While perusing my website’s ever-growing archive of movie reviews (you can find it HERE), I eventually came to the Star Wars films. It was there that I made an alarming discovery. Out of all the Star Wars movies I’ve written about, there were only two I haven’t reviewed, “The Empire Strikes Back” and “The Return of the Jedi”. I won’t rehash my deep adoration for the franchise, but this was particularly jarring, especially since these are my two favorite Star Wars movies. So it’s time to plug those two gaping holes starting with “Empire”

“The Empire Strikes Back” is an important movie to me for a number of reasons. Not only do I think it’s the very best Star Wars film. I also think it’s one of the best sequels ever made. And on a more personal level, it’s the movie that really opened up cinema for me in an entirely new way. I remember leaving the theater as a kid in awe. Not just at the incredible world George Lucas had expanded on or the swagger and swashbuckling of my favorite character, Han Solo (Harrison Ford). But it was the storytelling which left the youngster me utterly amazed and wondering what was coming next.

“Empire” released here in the States on May 21, 1980 and was a box office smash. It opened to fairly mixed reviews, but over time and following countless reappraisals, the film is rightly heralded as a great Star Wars movie and one of the greatest movies ever made. Directed by Irvin Kershner and co-written by Lawrence Kasdan and Leigh Brackett, “Empire” mixes an immersive story with great characters and dazzling world-building. And it all emanates from the creative mind of George Lucas.

While 1977’s “Star Wars” ended on a high note for the fledgling rebellion, the fitting title of “Empire” hints at the sequel’s darker tone. We see little in terms of victories for the rebels beginning with the film’s epic opening as Darth Vader (David Prowse/voiced by James Earl Jones) and his imperial troops lay siege to the hidden rebel base on the snow planet of Hoth. It’s quite the opening; one that does a great job reintroducing the major characters and raising the stakes which only get higher as the story progresses.

After being forced to evacuate on the Millennium Falcon, Han, Leia (Carrie Fisher), the loyal furball Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), and protocol droid C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) find themselves pursued through space by Vader and his fleet of Star Destroyers. Meanwhile Luke (Mark Hamill) and the spirited astromech droid R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) are on their way to a remote swamp planet called Dagobah following a vision from Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness). Luke’s old mentor (slain by Vader in the previous film) tells him to seek a Jedi Master named Yoda (puppeteer Frank Oz) who will complete his Force training.

Of course the movie finds a way to bring all of our heroes back together, this time in Cloud City where we’re introduced to fan favorite Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams), the administrator of the floating mining colony. From there the movie gives Star Wars fans everything they could possibly want. There’s a daring escape, an epic showdown, a franchise-driving revelation, and an amazing cliffhanger that would set the table for the trilogy’s finale that would come three years later.

“The Empire Strikes Back” is a landmark movie for a number of reasons. Not simply because it’s a spectacular sequel with a great forward-moving story and cutting-edge special effects. But it also injected so much into pop culture, much of which still flourishes today. “Empire” launched Star Wars to heights that neither George Lucas or the world could have expected. And for many kids in the early 80s (like me), “Empire” etched Star Wars so deeply into from our childhoods that it left a permanent mark. And my love the franchise hasn’t waned a bit since.

VERDICT – 5 STARS

The enthusiasm for A24’s latest “Everything Everywhere All at Once” has been deafening, with early reactions ranging from high praise to full-blown hyperbole. Admittedly, that has made keeping my own personal expectations in check a little difficult. On one hand A24 is a distributor with a tremendous track record when it comes to releasing bold original independent movies. On the other hand, first-takes can be a hard thing to gauge, and they can sometimes resemble trendy groupthink rather than original reactions.

After some initial worry, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” has finally made its way to our market. And while I appreciate much of what it’s going for, the movie ended up being a tough sit. Without question, the film is an ambitious undertaking for the co-writing and co-directing duo of Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (who collectively refer to themselves as “Daniels”). Unfortunately their ambition often gives way to overindulgence making this overlong and overstuffed genre stew a well-meaning but exhausting experience.

