MoVTie Critic

      The summer has brought much this year including some new films as well as teasers for upcoming films, but for this post since it has been a while, I decided to take a step back at one of the reasons I started this blog and one of those things was to feature movies you may have missed. This film you most likely didn't see, unless you watch films from Germany. This film is actually a third installment (Help, I Shrunk My Teacher and Help, I Shrunk My Parents) based off the works of Sabine Ludwig and directed by Granz Henman. A children's comedic piece filled with magic, friendship and emotional growth.     Felix Frontman (in German it's Felix Vorndran played by Oskar Keymer) in this English Dubbed version of the film, he is now fifteen and has come a long way since his first day at school four years earlier at Otto Leonhard's (Otto Waalkes) school. Yet things still things are changing for Felix, one in which his friend Ella (Lina Huesker) is wanting more than...

  They say evil isn't born, it's made. Well, what one's definition of evil is can have an entirely different meaning when you get to the root of it. Much like Disney gave us the privilege of seeing Maleficent's side of the story with Angelina Jolie's two films, we are given a chance to see story from another "Disney Villain" and how she made the scene...and making it awfully fabulous. Giving her story from her early days, Cruella (Emma Stone) tells of her life as Estella (portrayed mostly by Tipper Selfert-Cleveland ) and how from a young age she stood out from her hair, her sense of style and how she tried to embrace the world with the world not always embracing her.  Following a series of tragic events, Estella finds herself in orphaned and alone in London until she encounters young thieves Jasper and Horace (Ziggy Gardner and Joseph MacDonald) and begins her life of thievery.  As young adults, Estella, Jasper, (Joel Fry) and Horace (Paul Walter Hauser) ...

In the midst of hard times and acts of violence in the world, one wonders how anyone can trust one another. In a time where those we are close to we question our trust and seek it out connection in others that we offer our trust. This film displays them both when face with the choice of doing what's right and doing what's right by you. Fourteen year old Joey (Jack Dylan Grazer featured in "Shazam") and his older brother Matt (Fionn Whitehead) are examples of how life has hit them hard. Their father is dead and their mother Carol (Mena Suvari) has cancer leaving them lacking money and authority. When Matt convinces Joey to break in to a house for some easy cash, they think it will be in and out and nobody gets hurt until they're caught leaving the scene by a security guard who chases them into the woods and falls into an abandon well giving the brothers a chance to escape. Ridden with guilt and confusion, Joey investigates the well to find the guard Hamby (Rainn Wi...

  Much has come out of this pandemic. Most of it bad, but there have been some highlights like movies coming into our homes a lot sooner than expected. One in particular that fans of Eddie Murphy have been asking for years for is a sequel to his 1988 hit film "Coming to America" where he plays Prince Akeem Joffer from the fictional country Zamunda who goes to the city of Queens in the hopes of finding a wife to love instead of an arranged marriage. Now we get to go back to Zamunda where Akeem finds himself in an all new adventure over thirty years in the making. Now married for thirty years Prince Akeem and his loving wife Lisa (Shari Headley) live in the palace in Zamunda with their three daughters Meeka (Kiki Layne), Omma (Bella Murphy) and Tinashe (Akiley Love) who strive to be kind and fair leaders to the kingdom and deal with diplomacy with the neighboring kingdom Nexdoria and its General Izzi (Wesley Snipes). Yet when Akeem is summoned by his dying father King Jaffe (Ja...

  Like many films since the pandemic began, they've been pushed back since theaters were unsafe to venture to. Yet Wonder Woman has never been the type to keep being pushed without eventually pushing back and she managed to make her way finally into theaters and even early access on HBO Max. So without further to do, let's feature this film. As many recall the events from the first installment, Wonder Woman a.k.a. Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) came to our world from her hidden island home to help fight for humanity during WWI, now in this chapter over sixty-five years have passed and while Diana has maintained her status as the unknown savior that saves those where she can, the past that she had when first arriving is long since gone leaving her with a very solitary life outside of her work in the archeology department at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. where she now resides.  Though Diana will soon learn that even in more modern times that the past can find ways of being uneart...

