Prey (2022)

Director: Dan Trachtenberg. Cast: Amber Midthunder, Dane DiLiegro. 99 min. Action/Fantasy.

• Finally, a Predator movie that, for lack of a better term, makes sense. Written as a prequel to the multitude of useless sequels after the brilliant 1987 original, this movie happens 300 years ago among Native-Americans. 
• I say this one makes sense, because both the Native-Americans and the Predator species are considered "warriors",  and the young heroine and her tribesmen's fighting skills are tested against the alien, to the point that occasionally you're not sure which side is the prey, and which the predator (hence, the movie's name). Secondly, one of the soldier characters in the original was a Native, and his resolve against the Predator there felt as if ... he'd heard of these stories before. 
• The fact that the cast are Native-Americans and speak the actual Comanche language, and the breathtaking cinematography of Canadian panoramas, make this take on the Predator legend even more refreshing. Quite violent, but you shouldn't expect any less from this franchise.

MoGo's rating: 8/10

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Nope (2022)

Director: Jordan Peele. Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Brandon Perea, Steven Yeun, Keith David. 130 min. Sci-fi/Horror.

• If Spielberg wanted to make a Hitchcock movie (or Hitchcock wanted to make a Spielberg movie), this would’ve been the result. While the step by step thriller/horror approach to an alien encounter is right out of Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind (and to a lesser degree, his War of the Worlds) all the way down to power outages during a UFO fly-by, and the scene of dismounting a pick up truck to see a UFO hovering above; the style is obviously Hitchcockian, most notably the suspense of the inflatable dancing men sequence towards the end, and a mid movie god’s-eye view showing the town from above - a salute to Hitchcock’s The Birds.
• After Jordon Peele’s masterpiece debut, Get Out, his second feature, Us, was a big disappointment - so I didn’t go into this one with any major expectations. I was pleasantly surprised. Nope contains what we as moviegoers are always thirsty for: lots and lots of beautiful, memorable images. I was somewhat dissatisfied with the ending (never as deep as Get Out), but that imagery … that was enough to love.

MoGo's rating: 9/10

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Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood (2022)

Director: Richard Linklater. Cast (voices): Milo Coy, Jack Black, Lee Eddy. 97 min. Animation/Drama.

• It's great to have the luxury (and of course, the talent) of telling the world what your childhood "felt" like. Because that's what this predominantly story-less movie is all about: the atmosphere of Richard Linklater's 1960's childhood in Texas, where the first men on the moon were being launched from your hometown of Houston. And didn't we all imagine ourselves as kids as the tycoon with hundreds of cool cars, Elton John playing in concert, or Neil Armstrong going to the moon? Linklater inserts that childhood dream of being the first man on the moon into his coming-of-age recollections, and makes this an enjoyable movie (in animated form, no less), even if you weren't born in America, or didn't have American childhood aspirations.
• Available on Netflix.

MoGo's rating: 7/10

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Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

Director: Taika Waititi. Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, Taika Waititi (voice), Russell Crowe, Jaimie Alexander, Chris Pratt. 118 min. Fantasy/Action.

• If I wanted to list my top 5 Marvel movies so far, Thor: Ragnarok (Thor 3) would've been in there (the other four being Iron Man, Captain America: Winter Soldier, Avengers: Infinity War, and Spider-man: Far From Home). The delightful Ragnar ok was directed by the bright New Zealand import, Taiki Waititi ... so of course, after awhile they corrupt him. This film's screenplay has a similar structure with similar jokes - down to a mid-movie sequence where a crazy god-like figure (Jeff Goldblum in Thor 3, Russell Crowe in Thor 4) demolishes throwaway characters. And Natalie Portman wasn't just going to stand by as the girlfriend/sidekick, so they turned her into a Thor clone in this one (no joking), never really explaining what the mechanism of her metamorphosis is. The only interesting aspect is Christian Bale as Gorr, the god-butcher (yikes!) and his tormented past - but then again, Christian Bale has a habit of being the only interesting aspect of a movie.

MoGo's rating: 6/10

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Jurassic World Dominion (2022)

Director: Colin Trevorrow. Cast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, Campbell Scott, BD Wong, Omar Sy. 146 min. Action/Sci-fi.

• I watched this movie around a month ago on opening weekend, and already remember almost nothing of it. That's how bland and repetitive this movie is. Lackluster villains, unnecessary close-up shots of action sequences, and going down a checklist of the original movie's best hits, makes this film difficult to tolerate. The joining of the old (Neill, Dern, Goldblum) and new (Pratt, Howard) casts in this movie creates significant hope, but even that effort falls flat, as story-wise you never know why the old crew was even invited to be in this one, as opposed to some other trio of scientists. There's an underground dinosaur bazaar here that I found somewhat interesting, but that's all I'm giving the below average score for. 
• Case in point: In the 1993 original made by Spielberg, there's the majestic scene where Sam Neill's Alan Grant first sees the brachiosaurus, gets up in the jeep, and pulls off his very dark and opaque sunglasses, upon which we see his wide-eyed shock at the scene in front of him. In this movie, Laura Dern's Ellie Sattler does the exact same thing upon seeing a dinosaur, but this time, her sunglasses are not opaque enough - we can already see her wide eyes behind the glasses, so pulling them off doesn't project the intensity of her amazement when she does. In other words, Trevorrow never understood why or how Spielberg's scene worked. But he still used it in his movie.  
• Curiously, Jurassic Park's sequel trilogy follows the same trajectory as the Star Wars sequel trilogy: the first movie (Jurassic World, and Episode VII - The Force Awakens) was a "maybe", creating some hope that the director (Colin Trevorrow for JP, J.J. Abrams for SW) was onto something. The second movie, a better movie (Fallen Kingdom, and Episode VIII - The Last Jedi) was made by someone else, and then the third (Dominion, Episode IX - Rise of Skywalker) made by the same director as the first, was just horrendous, making you hope they never make a movie of this franchise again. 

MoGo's rating: 4/10

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The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022)

Director: Tom Gormican. Cast: Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Tiffany Haddish, Neil Patrick Harris. 107 min. Comedy/Action.

• Nicolas Cage is one of those actors with whom people have a love-hate relationship; no in-between (mine is love). My favorite Cage movies, panned by many, have been The Rock and Knowing; and I find his dumbest and most hilarious, loved by many, to be Con-Air. Everybody went crazy over Face/Off (not sure why), and I thought he was the perfect choice to play Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider, even though the movie was horrible. See what I mean? 
• In the manner of other actor flagellating movies such as Being John Malkovich and JCVD (satirizing our vision of John Malkovich and Jean-Claude Van Damme, respectively), while playing himself in some sort of cliché adventure movie, Cage bravely and whole-heartedly embraces the above notion. He acknowledges that despite the nepotism that probably helped him launch his career (Francis Ford Coppola is his uncle), he exudes a certain depressing style of weirdness and corniness that makes him unique, and lovable. The movie is a satire of Cage's movie persona, and possibly, his real-life issues. At times watching the movie, it's hard to differentiate the two. 
• The ingenuity of the screenplay shows in the very last moments with the appearance of a certain actress. You'll know when you see it.

MoGo's rating: 7/10

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Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Director: Joseph Kosinski. Cast: Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, Miles Teller, Val Kilmer, Jon Hamm. 130 min. War/Action.

• Pure, high-quality, flawless entertainment. This is why we went to the movies in the first place. The fact that to keep as entertained, a sequel four decades later has to copy the 80s movie formula and screenplay structure, scene-by-scene and point-by-point, from the opening titles introducing what "Top Gun" is, all the way down to the girl waiting by a Porsche at the end, ... tell us how having fun at the movies has been put on the back burner these days. Don't get me wrong: it's totally fine that this fun movie is an exact replica of an older fun movie, because they're doing it right. (As opposed to an idiotic piece like Star Wars - Episode IX, where the act of copying is done so awfully, it even ruins the older movie.)
• The unnamed country which is aim of the climactic attack, intentionally left blurry here, the "only other country that has F-14s", is likely Iran. I even felt the characters were pronouncing "uranium enrichment site" to the sound like "Iranian enrichment site". The mountainous terrain doesn't look like Iran, but how many rogue nations out there are secretly enriching uranium?
• Lovely near-tearjerking appearance by Val Kilmer, even though he's suffering from throat cancer (a true life fact cleverly incorporated into the story).
• Regardless of what we've heard of his personal life, you can't deny that Tom Cruise is still one of (or the) greatest action movie star out there.

MoGo's rating: 9/10

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Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Director(s): Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert. Cast: Stars Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, James Hong, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jenny Slate. 139 min. Fantasy/Comedy.

