Insert Jaws Theme Here: "..Dumb Dumb..... Dumb Dumb.... DumbDumb, DumbDumb..." I could just wrap the review of Netflix new disaster movie/Giant Shark thriller right there. Good night folks! But THRASH probably deserves a bit more text in honor of the actors who do their best with a screenplay so thin, a goldfish could swim through it. Perhaps inspired by what would happen if they threw "Sharknado" in a blender with "The Day After Tomorrow" we meet the various citizens of a modern Mayberry directly in the path of a Category 5 Hurricane. Djimon Hounsou (Guardians of the Galaxy, Amistad) brings presence and well delivered one liners to his role as Dr. Dale Edwards, a shark expert who just happens to be near our Mayberry as the storm approaches. Well, he's a hundred miles away, but I'll get to that later. As for the rest of the characters, they're well acted but stuck in characters that are so stupid, weak or ignorant that they just decide to stay in their homes and "ride it out 'cause them weather folk on the TV ain't never gettin' it right". Phoebe Dynevor (Bridgerton) is Lisa, who seems to be about nine and a half months pregnant, but more devoted to the accounting books at a refinery than she is having her baby in the opening scene. As the weather from hell looms, she just wraps up her day and gets in her teeny weeny car to drive somewhere, even though the roads are all closed down. (I hear the music....Dumb....Dumb.........) Whitney Peak (Molly's Game) made me scream at the screen as Dakota, Dr Edwards niece, who recently lost her Mom and has spent the months since Zoloft'ing her way through panic attacks in her Mom's home. Like Lisa, she seems to be that rare person under 30 who never looks at her phone. A storm's coming, Dakota. (Dumb.......Dumb) Lastly we meet three kids stuck with the worst foster parents on the planet, who cook steaks downstairs in a forbidden basement while the three kids live on Wonder Bread and peanut butter upstairs. The young actors Stacy Clausen, Alyla Browne (young Furiosa in the Mad Max series) and Dante Ubaldi that play the foster kids, steal every scene they are in. They're smarter than any adult in the movie, funny as hell and are the only three I ever rooted for to survive. The hurricane hits Mayberry, oops, I mean the small Coastal Carolina town of Annieville. Seawalls break, the storm surge fills the town and brings with it an onslaught of killer sharks. Faster than you can yell "Shark! Shark!", there are onscreen references to "Jaws", "Jaws 2" and mayhem galore. Some of the opening scenes with Lisa in her car, the approaching flood and the gasoline tanker are fun and the kids swim down to the flooded basement with a great white swimming around serves up some suspense, but the rest of this is pretty dull and "been there, done that". One of the dumbest moments in the film, and there are plenty to choose from, is when Dr. Edwards and the TV News team they have hooked up with to head to Annieville. As they move from their truck to a boat to head the rest of the way there, Edwards flashlight shines on a road sign that says, "Annieville, 100 miles". Huh? 100 miles!!!!??? We just laughed out loud, assuming that we were going to see some fantastically stupid shark antics along the way. Nope. We see about two minutes of that journey. Did they run out of budget? Why place your possible heroes 100 miles from their objective and then show none of their quest? Lazy or stupid writing or massive budget cuts. At only 86 minutes long (thank the Shark Gods) is that 100 mile trip on the cutting room floor? Some of the sets are clever. They were built on a set of pulleys that could lower the entire set into a massive tank, allowing the furniture and everything around the actors to float as the flood waters rise. It's effective and looks great. Some of the practical effects are well done as well. The CGI sharks range from good to hilariously silly. The last few minutes are laugh-out-loud stupid & funny, especially when a Megaladon sized mega shark shows up while Lisa is having her baby in the flood waters. That shot of Lisa with the harpoon was telegraphed in such hack fashion in the her opening scenes that I said out loud, "watch for her to shoot a harpoon in the last 5 minutes." Yep. The final moment sets up a sequel. Please, NO. 86 minutes of this goofy crap is enough. THRASH gets a D. It's only saved from an F by those talented & very funny kids and some great flood effects. Sing it with me....Dumb, Dumb..........Dumb, Dumb.......

