Beast

Through the decades we have experienced many boxing films, i.e. "Rocky", "Raging Bull", "The Fighter", "Southpaw", "Creed" and others, however "Beast" is one of the first MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) films that has come along. This film comes across as something that is similar to the format of a boxing film, but clearly is not. And with this, it's about redemption, revenge, soul-searching and fear, elements that typically boxing films deal with.

After years away from the cage, a once-feared MMA champion, Patton James (Daniel McPherson) is pulled back in for the fight of his life when his younger brother, Malon (Mojean Aria) is put in danger. Reuniting with the trainer who once made him a legend, Sammy (Russell Crowe), he commits to one final showdown against the reigning title holder--Xavier Grau (Bren Foster), a brutal fighter determined to dismantle the ex-champ's legacy in front of the world. Along with Sammy, he has his MMA fighter daughter, Rose (Amy Shark) to assist him in the training. Pushed to Patton's  breaking point, the contender's stakes are simple: win, or lose everything he's built. 

Others to round out the cast are Luke Hemsworth as Gabriel, Kelly Gale as Luciana, Patton's wife, George Burgess as Neal, Matt Nable as Barry, Nathan Phillips as Skipper, Saphira Moran as Nadine and Eliza Matengu as Toni. 

This was directed with grit and intensity by Tyler Atkins ("Ocean Boy" '22) plus a short. Even though this filmmaker doesn't have a plethora of experience, he was still able to convince his audience of the peril, the grittiness and pathos of this contender trying to balance his marriage, his family and career all the while having to fight for his life in that cage. This director's sequencing and staging was amazing. He will undoubtedly receive more work. It was penned well by writers David Frigerio ("Wreckage" '10, "The Signal" '14, "Crypto" '19, "Land of Bad" '24) plus a short and Russell Crowe ("Poker Face" '22), based on a story by David Frigerio. Before I viewed this film, I was expecting basically a modern day "Rocky", with the trainer coming back to retrain a contender, Rocky, however after seeing this, it was definitely different in its approach and format in what needed to transpire beyond the re-connection between the two. The script obtained a couple of small places of slowness, however all in all, the story, in a short while, did find its footing, and became a very captivating sports film. This was well cast, especially of that of Daniel McPherson as Patton. I've never heard of him--maybe he's more known in Australia--the locale of the film, but he gave a riveting performance. Between the photography and stunts, this carried the audience throughout. And I've never seen Luke Hemsworth, the older brother of Chris and Liam, in a role before, even though he is an actor in his home country of Australia. 

If you like action sports films, this will be a knockout (pun intended). It has action, fear, challenges, high-adrenaline and redemption all rolled up into a nice way to spend a couple of hours. It has an eclectic, but effective cast that will intrigue.

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                                        Rated: R                                        115mins.

You, Me & Tuscany

Typically, the genre of romantic comedies, or romcoms as they are often called are unoriginal, banal projects that fall flat because of their predictability, but there have been a handful that are actually executed well depending on all the ingredients, i.e. acting, directing and especially writing. "You, Me & Tuscany" is one that is basically predictable, while still entertaining us.

Sometimes the wrong place is right where you need to be. From the Will Packer productions comes an interesting romcom about one little lie, one large Italian villa, and two people getting lost in the sauce of love. Halle Bailey stars as Anna Montgomery, a young woman who has abandoned her dreams of becoming a chef and is now drifting through her twenties with a series of bad choices. When Anna loses her house-sitting job (and housing) in one fell swoop, a chance encounter with Matteo (Lorenzo De Moor)--a handsome Italian who happens to have a villa sitting empty in Tuscany--will inspire her to jet off for Italy, against the advice of her always honest bestie, Claire (Aziza Scott). But Anna's plan to crash at Matteo's villa, without permission, just for one night, falls apart when Matteo's mother, Gabriella (Isabella Ferrari) shows up at the house unexpectedly. In a panic, Anna allows Gabriella to believe that she is Matteo's fiance. That little lie becomes a big problem, though, when Matteo's cousin, Michael (Rege-Jean Page) shows up, and Anna discovers that the heat between them may ignite a fire that will transform her life. 

Others to round out the cast are Stefania Casini as Nonna Alessia, Desiree Pooper as Isabella, Stella Pecollo as Francesca, Paolo Sassanelli as Vincenzo, Tommaso Cassissa as Enzo, Luca Setaccioli as Leo and Emanuele Pacca as Giuseppe.

