Migration: Movie Review

It feels like 2023 is a year of breakthroughs in animation. There were so many good animated movies released last year, like TMNT: Mutant Mayhem and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Both of which defied the boundaries of the genre. But while everyone is pushing the envelope of what animation can do, we get movies like Illumination’s Migration, which is content just to be part of the flock.

Migration is about the Mallard family and their first migration from New England to Jamaica. The head of the family is the always-anxious Mack Mallard (Kumail Nanjiani), who loathes the idea of ever leaving their home. But he decided to migrate anyway after his always optimistic wife, Pam (Elizabeth Banks), and his always dopey uncle, Grand Dan (Danny DeVito), convinced him.

Upon their arrival in New York City, the film immediately shows us the impact of modernity on animals. They almost hit a crane, a car, a building, and a billboard. Their journey was impeded by this so-called progress, and now they're lost.

The Mallard family then meets a pigeon named Chump (Awkwafina). Chump shows them around the city and introduces them to Delroy (Keegan-Michael Key), a Jamaican-accented parrot. Delroy knows the way to Jamaica, but they must free him first from the clutches of an evil chef so he can help them out.

From there, it feels like we're at an impasse with the story. With no grand message about the human-animal relationship, the story heads nowhere. The overall message about family lacks the genuineness to make an everlasting impact. The only good thing that remains in the end is the voice work of Caspar Jennings, who played Dax Mallard, and Tresi Gazal, who played Gwen Mallard, and their funny banter with each other.

Migration never turns into the movie that director Benjamin Renner wants it to be. It awfully still feels like an Illumination comedy that relies on zaniness over emotions, story, and relevance.

It also didn't bring anything new to the table. The movie is a typical animated family movie meant to entertain kids and amuse adults. It's not even smart or fab. It has no splash. It's happy to just float along the ocean as the waves of bigger and better animated movies keep coming along.

2/5

The Beekeeper: Movie Review

When you watch Jason Statham movies, you can always count on him to wear a jacket and a cap and punch some bad guys in the face. He beat up hired guns in Expendables 4 last year. A few years before that, he beat up thieves in Wrath of Man. In The Beekeeper, he fights a global scamming agency and white-collar crooks led by an asshole Josh Hutcherson.

Statham plays Adam Clay, a beekeeper. The film opens with him talking to a kind woman named Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad). Eloise is the owner of the bee farm where he works; she also handles the finances of some charities on the side. Clay thanks Eloise for taking care of him. We'll never find out what that means, but things then become quite dumb. Eloise lost all her savings and the money from the charities to a group of swindlers. But instead of calling the police, she took her own life. The film never establishes that Eloise is suicidal or depressed. Hence, her death feels a bit crass and a total cheap move by David Ayer to give Adam some kind of motivation.

Like a true justified action hero, Adam didn't waste any time going to work to find the scammers. Apparently, he's a former agent for a secret group called Beekeepers. And with his connections, he managed to find the scammers location and burn it down to the ground, much to the chagrin of the company's president, Derek Danforth (Josh Hutcherson), and his security slash advisor, Wallace Westwyld (Jeremy Irons). He then warns them that they're next. 

Adam's violent ways also caught the attention of Eloise's daughter, FBI Agent Verona Parker (Emmy Raver-Lampman), who disapproves of his method. But this plot has zero effect on where things are going. It never developed into something exciting or important.

The whole movie feels so half-baked. It feels like there's still a lot about it that's left unsaid. It also didn't help that the script was terrible. But Jason Statham's effort to make it work is admirable. He does everything here. He gets into some hand-to-hand combat. He gets into loads of gunfights. He gets into a knife fight. He even got to say some bee puns. He's basically like John Wick, minus the sophistication of Keanu Reeves.

The Beekeeper is formulaic, but it works in a way since the people involved in it kind of accepted its silliness. While I'm not sure if this movie fits in the "so bad that it's good" tier, I believe it comes pretty close.

2.5/5

Society of the Snow: Movie Review

If there was a director who gets lowkey attention but can make big action and emotional scenes work, it's J. A. Bayona. One look at his filmography shows that he loves large-scale stories: A Monster Calls, The Impossible, and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. His latest is about the Uruguayan 1972 Andes flight disaster, titled Society of the Snow. It's Spain's entry for Best International Feature Film at this year's Oscars.

Society of the Snow is the unbelievable true story of the Uruguayan rugby team called the Old Christians. After departing from Uruguay, the plane carrying 40 passengers and five crew members crashed in the snowy Andes mountains. The Chilean Air Search and Rescue Service (SARS) launched a rescue mission afterwards. But they stopped after 8 days, believing that everyone on board was dead.

By some miracle, half of the passengers actually survived the crash. As they wait for rescue, their numbers dwindle down from 45 to 33 to 16. They managed to survive the unforgivable cold, hunger, and avalanches for 72 days by being resourceful and doing most of the things we would consider taboo: cannibalism.

Bayona's skill at telling big stories is clear from the very beginning until the very end. He first made sure that we understood the vastness of the Andes by showing its big mountains covered in snow. The sight let us know that what they've gone through was nothing short of a miracle. A little while later, there's a great plane crash sequence. The sounds stand out here, as he combines the unsettling sounds of metal and wind with great effect. The movie then focuses on the survivors, showing all the terrible things that can happen to them while they're stranded in the middle of nowhere. He ended it all with a heartfelt goodbye and reunion, which is something he seems to have mastered since his debut film, The Orphanage.

A young man named Numa Turcatti (Enzo Vogrincic Roldán) takes us through all these ups and downs in the mountains. The decision to focus on him and his role in the whole crash is both a mystery. His name isn't as well-known as that of Nando (Agustín Pardella) and Roberto (Matías Recalt). Nando Parrado lost two-thirds of his family members in the crash. Meanwhile, Roberto Canessa is the interim doctor for the survivors. They're the two people tasked with hiking the western rim to Chile. It makes a lot more sense to center the story on them.

Even so, many things about Society of the Snow are great, from the make-up to the script. But a big disaster movie like this can always feel so small on film. There's no justification for the scale of this tragedy. The longevity of their stay feels all too short, and the decision to eat their dead friend and family isn't as convincing. Despite all that, I guess the level of realism put into it makes the whole thing so interesting and good.

4/5

Next Goal Wins: Movie Review

Taika Waititi must’ve found something humorous about the determination of the Football Federation of American Samoa. Even when they disgustingly lost 31-0 to Australia and never scored a goal in the next 10 years, they still played the game.

It’s not a secret that a lot of people think the American Samoa national football team stinks. Even their own players think they stink. Well, it is all because no one really ever taught them the game of football properly. So maybe, with a new coach, they’ll get to play the game the right way and hopefully end their scoring drought.

It is bad enough that they cannot win even if their lives depend on it, but somehow it got a lot worse when the alcoholic Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender) got assigned to be their head coach. He coached national teams before but got such a bad reputation in games for his anger issues that the U.S. Soccer Federation President, Alex Magnussen (Will Arnett), and his ex-wife, Gail (Elisabeth Moss), had to expel him to American Samoa.

But Thomas is so wrapped up in his own mad world that he fails to connect with his new team. He disrespected their traditions. He disrespected their laws. He disrespected their team captain, Jaiyah Saelua (Kaimana). Despite the best efforts of the manager of the American Samoa team, Tavita Taumua (Oscar Kightley), they can’t seem to get along with him.

But over the next few weeks, Thomas could no longer ignore the perseverance of such a losing squad to play the game. They’re not competitive. They’re not fit. Yet, they show up for practice and work multiple jobs to keep the team alive.

Thomas eventually feels that the team needs him, and they’re not really asking him that much. All they want is for him to help them score a goal. Not to win. But to score a single goal.

The Killer: Movie Review

The Killer (Michael Fassbender) is the definition of a cold-blooded killer. His secret to his effectiveness and forbearance in the trade of contract killing is to have a set of credos: Stick to your plan. Anticipate; don't improvise. Trust no one. Never yield an advantage. Fight only the battle you're paid to fight. Forbid empathy.

On top of these rules, contract killing requires the utmost patience. The wait for the perfect timing to strike is long and physically taxing. Hence, one must always practice keeping himself calm. The Killer does yoga; he keeps a heart rate monitor watch and an iPod full of The Smiths songs to make sure that he’s focused on the tasks at hand.

But despite his meticulous mental and physical preparation, The Killer failed a mission given to him by his handler, Hodge (Charles Parnell). His client is obviously unhappy about it. So Hodge instructed a group of assassins (Tilda Swinton and Sala Baker) to dispatch The Killer and his girlfriend (Sophie Charlotte) to tie up loose ends.

Five Nights at Freddy's: Movie Review

Emma Tammi's long-awaited movie based on a popular video game series is a plot-heavy snoozefest about facing your biggest regret and becoming an adult.

Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson) was a security guard in a quiet shopping center.

‘Was’ because he was fired shortly after for assaulting a man in front of his child after he mistook him for a kidnapper. A normal person would choose to confront rather than attack a person suspected of being an abductor or a criminal for many reasons. But Mike is livid.

A long time ago, someone kidnapped Mike's younger brother during a family picnic. He's been obsessed with this memory ever since. He’s so obsessed that he can lucidly dream about it and investigate it and talk to the five children who saw it.

Unemployment and past trauma are not his only problems; Mike also has to deal with his sleazy aunt (Mary Stuart Masterson). She has been hounding him for years to relinquish guardianship of his younger sister, Abby (Piper Rubio). Mike knows that she only wants Abby’s monthly support money, and she's just waiting for him to mess up so she can have her. So he tries his best not to mess up.

With his stacking insubordination cases, he’s left with virtually no other choice but to accept a job as a night-shift security guard for a dilapidated and abandoned pizzeria from career counselor Steve Raglan (Matthew Lillard). The pay isn't great, and the hours are worse, but all he has to do is keep trespassers away.

Unbeknownst to Mike, though, the place is not entirely abandoned. The dingy animatronics of the restaurant spring to life at night, and despite their cute and friendly appearance, they are extremely hostile to humans.

Flora and Son: Movie Review

John Carney’s musical drama is about expectations, failures, and finding true connection through the power of music.

The first time we see Flora (Eve Hewson), she’s uncaringly dancing the night away in a nightclub. The scene ends with Flora sleeping with a stranger. Despite her disappointment of ending the night with meaningless sex, she casually tells the guy that she has a son. He then leaves without saying another word.

Flora might be brash, but she’s never ashamed to say that she’s a mother. At the young age of 17, Flora is already a mother to Max (Orén Kinlan). Like her one-night stand, her husband, Ian (Jack Reynor), left her too. They’re still co-parenting, but he stays with her most of the time. 

Flora is now 31 years old, and those 14 years of raising her son, mostly alone, really pushed her to be better. It's not easy raising a kid like Max. For one, he’s got a boatload of criminal cases. The police eventually let him go, but it is clear that his desire to become a rapper leads to numerous run-ins with the law.

One day, Flora saved a broken guitar from a dump truck. She asked for it to be fixed so she could give it to Max. However, Max stoutly declined it. So Flora decided to learn it instead. She then meets Jeff (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a guitar tutor who will change the way she views her life.