Morgan Neville's new film LORNE is proof that you need a willing participant to make a compelling documentary. From the start, Lorne Michaels lets it be known that he is not interested in offering up anything personal. Then, best friends like Paul Simon all convey to Neville, "good luck, you're not getting anything out of Lorne". So what are we supposed to watch for the next 101 minutes? If you've been alive for any duration of the past 50+ years and have even a hint of pop culture awareness, you know who Lorne Michaels is, the creator of Saturday Night Live, a late night institution. Michaels also has a solid record of turning the characters from the show into some massive box office hits like "Wayne's World". He's also taken the show's cast to big screen stardom in films like "Tommy Boy" and "Mean Girls". For about half this docs running time, the film coasts on clips from the most iconic episodes of SNL, Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin's "30 Rock" (what a fantastic show that was) and snippets of new interviews with many of our favorite SNL alumni. But the past few years have seen entertaining and exhaustive recaps of SNL around its 50th anniversary. If you haven't been hiding under a rock, you've seen all this material and nostalgically enjoyed it very recently. We're here for something new, and that material is pretty sparse. I enjoyed the details around Michael's five year absence from the show in the early 80's. In my memory, it was only a couple years he was gone and the show absolutely hit rock bottom. The ONE new thing I did see for the first time is Lorne's own performances on his short lived Canadian TV skit show, featuring him in front of the camera as half of a comedy duo. It's fascinating to see that young, formative comedian in contrast to the behind the scenes figure he would become. It was fun hearing the dirt around some of the morons in NBC's executive suite bitching about the shows biggest stars like Adam Sandler, who they just "didn't get". I'm a huge fan of the late Norm MacDonald and the way he refused to quiet doing OJ-is-Guilty jokes even though NBC honcho Don Ohlmeyer was Simpson's steadfast best friend. But like the majority of the film, there were no new insights on that conflict or any behind the scenes feedback from Lorne. Nothing. Neville gets so desparate with the lack of material that Michaels is offering that he spends most of the movie filling the gap with "TV Funhouse" style animation and someone doing an impression of Lorne's voice for the cartoon. Huh? I could be content for quite awhile watching Conan O'Brien, Bill Hader, Fred Armisen and Chris Rock share stories, that table is a great place to be. Then the film focuses on Lorne during a week of prep for SNL, saying very little. We're forced to watch Michaels move colored index cards around on a cork board while a dozen acolytes stare silently at the board and him, saying nothing. Then he moves another card and swaps two others and the loyal dozen silently act like they've just seen a miracle. The first time we see this routine, its intriguing. By the fourth time we sit through it, it feels like filler. Meh. Neville has created some superb docs in the past decade, including 2015's "Best of Enemies: Buckley vs Vidal", 2018's "Won't You Be My Neighbor" and "20 Feet from Stardom". But even he can't spin gold out of an unwilling participant. The last ten minutes of the film are quiet shots of Lorne standing in the fields of his upstate farm, while Neville bends over backwards to make elementary connections between blooming flowers and the stars he discovered. It's pedestrian and far below what we've come to expect from Neville. Meanwhile, Lorne's still standing in that field listening to the wind, and like the entire documentary...saying nothing. LORNE gets a C.

Relentless, bloody, gory and suspenseful, EVIL DEAD RISE is s terrific new addition to the decades-spanning Evil Dead franchise. Executive Produced by original director Sam Raimi (Spider-Man, Darkman) and Bruce Campbell (1981's original "The Evil Dead") bring a thrill-ride mentality to this new chapter. All the elements fans desire are here and perfectly packaged. We barely have time to meet two estranged sisters before all hell breaks loose. Beth (Lily Sullivan) has been off the radar for awhile when she lands on the dilapidated doorstep of her sister Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) and her children. Danny (Morgan Davies) , his older sister Bridget (Gabrielle Echols) and young sister Kassie (Nell Fisher) are free spirits with plenty of experience fending for themselves in the soon to be condemned apartment building that's home. As the kids are coming back from a pizza run, an Earthquake hits and Danny finds a deep hole in the parking garage that leads to the discovery of the Book of the Dead, along with some old fashioned record albums from 100+ years ago. Any fans of the series know exactly what's going to happen next. I did, but it was so well executed that I enjoyed this new take. If kids in peril isn't your thing, this is a nightmare. Normally I can't watch kids in these kind of scenarios, but Davies, Echols and Fisher are such good young actors that they pulled me in and never let me go. Sutherland is absolutely lethal as the demon possessed Mom. She's an eyeball eating, stomach churning, "I want to eat my own kids" nightmare. The practical, special effects & makeup teams are first rate throughout. My favorite scenes were when Danny first plays the ancient record albums, featuring the Priest that originally found the Book of the Dead narrating his experience. You could hear a pin drop. Until the screaming started, then it never stops. I saw fun references to the previous films and a few others like "John Carpenter's The Thing", "Poltergeist" and most obviously "The Shining" that make you smile in the middle of the mayhem. Originally slated for direct-to-HBO Max, the film did so well they changed it to a theatrical release, where it topped the $100 million mark at the box office and is still rolling. As a huge fan of "Army of Darkness", I loved Beth saying "Come Get Some" to the demon. It's a great throwback to one of Campbell's funnier lines in that film. Irish composer Stephen McKeon (Black Mirror) delivers a scary music score that sings perfectly right along with the thousands of gallons of blood spilled. I may never use my cheese grater again. EVIL DEAD RISE butchers, bites and blasts its way to a bloody entertaining B+. RED BAND, R-RATED FULL-GORE trailer attached below.

