Dallas Fisher

Power Ballad

Paul Rudd is finally living out his dream from I Love You, Man. It’s a shame he seemingly had to leave Rashida Jones for it though. In all seriousness, Rick (Rudd) is living out someone’s dream by being a human jukebox in a wedding band here in Power Ballad. While Rudd’s role in this film appealed to me in many ways, I’m not sure it finds its voice in others. As always I was very keen on Rudd being in a role where he gets to be absurdly funny and a good dad. Speaking of him playing a dad, his daughter played by Beth Fallon is an absolute scene stealer.

The other thing that stole my brain capacity is the song that is being written in this movie and the crux of the entire plot. I won’t spoil what the song is, but it is catchy and stuck with me for a long time after seeing the movie. If we’re looking at the other half of this A Star is Born type story, Nick Jonas, we see where the problems come in. It’s not his fault he’s just an okay actor, but it is possibly his fault that he has no chemistry with Rudd. It’s almost as if he’s in a different film entirely. Then again, the truth of the story sits at a point where their differences belong apart.

Power Ballad aims high and doesn’t quite reach the top of the Billboard charts. I could see the vision but the vision couldn’t see itself onto the screen. I did enjoy watching a man fight for everything he’s worked for, even in a world where bad luck, or mauve bad guys, get in the way.

6.4/10

Masters of the Universe

Almost two and a half hours of bad cosplaying and unfunny bits. That’s all I got.

3.9/10

Backrooms

Seriously, why would I go to therapy after watching this?

Backrooms is eye opening for reasons I never thought possible. There were many elongated moments in this that I found honestly traumatic. The nostalgic horror for parts of my life that I either forgot about or never knew about and it was almost intoxicating. The set design was eerily calming and some of the best I have seen in many years. I felt stuck, I wanted to cry at points, and I never knew if I was seeing things. This catalog of nightmares is only offset by the V/H/S level stuff that felt out of place. Why are we trying to make sense of things that didn’t need to make sense?

6.8/10

Passenger

I’ve never seen a movie use a trailer to trick their potential audience so hard in my life. The teaser trailers for this movie make things so promisingly scary and it’s only upon watching the movie that you realize they only used footage from the five minute cold open for advertisement. Then in major disappointing fashion, the only thing scary about this movie is how awful of a romance is depicted throughout. I will give major props to the one scene for its use of a projector as lighting. The scene might have no emotional weight to it, but it sure looked awesome. That reminds me of the thing that didn’t look awesome and that was the generic black figures that every bad horror film seemingly has nowadays.

3/10

Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu

I’ve been sitting on my thoughts for this movie for awhile, mainly because I feel I had nothing original to say. But hey, I have the right to type whatever I want into this computer and people can choose to read it if they want.

I could say how cute Grogu was or how unchanging Mando is, but instead I’ll talk about how bizarre Jeremy Allen White as Rotta the Hutt is. Hands down one of the worst casting decisions, and movie choices in general, ever. I can’t believe they let him use his normal talking voice, in English I might add, for the role of a hulking figure. Every time his character was on screen I wanted to burst out laughing. If I wasn’t exhausted from work at my 2 p.m. screening, I just might have.

Besides that very odd aspect, this movie is strangely paced and confusing for something that should have been straight forward for a franchise that already has its audience. All of the acting felt uninspired and things straight up looked bad. Even the welcomed practical effects were very misused. Puppets in this realm were better used in Team America: World Police. Just like the show this is following, there are no memorable Star Wars moments. I still have no idea if watching all three seasons helped me know what was going on either.

5.9/10