  Hello Movie lovers. It's been a while for me doing a proper post. I've been experiencing some internet difficulty and was unable to address it until after my seasonal job had completed, but I'm officially have more frequent internet access again and a little more time on my hands to bring you up to speed on films making their way online and to Redbox so I hope to have more frequent post coming your way. In the meantime, I'd like to get you in the know and what's up and coming in the world of independent films and was just recently shared this exciting link to a film that is currently in festival mode now but will hopefully have showings within the coming months taking a look at the life of the state through the pandemic. "Community Through Crisis: A Vermont Story" takes you on a journey through how Covid 19 has impacted Vermont from small businesses like The Skinny Pancake as one example featured to the community that surrounds them as they find ways to ...

  Happy October to all you movie lovers. Its been a busy month with getting costumes planned, a seasonal job about to start and checking out new featured movies like this one that has become a favorite with my youngest. Yet let's see if Mystery Inc. can find the clues that will lead them to a good rating on this blog.  Linked up with the last featured films we find the gang back in Crystal Cove on Halloween in the middle of a case during the Halloween parade with the parade marshal being none other than Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (Cassandra Peterson). After an all out fright with explosions, flying candy and good teamwork on the part of the gang members Fred, Velma and Daphne (Frank Welker, Kate Micucci and Grey Griffin) with Shaggy and Scooby's (Matthew Lillard and Frank Welker) "contribution" they apprehend the villain who turns out to be The Scarecrow a.k.a. Dr. Johnathan Crane (Dwight Schultz) (yes, a Batman villain).  With the case wrapped up, the gang goes abo...

  Welcome once again to MoVTie Critic's "Movie Versus" where I take two films with similar themes, actors or plots and have them go head to head for the best rating of Green Mountain Stars. Today we have two films from the DC Universe that are not your typical Superman, Batman or even Wonder Woman films because they look towards the darker side with heroes or in one case an anti-hero like Constantine and Deathstroke being the primary characters and stories not so black and white with good defeating evil. So suit up, cause here we go. "Justice League Dark: Apokolips War" Leaving off from last film "Justice League Dark" with the Justice League making the fateful decision to take the fight to the dangerous planet Apokolips to face is tyrant ruler Darkseid (Tony Todd) and his ruthless army. With the entire group of heroes on board and the Teen Titans being the last line of Earth's defense, they charge straight into battle when the most unthinkable thin...

  Hello movie lovers out there. It's been a long time since I've done a post. Like so many people out there I've been going through my challenges because of the isolation and restrictions of Covid-19 mainly with my eldest son who has ASD and didn't care for being kept at home. Now that things are beginning to find a calm, I decided it was time to get back to one of the things I love and have missed, writing. Now without further to do, I'd like to get to one of the latest films released that has been the talk of many horror fans have been on edge to see, Antebellum. Opening up to what appears to be an oppressive cotton plantation set in the south in the time of the Civil war, Eden (Janelle Monae) has been captured after trying to escape from her captors where slaves are not allowed to speak without permission and is beaten by the general only known as "Him" (Eric Lange) while her fellow escapees a man known as Eli (Tongayi Chirisa) is beaten and his wife is...

People who live with Autism Spectrum Disorder or ASD has been on the rise in the last decade. It ranges from person to person from those who rarely speak to those who are super observant and could be classified as being a genius. One thing many share is the difficulty to be social with other people causing them anxiety and not being able to relate to others. Many find ways to deal with their difficulties, such as observation, yet one must be careful, otherwise they may see something someone might kill for. Bart Bromely (Tye Sheridan) is the night clerk for a hotel. Living with autism has made it a challenge to talk with other people, but his job allows him to be alone most nights which gives him time to do practice being in social situations with people. One method he's found to do this is to observe people from hidden cameras in their rooms watching from his laptop. Yet he gets more than he bargained for one night when after his shift one night he observes a woman being murd...