A clever, funny and blood dripping tribute to the original "Omen", "Se7en" and his own "Evil Dead Rise", LEE CRONIN'S THE MUMMY is an absolute thrill ride of gore. Ignore the dullards who are bitching about it being "too long", Cronin's got a hell of a story to tell and I loved every minute of it. First of all, this has NOTHING to do with the superb Brendan Fraser "Mummy" movies. There is nothing family friendly about this one, especially if you are the Cannon family. Charlie Cannon (Jack Reynor from "Midsommar") is a TV news reporter stationed in Cairo for the past few years with his wife Larissa (Laia Costa) a nurse. They have a daughter Katie (Emily Mitchell) and young son Sebastian (Dean Allen Williams). Just as they are about to celebrate Charlie's reassignment back in the states, Katie is taken. I wont say much about the scene, because it's so well structured, blending the horror of a Father realizing his daughter is gone and an epic sandstorm that might just be a tribute to the massive haboob in 1999's "The Mummy". We saw the film in Dolby Cinema and the sound during this sequence was fantastic, just the first of many times that wind, sand and bumps in the night circled around my head, along with the screams of onlookers. Reynor and Costa are great as parents facing the ultimate horror of their daughter gone missing in a foreign land. They are the outsiders, with only a first time police detective Dalia Zaki (a terrific May Calamawy) on their side. There seem to be no clues to who took Katie or where she is. The film jumps forward 8 years. Charlie and Larissa have moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, living with Larissa's mother Carmen. Veronica Falcon (Ozark, Jungle Cruise) is terrific as Carmen, a grandma with a hilarious streak and a deep faith. She'll need it. Sebastian (now played by Shilo Molina) is in high school and his 8 year old sister Maud (Billie Roy) are finding their way, nearly a decade since their sister's disappearance. Out of the blue, the family gets a call from Cairo that Katie has been found. Cronin reveals all this with a mysterious set of well structured scenes that appear unrelated to the tale. They will all serve as clever pieces of the puzzle later. I'll say nothing more about how and where Katie has been found. Charlie and Larissa go to get their daughter. But is this really Katie? Catatonic with bursts of violence and guttural noises, she's a terrifying little creature. The film roles into serious "Exorcist" territory from here on out, very effectively. They take Katie (now played by Natalie Grace) back home, with Larissa confident that her nursing background will bring her daughter back from the edge. Cronin delivers relentless "Poltergeist" vibes as Katie sits in her bedroom. Remember when little Charlie would clack her jaws together in Ari Aster's "Hereditary"? Cronin triples down on the creep with Katie's insane jaws. Kudos to the makeup team and Grace for what must have been countless hours in the makeup chair. Secret passages, sprawling crawl ways, giant desert scorpions and hidden parts of the huge old house in the desert serve up a perfect playground for Cronin to scare the hell out of us. As in "Poltergeist", night time isn't exactly the best time to be inside this home. As their daughter demonstrates more and more violent tendencies and some truly gross habits, the family begins to fracture. Charlie makes a startling discovery in a sequence that brought me back to sitting in a huge movie theater in 1976 watching David Warner as the photographer in "The Omen" developing those haunting pictures foretelling death. Charlie's meeting with an archeology expert Professor Bixler (Mark Mitchinson, perfectly cast) is perfect, spooky and took me back to Gregory Peck meeting with Bugenhagen in "The Omen". Haunting film moments like these are not easy to conjure, but Cronin creates them seamlessly. Charlie sends his findings to Detective Zaki, now with eight years on the job and devoted to find out what happened to Katie. The story structure is perfect, as we pop back and forth between the horrors of what's happening inside the Albuquerque home and Zaki's "Se7en"-like detective thriller in Egypt. When those two story lines meet, fasten your seatbelt. Cronin's final half hour is a tour-de-force of sheer movie-making cojones. It's absolutely mad, over-the-top, gory, crazy and packed with jaw dropping moments. I never left the front edge of my seat. The funeral viewing in the living room is a twisted, revolting commitment to taking the viewer right to the edge with deft jolts of humor to make the revulsion more palatable. Cronin's like a great chef at work, serving up exactly what & when he wants to feed you. WTF moments abound. Composer Stephen McKeon (Evil Dead Rise) serves up a massive score of sliding strings and full orchestra screams that I wouldn't want to listen to at night. It's a flawless callback to the spirit Goldsmith's score for "Poltergeist", but wholly original. If you walk into the film expecting cloth wrapped, lumbering mummies or ancient pharaoh curses, you're in the wrong spot. But if you want a horror thrill ride blended with a mystery that delivers true, smart surprises, LEE CRONIN'S THE MUMMY has that wrapped up. I didn't like this one, I loved it. It gets an A. Cronin's earned that name above the title in bloody superb fashion. Warning: if you don't like gore or body horror, don't see this one. It's relentlessly gross and bloody in all the right ways.

