RIFFTRAX LIVE: STAR RAIDERS

"You know, the special effects for this movie aren't bad considering it came out in 1992."
"Um, this movie was released 18 months ago."
"WHAAAAAATTTT???"

Welcome to Rifftrax Live: Star Raiders: The Adventures of Saber Raine.  This is the sort of movie that's pretty much designed for much mockery from Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy: a former "star," amazingly bad special effects, and a nonsensical plot.

 For thos who want a plot to try and follow, here goes: Following a less-than-epic space battle, an obligatory hot female (with glowing red eyes) and her two followers (each of whom is wearing what looks like half a pair of sunglasses) land on a planet to rescue a prince and princess from an evil would-be ruler whose henchmen are immortal (sometimes) and whose head looks skinned from the top half up.  There's also a lizard-woman whose makeup doesn't cover her lower jaw.  ("She has two mouths.")  And then there's Saber Raine, the heroic rogue played by Casper Van Dien, whose only real claim to fame is having appeared in Starship Troopers.

Want more?  There's an obligatory traitor, parts of the planet don't let technology work, as the plot dictates, a sword-fighting scene is completely gratuitous, and the dialogue fails as consistently as the special effects.

Fortunately, the worse the movie is, the more of a source for comedy it provides for Mike, Bill, and Kevin.  They work hard mining humor from this awful movie (plus an old short about honesty and values that begins the evening) and the laughs come pretty consistently from start to finish.  While one may wonder how this movie got made so recently or mourn the career of Casper Van Diem, you'll also be laughing a lot during Rifftrax Live: Star Raiders: The Adventures of Saber Rain.  And if you figure out who or what the Star Raiders are, please let me know; the movie sure didn't.

Overall grade: B+
Reviewed by James Lynch

BRIGHTBURN

D.C. Comics had a line of books called Elseworlds, where one change in a superhero's life would send them on a completely different trajectory.  This idea applies to Brightburn, a superhero horror movie that follows a simple idea: What if young Superman was evil?

In the small town of Brightburn, Kansas, farmers Tori and Kyle Breyer (Elizabeth Banks, David Denman) have been trying to have a child unsuccessfully when the answer literally falls out of the sky.  Twelve years later, their son Brandon (Jackson A. Dunn) is going through puberty.  But it's very different for him.

Brandon's growing up is accompanies by super powers: super strength, toughness, flight, heat vision, super speed, and more.  Unfortunately, Brandon is hearing voices from the alien ship he arrived in; he wears a creepy homemade mask; and he feels no guilt when he hurts people -- and he does a lot more than just hurt anyone who he thinks is getting in his way.  When people start vanishing and dying, Kyle becomes very suspicious of his son; but his mother insists that Brandon is a good boy and that there's got to be some other explanation.

Produced by Peter Gunn, Brightburn really doesn't do anything interesting with its premise.  Jackson A. Dunn is suitably creepy as the sociopath with the power to do pretty much whatever he wants to anyone he wants -- but we don't get beneath his surface, except for seeing him as a literal alien invader.  Banks and Denman play the doting mother and stern father, parental archetypes often seen in movies.  And there are moments of brief but extreme gore, plus an ever-growing body count.  Brightburn is a superficial approach to a radical  change in an iconic superhero.

Overall grade: C+
Reviewed by James Lynch

LONG SHOT

Politics makes strange bedfellows.  In the case of the movie Long Shot, one would wish it would have made for a movie with any sort of entertainment value.

Secretary of State Charlotte Field (Charlize Theron) is smart, beautiful, and accomplished.  When idiot President Chambers (Bob Odenirk) tells her he wants to be a one-term president so he can transition to doing movies, she starts planning for a 2020 presidential run.  Her main platform is an environmental plan -- "trees, seas, and bees" -- and she needs to stay on Chambers' good side to get his endorsement.  She's also dodging meeting up with Parker Wembley (Andy Serkis), the movie's far-from-subtle caricature of Rupert Murdoch.

Fred Flarsky (Seth Rogen) is an angry reporter who quits his job when his newspaper is bought out by Parker Wembley.  Fred knew Charlotte when they were in high school, and after a meeting at a gala Charlotte hires Fred to be her speechwriter.  The two start getting to know each other better, and soon they're romantically involved.  But while Fred's buddy Lance (O'Shea Jackon Jr.) encourages him, Charlotte's associate Maggie (June Diane Raphael) says the public won't accept a beautiful woman like her being with a rough-looking guy like him.  And Fred tries to keep Charlotte honest as more and more elements of her environmental get stripped away in the name of compromise.