Hello movie lovers. Let me start off by saying that I hope you all are doing well out there and I apologize for my lack of reviews. I've had to take on the role of educator on top of my mom role for my two boys which has made it hard to find time to sit down and write anything these days. However, I've been able to catch up on some movie watching as I'm sure many of you have and have some great films to tell you about, so I'm hoping to hit with a few this weekend. So, let me hit the ground running faster than a speeding bullet with a Superman movie like you've never seen him. In this take on the Man of Steel, we find him in an alternate reality where his ship sent from Krypton has landed in the heart of Russia and becomes the symbol of the Soviet Union. Yet when Superman (Jason Isaacs) is informed of some classified information by American news reporter Lois Lane (Amy Acker) with the help of her well connected husband Lex Luthor (Diedrich Bader) he finds the d...

Hello all you movie lovers out there. I'm sure many of you are bummed and a little worried with the Corona virus going around and postponing movie premieres and avoiding the movie theaters a little frustrating with all the great films that are supposed to be coming out. Still we can enjoy a film at home and reflect how art can imitate life and vise versa. "Contagion" and "Outbreak" are prime examples to relate how things seem right now as well as this film I recently viewed that while it might stir up some fears will also remind you that we're lucky this virus has a high survival rate compared to what occurs in this film. Rose (Laura Vandervoort) is a timid woman with aspirations of being a fashion designer and having her work be the next thing on the runway, but she's treated by many as a joke including her boss Gunter (Mackenzie Gray). One evening, one of her biggest hopes finally happens when her office crush Brad (Benjamin Hollingsworth) the ph...

Navigating your teen years can feel like a battle in itself with the struggles of school, popularity and the social acceptance and expectations of those around you. Most of us make a few mistakes but manage to get out of it without a scrape, others seem to manage to bring about the end of the world in their mind, yet in this case it just might happen. Sara Steinburg (Mary Nepi) is a social seeking girl who wants nothing more to start the new school year off with a bang which includes finally losing her v-card to popular jock Skyler Cole (Austin Fryberger). It seems like Sara finally has her social standing until the next morning she wakes up to find herself nine months pregnant. Unable to tell her new friends like mean-spirited Kiana (Ashley Argota), Skyler or even her mom Kate (J.J. Nolan), she seeks help from her former friend Hayley Chamberlain (Gabrielle Elyse) who agrees to take her to a clinic. In the midst of seeking answers, Sara delivers an alien creature with the powe...

We hear so much going on with the ocean between the amount of plastic building up to the animals that are affected from mistakenly consuming our garbage believing it to be edible that we don't always get to see these animals at their best and what they're capable of. Yet thanks to those who are dedicated to changing that and films that remind us how important they are, we are educated along with being entertained. Bernie is back in a new full-length feature film and so are his human friends Kevin and Holly Ryan (Logan Allen and Lola Sultan) who are now junior volunteers of the marine wildlife rescue that helped Bernie in the last film and are still featuring him and his pod on their webpage. Yet just as Bernie's pod is coming back to the area, another familiar face has returned, Winston Mills (Kevin Sorbo). Out on parole, Winston and the kids along with their father Bob Ryan (Patrick Muldoon) find themselves being forced to work together when Winston is assigned to ...

Welcome again movie lovers and welcome to anyone who's reading the blog for the first time. For those who do peak at my page from time to time, I apologize for the gaps in post. We lost my Nain (Welsh for Grandmother) very recently and it has taken some time to work out time to sit down and do any writing of any kind for me. She always looked forward to reading my articles that I did for the magazine "Our State Vermont" and let me know she was proud of my writing and I will miss being able to share my newest pieces with her. Yet one thing I've taken away from this is that I carry her trait of staying strong for family and carrying on, so without further to do here we go. In the days of the 19th-century New England when the lighthouse keeper was responsible for the lives of sailors out at sea to avoid hitting rocks and expected to serve their tour for weeks in isolation, two men Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe) and the newest recruit Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson) ...

