Thunderbolts* (2025)

I had to once again force myself to be optimistic when I prepared to watch the latest entry in the ever-expanding MCU. It wasn't too difficult though. The trailer looked decent, I liked the cast, and this felt like something a bit more fun, in the right ways, when compared to the few other Marvel movies that we've had over the past few years. I hoped to be distracted and entertained. I didn't expect to find myself enjoying something that so deftly blended fun, action, and some interesting exploration of depression and/or addiction.

Here's the very basic summary. Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Ava Starr (Hannah John-Kamen), and Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour) end up teaming up on a mission that has them encountering the mighty . . . Bob (Lewis Pullman). Bob is someone of great interest to Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss), the director of the CIA who wants to gain more power, maintain control, and avoid an ongoing pesky potential impeachment.

Perhaps this is the result of assembling an equally eclectic team behind the camera, but Thunderbolts* feels like the proper breath of fresh air that the MCU was so desperately in need of. Despite most of these main characters being featured in previous movies or shows, throwing them together, and developing the narrative and team dynamic in a way that feels natural and well-handled, leads to a great result. Writers Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo use the main characters well, and without really changing them too much to fit into their new roles (reluctant heroes), while Jake Schreier shows a real knack for delivering hugely satisfying moments of cinematic joy in the midst of something that still feels more personal and smaller in scale than many of the features that preceded it.

Pugh is the nominal lead, and this is made clear in a witty and impressive opening sequence, but most of the other cast members get a chance to shine (perhaps John-Kamen being the exception there, due to being the only one who has the super-power of phasing through objects, making her inherently less present than the others). Everyone certainly does enough to warrant their inclusion though, and it's great to watch them be misfits who also happen to have some well-honed skills. Stan gets to look tough, and has the coolest moment in the entire movie, Russell continues to be a great fit for a slightly more complex character than expected, and Harbour delivers a lot of the laughs. Pullman is a wonderful addition, especially in the moments that show him stuck within his own darkness and bad memories, and both Louis-Dreyfuss and Geraldine Viswanathan (playing her assistant) bring their usual level of excellence.

This is what we've been missing from Marvel for a little while now. It's blockbuster entertainment with a mix of characters that you care about, enough spectacle to make it feel well worth seeing on the big screen, and an exploration of themes that feel like more than just set-up and pay-off for the rest of the movies. I'm sure I missed some references and Easter eggs here, but I was consistently entertained, as well as being very impressed by the way the screenplay gave us quite a literal look at the mindset of someone who has spent a long time burying their soul within an deepening and darkening abyss of self-loathing and self-harm. 

Maybe I'm being too kind to something that just feels even better in comparison to a whole lot of inferior features, but there's a chance that Thunderbolts* is just actually that good. I'll lean towards the latter idea, of course, but am happy if people consider the former option. This doesn't feel cheap, it doesn't feel like a temporary place-holder, and it doesn't feel anywhere close to what would be considered lower-tier MCU fare.

8/10

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Prime Time: You're Cordially Invited (2025)

I'm not a big fan of writer-director Nicholas Stoller, but I always tend to forget this when I prepare to watch another movie from him. I'm not sure that I even noticed his name here while I was being distracted by the fact that it was a comedy pairing up Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon in the lead roles. The fact that the supporting cast included Geraldine Viswanathan, Meredith Hagner, Jimmy Tatro, and Jack McBrayer also seemed to bode well.

It's a simple premise, ripe with comedy potential. Ferrell plays Jim, a doting dad who is hoping to oversee a dream wedding day for his daughter, Jenni (Viswanathan), and her partner, Oliver (Stony Blyden). Witherspoon is a successful TV producer who wants to oversee a dream wedding for her sister, Neve (Hagner), and her partner, Dixon (Tatro). Their worlds collide when the island resort they have hired for the wedding celebrations has accidentally booked them both in for the same weekend . . . when they only have the ability to host one wedding at a time. And so begins a disappointingly unfunny series of spats, with both of our leads trying to shoulder one another out of the way as they make the most of the big wedding weekend.

