Category: Movie Review

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The Fallout

John Stark

Starring: Jenna Ortega, Maddie Ziegler, Will Ropp, Miles Fitch, John Ortiz, Julie Bowen, and Shailene Woodley. Directed By: Megan Park Where I Watched It: HBO MAX English Audio Description Available?: Yes The Plot: Vada (Ortega) is your average high schooler, with a normal life, whose life is forever changed when a fellow classmate walks into her school with a gun and opens fire. While the movie spends most of the time not during this incident, the given plot description is vague enough that you might think its about teen suicide or something. So, you’ve been warned about the actual content … Continue reading The Fallout

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Hotel Transylvania 4: Trans4mania

John Stark

Featuring the voices of: Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kathryn Hahn, Steve Buscemi, Jim Gaffigan, Fran Drescher, and David Spade. Directed By: Derek Drymon and Jennifer Kluska Where I Watched It: Amazon English Audio Description Available: Yes The Plot: After picking up a love interest (Hahn) in the last film, Dracula (Some dude) decides it’s time to move on from the Hotel, and leave it to his daughter (Gomez) and her human husband (Samberg) to run. But Dracula gets cold feet after realizing his son-in-law is kind of a doofus, so he makes up a reason why he can’t retire, which … Continue reading Hotel Transylvania 4: Trans4mania

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Antlers

John Stark

Starring: Keri Russell, Jesse Plemons, Jeremy T. Thomas, Amy Madigan, Graham Greene, and Rory Cochrane. Directed By: Scott Cooper Where I Watched it: HBO MAX English audio Description Available?: Yes The Plot: A teacher (Russell) enlists the help of her Sheriff brother (Plemons), when she suspects that a student in her class (Thomas) might be getting abused at home, after she finds several alarming objects in his possession. Of course, there is something far darker…more… sinister. Boo! What Works: First, hats off to Scott Cooper, who I had no idea was directing this until I checked IMDB. For those unfamiliar … Continue reading Antlers

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Marry Me

John Stark

Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, Sarah Silverman, Chloe Coleman, and Malian. Directed By Kat Corio Where I Watched It: Peacock English Audio Description Available: Read to find out. The Plot: in a departure, Jennifer Lopez tackles the polar opposite role of Kat, a pop singer, who has made some terrible love life choices, and is currently set to marry another fellow Latin artist (Maluna) in concert, in front of their fans, until news breaks that he cheated on her. So, she calls an audible and proposes to a random person in the audience, a math teacher (Wilson), a divorced single … Continue reading Marry Me

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The Ice Age Adventures Of Buckwild

John Stark

Starring: The only original voice cast returning is Simon Pegg. Poor guy. They did pay Justina Machado to join, but either no one else wanted to come back, or they didn’t want to pay them. Directed By: John C. Duncan Where I Watched It; Disney Plus English Audio Description Available?: Yes The Plot: Disney, eager to find a way to continue to stretch out the already stretched Ice Age franchise, decides to fire original voice actors, and create a spinoff featuring two characters that weren’t even in the original franchise, joined by an even newer character, in hopes that people … Continue reading The Ice Age Adventures Of Buckwild

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A Hero

John Stark

Starring: Amir Jadidi, Mohsen Tanabandeh, Sahar Goldstein, and Sarina Farhadi. (And if spell check didn’t just mess all that up, #winning.) Directed By: Asghar Farhadi. Where I Watched It: Amazon English Audio Description Available?: Thank God, Yes. The Plot: Raheem is a man currently on leave from a debtors prison that is trying to get his financial affairs in order when a purse full of gold crosses his path, and the decisions he makes could change his life forever. Should he use the money to pay off his debts, or is his honor more important as he looks to set … Continue reading A Hero

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Spencer

John Stark

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Timothy Spall, Jack Farthing, Sally Hawkins, Freddie Spry, and Sean Harris. Directed By: Paulo Laureen Where I Watched It: Apple VOD English Audio Description Available?: Yes. The Plot: At the end of her rope, Diana (Kristen Stewart) attends a family traditional Christmas, where she battles her own mental health, her desire to be a mother to her kids, and a strong need to end her marriage to Prince Charles (Jack Farthing). What Works: The kids who play William and Harry are delightful, and the best scenes in the entire film revolve around Diana being (or at least … Continue reading Spencer

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The Mitchells Vs The Machines