Such a thing as taking a picture seems like a harmless thing, yet not everyone feels that way. Some cultures believe taking a photo of someone can steal a piece of their soul while others think it preserves a moment in time to be looked back on and remembered. Yet when it becomes the object of supernatural forces to lash out on the living, a picture can be worth more than a thousand words, it can be worth your life. Bird Fitcher (Kathryn Prescott) is a quiet high schooler with a passion for photography and when she is fortunate to be given an old rare polaroid camera from the '70's by Tyler (Davi Santos), her friend and co-worker at the antique shop she works at she is more than eager to try it out on people like Tyler and at a costume party hosted by her friend Avery (Katie Stevens) and her friends Kasey (Samantha Logan) Devin (Keenan Tracey) Mina (Priscilla Quintana) and her crush Connor (Tyler Young). Yet when she learns Tyler and Avery died in what looked like tragi...

Welcome and a Happy New Year to all of you. I realized its been an eternity since my last post. Holiday work and celebrations will do that, but I am back and hoping to kickstart this new year with new post and for those on my Facebook page new shares of fun film facts, trailers and anything film related. In the meantime, let's start off with one of the films I've had the chance to view that will get Wonder Woman fans excited about the upcoming live action film due to come out later this year with the latest chapter to the DC Universe, "Wonder Woman: Bloodlines" In this edition, we're taken back to Wonder Woman's aka Diana (Rosario Dawson) early days and how she lived on a hidden island of Amazon warriors called Themyscira where American piolet Steve Trevor (Jeffery Donovan) crash lands there leading Diana to leave her home and venture to the outside world to be its warrior for justice. Flashing forward to years later, Diana has made friends in that of...

Well things are getting pretty cold outside, so how about getting warm and cozy with a bag of popcorn with a bubbly beverage and take in one of the most anticipated titles of the year on the big screen, the much awaited Disney sequel "Frozen 2". Picking up a few years after the events of the first movie, Elsa (Idina Menzel) has come into her own as Queen of Arendelle and controlling her magical ice powers along with rebuilding the loving relationship with her little sister Anna (Kristen Bell) and enjoying the family they created with Kristoff (Johnathan Groff), Sven the reindeer and the lovable living snowman Olaf (Josh Gad). Yet when a strange siren-like voice that only Elsa can hear calls to her beckoning her to come which causes her to unwittingly awaken the magical spirits of the forest. Spirits that were thought to be nothing more than from a story that their parents use to tell them as children in a forest that is cut off from Arendelle by a magical mist. Finding...

One thing people can't seem to get enough of around the holidays is a Christmas movie. One with lots of holiday cheer, life lessons, a good romance and perhaps a little music. This next installment to the Cinderella Story franchise has it all along with two former Disney Channel stars and dresses even Cinderella would want to wear to the ball. Kat Decker (Laura Marano) has dreams of songwriting and performing her pieces for the world to hear, but her dreams keep getting put down by three things, her stepsisters Joy and Grace (Lillian Doucet-Roche and Chanelle Peloso) and her wicked stepmother Deidre (Johannah Newmarch) who love nothing more than to humiliate Kat in front of the rich kids like Dominic Wintergarden (Gregg Sulkin), treat her like their servant and live off the inheritance that Kat's late father left behind that Deidre has control over until Kat is eighteen. Until then, Kat works a Christmas lot as a singing and dancing elf with her best friend Isla (Isab...

As promised, post number two for All Hallow's Eve for all you vamps and werewolves out there. For our next film to be reviewed, we take another look at an unsettling haunting, one that was inspired by the true event of The Butterbox Babies, "The Child Remains". Rae and Liam (Suzanne Clement and Allan Hawco) have traveled out to a quite B&B in the middle of nowhere to give Rae and Liam a quite weekend together before becoming parents. Arriving at the quaint place run by Monica (Shelley Thompson), they find it has the peace and quiet they're looking for, but beneath the surface, they learn that this place was once a home for unwed mothers. Interested in the history, Rae starts to dig into the property's past but as she starts to unearth the facts, she begins seeing a young pregnant woman that disappears as quickly as she appears leading Rae to discover the dark secrets hidden on the property, some that may put them in danger of history repeating itself. D...