RIP John Singleton: A black cinema pioneer is gone far too soon

There probably wouldn't be a Ryan Coogler or an Ava DuVernay or a Jordan Peele or a F. Gary Gray or a Barry Jenkins if there wasn't a John Singleton. The groundbreaking, iconic and influential African-American filmmaker died today following a massive stroke which had left him in an unresponsive coma at the shockingly young age of 51.

His crowning achievement will likely be his powerful debut -- the urban drama Boyz N the Hood -- which was a surprise crossover hit back in 1991 and for which he scored a Best Director nomination (the first for a black director!) at the incredibly young age of 24 (he was the youngest filmmaker ever nominated, a record he still holds).

The critical and commercial success of that film galvanized a whole generation of filmmakers and essentially established a golden age for African-American themed dramas which sought to depict a grittier and more realistic (and more nuanced) version of the black experience that has been historically depicted by Hollywood.

In Boyz N the Hood's wake came seminal films like Menace II Society, Juice, and Singleton's own Poetic Justice and Higher Learning. For a brief shining moment, it appeared as if serious black filmmaking could and would co-exist alongside 'white' prestige pictures.

Unfortunately though, most of Singleton's post-Boyz efforts failed to catch fire with most critics and audiences, with little seen efforts like his historically revisionist period drama Rosewood, eventually earning cult status on home video.

And as fast as you can say 'Tyler Perry,' Singleton's brand of provocative, racially-themed work was supplanted by an embrace of black broad comedy,

Singleton would evolve into a more commercial filmmaker, helming a Fast and Furious sequel and a very underrated reboot of the Shaft franchise starring Samuel L. Jackson.

But none of these films eclipsed Boyz N the Hood in the public consciousness and if you revisit it now it's easy to see why. The film's look at the perils of gang violence and terror of a police state in which many inner city youths win can mean a daily game of life or death.

He helped make Cuba Gooding, Jr. a star, proved that Ice Cube could act, and brought one of the most endearing portraits of a black father --- our Atticus Finch  -- Laurence Fishburne as Furious Styles to blistering, inspirational life on-screen.

With this movie alone -- not to mention the classic Michael Jackson music video "Remember the Time," which he also directed -- Singleton placed himself firmly in the pantheon of iconic directors, let alone black ones.

And if he hadn't proven that humanity-focused, intense dramas solely concerned with black life could play to a mass audience, films like Ryan Coogler's Fruitvale Station would never see the light of day.

His portrayal of the corrosive effects of biased policing, the joys and pain of adolescence in a so-called 'ghetto' and his broad message of 'stop' -- will always stick with me.

RIP John Singleton, you will be missed.

'Endgame' is a surprisingly emotional finale for Marvel heroes

Just when I thought I had seen it all when it came to Marvel movies, here comes Avengers: Endgame and it somehow manages to bring me to the brink of tears. This 3-hour epic is intentionally a finale for certain fan favorites as well as a showcase for stars of future installments, but it never felt like an elaborate set up for a sequel.

It's a fitting conclusion to the narrative that began with Avengers: Infinity War -- itself a more brooding and bruising Marvel film than many of its predecessors. The last film in this gargantuan enterprise -- Captain Marvel -- left me cold, but this film which does have its slow stretches, for the most part, delivers the goods.

So much credit should go to three original lynchpins of this Marvel universe -- Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth.

Hemsworth has matured into a home run hitting comic actor and his choice to play Thor as a lovable fool is sublime and reaches its zenith here. I won't spoil what happens with his character in this film but I will say it's a great risk that pays off.

Evans could seem wooden at first as Captain America but over several films he has turned that character's stalwart heroism into a cool asset. He too has come into his own over the course of this franchise, and while he always seemed the least enthusiastic about the whole Marvel thing, I think Evans has a bright future ahead of him as a movie star because of it.

And last but not least there's Robert Downey, Jr., who improbably became the heart and soul of this franchise a decade ago. His casting as Iron Man, not unlike Johnny Depp's in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, was a major risk -- given his lack of box office success in the past and his troubled history off-screen.

But unlike Depp, who eventually squandered audiences' good will, Downey enhanced his and became one of the most beloved movie stars in Hollywood in the process.

His characterization of Tony Stark -- cocky, brilliant but also a sentimental good guy at heart -- was always the best feature of any of these Avengers movies -- for me. His comic timing, his physicality (even when in CGI form, I always bought that he was in those armor suits) and his humanity kept me engaged when the sometimes clunky, convoluted plots of these movies started to lose me.