The film’s biggest plus is easily Michelle Yeoh. She’s long been a terrific actress and here she fully commits 110%. She truly is the movie’s anchor and her role demands a ton emotionally, physically, and even comedically. It’s pretty amazing watching Yeoh tie all of those threads together especially considering how erratic the movie can get at times. Blunt stylistic choices and some particularly wild attempts at humor make things needlessly messy, yet Yeoh never misses a beat.

Yeoh’s character Evelyn is the story’s centerpiece. When she was young, Evelyn ran off and married Waymond (Key Huy Quan) much to the chagrin of her disapproving parents. These days the couple own and run a neighborhood laundromat and live in small apartment right above it. The movie begins with Evelyn chugging through her hectic yet mundane existence. “Laundry and taxes” is her life in a nutshell as she and Waymond struggle to keep their laundromat afloat while preparing for an audit by the IRS.

Meanwhile Evelyn’s elderly father (James Hong) is set to pay a visit and her rebellious daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) wants to introduce him to her girlfriend Becky (Tallie Medel). But knowing what her old-fashioned father’s reaction will be, Evelyn hides it, souring her relationship with her daughter even more. This forms one of the movie’s central themes – a mother reconnecting with her daughter after bucking her ‘old ways’ of thinking. It’s all pretty on-the-nose and it’s not hard to figure out how things are going to play out. The only real suspense is in how chaotic things will get in between.

The craziness kicks in when Evelyn is contacted by a Waymond from another universe. Call him Alpha Waymond and through a string of long never-ending exposition drops he explains to Evelyn (and us) the rules of this movie’s world. Over time Alpha Waymond rattles on about “infinite multiverses”, “bringing balance”, and even a line about Evelyn being “the One” (all obvious nods to “Star Wars”, “The Matrix”, and the MCU). I understand laying the groundwork, but to be honest I quickly grew tired of the details. And the more they went on about how it all worked the more my mind wandered.

But that only scratches the surface. As it turns out, there are enough ideas and interests stuffed into this thing to fill at least three seasons of a television series. Yet it’s all crammed into this one movie which sees the Daniels frantically shoehorning in every possible idea that must have come to their collective minds. Operating under the notion that ‘more is not enough’, the filmmakers move from exposition-heavy to furiously bouncing across nearly every genre. That sounds cool, but too often the chaos overshadows the human element. In fact, at times the movie seems far more interested in its own boldness and peculiarity. That leaves it scrambling at the end to bring things back to an emotional level.

As Evelyn learns the technique of ‘verse-jumping’, she’s able to tap into the memories (and skills) of her parallel selves. This is where we’re introduced to a universe where everyone has hotdogs for fingers, a chef with a raccoon on his head, and there’s a verse-hopping bagel cult (yep, you read that right) ran by Alpha Joy, aka Jobu Tupaki. There’s actually meant to be a poignant mother/daughter element to the bagel cult. But as with so much in this movie, it’s overshadowed by the brazen showiness and all-out absurdity of nearly everything else.

What’s most frustrating about “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is that it has the pieces for something special. Tops on that list is the cast. Yeoh is sensational and it was great seeing Key Huy Quan handed a meaty role. We even get a bobbed Jamie Lee Curtis playing part IRS inspector/part bagel cult assassin (she’s terrific). And the story has good things to say about finding oneself, the messiness of life, and pondering the question of “What if?”. But whether it’s the draining exposition of the first half or the smothering non-stop ridiculousness of the second half, the film never finds a good balance. It ends up as something that could’ve possibly flourished as a streaming series rather than being the well-meaning but tiresome 140 minutes it becomes. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is now showing in theaters.

VERDICT – 2 STARS

One of the last (and as it turns out most well received) movies I saw at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was Carey Williams’ “Emergency”, a feature film adaptation of a short film that Williams debuted at Sundance back in 2018. The movie introduces itself as a college buddy comedy, but it slowly takes a different form over the course of its lively 105 minutes.