I don't want to spend too much time going over how much this gets wrong, especially when I am already depressed by the memory of the movie and the memory of how I fooled myself into thinking that it wasn't TOO bad. It's bad, very bad, and it's a waste of the talent of pretty much everyone involved.

Stoller directs as if he's just sleepwalking through the whole thing, but maybe his own script had already knocked him unconscious. The plot beats feel tired and unsurprising, the running gags (including use of a very famous song) don't land well, and there's also an annoying lack of bite. Both of our leads swither between rolling up their sleeves to fight one another and then just using each other as a shoulder to cry on. And as for the very last scenes . . . I won't spoil anything, but I cannot think of a Ferrell comedy that has been so wildly misjudged in trying to make everything and everyone wrapped up in a neat bow.

There were times when I laughed at this, and those laughs were all caused by Ferrell blurting out some inappropriate insults. He's at his funniest in those moments, and you want Ferrell to be funny in a comedy movie that gives him one of the lead roles, but they are very few and far between. Witherspoon does the kind of uptight thing she has been doing for decades, although she is allowed to soften slightly here in a way that allows you to eventually warm to her character a bit more. Viswanathan and Blyde are fun, as are Hagner and Tatro, and there are moments that try to make the most of McBrayer, Leanne Morgan, Rory Scovel, Keyla Monterroso Mejia, and Celia Weston, as well as a few others. Everyone is far too hampered by the weak material though, sadly, and even a potential set-piece involving our leads in the same room as an alligator fails to prompt even a mild chuckle.

It's really hard to argue against people who see streaming movies as inferior alternatives to cinema releases when Amazon put their money into something like this. This has the stars, it has familiar songs on the soundtrack, and it at least has a runtime of under two hours (clocking in at about 109 minutes). It doesn't have any soul or artistry to it though. More importantly, it doesn't have many laughs.

3/10

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Mubi Monday: Drive-Away Dolls (2024)

Although Drive-Away Dolls is full of talent, some may say it's a bit too full (sickeningly so), it's hard to ignore the feeling that it's just not very good. Director Ethan Coen, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Tricia Cooke, seems to be a bit lost at sea, metaphorically speaking, and I am sure many will watch this and wish for Ethan to swiftly return to movies co-created with his brother, Joel.

Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) are two friends who fancy a bit of a break after various stresses in their lives. They pick up a car that needs to be taken to Tallahassee, blissfully unaware that the trunk contains something very valuable that means a couple of amusingly incompetent "heavies" end up trying to track them down. As destiny creeps closer and closer to them, Jamie and Marian start to break down the thin barriers between them, and decide that it may be time to transform their friendship into something else.

The fact that this film is such a mess, and squanders so much potential talent, makes it clear to me that every main issue I have with it stems from the script. It’s not as funny or quirky as it thinks it is, nor is it half as clever or subversive as the films that Cohen and Cooke are clearly trying to emulate, and it feels like one wrong decision after another was made in transitioning the material from page to screen.

I have enjoyed both Qualley and Viswanathan in other movies, but they struggle to impress here. The former is particularly irksome in a role that desperately needed some more work to help viewers appreciate her viewpoint and approach to life a bit more. Colman Domingo isn’t used enough, his smooth-talking head honcho trying his best to resolve a situation that just keeps getting messier by the hour, and Joey Slotnick and C. J. Wilson are inept henchmen without enough wit in their abrasive antagonism towards one another. Matt Damon pops up in a cameo that allows you to say “there’s Matt Damon”, Miley Cyrus pops up fleetingly and allows you to say “there’s Miley Cyrus”, and the only cast member who actually gets to be as good as they can be is Beanie Feldstein (playing an angry ex-lover who follows our main characters in order to hand back an unwanted pet).

I was really hoping to like Drive-Away Dolls, considering everyone involved, but it started off weak and then never really developed into anything worthwhile. In fact, the finale of the film feels like a punchline and rushed resolution offered up by someone who thinks they are being edgy and hilarious while the reality is that they’re about a decade or so out of touch. It’s all a bit lazy and misguided, at best, as well as being strangely prudish and conservative, considering the aim of the film-makers was to make something very much at the other end of that spectrum.