Endgame isn't a perfect movie either -- it certainly isn't a standalone film on par with Black Panther -- but it's fan service is more satisfying and its final grace notes are well-earned. Even if I wanted to roll my eyes from time to time, I couldn't help but have my heartstrings pulled with this one.

And, let's face it, the Hulk just keeps getting hotter.

I've come to care about and like these characters far more than I ever realized and to this film's credit it spends just as much time on developing their storylines as it does epic battle scenes.

i wish the final massive battle was more bright and coherent than it is, but that doesn't mean it isn't as impressive feat and kudos to Marvel for making some tough choices when it comes to the fate of many of the characters both good and evil.

It's hard to root for a movie that is such a behemoth -- it's already demolished every box office record and may wind up being the biggest domestic grosser of all time, adjusted for inflation, or close to it. Will this movie have the staying power of a true classic blockbuster -- who's to say?

But it is a well-earned victory lap for the Marvel movies, which about to enter a whole new world without some of its best loved characters in tow.

Movies that insult your intelligence shouldn't win Oscars

I had heard for quite some time that the Oscar-nominated movies Bohemian Rhapsody and The Wife were undeserving of the Academy's approval and I had also heard that they were actually outright bad movies, but I wasn't prepared for just how bad they are.

The enormous success of Bohemian Rhapsody in particular is galling to me. I quite like Rami Malek as an actor, and I can't for the life of me understand why he was nominated for an Oscar for his performance an Freddie Mercury, let alone won the final prize.

He does a decent job of replicating the physicality of Mercury, but it's a essentially a competent karaoke performance, as is the rest of the movie. It only comes alive when one of several classic Queen hits is performed but it's leaden dramatic portions -- it's plays like a Lifetime-Vh1 movie mash-up -- as so stupefying simplistic and obviously skewed to suit the surviving members of the bands standards (there is great effort to spread credit for the band's success around to its lesser known members) that it detracts from anything that could have been appealing about the movie.

Other than asserting that he was lonely, the film has no real insight into Mercury or the band for that matter. For instance, it's fascinating that the band was so critically reviled and dismissed in their time, the movie touches on that in a very perfunctory way. In fact, the movie does a terrible time of evoking the 70s-80s atmosphere its meant to portray.

And since the dialogue is all cliched and simplistic why not just turn the movie into a full blown musical? And then there's the film's strange handling of Mercury's bisexuality, as if it were a crippling problem that he had to overcome. When the movie isn't bad it is frequently offensive and not really any fun -- which is a shame since so much of the music truly is.

I remembered thinking that the bashing of this movie may have been overstated but now I am simply stunned that this movie grossed $200 million and pushed more worthy films like If Beale Street Could Talk out of awards contention.

The Wife may be even more ludicrous. It was supposed to be the film that finally won Glenn Close an Academy Award -- and I hate to say this, because I'm a fan of hers, but I am glad she didn't win for this one. Again, this feels like a glorified TV movie and a stupefyingly simplistic one at that.

It wants to be a pro-feminist drama but it draws its antagonists so broadly and cartoonishly -- suggesting that simply no one would respect or appreciate a female author in the 20th century -- OK movie. It's full of moments that are supposed to be emotionally devastating but are just eyeball inducing.

And that doesn't even begin to address these movies flaws -- which include a totally implausible journalist/author character played by Christian Slater who seems to exist only to state and re-state the premise of the film and why Close's character is the hero.

There is nothing as problematic in it as Bohemian Rhapsody's dishonest handling of Queen's Live Aid performance -- but it's the worst kind of pseudo-feminism, it's trite when it should have real bite.

It's always disheartening when movies like this or Crash or The Blind Side or Green Book enjoy some measure of success because they provide such a superficial look at the complexity of the topics they're attempting to tackle. They both condescend to their audience but also deter them from seeking out smarter, more nuanced takes on the same subject.

There could have been a better, more interesting Queen movie -- originally Sacha Baron Cohen was attached, and there's no doubt in mind he would have brought more danger and excitement to the movie. And The Wife, which is basically about a shitty husband taking credit for his wife's work, is a potent topic, especially in this #MeToo era, but this film is too heavy handed to ever feel incisive.

Better luck next time I guess.

Hallelujah! 'Amazing Grace' is one of the best concert films ever

I recently participated in a debate with a couple co-workers over who was the greatest modern female vocalist -- Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston.

When I offered up Aretha Franklin as an option she wasn't so much dismissed as diminished as a relic of a different kind of music from a different time.

