Eight years after Moana made a splash at Walt Disney Animation Studios, we’re back with Moana 2. This sequel sees the return of Moana, the daughter of a village chief, who sets sail on another adventure to break a curse on the island. The first film was a smash hit, and this movie had a lot to live up to. However, Disney sequels rarely reach the quality of their predecessors; Frozen II and Ralph Breaks the Internet are two recent examples. Moana 2 is a safe, well-crafted sequel that never quite reaches the heights of the original.

It’s an uphill battle to compare sequels to their originals, but it becomes inevitable when the 2016 Moana film garnered such a lasting cultural impact. On its own, Moana 2 is an entertaining experience. There’s so much fun to be had with animated adventures, and this movie makes full use of it. Animals like Pua and Heihei can emote so much in animation, which leads to hilarious moments (keep this in mind for when the live-action Moana remake comes out). This movie offers high-quality belly laughs and excellent moments with characters you love watching.

This film brings back our leading players, including Auli’i Cravalho as Moana. She brings so much ferocity to this character and steps back in seamlessly. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson stars in his second November 2024 movie after Red One. Johnson failed to impress in that film, but he is excellent as Maui. The first Moana has always been one of my favorite movies and performances of his. He brings all his charisma to this role once again, and he’s typically at his best when directors allow him to be funny. Johnson’s handling of comedy is superb in both Moana movies.

But Moana 2 also introduces new characters. Rose Matafeo plays Loto, a quirky member of Moana’s crew who brings brains and perfectionism to the team. David Fane portrays a grumpy farmer named Kele. Hualālai Chung plays perhaps my favorite new character, Moni, a superfan of Maui. All of these characters get funny moments, and they’re all different and quirky enough to round out Moana’s ragtag wayfinding crew. The only new character that feels out of place is Matangi (Awhimai Fraser), who appears to be a threat near the film’s beginning but is almost entirely forgotten about halfway through. She does not play an important enough role to justify having a song, and she feels like a character designed to have more development in a sequel or spin-off.

Speaking of songs, Moana 2 lacks the memorability of the first film. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s presence is sorely missed. The songs in this movie are written by Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, two talented musicians known for The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical. Their work here is acceptable, and “Beyond” might be the best song on this soundtrack. But most of the music in this movie is forgettable, with none reaching the heights of “How Far I’ll Go” or “You’re Welcome.” Johnson gets a song in this movie that reminded me more of “it’s about drive, it’s about power” than anything else.

The adventure Moana and her crew go on is fraught with danger. The film features a few scary monster designs, and it gets to build action sequences around how our characters face off against them. There is fun to be had here, even if it doesn’t feel like there are many more places for Moana and Maui to grow as characters. They worked well together in the first movie, and that continues here. Moana 2 continuously proves to be a safe sequel that doesn’t take any risky swings but doesn’t disappoint you with poor quality.

It doesn’t have the same emotional pull as the first, but the story works surprisingly well. This movie was initially supposed to be a TV series for Disney+, but it was repurposed into a feature film earlier this year. It’s not easy to tell where the episode breaks would be, and it deserves to be experienced on a big screen. Sequels are not always easy for Disney to pull off, but this is one of their better ones. Directors David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, and Dana Ledoux Miller all manage to bring together a singular creative voice that lends itself to a very watchable Moana sequel.

While Moana 2 may not reach the unreachable heights of its predecessor, this movie offers enough laughs and visual spectacle for the whole family. The animation is astounding, and everyone on this project brings passion and life to a long-overdue sequel.

SCORE: 7/10

As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 7 equates to “Good.” A successful piece of entertainment that is worth checking out, but it may not appeal to everyone.

Disclosure: ComingSoon attended a press screening for our Moana 2 review.

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Prepare to be entertained by Gladiator II. Director Ridley Scott crafts a sequel to his iconic 2000 film starring Russell Crowe. This movie stars Paul Mescal as Lucius Verus, a young boy from the first film, now grown and sold into slavery to become a gladiator in the Roman Colosseum. Few films have gained the love and respect that Gladiator has had over the years, so a sequel is no easy task. While this movie is not as good as the first, it remains a thrilling swords-and-sandals epic that delivers on nearly every level.

I want to remind the world that Ridley Scott is 86 years old. He directs with a prowess unheard of for many directors in their 30s. He’s had his hits and misses, but his work has always looked splendid. Gladiator II is no exception. The film opens with an action set piece brimming with energy and violence. The battles and violence were always a highlight of the first Gladiator film, and this movie improves on the first in a few regards. Not only are we back in a world of incredibly exciting battle sequences, but Scott films them beautifully and with superb clarity at every moment.

Mescal has recently turned in excellent performances in Aftersun, All of Us Strangers, and Normal People. He gets his turn here to become a true movie star in a high-budget blockbuster. As Lucius, Mescal showcases many of his dramatic chops here. It’s challenging to fill the shoes of Russell Crowe in his prime, but Mescal comes pretty close. Maximus Decimus Meridius is one of the most engaging protagonists ever put to screen, and Lucius gets to step up as a successor of sorts. He has very compelling moments, particularly towards the final act of the film.

But the standout here is Denzel Washington. He’s been commanding the big screen for decades. When the first Gladiator movie came out, he had already won an Oscar and was headlining huge movies. Scott, who had worked with Washington on 2007’s American Gangster, brings him into this world perfectly. Washington steals the show with a performance that allows him to have fun, be charismatic, and get us to root against him. He’s a political puppeteer manipulating the people around him to get his way, and it’s captivating to watch.

Perhaps an issue with Gladiator II is that unlike the first movie, which was primarily driven forward by Maximus’s drive for vengeance, this sequel does not have one clear focus. Early on, Lucius loses someone close to him, sparking a similar thirst for revenge against another character. But as the movie progresses, his goal begins to shift. Unlike in the first movie, where Maximus is at the forefront of nearly everything, Lucius can be overshadowed by the other characters and events around him. When you have Washington as the supporting character, it’s hard not to put nearly all your focus on him.

The first movie also made the smart move to quickly make the audience hate Joaquin Phoenix’s character early on so that we’d root for his death. In Gladiator II, we have a lot of antagonistic forces, but none that feel as compelling. Pedro Pascal’s character appears to be an antagonist near the beginning, but the script quickly humanizes him. The main antagonists are twin emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger). While they’re formidable villains, their connection to the protagonist is less personal. And even though Macrinus is no saint, Washington portrays the character with so much magnetism that you can’t help but like him until you can’t.

Despite the issues, Gladiator II provides a better experience than nearly any movie this year. The story has many moving parts, but David Scarpa’s screenplay retains full clarity and focus. Every moment feels meaningful, and every moment is engaging. While the action sequences are a highlight, every dialogue scene has superb writing and direction, allowing you to engage with each character, their goals, and their conflicts. The movie references the first film perfectly, allowing the events of that movie to inform everything in this one. It follows many story beats similar to the first one while allowing most of the film to feel new.

There’s also the fact that Gladiator II is the kind of movie that we rarely see anymore. Films set in this era are rare because the first Gladiator set the blueprint for it. Scott is back, firing on all cylinders with a film that could have been made in the early 2000s. Even the phenomenal cinematographer John Mathieson returned to helm this film. From action sequences filled with kinetic energy to powerful performances, Gladiator II makes its mark as a must-see movie of 2024. Action-packed, thrilling, and a must for fans of the original film.

SCORE: 8/10

As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 8 equates to “Great.” While there are a few minor issues, this score means that the art succeeds at its goal and leaves a memorable impact.

Disclosure: ComingSoon attended a press screening for our Gladiator II review.

The post Gladiator II Review: You Will Be Entertained appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.

Don’t be offended by my frank analysis: Wicked is the best movie musical of 2024.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve lived a block away from the Gershwin Theatre. For the past 21 years, that theatre has been home to Wicked, a revisionist retelling of The Wizard of Oz featuring new, incredible music. Now, a movie adaptation is hitting the big screen from director Jon M. Chu. Starring Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande-Butera as Galinda, this film takes us back down the yellow brick road for a new story set mostly before Dorothy Gale ever arrived in Oz with the Lion, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow.

Wicked is a must-see cinematic event. This is the film musical theatre lovers have long pined for. Chu is a musical maestro, having already proven himself on In the Heights. He provides excellent direction for Stephen Schwartz’s music, matching it with well-choreographed dance numbers and enough camera movements and editing to take full advantage of the cinematic medium.

A standout sequence in the film is set at a party. It inspires chills as you watch the way the characters’ relationships evolve through dance. We see each of their vulnerabilities and we learn that there is more to all of them than meets the eye. Erivo and Grande’s performances also really take shape here. Erivo brings a lot of emotional gravitas to her role as the protagonist. She’s an easy character to sympathize with, always being looked at and judged for the color of her skin. The film expertly weaves in themes of racial discrimination, an idea that fits perfectly with these characters.

Grande-Butera is a stellar casting choice. With a casting choice like this, you run the risk of someone putting their star persona all over the role. But that’s not the case here. You can feel how much Grande-Butera cares about Galinda and wants to service the character, not herself. She’s magnificent in this film. Not only does she showcase her powerful vocals early on, but she plays Galinda with so much charm.

Galinda is not an easy character to like. She comes into conflict with Elphaba early on and she’s quickly shown to be shallow and self-absorbed. They have a loathing for each other at first, but they soon form a strong bond despite remaining opposites in personality. Grande-Butera’s comedic timing is on point. She’s very funny in this movie, which works as a contrast to Erivo’s likable but more multilayered, sentimental performance. Erivo and Grande-Butera both do a splendid job of bringing emotion into their fantastic vocals.

Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum are also wonderful additions. Yeoh has a natural presence that can be warm, authoritative, and frightening. Chu reunites with her after Crazy Rich Asians, and they work very well together. While their performances are excellent, their musical numbers are weak, as neither have singing voices near the level of Erivo and Grande. Jonathan Bailey has a standout musical number with “Dancing Through Life,” and he manages to have chemistry with everyone on screen as the handsome Fiyero. He’s fiercely flirtatious and fun to watch.

Unfortunately, one of the weakest elements of the film is the cinematography. Wicked has a $145 million production budget and phenomenally constructed sets, but Alice Brooks’s cinematography can be hard to look at. When you compare this to our trip to Oz in 1939, it’s like night and day. The Wizard of Oz is saturated, colorful, and vibrant. While Wicked has vibrant performances (especially with Bowen Yang), the color palette is uninteresting and desaturated. While backlighting has enhanced many images in film, it almost ruins certain shots in this film because of how blown out the backgrounds can appear.

Although Wicked has a few well-shot scenes, the lighting often makes every image look flat. Musical numbers like “The Wizard and I” have fun moments but end in an empty field with no interesting texture. But the movie’s standout musical number, which people will remember, is “Defying Gravity.” The final act of Wicked is powerful, especially with how it plays with what Elphaba wants. The stakes, action, and danger are raised significantly, and it’s thrilling. Chu and Stephen Schwartz add enough to the songs to make it feel like a proper finale while still leaving us begging for more.

Wicked is a show-stopper sure to make any musical lover happy. It adds a lot to the stage production, fleshing out characters and making you laugh and cry.

SCORE: 8/10

As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 8 equates to “Great.” While there are a few minor issues, this score means that the art succeeds at its goal and leaves a memorable impact.

Disclosure: ComingSoon attended a press screening for our Wicked review.

The post Wicked Review: A Wonderful Musical That Defies Gravity appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.

Hugh Grant has had an incredible career. He’s the face of iconic romantic comedies like Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones‘s Diary, and Love Actually. However, he’s rebuilt himself as a character actor, and whether he’s an Oompa-Loompa in Wonka or Tony the Tiger in Unfrosted, he’s always entertaining to watch. He’s no stranger to villains, having played them in Paddington 2, Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and Operation Fortune. Now, he plays a Heretic in a brilliantly crafted horror thriller from A24.

Heretic begins with two Mormon girls, played by Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East, going door to door trying to tell everyone about their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The dialogue is excellent, sensitively portraying them as a bit out of touch from people of other denominations as they discuss topics like pornography and sex. The screenplay only works because it doesn’t judge the characters; other characters judge them, and we have small moments with them to see not only their friendship but how stuff like The Book of Mormon affected them.

When the Sisters knock on the door of Mr. Reed, who mentions having a wife with a blueberry pie baking in the oven, they enter his home. However, as Mr. Reed begins to challenge their beliefs, the girls begin to realize they may never leave. The film makes a bold choice to not begin as a horror film. Too many horror movies are too apprehensive about easing their way into horror, leading to many films starting with a scary cold open. But Heretic takes its time, not being hasty with a single moment. It spends its time with Mr. Reed, setting him up as a charming, personable man. He’s kind on the surface and easy for the girls to talk to.

But he doesn’t stay that way for long. It’s always fun to see a movie star really throw himself into a villainous role where he gets to chew on the scenery. Grant seems to be having a blast. He doesn’t play this character like a villain; at a post-screening Q&A, he mentioned that he approached playing Mr. Reed like a nice college professor and studied real-life serial killers who used their charm as a weapon. He is marvelous in this film. There are times where you forget he’s supposed to be the villain, not only due to his performance, but also because his dialogue paints out a unique, layered perspective that questions the idea of organized religion. Some audience members may find themselves agreeing with his point of view.

But it’s a reasonably balanced film. Sister Barnes (played by Thatcher) challenges his point of view as much as he challenges them. The film is less concerned with being a consistently thrilling horror movie filled with jump scares, instead wanting you to ponder further on the messages. Heretic is a twisted, demented look at what happens when two religious Mormons come face to face with someone who is the antithesis of their beliefs. There’s also a sense of humor that works surprisingly well. Grant isn’t just giving a “dark and scary” performance. He’s hilarious in this film.

Scott Beck and Bryan Woods try something new with this intricate, thought-provoking film. They’re perhaps best known for their script for the original A Quiet Place, where they proved their ability to create a simple concept with powerful thrills and emotion. This dynamic duo has experimented with superficial sci-fi thrills in 65, the mid-2010s found footage trend with Nightlight, and a Stephen King adaptation with the underrated 2023 movie The Boogeyman. Heretic manages to feel different from everything we’ve seen from them before, and their work here is stellar.

The way that Heretic incorporates humor into the mix is quite ingenious. There are a lot of concepts that can be hard to break through. At times, it does feel like Mr. Reed is a professor giving a long lecture. A movie that lectures you could be exhausting, but the script makes it approachable by drawing parallels between religion and Monopoly. There are a few more parallels that Mr. Reed draws to other places, and everything feels informative, but it is also wonderfully dark because of the circumstances of the situation.

One of the only issues with Heretic is how it can sometimes immerse itself too much in its philosophical ideas that it does not push the characters to dark enough places. While there are emotional elements throughout, it feels a bit too surface-level. The film spends a lot of time with Mr. Reed attempting to demonstrate a “miracle” for the Sisters, but it could have benefitted from going down a route that more actively pushed the characters into physical danger. Although the movie contains at least one excellent jump scare, Heretic revels in its claustrophobia and feeling of dread. With superb performances and a sharp screenplay from Beck and Woods, Heretic is a sinfully good time at the movies.

SCORE: 7/10

As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 7 equates to “Good.” A successful piece of entertainment that is worth checking out, but it may not appeal to everyone.

Disclosure: ComingSoon attended a press screening for our Heretic review.

The post Heretic Review: Blasphemously Brilliant Horror Thriller appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. From Amazon MGM Studios comes Red One, a festive film starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as a very tough guy (hard to believe, I know). He plays Callum Drift, head of North Pole security for Saint Nicholas (J.K. Simmons), known as the only Santa Claus. When Santa gets kidnapped right before Christmas Eve, Callum must team up with hacker Jack O’Malley (Chris Evans) to save Christmas. This is one of the most ridiculous movies I’ve seen in a long time, and I’m struggling to figure out how to feel about it.

This film features a new take on Santa and his workshop. Rather than a chubby old man with tiny, hard-working elves, Santa is a muscular old man with an even more muscular bodyguard. Callum is part of E.L.F., an organization that supports Santa. These ideas are strange but novel. The world is familiar, yet insane. Everyone in the North Pole is filled with testosterone. The movie could have had a lot of fun with this concept, but it never does. Much of this movie is directed like a serious Jason Bourne-esque action thriller.

While Red One has no shortage of colorful, fantastical creatures to entertain, that’s as far as it gets. This movie feels like a Christmas take on Men In Black, where The Rock’s character serves as a Tommy Lee Jones/Agent K stand-in. Callum has been in the business for centuries and has become jaded by the adults he feels are running Christmas. Johnson’s performance provides the same type of stoicism he provided in Black Adam. He’s stern, seasoned, and experienced with all of the technology that runs the North Pole.

Evans plays a foil to The Rock. Jack is a level-four Naughty Lister caught up in the plot to get Santa back. After a decade of playing the goody-two-shoes Captain America, Evans has seemed to enjoy his return to playing scoundrels like Johnny Storm and Lucas Lee. He’s playing another morally reprehensible character, but at his core is the same characterization they gave to every male protagonist in the ’90s: the absent father who needs to spend more time with his kid around Christmastime. His relationship with his young son Dylan makes him watchable. He is also entering the world and reacting to the absurdity, making him the Will Smith/Agent J of this premise.

Red One wants to pull some mileage from the buddy-cop dynamic between them. Because of their differences, there is some chemistry and banter, but it does not ultimately go anywhere meaningful. They are an acceptable pair, but the film could have benefitted from more scenes showing how well they work together despite their differences. We see this briefly, but there should have been more to make them a memorable team. Beyond their dynamic, the concept and world of Red One are hilarious, but the movie does not have enough funny comedy to make anything out of the setting.

It’s strange to see how seriously the movie takes everything. There are very serious scenes that give us an idea of how disillusioned Callum has become, but we can’t have a serious scene where dialogue starts with lines like, “Santa would always say…” The movie knows it’s a ridiculous film, but it also tries to play too many moments with self-seriousness rather than fully embracing a comedic tone. It wants to be an epic blockbuster, but it’s too absurd. For example, we’ll have these scenes next to scenes where Callum and Jack battle giant evil snowmen, complete with carrot noses.

While watching Red One, you may struggle to believe this is a real movie. One of the most incredulous aspects of this film is its $250 million production budget. It’s genuinely insane that this movie cost that much money because many moments, particularly during the exterior daytime scenes, look flat. Even the action sequences are underwhelming because many of them look like digital characters doing over-the-top actions in a digital environment. You don’t buy into everything that’s happening. The action is acceptable while you watch it, but there isn’t anything that sticks out above anything else you’ve seen from other better movies.

Red One also features familiar character beats and a perfectly disposable villain. Much of Johnson’s dialogue feels like first-draft dialogue. His one-liners have no inventiveness, which is a shame because Christmas action movies have worked well for decades. Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, and even the recent Violent Night have done wonders for the genre. Instead, this movie borrows heavily from Ant-Man, with Callum’s technology mirroring Ant-Man’s very closely. This film would have worked if it leaned more into the humor, but it doesn’t muster up more than the occasional chuckle, mainly with Evans responding to the insanity surrounding him. Beyond that, Red One won’t be the Christmas classic it hopes to be.

SCORE: 5/10

As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 5 equates to “Mediocre.” The positives and negatives wind up negating each other, making it a wash.

Disclosure: ComingSoon attended a press screening for our Red One review.

The post Red One Review: Outrageous But Ineffective Christmas Schlock appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.

Robert Zemeckis is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re gonna get. Here is a drama movie gift-wrapped with potential. With Zemeckis as director, a screenplay from Eric Roth, Tom Hanks, and Robin Wright headlining the cast, a musical score from Alan Silvestri, cinematography from Don Burgess, and costumes from Johanna Johnston, this movie features the same creative team as 1994’s Forrest Gump. There’s something poetic about how, 30 years after Zemeckis made one of my favorite movies of all time, he reunited his old team to make a new movie that also spans decades.

Unfortunately, Here is a middling, disappointing movie that never brings its premise anywhere meaningful. It’s tough to compare this film to something like Forrest Gump, but getting back the same creative team leads to inevitable comparisons. Even without bringing that film into the conversation, this movie is a mixed bag. There’s an excellent concept here, as the camera stays in one fixed position throughout the runtime. We have scenes dating back to the age of the dinosaurs, the asteroid that wiped them out, the Native Americans that once lived there, the creation of American civilization, and we have the family we spend the most amount of time with, featuring a love story between Richard (Hanks) and Margaret (Wright).

It’s an astonishing feat of filmmaking that makes audiences feel like a fly on the wall. It’s based on Richard McGuire’s graphic novel, and there are many moments where Zemeckis allows the visuals to create panels as if we’re looking at images straight out of the novel. The concept encourages us to reevaluate our relationship with our place. As you sit or stand here reading this review, you exist in a place with thousands of years of history. Here makes you think about what a place could have looked like 100 years ago or will look like 100 years from now.

Zemeckis’s career is filled with big swings. I’m eternally grateful to him for making my favorite movie of all time, Back to the Future. He has spent his career pushing the envelope in visual effects, using performance capture in films like The Polar Express and Welcome to Marwen and putting hand-drawn animation into live-action footage in films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

This movie is not his best work. It uses generative A.I. to face swap and de-age the actors, which is a new technological innovation that allows de-aging to occur in real-time rather than in post. It looks on par with other de-aging effects but can sometimes be distracting. There’s a scene where I looked at Hanks and Wright for a whole scene, believing they were, at best, in their early 30s. When the dialogue revealed they were supposed to be high schoolers, my suspension of disbelief broke.

Beyond that, while putting the camera in one place for the entire film is a fascinating concept, it puts the characters at arm’s length. But it can feel at times like watching a stage play where everything is happening a little too far away for you to feel the powerful emotions the way you can in film. That’s not to say there are no stage plays that can stir powerful emotions. The issue with Here extends beyond that. Each scene ends a bit too quickly. Every moment feels far too fleeting to leave a strong impact.

The decision to have a nonlinear structure spanning centuries ends up more detrimental than helpful. There are moments where it feels like we’re right about to get invested in the conflicts between Richard, Margaret, and Richard’s father, Al (Paul Bettany). But right when you almost care, the film cuts away to some scene set decades ago about a guy who creates a La-Z-Boy chair or a romance between two Native Americans.

Here is too overstuffed with subplots that never amount to anything of value. The film continuously shows you scenes of characters you never feel connected to. It would be different if each scene made you laugh, cry, or at least get invested in their pain and struggles. But imagine this: what if you watched your neighbors through a window for about 30 seconds? And what if you never saw them again, and then you did the same thing again in a few years? You watch them again and see they haven’t changed much since the last time. That is not interesting. You don’t feel like you know them as people by doing this. You’re just getting brief glimpses of them.

Here is a movie that doesn’t amount to or say anything. There is not enough conflict to justify this film. Even the performances can sometimes feel too staged. There’s beauty in the idea that so much life happens in one place. There are humorous moments, but they’re few and far between. It’s a premise that could have gotten you to care so much about the people living in this film, but you don’t. It doesn’t build to anything, instead feeling like a long, nonlinear montage. The scenes should have been longer, and nothing separates our main couple from other couples in other films. Nothing makes them unique. We don’t get a sense of who they are beyond one character trait they have.

While the production design and musical score from Alan Silvestri are superb, and the movie never bores you or overstays its welcome, Here is a disappointing movie that has a lot of talent behind the camera but not much else beneath the surface.

SCORE: 5/10

As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 5 equates to “Mediocre.” The positives and negatives wind up negating each other, making it a wash.

The post Here Review: Visually Striking, Meaningless Melodrama appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.

On October 29, 2004, the original Saw movie was released in theaters, launching one of the most well-known modern horror franchises. It’s been 20 years since the film’s release, and audiences are still talking about the twist ending. The film ended with John Kramer, the “dead” body lying on the bathroom floor for the entire movie, standing up as he is revealed to be the true Jigsaw killer. He stands and leaves Adam (portrayed by Whannell) in the bathroom to bleed out and die.

Leigh Whannell, who wrote the screenplay for the original Saw, attended BlumFest at New York Comic Con 2024 to promote his upcoming horror movie, Wolf Man. ComingSoon asked him about his thoughts on the ending on the film’s 20th anniversary.

Leigh Whannell talks about iconic Saw ending

“You know when I wrote that first Saw movie, and I was working in conjunction with James Wan, we were back in Australia, [and] both of us knew we had something special,” he recalls. “Now, we didn’t necessarily know it was gonna be some big box office success, but we knew that anyone who saw it would react. There’s no better feeling in the world to be like, ‘oh, I’m sitting on top of something right now. I have a secret.’ And when I was writing the ending, it was just flowing outta my fingers. ‘Cause I was like, ‘this is gonna work.’”

The film premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival to positive reviews at three packed midnight showings.

“Seeing that ending affect people was one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever experienced in my life, especially in a movie theater,” Whannell says. “Of all the films I’ve been involved in. Watching the ending of Saw with an audience was the craziest thing ever. I could get goosebumps now just thinking about it.”

The post Leigh Whannell Reflects on the Saw Ending 20 Years Later appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.

Wolf Man director Leigh Whannell hopes his new movie has a lasting impression on audiences.

Universal Pictures’ plan for a shared cinematic franchise of Universal Monsters called the Dark Universe fizzled out after the terrible performance 2017 Tom Cruise film The Mummy. Since then, the franchise has shifted gears towards more standalone ventures, such as Renfield, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, and Abigail. One of their most significant financial and critical successes was The Invisible Man, back in 2020.

That film grossed $144.5 million against a $7 million budget, which likely played a small role in Blumhouse bringing Whannell back for another Universal Monsters adaptation: Wolf Man.

Whannell attended BlumFest at New York Comic Con 2024 to promote his upcoming movie. ComingSoon asked him about what to expect.

How will Wolf Man impact audiences?

“I hope that they love it,” Whannell says. “I hope they’re scared. I hope that they’re emotional about it. So, I want it to be a tragedy. I want it to be emotional. I also want it to scare the shit out of them. You know, I want people to see it in theaters.”

Whannell spoke about the importance of creating a cinematic experience wholly unique to movie theaters. “How do you get people into theaters?” Whannell asks. “You know, how do you turn something into a phenomenon? You know, like, it’s tough. It’s tough to make a Top Gun or a Barbie, you know, these, these movies that really get moviegoers into theaters. It’s getting to be a smaller target than ever. So I really hope Wolf Man connects on that level.”

“Family man Blake relocates from San Francisco to Oregon with his workaholic wife Charlotte and daughter Ginger after inheriting his childhood home, left vacant following his estranged father’s mysterious disappearance and presumed death,” reads the official synopsis. “At the farmhouse, the family is attacked by a werewolf that claws Blake’s arm. They barricade themselves inside the home, but soon Blake begins to transform, jeopardizing the safety of his wife and daughter.”

Wolf Man arrives in theaters on January 17, 2025.

The post Wolf Man: Director Leigh Whannell Wants to ‘Scare the S—‘ Out of Audiences appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.

Moana 2 directors Dana Ledoux Miller, Jason Hand, and David Derrick Jr. recently spoke about turning the upcoming sequel into a movie.

On Disney Investor Day in 2020, the company announced Moana: The Series, which would stream on Disney+ as a sequel to the hit 2016 movie Moana. Earlier this year, Disney announced that the series would be repurposed into a theatrically released animated feature film with Aulhi’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson confirmed to be reprising their roles as Moana and Maui.

What did the Moana 2 directors say about the change?

“I think where we’re so fortunate is that changing it from a TV series to a film just allowed us to go bigger,” said Miller in an interview with ComingSoon. “We really got to, we have 750 incredible artists, and we get to let them shine on the big screen in ways that you can’t when you’re watching it on a TV.”

When asked about the craziest thing that happened behind the scenes of the upcoming animated sequel, all three directors concurred that the conversion from a series to a movie was the stand-out.

“It doesn’t get much bigger than that,” said Miller.

Derrick added, “Yeah, that was crazy.”

Miller also teased what we could expect from Moana 2 and what separates it from the first film: “If the first film was about Moana reconnecting to her past, Moana 2 is about Moana building a new future for her people.”

“Three years after the events of the first film, Moana receives an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors and forms her own crew, reuniting with her friend, the demigod Maui,” reads the official synopsis. “As they journey to the far seas of Oceania to break the god Nalo’s curse on the hidden island of Motufetu, which once connected the people of the ocean, they confront old and new foes, including the Kakamora and underworld goddess Matangi.”

Disney’s Moana 2 releases in theaters on November 27, 2024.

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Leigh Whannell has revealed that he is not such a fan of the newer Saw sequels.

Whannell co-wrote the original 2004 Saw movie with James Wan. This horror movie was a monumental hit, launching their careers and earning $103.9 million at the box office with a $1-1.2 million budget. Whannell, who also starred in the original film as Adam, went on to write the screenplays for Saw II and Saw III as well. After the third movie, he left the series as a creative force, retaining an executive producer credit only.

Since his departure, Saw has continued as a franchise, with seven more sequels being thrown into the mix. The most recent entry was Saw X, which was released in 2023 to some of the best reviews of the franchise.

Whannell attended BlumFest at New York Comic Con 2024 to promote his upcoming horror film, Wolf Man. ComingSoon caught up with Whannell to see what he thinks of some of the newer Saw movies.