• What a wonderful (and much needed) movie for our times. You think the world is going crazy? Sometimes find it difficult to breath? This film offers a possible reason. Consider it a tie-in with the recent Doctor Strange 2 movie: there's a multiverse going on, and we are constantly tapping into parallel universes. In the 70s, escapism from the world's madness was defined by space movies like Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind; in the 80s, it was playing around with time, like in Back to the Future; in the 90s, it was claiming that we're living in a virtual world, like The Matrix, The Thirteenth Floor, and eXistenZ; now ... it's imagining a multiverse, and "what if" I hadn't made that decision, 30 years ago? Would my life be any better? Escapism. 
• True to form, there are lovely references to 80s icons. One is obvious: Jamie Lee Curtis, once the most memorable slasher-movie heroine of all time, here as a crazy IRS auditor. The other one is more subtle, but exciting when you notice "him". Let's just say he was a major player in two 80s Spielberg-driven kids' movies ...
• Strong respect paid to some other iconic movie moods and moments: funny ones like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Ratatouille, and more dramatic ones like In the Mood for Love and of course, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. 
• Kudos to the script, the editing, and costume design: the thousands of cuts, and the creativity implemented in displaying numerous parallel universes, have made this one of the greatest movies of the year (already seen it twice). 
• And believe it or not, the ending does offer a glimmer of hope, in all this madness and sadness.

MoGo's rating: 9/10

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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

Director: Sam Raimi. Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, Rachel McAdams, Hayley Atwell, Charlize Theron, Bruce Campbell, John Krasinski, Patrick Stewart. 126 min. Fantasy/Action.

• Yes, this may be considered "just another Marvel movie". But there are some points making it worthwhile:
• Directed by Sam Raimi, who directed the original Spider-man trilogy. So it's a well-made film with numerous well-coordinated subplots (which provide infinite possibilities for future Marvel films). And like every Sam Raimi film, there's a Bruce Campbell cameo role, here as a hot-dog vendor.
• Opening on Mother's Day weekend, with the entire plot revolving on the concept of motherhood: Scarlet Witch continues her delusional uber-destructive villainous role from the WandaVision TV show, very much reminiscent of Jean Grey from the X-Men movies (down to her ultimate "interaction" with Professor Xavier).
• Surprise presence of John Krasinski as Mr. Fantastic of the "Fantastic 4", a role he's been working towards forever - but here in another parallel universe. Again, opening possibilities for future films. 
• Hayley Atwell as Captain Carter/Captain America - an extension from another Disney TV show, What If ...? This means every episode of that show can prompt a series of movies on its own. Dizzying.
• There's a fight scene between Doctor Strange and his evil counterpart in another universe using ... musical notes as weapons. Creative concept.  
• Is there a story? Yes. A decent one. 

MoGo's rating: 7/10

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Pig (2021)

Director: Michael Sarnoski. Cast: Nicolas Cage, Alex Wolff, Adam Arkin. 92 min. Drama/Mystery.

• The movie's poster for some unknown reason advertises this as a horror movie, but it's anything but: a hermit living in the forest has trained his pig to find buried underground truffles (a food delicacy), someone steals the pig, and he goes on a quest to find his beloved pig. The surprises that ensue about who this person is and what his past is about, makes the movie one of the most engaging of 2021. Can't spoil - watch for yourself.
• What would you do, when you realize everything is fake?

MoGo's rating: 8/10

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Lamb (2021), Titane (2021)

Lamb (2021). Director: Valdimar Jóhannsson. Cast: Noomi Rapace, Hilmir Snær Guðnason, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson. 106 min. Drama/Fantasy.

Titane (2021). Director Julia Ducournau. Cast: Agathe Rousselle, Vincent Lindon. 108 min. Horror/Sci-fi.

• Strangely, I saw these two bizarre movies, back-to-back in two days. Both are about a shocking offspring - Lamb happening in some desolate Scandinavian plain, and if you've seen the trailer (or ... read the movie's title), you have a good idea "what" the child is; Titane (last year's Palm d'Or winner) is in urban modern day France, but the surprise about what the offspring is is left till the very end (something to do with titanium?).  Especially with its nonchalant approach towards the more riveting moments, such as when we discover the nature of the child, or a final piercing image of a mysterious killer, I found Lamb more visually striking and lasting, but with a tepid or even failed message - on to what extremes people will go to have a child; while Titane, even with its more gruesome imagery, was much more palpable - possibly about the dangers of how we as humans are becoming "combined" with our machinery/smartphones, and losing all communicative skills (the heroine literally not verbalizing anything during the second half of the movie). Although Titane engaged me throughout, if I was to recommend between the two, I would go with Lamb - because aren't we hungry for great images?  

MoGo's rating (Lamb): 8/10

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MoGo's rating (Titane): 7/10

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