What the stirring and virtuoso new documentary Amazing Grace does is remind audiences of all ages, that there's a reason that for so long Aretha Franklin was the undisputed greatest singer on the planet, and I would happily offer up this film as evidence in any future discussion of these matters.

The film is some kind of miracle. Shot in 1971 at what appears to be a very hot, very intimate couple of predominately black churches by legendary director Sydney Pollack, the film was lost to decades of legal wrangling and technical issues

I don't know the backstory on how the film has been rescued and restored (director Spike Lee appears to have played a role, and he is just one of several producers) but it truly is revelatory.

It documents the recording of Franklin's seminal album Amazing Grace -- and the film which doesn't have talking heads or gimmicky camerawork, is just an immerse experience with Aretha. In fact, Franklin barely speaks in the film (her hype man and occasional duet partner Rev. James Cleveland is the verbose M.C.) -- she lets her singing talk for her -- and it's a performance that rips through the screen and grabs a hold of your heart.

There are moments where her voice is so stunningly beautiful that it almost hurts to listen to. Late in the film her courtly pastor father is almost at a loss for words to describe her impeccable talent. You just have to experience it. And this film, which is so raw and real that you feel like you're sitting in the pews alongside the adoring crowd, is quite simply one of the best concert films I've ever seen.

Curiously, it comes on the heels of another masterpiece of this very specific genre, Beyonce's Homecoming. That film succeeded in part because it provided such an unfiltered window into Beyonce's process and you come to understand what a relentlessly hard worker she is at everything she does.

What's fascinating about Aretha in Amazing Grace is how easy her instrument seems to work for her. If she is straining you can't see it. She sweats profusely and gives her all, but even seated she never misses a note and keeps soaring to new heights with a gorgeous smile that might as well be the face of God.

In the later decades of her life, Franklin's battles with her weight and health, as well as a troubled personal life took a real toll, as did a sea change in the pop music landscape. Ironically, singers like Adele and yes, Beyonce, have resurrected Franklin's gut punch brand of soul, but I suspect the 'Queen of Soul' has become more mythical a musical figure than a tangible one, especially for younger music fans.

What Amazing Grace should do is make plain why her legendary status was well-earned and it's a stunning document of her at the peak of her powers. Whether you believe in God or not, Amazing Grace is a little piece of heaven.

Flashback 1989 : My top 10 favorite movies from 30 years ago

It's remarkable to me that something that came out in theaters back in 1989 is 30 years old. This was a year very clear in my pop culture consciousness, so now I feel incredibly old. It's one of my favorite years for movies --it contains not one, but two of my all-time favorite films.

This is another one of those years where the highbrow films are less memorable for me (with a couple of exceptions) than the big blockbuster films that closed this decade.

And what a year blockbusters this was -- the summer of '89 in particular will go down in history as one of the most stacked seasons of all time. There were major sequels galore, some big franchise starters and a whole lot of wildly different options to choose from.

This was a hard year to whittle down. I liked quite a lot of this year's films a lot and some great ones like Sex, Lies & Videotape and Parenthood just missed the cut for me. But here are my personal favorites from 30 years ago:

10) Say Anything ... - Really the only Cameron Crowe movie that totally works for me and one of the best portraits of post high school, pre-college adolescence I've ever seen (only The Graduate is in it's class). John Cusack is irresistibly adorable as the meandering Lloyd Dobler who takes a chance on romance with the school overachiever (played believably by the equally adorable Ione Skye). Everyone remembers the famous boom box scene but there are plenty of other moving and hilarious bits. A really special little comedy.

9) Ghostbusters II - I know, I know this sequel can't hold a candle to the original and some purists outright hate it but it has a lot of sentimental meaning for me. I still remember seeing it in theaters and what a touchstone it was for me as a kid. And it doesn't feel like too big a departure from the original, even if it's bigger in terms of scale and FX. Murray, Ramis, Aykroyd and Hudson have still got it and it's got enough thrilling bits mixed with some solid laughs to be an amiable fun time at the movies.

8) Field of Dreams - This tearjerker fantasy always gets me. Kevin Costner is at the peak of his movie star powers here in this improbable hit about an eccentric Iowa farmer who brings legendary baseball players back to life via a baseball diamond he puts on his cornfield. It's hokey to be sure but also gorgeously photographed, filled with stellar acting (James Earl Jones' baseball monologue is achingly good) and it has a great message about being non conformist that runs as a theme throughout it, which I'll always appreciate.