Does Leigh Whannell like the new Saw sequels?

Whannell admitted, “For me, I am not such a fan of the latest Saw movies. It’s not that I think they’re bad movies; it’s just that I’ve separated myself from that. Like, I feel like they should have ended it with the third movie, you know?”

Saw III, released in 2006, brought the series to an apparent conclusion with John Kramer’s death. The newer Saw movies have continued the storyline, introducing new Jigsaw killers and, at times, setting itself earlier in the timeline so that Tobin Bell can remain a part of the franchise to play his character.

“A reality of Hollywood is that when someone owns that IP, they can keep doing it,” says Whannell. “They do it. It’s not really up to you anymore. Also, I meet these Saw fans, and they love Saw V or VI or VII. You know, so I don’t wanna take anything away from them. So I’m happy that it continues over there. And then I’ve got this other life over here, where I’m making my own movies.”

Following his departure from the Saw franchise, Whannell continued to work as a screenwriter, writing movies like Insidious and Dead Silence. He made his feature directorial debut with Insidious: Chapter 3 and then saw renewed critical success as the writer and director of the 2018 movie Upgrade and the 2020 film The Invisible Man.

“What’s great now is people will come up to me and talk about movies I’ve directed,” Whannell reflects. “They’ll say like, ‘I love Upgrade,’ or ‘I love Invisible Man.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, wow. I’m experiencing this second life as a director.’ So I’m just really happy about that. You know, it means I’m more comfortable to let Saw be a thing over there now that I’ve got my own thing going.”

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Director Christopher Landon recently provided an update on Happy Death Day 3.

In 2017, Landon directed the Blumhouse box office hit Happy Death Day. The film starred Jessica Rothe as Tree, a girl who gets murdered on her birthday and finds herself trapped in a time loop that allows her to relive the same day over and over again, giving her the opportunity to catch her killer. The black comedy slasher earned $125.5 million against a $4.8 million budget and spawned a sequel, Happy Death Day 2U, released in 2019.

While Happy Death Day 2U remained immensely profitable, raking in $64.6 million at the box office against a $9 million budget, it was not as much of a hit as the first movie. Since then, the idea of a third movie in the series has remained up in the air.

Landon attended BlumFest at New York Comic Con to promote his upcoming thriller, Drop. ComingSoon caught up with him to see if we would ever see a Happy Death Day 3.

Will there be another Happy Death Day?

Nothing has been confirmed yet. When asked about it, Landon joked, “You’re talking to the wrong guy. The guy who has no power, who has no control over anything in his life or outside of it.”

He followed this up by saying, “I would do it in a heartbeat, but it’s definitely a Jason Blum/Universal [decision]. It’s up to the people with the money.”

Back in 2020, Landon mentioned having an idea for the third film and saying it had the working title, Happy Death Day to Us. Landon also confirmed in February 2023 that he had pitched the film to Universal. The first two films were produced by Blumhouse Productions and starred Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Phi Vu, and Ruby Modine.

The post Happy Death Day 3 Update: Director Talks Franchise’s Future appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.

ComingSoon’s Jonathan Sim recently flew out to Burbank, California, to visit The Walt Disney Animation Studios for a special press day for Disney’s upcoming movie, Moana 2. From live music to a screening of the first 30 minutes of the film, it was a day to remember. The highlight was interviewing directors Dana Ledoux Miller, Jason Hand, and David Derrick Jr.

“Moana journeys to the far seas of Oceania after receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors,” reads the official synopsis.

Jonathan Sim: Moana 2 has this crazy production because it started out as a TV series before turning into a film. When you guys were restructuring it, did you ever have to change anything about it as a story in order to make it work better for film as a medium?

Dana Ledoux Miller: I think what we’re so fortunate is that changing it from a TV series to a film just allowed us to go bigger. We really got to, we have 750 incredible artists, and we get to let them shine on the big screen in ways that you can’t when you’re watching it on a TV.

One of the best things about Moana 2 is that we have all these incredible characters. I want to talk to you guys about my favorite one, Hei Hei. More specifically, Alan Tudyk as Hei Hei. What a legend. How do you direct Alan Tudyk and all of his noises? Do you have to give him specific direction?

Miller: I will say directing Alan as Hei Hei was maybe the highlight of my career. Yeah. But truly he is such an incredible professional and brings so much life to this, but we had conversations about Hei Hei’s motivation. We talked about what do you think Hei Hei’s thinking in this moment? He takes this role so seriously, which I think is what gives it so much life. And he’s a Disney legend. The fact that we get to work with him is incredible.

Yeah. I was wondering, do you have to tell him, more chicken-like on this one?

Miller: He brings the chicken on. He knows his own. It’s more like, you know, Hei Hei’s feeling a little more lost than usual in this moment, or, Hei Hei’s, you know, he’s really a little bit afraid, but also has no idea what’s going on. You know, it’s that balance. He finds that nuance.

Now, I want to do some rapid-fire questions with you. Favorite Moana 2 character?

Miller: Kele.

David Derrick Jr: Loto.

Jason Hand: Maui.

Favorite classic Disney movie?

Miller: The Little Mermaid.

Hand: The Jungle Book.

Derrick: The Lion King.

The Disney character you’d most like to spend an entire day with?

Miller: Moana.

Derrick: Same.

Hand: Baloo.

Favorite Disney song?

Derrick: Can it be from Moana 2?

It can be, yes.

Derrick: I love “Beyond.”

Hand: “You’re Welcome.”

Miller: “Part of Your World.”

Now I feel like every single movie ever made has that crazy story behind it where it was something that you never saw coming when you were making it. Was there ever a story about Moana 2? What was the craziest thing that happened behind the scenes of this film?

Hand: You already said it. It went from a series to an incredibly huge feature.

Miller: It doesn’t get much bigger than that.

Derrick: Yeah, that was crazy.

So when you guys were developing the sequel, what was the thing that was the hardest to make different about this film compared to the first one? Because I’ve seen the first 30 minutes, and it seems like it’s gonna be very different, but in your words, what do you think separates Moana 2 the most from the original Moana?

Miller: Well, if the first film was about Moana reconnecting to her past Moana 2 is about Moana building a new future for her people.

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As Eminem once said, “They ain’t gonna know what hit ’em when they get hit with the Venom: The Last Dance.” The third movie of the Venom trilogy has arrived in theatres. While Sony’s Spider-Man Universe has given us some truly unwatchable movies like Morbius and Madame Web, the Venom movies have always been a dim (not bright) light. The first two Venom movies were mildly entertaining superhero flicks that have stayed afloat due to a dual performance from Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock/Venom that’s so committed that it could get him committed.

Venom: The Last Dance keeps up the streak. While this may be my least favorite installment, it gives us more of what we want to see from this series. And what do we want to see? The titular character. Venom is one of the best superhero characters in contemporary cinema. He is absolutely hilarious. Everything that comes out of this alien creature’s mouth is gold. While this film does not reach the comedic or crowd-pleasing heights that the first movie reached, we can always count on Hardy’s fantastic voice work as this brash, irreverent character to bring in some high-quality laughs (particularly during a scene that involves David Bowie).

Before we get into how entertaining Venom: The Last Dance is, we must address the strange way this series was almost incorporated into the MCU. The mid-credits scene of Venom: Let There Be Carnage had audiences freaking out three years ago because it brought Venom into the Marvel Cinematic Universe as he encounters Tom Holland’s Spider-Man on the news. Two months afterward, Spider-Man: No Way Home featured a mid-credits scene that sucked Venom right back into his own universe. It’s strange to have a mid-credits scene that teases a Spider-Man villain finally about to face off with Spider-Man, only for him to get yanked away two months later, and now, we have yet another sequel with a story that does not revolve around Venom’s nemesis, Spider-Man.

The SSU has been a disaster of studio meddling, given that it’s called the Sony Spider-Man Universe and Spider-Man has not shown up once (and no, Madame Web does not count). This is a strange franchise filled with brief references to Spider-Man. You can practically see the legalities here, as Eddie Brock can only reference the Avengers but cannot appear on screen with any of them. So, after teasing an integration of the SSU and the MCU, Eddie gets sucked back into his own universe, and the movie moves on from the multiverse/hive knowledge plot as if it never happened.

You can feel some more possible studio interference, as a plot thread or two from Venom: Let There Be Carnage gets abandoned here and replaced with other ideas. But Venom: The Last Dance works the best when it’s letting us spend time with our central character. The opening action sequence has Venom facing off against bad guys. The fight choreography is excellent, and we also get to see Eddie take on the bad guys. It’s fun to see Eddie take a more active role in the action rather than fully having Venom take the wheel. The movie also gives a plot reason for allowing Hardy to have as much screen time as possible.

Kelly Marcel directs this film in her feature directorial debut. She was formerly a screenwriter for the first two Venom movies and wrote the screenplay for this movie based on a story by Hardy and herself. She does a serviceable job with the direction. She’s become the leader of a series following directors like Ruben Fleischer and Andy Serkis. It’s daunting, but she steps up to the task. She matches their quality without exceeding it or overstaying her welcome. The direction of every scene, from the action to the dialogue scenes, manages to be perfectly acceptable.

Venom: The Last Dance aims to be a buddy road movie with Eddie and Venom. This could be great, but like the rest of the series, this film only musters up the ability to be good. These films can qualify as guilty pleasures because they’re the equivalent of cinematic fast food: they have no nutritional value whatsoever but are delicious in every bite. You go into a Venom movie expecting perfect writing and high art, and you can expect disappointment. You go in expecting viciously fun escapism and one-dimensional, breezy entertainment, and that’s what you’ll get.

The film attempts to infuse some more heart into this series, particularly with a new hippie character played by Rhys Ifans. He’s a welcome addition and gets incorporated into the plot quite well. It felt necessary to incorporate this character because Eddie’s ex-girlfriend Ann and her husband Dan are nowhere to be found in this one. This series has moved on from them, instead focusing on the heartwarming bromance between Eddie and Venom while setting up a future for the SSU (which I’m sure we’re all dying to watch with bated breath).

