Is the video game movie Renaissance upon us?
Movies Reviewed: Super Mario Brothers, Minions: Rise of Gru, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Croods: A New Age, Wakanda Forever, The Lost City, The Cannonball Run.
Super Mario Brothers (*** and a half)
It’s the best video game movie.
Notably, this isn’t a movie based on a videogame that ripped off a movie to begin with (Uncharted, Tomb Raider, Max Payne, Prince of Persia, etc.). Nor does the movie adaptation simply slap the videogame label onto a rejected sci-fi script (1993 Mario Bros, Wing Commander, Final Fantasy). Nor is it a cheap anime dumped onto a streaming service, or even something like Sonic the Hedgehog which paired the videogame characters with generic normal humans. No sir! Super Mario Brothers is a true big-budget video game movie, and one that’s actually pretty good!
Before I go all crazy fanboy on this movie, I’ll acknowledge a major weakness. The story is very straightforward, without much in the way of twists or emotional depth. There are some glimpses of emotional ideas, such as Peach’s backstory, Mario and Luigi’s brotherly relationship, or Mario and Donkey Kong learning to put their rivalry aside. These are scenes that Pixar would have really emphasized (yes, even the lesser version of Pixar that made Finding Dory, Luca, and Turning Red). But this isn’t a Pixar movie. Super Mario is an Illumination movie, which means we get just enough character development, and then move on to the next joke or action scene.
So… Super Mario Brothers isn’t an animated masterpiece. But… is it fun? Hell yeah!
The entire movie is a love-letter to Nintendo fans. The videogame world is spectacularly realized, with gorgeous landscapes, big action scenes, great art design, and roughly a million background easter eggs. Most of the references are actually in the audio department, and the MVP of the entire movie is composer Brian Tyler, who takes Koji Kondo’s classic chip tunes and turns them into a very natural-feeling film score. The transitions and sound editing are wonderfully done, thankfully avoiding the awkward “record scratch” moments in the trailer. I seriously think the musical score should be up for an Academy Award next year.
As far as the voices, all the online drama over Chris Pratt turns out to be for nothing. It takes no time at all to warm up to him as Mario, and the opening (featuring Charles Martinet) even addresses the Italian accent. Actually, if anyone should be recast, it’s Seth Rogan. His acting is fine, but his voice doesn’t fit Donkey Kong. Fred Armisen’s Cranky Kong is also interesting; he’s definitely not how Cranky is in the video games, but the movie kinda reimagines his entire role anyway. On the whole, I was pleased with the voices, especially those for Bowser and Kamek.
And whatdoyaknow… the jokes are actually funny! Bowser especially gets a lot of laughs, as he’s portrayed as a humorous paradox. He’s ferocious and very mighty, but also an insecure lovesick lizard desperate for approval. With respect to the heroes, their slapstick is played better than the trailers would suggest. I especially loved an early scene which pits the Mario Brothers against a vengeful dog (a seeming cross-over to Illumination’s The Secret Life of Pets). The director’s daughter also shines as a loopy nihilistic Luma.
The action scenes have actual stakes, as the heroes get their butts kicked several times, but keep trying. The directors sought to capture the spirit of a videogame, in which player persistence would eventually overcome the odds. I really liked that everyone got to do something cool in the climax. The first half might play up Princess Peach as a dominant force, but in the end everyone had to work together. The finale is set up so that Bowser would have won (or at least killed a lot of people) if even one of the five hero characters had been absent.
As soon as the credits rolled, I knew this movie was going to be a big hit. Our Wednesday evening screening in Kokomo (not exactly a cinephile community) was packed with kids and families, who reacted well to the jokes and action scenes. The film received a solid round of applause when it concluded, which is something I haven’t seen in a very long time. This movie is a blast for Nintendo fans, and there are quite a lot of us out there, as evidenced by the insane amount of money this thing is making.
(Seriously, this is the new “Frozen” in terms of popularity, all the more impressive considering the complete disinterest of critics, Chinese box office, and the media in general.)
All that is just a long way of saying… let’s get that Nintendo Cinematic Universe rolling!
Minions: Rise of Gru (***)
The first two Despicable Me movies were a lot of fun. The third one was stupid. The first “Minions” movie wasn’t terrible, but it lacked purpose and direction. That problem is largely fixed in “Rise of Gru,” as it can recenter the plot around a young aspiring supervillain and relegate the minions to their appropriate supporting roles. In short, the Despicable Me franchise is back to being (pretty) good.
