Weekend Watch - Everything Everywhere All at Once
This is the most fun I have had watching a film in theaters since Spider-Man: No Way Home, and honestly, I may have liked this one even more. Everything Everywhere All at Once has all the comedy, heartbreak, and action of a major blockbuster or MCU release while maintaining its originality.
Welcome back to the Weekend Watch where each week, we do a quick review and recommendation of a new piece of entertainment media – film, television, etc. This week, we’re taking a look at A24’s latest sci-fi outing, Everything Everywhere All at Once, which has quickly become a critical success and expanded its theatrical markets for its first three weeks in theaters and broken into the studio’s top 15 biggest box office successes.
Letter Grade: A+, next question
Should you Watch This Film? Yes, go see it in theaters while you still can!
Why?
This is the most fun I have had watching a film in theaters since Spider-Man: No Way Home, and honestly, I may have liked this one even more. This film has all the comedy, heartbreak, and action of a major blockbuster or MCU release while maintaining its originality for most of the film. There are references to other media, but they aren’t what make the film great as much as adding to an already great film. The acting from each of the film’s leads – Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, and Ke Huy Quan – as well as from most of the supporting cast runs the full range of the emotions asked for by the film’s script. They can be funny action stars, emotional family drama stars, and everything in-between. The story is very fun, diving into a new take on multiverses (very much not what the MCU seems to be doing) and using it to explore our connection to friends and family. Its theme of meaningful life vs. nihilism plays out in a powerful way on screen, offering audiences a refreshingly positive take on life and our place in this world. Full disclosure, when the official list on this site is updated next year, Everything Everywhere All at Once will be on here (barring some major review bombing). I don’t want to take away from that inevitable review, but you HAVE to go see this film in theaters as soon as possible. If you’re worried about not liking other things that A24 has put out, this film has enough fast-paced action and comedy to keep your interest. If that description has you worried that this is just another blockbuster with no heart or message, rest assured that it does in fact have both and is a fully rewarding watch throughout for both blockbuster fans and arthouse fans. This film bridges the gap between blockbuster and film connoisseur movie better than probably anything that I have seen since probably Parasite. Please go see it!
Weekend Watch - Morbius
SONY has embraced the Spider-Verse anti-heroes but doesn’t quite seem to know how to make a fully high-quality film featuring one yet.
Welcome to the Weekend Watch, where each week, the blog will take a quick look at a new piece of television or film media that many people will probably be watching over the weekend and help you figure out if you too need to watch it. It’ll receive a subjective letter grade, as it is still too early to grant new films objective composite scores, and a quick, mostly spoiler-free recommendation for viewing. This week’s subject is Jared Leto’s new contribution to SONY’s Spider-Man universe, Morbius.
Letter Grade: D+/C-
Should you Watch This Film? Only if you are not the one paying for the ticket!
Why?
Morbius already has a bunch of terrible reviews, so I’m not going to belabor the point. This film is perfectly fine, but it fails to live up to the legitimate movie greatness of many other MCU films or even the fun, disjointed chaos of the Venom films. Leto’s performance is not overly noteworthy (he does look good though so that’s something), and honestly, the most realistic portrayal comes from Matt Smith as the villainous Milo/Lucian – his name gets a little confusing. Action sequences are almost exclusively CGI and not overly gripping. The story is pretty generic, but the character has potential. SONY has embraced the Spider-Verse anti-heroes but doesn’t quite seem to know how to make a fully high-quality film featuring one yet. There is a lot of discussion of what Morbius is going to do once the highly convenient artificial blood no longer slakes his thirst, but that question simply does not get answered. Even the proprietary post-credits scenes don’t fully understand what to do with an anti-hero, or even maybe with a villain. After watching Morbius, I am not sold on SONY’s Spider-Verse and certainly not convinced that it was worth the ticket price. The film’s biggest saving grace seems to be that the studio knew that it hadn’t produced a great product and kept the runtime under 2 hours, respecting the audience’s time. After we left the showing, my wife commented, and I agreed, that this was probably a film we could have waited to watch when it was on one of our streaming services, and that is honestly my recommendation to you. There is nothing that makes Morbius a must-watch big screen blockbuster, but it might be worth the watch if you want to see some hot Jared Leto and creepy Matt Smith action.