Author: Caillou Pettis

Stanley Sugerman’s (Adam Sandler) love for basketball is unparalleled, but the travel weary Philadelphia 76ers scout who has higher ambitions of being a coach remains stuck on the road looking for the next unknown talent. His search around the world leads him to Spain, when he discovers Bo Cruz (NBA player Juancho Hernangómez), an incredible streetball player with a troubled past.

Stanley and Bo connect on and off the court, with their passion for the game and as loving family men who want to prove they can win, in basketball and in life. With the support of Stanley’s wife, Teresa (Queen Latifah), can the underdogs come out on top?

Boy does it ever feel amazing to watch a genuinely good Adam Sandler movie. The A-list actor has starred in a plethora of films spanning several decades, and despite the fact that he is one of the most recognizable actors in the world, let’s be fair – he stars in a lot of hot garbage. Pixels, Jack & Jill, and Grown Ups are just a few of the absolutely atrocious films the actor has starred in over the years.

But every so often, Sandler shocks the world by delivering a serious performance in a dramatic film, proving that he actually can work magic in front of the camera if he’s given the right material to work with. Easily my favorite dramatic role of his has to be in 2019’s Uncut Gems, which is quite possibly the most unbearably tense film I’ve ever seen in my life. Ever since watching that film when it was released and revisiting it numerous times, I’ve been craving another good dramatic Sandler performance.

Finally, it’s here. Jeremiah Zagar‘s Hustle may be a formulaic and by-the-book sports drama, but it finds some clever ways to tug at the heartstrings and will make you feel deeply inspired by the end. Even if you’ve never touched a basketball in your life, it’s nearly impossible to not smile and get invested in this storyline. A large part of why this movie works as well as it does is because of Adam Sandler’s work here as Stanley Sugarman, who wants to be the best coach possible for a promising young player.

Early on in the film, he watches the player – Bo Cruz – absolutely destroy his opponents on the court, but he’s not playing professionally. Sugarman sees this as a huge wasted opportunity and tells him he has what it takes to get to the NBA, and now we have a setup for a movie. Of course, it’s not as easy as simply getting into the NBA. The biggest issue with Cruz is that he lets a lot of things get to his head.

There is one player in particular that always gets on his case by making insults about his family and daughter, which riles him up. Sugarman does his best to tell him to ignore him, but it doesn’t always work. But whenever his head is clear, Cruz is an all-star on the court. Together, Sugarman and Cruz have to find a way to make it work or else Cruz won’t be able to get into the NBA.

It’s a legitimately intense movie even though it can definitely be a little bit predictable at times, and contains an ending that you will see coming a mile away. This movie doesn’t really do anything to reshape sports dramas as we know them, but it still manages to be deeply investing along the way. Sandler is fantastic in the role of Stanley Sugarman, as is Juancho Hernangómez as Bo Cruz. These two have incredible chemistry together, and the vast majority of their scenes are highly emotional and exhilarating.

You’re not going to watch Hustle and find it to be a game-changer. It’s a formulaic sports drama that goes by the book, but it’s still a relentlessly entertaining, inspiring, and oftentimes hilarious film with some great lead performances.

Matthew Reilly‘s Interceptor is one of the most fascinating movies of the entire year. It is absolutely absurd and completely ridiculous in virtually every single scene, but that’s honestly one of the biggest reasons why I had such a fun time watching it. The movie never once takes itself too seriously and that’s a great thing because if it did, this would have easily been one of the most embarrassing misfires of the entire year.

I’ve already seen plenty of people online calling this movie trash but, hear me out – this movie is one of the most fun times you can have watching a movie so far in the year. The script – written by Reilly and Stuart Beattie – gives us a simple concept with a simple and extremely formulaic plot. But they know it’s formulaic. They know it’s something we have seen done a million times before, but they make it fun with the dialogue and the action.

The dialogue here is insane. So many characters will say things that are the definition of try-hard badass movie character lines. It seemed as if Reilly and Beattie wanted to make every single quote in this movie the most badass quote imaginable. This may sound extremely cringe-worthy and tedious, but it’s actually kind of amusing and wholesome in a strange way.

But something that legitimately surprised me here was just how much tension the movie had. Deep down inside my brain, I knew where the story was going (because it’s easily one of the most predictable movies of the year), but that still didn’t stop me from being genuinely tensed up during pivotal moments.

And Reilly definitely knows how to direct action and make it look easy. I’m actually shocked by how great the action in this movie is, because, let’s be real, this is a Netflix movie. It seems as if there are five new Netflix original films a week, and so as a result, it is entirely possible for these films to just be churned out without any thought or care being put into the project. Thankfully, lots of care was put into the action here.

There isn’t a single scene of shaky cam – it’s all in camera. All of the punches and gunfire moments are incredibly fun to watch and smartly choreographed. Are they over the top in every conceivable way? You bet. But are these moments outstandingly entertaining to watch? Also, yes.

Nobody is going to watch Interceptor and say it’s one of the best movies ever made. Heck, nobody is going to say it’s one of the best movies of the last month even, but it’s still a highly enjoyable, ridiculous little action movie that I’m extremely happy even got made.