John Stark

Featuring The Voices Of: Abby Jacobson, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Olivia Coleman, Eric Andre, Beck Bennett, Fred Armisen,John Legend, Chrissy Teegin, Blake Griffin, and Conan O’Brien. Directed By: Mike Rianda Where I Watched it: Netflix English Audio Description Available?: Yes The plot: When it’s time for a young girl (Jacobsen) to leave the nest and go to college, her dad (McBride) has a hard time letting go, and decides to make her trip to her college a fun road trip for the whole family. Then an apocalypse led by AI (Coleman) turns their road trip into a hell scape. What … Continue reading The Mitchells Vs The Machines

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The Green Knight

John Stark

Starring: Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, and Joel Edgerton. Directed by David Lowry Where I Watched It: Apple VOD English Audio Description Available?: Yes The Plot: An adaptation of the classic tale of Sir Gawain (Dev Patel) and the Green Knight, directed by the guy who had Casey Affleck walk around in.a white sheet for an entire film. What Works: I know this film is divisive, and I only see a few reasons… maybe minor changes I’ll get to later… as to why this film isn’t in the Oscar conversation. But, real talk. Can we please start talking more about David … Continue reading The Green Knight

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Ghostbusters Afterlife

John Stark

Starring: Carrie Coon, McKenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, Paul Rudd, Logan Kim, Celeste O’Connor, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Shoreh Agadashloo, JK Simmons, Bokeem Woodbine, Josh Gad, Annie Potts, and Sigourney Weaver. Directed By: Jason Reitman Where I Watched It: Apple VOD English Audio Description Available: Yes The Plot: A struggling mother (Coon) finds out her father, from whom she has been long estranged, has passed away and left her a creaky old house in a small sleepy town. So, she packs up her two kids (Wolfhard/Grace) and heads out to tie up loose ends. But, she really had no … Continue reading Ghostbusters Afterlife

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Nightmare Alley

John Stark

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Rooney Mara, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, David Strathairn, Mary Steenburgen, Ron Perlman, Jim Beaver, Tim Blake Nelson, Holt McCallany, and Clifton Collins Jr. Directed By: Guillermo Del Toro Where I Watched It: Hulu English Audio Description Available: Hulu hates blind people, so no. Of course, I’m sure it exists, it’s just hulu can never be bothered to acquire audio description. The Plot: A charming con artist )Cooper) learns how to manipulate people through learning from carnies, and believes he’s landed the ultimate con, with the help of a psychologist (Blanchett) who may be … Continue reading Nightmare Alley

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The Power Of The Dog

John Stark

Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Kodi Smit-McPhee. Directed By Jane Campion. The Plot: Two brothers (Cumberbatch and Plemons) run a ranch, and their lives are forever changed when one marries a widow (Dunst), who has a rather interesting son (Smit-McPhee) that seems very at odds with the environment around him. Lots of long staring and heavy thinking ensue. What Works and What Doesn’t: Usually, I break these into two fairly divided sections, but The Power Of The Dog is not a typical film, so it gets atypical treatment. This is not my first rodeo with Jane Campion’s … Continue reading The Power Of The Dog

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Long Story Short

John Stark

Starring: Rafe Spall Directed By: Josh Lawson Where I Watched it: Netflix English Audio Description Available?: No The Plot: Time loop/travel movie alert! This time, a man )Spall) wakes up the morning after his wedding to discover that through a magical chance occurrence, his life jumps forward in time every few minutes. Life truly is short. What Works: I’ve been really appreciating the work that Rafe Spall has been doing on Apple’s drama Trying, so seeing him elevated to sole lead in this comedy was an interesting idea. There literally isn’t anyone in this cast other than Spall whose name … Continue reading Long Story Short

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Mayor Pete

John Stark

Starring: Pete and Chastain and a bunch of other people along the way. Directed By: Jesse Moss Where I Watched it: Amazon English Audio Description Available?: Yes The Plot: A documentary attempting to chart the meteoric rise of the Mayor of South Bend as he embarks on his quest to become the first openly gay President of the United States. What Works: Well, the runtime is pretty accessible. Not to insult Pete, but I think a long documentary about him would be a bit much at this point in time. Hopefully, he will continue to be a major player in … Continue reading Mayor Pete

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The Last Night In Soho

John Stark

Starring: Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor Joy, Matt Smith, Diana Rigg, Michael Ajao, Syonnve Karlson, Jessie Mai Li, and Terence Stamp. Directed By Edgar Wright Where I Watched it: Apple (VOD) English Audio Description Available: Yes The Plot: Ellie (McKenzie) heads off to school with big dreams, and stumbles into a portal back to the 1960’s where everything seems much sexier, and Ellie finds herself engaged in this fantastical world, that soon starts to unravel everything she knows. What Works: I don’t want to spoil things, but I might say some things here that are slightly spoilery depending on how much … Continue reading The Last Night In Soho