Tag: Taran Killam

Cinema Dispatch: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and all the images you see in this review are owned by Sony Pictures Releasing

Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K Thompson

The first Spider-Verse movie had a lot of things going for it before everyone realized what a masterpiece it was going to be. Spider-Man movies reliably make money, animated features are one of the more bankable box-office draws, and it had some pretty amazing trailers with a unique art style and some fun ideas to play with from the comics that we haven’t seen on screen before. Still, I’m not sure anyone expected it to be the overwhelming success that it was, both critically and commercially, and the prospect of a sequel was certainly exciting as the studio would be throwing everything they could at it. Still, the idea left me at least a little bit anxious. Capturing lightning in a bottle is a rare feat in its own right and even the best filmmakers have struggled to pull it off a second time, though oddly enough none of the original directors returned to direct this one. The trailers for this certainly didn’t help matters as I made clear in a Twitter thread earlier this year and I wasn’t thrilled to find out that it would be a Part One instead of a singular movie, so going into this one was both a delight and a moment of dread with expectations being higher than for almost any movie I’ve seen. Does this manage to exceed all expectations yet again and deliver another Oscar-caliber animated feature, or do even the best creatives fall victim to the Subpar-Sequel curse? Let’s find out!!

After saving the multi-verse and becoming the new Spider-Man, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) has started to learn the hard way what it means to try and live as both a superhero and a teenager with only enough time in the day to perhaps make one of them work. This struggle has not escaped the notice of his parents (Brian Tyree Henry and Luna Lauren Vélez) who are getting fed up with his absentmindedness which only puts more pressure on the budding superhero. It comes as a relief when Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld) pops up into his universe despite the pathways between them getting closed at the conclusion of the last film, and it turns out that some Spider-People, led by Miguel O’Hara and Jess Drew (Oscar Isaac and Issa Rae) are able to cross dimensions with super-science wrist watches and Gwen had joined up with them not too long ago. Unfortunately, the reunion is cut short as one of Miles’s less competent villains, the Spot (Jason Schwartzman), has somehow upgraded to an inter-dimensional threat and Gwen is forced to pursue him with Miles tagging along and experiencing the multi-verse for himself. Will Gwen, Miles, and a host of other fun Spider-People catch The Spot and stop his absurd schemes? How did Gwen end up with this group of Interdimensional Spider-Cops, and what secrets are they keeping from Miles? Is it the ultimate swing technique or perhaps the secret to a chafe-free Spider Suit?

“I call this the No Hands Spider-Wobble!”     “He’s growing so fast…”
Continue reading “Cinema Dispatch: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” →

Cinema Dispatch: Night School

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

NIGHTSCHOOLCD0

Night School and all the images you see in this review are owned by Universal Pictures

Directed by Malcolm D Lee

It’s always good seeing Kevin Hart!  Okay, maybe not… BUT it’s always good to see Tiffany Haddish, right!?  Ehh… fine, these are two VERY talented comedians but they aren’t always in the best movies as is the case with A LOT of successful comedians.  Putting them together SHOULD be a match made in heaven, but then again maybe the filmmakers thought the script was so bad that even Hart couldn’t save it by himself.  In any case, we can hope that there are at least a few good jokes in here even if the premise and the trailers don’t seem to be promising all that much.  Does this movie manage to rise above expectations to be one of the better comedies this year, or are we doomed to suffer yet another mediocre effort from filmmakers and comedians who should be working on WAY more ambitious projects than this?  Let’s find out!!

Teddy Walker (Kevin Hart) is your average Joe who is actually doing quite well for himself despite dropping out of high school and for reasons other than he’s a genius who went off to start his own company.  Instead, he’s managed to find a good job at a barbecue grill store and has set himself apart from his peers due to his world class skills in customer service!  I kind of find that hard to believe though considering he ends up accidentally blowing the place up not long after the movie starts.  You’d think someone as professional as he is wouldn’t have done something like that, but in any case Teddy is now without a job which is doubly a problem as he’s been living paycheck to paycheck for some time; refusing to tell his girlfriend Lisa who has a WAY more successful job (Megalyn Echikunwoke) that he’s not as well off as he lets on and that he could REALLY use a few bucks to ease the stress.  Luckily for Teddy though, his buddy Marvin (Ben Schwartz) JUST SO HAPPENS to have an even BETTER job for him all lined up… but he has to get his GED first!  To make matters worse, the principal of the high school (Taran Killam) is someone he had beef with in high school (for some reason…) and is not about to let old grievances die off, even if he can’t TECHNICALLY keep Teddy from going to night classes run by Professor Carrie (Tiffany Haddish) which I assume is the way she prefers to be addressed.  Can Teddy get his GED and that sweet new job without having his girlfriend finds out all of his deeply held and embarrassing secrets?  What wacky hijinks will he get into with a classroom full of eccentric odd balls that have their own reasons for getting their GED?  Can we send all six of the scriptwriters to night school?  I don’t know about you, but they could really use some brushing up if this is what they consider “professional” material.

NIGHTSCHOOLCD1
“Oh well.  I’m sure this will all make sense in the editing room!”

Continue reading “Cinema Dispatch: Night School” →