Juno Temple’s supporting role as Dr. Teddy Payne and Clark Backo’s role as Sadie Christmas feel a bit shoehorned in, but the stakes are higher than ever in Venom: The Last Dance, with a finale that brings everything to a height that the series has not reached yet. The issue is that it’s often a clunky ride getting to each story beat. For example, the trailers have featured Eddie arriving on the Las Vegas strip and putting on a tuxedo. Vegas is a picturesque setting for an action set piece, but the film spends no more than six minutes here. The movie relies on a dumb decision here to move the plot along and tries to cover it up by being entertaining.

Is it entertaining? Yes. But the movie should have stayed in the Vegas setting longer. It would have been nice to feel the departure from the San Francisco setting and have our final battle occur in a heavily populated Vegas street with bright lights, casinos, and the Bellagio fountain. But much like Venom was quickly yanked out of the MCU, we are quickly yanked out of Vegas for a final act in a dark, empty field.

Regardless, does the final act deliver what we wanted? Yes, it does. And we can be satisfied with how crazy it is. It reminded me of the finale of another threequel: X-Men: The Last Stand. Like that film, the finale of this movie feels the most like what you’d expect out of a large-scale superhero battle sequence.

While some of the military scenes feel disposable compared to the rest of the movie, it works best when Eddie Brock and Venom are at the forefront. These movies are essentially bromantic comedies, with their chemistry serving as the lifeblood of what keeps these movies from being personality-free. While I can’t say that the villains in this film are as interesting as Riz Ahmed’s or Woody Harrelson’s characters from the first two, Venom: The Last Dance has enough entertainment value to keep you watching. You won’t be in a rush to watch it again, but if you have two hours to kill, this movie delivers exactly what you’d expect. If you didn’t like the first two movies, you won’t feel differently about this. But if these movies scratch your guilty pleasure brain like me, then have at it.

SCORE: 7/10

As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 7 equates to “Good.” A successful piece of entertainment that is worth checking out, but it may not appeal to everyone.

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As the spooky season approaches, one movie studio showed up at New York Comic Con to bring the house down. Blumhouse has been championing original horror movies for years, with their low-budget, creative freedom approach kicking off with the enormously successful Paranormal Activity. Since then, they’ve helped launch films like Insidious, Whiplash, Get Out, Sinister, The Purge, and this year’s Speak No Evil.

With a new year comes a new BlumFest, a panel where CEO Jason Blum brings in a few of the creative minds behind Blumhouse’s upcoming horror films to give us a sneak peek at what’s to come. But first, we had to catch up with the company’s founder, who has been producing these films since the turn of the 21st century.

Although Blum is now one of the most respected names in horror, he recalled a time when he needed to fight to get one movie made. “Paranormal Activity,” he recalls. “No one returned my calls for three years. I had no clout. Now, if I say a movie’s good, no one will buy it, but at least they’ll watch it. When I did Paranormal Activity, they wouldn’t even watch the movie. For three years, I tried, I begged people to watch the film. They would not see the film. I had to sell the remake rights to get people to actually watch the film in front of an audience. That’s why I never turned back. I only made horror movies ever since then because that moment was so such a big moment in my life.”

Blumhouse will learn from disappointments

Paranormal Activity grossed $194.2 million worldwide against a $15,000 production budget, with critics praising the film. Although he’s had his fair share of critical successes, like M3GAN and The Black Phone, some movies have missed the mark. This year, critics were less kind to films like Night Swim, Imaginary, and Afraid, and Blum had candid words for whenever his movies don’t perform as well as he hoped.

“I get very sad about it,” Blum said. “I take it very personally. I get very emotional about it. I always believe in our children, so when they don’t work, or the audience doesn’t like them, I take it very personally. I debrief. Then I have a big moment in the company after it happens where I say, ‘Why didn’t this movie work?’ I don’t pretend that it worked or say, ‘Well, we almost got a single’ or whatever. I say, ‘This movie did not work. Why not? And how do we not repeat the same mistakes?’ So the first is sadness, then learning. And then you gotta dust off your pants. You gotta get in there again and get excited again. If you start moping around, it’s not fun to work there. So I go through those three phases. Every time I allow myself to be sad, then I allow myself to learn, and then I allow myself to move on.”

“You gotta think about this next one and try not to repeat the same mistakes,” he says, exemplifying his CEO mentality. “But it’s the worst part about the business. People say, ‘do you want to retire?’ I say, ‘When things are not going well, I wanna retire. And when things are going great, I want to work forever.'”

Jason Blum addresses AI backlash

Blum then commented on Blumhouse’s recent partnership with Meta Movie Gen, which Deadline described as “a suite of AI models that show how you can use simple text inputs to produce custom videos and sounds, edit existing videos, and transform a personal image into a unique video.” This announcement comes when AI is looming large over the entertainment industry, leading to mixed reactions as some audience members are concerned that AI-generated art can take away opportunities from creative professionals.

“We had a ton of negative press around that and a ton of negative reaction,” Blum admits. “My point of view is we are a company that enables artists. Artists always come first, and artists want tools. And to me, it would be irresponsible if we didn’t at least know about the tools. And I think also for me, it would be irresponsible to not learn about the tools. So I know nothing about AI, but I wanted to do this to learn. So, we worked with three filmmakers to make these little shorts so that we could learn about it. So when a filmmaker asks me about AI and ‘Can I do effects with AI, or what can I do or what can’t I do,’ I at least want to be able to have a reasonable answer before I bury my head in the sand, and that was why I did it.”

“I don’t really have a feeling one way or another generally about AI,” Blum says. “I think it’s 50% good and 50% horrible. But I wanna understand because one thing for sure, it’s here to stay. So I wanna understand it, and I don’t understand it yet, and I need to understand it. And this is one of the ways that I’m trying to understand it.”

What to expect from M3GAN 2.0

Perhaps one way Blum has been trying to understand AI is by incorporating it into his horror films. One recent example is the 2023 film M3GAN, a movie about an AI-powered killer doll that received rave reviews and earned $181 million worldwide against a $12 million budget. This movie was such a massive success that it has spawned a planned sequel, M3GAN 2.0, and a planned spin-off, SOULM8TE. Actress Allison Williams, known for her memorable roles in Get Out and the first M3GAN, stopped by New York Comic Con to share whatever she could about the upcoming film.

“The effects of the first movie are very clear on Gemma as the second movie starts, and I think that’s kind of all I can say is that it’s very clear that she lived through the things that we saw her live through in the first movie, and she has adjusted life accordingly,” Williams said. She hopes audiences respond to the sequel with “enthusiasm” and shared her thoughts on portraying the uniquely campy tone that the first film had.

“In this franchise, my job is kind of playing it very straight and keeping it kind of real so that the audience can kind of relate to my experience,” Williams said. “Although, there are other characters who are also the cipher for the audience occasionally. Yeah, it’s playing it straight, but also, when you’re in the horror genre, you have to have big reactions to things, and the stakes are really high, and everything’s heightened. And so it’s also a game of pushing yourself to an 11, and then with me, that’s still gonna be kind of grounded. Like, I don’t really have that really big performance that I like to do in these movies. So yeah, it’s kind of a dance in that way.”

Although she has starred in two famous horror movies, Williams needs the perfect conditions to watch horror movies on her own. “It really takes it out of me. I have to really prepare myself. It has to be day; it has to be on a plane,” she says. Looking beyond the horror genre, Williams shared what else she wanted to do with her career. “I’ve wanted to be on a horse in a corset with a candle. Like, I wanna go way back in time. Like deep historical fiction, maybe.”

Drop reunites Christopher Landon & Blumhouse

Also on Blumhouse’s theatrical slate next year is Drop, a horror film about a woman played by Meghann Fahy, who goes on a date and suddenly finds herself getting AirDropped creepy memes. She soon finds that her family is being held hostage by a killer who forces her into a high-stakes game of life and death. This film is directed by Christopher Landon, who previously helmed Happy Death Day and Freaky for Blumhouse, along with writing most of the Paranormal Activity movies.

“It sort of fits in the classic thriller realm, which I think is very exciting and it’s super fast paced,” says Fahy. “Definitely will keep you on the edge of your seat. You don’t know what’s coming next.”

“It’s intense, fast,” says Landon. “You know what it is. It’s like Hitchcock had a baby with a nineties thriller and modern technology. That’s the vibe…it’s everyday technology that we all use and deal with and I think that’s what makes the movie so scary because you see how that type of technology can be weaponized and used against someone. Tone-wise, it’s definitely a departure. I think for me, or I was saying earlier, a bit of a return to my sort of old Disturbia days if anyone even knows that reference. I mean I think it’s decidedly more serious in tone, but I also think that there’s still room for humor. Yeah. I think that still shines, definitely.”

Landon also shared an update on the long-awaited Happy Death Day sequel that has been discussed but has not been given the green light. “You are talking to the wrong guy,” he jokes when asked about Happy Death Day 3. “The guy who has no power, who has no control over anything in his life or outside of it. I would do it in a heartbeat, but it’s a Jason Blum/Universal [decision]. It’s up to the people with the money.”

Wolf Man hopes to scare audiences

Perhaps one of the biggest debuts at BlumFest was the new trailer for Wolf Man, an upcoming Universal Monsters movie directed by Leigh Whannell, who previously directed films like Insidious: Chapter 3, Upgrade, and The Invisible Man. This upcoming movie has had a long development period, with Whannell being attached at first and then leaving the project. At one point, the film was going to be a joint venture between Ryan Gosling and Derek Cianfrance, who had previously collaborated on Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines. However, they left the project, and Whannell returned as co-writer and director.

