Caro the Movie Critic

Sicario  was one of the best movies of 2015 and I still think it is a re-watchable, gritty, suspenseful thriller that serves the mysterious crime story quite well fitting the context of the realistic nature of the everyday unfortunate life of certain parts of Mexico and on the border. It is actually near close to one of my 100 favorite movies of all-time because of its impact from its story and the drug cartel world, excellent performances and the direction by both Denis Villeneuve and cinematographer Roger Deakins. Now, I did not want a sequel because I thought it ended perfectly where even though tragedy would strike and it started to become common, life just goes on. But, mostly everybody who has seen the first movie were interested in the character played by Benicio Del Toro, well, we get that. What we get is a sequel that is quite thrilling but not as impactful due to its conventional second half. As terrorists are threatening the United States as they commit bombing in c...

Paul Schrader has been an interesting figure in Hollywood, writing interesting stories and crafting interesting movies that create some thought as to what the characters are going through and how they become their character. It is all about a motive of studying and understanding the character than the story and he does a magnificent job of setting those characters up with an ambiguous background in such movies as Taxi Driver, American Gigolo  and Bringing Out the Dead , even though the latter was a bit underwhelming. He has not made a good movie in 20 years until now, returning his roots of setting up a complex main character, in a weaving thread of themes and plot that makes the journey a fascinating experience and I was surprised as to how attentive I was to the whole movie. Reverend Ernst Toller (Ethan Hawke) is at the First Reformed Church in New York and he is writing thoughts in his journal and after a year, the journal will be destroyed. Toller was a former military cha...

Hotels and a dystopian sci-fi future? Hmmm...ok. I did not know much about this movie going into this except it had a star-studded cast that features actors that I am fans of and the set-up to a place reminded of a very familiar franchise, John Wick . It had a solid setup but it had a great set-up to a location where criminals and assassins can relax and not perform their "business", The Continental. It is an awesome place that I may or may not want to hang out at depending who is there and who runs this place. Heck, if it is run by Winston, I'll be ok with it. Anyway, I digress, here it has a neat idea with a couple of interesting characters to follow, but its never-ending style and familiarity deprived of my experience of being a memorable one with this movie. In 2028 Los Angeles, a violent riot has broken out of the city. A criminal hospital called Hotel Artemis hosts assassins and thieves, who is run by Nurse Jean Thomas (Jodie Foster), as Sherman (Sterling K. Br...

The park is closed. Or it had been closed in a while since this sequel takes place three years later. Now, it has been three years since the phenomenon of Jurassic World . Nobody expected it to much as much money as we anticipated. I guess we underestimated the value of dinosaurs in the movie and people want to see dinosaurs cause mayhem and tear people to shreds. However, it was a divided movie, some people thinking that it was a fun movie (like I did) and people hating the movie. But, I believe that the movie relied heavily on nostalgia that it did not provide as much wonder as the first Jurassic Park . However, even though I appreciated the different direction it was going with its camerawork and some of its special effects, the dark tone of its story created some dull action and unnecessary plot twists that made it less fun. Again, it has been three years since the disaster of Jurassic World, and the island is on the verge of a volcanic disruption, threatening the dinosaurs...

Tag, you're it! *running around, tagging someone else* You're it! We have all played around where a group of friends either play that game either in recess or in some occasion like a birthday party. Hearing about a group of friends playing for 30 years is unheard of until this movie came along which is weirdly based on a true story. This movie felt episodic full of inconsistent jokes, which are hit-and-miss, but I laughed a little more than I thought and also the theme of friendship surrounds the whole story in context and made me care about the characters. Since 1983, five best friends have been playing Tag. Now they have gone their separate ways as they gather in the month of May every year to resume the game. Hogan "Hoagie" Malloy (Ed Helms) is applying for a janitorial job where his friend, Bob Callahan (Jon Hamm), is the CEO. Hoagie tags Bob at the office but they get ahold of the news that their friend, Jerry Pierce (Jeremy Renner), who have never been tagg...