This was directed with heart and wit by Kat Coiro ("Life Happens" '11, "And While We Were Here" '12, "A Case of You" '13, "Daddy Issues" (TV movie) '18, "Happy Accident" (TV movie) '19, "Marry Me" '22) plus TV, shorts a video and a music video. As with a seasoned resume which has certainly served her, she definitely knew how to sequence, stage and pace this film. It being shot in New York and Tuscany, the sequencing was effortless in its conveyance. It was also effectively written by Ryan Engle ("Non-Stop" '14, "The Commuter" '18, "Rampage" '18, "Breaking In" '18, "Beast" '22) plus a short, based on a story by Ryan Engle and Kristin Engle.  This film started out a bit rocky whereas the story started as an extremely predictable premise, as with most romcoms. It was simply meandering and was written in a way that one could basically mouth the words. But then, as the film went to Tuscany and other eclectic characters were introduced, the plot then started to pick up and it ultimately became the film they and we were looking for. The Italian cast turned an otherwise fair story into something fresh and quite humorous in how the story was being conveyed. Certainly the chemistry between Michael (Page) and Anna (Bailey) was incredibly well matched. The other aspect that saved the film was also its location in Tuscany--breathtaking!

Certainly, if you like romcoms in general, you'll love this, and with the eclectic characters and beautiful locales, you'll be in romcom heaven. With a seasoned director and writer and a great cast, this was a fun film for all to enjoy.

Out of 4 Stars: 3                                       Rated: PG                                       105mins.

Fantasy Life

Comedy/drama, or dramedies as I like to call them have become more popularized through the years, and usually are very well artistically achieved. I believe this particular genre was started or was prolific in the Woody Allen era, whereas comedy/dramas were something Allen either created or allowed this concept to be known. So, now we have "Fantasy Life" in the offing mixing dry humor with drama amongst several dysfunctional individuals. 

This story centers around an anxious law school dropout, Sam Stein (Matthew Shear) as he stumbles into a job babysitting his psychiatrist, Fred's (Judd Hirsch) three granddaughters and falls for the girls' mother, Dianne Cohen (Amanda Peet), an actress in a rocky marriage to David Finman (Alessandro Nivola), all while attempting to manage his life due to the panic attacks he constantly fights with little success. This is a smart, New York--set romantic comedy with a heaping amount of dysfunction to carry one through the story. 

Others to round out the cast are Bob Balaban as Lenny, Andrea Martin as Helen Finman, David's mother, Zosia Mamet as Jenny, Holland Taylor as Dr. Mary Greene, Jessica Harper as Toby Seltzer, Romy Fay as Zoe Finman, Callie Santoro as Claire Finman and Riley Vinson as Emma Finman, all three as David and Dianne's kids and Alana Raquel Bowers as Lauren Waters.

This was surprisingly well directed by Matthew Shear (acting). This being his first outing behind the camera is better than one would think considering his limited experience. He, like other actors, is obviously attempting to transition from in front of the camera to behind--even though he did star in this, assuming he keeps to this pattern, he could join the club of others, i.e. Clint Eastwood, Ron Howard, Bradley Cooper, George Clooney, John Krasinski, etc. The directing was a bit slow in its pacing, but given more work, he'll only improve. It was executed well by writer  Matthew Shear (acting). Again, with no other writing experience under his belt, this writer was able to capture the pure dysfunction of his character as well as others. Even though the running time was only approximately 90 minutes, it was still a bit long-in-the-tooth. There could have been a good 5 minutes cut from the final and still obtain the impact that Shear was trying to convey. The character development along with the acting was probably the best aspect of this film and kudos to Shear for that. Seriously, if given more work, i.e. writing and directing, this filmmaking could only improve since he has the raw talent. Certainly his acting has served him well in being able to commit himself to such an undertaking'

If the 'Woody Allen' style of comedy/drama works for you. this will hit a home run. The acting and characters in this are well developed and are distinct in their interactions with one another. If this is Shear's first outing in the writing and directing field, I would be interested to see what he creates next.

Out of 4 Stars: 3                                        Rated: R                                     91mins.

A Great Awakening

Many times in ones' life do two remarkable individuals meet and spark , in many cases, an unlikely friendship, and we are made privy to some of those meetings in film. One that comes to mind is the film, "Freud's Last Session" with the meeting of Sigmund Freud (Anthony Hopkins) and writer, C.S. Lewis (Matthew Goode)--an amazing meeting. Now we have another remarkable meeting between the then reverend George Whitfield and Benjamin Franklin.

This tells the true story of an unlikely friendship between the Reverend George Whitfield (Jonathan Blair) and Benjamin Franklin (John Paul Sneed) that resulted in one of the most defining moments in American history. With the colonies on the brink of collapse, the Reverend George Whitfield ignites the first Great Awakening, uniting an entire generation with his thundering and faithful sermons and proclamations of liberty. In a miraculous turn of events, one of Whitfield's closet friends and greatest promoters becomes none other than Benjamin Franklin. With the nation's freedom hanging in the balance, the founders discover true liberty cannot only be written into law--it must be awakened in the hearts of the people. 