7) Glory - One of the most powerful and vital war films I've ever seen manages to delicately steal focus from its nominal white leading character (Matthew Broderick playing the commander of the first regiment of 'negro' soldiers during the Civil War) to the black infantrymen, among them a stalwart Morgan Freeman, an off-the-charts charismatic Denzel Washington (who won the Oscar for this) and a heartbreaking Andre Braugher (who arguably has the most complex role as an educated black man trying to hold his own with the grunts). This deserved to be a hit and should have broke into the Best Picture race but alas room had to be made for ...cough... Driving Miss Daisy.

6) Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade - Probably the second best Indiana Jones films after the first, this rip-roaring adventure has a great MacGuffin (the Holy Grail) and some new emotional dimension thanks to the father-son relationship between Indy and his father (played by Sean Connery with immense charm) taking center stage. This probably should have been the last Indy adventure. It certainly feels like a fitting end with our hero riding off into the sunset. But unfortunately producers 'chose poorly.' Still, this film shows that there was a lot of life left under that brown fedora.

5) Back to the Future Part II - This is another divisive sequel for some people but I've always loved it. It presents a much darker vision than its predecessor and embraces its meta conceit by literally placing its hero Marty McFly (an affable as always Michael J. Fox) back in the original film that started it all. This is very ambitious narrative filmmaking from director Robert Zemeckis. He unfortunately finished the trilogy with the more traditional Western-set Part III, but if nothing elseI will always appreciate this film for introducing Biff as Trump into the world.

4) National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - My favorite holiday movie and the last cinematic hurrah for Chevy Chase (although he briefly found his footing on TV's community about two decades later). It's so chock full of unforgettable one liners and moments from 'the blessing!' to 'shitter's full' to 'tap dancing with Danny fucking Kaye.' This movie gets how both brutal and beautiful spending the holidays with your family can be, and while its more hijinks than heart, what sincerity that's in it is quite gracefully handled.

3) Crimes and Misdemeanors - Although a case can be made for Annie Hall, Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters -- and several others -- this is my favorite Woody Allen film. It's a devastatingly bleak movie despite the fact that it's one half comedy. The other half is a stone cold serious look at the messy dissolution of an affair with a strong Martin Landau opposite Anjelica Huston. A more complicated film than it appears to be on the surface -- its about faith, fate and why bad things keep happening to good people. It's a shame Allen has so horribly tarnished his own legacy, this film would be elevated into the conversation of great 1980s films in a heartbeat.

2) Do the Right Thing - Spike Lee's crowning achievement just keeps getting better with age. It's a travesty it wasn't more widely seen (one white film critic literally warned that it would cause riots, it didn't) and was largely snubbed by the Academy Awards. It's a great looking, profoundly funny and then truly depressing portrait of the absurdity and very real tension of our ethnic and racial divide, all set over the course of a 24-hours from hell.  It's remarkable how talented Lee was at this point in his career that he could both evoke a benevolently bigoted old Italian pizzeria owner (Danny Aiello, in a wonderful performance) and a hot headed wannabe activist (Giancarlo Esposito) with total aplomb. One of the great films of this or any decade.

1) Batman - it's still my favorite superhero movie of all time and it may be the best Tim Burton marriage between his artistic vision and an existing property, the difference is that with this (rather than Alice in Wonderland or reportedly Dumbo) his heart was totally in this one. Jack Nicholson is at his scene stealing best as the Joker and Michael Keaton nails this portrait of Bruce Wayne/Batman -- he leans into the eccentricity and effectively conveys someone who enjoys being Batman (for Bale's version it was always a burden). A triumph of costume design, production design and score -- but also the best kind of major blockbuster, it's creative, thoughtful, funny and it has staying power.

PAST TOP 10 FAVORITE LISTS
1974 #1 movie - The Godfather Part II
1975 #1 movie - Nashville
1976 #1 movie - Taxi Driver
1977 #1 movie - Star Wars
1978 #1 movie - The Deer Hunter
1984 #1 movie - Ghostbusters
1985 #1 movie - Fletch
1986 #1 movie - Blue Velvet
1987 #1 movie - The Untouchables
1988 #1 movie - Coming to America
1994 #1 movie - Pulp Fiction
1995 #1 movie - Heat
1996:#1 movie - Fargo
1997 #1 movie - Boogie Nights
1998 #1 movie - The Big Lebowski
1999 #1 movie - Eyes Wide Shut
2004 #1 movie - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2005 #1 movie - A History of Violence
2006 #1 movie - Casino Royale
2007 #1 movie - There Will Be Blood
2008 #1 movie - The Wrestler
2009 #1 movie - Inglourious Basterds

'High Life' is violent and sexy -- so why is it so boring?

