A passel of movies:

“Aquaman” demonstrates that while DC has managed to learn how to make REALLY good superhero movie TRAILERS, they still have a ways to go when it comes to superhero movies. A strong cast and an unlimited effects budget don’t make up for a script that gives us cardboard characters and fails to sell a complex alien mythology. DC is getting better; this movie is at least as well constructed as “Wonder Woman”, but that isn’t saying a lot.

“Replicas” is a train wreck with a strong cast. I suspect that the director thought he was saying something important, but failed.

“On the Basis of Sex” is a first rate bio-drama on the early career of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Given how dry the subject matter is, this movie is simply amazing.

“Stan & Ollie” relates the last tour of the legendary comedy team. The narrative has been heavily massaged for dramatic purposes, but the portrayals are absolutely magical.

“The Kid Who Would Be King” is incredibly silly, but it is ultimately a “triumph of the underdog” story with Arthurian trappings, and it demonstrates once again that the formula works if given half a chance.

“Cold Pursuit” is a deeply flawed revenge fantasy. It demonstrates that just because you have translated the script from another language (Norwegian, in this case), you haven’t necessarily translated the cultural nuances (which may not be translatable at all).

“Fighting With My Family” is a light hearted biodrama of a WWE star. Given that we have ZERO interest in professional wrestling, we enjoyed this movie a great deal.

“Alita: Battle Angel” isn’t quite a train wreck. The world building is awful (but inheirited from the source material); the effects are good, and BEAUTIFUL; the characters are… strange. There are MANY really good character scenes, but the characters aren’t really consistent from one scene to the next, and the whole doesn’t quite fit together. But it’s pretty.

“Captain Marvel” interweaves two plot arcs. One of them is an extremely well done character arc, and the other is an effects heavy alien war stew that was lame when it was introduced fifty years ago. The end result is a tolerable movie that may be as good as it could possibly have been, given the horrific convolutions of the source material.

Uncle Hyena