Others to round out the cast are JT Schaeffer as Benny Franklin Bache, Benjamin Franklin's grandson, Josh Bates as Alexander Hamilton, Jonathan Bauer as Holy Club member, Jeff Bender as William Johnson, Zachary Amos as Oxford Servitor, Timothy Ryan Bartlett as Oxford Servitor and Robert Bigley as George Mason.

This was incredibly delineated with perfection by director Joshua Enck ("I Heard the Bells" '22). It absolutely astounds me that this filmmaker has only one other directing credit to his name, esspecially since this was directed as though a seasoned director helmed it. A natural? Not sure, but suffice it to say, he definitely has a future as a continued director. The film had cohesiveness, conciseness, was sequenced well and the actors really found their footing with the development of their characters, and this is fine directing. It was equally penned well by writers Jeff Bender (I Heard the Bells" '22, "Sight & Sound Presents: Daniel LIVE" '24) plus a video, Joshua Enck ("I Heard the Bells" '22) and Jonathan Blair ("Found on South Street" '15) plus a short. Again, considering the lack of experience these writers have, this script was well thought out and the fluidity was as seasoned as any other writer in the biz. This writing and directing crew will undoubtedly go places in the very near distant future. Whitfield was definitely one of the great evangelistic, humble yet powerful preachers back in the day along with John Wesley and later with Amy Semple McPherson and C.S. Lewis. 

This is certainly a film for all to see--whether one is a Christian or not since it can and will speak to all hearts if they simply allow that to happen and does it in such a loving way. The writing, directing and acting, especially by John Paul Sneed and Jonathan Blair as Franklin and Whitfield respectively was amazing and captivating. 

Out of 4 Stars: 4                                            Rated: PG-13                                   129mins.

The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist

When it comes to the genre of film, documentaries are probably one of my favorite simply because of their passion, objectivity (assuming they're really that) and the array of eclectic subject matter which can span many topics, The sky is the limit: sports, politics, entertainment, science religion, etc to mention a handful. Now we have "The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist" to sink our teeth into.

A father-to-be, Daniel Roher attempts to figure out what is happening with all this AI insanity. "The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist" is a hand-made, eye-opening documentary about the most powerful technology humanity has ever created..and what's at stake if we get it wrong. This is an exhaustive expose with director Daniel Roher ("Ghosts of Our Forest" '17, "Once Were Brothers" '19, "Navalny" '22, "Blink" '24, "Turner" '25) plus TV and shorts). It was also directed by Charlie Tyrell (TV, shorts and videos). As stated, Roher was involved with in-depth interviews about the pros and potential cons of AI with Sam Altman, CEO, Open AI, Daniela Amodei, President & Co-Founder, Anthropic, Dario Amodei, CEO & Co-Founder, Anthropic, Demis Hassabis, CEO & Co-Founder, Google Deepmind, Peter Lee, President, Microsoft Research, and many many others with final conclusions that if we don't work together as people who want to do the right thing, AI could, if left unchecked, create situations that could harm our society. It's sobering. but on the other hand, if continually checked, AI would help our society immensely. It's our call as a people. Do we want to have children in our near future? Will many people lose their jobs do to AI? These questions and many more were asked and tackled through objective discussions. 

I truly want to encourage all to see this film--if not in the theater, on Netflix once it reaches that, since this doesn't actually need to be seen on the large screen to receive the full impact. AI is here and I really don't believe it's going anywhere. We, as a society, need to realize its full potential and gear AI to a place that will benefit us all, and not be involved for greed and avarice reasons. It looks as though AI can be our best friend or our worst enemy--it's really up to us. 

Out of 4 Stars: 4                                    Rated: PG-13                                      104min.

Project Hail Mary

There is sci-fi, then there's sci-fi with humor and heart all wrapped up in a story of the survival of Earth all in the form of "Project Hail Mary". For an individual that's usually not an avid sci-fi fan, this was one of those true exceptions. This had it all: adventure, intensity, humor and heart rolled up into a modern masterpiece.

Science teacher Dr. Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) wakes up on a spaceship light years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there.As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission: solve the riddle of the mysterious substance causing the sun to die out. He must call on his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save everything and one on Earth from extinction mostly through his boss of the mission Eva Stratt (Sandra Huller)...but an unexpected friendship means he may not have to do it alone.