For the past several years, it appears as though space-based films and heady, adult sci-fi has made a big comeback. Major stars like George Clooney, Matt Damon, Ryan Gosling, Anne Hathaway and Matthew McConaughey (and later this year, Natalie Portman) have all donned space suits and taken journeys that are both pulse pounding and existential.

What these films have in common is that they deliver the thrill and terror of space travel with a safe remove and an authenticity buttressed by state-of-the-art special effects. Remember how shocking the weightlessness seemed in Apollo 13 about 24 years ago? That seems quaint now.

Director Claire Denis' new film High Life doesn't provide any of the pleasures of recent astronaut adventures. It is an aggressively opaque and meandering movie, one that almost seems intended to test an audience's patience.

It literally opens with a long, extended, mostly wordless sequence featuring its nominal star, Robert Pattison, comforting a very upset baby. What am I watching? I found myself asking repeatedly.

High Life has something to do with a crazy doctor, played with devastating eroticism by Juliette Binoche, who is essentially holding a group of attractive male and female prisoners captive so she can extract sperm from the men to use to impregnate the women, for reasons I must admit I didn't truly comprehend.

Save for a few jarring explosions of violence and some truly squirm-inducing sex scenes -- much of High Life is hushed and ethereal.

Pattison, who has matured into a compelling leading man (he was robbed of an Oscar nom a couple years ago for his work in Good Time) is largely neutered of his charisma here -- but at least his wonderfully expressive face is interesting to look at.

Besides Binoche, the next biggest standout to me is OutKast veteran Andre Benjamin (a.k.a. Andre 3000) who has a supporting role as perhaps the most relatable convict on this ship. His performance here suggests that he could still fulfill the promise of a major movie career with the right role to exploit his flaky humor and warmth.

The broader experience of watching High Life, however, left me very cold -- and not in a probing, insidious Kubrickian way. The craft of this film is undeniable -- I have no idea what it cost to produce -- but it has a very distinct, arresting look and claustrophobic atmosphere. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't struggle with dozing off during it and it's strange, creepy plot kept slipping through my fingers like sand through an hourglass.

Part of the problem -- for me at least -- is he film's elliptical structure -- it's largely told in flashbacks that are not easily differentiated from the movie's present. It's clear Denis is aiming for a more immersive, sensory experience than a character driven one. But without any real connection to the material I found every close-up of fluid and every rush of blood to be a purely clinical exercise.

This is a movie with strong sex and violence in it -- with sexy actors -- and it should be provocative but I found the filmmaking so self aware, so smug that I couldn't surrender to the film's glacial pacing. It turns out the movie is just under two hours, but it feels like a cool three.

It's the feeling I sometimes get from the work of Michael Haneke: I may not be smart enough for this work, it clearly thinks its smarter than me and much of its audience, and it is so determined to not be 'enjoyed' that it can't be.

This is the kind of anti-commercial sci-fi film that critics are rapturous for and audiences can't stand. The sparsely attended screening I attended definitely had people shifting in their seats and checking their watches.

I've come to believe that the idea moviegoing experience would be a happy medium between the more short-term gratifying nonsense of the Marvel movies and the brooding auteurism on display here. I could be convinced to reconsider this one -- especially since a lot of people I respect adore it -- but I'll need a few cups of coffee first.

Elisabeth Moss is a force of nature in 'Her Smell'

I am not sure how entirely sold I am on the punk rock drama Her Smell. it felt overlong, a bit repetitive and less original than Vox Lux, which dips a toe in similar enfant terrible pop star waters. I don't think it's a bad movie -- in fact long stretches are riveting, but I'm torn about the project as a whole.

But what I do know, is that Elisabeth Moss delivers another no holds barred, tour de force lead performance -- one of several recently (including a scene stealing turn in Us) -- one that suggests she is undeniably one of the greatest actresses working today.

In this largely backstage drama about a once popular all-girl folk group fraying at the seems, she occupies almost every scene with a wild, over the top performance that somehow never feels out of control. She is by turns funny, terrifying, beautiful, ugly and almost always compelling -- which is no small feat since her character is consistently portrayed as a deeply unlikable sociopath.

Moss is a curious case, she broker through playing a reserved character who slowly came out of her shell and had arguably the most satisfying arc of any character on Mad Men, but she wasn't actually be positioned for movie stardom.

Ironically, the most traditional looking star of that show -- Jon Hamm -- seems to have settled for smaller character roles in films since that show, while Moss has consistently swung for the fences with ambitious, demanding roles in indie fare.