Written by KD Dávila, the story revolves around two best friends with opposing world views who have their friendship challenged over the course of one long and wild night. While comedy plays a significant role, the movie soon reveals its deeper thematic interests, namely the bond of true friendship and what it means to be a young black man in America. The only problem is once you have a good sense of its message, it’s pretty easy to see where things are heading.

Kunle (Donald Elise Watkins) and Sean (RJ Cyler) are two best buddies and roommates at Buchanan University. While the two have a lot in common, they come from very different places. The buttoned-up and bookish Kunle is an aspiring doctor who comes from a wealthy suburban family. The more cynical and hardened Sean (RJ Cyler) comes from a much tougher background. Kunle has already been accepted into Princeton, but he needs to ace his thesis to seal the deal. Sean spends more time vaping and scouting out the local party scene than nailing down his goals for the future.

The two pals have a big plans for the evening – hitting seven legendary campus parties in one night. When they go to their apartment to prep for the “pre-game”, they discover an unconscious white girl (Maddie Nichols) laying in their living room floor. Kunle’s instincts are to immediately call 911. The more pessimistic Sean’s first thought is that once the police see two two young black man and an unconscious white girl, they’ll be arrested or maybe even gunned down.

Attempting to be the voice of reason, a nervous Kunle demands they at least take the girl to the hospital. Stoned and reeking of weed, Sean suggests dumping her on a nearby sorority house’s lawn. These are the kinds of wildly opposing ideas the two throw out for most of the film. With the help of their skittish Latino roommate Carlos (Sebastian Chacon), the trio load the girl into their car. But what follows is a madcap series of good intentions but horrible decisions.

To add another wrinkle, at a nearby party a brash and egotistical co-ed named Maddie (Sabrina Carpenter) realizes her sister Emma is missing. You guessed it – Emma is the girl passed out on Kunle and Sean’s living room floor. So she, her incredibly tolerant best friend Alice (Madison Thompson), and Alice’s hunky crush (Diego Abraham) set out to find Emma.

It all moves towards a comically combustible yet poignant finish – one that’s (unfortunately) predictable yet still manages to be powerful. One reason the finish packs such a punch is because of the performances from the terrific young cast. Watkins and Cyler are especially good, possessing a snappy chemistry that enables us to buy into every facet of Kunle and Sean’s friendship (despite getting painfully little in terms of their backstory). And when the ending does come, the two actors give us something that’s both emotionally rich and palpable.

Another of the film’s strengths is found in Williams’ willingness to scrutinize both young men’s perspectives. From Sean’s cynicism to Kumle’s naïveté, both are earnest and very much shaped by their own life experiences. But as the story plays out, we see the strong points and flaws in both worldviews. As a result, it presents a more honest examination, one that takes on its serious real-world subject matter with an open-eyed sincerity.

“Emergency” has a lot going for it and it’ll be interesting to see how big of an audience it attracts (it has already been picked up by Amazon Studios). It doesn’t fully avoid the occasional on-the-nose preachiness and unfortunately it does tip its hand well before we get to the film’s big finish. But Williams mostly stays on course and skillfully maintains his balance between buddy comedy silliness and insightful commentary. He also puts together some scenes that will stick with you, none better than a late conversation between Kunle and Sean that is a masterclass in dramatic writing. It’s also a showcase for these two fine young actors who we should a lot more of in the years to come.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS

First time feature director Abi Damaris Corbin tells the heartbreaking real-life story of Lance Corporal Brian Brown-Easley in her new film “892” which just had its premiere at Sundance 2022. Jonathan Majors was originally slated to star but had to leave due to his obligations to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Enter Jon Boyega (“Star Wars”, “Small Axe”) who plays the former Marine and war veteran who loses all hope after his disability check fails to come through from Veterans Affairs. Faced with the possibility of homelessness, Brian makes a desperate decision with tragic consequences.