“My idea for the Wolf Man didn’t really change much,” Whannell recalls. “My initial concept, like, I remember pacing around in my backyard thinking like, ‘all right, what am I gonna do with this movie? If I’m doing this, what am I doing?’ And there was this light bulb moment of like, ‘oh, it’s this.’ And I talked about it with my wife, Corbett. We ended up co-writing the film together. She was excited, like she loves horror movies, but she’s usually a pretty good critic of my ideas. She’ll be like, ‘ah, what about, you know,’ which is good. With this one, she was like, ‘oh, I love that.’ And then she ended up co-writing it with me. So then it went through various writers. I stepped off the project, then I came back onto it. And even though it changed, eventually when it got back to me, I stuck with that same idea that I’d had in the backyard. It never really wavered from that initial idea.”

Whannell hopes that audiences will connect with the film. “I hope that they love it,” he says. “I hope they’re scared. I hope that they’re emotional about it. So, I want it to be a tragedy. I want it to be emotional. I also want it to scare the shit out of them. You know, I want people to see it in theaters. I mean, that’s the eternal question these days is how do you get people into theaters? You know, how do you turn something into a phenomenon? You know, like, it’s tough. It’s tough to make a Top Gun or a Barbie, you know, these, these movies that really get moviegoers into theaters. It’s getting to be a smaller target than ever. So I really hope Wolf Man connects on that level.”

Wolf Man is his second Universal Monsters movie after The Invisible Man in 2020. When asked if he’d make any more Universal Monster films, he said, “I don’t know. You know what, at the moment, no, it’s not that I’m not interested; it’s just that a lot of times, you just have to let the movie find you. Because I write my own films, it takes a long time for me to get into that zone of like, ‘yes, I’m excited about this.’ You know, I can’t lie to myself as a writer, and I’m not relying on other writers to come up with the idea for me. So I’m starting back at zero every time. And so that’s kind of where I am now. I’m just thinking about the things that interest me. What would I wanna see in a theater? And I’m thinking a lot about what works in a theater. That’s not something I used to think about 10-15 years ago. I just took it for granted that if you made a film, it would get a theatrical release. Yeah. Now, in 2024-2025, I have to actually sit down and think about what plays in a theater. You know, otherwise, I think if you don’t build that into the screenplay, you’re in danger of just being a streaming movie, which is fine, but it’s not what I wanna do right now.”

Whannel reflects on Saw’s legacy

This month also marks an anniversary for Whannell. October 29, 2024, marks the 20-year anniversary of the 2004 movie Saw. Whannell was a writer on the first three Saw movies and starred as Adam, the protagonist of the original film. He reflected on the long-standing legacy of the first film’s shocking ending.

“You know when I wrote that first Saw movie, and I was working in conjunction with James Wan, we were back in Australia, [and] both of us knew we had something special,” he recalls. “Now, we didn’t necessarily know it was gonna be some big box office success, but we knew that anyone who saw it would react. There’s no better feeling in the world to be like, ‘oh, I’m sitting on top of something right now. I have a secret.’ And when I was writing the ending, it was just flowing outta my fingers. ‘Cause I was like, ‘this is gonna work.’ Seeing that ending affect people was one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever experienced in my life, especially in a movie theater. Of all the films I’ve been involved in. Watching the ending of Saw with an audience was the craziest thing ever. I could get goosebumps now just thinking about it.”

Whannell left the series as a creative force after Saw III, only retaining an executive producer credit on the subsequent sequels. He reflected on the franchise that Saw has become, saying, “For me, I am not such a fan of the latest Saw movies. It’s not that I think they’re bad movies, it’s just that I’ve separated myself from that. Like, I feel like they should have ended it with the third movie, you know? But having said that, it’s one of those things. A reality of Hollywood is that when someone owns that IP, they can keep doing it. They do it. It’s not really up to you anymore. Also, I meet these Saw fans, and they love Saw V or VI or VII. You know, so I don’t wanna take anything away from them. So I’m happy that it continues over there. And then I’ve got this other life over here, where I’m making my own movies. And what’s great now is people will come up to me and talk about movies I’ve directed. They’ll say like, I love Upgrade, or I love Invisible Man. And I’m like, ‘Oh, wow. I’m experiencing this second life as a director.’ So I’m just really happy about that. You know, it means I’m more comfortable to let Saw be a thing over there now that I’ve got my own thing going.”

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ComingSoon’s Jonathan Sim recently attended New York Comic Con, where he sat down with actress Leslie Uggams. Since 2016, she has portrayed Wade Wilson’s potty-mouthed roommate, Blind Al, in the Deadpool movies. Most recently, she joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe by reprising the role in this year’s summer smash hit, Deadpool & Wolverine. She discussed what it’s like to portray this character and shared her perspective on her career.

Deadpool & Wolverine is now available at digital retailers (Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home) and arrives on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD on October 22.

Jonathan Sim: I’m just so excited to be talking to you about this film because you play one of my favorite characters in literally the entire Marvel Universe. So I wanted to ask about taking on the role of Blind Al in Deadpool & Wolverine; what did it mean for you, and how did it sort of change your life?

Leslie Uggams: Well, first of all, when I auditioned for this role, I had no idea what was going on. What is this character? So I just went with my gut instinct. Then once I got involved in this, I realized that there was a whole new world out there that I’m getting to experience and to have young people so invested in the character that I play is just thrilling.

Do you often get people going up to you and like recognizing you in the street and stuff like that?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Are they like, “Hey, Blind Al!”

Yeah. Or they all, you know, they wanna take a selfie. But all ages and some of the kids that come up to me, I say, “you watching this movie?!” You’re a little young to watch this.

Do you have a 6-year-old ever coming up, like, “Hey, I love you in Deadpool!”

When we did the first Deadpool, I was at the airport. In fact, I was doing Empire, and I was, we were waiting for the plane, and there was we ordered some coffee, and the woman was taking care of him, and there was this little boy, and I was thinking, “is he by himself?” And turns out the woman that was serving us, it was her son, 10 years old. She said, “Oh, he wants to come over to you. He loves Deadpool.” I said, “What?! He’s watching Deadpool.” And I was so amazed at how young they started off watching this movie, but all ages. All ages.

I feel like it does have that appeal where so many people of all ages can enjoy it. Yes. Even if they don’t always understand how inappropriate it is.

It is. Yes. And who’s the one that’s most inappropriate?

Exactly. It’s you. I wanted to ask about working with Ryan Reynolds as well. Is he ever improvising any of his lines, and how do you stay in character? Is it a challenge for you at all?

His mind goes a thousand miles an hour. Yeah. I mean, really, he comes up with…we can shoot a scene, but then he’ll come up with something else to say, and it’s always magic. And so with me, he’ll say to me, “Leslie, do you mind saying this?” And I’ll say, “No, let’s go for it.” Nothing is inappropriate as far as I’m concerned.

Do you remember if there was any one specific line that like maybe he gave you or anything that you came up with on the spot?

I think one of the lines when I’m in the laundromat. And he’s saying some ridiculous stuff, and I’m saying, you know, “God, I miss cocaine.” I wasn’t sure if that was gonna be in the movie, but they used that.

Right, and of course, we can’t even have cocaine anymore with the MCU, but yeah. Like they have a list.

[Laughs.] Not a great influence.

Yeah. No, they were keeping you in line. I think Kevin Feige, they were just like, “No cocaine for your character.” I want to ask, ’cause you, you’ve been working in Hollywood for so, so long and you’ve been working in stuff like movies, TV, stage. How does your approach to a role differ at all, whether you’re performing for each medium, and do you have a medium that you prefer the most?

I love them all. I must say, though, there’s nothing like live. So when you’re doing a Broadway show, the audience is right there, and you can get the feedback right away. You know, you make a movie, and then you can have your fingers crossed and hope that the audience is gonna respond to it and see it. But I love them all ’cause they’re all so different. And your attitude is different because Broadway things are big. But when you do television or movies, it’s small. You can’t be doing, like you would do a Broadway show so that you can shout out to the audience. Yeah. So it’s fascinating. And, of course, I’m always interested in developing a backstory for my characters to make them different.

Now going back to Deadpool, I was thinking ’cause Blind Al has so many of the funniest, most outrageous lines and comebacks. Have you ever used any of her dialogue at all in real life? Or do you ever wish that you could?

Well, I certainly haven’t used them. Yeah, my mouth has been a potty mouth since I’ve been doing this movie. And what’s so funny about it is friends of mine, they’re just shocked that it was me doing this role.

Is it like, you’re really different from Blind Al?

Oh yeah. Totally different. And they’re used to seeing me do other things, but in the last few years, I’m the person that stands on the cliff and says, “okay, I’m gonna jump and see what happens.” And so, you know, since doing the Deadpool and Blind Al and Betty [in Fallout] and Leah [in Empire], I’ve gotten to explore new avenues as far as characters are concerned, not the little old grandmother.

You’re showing off your range here, and I love that about what you can do with this one. If Blind Al was here and she could give Leslie Uggams life advice, what do you think that she would say to you?

Lighten up, girl.

That sounds exactly like what she would say. Just she has no filter.

No filter. None whatsoever.

None whatsoever.

Can you imagine if she could see?

That’s something I don’t even think about. She can roast Deadpool and she doesn’t even really know what he looks like.

No. It’s wild and wonderful and crazy.

I love thinking about that. Would you want to come back and play, play her again in the future?

Over and over and over. She’s so much fun. And plus, the wardrobe is great. She’s in a leisure suit with her sneakers on, and she’s happy.

She lives her own life. I’ve always wondered what was she like before she met Deadpool? I’ve always thought about that.

Well, you know, I believe in the original comic book, they had a strange relationship and he wound up putting her in a box. It’s really interesting. So who knows? She may wind up in a box again.

Thanks to Leslie Uggams for taking time to talk about Deadpool & Wolverine.