John Carpenter's 1986 action thriller/Kung Fu/Western comedy is so jam packed with big budget thrills and special effects surrounding Kurt Russell that it should be an absolute blast of fun. BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA has been a film I've wanted to love since I saw it on the big screen in 1986, but it's always squandered my goodwill in a confusing mess of baffling storytelling and sheer noise. Decades haven't made it any clearer, but Russell's performance has aged well. His Jack Burton, a trucker that's an interesting blend of John Wayne and Indiana Jones, is constantly hilarious in his jingoistic spouting ineptitude. He doesn't believe in ghosts,magic or any of that supernatural mumbo-jumbo. Burton and his best buddy Wang Chi (Dennis Dugan) head to the airport to pick up Chi's girlfriend arriving from China, Miao (the stunning Suzee Pai from "Sharky's Machine"). When she is kidnapped right in front of them by a large gang of Asian bad guys, the adventure is off and running. Gracie (Kim Cattrall) also witnesses the crime and is pulled into the pursuit. It turns out that the gang has stolen Miao due to her rare green eyes, that are key to the power of a 2000 year old sorcerer named Lo Pan, played by legendary actor James Hong (Blade Runner, The Sand Pebbles). It seems Lo Pan needs to steal the lifeforce of a beautiful woman with green eyes to grow young again, which is bad news for Cattrall too, sporting green contacts for her role. Why suck the life out of one girl, when two fall into your lap, right Lo Pan? Victor Wong (The Last Emperor, Prince of Darkness) is a lot of fun as Egg Shen, our guide through the mythos of Carpenter's world and the subterranean lair. Carpenter has created so many of my favorite films of the 70's, 80's including "Halloween", "The Fog", "Escape from New York" and my all-time Carpenter fave, "The Thing". He was one of the first horror/thriller directors to embrace new technology and his "Thing" was an absolute triumph of practical effects that still perfectly disturbs today. Here, he's crafted an adventure that pays tribute to everything from Charlie Chan to the 70's Kung Fu movie craze. He also leans in hard on early digital visual effects as supernatural bad guys float in on lightning bolts, busting holes in the roof to float in. The Three Storms, with their blue lightning courtesy of special effects wiz Richard Edlund (Star Wars) and wide giant hats are a lot of fun and you will never convince me that they didn't inspire characters in Mortal Kombat the following decade. For the first 30 minutes of so, I'm always all in. It's fun, exciting and hilarious. Martial arts coordinator James Lew (Inception, Avengers: Endgame) stages some terrific battles, conjuring up plenty of mid-air battles long before "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" made them fashionable for mainstream Hollywood. Carpenter also creates an entire world of sorcery and mystical action underneath San Francisco's Chinatown, a web of underground caverns and massive rooms where the action takes place. But after that first 30 minutes, the action gets very repetitive and the story gets so damn confusing that I defy anyone to tell me what the hell is going on. Without a clear storyline, you're left with endless action that seems to go in circles. Russell is the standout as Burton, a hero so clumsy and dumb that he actually knocks himself out right before the biggest battle of the film. He creates a voice for Burton that sounds like John Wayne and Colonel Sanders on downers. Dugan is superb at the martial arts action, but he's a horrible actor, screaming every line of dialogue at a fever pitch, just as he did in Carpenter's next film, "Prince of Darkness" a guilty pleasure that's absolutely mad. By the time a flying eyeball with 30 separate eyes on it and some half-assed sewer bigfoot entered the action, I was exhausted trying to figure out what I was watching. So were audiences, as bad word of mouth killed this one quickly, earning just $11 million against its $25 million production budget. It's found a solid measure of cult status in the 40 years since it's release, and I still love Russell's hilarious take on Burton. Carpenter wrote his own music score too and it's terrific, filling almost every scene with 80's synth and a driving beat. Still too loud, too confusing and too overstuffed of a film to be truly enjoyable for me, BIG TROUBLE gets only a little love, earning a C. To quote Jack: "May the wings of liberty never lose a feather!"

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its original release, and to prepare for this week's "Lee Cronin's The Mummy", I loved going back to one of my all-time favorite comedy horror thrillers from 1999, THE MUMMY . What an absolute box office thrill ride and mega-hit this was back in '99. Brendan Fraser became a superstar in his first big screen action role as the Indiana Jones-like American adventurer Rick O'Connell, serving up big laughs and action in equal doses. This is Universal throwing a big budget at Writer/Director Stephen Sommers best screenplay. Paying homage to the movie monster film legacy of these wrapped up Egyptian terrors, Sommers crafts a fun, break neck pace from the opening scenes to the finale. Rachel Weisz (My Cousin Rachel) is a perfect heroine with bite, Evelyn. An English librarian and expert in all things ancient Egypt, she's pulled into a new dig at the ancient city of Hamunaptra by her carefree and clumsy brother Jonathan (John Hannah from "Four Weddings and a Funeral"). The new dig uncovers a deep tomb belonging to Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) who we've already met in the impressive opening prologue. Imhotep was caught with the Pharoah's main squeeze and sentenced to a tortured afterlife buried very deep in a hidden tomb. Oops, looks like someone's about to ignore all the hieroglyphic warnings and open it back up! O'Connell arrives on scene and manages to survive long enough for Evelyn to bail him out of prison and have him join her team. It seems like half the world is after the secrets buried in the legend of Imhotep and the movie tees everything up perfectly. With the scary fun of "Raiders" and the edgy horrors and gore levels of "Poltergeist", THE MUMMY serves up a winning formula, set to a legendary music score by Jerry Goldsmith (Poltergeist, Patton, Planet of the Apes) that's been often imitated by never equaled. Fraser is the film's core, a non-stop adventurer with a wit as quick as his draw. I lost count of how many times I laughed, seeing the film for at least the 12th time. It holds up beautifully, especially in long sequences where rival groups are attempting to decipher the secret passages and warnings below ground. Once Imhotep is released, the film really hits its stride. Vosloo is fantastic as the ancient bad dude, and the filmmakers broke new special effects ground as Imhotep literally sucks the life out of many victims to reclaim his human form. Those 25 year old Industrial Light and Magic effects still hold up as plenty of fun today. Oded Fehr (The Blacklist, 24: Legacy) is excellent as Ardeth Bay, the modern leader of an ancient group trying to stop Imhotep from escaping his sealed sarcophagus. (Ardeth Bay:Death by Ra. Coincidence?) Bernard Fox, who was in every notable TV series of the 60's and 70's, is a renaissance blast as Winston Havelock, a pilot who flies Rick in his biplane as that legendary Imhotep dust storm chases them across the sands. It's a now classic scene in a film full of them. Looking for some plagues falling from the heavens? How about some flesh eating scarabs that put piranha to shame? Giant pyramids and tombs crumbling around you? Car chases through mobs of zombies? Massive battles on horseback in the middle of the desert? This one's got them all and never takes its foot of the gas. Those are real rats and locusts on our actors, by the way. Sommers has said the morning after the Friday premiere, Universal execs called him and said "we need another one!". This film is credited with establishing the first weekend of May as the start of the summer season for Hollywood blockbusters. Earning $417 million at the box office against its $80 million budget, THE MUMMY was followed in 2001 by "The Mummy Returns" an even bigger hit and in 2008 by "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor". 2026 saw announcements that Fraser, Weisz and Vosloo are all returning for a NEW Mummy film hitting theaters in 2028! Can I get in line now? The original, THE MUMMY gets an A+, Fraser has said it's his favorite film he ever made and it remains one of my all-time favorites, just outside my Top 100.

