will prove to be a solid, popcorn-munching time, but as the case for making more Ghostbusters movies, it doesn't really sell itself.
MST3K Cast Note: Patton Oswalt has a supporting role in this film.
Immaculate
⭐️⭐️
Genre: Horror
Director: Michael Mohan
Starring: Sydney Sweeney, Alvaro Morte, Benedetta Porcaroli, Dora Romano, Georgio Colangeli, Simona Tobasco
Sydney Sweeney stars as a nun who joins a special convent that tends to dying and mentally unstable nuns. This being a horror movie, there is of course a dark secret beneath all of this. There is a little bit of a "Stop me if you heard this one..." quality to this movie. I mean, scary things happen to a nun. This is hardly an original premise in horror, because a nun is a symbol of purity and they have a perfect antagonist in devilish devices. Immaculate is a movie that feels like it wants to be the most efficient example of this, but isn't quite up to the task. The movie is wildly inconsistent about what kind of horror movie it is, switching between psychological shocker, geek show body horror, and "Boo!" jump scares. The result is a boring movie that sometimes intrigues but often is just screaming at you. As the movie plays out, it becomes understandable as to why it would present itself this way, and while its final revelation is interesting, it doesn't really fall into justification for the horror around it. It's an unnerving idea, but there are extremities about everything surrounding it that feel like being grotesque for the sake of being grotesque. I mean, this is a convent, and they are openly doing horrible things with little thought or care. It seems you've probably lost the plot in your "service to God." I understand that this is the point, but it's also not a well developed one. It just becomes a movie where bad things are going on under a saintly roof because they feel like it, and that makes whatever promising aspects of the premise there may be feel like a lost cause.
Late Night with the Devil
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Horror
Director: Colin Cairnes, Cameron Cairnes
Starring: David Dastmalchian, Laura Gordon, Ian Bliss, Fayssal Bazzi, Ingrid Torelli, Rhys Auteri
This indie horror film had been riding hype waves for months (only to face backlash at the last minute after it was revealed that the filmmakers used AI art in the film), and it's finally hitting wide release for a small theatrical run before hitting Shudder in the near future. Late Night with the Devil gives David Dastmalchian a long overdue lead role as a late night talk show host who puts on a Halloween show devoted the supernatural. His special guests: a psychic, a skeptic, and a presumably possessed girl. It's a movie that hams it up with its late night influences, working hard with that comfort atmosphere of stale jokes and performative pandering only to unfold into something spookier as it goes. For the most part, the snowball effect works. It does an impressive job of balancing the campy and the intense, being both silly and earnest at the same time, though it tends to slip up in balancing the theatrical with the gritty. It might have done better if it had slowly let go of the former in favor of the latter toward the end, but it always seemed to have a death grip on keeping that talk show tone throughout. Because of that, the horror elements can have a hard time breaking through because the movie both wants to treat them seriously and unseriously at the same time, which feels like a missed opportunity to take such a comfort format and tear it to shreds. But the film is buoyed by a fabulous performance by Dastmalchian and young co-star Ingrid Torelli, which makes it a fun, spooky watch for a evening viewing.
Problemista
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Comedy
Director: Julio Torres
Starring: Tilda Swinton, Julio Torres, RZA, Greta Lee, Catalina Saavedra, James Scully
Writer/director/star Julio Torres is an aspiring toy designer who finds his work visa threatened but may find his only savior with eccentric artist Tilda Swinton, as he struggles to wrangle in her erratic behavior just to stay afloat. Torres creates a film through a lens of expressionistic imagination, as he infuses a lot of flourishes throughout the narrative based on how his main character feels through his inner anxiety. It's a film that gets off on its own quirkiness, and it can tend to overwhelm. That overwhelming nature is part of the point, because it metaphorically stands as a piece about how anxiety pushes itself on us during those days where we are uncertain about our lives. Tilda Swinton toes a line between being hilarious and infuriating, though it's practically a perfect performance. It's also the exact thing the movie needs to fully work, because of how large her personality is, fueling it's metaphor.
Netflix & Chill
Road House
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Streaming On: Prime
Genre: Action
Director: Doug Liman
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Daniela Melchior, Billy Magnussen, Jessica Williams, Joaquim de Almeida, Austin Post, Conor McGregor
Remaking Road House is a towering task. It's not like remaking a normal movie. Normally, there are certain qualities a film can have that makes it beloved, and while recreating them is challenging, there are ways to go about it that can create something fresh and enjoyable out of a new experience. Road House is different. The things people love about Road House are so unique to this one particular movie that is objectively awful, but so much fucking fun to watch. That movie is a perfect storm of machismo horseshit done in such a campy way creating a movie that you just sit in your seat, drinking a beer, and nodding to yourself "Yeah, fucking Road House, yeah."
Now we finally have a remake, which switches up the machismo horseshit with a different kind of machismo horseshit, turning Road House away from being a trasy 80's VHS classic and rejiggers it into something for the Fast & Furious generation. It's a pick your poison situation. Instead of Patrick Swayze, we're given Jake Gyllenhaal, who plays a former UFC fighter who is hired as a bouncer to chase off thugs who have been terrorizing a roadhouse in Florida, but sees the situation escalate when it links to a real estate scheme trying to shut the place down. The film downplays the original's camp value, but is very embrasive of its cheek. Surprisingly, this movie doesn't try to replicate any of Swayze's iconic one-liners, opting to give Gyllenhaal his own. Gyllenhaal's aren't as memorable, but he does keep the film upbeat and light. The action sequences are still laughably absurd, but done in a showier manner. These are things that might turn off a loyal Road House viewer, because the authentic Road House experience will always be the original. But I feel there is also a sect of Road House lovers who will accept that the original lives in the 80's, while this is pretty much what the modern Road House can and should be. I did feel like I went through the Road House wringer during this movie, which leads me to believe it's a success.
Movies Still Playing At My Theater
Arthur the King ⭐️⭐️
The Boy and the Heron ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Cabrini ⭐⭐
Dune: Part Two ⭐⭐1/2
Imaginary ⭐1/2
Kung Fu Panda 4 ⭐⭐1/2
Love Lies Bleeding ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Luca ⭐️⭐️⭐️
New To Digital
Bob Marley: One Love ⭐⭐1/2
Land of Bad ⭐⭐1/2
Coming Soon!
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