The film follows Stargirl’s journey out of Mica, Arizona and into a bigger world of music, dreams and possibilities. When her mother Ana (Judy Greer) is hired as the costume designer on a movie, they relocate to L.A., where Stargirl quickly becomes involved with an eclectic assortment of characters. They include aspiring filmmaking brothers Evan (Elijah Richardson) and Terrell (Tyrel Jackson Williams); Mr. Mitchell (Judd Hirsch), one of Stargirl’s neighbors; and Roxanne Martel (Uma Thurman), a musician Stargirl admires and encounters on her journey.

Julia Hart‘s Stargirl was one of the most surprisingly great movies of 2020. Who would’ve thought that a film focused on a strange girl who loves to play ukelele and sing songs at her school could be so emotional and investing? It was based on Jerry Spinelli’s novel of the same name, which is also quite terrific.

My love for the first film made me quite excited to see where Hart would go with her sequel film, Hollywood Stargirl. But, interestingly, it does not follow the events of Spinelli’s sequel novel Love, Stargirl, instead telling a brand new story focusing on the titular character.

How is it? Well… sadly, I was disappointed immensely. It has the same feel-good vibe of the first film, but it also doesn’t feel nowhere near as authentic which left me feeling as if there was a massive hole in my heart. Stargirl had so much heart, humor, and emotion where as Hollywood Stargirl just has some heart.

Interestingly, the film doesn’t even really have that much of a story either. The first film was about Stargirl trying to find out who she truly was as a person. It took a lot of trial and error but she eventually got there by the time the end credits rolled. In this sequel, she just desperately wants to make a movie and be a big star, and I just couldn’t help but wonder “Who cares?”.

Unless you are the ultimate superfan of Stargirl, you’re probably going to find yourself bored out of your mind for the vast majority of this follow-up. One thing that immensely surprised me was that the film was written by the same screenwriters of the first. So… why in the world is this film so much worse?

The dialogue is also a huge problem here, too. There are plenty of cringe-worthy scenes in here that just made me feel so weird inside, including a scene in which Stargirl is performing a song in a club full of people, and nobody is doing anything. They’re just sitting there staring at her.

Later on, an old man looks right at her and literally calls her “Hollywood Stargirl.” Roll credits. I just couldn’t help but feel hugely disconnected from the story this time around.

Gratefully, the performances here are great. Grace VanderWaaal is once again fantastic in the role of Stargirl, giving it her all and then some. You can truly see the passion she has for the character shine through in every scene, and it’s hard not to smile when she’s being herself on screen.

Uma Thurman is also in this film, delivering an unexpected yet great performance, although I do wish she had a little bit more screen time and more things to do.

Hollywood Stargirl has shimmers of greatness sprinkled in every so often, but for the most part, it’s a huge disappointment that doesn’t live up to the first.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5HjvOZW_VA

A tale of two legendary revolutionaries and their journey far away from home. After their journey they return home to start fighting back against British colonialists in the 1920s.

For whatever reason, I never find myself watching movies such as RRR. I always tend to watch the massive movies that are on everyone’s radar or independent art-house-style movies, but after hearing a ton of praise for RRR, I knew that I had to see what all the hype was about. After watching the film, I can certainly tell you that director S. S. Rajamouli had some humongous ideas for this story, but sadly, not all of them work.

RRR is way too long for starters. It’s three hours and five minutes long, and yet by the time the film was over, I felt as if I had just watched an entire season of a television series. The film is a lot to take in, and not all of it is needed. In fact, there were several scenes in the film that could have easily been removed and it wouldn’t have affected the overall story whatsoever. The pacing here is extremely slow, and many scenes drag on for way longer than they need to.

And for some reason, there are a handful of strange dance/musical numbers injected into this film that feel totally out of place seeing as how this is, at its core, an action movie. That’s why it’s genuinely confusing why, in one scene, we will see a man wrestling with a tiger, and then in the next, see a group of people having a blast, dancing their worries away on the streets. Is it entertaining to watch? Absolutely. But that doesn’t mean it makes sense for this kind of story.

But that’s not to say RRR is a bad movie because it’s really not. The overall story is quite good, and by the time the film ends, you’ll definitely be moved and that’s mainly because of the relationship between the two brotherly leads. They are incredibly charismatic and so much fun to watch. They’re also just so charming to watch. It’s quite easy to be swept away into the characters alone, even if the story as a whole feels painfully slow.

Also, whenever there is an action scene, boy is it ever crazy. Seriously. The choreography here is truly top-of-the-line and sometimes utterly jaw-dropping. To be completely honest with you, RRR is one of the most chaotic movies I have seen in my entire life. So many things happen in this movie that you’d have to watch it several times in order to fully describe everything that happens in it.

The problem, though, is that the film is not entertaining enough to warrant a rewatch. This movie should have been two hours and that’s it. The three-hour length is way too much to take, especially for this kind of story. The movie never once feels like it needs to be as long as it is. RRR is a wildly entertaining film with great leads and excellent action, but it sadly suffers from a bloated length and a story that never gets too engaging.