She is not an easy to predict actress -- and her character 'Becky Something' in this film is as big a departure as she's ever made from her work in the past.

However, I do wonder how many people will actually see it, and not just because it's a smaller film with less distribution. Many people seem to think of her Scientology beliefs, in fact save for Tom Cruise, she may be the most prominent supporter of the controversial church.

She recently has tried to defend her religion, while seemingly distancing herself from the more controversial aspects of it (such as alleged homophobia) with a broad plea for freedom of speech, but I think it will continue to dog her, for better or worse, as her career continues to progress.

It's not that her career ins't doing just fine -- she also stars in the acclaimed, popular TV version of A Handmaid's Tale, but as skepticism about her faith only continues to grow, it'll be curious to see how she squares that circle.

Regardless of what you may think of her or her religion, her performance in Her Smell deserves to be remembered come awards season, it's the best performance I've seen this year after Lupita Nyong'o in Us of course.

'A Simple Favor' and the joys of trashy movies

Director Paul Feig's comic thriller A Simple Favor feels like a throwback movie, whether it's intended to be or not. It belongs in the same family as crowd-pleasing potboilers like Fatal Attraction and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, although I think it's not quite in their class.

It's a ridiculous movie, kind of a mess in more ways than one, and yet I still thought it was a fun watch, if nothing else because it was at least trying to be an old school twisty genre film. Of course, there can be a scenario where there are two many twists -- and A Simple Favor certainly suffers from that. It's tone shifts so abruptly from comedy to melodrama, and not in an assured Lynchian way.

And yet, I wish there were more movies like it, because it's a movie wholly concerned with hooking you in with it story and style (and some gratuitous bits too).

Anna Kendrick is a wonder in it -- and her character probably deserved a more sophisticated vehicle -- I kind of wished the film had embraced a bleaker scenario, where her character was the 'villain' of the piece, but as the trailer gave away and the first five minutes of this movie cement -- is the fact Blake Lively is the big baddie in it.

Which may be one of the movies most glaring flaws. As striking as she is, I simply didn't buy Lively as a Machiavellian manipulator of men and women (although she does have one very effectively scene where she SPOILER ALERT plays off, let's just say an alternative version of herself).

However, for the most part she feels like a kid playing dress up and Feig complies by putting her in distractingly fantastical outfits and heavy makeup from scene to scene. Kendrick is essentially playing the ultimate version of her nerdy, theater girl persona, but she manages to insert some darkness and a little madness into that box which is intriguing.

I only wished that the male component of their trio -- the handsome but bland Crazy Rich Asians actor Henry Golding -- had any personality to speak of let alone jockey over. Movies like these live or die by the performances in them and when they are lacking the film can never fully recover from it.

Basically this film doesn't know what kind of movie it wants to be. Some of the funny bits, while charming, feel so tonally jarring that they only serve to underscore some of the jaw-dropping absurdity of the more serious plot turns. This is a film where is a 'best' friendship is forged over a couple of afternoons and widowed husband SPOILER ALERT starts having an affair with his wife's best friend the day of his wife's funeral.

And, with all this being said, I was never bored -- this movie moves -- it looks great (although why Feig chose to make Lively's character such an over the top fashionista I'll never know, especially since her scheming antagonist would seemingly want to move through the world as discreetly as possible.

I kept thinking, in a good way, they really don't make movie like this anymore. Movies where you can really hook your friends by telling them what its about: Socially awkward woman befriends a 'cool mom' at her kids school, she starts watching both of their kids as a favor after school, but then suddenly the cool mom disappears for four days. Oh, and the socially awkward mom is pretty much obsessed with the woman and has a very weird fucked up past that I won't spoil here.

So far so good right? But unfortunately A Simple Favor isn't simple it becomes needlessly complicated, and Lively in particular goes increasingly smug as she begins to unfurl her supposedly master plan and it all becomes rather silly.

But I hope Feig and Hollywood keep dipping a toe into the trashy thriller waters because quite often the results can be a ton of fun.

The new 'Lion King' looks gorgeous, but will it be good?

When the new computer animated version of The Lion King was announced it was hard not to be blown away by the cast that was assembled. (The new trailer for the film dropped today, and it looks to be truly epic).

Besides bringing back James Earl Jones in his iconic role of Mufasa, the voice actor cast includes Donald Glover, Beyonce, Seth Rogen, John Oliver and many other recognizable names that seem like ideal casting choices. Perhaps it was the critical and commercial success of director Jon Favereau's Jungle Book re-imagining (which also featured a dream cast that included Bill Murray and Idris Elba).

