Author: Caillou Pettis

Charlie’s Angels 2019: The BRWC Review. When a systems engineer blows the whistle on a dangerous technology, Charlie’s Angels from across the globe consisting of Sabina Wilson (Kristen Stewart), Elena Houghlin (Naomi Scott), and Jane Kano (Ella Balinska) are called into action, putting their lives on the line to protect society.

Fans of the original Charlie’s Angels television series that ran from 1976 to 1981, as well as fans of the 2000 McG directed film of the same title should go into this new Elizabeth Banks-directed reboot knowing one thing – this is an extremely silly movie.

But the people that do enjoy those aforementioned titles probably already knew that this was going to be a silly movie – it’s just that general audiences may not be aware of this. Charlie’s Angels is not supposed to be in the same vein as blockbuster franchises such as the James Bond 007 franchise or the Mission: Impossible one. If I had to compare this film to an already existing film, it would easily be 2018’s Oceans 8.

That was a movie that I overall enjoyed, but it most certainly had its fair share of issues and was far from perfect. While Charlie’s Angels can feel a bit uneven at times and suffers from issues, it ends up culmunating in a feel-good, exciting and charming flick that will win over audiences all over, as long as they go into it with the right mindset.

Let’s get the issues with Charlie’s Angels right out of the gate. The first act of this film is extremely slow and rocky. For a while, I was genuinely concerned that the movie would never get better because for the first little bit, not a whole lot of interest happens. It mostly consists of shots of city skylines and fast cars driving around in various locations with the music of artists like Ariana Grande and Normani playing in the background. For some, this will make for some fun moments and will be enjoyable to listen to. But for me, these scenes just seemed out of place, at least for a while. It took me a while to embrace this film’s overall tone.

Don’t get me wrong, there are a few things that happen in the first act, but besides maybe one or two incidents, it is mainly dull. Gratefully, the second and third acts improve greatly and it eventually becomes a highly fun, adventurous and witty experience that I enjoyed.

The writing is also something that I was a bit iffy of for some portions of the picture. Sometimes, these characters say things that just sound too corny, even if the source material itself is goofy. The movie never takes itself too seriously which can be both a positive and a negative, strangely.

But let’s talk about the Angels themselves – Stewart, Scott, and Balinska. They are absolutely terrific here thankfully. These are my personal favorite interpretations of the Angels on screen so far. The chemistry that they all have together feels so genuine and not like they are acting. It actually felt like I was watching a group of three women who have been friends together their whole lives do crazy things together. 

One of the best aspects of the Angels themselves is the fact that they have banter with each other too. They do not always get along with each other one hundred percent of the time, and to see their conversations on certain situations was much needed and highly entertaining. In fact, I actually kind of wish that we saw more scenes of the Angels just talking to one another. Who knows? Maybe if this film performs well enough at the box office, we will actually get a sequel. A sequel that I feel would be warranted and one that I want.

Despite a bumpy first act, and an occasionally dull script, there’s no denying Charlie’s Angels 2019 is a highly entertaining, adventurous, and funny time at the movies.

As Kris Kringle (Bryan Brendle) prepares to retire as Santa and pass on the reins to his son Nick (Bill Hader), the stress of his future role begins to get to him. When his sister Noelle (Anna Kendrick) suggests that he take a weekend off, Nick abandons his job completely. Noelle faces the world outside the North Pole for the first time when she follows him to try to convince him to return to work. Meanwhile, their ill-prepared cousin Gabriel (Billy Eichner) steps up and prepares to turn Santa’s workshop into an online delivery service.

It seems like now is the time of year that we will be getting a whole plethora of Christmas/holiday related movies, and for me, that is certainly no issue. With the recent release of the delightfully fun Paul Feig film Last Christmas, comes yet another holiday film titled Noelle, written and directed by Marc Lawrence.

This was something I was genuinely concerned about before watching this movie – Lawrence’s involvement. He has directed such movies as the Miss Congeniality series, Two Weeks Notice, and Did You Hear About The Morgans?; a list of films that are just not my cup of tea for numerous reasons. Noelle is additionally a Disney+ original film, and that was also a concern, as a large portion of these streaming service exclusive movies can turn out to be quite bad.