The simple plot involves a young Gru trying to get into a Supervillain League. When they reject him, he ends up stealing a magical relic from them, and teaming up with their older, exiled former leader. The Supervillains are fun characters, each with a different gimmick that often ties into the 1970’s setting. In an especially humorous twist, the supporting villains are all voiced by older action stars: Lucy Lawless, Dolph Lundgren, Danny Trejo, and even Jean-Claude Van Dame (As “Jean CLAW” because he has a giant claw, you know).
Other than that, I don’t have a ton to say about this one. It’s fun, the voices are good, the jokes are worth a chuckle, and the animated action is suitably kinetic. Decent fun for the kids and their parents.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (**** and a half)
“I'm not really a cat person. I find the very idea of nine lives absurd. And you didn't value any of them. So why don't I do us both a favor, and take this last one now?” -Death
Once in a while, the folks at Dreamworks make something truly amazing. Sometimes you get a Prince of Egypt or a How to Train Your Dragon. This is one of those times. Puss in Boots 2 is one of the biggest surprises of 2022.
Puss in Boots 2 is also one of the darkest Dreamworks movies, with a surprisingly high body-count (no joke!) and a theme built around aging and mortality. The titular “Puss” has carelessly wasted 8 of his 9 lives, and now is literally being hunted by Death (portrayed as a hybrid of the Grim Reaper and the Big Bad Wolf). Death seeks to punish him for not treating life with the sacred reverence that it deserves. This is a seriously awesome and scary idea for a villain.
But there’s more! The villain-heavy story also features Jack Horner as a wealthy industrialist determined to get the one thing he doesn’t have: magic. So he’s stolen all the magic relics he can find and put them in Mary Poppins’ bottomless bag. This leads to an incredibly delightful array of easter eggs as you recognize all of his powerful weaponry. The film also includes a villainous and feral version of Goldilocks, but she might be turned to good if her childhood trauma can be healed. This is a LOT to cram into a 100-minute kids movie, but somehow the movie never feels “busy.” It’s incredibly well-paced and written so that nobody gets lost in the shuffle. Every character has clear motivations, and actually acts somewhat intelligently to achieve their goals.
Despite the emphasis on villains and dark themes, the movie is also really funny, with a lot of good jokes about Puss’ unabashed bravado, the naivete of his sidekick (a therapy dog), and the 3 bears serving as Goldilocks’ dim henchmen. The opening scene kicks things off to a great start, with probably the funniest intro to any movie in the Shrek franchise. But the real comedy star for me was Jiminy Cricket (sounding like Jimmy Stewart) as the conscience of the film’s most wicked villain. He wrestles with the idea that true evil simply can’t be reasoned with.
2022 was a terrible year for the Disney brand, but it was a come-back year for Dreamworks. The Bad Guys contained at least half of a great movie, and Puss in Books: The Last Wish is truly one of the year’s best. And as the only nominee for Best Animated Picture to have a decent theatrical release, I think it should have won by default.
Croods 2: A New Age (***)
The Croods was not one of the better Dreamworks movies, so I didn’t notice when a sequel came out in late 2020. But word reached me that the sequel was surprisingly good and… well, it’s not bad.
For starters, at least something happens in this movie. It’s not just 90 minutes of cavemen running away from animals. The big inciting event is that the Croods discover an isolated homestead with more advanced technology, run by another family called the “Bettermans.” There’s also a personal connection, since the Bettermans are revealed to have known Ryan Reynold’s character as a child, explaining how he had advanced knowledge compared to the Croods. So I guess the sequel makes the original slightly more sensicle?
The plot from that point is decent, framing the Betterman household as the Garden of Eden, but also suggesting that a devil is hiding in the shadows. The payoff is reasonably clever, and leads to a satisfying climax. But mostly, I liked the art design of the movie. I think someone realized that the creature design of The Croods was the highlight, and decided to go all in that.
Thematically, though, the film is a mess. There’s the usual “junior knows best” themes, Biblical allegories, modern social commentaries, and none of it seems to have a clear message. The movie keeps trying to make the Bettermans look bad, but then keeps conceding that they really are better in literally every single way. So… what’s the message here? That they should be nicer to the rude intruders who keep wrecking their stuff? They’re already being pretty nice, considering the circumstances!
For what it’s worth, I think Croods 2 is a few notches better than the first movie. It’s helped a lot by the creative creature design, solid voice cast (especially Peter Dinklage) and decent humor.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (**)
Sigh… Remember when the MCU was… good?
