Grow Omaha Flicks

★ ★ ★ 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…

★ ★ ★ ★ Obsession is a chilling look at the real-world ramifications of a granted wish that directly affects the autonomy of another person. It’s a film where characters make decisions that are selfish but not intended to be at the expense of others. It forces us to look at what such a fulfilled wish might look like. The results are deliciously captivating and delightfully terrifying. This is one of those rare films where the ending is just as satisfying as the journey to get there, a difficult feat in the horror genre…

★ ★ ★ ★ The Sheep Detectives is a cute film about an English countryside sheep farmer named George Hardy (Hugh Jackman) who lives in a trailer on his farm. George is better with animals than people. His relationships with people in town are, at best, barely polite. Mostly, he’s a recluse on his farm. His only positive relationship is with his estranged daughter, and he communicates with her solely by post. It’s a film about grief and loss, with themes of community, justice and…

★ ★ ½ Mortal Kombat II is the direct sequel to 2021’s Mortal Kombat and aims to correct some of the biggest complaints about that film. Mortal Kombat is a video game tournament where several planetary realms compete in fantastical one-on-one combat. If a realm loses 10 tournaments in a row, it falls under control of the evil Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford). In these films, Earthrealm has already lost nine straight tournaments. The complaint about…

★ ★ ★ The Devil Wears Prada 2 is the long-awaited sequel to the 2006 smash hit. It’s been 20 years since we checked in with Miranda (Meryl Streep), Andy (Anne Hathaway), Emily (Emily Blunt) and Nigel (Stanley Tucci), along with the happenings at the fictional fashion magazine Runway. When the last film ended, Andy quit Runway and her job as Miranda’s assistant. She chucks her phone in a Paris fountain and pursues her journalism…

★ ★ ★ ½ Hokum is a horror film about Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott), a successful author battling the demons of his past. He sips bourbon as he writes a bleak ending to a book series in his small, dark, concrete-style home while the rain paints water streaks down his windows. He also sees things in the shadows. Ohm travels to the fictional Bilberry Woods Hotel in West Cork, Ireland, to scatter his parents’ ashes. He has a photo of his mom by a distinct-looking tree near the hotel. He carefully scatters her ashes…

★ ★ ½ Michael is a biopic about the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. It’s directed by Antoine Fuqua, a director known for the hard-hitting action thriller Training Day. Jackson’s story is ripe for Fuqua’s storytelling: an iconic rise to fame scarred by late-career scandal. What we’re given is a surface-level treatment of Jackson’s early rise, from his days singing with his older brothers in the Jackson 5 to his struggle to break away from his father, Joseph Jackson. Mostly, the film stays in the ‘80s….