While Noelle is most definitely not going to reinjuvinate the Christmas genre of films, it is surprisingly a picture with quite a bit of heart, a couple of good laughs, and an amazing message that will not only resonate with the children that watch it, but the adults as well.

Anna Kendrick has been an actress that has consistently been in movies that I have been pleasently surprised by, and Noelle is one that I can add to that list. Ever since I saw her in the Pitch Perfect franchise, as well as last year’s excellent A Simple Favor, I have taken notice of how great Kendrick is as an actress and she is also a terrific singer. In this movie, she portrays Kris Kringle’s energetic, joyous daughter that loves to spread the Christmas spirit around to everybody around her, and she is an incredibly lovable character.

Although her character development does not get explored too much, she still manages to be a character that we genuinely do root for all the way to the closing frames. Noelle’s brother Nick is a funny addition to the cast as well, with Hader showing yet again how strong he is as a comedic actor. Whenever he was on screen, it was hard not to just smile and have fun at Bill Hader dressing up as Santa Claus. What is there not to love about that?

Of course, Noelle does have quite a few issues, such as its script. There really is nothing extremely interesting going on in this movie whatsoever. It was not really an investing story, but moreso of a fun and charming one that was enjoyable to watch. Most of the story can be highly predictable, and it can be easy to see where certain plot points will go early on. Plus, the humor in the film is a mixed bag. It can be quite funny at times, but at certain moments, it can get dry and repetitive. But that does not prevent this from being a good viewing experience.

The aspect of this movie that impressed me the most was its moral of the story – that Christmas is about spreading love and joy to all, and not just receiving presents, but also giving them out. Yes, this message has been said time and time again in movies and in real life, but Noelle manages to tell it in an effective and emotionally strong way that will bring holiday cheer to its viewers.

Noelle‘s fun and likeable leads in Anna Kendrick and Bill Hader, plus its charming and heartwarming message gratefully save it from being a lump of coal.

Last Christmas: The BRWC Review. Nothing seems to go right for young Kate (Emilia Clarke), a frustrated Londoner who works as an elf in a year-round Christmas shop. But things soon take a turn for the better when she meets Tom Webster (Henry Golding) — a handsome charmer who seems too good to be true. As the city transforms into the most wonderful time of the year, Tom and Kate’s growing attraction turns into the best gift of all — a Yuletide romance.

As the Christmas/holiday season is quickly approaching, many people love nothing more than to watch their favorite holiday themed movie this time of year. Some people, like myself, like to do Christmas movie marathons – binging what we consider to be the greatest holiday films in celebration of the holiday. Even when some Christmas films are not always the greatest films in the world, I think we can all agree that a lot of them are so incredibly fun to watch. They make us feel warm and fuzzy inside and get us in the joyous spirit.

That is not to say that there is no such thing as an amazing Christmas movie, though. It’s A Wonderful Life has gone down as a classic since its release and Christmas Vacation is a non-stop laugh riot. This is why I was quite thrilled to check out Paul Feig’s latest feature Last Christmas – it looked like it had all the great ingredients for a fun Christmas treat.

Feig is a director that I admire deeply. He has made such gems as last year’s A Simple Favor and Bridesmaids, and even though his 2016 Ghostbusters reboot was met with a wave of controversy by audiences and critics alike, that is a film that I greatly respect, because Feig took a giant creative risk. Whether it paid off or not is subject to the viewer, but I love it when a filmmaker is not afraid to try something new and do their best to make it work. Gratefully, Last Christmas is yet another win for Feig, as this is a gleefully fun and charming picture that will surely get viewers into the holiday spirit.

Emilia Clarke stars as Kate in this film, a young woman who is incredibly unlucky and works at a Christmas shop, and her boss goes by the name “Santa”. Her love life is awful and practically every day is a struggle for her to get through. But as the movie progresses, we start to see little glimpses of Kate trying to better herself, especially after meeting Henry Golding’s character Tom.