One of the perks of a Disney Cruise with friends & family is the chance to see some family hits that have somehow escaped me. 2010's TANGLED is, by far, my favorite of the new era Disney animated classics. Disney's first CGI fairy tale film adaption, it features big laughs, physical comedy and real heart for kids and parents (and grandparents, hello!). This box office bonanza is a flawless example of how Disney got back to story basics after the box office disappointment of "The Princess and the Frog" the previous year, a film I really enjoyed but audiences were only lukewarm toward at the time of its release. Kids of every era know the story of Rapunzel, stuck up in that castle with some very long hair and a very protective Mom. Writer Dan Fogelman (This Is Us, Paradise) turns that old tale on its head, serving up a very modern Rapunzel (perfectly voiced by Mandy Moore) and a runaway thief named Flynn Rider, played by Zachary Levi in a hilarious, winning performance. Rapunzel and Flynn's first meeting is a non-stop display of physical comedy that had all ages in our showing laughing out loud. Of course, Rapunzel's Mom, Mother Gothel (Broadway star Donna Murphy) wants NO part of Rapunzel leaving her tower, but Rapunzel and Flynn have other ideas. There are plenty of secrets woven in that 70 foot long hair and its magical powers. The world beyond the tower is a complete mystery to Rapunzel and the film tees her wonder up perfectly, serving up some real suspense along with the belly laughs. Disney brought back Alan Menken (The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast) to write a beautiful new batch of songs, with lyrics by Glenn Slater. They are superb. Brad Garrett (Everybody Loves Raymond), Richard Kiel (The Spy Who Loved Me) and Jeffrey Tambor belt out "I've Got a Dream". Murphy betrays her stage roots with er powerful number, "Mother Knows Best". Moore and Levi pair up for the moving Disney ballad, "I See the Light", providing the perfect moment that's melted everyone's heart for nearly two decades since the film's release. If it doesn't tug at your heart just a little, you might want to check your pulse or your curmudgeon status. Check it out here: There are over 45,000 animated lanterns in that sequence, it's a visual stunner! The film is loaded with eye popping vistas. In the Kingdom Dance scene, there are over 3,000 people present, the largest crowd scene animated in Disney history. At a cost of $260 million, this was Disney's most expensive animated film ever made. It grossed over $600 million and has become a modern classic. Flynn and Rapunzel are a couple with film staying power. Eagle eyed viewers can spot them at Elsa's coronation in "Frozen" while Tiana and Naveen from "Princess and the Frog" are in the crowd below the balcony. Walt Disney Animation Studios' 50th feature film and its first one of the 2010s, TANGLED is one of the most enjoyable Disney animated films of all time for me. It's very entertaining for adults while being funny and exciting for the kids, not an easy blend to achieve and certainly a magic elixir that Disney has found more than any other studio for many decades. Character designer Glen Keane brought in fifty Disney animators (both CGI and traditional artists) to discuss the techniques used in each style and how to, in his words, "bring the warmth and intuitive feel of the hand-drawn to CGI" in TANGLED . It's an undeniable success in that regard, feeling old school but on a spectacular new scale. Six years in production, its a modern masterpiece of Disney entertainment and gets an A.

