Category: Daddy Mojo at the Movies

Going out to the movies is a rare act for moms and dads. In this series we’ll go to the movies, so you can judge for yourself if it’s a good investment.

Jurassic World Dominion, a satisfying movie to the series (that I didn’t see)

“I was four years old when the first one came out”, said the guy in front of me. The lady behind us said that she’d seen all of them and then went on comparing her favorite characters. As a family, we’ve seen Jurassic Park a handful of times, and I’m old enough to have driven myself to the cinema to see it when it came out. Our kids say that they’ve seen some of the other Jurassic films, but I know that the only other one I’ve seen the final half-hour of Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World. As the sixth film in the franchise, Jurassic World Dominion comes out, it serves as a mixed bag but is also a satisfying end to the series, let me explain.

Jurassic World Dominion is above average, a satisfying, fun end to the dino series that left a big footprint.
(from left) Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon) and Kayla Watts (DeWanda Wise) in Jurassic World Dominion, co-written and directed by Colin Trevorrow.
Just smile and enjoy the ride

Top Gun Maverick, a classic, feel-good great time at the movies

When’s the last time you saw a great movie? And by that I mean, a really great movie that pleased virtually everybody in the audience, regardless of their age, sex or background? Movies like this just don’t come around often. They’ve been replaced by franchise tent films that dependably come around every couple of years and deliver the same level of enjoyment. It was a better than average Marvel film, the last Pixar film was better or some other milquetoast compliment is more often than not how we’ve come to realistically describe movies. Two years delayed from its intended release comes Top Gun Maverick, the sequel to its namesake that was originally released in 1986. Low and behold, Top Gun Maverick is a master class in filmmaking that perfectly combines any element that one could request from a movie. It’s one of the best films I’ve seen and is the complete package in its telling a story that’s wrapped in action and, not to mention, 30+ years removed from the original.

This is the real deal. See it in theaters.
Continue reading Top Gun Maverick, a classic, feel-good great time at the movies

Spider-Man: No Way Home rewards all who view it

Meta is a word that channels a phrase that’s used very frequently now. When I was a child meta wasn’t used too much and neither was porthole. Now those middle-elementary students are making porthole quips and the upper elementary kids are trying to grasp meta. Our first experience with the word, in a cinematic sense, was Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Movies that make use of meta in their plot have certainly increased, but it’s great to see it when they successfully pull it off. Spider-Man: No Way Home is a superhero meta that weaves together all of the aspects that people love from the webhead’s movies, the MCU, and to an extent, movies overall.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is solid entertainment that delivers a meta style funhouse for fans, and a great time for casual viewers.
The MCU, via Sony in this case…finds its groove again

The Adam Project fills the big shoes of the films that inspired it

For teens in the early 1980s the only time-travel  jam that was worth your time was The Final Countdown. Years before Europe made it the title to one of the best songs ever, it was a head-bending, what-would-you-do, escape onboard a wayward American aircraft that traveled from modern day times to just before Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Similar to The Black Hole, that film put an indelible mark somewhere and somehow into my movie-going psyche. The Adam Project has that same vibe, but it’s a movie that is sharper, more contemporary and much faster paced than its time travelling contemporaries. It’s also on Netflix, which is a fact that might add to people’s enjoyment of the film.

The Adam Project is a feel-good movie that blends time travel, action, humor and heart.
Check logic at the door-this is a blast for the family

The Batman is the most Batman movie yet, from any vantage point

What to say about The Batman? Does one look at it from the perspective of quality, as an action movie, superhero flick or gauged simply against the cannon of Batman films that preceded it? Alternately, you could evaluate The Batman as a contrast in movie styles when it comes to DC and Marvel. As a comic book fan and one who appreciates movies of all sort, The Batman is fabulous tour-de-force on every level.

The Batman is big, loaded with action sequences and a sense of dread that suits the dark knight.
The Batman is so very much Batman, and fans will love it.

Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, more of the same, but it looks great

Remember when direct-to-video was a pejorative? The expectations of a direct-to-video movie aren’t as high as something you see in the theater. It’s also a term that is quite dated and I’m probably showing my age just by uttering it as if it’s a phrase that most moviegoers use. Planes is the most recent film that I can think of that was supposed to go straight to video but was redirected when Disney thought they had a low-key hit on their hands. That film was OK, but it wasn’t in the same league as Cars, or even Cars 2. Those were the days when every animated film had the aurora of somewhat being worth ticket prices (and snacks) in movie theaters.

Once more into the undead pool

Sing 2 runs the same game plan for ages 5-9

When Sing came out in 2016 it was a pleasant treat. The story about a group of underdog, singing animals seemed earnest, cute, and was genuinely entertaining. Granted a majority of the ‘earnest’ label was provided by Buster Moon, voiced by Matthew McConaughey. That character’s can-do, optimistic demeanor still delivers in this film’s sequel, Sing 2. Actually, most of Sing 2 will still deliver, assuming that the audience is in fourth grade or younger. That’s not meant to be a slam or a pejorative, it’s just the way it is, especially having just seen the film with a fourth and sixth-grader.

Sing 2, if you want to,

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is solid entertainment

Cinema folks have been asking what is the movie that will get us back to the movie theater? For thousands of people and many families, Ghostbusters: Afterlife is the film that got us to purchase four tickets to see it. It’s an odd intersection for films right now because movie theaters would like people in their buildings and people are willing to leave their houses, but the movie-paying public has realized that the emperor has no clothes. Now that people have been watching ‘big screen’ movies on television for almost two years a lot of families have either raised their caliber of film entertainment, have less money to spend on optional things, realized that the entertainment level of films has been decreasing, or some combination thereof. So, with all of this in the mixing bag is Ghostbusters: Afterlife any good?

This time, it’s entertaining to answer the call
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