Clarke is without a doubt one of the greatest actresses working today and one of the best of the generation. She is able to bring such charisma to each and every one of her roles, and no matter what character she is playing, she does a great job at playing them. I have yet to see Clarke deliver a weak performance. Here, she is full of wit and energy, and is extremely likeable. We genuinely do root for her from beginning to end.

This is also an extraordinarily funny movie. The script by Emma Thompson and Bryony Kimmings is whip-smart and there is a ton of things to like about it. There is something of interest or humor happening for the majority of the picture. This is the hardest I have laughed during a movie in a long time.

However, there are definitely some scenes in Last Christmas that drag quite a bit. There are some sequences, particularly in the second act of the film, that just are not that interesting and the movie’s humor dips here as well. The pacing of this movie is really its biggest issue. There were a couple of scenes towards the end, where it felt like the movie could have ended a scene or two earlier, as well.

After watching a whole plethora of dark and depressing movies, it is extremely refreshing to watch something like Last Christmas. This is far from being a perfect movie, but it gave me everything that I wanted from it. I wanted to watch a fun Christmas comedy, and it certainly succeeded on that aspect.

Last Christmas makes up for its flaws with a deeply funny script, a sense of great fun and holiday charm, and a terrific performance from Emilia Clarke.

Doctor Sleep: The BRWC Review

Struggling with alcoholism, Danny “Dan” Torrance (Ewan McGregor) remains traumatized by the sinister events that occurred at the Overlook Hotel when he was a child. His hope for a peaceful existence soon becomes shattered when he meets Abra Stone (Kyliegh Curran), a teen who shares his extrasensory gift of the “shine.” Together, they form an unlikely alliance to battle the True Knot, a cult lead by Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson), whose members try to feed off the shine of innocents to become immortal.

Let’s just get this right out of the gate – Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror film The Shining is one of the greatest films ever made. It is my second favorite movie of all time, and continues to be an influential masterpiece for audiences all around the world. Virtually everything about that picture was utterly flawless and will chill viewers for decades more. Whenever a film released almost fourty years ago still manages to be influential, you know something had to be done right.

As I adore The Shining, you can probably imagine how excited I was to see Mike Flanagan’s new follow-up feature Doctor Sleep, which takes place after the events of the predecessor with a grown up Danny Torrance. This was more than likely one of my most anticipated movies of all time. Besides the all-star cast that consists of the likes of Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, and Cliff Curtis, one of the most promising aspects of the film was Flanagan not only writing the screenplay, but helming the picture as well.

He is quite simply one of the greatest horror filmmakers of this generation. With excellent films already under his belt such as Oculus, Ouija: Origin of Evil, and last year’s Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House, he is somebody that all horror afficionados should take more notice of. If anybody can do a Shining sequel right, it had to be Flanagan. Doctor Sleep is not only one of the best films of the year, but it is a terrific film in its own right. As a sequel to The Shining, this is about as good as it gets.

All of the performances here as truly brilliant and are some of the best performances of the whole year. McGregor is the perfect grown up Danny Torrance. He has been through a world of pain due to the events at the Overlook Hotel during his childhood, and growing up, became an alcoholic, just like his father Jack. Seeing him struggle with alcoholism throughout and try to better himself constantly was depressing and suspenseful simultaneously. We always root for Dan here, and he is an extraordinarily likeable protagonist for this story.

Rebecca Ferguson portrays main antagonist Rose the Hat, who leads the deadly cult the True Knot, whose primary goal is to feed off of those individuals that possess the power of the “shine”. They believe that by feeding off people that are gifted (or cursed) with “the shining” that they will live much longer lives and constantly seek out new victims to live as long as they possibly can. When they discover that Abra Stone has an incredibly strong shine, she is the True Knot’s next target, and Danny has to do his best to protect her. These moments were truly riveting and some of the things Flanagan does with this story made me thrilled.

