The House With A Clock In Its Walls

This is going to be a very mixed review. The acting is pretty good, and the story is reminescent of a Goosebumps book, but one thing that was omitted from all the marketing was all the Satanic imagery and themes throughout the movie itself. "Harry Potter" and "Goosebumps" this is not. This is an attempt to sell Satanism to children. There's even a part where the main child character performs a Necromancy ritual. (Yes, you read that right.) Granted, he raises the villain from the dead, and later lives to regret it, but still...the fact that this was shown, step by step, in a CHILDREN'S  movie is inexcusable! And there are other Satanic images and themes throughout the movie as well, and NONE of them are subtle. I was extremely disappointed in this movie, because I thought I was going to get a fun "Goosebumps" or "Harry Potter" type Halloween movie, but what I got was much, much darker. I cannot, in good concsience, recommend this movie. Some parts of the movie were enjoyable, (Jack Black and Cate Blanchett had some great back-and-forth insult comedy dialogue and Renee Elise Goldsbury of "Hamilton" fame as one of the villains was a great choice), but I am not going to recommend this movie, and personally, I hope it bombs.
Grade: C    7/10  2/5 stars

Christopher Robin

This was delightful! The detail on the stuffed animals was exquisite, but it's confusing as to why Owl and Rabbit look like a real owl and rabbit, but the others look like stuffed animals. The plot is very sweet and has good intentions, but it is cliche and is also very similar to "Hook". Overworked dad rediscovers childhood joy and learns to be a better father, blah, blah, blah, we've seen this before. It is still done very well, though. What doesn't make sense is that the animal characters do actually speak, and people outside of the Hundred-Acre-Wood freak out when they hear them speak, which is just weird. This didn't really feel like a "Disney" movie. It just didn't have that certain something that Disney movies have. I feel like any studio could have made this. It's still a very cute movie, and a lot of time and care was put into this. The first 15 minutes are more-or-less the style of the books, and there are lots of cute little references to the stories. This definitely isn't a kids' movie, though. It's not inappropriate, kids will just find it boring. There were a lot of kids sleeping at my showing, but the adults sure enjoyed it. Keep that in mind. The average 5-year-old audience may not be entertained.

Grade: B     8/10     4/5 stars

Teen Titans Go to the Movies

If you hate the show, don't read this review. I don't want to get hate mail because I loved this movie. (Prepares for death threats)

This film was hilarious! It's a superhero movie for people who don't like superhero movies, or at the very least, think there are too many too quickly. This film makes fun of everything! The superhero genre as a whole, the actors in the film, the studio, it goes on. And the jokes are well written, smart, and at times pretty subtle. Adults will definetly get more out of it than kids. The songs in the film are catchy and clever, and there are countless blink-and-you'll-miss-it visual gags. Do all the jokes work? No, but none bomb particularly hard, and the jokes that do work more than make up for the ones that don't.
Grade: A+  10/10  5/5 stars

Mission: Impossible: Fallout

As far as plot goes it was pretty much the same as the others. Hard to follow, high stakes, same old same old. But we don't go to "Mission: Impossible" movies for the plot, we see them for the action scenes, and boy did this film deliver! The action sequences were fantastic! Henry Cavill and Tom Cruise have a great dynamic in the film. A lot of the plot seems a bit overstuffed and some characters a bit unneccessary. The humor is unexpected for this kind of film, and it's great. Simon Pegg has some of the funniest lines here. Definitely one of the best entries in the series.
Grade: B   8/10   4/5 stars

Hotel Transylvania 3

I didn't care too much for the second "Hotel Transylvania", so I went in with my expectations pretty low for this one. I was pleasantly surprised. Yeah, it's predictable, but it's a kids movie. There were a few times I laughed. The animation is fast-paced and fun to watch. The plot is at least somewhat interesting this time around. Not all of the jokes worked, (in fact, some were completely out of nowhere and made no sense) but the ones that did really worked. The villains were pretty interesting, and there were a lot of really clever visual gags. It's at least an improvement on the second one, because stuff actually happens in this one. I rather enjoyed this. I would definitely at least rent it.
Grade: B     8/10     3.5/5 stars

Skyscraper

I really wanted to at least mildly enjoy this movie. The trailers didn't impress me that much, but I thought "It's a "The Rock" movie. It will at least be a fun kind of stupid." It's not even that. It's just stupid, stupid. I knew from the trailers that it was basically "Die Hard" and yeah, it is. But it's a poor man's "Die Hard". Like, if that movie were a TV movie on the Syfy channel. The writing is absolutely terrible. The characters are bland and one-dimensional. There are no character flaws to overcome. I thought "The main character has a mechanical leg. Is that going to be his crutch in the movie, both literally and figuratively?" Nope! If anything, it gives him an advantage. He also never sees his mechanical leg as a flaw that he learns to appreciate. I thought "Surely, as cliche as this trope is, he's going to be the dad that puts his career ahead of his family and learns to appreciate them?" Nope. He's pretty decent. There are no character flaws to overcome, which makes for boring characters, which makes for a boring movie. The only cool thing about this movie were the action sequences from several thousand feet up, giving me a sense of vertigo, but even those wore thin very quickly. This would have worked better as an amusement park ride. It's not even worth a rent. It's as generic as generic can be. I felt like I was being trolled with how absolutely stupid this movie is.
Grade: D    6/10    1/5 stars

Ant-Man and the Wasp

After the depressing bloodbath that was Infinity War, we needed something lighthearted to make us feel better, and this film delivered. It had all the humor of the first one, but also knew when it needed to be serious. Some of the running jokes do get old after the 4th time, but some still work. The action sequences are some of the most fun I've seen this year. The villain, while very cool, did some kind of generic in terms of motivation, and I saw the twist coming. Many people were worried this was going to be SJW propaganda, but it is not. It does what "Incredibles 2" should have done. There were too many villains in this movie, too. I think Marvel, in terms of villains, is starting to suffer from DC-itis. Overstuffing the movie with too many characters just for fanservice. There is also one moment in the film where there is a race against time, and when the time runs out...nothing happens, thus rendering the stakes useless. Overall, it was about on par with the first movie, and still had lots of great humor. If you want to see a superhero movie that's borderline parody, but never quite that, than this is the film.

Grade: B     8/10      4/5 stars