It has been 14 years since the first Incredibles movie came out as it turned out to be a revelation. So, was it too late? 14 years too late? Well, there have been many superhero movies coming out since them either revolutionizing or recycling the same formula that had either made fans rewarded, divided or disappointed. But, people were clamoring for another sequel but Pixar wanted to make more money with their more financially successful movies with Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Cars  because of merchandising aimed more at children than adults. Granted, maybe it is because I have grown up and not have shopped for toys but I did not see that much toy merchandising surrounding The Incredibles , which they should have. Now, we have the sequel and I have to say: it is worth the wait. We cut to the movie exactly where the first one left off where the Underminer (John Ratzenberger) is about to take on The Incredibles - Robert/Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson), Helen/Elastigirl (Holly H...

Back then when I was a child, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood  was one of the few educational children's programs that I was attached to because he had a gentler and kind perspective of life lessons. He had the sweet humanity of maintaining his even strain and simply just giving his perspective of such difficult topics of death, life, assassination, racism, 9/11, divorce, violence on television, the way we look. I wonder, today, because of the divisive nature in our country, what he would say about, for example, bullying, school shootings and family in depth, especially regarding immigration. I love that director Morgan Neville, who made both the Oscar-winning 20 Feet from Stardom and Best of Enemies , highlighted his positivity and spirituality from his learnings from both music and ministry school that encapsulated a bubble of such influence that there was a time that kindness was spread around the world. Unfortunately, I was not born when it debuted or when the show's p...

Wow! I have to be honest. There were a couple of thoughts that crossed my mind. One: I did not know how to describe or analyze my experiences after watching this movie. It had been a long time since I had that feeling. Annihilation  from early this year came close but the last time it had happened to me was watching the divisive horror film last year, It Comes at Night , which came from the same studio, A24. I kinda liked that movie but I did not want to watch it again. Two: And, here is a shocker, I did not want to review this movie at a full length because I wanted you to experience for yourselves as to what is going on throughout the whole story. I know that it will not satisfy many horror fans because you need to think. People will also struggle whether or not this is a horror movie or a psychological thriller. This movie is very effective of not pinpointing the long-awaited cliches that it delivers on unpredictability, suspense and dread that will make you quiver with fear ...

I never imagined another Ocean's movie because I thought it concluded well enough to not invest time or money into another project. Yes, twelve is close to abysmal with some fun moments. I liked Thirteen  as it approaches old-fashioned slickness and also Al Pacino was a good villain. But, no movie will beat the Ocean's Eleven remake, not even its original, which I thought was boring. The remake was a breath of fresh air with a great cast that balances the fun, the humor, the twists and the stakes surrounding Danny Ocean throughout the whole movie. It is definitely one of the best heist movies and probably one of the most re-watchable. Now, at this time, we need more female-driven movies but I'll save one of my complaints for later because I have to be honest. But, for now, even though there are plot twists that felt too convenient and the second act was lagging, but the fine first act and the fun third act along with the chemistry between the cast is enough to be enterta...

We're onto that point that creators will be immersed with so much creativity and intelligence that sometimes power and common sense can be overlooked. Are we on the way of creating artificial intelligence that could potentially threaten the human race? Well, I hope not. I hope not too soon. But,  this movie makes me question whether artificial intelligence controlling humans is a good idea and after watching this, I do not think so. Nevertheless, we have yet another revenge movie that has the feel of a B-action thriller that is fun and also creative that it never lets go of the thrills and keeps you guessing what will happen to its main character.  Sometime in the future, Grey Trace (Logan Michael-Green), a mechanic, is living with his wife, Asha (Melanie Vallejo), in a home where everything is controlled by technology. Grey takes Asha to a secret location to meet his client, Eron Keen (Harrison Gilbertson), regarding a powerful computer chip called Stem that could pr...