I’ve lost interest in MCU, largely because most of the projects are TV shows that don’t interest me. I’d hoped that the movies were still good, but after an hour of Wakanda Forever, I seriously considered stopping the movie and returning it unfinished. I kept going, hoping it would get better, occasionally encouraged by a good scene here and there.
It gets a little better, but not enough to justify the nearly 3-hour run time. Replacing the charismatic T’Challa is “Shuri,” a second-rate character to begin with, paired with a sidekick who’s basically the exact same character as her but with worse acting and less backstory. The villain almost has an interesting backstory, but never quite clicks either with the MCU canon (we’re still ignoring the consequences of making 50% of the population disappear) or real-world history (you all know that MesoAmericans practiced slavery, right?).
The drama in this movie is weird, in that it has scenes that seem like they should elicit more of an emotional response than they do. Maybe they’re just too over the top, or too predictable, or oddly out of place in such a silly franchise. Endgame managed to pull off a few genuinely touching scenes, such as Tony Stark meeting a younger version of his father, with appropriate build-up. In Wakanda Forever, it’s just “Bam! Your brother is dead offscreen from… something! Feel sad!” Would that make any sense if we didn’t know the circumstances under which this movie was made?
(Honestly, the most emotional bit in Wakanda Forever is probably the silence during the Marvel logo.)
Overall, Wakanda Forever oscillates between being decent and being boring. Many scenes drag on and on, and even the action scenes are a mixed bag. The only exciting bits are (oddly enough) when the bad guys are winning. They have this creepy “siren song” that’s pretty horrifying. But most of the fight scenes are the usual CGI-fests between characters with confusing power levels. This certainly isn’t the first Marvel movie with such a problem (not by a long shot!), but the lack of believable action or effects is getting more and more irritating as this series meanders on.
Honestly, this is the worst MCU movie I’ve seen yet. Here’s hoping that Guardians of the Galaxy 3 is actually good?
The Lost City (***)
This silly rip-off of Romancing the Stone is more than meets the eye.
Yes, it’s a silly jungle adventure movie with the usual cliches and tropes of a jungle adventure movie. Yes, the actors are somewhat miscast, which seems to be half the joke. And yes, some of the jokes land flat or go on too long. But there’s also a sweet and genuine message about grief, aging, and letting go of what you thought your life would be.
Sandra Bullock plays an widowed, middle-aged academic who never really made it big in her field, but found success after adapting her anthropology research into a series of steamy adventure novels. Channing Tatum plays a model who poses shirtless for the covers of her books, and helps with her publicity tours. Through a series of unfortunate events, Bullock is kidnapped by Harry Potter so that she can translate some ancient runes and find a lost treasure, and Tatum goes to rescue her.
It’s silly, it’s mildly amusing, and yet has some surprisingly serious and poignant moments that hit me out of nowhere. Much is made of the main character being older, and a widow. She still visibly wears her wedding ring, and seems extremely bitter about her life as a reclusive romance novelist. Her goofy cover model actually ends up being the voice of reason, saying something to the effect of “you may not like your own books, but don’t disrespect the younger women who are inspired by your passion.”
The Lost City won’t blow your mind, but considering how well-worn this formula is, it turned out surprisingly decent.
The Cannonball Run (so bad, it’s good)
Technically, this is probably a one star movie. It’s ridiculous, badly edited, and incoherent. Burt Reynolds himself has admitted that he regrets making the movie. But it’s not a slog. It’s the sort of stupid-fun that can be enjoyed for the silly trash that it is.
The movie centers around an illegal cross-country race between different colorful characters. An all-star cast appears, often referencing roles they played in other movies or other popular tropes. So you have “The Bandit” racing against James Bond, the Dukes of Hazzard, Jackie Chan, and an Arabian Sheik (who has all the funniest lines). Some of the references are somewhat confusing, though. Roger Moore’s character is not supposed to be himself, or an actual spy, but a delusional guy who thinks he’s Roger Moore. Um… What? That joke would have worked much better if he went around telling everyone he was Sean Connery. Also, Farrah Fawcett is in the movie as a nerdy environmentalist, while other actresses play the “Charlie's Angels” types.
On the other hand, Roger Moore also has a girl next to him at all times, and she keeps magically changing into a different girl in every shot. That’s pretty dang funny, and a perfect satire of the disposable love interests in the Bond series.
CannonBall Run isn’t good, but it’s entertainingly bad, and maybe that’s the point. It’s also definitely one of those movies where the overqualified cast really sells it.