Edward Norton's Motherless Brooklyn is an Undercooked Film Noir Homage

You can't help but root for Motherless Brooklyn, that rare modern-day adult-drama movie released by a major American studio. A two-and-a-half-hour long homage to noirs featuring nary an explosion in sight? It's a welcome surprise to see a studio like Warner Bros. financing and releasing this type of title. Unfortunately, noble artistic ambitions can't actually make Motherless Brooklyn a good movie. On the contrary, this is a shockingly disposable feature film with only brief glimmers of actual entertainment or quality to be found. Despite having spent two decades in development, Motherless Brooklyn is still a movie that could have used a whole lot more work.

Huh, Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle Is Actually Solid Family Entertainment!

I'm not sure a Jumanji sequel (yes, this new Jumanji adventure is a follow-up, not a remake or reboot, to that 1995 family film that I haven't seen) was exactly necessary, but it's here as part of Sony/Columbia's ongoing attempt to exploit any potential franchise from their library of movies, and luckily, it's one of the better results to emerge from this initiative. It's not really memorable or all that inventive but it passes the time nicely and the actors in the lead roles are utilized quite well. Never would have thought the best aspect of a 2017 Jumanji follow-up would be the way it allows actors to really excel and show off their talents, but here we are!

An In-Depth Autopsy Of Daddy's Home

It's pretty apparent that Daddy's Home started out life as a singular concept; a step-dad, played by Will Ferrell, is just beginning to become a real father to his two step-kids when the biological father, played by Mark Wahlberg, re-enters the picture. And then...that's all they got. They didn't bother to write down distinct personalities for the characters in the story, nor a cohesive story structure or, perhaps most egregious of all in a comedy, any jokes to speak of. Daddy's Home isn't entertaining, it's simply 90 minutes of inertia.

The Poster For Ant-Man Continues Marvels Trouble With Posters

Much as I love Marvel Studios, whose films like Avengers: Age of Ultron and Guardians of The Galaxy have provided endless amounts of entertainment for me and moviegoers worldwide, it must be said that their posters for their movies, frankly, tend to suck. Oh sure, the teaser posters for Ant-Man, Guardians of The Galaxy and Iron Man 3 had an effective use of simplicity to it, but just look at the main poster for Avengers: Age of Ultron. That things got so much damn stuff going on, and very little of it makes sense (I still can't figure out what Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are standing on in that poster). That kind of cluttered atmosphere runs rampant in most Marvel posters, and that tradition somewhat continues today.

Chef Review

It must be said that Jon Favreau has probably has had the most unexpected career trajectory in Hollywood except for maybe Neil Patrick Harris. Who would have thought the dude who played a recurring character on Buzz Lightyear of Star Command would end up directing the best Christmas (Elf) and Superhero (Iron Man) movies of all-time? Of course, he's had his struggles, with him squaring off against Marvel Studios over the direction of Iron Man 2 and Cowboys and Aliens becoming a major financial failure.