At least it has a fairly short runtime, even if it feels as if it drags on longer. Don’t bother hitching a lift with these ladies though. Wait to see whatever better films they star in further down the line.

3/10

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Cat Person (2023)

Starting with a quote from Margaret Atwood about how men fear that women will laugh at them while women fear that men will kill them, Cat Person is a film about dating, sex, and the different ways in which situations can be viewed, depending on your gender and whether or not you are wearing rose-tinted glasses of romanticism. 

Emilia Jones is Margot, a young woman who ends up developing a relationship with Robert (Nicholas Braun). Robert is older, and seems a bit brusque at times, but he’s intriguing and good company in text message form. He also claims to have a cat, which is a good sign. Everything is turned upside-down when things don’t go very well on a date though, leading Margot to start questioning everything she has gone through, helped in changing her perspective by her friend, Taylor (Geraldine Viswanathan).

Based on a short piece of writing by Kristen Roupenian, Cat People is a film that could have gone in any number of different directions, from twisted rom-com to intense thriller, or even outright horror. The fact that it jumps nimbly between elements of so many different genres is testament to the fantastic script from Michelle Ashford and the direction from Susanna Fogel. While both of these women have quite varied and lengthy careers, there’s not much in their respective filmographies that rivals this, as far as I’m concerned, because what you get here is a thought-provoking look at the minefield of modern dating, as well as the smallest glimpse into the mindset of a woman struggling to enjoy relative normality while dealing with the stress and fears that men don’t have to consider. Brilliantly, however, there are also one or two moments that show issues very specific to men who are wary of being mistaken or misinterpreted.

Although everyone onscreen is excellent (and both leads now have a sizeable sample of superb onscreen work to explore, in films and TV), both Jones and Braun complement one another beautifully, the former often aiming to please and stay composed while the latter emphasises the clumsy and abrupt nature of his character in almost every scene. Viswanathan may seem a bit overly cautious and cynical at times, but she’s right to be that way, and viewers go into the finale of the film, a finale that will lose some viewers, armed with that knowledge.

Often keeping viewers locked in to Margot’s POV, the style of the film is one of heightened realism. It may not be an exact replication, but this is how the world can look as seen by a young woman taking a chance on developing a relationship with a stranger. It’s intense at times, and I am sure any woman you mentioned that to would roll their eyes and say “duh”.

Will this get through to the “not all men” people who keep missing the bigger picture whenever another news story breaks or another set of shocking statistics is revealed? I don’t know. I hope so, but I just don’t know. Much like one or two other movies released in the past year though, this at least serves as an opening for an important conversation that everyone should be part of. That’s more than some films do.

8/10

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Netflix And Chill: The Package (2018)

The Package is a comedy directed by Jake Szymanski. The last comedy I watched that was directed by Jake Szymanski was Mike And Dave Need Wedding Dates, which did not make me a fan, but I liked the sound of this one, and had heard some good feedback from a friend who had already enjoyed it.

Donnie (Luke Spencer Roberts) is looking forward to a weekend away with his friends, Sean (Daniel Doheny) and Jeremy (Eduardo Franco). It's going to be all guys together, maybe their last chance before Sean heads away back to new pastures.That was the plan anyway. But Jeremy ends up inviting his recently-made-single sister (Becky, played by Geraldine Viswanathan) and her friend (Sarah, played by Sadie Calvano), who just happens to be the ex-girlfriend of Donnie. Anyway, they get to their destination, start to drink and have fun, and then Jeremy accidentally slices off his penis while playing around with a butterfly knife. The rest of the film concerns the loyal group of friends trying to get Jeremy and his penis reattached to one another.

The Package is silly, very silly indeed. It had the potential to be downright awful but writers Kevin Burrows and Matt Mider make some good choices, not least of which is spending an equal amount of time on the characters and the moments of standard teen angst in between the penis-centred set-pieces. You get a number of times in which the dismembered member is in peril, or needing handled by someone who really doesn't want to be handling it, but you also get a potential budding relationship between Sean and Becky, and plenty of barbs exchanged by Donnie and Sarah.

