Writer. Library person. First in the world to platinum Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two on PS3.
“Long ago, there was wonder…”
A fantastic enough questy comedy about brothers, a van, father legs, sons, overcoming loss, and family, featuring some pretty solid D&D references throughout.
My VHS cover pull-quote: “Disney and Pixar put out Cars 2 for money, certainly, but also so that when something like Onward or The Good Dinosaur comes out, which are high quality but not UP or Coco or Wall-E levels of high quality, people will say, “well, it’s not Cars 2 so that’s nice.”
“[scoff]”
A most agreeable adaptation of one of Austen’s more complex protagonists. As lavish and capable of a production as is due, with prim and eccentric performances in equal measure. Quite!
My VHS cover pull-quote: “We had to watch this at home due to the virus sweeping the world and shuttering all the theatres, which sounds like something used to set the tone in a story set in the 1800s but it’s actually happening right now so it’s setting the tone for OUR story and is legit frightening. Quite!”
“A dream you dream alone is just a dream. A dream you dream together, now that’s reality.”
Nic Cage does what Nic Cage does best, surrounded by Lovecraft trappings, cosmic body horror, and alpacas.
My VHS cover pull-quote: “Forget National Treasure 3: Jefferson’s Ghost, I just want Nicolas Cage to do stuff like this and Mandy until he’s buried in his New Orleans pyramid.”
“This is a vile misuse of tax dollars.”
A bright, high energy spy comedy with a pretty well developed and tactful message of peace over violence that’s not afraid to get super weird with the constant antics (pigeon or otherwise).
My VHS cover pull-quote: “Unexpectedly, this might be the movie everyone should watch right now amidst all the doom, gloom, uncertainty and World War III memes.”
“We protect us. We do. Nobody else.”
A legal thriller that finds a Mark Ruffalo-shaped bottle of hope pushing back against the power of corporate behemoths that don’t care about us, our children, or even our beautiful, innocent cows. It feels as much like a call to action as it does a call on our Teflon covered telephone to tell us we’re probably powerless and screwed so we should just lay down on the floor.
My VHS cover pull-quote: “It actually looks and plays a little like an episode of the late 70s Incredible Hulk show, only without the fury of Lou Ferrigno to round out the hour. All we get is the righteous fury of Mark Ruffalo, which will have to do.”
“Genocide, shmenocide.”
Had I known Idris Elba said the word “genocide” then followed that up with “shmenocide” in Hobbs and Shaw, I wouldn’t have waited so long to see it.
My VHS cover pull-quote: “Nothing else happens in this movie.”
“I should feel something.”
Rapturous. Splendid. Fathers. Sons. Made me want to go find my dad in deep space even though he died in 2005.
My VHS cover pull-quote: “Seriously, our dads are out there and we have to go reunite with them. Even if you think your dad/father figure/person whose image you think you’ve not lived up to is here on Earth, that’s probably not really them. So saddle up on a rocket, get some good tears going, and let’s go to Neptune to find them. I’ll bring snacks (feeding tubes to staple into our stomachs).”
“What, do you want to go back to minimum wage?”
A high-energy, slick as heck heist flick that explores the allure and pitfalls of power, capitalism, and drugging some grade-a assholes to steal their money.
My VHS cover pull-quote: at one point in this movie someone says “2007 was the fucking best!” I graduated from high school in 2007 and, while that was cool, I disagree that it made the year the fucking best year. Still a great movie though.”
“Hey, come back to Derry and get murdered.”
This is humongous, epic, ultimately triumphant horror fantasy that — while not terrifying — is whimsically gruesome and allowed to lean hard into the cocaine fueled turns of the source material.
My VHS cover pull-quote: “Can we talk about across-the-board perfect casting? Okay, this has it. It also has a swelling, bleeding, plucked from a chest heart that will make you believe in shit again.”
Nick Perilli