Surely, due to a wave of nostalgia and genuine good will (the original traditionally animated film became a phenomenon 25 years ago) this iteration will be a surefire blockbuster -- and who knows, that success could be well-deserved. But if the movie is simply just a cynical attempt to cash in on peoples' love for the original and nothing else.

It's one thing if the film hits the same major story beats -- Mufasa's death, Scar's betrayal, etc. -- and the return of all the key characters from original -- but is this new film going to feature all the same catchy songs for the 1994 original and should it?

Are audiences flocking to see this movie told the same way but in a different style or are they looking to see a different movie with the same spirit as the original. As a fan of more ambitious filmmaking I'm hoping its the former not the latter, but of course it'd be a safer bet that this film could essentially be a shot-for-shot re-telling of the first films, albeit with even more stunning imagery.

Disney has been doing this a lot lately -- they've already done Beauty & the Beast and later this year Aladdin will arrive re-imagined too (and it's hard to imagine Will Smith won't be bringing his own spin on the character that is far removed from Robin Williams' iconic take).

The Lion King, which has already inspired an acclaimed Broadway show, has arguably a bigger fanbase than either of those films, so its a no brainer that Disney would want to remake it, but will more original films suffer at its expense?

Besides being a great film, Us felt groundbreaking because it was a wholly original film and concept.

And yet on the other hand tried and true franchises -- from the Mission: Impossible films to Rocky/Creed to the Star Wars -- are flourishing and still doing interesting and surprising stuff, so who am I to complain?

Part of my frustration with the concept of yet another Ghostbusters reboot was that it didn't really need to exist for any reason. I'm not entirely sure this new Lion King does either -- but it just looks so damn good.

It's the paradox that Disney especially has put a lot of moviegoers in -- movies like this and the Marvel films feel like required viewing if you want to stay a part of the zeitgeist and if you want the potential of experiencing something potentially transcendent like Black Panther.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

'Pet Semetary' is strong when it deviates from source material

This may be blasphemy in some corners, but I don't consider the 1989 adaptation of Stephen King's novel Pet Sematary any kind of classic. It has a couple unforgettable moments (the ankle slash, the 'dead is better' line) but it's really more of a fun bad movie than a terrifying genre film.

The new Pet Sematary steps its game up considerably, with a stronger cast -- including a slyly funny Jason Clarke and reliably appealing John Lithgow -- and better production values, I only wish it have deviated more from the book and movie that inspired it.

For the first two thirds of its running time, the film plays like a glossier rehash of the previous iteration -- there are slight nods to expectations and twists that don't really change the story's trajectory but might solicit a few approving 'huh's' from audience -- but it's not risky enough in my estimation to be truly horrifying or groundbreaking in the slightest.

Instead, you get a very competent, audience-pleasing horror film that doesn't have a lot of psychological dimension, which could be a fault of King's book. Sure, the story is broadly about the unwillingness to accept the fact of inevitable death, which is interesting, but this story doesn't exploit the psychology of that conceit like say The Shining does explore the dark side of alcoholism.

The film also suffers from opening so close to the Us phenomenon. That film, which by-and-large eschews cliched scares for headier themes, makes this perfectly fine movie feel perfunctory and far from required viewing.

Still, it has quite a few solid, satisfying jump scares -- and I particularly enjoyed how Clarke leaned into the inherently comic nature of this story in the movie's latter, stronger acts. It's in that last third, where the film springs a few surprises on people familiar with the narrative, that it starts to become a pretty entertaining ride.

And, without spoiling it, the film's ending is daringly bleak in a way that I appreciated.

But, I don't know that this version of Pet Sematary necessarily justifies is existence. The last major King adaptation, It, managed to put a fresh new spin on its core clown baddie Pennywise and benefitted immensely from assembling a very likable coterie of kids that you wanted to root for at its center. But, that too was mostly a commercial exercise and little else.

In these trying times, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, but so-called 'elevated' horror projects, like say Hereditary, are simply becoming more my cup of tea.

From 'Episode IX' to 'The Irishman': 2019 movies I can't wait to see

I am still coming down from the high of Us, one of my favorite movies that I've seen in a long time, and barring something mind-blowing, likely my number one movie of 2019. That being said, there is a hell of a lot of upcoming movies on this year's slate that I am looking forward to.

There will be the return of a couple of my favorite auteurs -- Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, the dramatic conclusion to the latest Star Wars trilogy and then a lot of could-be masterpieces like Todd Phillips' Joker, which promises to be, if nothing else, one of the more unconventional comic book movies of recent memory.