For those of us with enough years behind us to remember when Chevy Chase broke out in the first Season of SNL, it's fascinating to go back and relive those early years. I'M CHEVY CHASE AND YOU'RE NOT delves into all things Chase, from his TV debut, through his leap to the big screen in "Foul Play" with Goldie Hawn, all the way to modern day. Chevy is front and center with a direct to camera interview in which he comes across in turns as arrogant, nostalgic, rude and aging w/regrets. You have to give it to Chevy for being this transparent, offering up an unfiltered view of who he is today. His total lack of giving a crap what anyone thinks is pretty refreshing on the whole, but sure to offend modern sensitivities. Who cares. A parade of famous co-stars offer up their memories of Chevy in their lives and careers. For me, "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" and "Vacation" are the highlights of his film career, alongside "Foul Play" and "Fletch". The film doesn't skimp on behind the scenes thoughts and his co-stars in "Vacation" share warmth and nostalgia. Some other directors and stars, not so much. Chevy's children share frank memories of him when they were growing up. It's through their current eyes that I saw a current, 82 year old Chevy who seems to sense that he wasn't always kind and that some of his words carried more weight than he intended in the moment. His brothers share details about their home growing up that paint many of the drivers of Chevy in college and beyond. Aging isn't for the weak. Introspection and reevaluation is a major part of all of our lives as we hit our later years and Chevy is clearly no exception. He's legendary in Hollywood for many years for basically being a prick. Something he fully acknowledges and doesn't dispute in the documentary. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say. There are plenty of tidbits along with way that I loved, my favorite being that Chevy was a drummer in a college band that he left to pursue comedy. That band is Steely Dan. Impressive! Chase burst on the scene with an insulting, caustic wit that was perfect for the seventies. We were a much tougher lot then, with ability to laugh at ourselves. It was very hard to offend the majority of us. It still is, for that matter. Chase was hilarious the first season of Saturday Night Live. His Weekend Update anchor set the tone for every decade since. His Gerald Ford impression, which basically was him falling off ladders and down stairs was something we ALL talked about at school the following Monday. He burst into film with an amazing run of huge box office hits like "Foul Play" in 1978, "Caddyshack" and "Seems Like Old Times" in 1980, "Vacation" in 1983, "Fletch" in 1985, "Three Amigos!" in 1986 and "Christmas Vacation: in 1989. The man hosted the Academy Awards back when that was a MUCH bigger deal and one of the most watched events each and every year. Chase had addiction issues and was an absolute misery to John Carpenter on the set of "Memoirs of an Invisible Man". Carpenter's recalling those times is hilarious. Then you pile on Chase's ill conceived late night talk show and things hit bottom. This is the first time Chevy has really talked in depth about those failures, and his perception is pretty clear on why he hit bottom. He's not hiding from the truth. Dan Harmon, the creator of TV's "Community" recalls his trials dealing with Chevy in his starring role in the series, which cemented his status as an impossible to work with diva whose abrupt humor and caught a younger generation of cast members very far off guard, leading to accusations of racist comments that were damn ugly. There are moments here where Chevy seems genuinely remorseful for some of his history, but this isn't a morose documentary. It's fast and pretty funny, especially looking back at his film hits. Folks like Dan Aykroyd, Martin Short and Lorne Michaels serve up some great stories and personal recollections. Chase's agent Michael Ovitz shares some killer behind-the-scenes stories of pivotal moments in Chevy's career, good AND bad! I enjoyed the film, especially in the personal moments and scenes from Chevy's current everyday life, in which he carries a deep gratitude and appreciation for his fans. He comes from a vastly different emotional place than he did in his younger decades and it's a fascinating perspective. Chase isn't perfect, he admits it and is unabashedly who he is. Well done, Chevy. Clark Griswold, Ty Webb, Dusty Bottoms and Fletch will love forever. I'M CHEVY CHASE AND YOU'RE NOT gets a B.

Director Luc Besson's new take on DRACULA is a big budget, sweeping horror spectacle that's far better than I expected it to be. It deserved a bigger audience in theaters. An interesting cast, beautiful photography and more than a subtle reverence for Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 take make this a surprisingly stunning film. Besson has, at his best, always been one of my favorite French filmmakers, with his films oozing his unique visual style. "The Fifth Element", "La Femme Nikita"and his underappreciated "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" all have enough visual flair for ten films. He brings that same sensibility to his take on the Bram Stoker classic. Leaning in hard on the film as a love story, just as Coppola did, Besson roots his tale in an undying love that crosses many centuries. The film opens with the brash 15th century Prince Vlad (a fascinating Caleb Landry Jones) madly in love with his Queen Elisabeta (Zoe Bleu). They make love, drink, make love again, drink some more. His senior soldiers have to break in and drag him off to war. But before Vlad leaves, he swears to the Priest in his castle that, at all costs, God must protect Elisabeta. Besson then drops us into a beautifully staged, massive battle with armored knights on horseback across snowy fields. When Vlad gets word that forces have attacked the Queen's carriage, he rushes off at full speed, galloping toward his fate as Dracula. I kept wondering what the film's budget was (over $50 million) because it looks absolutely rich, stunning and dripping in period detail. Besson does not disappoint. The film then moves ahead to the story we are all too familiar with. That familiarity came with me when viewing the film. Did I really need to see another version? I hesitated, thinking I knew the story too well, but fascinated to see what a truly visionary director brought to it. Besson wraps every setting in lush detail. As Dracula takes a home in a perfectly foreboding castle and Jonathan Harker (a rather bland Ewens Abid) arrives at Dracula's lair, I forgot all about the familiar. Besson presents magic and powers that meet Harker's every turn. When the centuries old Count Dracula arrives to greet Harker, it's a direct and honorable homage to Gary Oldman's superb Count in Coppola's classic. Shadows play, doors move, the Count seems to be at the top of the stairs one moment and at Harker's side the next. Jones's makeup as the Count is fantastic, ancient, his white hair wrapped up into a Geisha style that seems three times larger than his head. It makes Oldman's famous hairdo seem tame by comparison. Gone is Jones young, enthusiastic voice that teased his young Queen. He now possesses a deep, disturbing baritone that terrifies and seems to drip danger, gravitas and lust. Once the Count sees a picture of Harker's fiance Mina, the old vampire is filled with overwhelming desire to reunite with his love Elisabeta, reincarnated in the young form of Mina. Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds,Django Unchained) is having a very good time here as a Priest whose order has been on Dracula's trail for centuries. Waltz is always so good at creating powerful, complex characters with huge splashes of humor. His Priest is no exception. Guillaume de Tonquedec is Waltz's perfect screen partner as Dr. Dumont, who's baffled by all the blood loss around London. Raphael Luce is also very good as Dumont's loyal assistant, whose young blood seems irresistible to those with an appetite. Besson clearly has a deep affection for Coppola's film, serving up direct and subtle references to that film's unique take on Stoker's tale. Some are very obvious including the same book-ended scenes to begin and end the film centered on Vlad/Elisabeta and Dracula/Mina's love. He also depicts Vlad's deep hate for the Church after what he sees as a betrayal of faith. Danny Elfman has created a beautiful new score for the film, but there are about 5-7 second sequences that directly pay tribute to Wojciech Kilar's classic music for Coppola's film. It delivers some powerful payoff if you remember Kilar's work. Count Dracula's centuries long quest to find his reincarnated Elisabeta brings us a very sophisticated Count. Once he's satisfied a couple centuries of bloodlust and once again takes his young form, Caleb Landry Jones becomes one of the most interesting Draculas in film history. Jones (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, American Made, Get Out) is a great actor, but here he's a brilliant chameleon as well. He's Barry Lyndon one moment and a blood thirsty fiend praying on a literal stack of nuns the next. He'll do anything to reunite with his Elisabeta. I went into the film wondering what Jones would bring to the part, but he delivers a powerful take on centuries of love & evil. Besson is a master of visuals and the film lives up to his legacy. Widescreen outdoor vistas frame conflicts and pursuits while Dracula's castle is a massive house of horrors. Besson's inclusion of the castle's gargoyles is an interesting choice and wavered somewhere between the 1972 TV film "Gargoyles" with Cornel Wilde that scared the hell out of me as a kid, and some stone version of the Ewoks. They are, for me, the only misstep in a visionary take on Stoker. I'm a (blood) sucker for a great telling of the Dracula legend. Besson delivers the best version since Coppola's back in '92, earning a very surprising B+.

What happens in Vegas....is a non-stop barrage of crazy action, kick-ass creatures and wild locals to challenge our favorite folks wondering the wasteland.THIS is the way you deliver a Season Two of a massive hit! FALLOUT SEASON 2 deepens the mystery, ups the intrigue, action & world building into a laugh out loud, powerful second set of eight episodes. It's a tribute to showrunners Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner that they're able to pile on many more levels of storytelling on top of the brilliant base they crafted in Season One. Their goal appears to be to provide more levels of visibility into our beloved characters. Mission accomplished. Vaulty Lucy Maclean (Ella Purnell) and The Ghoul (Walton Goggins) are on the trail of her Father Hank (a perfectly cast Kyle MacLachlan) who escaped at the end of last season. But The Ghoul is also on the same quest to find his family that he's been on for over 200 years. Powerful motivation. Dim, post apocalyptic biker gangs, giant lethal creatures and plenty of wicked, hungry folks stand in their way. Flea Soup anyone? Our story bounds all over what is left of the USA. Maximus (Aaron Moten) is now a fighting legend and finds himself in a powerful role as the enforcer and adopted son of Elder Cleric Quintus, who's positioning to rule over plenty of what's left of America. Family may be overrated. Flashbacks take us deeper into the mysteries of exactly how the world decided to blow itself up in the first place. Cooper Howard (the pre-Ghoul Goggins) is torn apart as he discovers the role his wife Barb (Francis Turner) has in preparing the vaults. What exactly are her priorities? We meet Robert House (Justin Theroux), a Howard Hughes-like billionaire who also lives in the penthouse of an alt-Vegas casino. He seems to be betting on the end of the world like its just another craps game at the tables below. Back at the vaults, Hank's son and Lucy's brother Norm (Moises Arias) is trying to position himself as a leader and discovering a lot about himself and the vaults in the process. Who knew starting a club could evolve so quickly? Over in Vault 32, Steph Harper (Annabel O'Hagan) rules over its citizens with the same firm hand she shows her husband Chet, the hilarious Dave Register. He plays Chet with the perfect mixture of timidity and quest for revenge that had me laughing. Steph is not one to mess with. The entire series flows fast and furious and fun. We're immersed into an alternate Las Vegas in both its shiny, bright past and its current post-bomb version with huge creatures looming at the entrance. There are brand new armies and warring factions that emerge, complicating the politics of the new world. but adding to the action and the fun. I laughed out loud when the lead soldier of one Roman-like army is revealed. Just one of the many, funny surprises in store for you. There's a surprising and deep level of human emotion mixed in with the action as characters learn more about the truth, their pasts and those around them. Goggins is fantastic as both Cooper and The Ghoul. As the two begin to merge and become the same character over centuries, Goggins always presents a relentless drive and a solid core of humanity, even as all signs of the Ghoul's humanity fall away from his physical presence. No one else could play the Ghoul like Goggins, conjuring big emotions one minute and blasting the crap out of Zombie Elvis Ghouls the next. He's flawless. Purnell's able to show more sides of the goody-goody Lucy this season as well, as the new world beats the optimism levels of her sunny personality downward. FALLOUT is the best series since "The Sopranos" to incorporate real songs into dramatic and action scenes. They demonstrate the same mastery of that talent that David Chase did across the entire run of his HBO mob hit. I laughed out loud when Pat Boone's "The Wang Dang Taffy-Apple Tango" played over a massive action sequence and Leroy Anderson's "The Syncopated Clock" provided perfect music for Hank's mind control experiments. I'm not sure that Elton Britt's 1950's country hit "Uranium Fever" has ever had quite this big of a platform. Throw in "Luck Be A Lady" from the original Broadway cast of "Guys and Dolls" and Rum & Coca-Cola" by the Andrews Sisters and you've got one hell of an eccentric soundtrack. Crazy, eclectic and hilarious perfection all around. Production credits are stellar, with superb costuming and special effects throughout. The production design by Howard Cummings (Westworld, Contagion) is jaw dropping and brings the game to life while expanding it's scope dramatically. With over 1 billion viewing minutes in each of its first two weeks, its another monster hit for Prime Video, with Season 3 already renewed. I can't wait!!! FALLOUT SEASON 2 is an absolute blast of radioactive originality, hilarity and jaw dropping visuals, matching its first season with an A+!