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Sean Baker has been killing it at the center of independent film for years. He has left a lasting impression with films like The Florida Project, Red Rocket, and Tangerine. And now, he writes and directs Anora, a romantic comedy-drama of sorts that has been doing superbly at film festivals this year. This is the first American movie to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes since 2011, and for good reason. This movie is an absolute riot designed to be experienced with the biggest crowd possible, creating an unforgettable experience rarely replicated in modern film.

I love that Baker saw the girl who played psychopathic murderers getting set on fire by the heroes in both Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and the 2022 Scream movie and knew instantly that he needed to work with her. Mikey Madison is a movie star in the making. She’s the titular character, and her face is at the center of every marketing piece. Her performance here is a revelation. It’s fun to see how soft-spoken Madison is in real life because she brings so much New York City street to this role that feels masterful and authentic.

She plays Anora, a sex worker who meets a young Russian client named Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn). After he first hires her for her services, they end up in a whirlwind romance that leads to the two eloping in Vegas. But when Ivan’s family finds out he got married to a sex worker, they show up to get the marriage annulled. My favorite type of movie is a simple concept executed to its maximum potential. Anora is an energetic, fast-paced movie that spends time with each of its characters and spends most of the second and third acts in a delightfully chaotic ride.

Anora and Ivan start as a fun match for each other. Baker does an excellent job directing both their sex scenes and onscreen chemistry. The actors bring so much physicality to these roles. Madison spent months training to learn how to pole dance, and she brings an excellent amount of sexuality and strength to her dance scenes. Meanwhile, Eydelshteyn, who has been dubbed by journalists as “the Russian Timothée Chalamet” (which is not a bad comparison), gets us on his side quickly. He has this hilariously frantic energy and he does a lot with his body that makes every scene even more entertaining than it already is.

Some moments in the first act are filled with joy as you get to really love these characters. Baker pulls off something interesting because not everyone may relate to the Brooklynite sex worker or the rich-beyond-your-wildest-dreams guy, but it’s so fun to watch them that it doesn’t quite matter. Their personalities pop off the screen, and they serve as a fun contrast with Ivan’s fun-loving immaturity and Anora’s New York trash talk. Once Ivan’s family closes in on our happy couple, this movie escalates phenomenally. Most of the movie is set during one hectic day when the family tries to get the marriage annulled, and everything seems to go as terribly as possible.

Baker directs the chaos of the situation perfectly. It’s a loud movie where everyone has a point of view and must yell over each other. It’s never grating, and it makes every moment feel very realistic. A lot of the dialogue sounds improvised, especially with how prolifically profane our protagonist presents herself. There is not a single weak link in this supporting cast, which is comprised mostly of unknowns. Everyone fully embodies their character to the point where they don’t feel like actors; they just feel like people reacting to this situation. It’s so easy to forget you’re watching fictional events despite how insane everything is.

One of the greatest aspects of Anora is the tone. The situation is really dark, especially during scenes where our main character is in danger and being confronted by men. But the movie knows how to ride the line between humor and darkness perfectly. Right when it seems like the film is getting disturbing, the movie throws in the perfect punchline. Every comedic moment feels organic to the situation, and the way Anora responds to the insanity around her is perfectly justifiable. The tonal shifts never feel jarring, and the humor never kills the tension, which is a very complex feat.

This movie is filled to the brim with energy. There isn’t a single dull moment as we’re always in the thick of this absurd situation that continuously gets more insane. But the true key to this movie’s success is the ending. The film maintains this level of adrenaline for so much of its runtime that it can feel jarring when the final few scenes lose that momentum. Silence has never been louder than in the ending of Anora, which suddenly pulls your heart out as you get a clearer but ambiguous look at how our main character’s mind works. It’s heartbreaking, and everyone should have an interpretation of what this means. This film is a must-see if you’re looking for a lot of laughs and an ending that will leave you stunned.

SCORE: 9/10

As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 9 equates to “Excellent.” Entertainment that reaches this level is at the top of its type. The gold standard that every creator aims to reach.

Disclosure: ComingSoon attended the New York Film Festival for our Anora review.

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He’s one of the most recognizable names in the world, becoming synonymous with kicking, punching, and wincing in pain. Jackie Chan plays Jackie Chan in Panda Plan, the newest action comedy vehicle for the global superstar. He made a name for himself with his death-defying stunts in Project A and Police Story, became a household name in Hollywood with Rumble in the Bronx and Rush Hour, and now he’s 70 years old and kicking as much ass as he has for decades. He plays himself in his new movie, where he must protect a baby panda he’s adopted from mercenaries sent to retrieve the panda.

Panda Plan is Jackie Chan’s best movie in years. While it’s hard not to have fun watching Chan do his thing, it’s no secret that films like Vanguard, Hidden Strike, and Viy 2: Journey to China weren’t the best parts of his filmography. This movie manages to have better action, better comedy, and better Jackie. Firstly, it’s always fun to see actors play themselves in a movie. Whether it’s Bruce Willis in Ocean’s Twelve, Bill Murray in Zombieland, or Keanu Reeves in Always Be My Maybe, this tool lets actors play around with their celebrity status.

Jackie pulls this off marvelously here, using a premise similar to The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, which starred Nicolas Cage as himself as he’s forced on a dangerous mission. The opening action set piece is very well-choreographed, and we then zoom out to discover that it’s a fictional scene for a movie Jackie is filming. He argues against the notion that one person could realistically fight so many people, which he has done countless times in his career. He also desires to do a romance movie, which he once complained to Conan O’Brien that Hollywood would never let him do.

As Jackie readies to adopt a baby panda, the movie offers its first surprise: the comedy. Most of the humor in Jackie’s movies arises from the physical comedy he offers in his action sequences. While this movie has that, a lot of the dialogue manages to be hilarious, too. It’s a wonderfully funny movie that allows Jackie to play into being a global superstar. One of the funniest running gags in the film is that once we meet our bad guys, some are fans of Jackie Chan, which adds a lot of humor when they fight him.

The bad guys enter the building, and from there, we have our Die Hard scenario. Much of the film feels like that type of movie, as we have a bunch of bad guys with guns, many hostages, and a hero on the inside who must fight his way out. Jackie’s filmography has seen a Die Hard knock-off before with Police Story 2013, but it works much better here. This film does not take itself seriously at all and knows how to have fun, particularly with a fun, over-the-top supporting character played by Wei Xiang.

Speaking of over-the-top, many of the villains’ performances are pretty cheesy. But it’s really fun to see Jackie take on these bad guys. He’s not playing a “Supercop” here. He’s playing an actor trained in martial arts. One of Panda Plan’s best ideas is that one of the bad guys anticipates Jackie’s move during a fight scene because he has seen many of Jackie’s movies. My only wish is that the film had leaned more into pulling comedy out of this, whether it’s directly tributing famous moments in Jackie’s movies or poking fun at some movies Jackie is less proud of. Jackie performs a stunt reminiscent of the ladder fight from Police Story 4: First Strike, but beyond that, we don’t get as much humor from these ideas as we could have.

The first hour of Panda Plan works so well because once the bad guys break in, it’s almost entirely set in real-time. We’re watching characters hide from the villains and fight them whenever necessary. Director Zhang Luan directs the fight scenes clearly and with a lot of energy. It also helps that even though Jackie is older than he used to be, he’s still performing most of the stunts himself. He can fight better than nearly anyone his age, and I think we can all feel fortunate that it’s 2024 and we’re still getting Jackie Chan action movies.

Panda Plan’s most significant issue comes with the panda. Every animal in this movie is created with CGI, and it’s very obvious. Chinese films have ventured into CGI animals before, but as we saw with this and the CGI lion in Vanguard, they haven’t seemed to crack the code for making them photorealistic. It reminded me of the 2004 live-action Garfield movie, where it’s obvious that the actors are miming the action of holding an animal that is then digitally inserted in post. The dubbing of a few actors is also noticeable.

Furthermore, the film feels like it reaches a natural conclusion around an hour into the film. From there, we slow down to flesh out the characters more and move into our final action set piece. While it makes sense for the story, the momentum of that in-real-time first hour gets lost. We also have some missing information in the final act that feels like it would have been necessary to see. However, you watch this movie to see Jackie Chan and his improvised weapons and incredible stunts. While we can’t expect him to perform to the caliber of his Drunken Master movies (which anyone reading this should watch immediately), and the film doesn’t reach those heights, Panda Plan remains a surprisingly heartwarming entry into Jackie’s filmography filled with the awesome martial arts we love to see.

SCORE: 7/10

As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 7 equates to “Good.” A successful piece of entertainment that is worth checking out, but it may not appeal to everyone.

Disclosure: ComingSoon received a screener for our Panda Plan review.

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Say cheese. Two years ago, Parker Finn scared the living daylights out of audiences with his hit horror movie Smile. A feature film debut grossing $217.4 million on a $17 million budget? Not bad at all. He returns to this series with Smile 2. But if there’s anything Joker: Folie á Deux taught us, it’s that just because a movie made a ton of money the first time, lightning doesn’t always strike twice. While we have yet to see how this sequel will fare at the box office, one thing is for sure: Parker Finn is a phenomenal filmmaker who has outdone himself.

Smile 2 is one of the best horror sequels ever made. Making a sequel to a successful horror movie is never an easy feat. Even the good ones are not as good as the original. But Smile 2 defies every expectation by being just as excellent as the first movie. Some may even say it’s better. For me, this film matches the quality by telling a new story with the same curse. The film starts six days after the end of the original, with Joel (Kyle Gallner) trying to get rid of the curse. This opening scene is breathtaking, all filmed in one long shot. There are complicated camera moves here, and it’s fantastic.

We meet Skye Riley, played by Naomi Scott. Skye is a famous pop musician, and we quickly learn her backstory. She’s instantly a compelling character as she is on the verge of a career comeback after a devastating incident the year before. The idea of making the protagonist a famous musician is a risk because these people are challenging for most audience members to relate to. You can sometimes feel a disconnect between her struggles and your own, but Finn’s script grounds her whenever it can.