Szymanski directs everything well enough, walking a thin line as he chooses to put the package front and centre in a number of scenes without always making it laughable or squirm-inducing. It's gross, yes, but it's also just a part of Jeremy that his friends want to get back to him safely. The most obvious "gross" gag - a snake bite that has to be dealt with - is outrageously funny enough to at least make viewers smile, and also leads to some fun lines later in the movie. A lot of this is down to the script, of course, but Szymanski makes the right choices when it comes to what to show and what to hold back on.

The cast, all largely unknown to me, all seemed to be having a good time. Franco may be separated from the group early on, but he has plenty of fun moments while in a hospital, Doheny is a perfectly acceptable, albeit slightly bland, lead and Roberts works best when being put in his place by Calvanoe. But the star is Viswanathan (who also stood out in Blockers), a young actress who I already look forward to seeing in any role, thanks to her ability to work equally well with comedic and more (brief) serious moments.

The Package is not a film to watch if you are already rolling your eyes at the main premise. And it's not a film that, aside from that core idea, does anything new with the teen comedy subgenre. But it's better than you might expect, and an amusing enough way to spend 90 minutes.

6/10

Here's a very different film with the same title.
Americans can collect a package here.

Blockers (2018)

Blockers is a comedy that looked pretty awful from the first trailer. The rest of the advertising I saw for it didn't make it look much better. Then people went to see it and I started to hear some say that it was actually quite good. Some even said that it was very funny, with particular praise going to John Cena for his performance. I was willing to give it a go, and started to feel more optimistic about it. Well, it wasn't as bad as those trailers made it out to be, but it wasn't great either.

Cena, Leslie Mann, and Ike Barinholtz play three parents who discover that their daughters (Kathryn Newton, Geraldine Viswanathan, and Gideon Adlon) have made a pact to lose their virginity on prom night. Yes, this is a nightmare scenario for most parents. So they set out to put a stop to things. Well, Cena and Mann want to make sure nothing happens. Barinholtz is the cooler (aka less responsible) parent who tags along because he doesn't want the others embarrassing his daughter. And that's the premise.

Directed by Kay Cannon, making her feature debut in this role (although she has a number of decent credits as a producer), and written by Brian and Jim Kehoe (who have one previous feature and a couple of shorts under their belts), Blockers is handled slickly and professionally enough. The characters are sketched out quickly, although they're not the deepest, and the various elements that will cause more problems for the parental pursuit are made glaringly obvious. This is not a film that cares for subtlety.

Cena IS very good in his role, and he's the funniest of the three concerned parents. Barinholtz can be slightly irritating at times, due to his character, but also does well. Mann gets the short end of the stick, given the least of the comedic material as the writers instead focus on her stress and overprotective nature (similar to the way Cena is shown, but his ends up creating more laughs). That's a shame, because Mann can be very funny with the right material. What proves to be a pleasant surprise is that the film doesn't focus on the parents as much as you might think. It also gives plenty of time to Newton, Viswanathan, and Adlon, showing how they differ from one another and complement one another in their close friendship. All three young women do well, although it seems as if, once again, the writers had less to give the one of them (Newton, playing the daughter of Mann's character, funnily enough). You also get to find out more about their dates for the evening, and another potential love interest (Ramona Young) for one of the three, despite the fact that she is hoping to forge ahead and see if sex with a guy will change how she feels about her sexuality.

Considering the main premise, Blockers takes time to consider what the younger characters are going through, in terms of friendship, peer pressure, being on the brink of adulthood, and relations with their parents. It also manages to move deftly enough from the comedy to the sweeter moments, which come along, predictably enough, in the final act. What it doesn't do so well is provide the big laughs. You get a lot of chuckles, which are fine, but there aren't any great set-pieces here, and the script isn't smart and/or tight enough to make up for that.

Enjoyable enough, especially if you find Cena likable, but it's not one I can see anyone revisiting too many times.

6/10

You can buy the blu ray here.
American friends can buy it here.