Ed's Review Dot Com

Columbia Pictures, Marvel Studios, Pascal Pictures,

Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr., Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau, Gwyneth Paltrow, Zendaya, Donald Glover, Jacob Batalon, Laura Harrier, Tony Revolori, Bokeem Woodbine, Tyne Daly, Martin Starr, Hannibal Buress, Abraham Attah, Kenneth Choi, Selenis Leyva, Angourie Rice, Garcelle Beauvais, Michael Chernus, Michael Mando, Logan Marshall-Green, Jennifer Connelly, Martha Kelly

After all his exciting adventures with the Avengers in the last film, Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man (Tom Holland) is back home in high school trying to get along. He’s not the most popular kid in the class, and he’s always sneaking out on Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) who is his legal guardian but has no knowledge of his secret identity. But Peter notices something strange going on when he spots some out of this world weapons keep showing up and a spooky flying monster named Vulture (Michael Keaton) is behind it all. Peter keeps digging even though not only will Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.) not believe him, but he tries to stop him from fooling around on his own, so Peter has to try to solve the mystery on his own, although he may not survive the week.

To tell the truth, I am getting really weary of all the Superhero movies this summer. It’s been one after another after another, and I think I’m not the only one who’s getting tired of them from the box office numbers this summer. I didn’t expect much from this film, and I was really expecting to wait until it came out on DVD, but my wife and her sister really wanted to see it, so they took me along. It wasn’t as bad as I expected, and I was somewhat surprised at how interesting it was. I wasn’t blown away, and there are some weaknesses in the story, and Tom Holland just isn’t strong enough to carry the film. Cameos by a few of the Avengers and their backup crew don’t do much to help either. The story is kind of weak, and the acting is kind of weak, and so that takes away from the overall enjoyment. If you’re a real Spidey fan, then you probably like the older films a lot better. If you love the mix-up of Avenger characters in each other’s movies, then you might dig that, but all in all this is just a mediocre movie, and I’ve seen it all before. I would have been happy to wait for DVD for this one.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Warner Bros., Iron Horse Entertainment (II),

Adam Rodriguez, Gabriel Iglesias, Amber Heard, Jada Pinkett Smith, Kevin Nash, Elizabeth Banks, Michael Strahan, Channing Tatum, Donald Glover, Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello, Andie MacDowell

Mike (Channing Tatum) has broken ties to the strip club where he worked and started his furniture business and is following his dream of the first movie in this sequel. But the business is failing and he has only one employee and he’s not able to pay for health care for him, and his having trouble paying him at all. So when he gets a call telling him that Dallas is gone, he heads off to pay his respects when he finds out that the old gang, minus Dallas are headed up north for the convention and competition. Mike has the itch to get back in the game, but once again as a short timer only in if for the bucks, and the kicks. So this road picture is the road trip to the convention and the hi-jinks of the gang of misfits on the way.

Of the first Magic Mike, I said “It is not a very good film”. Well if that was said of the first one, this sequel without McConnaughy is 10 times worse. This could definitely win an award, but that would be the award for the “Most Pointless Movie Ever Made”. It was truly awful and really did have no point at all. I think this was a blatant rip-off for the gals in love with Tatum and their desire to watch him running around without his shirt, as there is nothing else worth seeing here. It certainly misses McConnaghy’s Dallas character. Without him, the movie just seems to flounder. There is no plot going on here, and it’s about a bad as if it were a parody version on Magic Mike that just isn’t funny and doesn’t seem to be in on the joke. I really disliked this film, and I think the box office staying power of this movie lasted about 8 hours. There was a good reason why nobody saw this that wasn’t trying to do a “girls night out” to a theater that serves alcohol. In the words of Mad TV’s “Men on Film”……..”Hated It.”

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Blumhouse Productions, Chapter One Films, Lionsgate,

Mark Duplass, Olivia Wilde, Donald Glover, Evan Peters, Sarah Bolger

Frank (Mark Duplass) and Zoe (Olivia Wilde) lead a team of researchers who have developed a formula that can bring the newly dead back to life, to allow medical teams to have more time to save someone’s life who dies on the table. They test it on a dog and it works. But they broke quite a few rules and are about to lose the rights to the discovery as well as the grant for their research. But the serum has an unexpected side effect that brings down the wrath of Satan on the team in this Horror film from Blumhouse and Lionsgate.

This is a pretty decent horror flick. Not exactly a zombie film, but in the same genre as a number of mad scientists who can bring folks back from the dead, all the way back to the original Frankenstein. It is about a 6 on the 1-10 scale where 10 is the most horrifying, and 1 is a mild kids movie. It has it’s moments, and it’s a relatively well done feature. Certainly the leads, Mark and Olivia, do a decent job of carrying the movie. Olivia especially makes a good transformation from her original character to the end of the film where everyone has lost it. The story has some rather rich (for this type of film) back story on why the things are happening which kind of caught me by surprise. It’s fast paced and quite suspenseful, and I have no problem with that. The only real complaint I have with the film is that it’s a bit derivative of so many other movies, and there wasn’t a really unique twist in this story. You could have predicted how it will go by looking at the cover. Still, I did enjoy it, so I think it’s worth a rental if you are into Horror films. I can mildly recommend this for fans of the genre.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog