Mary Poppins Returns: I’m mixed. Emily Blunt crushes it, she really does. Completely takes over the Mary Poppins gimmick and makes it her own. And some of the effects are pretty cool. But I can’t shake that a lot of this movie just feels like people with way too much money having fun with all the cool toys they could buy, which hurts considering the movie is about a family trying to keep their house from a douchebag businessman. Speaking of, Colin Firth as a douchebag businessman was good. ***
Aquaman: Another DC stinker, at this point you’re just rooting for them to have a good one but this was all over the place – crap-looking CGI, so-so one-liners, a weird flashback storytelling device. All the underwater stuff looked so silly that it was impossible to take seriously, but also not fun enough to enjoy the ridiculousness. It would’ve been better off going full B-movie and not just almost B-movie, but unfortunately it went for almost B-movie and that almost never works. *3/4
Creed II: Everything here is… fine. I can’t even say it wasn’t necessary – the first Creed ruled, and Dolph Lundgren’s son as a heel is a great hook. But nothing really clicked, and while I appreciated them trying to give Tessa Thompson more to do what they did with her was weak. **3/4
If Beale Street Could Talk: One of the damndest films I’ve seen. Incredible dialogue, acting, moments, construction. A movie that gave me goosebumps, and usually only special movies do that. *****
Stan & Ollie: A biopic that properly provided tribute to Laurel & Hardy, as it examined their relationship but gave more of the love to the mastery of their comic routines, in some cases having Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly replicate the entire thing. ****