Long Shot is part romantic comedy, part political drama -- and it fails on both levels.  There's no romantic chemistry between the two stars, and a few comedic set-ups fall flat, as do the one-liners tossed out here and there through the movie.  The political element is hardly realistic either, and even a blackmail story element doesn't work.  There are some very talented actors in Long Shot, but the material fails them badly.

Overall grade: D
Reviewed by James Lynch

AVENGERS: ENDGAME

For years the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been teasing the awesome power of the Infinity Stones, the Infinity Gauntlet, and the mad titan Thanos' mission to wipe out half the life in the universe -- and seeing that happen in Avengers: Infinity War.  So what happens next?  The conclusion of this saga in the epic Avengers: Endgame.

Following the events of the last movie, the remaining Avengers quickly track down Thanos (Josh Brolin), only to discover that he's destroyed the Infinity Stones.  We then jump ahead five years.  Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is providing counseling to those who remain, while the Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) is locked away trying to find a way to reverse Thanos' deed.  The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) has found a way to merge Bruce Banner's mind with his green-skinned ego, while Thor (Chris Hemsworth) has let himself go.  Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) has started a family with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), while Hawkeye/Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) lost his whole family and takes his anger out by killing criminals.  Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) is working with just about everyone.  And Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) is helping other planets deal with the same thing that happened on Earth.

Then Ant-Man/Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) shows up.  He's been trapped in the quantum realm -- but while five years passed for the rest of the world, for him it's been five hours.  Time works differently there, so he and the Avengers make a plan: Use the realm to go back in time, get the Infinity Stones before they were destroyed, and reverse Thanos' mass genocide.  But they only have enough Pym particles for one trip to the past and back -- and tampering with time has unforseen consequences...

There's a lot Endgame tackles -- and it does it very well for the most part.  We get to see new sides of characters we've known for decades, and the time travel element allows us to go back to many of the earlier movies, from revisiting characters who've died to characters running into their past selves.  There's plenty of humor spread throughout the movie, but it doesn't diminish the high stakes of saving half the life in the universe.  And yes, there's an epic battle, final deaths, and saying goodbye to staples of the MCU.

While Avengers: Endgame isn't perfect -- there are at least two paradoxes that go unexplained -- it is a very satisfying wrap-up to the storylines of the MCU.  I can certainly understand why the audience cheered during the movie.  This movie is exciting, nostalgic, and very satisfying.

Overall grade: A-
Reviewed by James Lynch

SHAZAM!

While most DC superhero movies have gone the grim and gritty route, Shazam! is far more aimed at the brightness and magic that appeals to young kids.  And in this case, the change in tone works very well.

Billy Batson (Asher Angel) is a 14-year-old kid who's been running away from foster homes to search for the mother who lost him as a young kid.  His latest foster home has him with five other kids, notably Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer), a handicapped kid obsessed with superheroes.

After Billy helps Freddy with some bullies and runs away, Billy is transported to a magic world.  The Wizard Shazam (Djimon Hounsou) explains that Billy was chosen to be the champion of good, protecting the world from the monstrous Seven Deadly Sins.  From then on, when Billy says the word "Shazam" a bolt of lightning strikes him and he transforms into, well, Shazam (Zachari Levi), an adult with a wide range of super powers; saying it again turns him back into Billy.  Freddy becomes Shazam's "manager," documenting his powers -- from super-strength and toughness to shooting lightning and flight -- and posting the videos online while Shazam becomes interested in popularity.

Of course there's a bad guy.  Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong) had been summoned by the Wizard as a kid but deemed unworthy because he was tempted by the Seven Deadly Sins.  As an adult he found his way back to the magical world, leaving with assorted powers and the ability to summon the Seven Deadly Sins.  Sivana wants to claim Shazam's powers for his own.

Shazam! has a lot of what most of the DC movies have been missing up to this point:  fun.  Zachari Levi captures the wonder and enjoyment of a kid suddenly given amazing powers and adulthood (and there are several nods to the movie Big here), and Jack Dylan Grazer is a nice foil as the kid who sees what a superhero can and should be.  Mark Strong is a nicely menacing villain, but the movie is more about Billy Batson's growth from a self-interested kis with amazing powers to learning what it means to be a hero.  Even the Shazam costume is always bright and colorful, reflecting the positive nature of the film.  There's a lot of action at the end, but the comedy is what stands out here.  Shazam! is sometimes exciting, usually amazing and thoroughly entertaining movie.