Speaking of Abra Stone, her actress counterpart Kyliegh Curran is without a doubt of the most impressive child actors I have seen in recent years. This is a highly demanding role, especially for such a young actor, and a lot of child actors would have immense difficulty portraying a character this complex. But not Kyliegh Curran. She almost makes it look easy in Doctor Sleep. Her dynamic with Dan Torrance was one of the most powerful aspects in this film, and there are some sequences involving Abra and Dan that made me extremely excited, especially as a fan of The Shining.

This is also one of the most breathtaking features of the year, with the director of photography being Michael Fimognari, who has been a long time collaborator of Flanagan’s. But this may just be his most gorgeous looking film to date. Every shot in Doctor Sleep is carefully thought-out and planned incredibly well. The camera work here is remarkable.

In The Shining, one of the biggest reasons why the film was so creepy and unsettling, and continues to be to this day, is because of the masterful score by Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind. Although this new score by The Newton Brothers is not as strong or effective as the one used in The Shining, it is still effective. In fact, there were a number of times in which this score gave me chills down by entire body.

Something potential viewers should know before seeing Doctor Sleep is that this is not at all a convential horror film that many may be used to. There is not any loud jump scares or any traditional horror beats here. If anything, this is more of a character study with amazing moments of true tension and horror elements. Also, people should be aware that this movie is in no way better than Kubrick’s The Shining, but crafting a film better than that would be a nearly impossible task. Instead, this is an incredible follow-up to that film, and that is quite honestly all that it needed to be.

Doctor Sleep is an utterly bone-chilling, skillfully acted, tension filled masterpiece that serves as an incredible sequel to The Shining.

Parasite: The BRWC Review. Greed and class discrimination threaten the newly formed symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan.

For the past few months now, all I have seen on my social media feeds, has been posts about how amazing Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is. Many have called it not only one of the greatest films of the year, but one of the greatest of the entire decade. The hype surrounding this picture, especially in the film community, has been intense to say the least.

You can probably see why I was so excited to finally be able to get my opportunity to check it out this past weekend. I expected Parasite to be a really good movie, but Parasite is a really good movie. It is one that will keep you enthralled throughout its running time, and will leave you feeling disturbed, haunted, and confused – but in a good way.

All of the acting present here is absolutely brilliant. Some of the true standouts however are Song Kang-ho and Choi Woo-shik as Kim Ki-taek and Kim Ki-woo respectively. They bring an astounding level of nuance and intensity to their performances and every single frame with them is filled with tension.

On the surface, Parasite may seem like a simple film with a simple concept, but I promise you that it is the furthest thing from that. It is extremely layered and is riddled with relevant themes and is genuinely one of the most thought-provoking features of the decade. A large portion of the movies released in this day and age do not leave a lasting impression on you. That does not mean that those are bad films, but it means that they will more than likely not resonate with you for a long time afterwards. Sure, they may be fun and enjoyable, but in the long run, they just will not be in your brain.

Parasite will be on my mind for an incredibly long time. Joon-ho is a filmmaker that has a miraculous story to tell and he tells it with breathtaking skill and expertise. The moment that this picture ended, I felt incredibly disturbed, thrilled, and emotional all at the same time. If Parasite does not end up getting nominated at the upcoming Academy Awards ceremony in 2020, it would be an utter travesty. Films this rich and complex only come so often, and for it to go unrecognized come awards season would be depressing to be honest.

It is also a gorgeously shot feature by director of photography Hong Kyung-pyo. Virtually every shot in Parasite has something interesting happening on screen. In fact, this is one of the most stunning movies of the year.

However, I do have one minor nitpick with the film, and while yes, it is extremely minor, it was something that bothered me a little bit, and so I feel that I should mention that here. In the third act of Parasite, it did strain quite a bit of credibility for me with the way the story went, more particularly the last few minutes. Certain things happen to characters that just came across as unrealistic, sadly. The rest of the film was utterly masterful, but the ending did not feel grounded like the rest of the picture.

Parasite is a wholly riveting experience with an astonishingly gripping story that is rich with complex themes, developed characters, and brilliant direction.