Corbin also co-wrote the script alongside Kwame Kwei-Armah. In addition to Boyega, the film features the final performance from the late Michael K Williams. It also stars Nicole Beharie, Connie Britton, Jeffrey Donovan, and Olivia Washington. All do a good job filling out this character-driven thriller which drags a bit in the middle, but never loses sight of the important issue its tackling.

Full disclosure: I’ve always been a bit on the fence when it comes to Jon Boyega. It’s not that I think he’s a bad actor. I’ve just had a hard time connecting with his performances. Well, call me a Boyega convert. Everything about his performance in “892” clicks. Every line he delivers comes with conviction. Every emotion he gives us feels true. It’s a heavy role and the 29-year-old Brit pours every bit of himself into it.

Set in Atlanta, “892” wastes no time getting things underway. When we first meet Brian, he is already in a bad place. We learn via flashbacks that he was working two jobs to make ends meet, but due to his health he was forced onto veteran’s disability. But after Veteran’s Affairs find what they deem to be an outstanding debt, they use Brian’s benefits to cover the past-due amount. He insists it’s a mistake and pleads with the VA rep to help him. But instead of getting his $892.00 disability check, Brian is handed a pamphlet on homelessness.

Reasonably frustrated and seemingly out of options, Brian decides to do something drastic; something that will send a strong message to the VA and expose their poor treatment of its vets. After calling his precious young daughter Kiah (London Covington) and his ex-wife, Cassandra (Olivia Washington), Brian walks to Wells Fargo Bank. Once inside, he slides a handwritten note to a teller named Rosa (Selenis Leyva) that reads “I have a bomb.” The only words the paralyzed Rosa can utter is “What do you want me to do?” Brian’s response is unexpected, “Trigger the alarm.”

As the rest of the movie unfolds, Corbin treats her audience to a suspenseful thriller but also a relevant and deeply affecting drama. She takes her time unpacking her main character, showing Brian Brown-Easley to be a kindly yet troubled soul. There are scenes showing his bouts with PTSD following two tours in Iraq. But we also get plenty of revealing moments of gentleness and compassion (there’s a great scene where he takes a message from a bank customer calling about their 401(k)). Corbin’s keen attention to the emotional details earns our empathy and makes the journey we take all the more heartbreaking.

In addition to Boyega, the rest of the cast is strong top to bottom. Nicole Beharie is terrific as the able and resourceful bank manager Estel, one of Brian’s two hostages. Michael K Williams is also good playing a police officer doing everything in his power to get Brian out alive. And Connie Britton gets some good scenes playing a television reporter caught between the big scoop and journalistic ethics.

“892” shines a much-needed spotlight on the VA’s failures in its treatment of America’s military veterans. Corbin doesn’t sugarcoat the issue, but she never gets heavy-handed with it either. She maintains a good and steady balance with it and the handful of other social issues she brings to light. The film loses some of its steam in the middle as the police are slowly building their presence outside of the bank and Brian waits to some kind of response from the outside. But it still packs an emotional gut-punch, and Abi Damaris Corbin proves herself to be a filmmaker to watch.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS

I remember it like was yesterday. Waking up on Christmas morning in 1987, glassy eyes and my hair looking like I had just excited a wind tunnel. I hadn’t slept much that night. I never did on Christmas Eve, even during my teen years. Call it a side effect of being a big ol’ kid during the holiday season. But that year was special. It was the year when our parents completely surprised my brother and me with a Nintendo Entertainment System. It’s something we weren’t expecting as we walked into our living room on that chilly December morning.

Our Nintendo was quite the treat and I couldn’t begin to tell you the number of hours we logged on that console. Those with fond memories of the NES automatically have a nostalgic connection to the new Christmas comedy “8-Bit Christmas”. It comes from director Michael Drowse and screenwriter Kevin Jakubowski and chronicles a young boy and his friends as they try to secure a coveted Nintendo Entertainment System for Christmas.