Overall grade: A-
Reviewed by James Lynch

US

A good horror movie requires several elements, from scares and originality to consistency and following its own rules.  Us, the latest movie from writer-director Jordan Peele, manages the former pretty well but falls short of the latter.

Back in 1986, young Adelaide wandered away from her parents at a carnival in Santa Clara.  She wound up at a creepy, dimly-lit hall of mirrors ("find yourself") where she saw something that left her traumatized.

In the present, Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong'o) finds herself on vacation at a summer house in Santa Clara with her family: laid-back husband Gabe (Winston Duke), cell phone-focused teen daughter Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph), and young son Jason (Evan Alex), obsessed with a magic trick and usually wearing a monster mask.  They meet up with friends and have a good time, but Adelaide feels like several coincidences are building up around them.

Things start to happen late at night when the Wilson family find themselves under siege by their doppelgangers.  Four people, dressed all in red and wielding extremely long scissors, are pursing the Wilson family -- and the duplicates are seemingly stronger, faster, and more twisted than the originals.  Red, Adelaide's duplicate and the only one who talks, explains that the copies are the Tethered and they want to kill the originals, or take their places, or... something.

Us has its scary moments, but the movie makes less sense the more one tries to think about it.  The motivations of the Tethered seem to switch from scene to scene, as are their abilities.  Some plot elements are forgotten about, while others seem to come and go as is convenient for a specific scene.  And there's one big plot twist that simply makes no sense.  The cast of the Wilson family do double duty as themselves and their evil counterparts, and Lupita Nyong'o has a lot of intensity as the mother fighting for her family, but Us is just uneven.

Overall grade: C+
Reviewed by James Lynch

CAPTAIN MARVEL

For Marvel's latest entry in their cinematic universe, Captain Marvel takes a trip to outer space -- and the 1990s -- to introduce their latest, possibly most powerful hero.

Vers (Brie Larson) is a Kree warrior.  Part of a military squad battling the green shape-changing Skrulls, she can project powerful energy beams from her hands.  She also has dreams and memories of a life that she can't quite identify -- and her squad leader Yon-Rogg (Jude Law) tells her she needs more focus.

When Vers is captured by the Skrulls, Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) scans Vers' mind and learns that Vers has a past with scientist Mar-Vell (Annette Bening), who developed a lightspeed drive on Earth.  And the Skrulls want it.

Vers escapes and makes her way to Earth, where she joins up with young secret agent Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson, digitally de-aged).  Since the Skrulls are there as well, the two can only trust each other as they search for Mar-Vell -- and the truth behind Vers' past.  Yon-Rogg and his team are also making their way to Earth -- and trying to keep Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) from solving the Skrull infestation with a massive bombing.

Captain Marvel is a decent entry in the Marvel cinematic universe.  Brie Larson is solid as the lead, playing a super-powered Jason Bourne, and there are some impressive fighting sequences through the movie and cosmic effects at the end.  But the movie does slow down a lot in the middle during the investigation, and the movie does go a bit overboard with the '90s nostalgia.  There are some surprises along the way, and while Captain Marvel isn't the best Marvel movie, it is entertaining.

Overall grade: B
Reviewed by James Lynch

A STAR IS BORN

Fame has its ups and downs, its rewards and pitfalls, its appeals and stresses.  This is covered in A Star Is Born -- and the movie does very well, thanks to some impressive star power in its two leads.

Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper, who co-wrote and directed the movie) is a famous classic rocker, someone everyone seems to know and want their picture with.  Looking for booze after a concert, he winds up at a drag club -- and is entranced by the performance of Ally (Lady Gaga), singing a French song.  She says her looks have kept her from being taken seriously as a professional singer.

Jackson is as entranced by Ally's singing, songwriting, and piano playing as his desire to get her into bed.  Soon he has her joining him on stage at the concerts, where she becomes a viral hit.  In almost no time at all, Allie is being represented as a singer and transformed into a famous pop star, losing the piano and gaining backup dancers.  Meanwhile, Jackson is haunted by either jealousy or disappointment with Allie's career; and his demons of liquor, drugs, and hearing problems come calling.

While the themes of A Star Is Born are familiar (and the movie is a remake), the two stars really make the movie shine.  Bradley Cooper shows both sides of Jackson: the charmer who's easy to like and the self-destructive artist for whom music isn't enough.  Lady Gaga is a revelation as Allie, making her both talented and vulnerable, someone ready to lose what she loved in music as fame seems more and more alluring.  Their musical numbers together are impressive, as is their chemistry.  The result is a beautiful, powerful movie.

