Shaft

When John Singleton's Shaft came out in 2000 it was one of the first films i was stoked to see in a film savvy sort of way, having been a fan of the originals. I grew up on blaxploitation so i was almost 13 and stoked to see it, i liked it, but i didn't love it. It didn't feel authentic enough. The new version with three Shafts is the Shaft film i have been wanting to see for years. It feels genuine, it has commentary, it is stylish, it is violent, it is funny, and the cast is having a blast. I went in with low expectations but this is one of the most fun flicks i have seen in theatres this year.

The Dead Don't Die

As a Jim Jarmusch film, The Dead Don't Die, is weird. Weird, not his usual off beat but weird, some times it reminded me of Twin Peaks. As a zombie film it is also quite odd, i mean it blends genres in the final scene. Neither of these details are a bad thing, mixing zombies with aliens is a cool idea. Seeing Jarmusch chanel David Lynch is also great. The cast is great, but they don't do much. There also isn't much of a plot, scenes just sort of happen. It is as if the meta plot drove the idea of not showing deaths and just showing characters stuck in peril when they were just fine minutes earlier. The meta plot is a mixed bag, i loved the Repo Man esque labels on beverages, but too many fourth wall breaks felt unnecessary.  With this cast, this director and this genre, it should have been pure bliss, but instead it has a decent second act sandwiched between a mess of a first and final act.

MIB International

So as a kid, i loved Men In Black, i've always dug it, i rewatched it recently(along with 2 & 3) and it still hold up. Fun, simple, of it's time and full of PG13 goop. As a teen, i loathed MIB 2, upon a rewatch....it is not as bad as i remembered but it is still pretty bad. As an adult, i found MIB 3 to be underrated, it is super flawed but fun, and honestly that's all i have to say about it, upon a rewatch not much has changed. The two sequels i've only seen about three or two times(Part 2 also being in a drive in with Spider Man). But now we have Men in BLack International, and it is fine. Had the film not starred Tessa Thompson & Chris Hemsworth along with Kumail Nanjiani it would have totally failed. Nanjiani's introduction in the second act helps give the film a boost, the only decent spots of the first act were Thompson(she's been great in everything lately) and Hemsworth's timing, plus the two have great chemistry. With that said, the plot is predictable(not always a bad thing) and cliched. It's a fun enough of a time for a one time viewing.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix

The X-Men have always been my favorites in Marvel. Their comics have always felt the most epic, they have an insane roster of mutants both in face & heel varieties, and the characters have depth. The Animated Series, has always held a special place with me, it is easily the second best animated comic series(after Batman) . The first movie in 2000 for the time was huge, Marvel had Blade, but to many Blade wasn't a superhero. X Men 2 fixed the flaws and crafted one of the best superhero movies you can find. It felt like the animated series, which in turn felt pretty mature for a kids show, but amped it up. Nightcrawler steals the show. The Last Stand, the first adaptation of the Phoenix on the big screen, is known as one of the worst films in comics. It's quite a mess, but the spin off/prequel, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, wasn't much better outside of a sweet opening credit sequence. Finally Fox gets it right with the prequel formula in First Class(my second favorite X Men movie). This is where the time line begins to feel off though, as Charles gets crippled in this, but we saw him walk in a flashback in the Last Stand. Regardless it was a fun film with a likable cast set in the 60s, plus Magneto steals the show. Fox then got the Wolverine series right with...The Wolverine, while not a great film it still feels like a Wolverine movie but the end brings back Charles & Magneto and they need his help to time travel(fix the mistakes of The Last Stand's cluster fuck). Days of Future Past attempts to fix mistakes(why can Charles walk sometimes? Shots) and at the end adjusts the timeline so everyone has a happy ending in the present, dead characters are back, all is well. Side note, Quicksilver steals this movie. Deadpool comes out, mocks the time lines, not really going to get into this film as it is too fourth wall breaking for canon propper. X Men Apocalypse is next, it is a film i felt was unneeded, i mean i get it for a prequel sense but i'd rather have seen Apocalypse take on the modern timeline characters and give real perril since we already know everyone ends on a happy note. Instead we got the worst X Men film made, a real terrible piece of shit, even Quicksliver & Magneto couldn't save it. Is it time to end the series? Well atleast for one character, Logan, a flatout masterpiece of the superhero subgenre was a perfect way to end the entire series, and it should have been, atleast for the established characters. They could have continued the franchise with the little mutants that left his grave, but alas we got New Mutants, a film that....well hasn't come out yet, though one i was intrigued by for the horror elements but now i have zero hope for. Deadpool 2, yada yada yada.....Okay, X-Men, Dark Phoenix. starts off pretty decent, then we jump to 1992, and i must say Charles & Magneto age terribly between 1992 and 2000. The plot, rather clustered. The characters, some are just there. The action scenes, fucking great. Team Magneto vs Team Charles is decent, but the train scene....pure badass. So badass that it almost makes up for more continuity being fucked. This film sort of becomes a multiverse in a way because it contradicts so much of Days of Future Past. With this franchise, what is to be expected though? We'll get the MCU reboot some year and the timeline will be fixed(i mean the MCU doesn't fuck up timelines? Right? Right?) Overall this is a franchise i legit grew up with. I was in the 6th grade when the first one came out, so thank you Fox for....trying. You gave me a few decent movies, a couple great ones, and some pretty terrible ones. New Mutants....fuck it, if it was supposed to be a new beginning, consider it scratched, if it is the end of the Fox films(which it is) then you wont be as good as Logan(by any stretch of the imagination). So if you want the Phoeneix adaptation, go watch the animated series, if you want a true epic X-Men story, go read the comic, but if you want to turn off you mind, relax & float down stream, then go check it out.

Ma

So Ma is basically a better written and better produced Lifetime movie. I thought the Gift was the same way a few years ago, and that film had a creepy ass performance by Joel Edgerton, this film has a creepy performance by Octavia Spencer. Without her, the film might not be as effective, luckily she makes what would be a Lifetime flick into something better.

Match of May

1. Matt Taven vs Mark Haskins: ROH TItle: War of the Worlds

2. Kofi Kingston vs AJ Styles vs Sami Zayn: WWE Title SD

3. Grizzled Young Veterans vs Noam Dar & Kenny Williams: NXT UK

4. Flip Gordon vs Bandido: War of the Worlds

5. Matt Taven vs PCO: ROH Title: War of the Worlds

6. Walter vs Pete Dunne: UK Title: NXT UK

7. Tony Nese vs Ligero: 205 Live 

8. Rush vs PJ Black: War of the Worlds

9. Shane Taylor vs Goto vs Jeff Cobb vs Brody King: TV Title: War of the Worlds

10. Mustache Mountain vs the Hunt: NXT UK

Rocketman

I think Rocketman is a great twist on the biopic. Instead of doing the cookie cutter format or rock biopics, it incorporates musical elements. I'm a sucker for musicals and this goes a little extra, so it is very fitting for Elton John.