Monday Movie Report: 2019 Comic-Con Preview

San Diego Comic-Con almost always has a big draw for film enthusiasts, but this year is a bit different.

There’s no major “Star Wars” panel and Warner Bros. is absent this year with no DC Comics presentation. Universal Pictures, the studio behind the “Fast and the Furious” franchise among others, is also skipping.

However, there are still plenty of movie related event scheduled for the week, including a huge one Saturday dedicated to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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REVIEW: ‘Stuber’ is a trip that won’t earn high ratings

Another summer buddy cop flick is upon us and unfortunately, “Stuber” doesn’t take a spot on the top shelf of the genre.

Nanjiani plays Stu in the picture, a guy working a dead-end job at a sporting good store who moonlights as an Uber driver. While he does his best to accommodate passengers, Stu seems to have trouble attaining the elusive five star rating. Meanwhile, police officer Vic (Bautista), recently had eye surgery and should be resting, but gets a tip on solving a case he’s been working on for years.

Because he can’t drive with with his recovering eye-sight, he orders an Uber and Stu just happens to be his ride. While the two have trouble getting along, Vic’s case ropes them both into a situation where they have to work together to survive and take down a crime kingpin.

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REVIEW: ‘Crawl’ delivers solid creature entertainment

Florida Gators, well known for their basketball and football abilities, along with terrorizing families in hurricanes.

The types of gators featured in “Crawl” refer to the latter, although a horror movie with Tim Tebow would be entertaining.

Anyway, “Crawl” tells the story of Haley (Kaya Scodelario), a college swimmer who’s just wrapping up practice as a dangerous hurricane starts moving in on Florida. The campus and pretty much everyone else in the area opt to evacuate, but Haley finds out her dad Dave (Barry Pepper) hasn’t been answering his phone and could still be in the path of the storm.

Haley travels to her home town and in fact does find her dad at her childhood house. The problem is that Dave has been severely injured in a crawl space by an alligator which is still around the area. With the storm producing floods as time goes on, Haley and her father are in a fight for survival, both against rising water and more gators brought in as a result.

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REVIEW: ‘Midsommar’ is as stylish as it is suspenseful

Whoa nelly does this one get wild.

Florence Pugh plays Dani in “Midsommar,” the second feature film from director Ari Aster who last year helmed the fantastic “Hereditary.” Dani is a college student who, in the first act, goes through a major tragedy in her life. The subsequent depression Dani goes through becomes a point of stress between her and her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor).

However, she gets an opportunity to get away for awhile by traveling abroad to Sweden to spend time at a rural town by way of an invitation from their friend Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren). Dani, Christian, along with their friends Josh (William Jackson Harper) and Mark (Will Poulter) decide to go with Pelle for the trip, both to study the culture and have some fun. While the town they go to seems to be just a calm place holding a midsummer festival, though, the lead characters soon learn about some rather disturbing rituals by the locals.

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REVIEW: Latest ‘Spider-Man’ adventure weaves a fun international web

After the big, full meal that “Avengers: Endgame” was, having a smaller, simpler movie like “Spider-Man: Far From Home” works nicely as a dessert.

The latest flick starring the web-slinger seemingly starts at least a few months or so after the events of “Endgame.” The people of Earth are starting to get back to their regular lives and the world is seemingly getting back to peace. There are those few who are having trouble adjusting, though, as five years passed since the first and second snaps.
For those falling through societal cracks, May Parker (Marisa Tomei) is running an organization to assist people who need help adjusting.

Her nephew Peter (Tom Holland), also known as Spider-Man, is trying to help where he can, as well as handle his time as a student. However, he is exhausted from his experiences fighting in the Infinity War and is still mourning the death of Tony Stark. Because of the situation, Peter is looking forward to a class trip to Europe, not only to relax, but also to confess to the girl he likes, MJ (Zendaya). The issue is that another threat seems to be coming and Peter might be forced to use his web-shooters on his trip.

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Monday Movie Report: Samuel L. Jackson partners with Chris Rock on new ‘Saw’

Chris Rock is working on a reboot of the “Saw” franchise and Samuel L. Jackson has come on board to help.

According to Variety, production has already started on the picture, with Rock playing a police detective investigating several disturbing crimes. Variety reports Jackson will play the father of Rock’s character.

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Monday Movie Report: Bond 25 production back on track

Production on the new James Bond flick is moving forward at full speed again with actor Daniel Craig coming back from injury.

According to Deadline|Hollywood, the 51-year-old actor had an ankle injury during filming in Jamaica. Following his injury in May, Craig underwent surgery and then had a several week rehabilitation process.

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REVIEW: One can just move on to tomorrow, because ‘Yesterday’ doesn’t offer much

An Oscar and Golden Globe winning director, a writer with several charming hits, along with a fantastic concept ripe for all sorts of possibilities. On paper, “Yesterday” looked like a slam dunk, which makes it a total shame that it turned out so poorly.

The movie follows a struggling singer named Jack Malik (Himesh Patel), who lives day-to-day playing small gigs with help from his manager Ellie (Lily James). Getting fed up with his lack of success and his dead-end job, Jack considers leaving music all together.

However, during one bike ride home, Jack is hit by a bus at the exact same moment a blackout occurs worldwide. When he wakes up and recovers from his injuries, he comes to find himself in a world where the Beatles never became a band and their music does not exist in the pop culture landscape. Seeing an opportunity, Jack starts singing the songs and claims credit for the work, which of course leads him to his own fair share of fame.

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REVIEW: Latest run in with ‘Annabelle’ doesn’t offer much new in horror

On the surface, the set up for the latest “Annabelle” implies something new. However, as time goes on, it turns into the same old story.

“Annabelle Comes Home,” the seventh movie in the Conjuring Cinematic Universe, again follows the movie-version Warren family, who’re much more entertaining and compelling than their real life fraud counterparts. The movie opens with Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) and Ed (Patrick Wilson) driving home with the Annabelle doll in their, er, custody. After some freaky moments, the Warrens are able to get the cursed doll back to their artifacts room, where it’s secured in a holy case, and life seems to settle to normal.

As life goes on, the Warrens plan a business trip and leave their daughter Judy (Mckenna Grace) in the care of a babysitter Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman). Despite dealing with the paranormal regularly, the Warren’s home and neighborhood is pretty straightforward suburbia. However, Mary Ellen’s friend Daniela (Katie Sarife) eventually comes over to hang out and has an interest in the Warren’s case files. Unfortunately, through a series of events, she lets loose the paranormal entities in the Warren’s artifacts room, including Annabelle.

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LAMB Special: Large Association of Movie Blogs July Movies of the Month

So each month, the Large Association of Movie Blogs does a poll to select a “Movie of the Month” for members to take a look at. For the month of July, there are two movies in the polling currently that I wanted to write about. They include “Drop Dead Gorgeous” and “Chronicle.”

For reference, here are the films in the July poll:

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