Jackpot! (2024)

“Jackpot” is a 2024 Amazon Prime Original Action/Comedy movie starring John Cena (Blockers), Awkwafina (Crazy Rich Asians), Simu Liu (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), Ayden Mayeri (I Love That for You), and Donald Elise Watkins (Emergency).

It’s the not-so-distant future, and California has created a new law where whoever has won the state lottery has to survive till sundown without being killed. Whoever kills the winner gets to keep the billion plus dollar winnings for themselves. Struggling actress Katie Kim (Awkwafina) unknowingly wins the 3 plus billion-dollar lottery, now she has all of California coming after her. She hires a freelance mercenary (John Cena) to help keep her alive.

John Cena is one of the funniest guys in Hollywood, I’ll see whatever he’s in. Awkwafina is hilarious as well, so these two teamed up, it must be a must watch, right? Awkwafina plays a struggling actress who doesn’t know about the lottery and when she accidentally wins, she doesn’t understand why everyone is trying to kill her. Lucky for her though, John Cena shows up. It’s a fast-paced John Wick style fight just not as brutal, and with more comedy. Cena plays his typical big nice guy roll while beating up people. There’s not a lot of substance to this movie but it makes an entertaining watch. I give it a 7/10

Road House (2024)

“Road House” is an Amazon Prime 2024 action/thriller that is a remake of the 1989 cult classic with the same name. This one stars Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler), MMA fighter Conor McGregor, Jesssica Williams (Booksmart), Billy Magnussen (Game Night), Lukas Gage (You), and superstar Post Malone.

Ex MMA fighter (Gyllenhaal) with a troubled past takes a job as a bouncer in the Florida Keys at a bar called the Road House. The owner (Williams) is having troubles and is hoping her new bouncer can clean up the place.

The original “Road House” is a classic, but honestly it’s pretty cheesy. The only reason it’s still so popular is because of Patrick Swayze and Sam Elliott, but they make it great in its cheesy way. This new one follows the original story line but also adds its own special twist on it. It’s like “Road House” on steroids mashed with “John Wick.” It is full of fight scenes and action, it’s great. Jake Gyllenhaal pulls off a phenomenal performance. I was worried about McGregor, I wasn’t sure how well he would do and questioned that casting. He nails his part as well, I think he just runs around and acts like himself, but he nails it. This is a much watch for anyone who is a fan of the original or just looking for great action flick. I give it a 10/10

Candy Cane Lane

It’s that time of year again. Christmas is upon us, and the holiday movies are rolling out. “Candy Cane Lane” is a 2023 Prime original Christmas/family movie starring Eddie Murphy (Bowfinger), Tracee Ellis Ross (Black-ish), Jillian Bell (Workaholics), Genneya Walton (Project Mc2), Thaddeus J. Mixson (Reasonable Doubt), and Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation).

A man (Murphy) who has recently been laid off right before Christmas desperately needs to win his neighborhood Christmas light contest, winning house gets a hundred thousand dollars. He unknowingly makes a deal with a mischievous elf, when buying Christmas decorations for the contest. Chaos ensues as his 12 days of Christmas decorations come to life. He now only has a certain amount of time to reverse it before it’s too late.

Eddie Murphy is hilarious, my favorite comic of all time. So, if an Eddie Murphy movie comes out, I’m going to see it. It’s cute, it’s heartfelt, and like all Christmas movies, they find the true meaning of Christmas. That’s why we watch Christmas movies, right? For the warm fuzzy feeling this time of year. It achieves that, but I think it’s lacking in the comedy department. Especially with Eddie Murphy, it’s just not very funny. It’s a good family Christmas movie, but it won’t be a holiday classic anytime soon. I give it a 6.5/10.

Battle Royale (2000)

“Battle Royale” is a 2000 Japanese horror starring Tatsuya Fujiwara (Death Note), Aki Maeda (The Cat Returns), Taro Yamamoto (Moon Child), and Takeshi Kitano (The Blindswordsman: Zatoichi).