Overall grade: A
Reviewed by James Lynch

OPERATION FINALE

Based on true events, Operation Finale is about the discovery and capture of Adolph Eichmann, considered the architect of the Nazis' final solution and the highest-ranking Nazi to escape alive after World War Two.  The movie tells a compelling story, though with some forced elements.

The movie begins in 1960, when Israel's Mossad intelligence agency gets a lead that Eichmann (Ben Kingsley) is living in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Unfortunately, Argentina has a strict anti-extradition policy; the country also has a large group of Nazi sympathizers.  So the Mossad hatch a plan: send a small team of operatives to Buenos Aires, identify Eichmann, then capture him and bring him back to Israel for trial.

Israel's team is headed by Peter Malkin (Oscar Isaac), a soldier who'd just as soon kill Eichmann as bring him home.  He leads the team in Eichmann's capture.  However, they need Eichmann to sign a paper authorizing his extradition to Israel to stand trial.  There's also a delay in the flight to get him home -- and the authorities and Nazis searching for the captures Nazi.

Operation Finale is good, with some flaws.  The story it tells is an important one, and it underscores the need for the trial and the horrors of the war: Malkin's flashbacks are of his sister, killed by the Nazis; Eichmann's are of his getting blue ink on white shirt cuffs.  But the movie also has some plot devices that are a bit clumsy: Malkin's ex romantic partner as a reluctant member of the team, clues left behind at the abduction, a seemingly minutes-close escape from an airport.  These feel heavy handed in a movie that already had plenty of drama in it.

Overall grade: B-
Reviewed by James Lynch

RIFFTRAX LIVE: KRULL

The movie Krull is a mix of science fiction and sword and sorcery from 1983 that never really took off.  Looking back at it, there are plenty of reasons this was a commercial and critical flop.  However, that makes it perfect for riffing on, and Rifftrax Live: Krull does just that.

With this slightly long movie to take on, hosts Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett skip their usual opening shorts or previews of upcoming shows to tackle the feature.  It's probably a warning that when Mike asks the audience who's seen Krull and lots of people cheer, he follows it up by asking if they remember it through nostalgia.

The movie itself features slow-moving Slayers, a big rocky teleporting castle, painful comedy from an inept wizard ("If he's the comic relief, why do I feel tense every time he shows up?") and the Glaive, a magical spinning five-bladed weapon descriped as "like Excalibur but with a far stupider name."  The movie's big claim to fame is having Liam Neeson and Robbie Coltrane in small roles as the bandits before they (the actors) became famous.

I liked seeing Rifftrax Live: Krull a lot. This is the first time I've seen the actual movie, and it was painful to endure.  But the comedy trip had a lot of fun with it -- from wondering who or what "Krull" actually is to the casual forgetting of the movie's early slaughter of the main characters' family and friends -- that brought the audience along for the ride.  More material would have been good, but Rifftrax Live: Krull was still very fun to watch.

Overall grade: B+
Reviewed by James Lynch

BlacKkKlansman

Loosely based on a bizarre true story, BlacKkKlansman is the latest Spike Lee movie.  This time around he's drawing heavy parallels between the past and present, to mixed results.

In 1972, Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) is the first black police officer in Colorado Springs.  Initially stuck in the records room, Ron soon finds himself doing undercover work.  A unique opportunity presents itself when Ron calls a number in the paper from the Ku Klux Klan and finds himself being recruited by them,

The police set up a task force to infiltrate the Klan, with officer Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver) appearing in person as Ron while Ron keeps taking the phone calls.  The real Ron also winds up talking a lot with David Duke (Topher Grace), the grand wizard of the Klan who wants to put a respectable face on "the organization."  And there's a romantic subplot where Ron has a romantic relationship with Patrice Dumas (Laura Harrier), a college activist who thinks all cops are pigs -- and who wouldn't be happy to know that Ron was undercover to look at a black activist speaker she brought to the college.

BlacKkKlansman is an impressive film.  Spike Lee does a fine job of portraying the 1970s, from the celebration of black culture to the racism that's almost everywhere, from  the Klan's open activities to the institutional racism of the police.  Where the film may overreach is linking the racism of the past with Donald Trump now.  It's one thing to have Klansman talk about "making America great" and explaining how racist policies seem palatable if not mentioning race.  But the movie ends with numerous clips from today, making the point with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.  Despite that, this movie makes some important points and is definitely worth seeing.