Based on Jakubowski’s novel of the same name, much of the movie plays like a knockoff of the perennial Yuletide classic “A Christmas Story”. Instead of Ralphie pursuing a Red Rider BB Gun, it’s an 11-year-old named Jake (Winslow Fegley) after an NES. It has the same style of narration. There’s the neurotic yet caring father. It even has its own Scut Farkus (played here with a nice mix of menace and humor by Cyrus Arnold).

But the more you watch, the more you begin to notice that “8-Bit Christmas” has a few of its own unique markings that set it apart from its better and more memorable inspiration. It’s hard to recognize them at first, as it’s so blatantly pulling from “A Christmas Story”. But as it goes, it begins to develop its own identity. It delivers some well-landed lighthearted laughs and ends on a warm and touching note that frankly I wasn’t at all expecting.

Jake’s quest to get his own Nintendo is framed as a story told by his older self to his young daughter. Adult Jake (Neil Patrick Harris) is hearing it from his flustered daughter Annie (Sophia Reid-Gantzert) after telling her she’s too young to get a cellphone for Christmas. He begins telling her the story of certain Christmas in the late 80s when the Nintendo Entertainment System was what (almost) every kid wanted. Annie sours at the thought of listening to her dad blab, but over time gets sucked into the story.

We’re then transport back to 1987, the time of the Trapper Keeper, Lite Brite, leg warmers and Swatches. Jake lives outside of Chicago with his scatterbrained wannabe carpenter dad John (Steve Zahn), his coupon-clipping mom Kathy (June Diane Raphael), and his snarky little sister Lizzy (Bellaluna Resnick). All Jake wants for Christmas is a Nintendo, but as you would expect he runs into all sorts of obstacles.

Jake’s parents aren’t interested in getting him an NES and their reasoning is strangely murky. It’s made even weirder by the fact that the Nintendo seems easily available in stores. His folks just aren’t into it, I guess. Later they’re given a little motivation when an advocacy group rises up protesting the violence in video games. So Jake and his eclectic group of friends must hatch their own plan if they’re ever to get a Nintendo for themselves.

“8-Bit Christmas” has its rocky patches and the storytelling can be pretty uneven. And at times it seems handcuffed by holiday movie expectations. But you kinda look over those baked-in tropes that are in nearly every movie like this. Instead, it’s the funny bits that end up standing out. It’s the wackier side characters like psycho rich kid Timmy (Chandler Dean) or Farmer (Max Malas), Jake’s friend and well documented pathological liar. And then there’s the film’s heart which really comes out at the end. Sure, it’s a little sentimental, but who cares. I responded to it which is all I could ask. “8-Bit Christmas” is now streaming on HBO Max.

VERDICT – 3 STARS

You can count me among the many Chloé Zhao fans out there. The Beijing-born filmmaker has had a short yet prominent career, making a name for herself in the thriving world of independent cinema. Her renown grew even more last year when her film “Nomadland” dominated awards season, taking home Academy Awards for both Best Picture and Best Director. Needless to say, a lot of people became well acquainted with her name.

You can also count me among the many who were surprised by the announcement that Zhao would be co-writing and directing the next $200 million installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In one sense it was interesting to see how Zhao’s distinct artistic sensibilities would fit with a mammoth MCU blockbuster. On the other hand, it felt so at odds with what she has become known for.

While Zhao unquestionably puts in the effort and gives it her all, “Eternals” is a surprising inert and at times downright dull superhero movie that doesn’t really utilize her strengths. Yes, you can see it working hard to be a departure from the staling Marvel movie norm. Yes, you can see its attempts at humanizing its characters in more intricate ways than past MCU films. But Marvel already has a pretty good track record for digging into the humanity of their heroes. Sadly Zhao and Marvel Studios guru Kevin Feige’s efforts to be something new never goes beyond the optics.

