Grow Omaha Flicks

★ ★ ★ ½ Toy Story 5 (did I really just write that?) is the film audiences may not have asked for, and may have questioned at its announcement, but turns out to be a nice surprise. The first three films formed a near-perfect trilogy about toys trying to stay relevant while Andy, their owner, eventually grows up and moves out. The series might seem like it’s about a bunch of toys trying to stay relevant when the new shiny thing arrives in the toy box. To me, it’s about parenthood, raising a good human and…

★ ½ Disclosure Day is the latest sci-fi adventure by director Steven Spielberg, who helped define a generation of alien movies with Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Both Close Encounters and E.T. succeeded in opening the door to adults and kids alike to explore the possibility of other intelligent life within our universe. Close Encounters was a masterfully crafted, tension-filled adventure, while E.T. was a deeply emotional, sentimental film about a boy and his alien…

★ ★ ★ The Furious is a simple story told through an insanely entertaining extravaganza of martial arts, blood and broken bones. It’s a juggernaut of action, and once it gets going, it only speeds up on a violent collision course toward an epic fight-scene finale. It’s so well choreographed that it delivers some of the best kung fu fights in recent cinematic history. By the end of the film, I realized how out of shape I am, found myself a bit out of breath…

★ ★ ★ ½ Masters of the Universe is a surprisingly entertaining film despite—and sometimes because of—the fact that it’s dumb and goofy. The film has some making up to do after 1987’s abysmal cinematic attempt to resurrect the franchise, which starred Dolph Lundgren as Adam, better known as He-Man when he transforms into a powerful hero. Here, Adam and He-Man are played by Nicholas Galitzine, who seems to understand the assignment…

★ ★ ★ ★ Power Ballad stars Paul Rudd as Rick Power, a husband and father living out his musical dreams as the lead singer in a wedding band. He once had a record deal with his rock band before he went on tour to Ireland, met the love of his life, married Rachel (Marcella Plunkett), had a daughter named Aja (Beth Fallon) and took a year off to focus on family. When he returned to Los Angeles a year later, the label had dropped him. Now, years later in Ireland, he makes a living playing weddings with a band…

★ ★ ★ ½ Backrooms is the long-awaited film from YouTube creator Kane Parsons, who created a worldwide phenomenon with the series on the platform. He was 14 years old when he dabbled in Blender, a 3D animation program, for a school project. That project led to a short film called The Facility, and eventually to The Backrooms, which inspired countless YouTube copycats. The backdrop of the series, and this film, is an intriguing use of “liminal spaces,” which are transitional places, either physical….

★ ★ ★ The Mandalorian and Grogu is the first Star Wars film to hit theaters since The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, which doesn’t quite bode well for the franchise since there were several projects in development set to release from 2022 and well beyond. Many of these projects stalled after the release of the sequel trilogy. If you follow certain YouTube channels, you’ll get the impression that you’re supposed to hate this movie and that Star Wars is a dying franchise that’ll never recover their fan base…

★ ★ Passenger is like a dish you see on the menu that makes your mouth water. Everything listed has you anticipating it more and more after you order it. It finally arrives and tastes bland. There’s nothing really wrong with the dish, it’s just underwhelming and lacking bold, delicious flavor. That sums up this horror film about a highway demon who latches onto weary travelers who stop by the side of lesser-traveled roads. You’ll know you’re marked. He leaves three scratch marks on your vehicle…

★ ★ In the Grey has great action scenes and not much else in its bag of espionage tricks. Rachel (Eiza González) is a lawyer who tracks down the rich and powerful, who use legal loopholes to dodge debts. Like her targets, she operates in between what’s legal and what’s not. In the grey, so to speak. It’s an interesting premise that’s rarely explored much deeper than her opening monologue voice-over explains. We’re thrust into this world of espionage before we’ve been properly introduced to…

★ ★ ★ ½ Is God Is has a very strange title, one I thought I’d understand after seeing the movie. I left the theater with more questions about it than answers, and it seems I’m not alone. The internet doesn’t give a definitive answer either, and even some of the cast and crew seem content to leave it unexplained. It doesn’t diminish the film, though if you’re like me, you spend part of the movie trying to uncover the mystery…