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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nMonsters, Inc. (2001)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Man, what a shame it would be, to be in a world with an energy crisis. Discover an alternative solution, only to find out corporate interest would be more willing to commit heinous atrocities before they lose an ounce of market value\u2026 right, Koch brothers? Putting aside the dark climate change metaphors the movie has, I do hold a soft spot for Monsters, Inc. <\/em>Even without the ahead of it\u2019s time messaging, Monsters, Inc. <\/em>is Pixar flexing their movie making chops. Great characters, creative world building and just an all around solid movie.<\/p>\n\n\n Baby Driver (2017)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I have said it a million times, and I will say it again: Edgar Wright does not miss.\u00a0 The amount of style that on display in Baby Driver<\/em> is incredible.\u00a0 This movie hit me right in that feral need to drive a million miles on an open highway with stereo at full volume.\u00a0 The film is just dripping with style and flare.\u00a0 While there is impressive car work in Wright\u2019s other films, like Hot Fuzz<\/em>, to watch him so comfortably direct this film like he was a Fast and Furious<\/em> director just showcases his directing chops.\u00a0 Yes, It is a shame Kevin Spacey is in this film, but I am not sure if the allegations came to light back in 2017.\u00a0 Nonetheless, if the rumors are true that Wright has been shopping around a script for Baby Driver 2, <\/em>I will be first in line to get a ticket.<\/p>\n\n\n Monkey Man<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I have to admit, I was really jet-lagged when I saw this film and fell asleep part way through.\u00a0 Monkey Man<\/em> was advertised as Bollywood John Wick<\/em>, and unfortunately this did not live up to that hype.\u00a0 Unlike John Wick, <\/em>a film that quickly covers John\u2019s backstory to allow us to get to the action, Monkey Man <\/em>doles out the Kid\u2019s backstory in a piece meal fashion.\u00a0 By shrouding our character in mystery, I don\u2019t have the same connection with him as I do John.\u00a0 The movie also feels like it is dragging its feet to get to the action.\u00a0 The first act contains our hero working various jobs just so he can reach higher floors of the club that he believes is connected to his tragic past.\u00a0 The second act is pretty similar, except he is training at some transvestite Hindu temple.\u00a0 There are a handful of good fight scenes in this film, and I certainly applaud Dev Patel for both acting and directing in his directorial debut.\u00a0 However, the film feels like having to force down a plate of poorly cooked vegetables just to get to a measly dessert.<\/p>\n\n\n Immaculate<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Religious horror fans, we need to talk.\u00a0 I understand why these movies get made.\u00a0 There is a lot of injustice and trauma surrounding the Catholic Church, it only feels natural people would make horror movies to deal with them.\u00a0 However, these movies have become so formulaic, they have become boring.\u00a0 I never get scared in these movies because I know where they are going.\u00a0 Immaculate<\/em> is a movie about Sydney Sweeney, who travels to a covenant in the Italian countryside, to become a nun.\u00a0 Despite the picturesque scenery, strange things start happening, including Sweeney\u2019s character having an immaculate conception.\u00a0 From there, tired Catholic-inspired jump scares happen over and over until the inevitable twist happens, and while I am tempted to spoil it, it’s honestly not even worth dedicating any more brain cells to this mind-numbing film.\u00a0 Fans of religious horror, you should really start standing up for yourself and demand these movies actually try something new.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n Love Lies Bleeding<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n One part crime family drama, another part steroid monster movie, Loves Lies Bleeding<\/em> is a film about gym manager, Lou, falling for a bodybuilder named Jackie.\u00a0 The two form a relationship that is continuously tested by Lou\u2019s drug empire family and Jackie\u2019s newly formed addiction to steroids.\u00a0 I would say Love Lies Bleeding <\/em>is a solid feather in A24\u2019s brimming hat.\u00a0 Even with an ending that didn\u2019t exactly fit the grounded nature of the film, I still enjoyed and would recommend this lesbian love story.<\/p>\n\n\n The First Omen<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I swear, I am getting d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu, and I am not just saying this because I saw Immaculate<\/em> in the same month.\u00a0 The First Omen<\/em> is another religious-inspired horror film that follows the same plot as Immaculate<\/em> so closely, I think one of them was copying each other\u2019s homework.\u00a0 It is more likely these two movies felt the same because these movies only have one speed.\u00a0 Some people might enjoy this as it is a prequel to The Omen<\/em>, but for me, that just makes it feel more lazy.\u00a0 Can we just retire the tired trope of these religious horror movies?\u00a0 Please stop writing stories of young nuns going to monasteries only to go on a jump scare safari.\u00a0 Exercise some creativity in displaying your traumatic history with the Catholic Church.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n Drive (2011)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n As I watched Drive<\/em>, I couldn\u2019t escape the idea that the plot feels like it was written by a seven-year-old: first he robs banks, now he\u2019s a stuntman, now he\u2019s a race car driver, now he\u2019s back to being a getaway drive, and finally he\u2019s a gangster.\u00a0 I understand life can throw you a lot of curveballs, and films will do their best to showcase this.\u00a0 However, Drive<\/em> feels like it is driving from plot point to plot point while Ryan Gosling keeps a straight face.\u00a0 Despite my mocking tone, I won\u2019t say this is a bad or lazy film.\u00a0 Drive<\/em> certainly feels like one of those films you have to really chew on to get the full meaning out of.\u00a0 If you like those movies that cause you to go down the YouTube rabbit hole of video essays on movies, I imagine Drive<\/em> gives you the perfect jumping off point.