Overall grade: A-
Reviewed by James Lynch

SORRY TO BOTHER YOU

Nothing can be as annoying as telemarketers -- or as lucrative.  Sorry to Bother You is a comedic satire of the search for the American Dream, racism, and consumerism.

Cassius "Cash" Green (Lakeith Stanfield) is struggling.  While he ponders what his life means, he's unemployed and living in his uncle's garage.  His chance for change comes when he gets a job as a telemarketer, pushing a lifestyle called Worryfree that seems to offer people contracts for food and shelter -- as well as controversy that they're being used as slave labor for large companies.

When elderly co-worker Langston (Danny Glover) recommends that Cash use a relaxed, confident white person's voice (provided by David Cross), Cash is a huge success and promoted to power caller -- where he's pushing even more morally dubious, lucrative proposals to big businesses.  Meanwhile Cash's girlfriend Detroit (Tessa Thompson), a performance artist and sign spinner, also works as a telemarketer.  And Squeeze (Steven Yeun) is trying to get the telemarketers to unionize.  Oh, and the big boss Steve Lift (Armie Hammer) has a truly bizarre plan to make money -- one that directly involves Cash.

Sorry to Bother You is a strange, funny, and thoughtful satire of modern life.  The question of selling out to make money is nothing new, but the movie takes that to bizarre lengths.  There's a not-so-subtle theme of racism through the movie, from Cash's success once he starts sounding white to when he's forced to rap for an party of all-white people.  Lakeith Stanfield is solid as the hapless success, and the rest of the cast delivers as well.  Sorry to Bother You isn't a classic, but it is original and thoughtful.

Overall grade: A-
Reviewed by James Lynch

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP

While some Marvel movies can be pretty intense, the last Ant-Man movie was a lighter caper film.  Ant-Man and the Wasp continues that tradition, as assorted characters race and battle to get hold of the same item.

Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is just a few days from finishing his house arrest, he's got a new security business going, and he's ready to stay out of trouble.  Unfortunately, his dreams about Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) lead Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly) to conclude that Janet is still alive in the quantum realm -- and they need Scott's help to bring her back to this world.  So they break Scott out of his home, covering for him and telling him it'll be taken care of quickly.

Of course, it's not nearly that simple.  Hank and Hope's plan revolves around their lab, which is in a building that can br shrunk to the size of carry-on luggage.  This is hunted by Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), a woman who can become intangible and needs the lab to cure herself by extracting the energy from Janet -- which could kill Janet.  The lab is also pursued by Sonny (Walter Goggins), a businessman who's promised to sell the lab to some disreputable people.  So soon Scott has become Ant-Man, Hope is the new Wasp, and they're shrinking and enlarging things while fighting the enemies and working together.

Ant-Man and the Wasp is fun.  The movie is more comedy than action, but the action sequences still work pretty well.  There's some nice romantic chemistry between Scott and Hope, and the Ghost is one of the more sympathetic villains of the Marvel universe.  This works well as summer escapism -- and fits in nicely with the Marvel universe.

Overall grade: B+
Reviewed by James Lynch

LOGAN LUCKY

Steven Soderbergh directed the classic modern heist movie with the remake of Ocean's Eleven, so it's oddly appropriate that years he'd direct a heist movie with a redneck spin.  Logan Lucky takes the planned heist to a different level, appropriate for its West Virginia-Charlotte, NC setting.

The Logan family has infamously bad luck, and that's certainly true for Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum).  He just got fired from a construction job for not revealing his limp.  His ex-wife Bobbie Jo (Katie Holmes) is considering moving out of West Virginia with their young daughter Sadie (Farrah Mackenzie).  And Sadie wants her dad to attend her performance at a child beauty pageant.  And it looks like Jimmy has no money.

What Jimmy does have is a plan.  At his last job he worked on fixing sinkholes at a North Carolina racetrack, he knows how the money is moved to the vault, and he puts together a crew to steal it.  There's Clyde Logan (Adam Driver), Jimmy's bartender brother who lost much of his left arm in the Gulf War.  There's Joe Bang (Daniel Craig), the explosives expert who's unfortunately incarcerated.  There are Joe's brothers Fish and Sam Bang (Jack Quaid, Brian Gleeson) who can provide computer support.  ("All the Twitters, I know 'em.")  And there's Mellie Logan (Riley Keough), Jimmy and Clyde's sister, who can provide speedy driving.  When the plan has to be moved up a week, the gang finds themselves working during a NASCAR race -- with far more security than normal.