(Easter weekend is the perfect time to revisit seeing PETER RABBIT with my grandson (then 4) 8 years ago! Happy Easter all!) One fun perk of having a 4 year old grandson is getting to see movies that you never would have bothered with as an adult. Of course, this can be a bad thing too, but not in the case of PETER RABBIT . With humor aimed at both the young ones and adults, the comedy hits the target brilliantly for both groups. As the movie opens, four birds start singing a traditional musical number and my grandson looked at me like "what in the heck is this?" Seconds later, the birds were knocked out of the sky and the movie became a modern, fast moving comedy. Sony animation has created perfect, lifelike creatures of many species that have a great sense of humor, an eye for pranks and are 100% visually believable. James Corden is hilarious as the voice of Peter, Margot Robbie (I, Tonya) is Flopsy our narrator, Daisy Ridley (Rey in "Star Wars) and Sia round out our rabbits. Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids, Neighbors) is an English painter whose little home is next door to a large farm where Peter and his friends are determined to pillage the garden daily. Domhnall Gleeson (Ex Machina, Star Wars: The Last Jedi) is the new neighbor who inherits the farm and is determined to exterminate the furry brigade. Whether your 4 or 55, great physical comedy gets belly laughs and both my grandson and I laughed out loud a lot at the rabbits battling back at their new neighbor. TV writers WIll Gluck and Rob Lieber (The Goldbergs) give the animals plenty of personality, while weaving in some pleasant messages on friendship and honesty for the little ones. There has apparently been some ridiculous backlash against the movie by some "National Association of Food Allergies". I am convinced people today can get offended by anything. The food allergy joke is even tempered in the film by the rabbits breaking the 4th wall and looking at the camera to say "of course food allergies should be taken seriously and aren't a laughing matter" apparently knowing that some people have so little sense of humor that an animated rabbit movie about shooting berries at someone with tiny rabbit suspenders should be taken seriously. The constant daily outrage machine should perhaps not target floppy eared cartoon animals if they want to be taken seriously. But I digress.... Corden is hilarious throughout, two scenes with a literal deer in the headlights get big laughs and both my little buddy and I thought this was a very fun movie. With a $50 million budget, this is a great looking, big scale adventure for all ages. My grandson gives it 5 red vines and I give it a family-friendly and very enjoyable B. If you're looking for Easter viewing family-fun, hop on over to PETER RABBIT ! Followed by sequel "Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway" in 2021.

As the Academy Awards approached this year, I kept reading about Oscar record breaker and winner of 11 awards, 1959's BEN HUR. With a long coast-to-coast flight, what better time to catch up for the first time with this nearly 4 hour film classic. Charlton Heston stars as Judah Ben-Hur, a successful Jewish Prince at the time of Christ. When Ben Hur's childhood friend Messala is promoted to leader of the Roman Army in Hur's town, the two reconnect. Friendly banter is short lived and through an unfortunate series of events, Hur is cast out to become a slave. Hur's lifelong quest is to return to his home town of Jerusalem, liberate the family that was thrown into jail when he was made a slave, and gain his revenge against Massala. The film is of an epic scale, one of the biggest productions ever mounted. The chariot race that concludes the film was shot full scale, with stuntmen and horses performing all the action live in a huge arena. The chariot sequence is amazing. It's one of the most exciting 20 minute sequences in the history of film. I had to go back and watch the entire sequence again to soak it up. To stage that portion alone would cost a couple hundred million today, it is staggering in scale. Charlton Heston is at his best as Ben Hur, Jack Hawkins is terrific as Hur's slave master who finds more in Hur than he expects and Stephen Boyd is strong as Massala. This is old school film making at its best, massive in scale, very long but never boring and powerful in its story telling. Winner of Best Picture, Best Actor (Heston), Best Supporting Actor (Hawkins), best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Sound, Best Editing, Best Special Effects and Best Writing. It's an Oscar record tied by only two films in history, "Titanic" and "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King". This old fashioned spectacle gets an A for the Chariot Race Sequence alone. Throw another 3 hours of legendary film making on top and you have a classic.