Others to round out the cast are James Ortiz as the voice of Rocky, Lionel Boyce as Carl, Ken Leung as Yao, Mia Soteriou as Dr. Browne, Milana Vayntrub as Olesya Ilyukhina, Priya Kansara as the voice of Mary, Annelle Olaleye as Olivia and Maya Eva Hosein as Rekha. 

This was wonderfully directed with suspense and heart by Phil Lord ("Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" '09, "21 Jump Street" '12, "The Lego Movie" '14, "22 Jump Street" '14) plus TV, and Christopher Miller ("Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" '09, "21 Jump Street" '12, "The Lego Movie" '14, "22 Jump Street"'14) plus TV and a short. By their very resume, these two filmmakers are clearly a team and work incredibly well with one another, and this film proves that in spades. the camaraderie between Grace and Rocky was simply amazing--about as well structured as any team of characters considering one of them was an alien. And this being an almost solo performance by Gosling was equally amazing that he was, through these talented directors, able to carry this film to the point that captured one's attention in a way that came across effortlessly.  It was equally impeccably written by Drew Goddard ("Cloverfield" '08, "The Cabin in the Woods" '11, "World War Z" '13, "The Martian" '15, "Bad Times at the El Royale'18) plus TV and a short, based on the novel by Andy Weir. Considering this was written by the same screenwriter and based on the novel by the same novelist as "The Martian", it's no wonder that this would be as well structured as any film could be. The chemistry between Grace and his alien friend Rocky was incredible. This movie was sequenced well and was amazingly captivating with its cohesiveness, conciseness and was a very tight and organized script, especially given that it was formatted as a flashback. It's truly why we go to the movies!. The acting by Gosling was stunning as were the production values, i.e.music, cinematography, editing, sound effects and visual effects. 

This is a film that all must see--it's got crowd pleaser written all over it! It has adventure, action, suspense, humor and heart all rolled up in a film that will leave everyone wanting to stand up and cheer. It is wonderful to see a film that is made for all audiences--not just a handful and be artful at the same time time. Enjoy this gem, I know I did!

Out of 4 Stars: 4                                           Rated: PG-13                                         156mins.

  

The Pout-Pout Fish

When it comes to animated films, we have the usual companies such as Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks, even Blue Sky to create many animated flicks, but now we have an Australian film company, Macmillan Publishing to create "The Pout-Pout Fish" to sink our teeth into. 

Living on a rundown shipwreck, Mr. Fish (Nick Offerman) one day discovers a hyperactive young sea dragon Pip (Nina Oyama)--who had mistaken his home for a junkyard pilfering his belongings. The heated argument that ensues leaves both their houses in ruin. But there is hope. Embarking on a seemingly impossible quest in search of a mythical "Shimmer" (Jordin Sparks) to grant them a wish, there's only one problem: someone else is on the hunt. 

Others to round out the cast are Remy Hii as Benji, Miranda Otto as Marin, Nazeem Hussain as Archie, Andrew Buchanan as Red Starfish, Amy Sedaris as Pink Dolphins, Mark Coles Smith as Hector, Bessie Holland as Baz, Mel Buttle as Shaz and Grant Denyer as Beautiful Mike. 

This was directed with heart by Ricard Russo ("The Wishmas Tree" '19, "Combat Wombat" '20, "Daisy Quokka: World's Scariest Animal" '20 "Scarygirl" '23, "Combat Wombat: Back 2 Back" '23, "A Sloth Story" (co-director) '24, "Mission Santa: Yoyo to the Rescue" '25) plus TV and shorts, and it was co-directed by Rio Harrington (visual effects). I could truly appreciate the staging, pacing and the different angle shots this director used to achieve the effects he was looking for. Even though the co-director had no other feature films to his credit, he was still pivotal with the impact he was able to convey. It was cleverly written by Elise Allen, Elie Choufany and Dominic Morris, based on the book by Deborah Diesen and illustrated by Dan Hanna. This film has a somewhat childlike format, but since it is based on a children's book series, the script was aptly written. The message? overcoming bad moods with an element of joy--something we can all learn from. Other than a couple of places of slowness (I know, it's only 90 minutes long), it, after a point moved right along and ultimately conveyed the message it was intending to unfold. Even though these writers have virtually no feature film experience, all of their massive amount of TV, shorts and video experience have certainly served them well. They will undoubtedly receive more work. 

If you like animated films, this will hit home. It was purposely written in a childlike format hence its base being a children's book. This is something for the entire family--if fact since it is about ridding of consistent bad moods and replace them with joyful situations, it's definitely something we all can learn from and take to heart. It has heart and soul and will truly move you. 

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                                  Rated: PG                                         91mins'