Logan Lucky is both different and familiar at the same time.  The movie skips the usual Hollywood beauties and casual upper middle class wealth of most movies (and television shows, for that matter) for a look at a far more Southern lower-class lifestyle.  This is played for laughs sometimes, but there's also a bit of pride there: One of the most moving moments is a sing-along of Bob Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads."  Besides that, though, the heist itself is something we've seen numerous times before (including from Soderbergh), with perfect timing, incompetent authorities and security, and a good deal of suspension of disbelief.  The cast has fun, and the end result is enjoyable enough.

Overall grade: B-
Reviewed by James Lynch

TAG

What happens when grown men obsessively play a kid's game well into their adulthood?  This is the basis for Tag.  Based on a true story (as the film reminds us at its beginning and end), this movie is silly, goofy, and often funny.

Five friends have been playing the same game of tag since they were nine.  As adults, every May even though they live in separate cities the group can use disguises, surprise, and whatever they can think of to tag each other.  At the end of the month, the last person tagged has to live with the "shame" of being it until they play again.

 This year Hogan "Hoagie" Malloy (Ed Helms) tracks down and gets together with his friends Bob Callahan (John Hamm), Randy "Chilli" Cillaino (Jake Johnson) and Kevin Sable (Hannibal Burress) with a mission: They all team up to tag Jerry Pierce (Jeremy Renner), the friend who's never been tagged and is retiring from the game after this year.  Hoagie thinks they have an edge: knowing when Jerry is getting married and using that knowledge to tag him.  But Jerry is insanely focused on winning (his encounters with his friends are slow-motion strategic battles) and seems ready for whatever the others come at him with.

While the five friends have a "no girls allowed" amendment for their game, most of the supporting cast is female.  Susan Rollins (Leslie Bibb) is Jerry's fiancee who supports the game but declares the wedding and related events off-limits for tagging each other.  Anna Malloy (Isla Fisher) is Hoagie's wife who's ultra-intense in helping her husband win the game.  Rebecca Crosby (Annabelle Wallis) is a reporter whose business article about Bob quickly turns into an article about this game of tag.  And Cheryl Deakins (Rashida Jones) is the former crush of both Bob and Chill, brought in by Jerry to distract them.

Tag is fun, if pretty light.  The movie doesn't delve into how a kid's game is so important to grown-ups, apart from a few scenes showing how the game intersects with big moments in their lives.  The movie also gets more serious and sentimental near the end, with a slightly-telegraphed twist.  But the comedic action scenes are pretty funny, and the cast's enthusiasm carries into pretty consistently funny scenes.  Tag is goofy -- and it's amusing too.

Overall grade: B

Reviewed by James Lynch

INCREDIBLES 2

The original Incredibles is considered by many to be the best superhero movie ever made.  Fortunately Pixar had 14 years to work on the sequel, and Incredibles 2 manages to live up to the entertaining legacy of the original.

Set immediately after the original movie, Incredibles 2 finds the Parr family (the Incredibles)  family pretty low.  "Supers" are still illegal.  A battle with the villainous Underminer left the city with massive property damage, which the Incredibles are blamed for.  And the government agency which had helped the Parrs has been disbanded, leaving the family with two weeks in a motel before they face homelessness.

 Relief comes from the brother-sister duo of Winston and Evelyn Deavor (Bob Odenkirk and Catherine Keener).  He's great at sales and persuading people, she's great with technology, and together they have a giant, successful company -- and a plan to make Supers legal again.  They want to make Elastigirl/Helen Parr (Holly Hunter) the new face of superheroes, by recording and broadcasting her crime-fighting.  This leaves Mr. Incredible/Bob Parr (Craig T. Nelson) feeling left out of the action.  While Elastigirl is battling the mysterious villain Screenslaver, who hypnotizes people through TV screens and monitors, Bob is run ragged as a stay-at-home dad.  He has to deal with speedy Dash (Huck Milner) dealing with new math in school, daughter Violet (Sarah Powell) deal with a boy who she was supposed to date until he literally forgot she exists, and baby Jack-Jack manifesting all sorts of powers.

Incredibles 2 is another excellent movie from Pixar.  There's plenty of humor, from Jack-Jack's uncontrollable powers to director Brad Bird's return as fashion designer Edna Mode.  There are exciting action sequences, surprises with the plot, and several new supers who add to the action.  Incredibles 2 is smart, funny, and thoroughly entertaining.

Overall grade: A
Reviewed by James Lynch