Like the first movie, Finn spends a lot of time developing the protagonist. The sequel focuses almost entirely on new characters, so we have to care about everyone early on. Immersing yourself in these people is easy because the music sounds authentic. Scott is a talented musician, so she brings her excellent singing voice to Skye. She also has a flawless American accent while delivering some of the most intense scenes of the year. Her work in this movie is astonishing, as none of it looks easy.

Skye is afflicted with the same curse as Rose from the first movie. This is where the film risks being a retread. However, Skye is a famous pop star, so the stakes are more significant. She has to maintain her public image, so there’s much more at stake if she acts out publicly. Unfortunately for her, the entity is out to make her life a living hell. What makes the Smile movies so fantastic is that they are very psychological. This film is structured in a way where terrible things happen to Skye, but we’re constantly second-guessing whether it’s real or not.

I love horror movies that scare you by ruining the protagonist’s life. Both Smile movies do this, but they do it differently. Another wise decision is that since Skye is new to the curse, she doesn’t know how to get rid of it like Rose did. She needs to maintain her career while crumbling on the inside, and she soon finds no easy way to eliminate this curse. It’s tragic to see her struggle with it. This screenplay pushes the concept further than the original while offering all the scares you would expect.

Finn handles the scares perfectly. He’s a masterful horror director, and I can’t wait to see what else he does in his first-look deal with Paramount. Like the first movie, his jump scares are perfectly crafted. He builds so much dread and suspense. One example is a scene where Skye watches a video on her phone. The video keeps zooming into one dark area, and all you can do is lean back in your seat and brace yourself for what you may see. He knows the right moments to pull tension out of pure silence. Then, once we’re at our most quiet, he’s there to give you a free heart attack.

Smile 2 builds on the insanity of the first film by being an intense, gory sequel done right. Scott’s performance is nothing short of mesmerizing. The supporting cast does a superb job, and Finn’s dialogue feels organic for every character. No one should understate just how good Finn is at writing many characters (primarily female characters) and allowing them to all feel like different people with distinct voices. While there is one predictable element in the ending, there are many moments where Finn pulls the rug out from under you. This film will leave you gagged and gasping for air, and it’s one of the finest horror movies of 2024.

SCORE: 8/10

As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 8 equates to “Great.” While there are a few minor issues, this score means that the art succeeds at its goal and leaves a memorable impact.

Disclosure: ComingSoon attended a press screening for our Smile 2 review.

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Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield headline this classic romantic comedy-drama. We Live in Time follows the years-long love of Thomas (Garfield) and Almut (Pugh) in a nonlinear fashion. The film opens with Almut’s cancer diagnosis, and from there, we go to different moments in their lives that give us a peek into what kind of people they are and how they became these people. From John Crowley, director of films like Brooklyn and The Goldfinch, comes a beautiful tale that feels true to real life, absurd in all the right ways, and filled with grounded, heartbreaking performances.

From its opening scene, you understand what a tearjerker We Live in Time will be. Any film that deals with loved ones diagnosed with illnesses is heartbreaking, and it can be risky to start a movie by tearing you to pieces, but it works because this scene speaks to anyone who has lost someone important to them. The film depicts the initial shock and the challenging decisions that must be made afterward. From there, we go to their meet-cute and enter more moments where they mean everything to each other. 

The structure most resembles the screenplay for 500 Days of Summer, a rom-com that began with a couple breaking up and then went into a nonlinear structure that jumped around important moments in their relationship. The films are quite different, as that movie embraced a more comedic tone and did a better job of using its nonlinear structure for both laughs and depressing surprises. The nonlinear structure of We Live in Time feels a bit more frivolous, where we jump back and forth between many different periods without the decisions feeling too intentional or precise.

But We Live in Time excels primarily due to the charm of its two leads. Garfield and Pugh are two of the most famous actors working today, and it’s wonderful to see them paired together and finally allowed to use their British accents. They have exceptional, believable chemistry with each other, portraying this romance with a love that always feels grounded. Even in its more outlandish scenes, such as a childbirth in an unexpected location, the movie works well and succeeds in telling a romance that hits all the right notes.

This film has a pretty memorable meet-cute, and there are many small details throughout that allow their chemistry to speak for itself. Through each dialogue scene, we get a sense of their similarities and differences. We see all of the things that could tear these two apart, and we see them choose to fall in love with each other and stay together. Much like a real-life relationship, there are so many things that make each of them human, and the screenplay from writer Nick Payne does a brilliant job of allowing us to sit in the mistakes with each other as well as with the things Tobias and Almut get right.

Pugh and Garfield are exceptional actors. They manage to pull pure emotion not only out of their charming dialogue but also during the moments when they don’t say a word. The most talented performers can display a world of nuance through nothing more than a facial expression. Pugh and Garfield manage to not only get us to believe it but to also feel the pain we cannot bear to see them live through.

Because We Live in Time features a couple about to be torn apart by cancer, there are a few elements that feel familiar. Fans of movies like A Walk to Remember will leap for this movie, particularly because it pulls at the same emotions. This is a movie about a couple taking their time while time is being taken from them. Almut is a particularly tragic character because, despite the mistakes she makes, she is a person who wants to make something of her life before she dies. She’s sympathetic, and beyond it all, she’s a person.

This is an achingly beautiful film filled with heart. It will bring you joy and tears as it explores the spectacular highs of love and how amazing it can feel while also showing how emotional it can be when something tragic happens to the person who matters the most to you. A particular poignant sequence in We Live in Time is one where they try to conceive. It’s funny and cute, and it’s a standout in a film that works wonders. Although it can sometimes feel like you’re watching a 107-minute montage, it’s a warm hug of a montage that you won’t be able to get enough of.

SCORE: 8/10

As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 8 equates to “Great.” While there are a few minor issues, this score means that the art succeeds at its goal and leaves a memorable impact.

Disclosure: ComingSoon attended a press screening for our We Live in Time review.

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In 2019, Todd Phillips pushed the limits of comic book adaptations with Joker, a mature character study inspired by Martin Scorsese’s work in Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy. This controversial film garnered significant recognition, including an Academy Award for Joaquin Phoenix as the titular lead. The picture’s ambiguous ending would have sealed a beautiful standalone entry in an oversaturated market of cinematic universes.

But any movie that grosses over $1 billion at the box office needs a sequel. And — really — who better to make a sequel than the man who made The Hangover Part II and III? Surely, nothing could go wrong here. I present to you Joker: Folie á Deux.

How do you follow that first movie? Phillips takes a big swing here by making this into a musical. Unfortunately, he forgot to make it into a good one. Music sensation Lady Gaga has had a superb acting career lately in A Star is Born and House of Gucci, and she’s a genius casting choice for Harleen “Lee” Quinn. While this movie’s depiction differs from Margot Robbie’s interpretation or anything from the cartoons, Gaga has a lot of screen presence as this character. Phoenix got an Oscar for his work as Arthur Fleck the first time, and while he won’t be taking home the gold this time, his performance feels like an excellent continuation of the first movie.

But Joker: Folie á Deux is the rare movie that genuinely feels like it was made for nobody. The first Joker’s target demographic is generally not musical lovers. Musical lovers and Gaga fans may show up to this film only to be horrified by how poor the music is. Phoenix is no singer and doesn’t always keep up with Gaga’s talent. At first, it’s a fascinating choice because Arthur first sees Lee when she sings, so he sings to communicate with her. An early dance number is excellent because it starts as this twisted whirlwind romance featuring two psychopaths who are perfect for each other.

But the musical choice is a risk that doesn’t pay off for me. The first film was a very grounded character study, so it’s a significant departure to have this movie go full-fledged fantastical musical. If the music were excellent, I wouldn’t mind. But after a while, many musical numbers add nothing to the story. They mainly happen in fantasy sequences in Joker’s mind, and each musical number disrupts the story’s pacing. They don’t advance the plot because they’re essentially extended dream sequences.

Glimpsing into Arthur’s mind worked in the first movie, because we were misled into believing he had a girlfriend. When the rug is pulled out from underneath us, and we see it was a fantasy, we feel the betrayal of his mind. But since we know that all the musical sequences are in his head, it feels like filler. Nothing new is discovered during these scenes, and they’re not entertaining enough to be enjoyable. The song choices work occasionally, but they’re hit or miss. They’re acceptable when you watch them, but they don’t leave enough impact.

Joker: Folie á Deux is a one-part musical, one-part courtroom drama. The courtroom drama stuff is surprisingly dull. There are no rousing court scenes because these scenes are primarily characters recapping the first film’s events. We already saw the first movie, so we don’t need to be reminded of what happened in that movie. It gets painful because this sequel chooses to revel in the events of the first movie instead of creating a new story. As a result, this film lacks any momentum. We are trapped in a courtroom with almost no new information being given to us.

One of the most absurd things about this film is that the production budget is $200 million, a considerable step up from the original’s $55-70 million budget. This movie feels smaller in scale than the first. Most of the film is set in two locations: the courtroom and the prison. Brendan Gleeson appears as a prison guard, but it doesn’t feel like his character matters much by the end.

Speaking of unimportant characters, Lee feels surprisingly unnecessary. The main storyline surrounds Arthur’s trial for the murders he committed in the first movie, but Lee’s presence has no bearing on this narrative.

Lee exists solely as a motivator for Arthur. She makes Arthur feel seen. But Arthur’s goal in the movie is to be free, and Lee does not change that very much. He strives towards the dream of running away with Lee, but this motivation feels weak. It doesn’t feel like anything of consequence happens until the final act. Even the rich themes of the first film (mental health and class) get drowned out by the long musical numbers. All we have are faint echoes of what the original movie wanted to scream. At some point, you just want the characters to stop singing and do something impactful. Joker: Folie á Deux gets there in its final moments, but it’s too little, too late.

SCORE: 3/10

As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 3 equates to “Bad.” Due to significant issues, this media feels like a chore to take in.

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