In the future the Japanese government holds a three-day tournament where a school class fights to the death, only one must be left at the end of the three days or all survivors will be killed. This year the government captures a 9th grade class of 42 students to compete.

This one is pretty highly rated on IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, and Metacritic. I also read a list saying this is the best battle royal style movie, think “Hunger games”, “The Condemned”, etc… Cool thing also, this is the first movie to do this, “Hunger Games” came much later, and people even claim, “Hunger Games” is a blatant plagiarism of “Battle Royale.” So, I definitely wanted to watch this one. I’m probably in the minority on this one, but I thought it was just okay. I like the plot and it adds uniqueness like each participant gets a different weapon. Some are good, like a machine gun and bow while others are bad like a pot lid or binoculars. Funny thing though, the pot lid did come in handy. Also, I’m not a fan of dub and subbed movies they never match up, and the dubbing never seems to match the acting, which isn’t the movies’ fault, but still bugs me. The production quality also looks like it’s from the 80’s not 2000. It’s a long one too, a little over two hours, which with 42 kids fighting for their lives it does take a lot of time to show each death. Which I give them credit, there is a lot of unique deaths, it just becomes hard to keep track with the individual stories, friendships, and love interests that come into play. Overall, it’s cool this kicked off the whole battle royal sub-genre, but I give it a 5.5/10. If you do want to check it out, it’s free on Amazon Prime.

Nomadland

‘Nomadland’ is a 2020 drama starring Frances McDormand (Burn After Reading). It follows the story of Fern (McDormand), a modern day nomad who lives out of her van and travels the countryside.

This movie is about nothing, just a woman living in her van, and trying to make it another year. Not my typical type of moving, not a lot of action, actually no action. However this movie works, it’s interesting, gripping, and has you wanting to know where she goes next. It’s crazy to think there are people who choose to live like this, but they seem to be happy and carefree for the most part. ‘Nomadland’ does a good job of taking a look at this lifestyle, and seeing the friendships Fern builds a long the way. I watched it on Amazon prime, but it is still showing in some select theaters. It’s worth a watch, I give it a 7/10.

Coming 2 America

‘Coming 2 America’ is the long awaited sequel to ‘Coming to America’, which is a little out of the blue considering the first one came out in 1988, over 30 years ago. However, Eddie Murphy is the king of comedy. ‘Bowfinger’, and ‘Meet Dave’, are two of the funniest movies ever made, so anything with Eddie Murphy I’m going to watch. ‘Coming 2 America’ has a blockbuster cast starring Eddie Murphy (Bowfinger), Arsenio Hall (Coming to America), Jermaine Fowler (Crashing), Leslie Jones (Ghostbusters), Tracy Morgan (30 Rock), Wesley Snipes (White Men Can’t Jump), and James Earl Jones (The Lion King).

Prince Akeem (Murphy), now King Akeem, travels back to America once again, this time to find his illegitimate son so he will have a male heir to the throne.

I’m not sure how anticipated this movie was, like I said earlier it was out of the blue, over 30 years later, I’m not sure if anyone was expecting it. But here it is, and the first one is such a cult classic, and with this firepower of comics it has to be good right? Unfortunately, that is not the case. This one drags, it has the potential to be great, but it just isn’t. Fowler plays Murphy’s part from the first one. He plays Murphy’s son and is brought back to Africa, and he’s the young naïve one like Murphy is in the first one, but he’s no where near as funny as Murphy is, not even in the same category. So that leaves Murphy, he plays a staunchly king in this one, which has no comic relief, so that takes out classic Eddie Murphy, that is typically hilarious. Which leaves Leslie Jones, and Tracy Morgan, and surprisingly they bring nothing to the table here. To say the least this one is underwhelming and a disappointment. They even make a joke in it about not needing sequels that is messes up the first one. They should have listened to their own joke. As much as it pains me to give an Eddie Murphy film a low score, I have to give it a 5/10. If you are interested, you can check it out on Amazon Prime.

Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot

‘Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot’ is a 2018 biography/comedy starring Joaquin Phoenix (Joker), Jonah Hill (Superbad), Jack Black (Nacho Libre), and Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). This Biopic follows the true story of John Callahan (Phoenix) who struggles with alcoholism, he is involved in a drunk driving accident that leaves him paralyzed from the chest down and leaves him wheelchair bound. He joins AA and starts drawing cartoons and becomes an award winning cartoonist with a new outlook on life.

This has a great cast with Phoenix, Hill, and Black, but I was expecting a little more out of it. Phoenix plays an amazing role, as usual, but it’s a slow movie. It’s inspiring what Callahan overcomes and what he manages to become. Not a bad watch, good story just on the slow side. If you want to check it out, it’s currently on Amazon Prime, I give it a 6/10.

Blow the Man Down

‘Blow the Man Down’ is a 2019 drama/mystery starring Sophie Lowe (The Slap), Morgan Saylor (White Girl), June Squibb (Hubie Halloween), Margo Martindale (Sneaky Pete), Will Brittain (Kong: Skull Island), and Gayle Rankin (Perry Mason). Two sisters cover up a grizzly murder when one of the sisters accidently murders a man in self defense. They quickly learn there’s more to their sleepy seaside fishing village than meets the eye.

If you watch the trailer for ‘Blow the Man Down’ it looks really good. It’s intriguing, full of suspense, and mystery. Unfortunately, the trailer is the best part of this movie. It has an odd artsy feel to it, with singing fisherman throughout, and I get it, they’re hammering in the history of the village even with the underbelly. But this movie is slow, very slow. The story is there, but there’s no action to it, about ten minuets in when they kill the guy but that’s it. This movie is a let down, if you want you can watch it on Amazon Prime, but I would say give it a pass. It’s easily forgettable, I give it a 5/10.

Uncle Frank

‘Uncle Frank’ is a 2020 Amazon prime original drama/comedy. It has a stellar cast starring Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind), Sophia Lillis (IT), Peter Macdissi (The Losers), Steve Zahn (Saving Silverman), Judy Greer (Ant-Man), Margo Martindale (Sneaky Pete), and Stephen Root (Office Space). ‘Uncle Frank’ follows the story of Frank (Bettany), and his 18 year old niece Beth (Lillis). Frank is an English professor at a University in New York City and his niece is a new student there. She’s always looked up to, and admired her Uncle, but there is parts of his life he’s kept hidden from his family. Once Frank’s father and Beth’s grandfather dies, they must travel to their small, redneck, town for his funeral. Frank must find a way to come out of the closet to his close minded family while struggling with his alcoholism.

The trailer I saw didn’t really give much info on what it was about, so I went into it blind. This is a pretty heavy movie, it takes place in 1973 when the world wasn’t as open to the gay community, and unfortunately they were heavily persecuted. This movie only scratches the surface on what the gay community has had to endure, but it does a good job at it. It’s a great story about love and acceptance. Paul Bettany is a great actor and should be a house hold name, every role he plays he is incredible in. ‘Wimbledon’, ‘A Beautiful Mind’, ‘A Knights Tale’, etc… Sophia Lillis is a great up and coming actress and plays a great part beside Bettany. This movie is worth seeing, I score it a 8.5/10.

Get Duked!

‘Get Duked!’ is a 2020 Amazon Prime original English horror/comedy starring Jonathan Aris (The End of the F***ing World), Samuel Bottomley (Tyrannosaur), Viraj Juneja (Pandora), Rian Gordon (Final Score), and Lewis Gribben (T2 Trainspotting). Four teenage boys are sent to compete in the Duke of Edinburgh Award trek across the highlands in order to help turn their lives around. While hiking across the highlands the boys start getting hunted by a mysterious man and woman.

There isn’t a lot of good horror/comedies out there, and I always compare them to ‘Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil’. While most don’t stack up to it, ‘Get Duked!’ actually does. It’s original, witty, and funny. There were several parts where I laughed out loud. It has the perfect blend of horror mixed with comedy. This one is worth the watch, i give it a 9/10.