Beauty and the Beast

CHASE *1/2
The original "Beauty and the Beast" from 1991 is widely considered as a classic.  It's one of my favorite Disney movies ever and it's nearly perfect in every way.  The remake, on the other hand, is nowhere near as good as the original.  Not even close.  But to start with the positives, I thought some of the actors, specifically Kevin Cline and Ewan McGregor as Maurice and Lumiere respectively, were really good in their roles.  They also maintained most of the great musical numbers from the original.  However, that's also part of the problem.  Because they borrowed so heavily from the previous film, I was constantly reminded of the original, and how it did the same scenes a whole lot better.  The majority of the movie felt aggressively average and there's barely anything that I found engaging.  There are some extra scenes they threw in, but I felt like they didn't really go anywhere and ultimately felt like padding.  I thought Emma Watson as Belle was just okay at best and the Beast felt very underwhelming as a character, making their relationship almost non-existent.  I never got the feeling that the filmmakers truly got what made the original so special.  Overall, "Beauty and the Beast" is a pale imitation of the original and only made me love the animated classic even more.

LANDON *1/2

LOGAN **

BANGERANG SCORE: *1/2

Before I Fall

LANDON **1/2
Lately these YA sci-fi flicks are treading the same dreadful tropes, consisting of ridiculous romances, a boring plot, and sappy dialogue.  And while "Before I Fall" isn't necessarily a good film, it is certainly better than the likes of the boring "The 5th Wave" or the awful "Divergent."  It surprised me.  Granted, the script comes off pretty lackluster.  When it hits, it nails some of the emotional elements really well.  When it misses, it becomes corny and overfilled.  It also doesn't help that most of the other actors cash in incredibly mediocre performances, making most of these other characters obnoxious or really boring.  Despite these flaws though, I was very impressed with the acting chops of lead actress Zoey Deutch.  She is a huge reason why this film doesn't dissolve into total mediocrity.  It also helps that the moral of the film is pretty resonant, especially with younger audiences, and that the ending is refreshingly bold and ambitious.  At the end of the day, "Before I Fall" is a decent YA film that soars above most others, which, again, is not saying a whole lot really, but it'll do.

Kong: Skull Island

BRYCE *1/2
Yet another shared cinematic universe is in the works as "Kong: Skull Island" hits theaters as a follow-up to 2014's "Godzilla."  That film had amazing special effects bogged down by boring characters.  This film has amazing special effects completely obliterated by horrible characters.  It honestly felt like a big budget Syfy Channel movie.  The story is non-sensical, the dialogue is cringe-worthy and it's all punctuated by a depressing sense of nihilism.  As a fan of the title character and the monster movie genre (the original 1933 film is one of my favorites and I liked a lot about Peter Jackson's version), I appreciated the scale of some of the action and a few scenes with really striking imagery.  Unfortunately it was ultimately lost in the mess of the narrative.  Head on over to YouTube and check out the trailer for some of the visual and stylistic highlights.  It's infinitely more entertaining than the actual movie.

The Lego Batman Movie

LANDON **1/2
With the wild success of the original and aptly named "The Lego Movie," Phil Lord and Christopher Miller figured it a good idea to expand into a film franchise, starting, of course, with the caped crusader himself receiving his very own Lego movie.  "The Lego Batman Movie" offers exactly what you would expect from a Lego movie: crazy situations and sequences that could only exist in a Lego universe.  This thing is filled to the brim with all kinds of characters and villains.  It retains that same chaos and style as seen from the original Lego movie, although everything is surprisingly toned down.  The first film was incredibly fast-paced and overly-chaotic.  This film seems to take things a bit slower, and the destructive moments are few and far in between.  This isn't necessarily a great thing.  It honestly gets a little uninteresting at times, especially when attempting to throw in an emotional arc that feels like its only purpose is for the movie to simply have one in the first place.  It doesn't feel quite right.  And while it is pretty funny at times, none of the jokes seem to land nearly as well or are nearly as funny as the jokes found in "The Lego Movie."  I don't mean to sell the film too short.  It's still plenty entertaining with its eye candy design, style, and animation.  I was never bored sitting through this one, which is a feat in and of itself.  In short, if you like the critically acclaimed original Lego movie, you're sure to like this one.  But just be warned, it's not as good.