The screenplay comes from the writing team of Zhao, Patrick Burleigh, Kaz Firpo, and Ryan Firpo. Their story spans 7000 years, sloppily hopping back-and-forth across their timeline, resulting in an overly long and overstuffed 157-minute running time. To cover all its ground, the story ends up drowning us in exposition, skimming over things that might have been interesting if given enough time. Instead, stuff like Celestial Seeds, the Emergence, a World Forge, etc. means nothing, and goes in one ear and out the other.

One key problem with “Eternals” is that it is overloaded with characters, and Zhao tries to give each of them some semblance of a backstory. Inevitably all end up feeling shortchanged to various degrees. A few get more attention which helps in terms of depth. Others have their lives crammed into small segments. It’s obvious Zhao is interested in her characters, but too much of their stories are left on the side. Mainly because the film also needs to build its superhero mythology which too often consists of large and often tedious information dumps.

Storywise, the Eternals are a group of ten good-looking cosmic beings who were sent to Earth eons ago by Arishem the Judge to defend the planet against a ravenous species known as Deviants. Their centuries long war ends in 1500 when the last of the Deviants are finally killed. The Eternals then go their separate ways, with each immortal settling and assimilating into different locations around Earth, waiting for Arishem to summon them home. 500 years pass and each Eternal has carved out a life for themselves (more or less). But when a particularly nasty new Deviant suddenly appears in London, it’s clear that it’s time to get the team back together.

Marvel Studios brings in a lot of star power to portray the Eternals and much like the characters themselves, some are much more convincing than others. At the top is Gemma Chan who plays Sersi, an eternal with the weird ability to manipulate matter. Sersi is easily the most complete character and Chan gives a terrific performance full of warmth and compassion. Richard Madden plays Ikaris, a poor man’s Superman and one-time love interest of Sersi. Angelina Jolie plays Thena, a powerful Wonder Woman like warrior who wields weapons made of cosmic energy. She’s haunted by past memories that threaten her and the team. Druig (Barry Keoghan) can control minds and Makkari (Lauren Ridloff ) is the Eternals version of The Flash. Both are two of the movies most intriguing characters but both (especially Makkari) get back-burned.

On the downside you have Salma Hayek who plays the team leader Ajak. I love Hayek and there’s nothing wrong with her performance. But she feels woefully out of place in most of the scenes she’s in. The same can be said for Brian Tyree Henry who plays Phastos, a cosmic inventor (for lack of a better description). His story is the most jammed together and almost feels plucked from another movie. And like Hayek he’s not always convincing, especially on the battlefield. Kumail Nanjiani is Kingo, who shoots balls of energy from his fingers and provides tacked on comic relief. But he inexplicably vanishes during the final act. Then you get Don Lee as Gilgamesh (super strength) and Lia McHugh as Sprite (projects illusions) – both are nice presences but both feel like tag-along characters.

As the movie predictably brings the former teammates back together, it tries to tell their individual human stories while also building up its cosmic storyline. Surprisingly that leaves little room for superhero action. We do get a couple of set pieces that look fine and checks most of the boxes, but there’s little there that we haven’t seen done better elsewhere. Even the big CGI blowout finale is missing the energy and style of the better Marvel films. Even worse, it has no stakes. Yes, the world is in danger once again. But frankly, I really didn’t care.

As I sat through “Eternals” I couldn’t help but think of how it would have fared better as a Disney+ streaming series. There’s very little here that screams big screen movie and giving the characters and their stories more room to develop would have helped tremendously. Instead we get a rare MCU misfire – a flat and flavorless superhero film full of bold ambitions. But in its efforts to realize those ambitions it cuts too many corners and forgets a key ingredient in all of these superhero movies – fun.

Yet all that, at least we have the post credits scenes, right? Don’t worry, no spoilers here. I’ll just say even they fall short. I would laugh off the shockingly bad mid-credits scene as a stunt if it wasn’t actually happening. And the end-credits scene (which is actually pretty exciting), is so poorly put together that many will immediately pull out the phones and go online just to understand what happened. But what can I say? It almost feels like fitting end for a movie that aims at something new, but completely misses its target. “Eternals” is now playing in theaters.

VERDICT – 2 STARS