It's going to be an interesting year I think -- and although it's become popular to pooh-pooh the awards fare year after year (has there been any universally beloved movie in the last decade?) -- I've been fairly encouraged by the state of cinema right now.

For sure, the reboots and adaptations can be overwhelming -- but there is some terrific genre stuff happening right now, particularly in horror, that cannot be denied.

Here are the top 10 films I can't wait to see for the rest of this year:

Gemini Man - Will Smith has long been vying for the perfect comeback vehicle -- and this mysterious Ang Lee film stands a better chance of resurrecting his reputation as an A-lister than Aladdin will. Very little is know about this film other than Smith will be playing an assassin on the hunt for a younger clone of himself. Lee's has show a facility with technical wizardry before (with Life of Pi) and arguably Smith's best on-screen acting was mostly by himself in the film I Am Legend, so this may be a home run.

Hobbs & Shaw - The most dumb fun parts of the Fast & Furious films have finally been cut loose and provided with a vehicle to do what they do best -- show off their guns and quip while they're doing it. It's hard to imagine an old school action film like this missing the mark, it almost feels like a victory lap for The Rock and Statham who have, in middle age, supplanted Stallone and Schwarzenegger as the most reliably badass action movie stars of the era.

The Dead Don't Die

It: Chapter Two - The first big-screen It adaptation surprised everyone by becoming a behemoth blockbuster (and it was well-received critically too). The curious thing will be how well the filmmakers pull off the second half of this story (which I thought was the weaker part of the iconic TV movie version). They've assembling a great cast, including Bill Hader, Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy -- but I'm curious if they can still make the clown scary a second time around.

John Wick 3 - John Wick 2 was that rare sequel that may have even improved upon its original, it certainly expanded the universe of elite hitman and further developed (as much as movies like this can) the titular hero, played deftly by Keanu Reeves. This third installment seems even bigger and bolder, with Halle Berry joining the fun and a sequence on horseback that looks to be a new classic.

The Dead Don't Die - Director Jim Jarmusch's deadpan style isn't everyone's cup of tea, heck it isn't always mine, and so this zombie comedy will most likely not be a crowd pleaser. But he has assembled a killer cast (including some of his regulars: Bill Murray, Adam Driver and Tilda Swinton) and has demonstrated before (with Only Lovers Left Alive) that he brings a sophisticated and creative eye to well-worn horror cliches and concepts.

High Life - The trailer for this one is a stunner. It doesn't give away much but it definitely has some Alien meets Under the Skin vibes. Robert Pattison, who has been on a real hot streak as an actor looks compelling here as does Juliette Binoche is what looks to be a scary, erotic, thinking man/woman's sci-movie. If the reviews are good (and the early ones appear to be), I will be all about this one.

Midsommar - The second feature film from Ari Aster, the director of Hereditary has real Wicker Man vibes (the good version, not the Nicolas Cage) one. It appears to be set amid some kind of a cultish atmosphere is bright, sunny settings that somehow manage to still be ominous. This one has another strong trailer that doesn't give away too much but shows just enough to suggest it could be another genre masterpiece.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - Every Tarantino fan is salivating over this one. I think we'd all love to see his take on the 60's. This is also DiCaprio's first film in four years -- so it's exciting to see him working again, and this feels like a real homecoming for its embattled director. Hopefully, it can live up to all the hype and anticipation. Certainly the trailer makes it look quite fun and suggests that Sharon Tate murder subplot is just that.

The Irishman - So this movie was on my list last year, when it was expected to come out and be a major Oscar player but now it's been pushed to this year and who knows what it's fate will be -- it's also a Netflix movie, so the distribution will likely be a mess -- BUT -- and this is a big but, it's DeNiro reuniting with Scorsese for the first time since Casino, it's Scorsese's first pairing with Pacino ever and it'll be the triumphant return of Joe Pesci who will all be playing a range of ages thanks to state-of-the-art de-agifying technology that has sent the budget skyrocketing. But if Scorsese pulls it off, it could be a stone cold classic.

Episode IX - This should surprise no one. The Force Awakens was a game changer -- the best Star Wars film in over 30 years which resurrected beloved heroes and introduced some great new ones. The Last Jedi, for me, was nearly its equal, but clearly divided a lot of fans, which means this final installment (which is still untitled) has a huge burden on its shoulders. How will Carrie Fisher's storyline be resolved? How will really any of it end is a huge mystery -- which come to think of it, is pretty cool. It'd be kind of lame if this all just culminated in a light saber fight between Rey and Kylo. But only time will tell.