<\/p>\n\n\n Hundreds of Beavers<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n If someone were to take a black and white silent comedy from the 1920s and blend it together with the antics of the Looney Tunes<\/em>, Hundreds of Beavers<\/em> would be pouring out of the blender.\u00a0 <\/em>This wacky film is about an applejack salesman who loses his whole operation and is forced into a life of fur trapping during a brutal winter.\u00a0 From there, hi jinx ensue as Hundreds of Beavers<\/em> pulls out every slapstick trick in the comedy book that Bugs Bunny wrote.\u00a0 While I didn\u2019t watch many Saturday morning cartoons as a kid, I imagine Hundreds of Beavers,<\/em> captures that same energy.\u00a0 Definitely check out this movie; this film will put a smile on your face.<\/p>\n\n\n Arcadian<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I wonder what you do when you land Nicolas Cage in a movie like this.\u00a0 I was excited to see Arcadian<\/em>, a movie about Nic Cage and his two sons defending their home from an enemy that strikes in the dead of night.\u00a0 Unfortunately, Cage is pretty underutilized in this film.\u00a0 It feels more like a Walking Dead<\/em> clone, focused on the two son\u2019s teenage drama.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think the two young actors did a bad job, but I feel like I would rewrite the script to include more of Nic Cage if my movie was able to land such a big name.\u00a0 Cage spends most of this film laying in bed after sustaining an injury trying to protect one of his sons, who stayed out too late and fell into the monster\u2019s den.\u00a0 The monsters are kinda unimpressive as well.\u00a0 They are supposed to be these long, lanky black wolf-like creatures, but thanks to the power of modern CGI, they move too fast and appear more like streaks of black paint.\u00a0 The only real memorable moment was when they grouped up to form a wheel and rolled down the street; which was definitely more funny than scary.\u00a0 If you are looking for a Nicolas Cage horror film, go check out Color Out of Space<\/em> or wait for Longlegs <\/em>to come out in July.<\/p>\n\n\n Civil War<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I will confess to openly mocking this movie before I saw it.\u00a0 The concept seemed so ridiculous, I would believe the Skinamarink demon took over someone\u2019s house before I believe in a California-Texas team up.\u00a0 So how did Alex Garland pull this off?\u00a0 By making Nick Offerman\u2019s President character resemble Lex Luthor instead of Ron Swanson and not focusing too much on the political alliance of two radically opposite states.\u00a0 The President committed so many atrocities on domestic soil, two of our larger states had no choice but to band together.\u00a0 While I wish Civil War dug a little deeper into the horrors the President committed, it does paint the Texas-California alliance as a last ditch effort to defend democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fortunately, Civil War<\/em> doesn\u2019t linger too long on our star team-up.\u00a0 The film mainly follows four reporters’ road trip from New York to Washington in an attempt to capture the final moments of the President\u2019s reign.\u00a0 Civil War<\/em> not only paints a picture of a war torn USA, but also illustrates the deadly life of journalists who cover the wars that take place on our small little rock.\u00a0 With scenes highlighting how people will take advantage of the confusion during a war, Civil War<\/em> feels more like a cautionary tale; warning us that we might be headed down this path if we don\u2019t work together to mend some bridges we have destroyed.\u00a0 I walked in skeptical, and walked out a bit hopeful.<\/p>\n\n\n Boy Kills World<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I always get excited when H. Jon Benjamin is involved in a project.\u00a0 Very few actors can nail the arrogance of a character like Archer and still capture the defeatist tone of Bob from Bob\u2019s Burgers,<\/em> and H. Jon Benjamin does it all with just his voice.\u00a0 So when I hear about Boy Kills World<\/em>, a movie about a deaf, mute man looking to get revenge on the crime family who murdered his own family, you could say they had my curiosity.\u00a0 However, when they reveal they got H. Jon Benjamin to be his inner monologue, you can say they have my attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, Boy Kills World<\/em> commits two cardinal sins from the Doomsayer\u2019s Guide to Good Movies.\u00a0 The first one is the shaky cam.\u00a0 Yes, Boy Kills World<\/em> describes itself as a fever dream of an action film; some people might say this cartoon-like style justifies the use of shaky cam.\u00a0 I, on the other hand, do not agree nor will ever feel shaky cam is warranted.\u00a0 It just screams we didn\u2019t have the budget for a proper fight choreographer.\u00a0 It can\u2019t escape feeling cheap, and you can thank The Matrix<\/em> and the John Wick<\/em> movies for this opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second, I just thought the twist was really weak.\u00a0 To me, a good twist will leave enough bread crumbs for the twist to feel earned.\u00a0 It should also change how you view the film on a second viewing, knowing the twist; see either of the Knives Out<\/em> films for an example of this.\u00a0 Boy Kills World<\/em>\u2019s twist doesn\u2019t really do either of these.\u00a0 Halfway through the movie, I initially guessed part of the twist.\u00a0 I shrugged it off, saying they couldn\u2019t possibly be teeing up this twist; it was just too obvious.\u00a0 So naturally, when someone turned out to be connected to our protagonist and friends suddenly become enemies, my eyes couldn\u2019t help but do backflips in my skull.\u00a0 Boy Kills World<\/em> is certainly not a bad action film, but with the sea of action films out there, I am more likely not picking up this one.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A rapid fire review of movies I saw in April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-opinion","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2206"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2221,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2206\/revisions\/2221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/BD-1024x576.jpeg\")
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