The Life Of Chuck Is Much Better Than The Phoenician Scheme & Other Reviews
Both The Life Of Chuck (Mike Flanagan) and The Phoenician Scheme (Wes Anderson) have successful directors each putting their stamps on their movies. One of them works extremely well, the other doesn't at all. Those reviews plus Dangerous Animals and Dan Da Dan: Evil Eye below
The Phoenician Scheme was yet another reminder of how much I miss when Wes Anderson wrote scripts with Owen Wilson. He worked with Wilson on Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums. They are had real characters with emotion.
Instead of the interesting people from those classics, this is even more of the disaffected, monotone characters that are quirky for quirkiness sake. Good luck not rolling your eyes at the nun smoking a pipe or the skull on a table for no reason.
It’s such a shame what Anderson has become. This is just like Asteroid City, which was another movie that cared far more about production design than a plot.
This is the fourth straight Anderson movie (this, Asteroid City, French Dispatch and Isle Of Dogs) that hasn’t been funny nor given me anything to care about besides how a shot looks. The great filmmaker who made us love Max Fisher is long gone.
The Phoenician Scheme: D+
With all the bad news in the world this week, it’s especially nice to have a movie like The Life Of Chuck to remind us that humanity is pretty great. Your tolerance for this may depend on how much you appreciate sentimentality. I’m a sucker for it so I really ended up enjoying it.
This felt a bit like a cousin movie to the under-appreciated Secret Life Of Walter Mitty. Based on the early box office numbers of The Life Of Chuck, this could also end up not being seen by enough people. Both movies seem to embrace the concept that life is wonderful and we really should take stock of that more often.
In life, we are rewarded by opening ourselves up, even in smaller moments. These are big, sweeping ideals for a movie to sell to its audience but this does so really well. Don’t get me wrong. There is a LOT going on in this movie and not all of it ties together perfectly. Director Mike Flanagan does his best to make it all work and he mostly pulls off an ensemble movie with half of the characters not knowing the other half.
I really liked this movie and loved what it’s trying to tell us.
The Life Of Chuck: A-
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Dangerous Animals is an exciting thriller with a strong lead actress (Hassie Harrison) and a villain (Jai Courtney) that you’ll love to hate. People are also fed to sharks! What more can you ask for in a movie like this?
I appreciated the touches that director Sean Byrne put into this movie. It felt creative and fresh despite the core premise of kidnapped woman in danger something you’ve seen a hundred times. Having so much of this take place on water helped as well.
This is the third Australian movie that’s come out in recent weeks that has been a really interesting watch (The Surfer and Bring Her Back being the others). It’s a credit to movies made over there. It’s been a creative breath of fresh air and has me looking forward to the next movie from Down Under.
Dangerous Animals: B
I've mostly enjoyed this project this year where I am seeing every movie that comes out in 1,000 screens or more. It has gotten me to see a lot of movies I otherwise would have missed out on.
The unfortunate thing is it means I’ve seen a lot of bad movies. I didn’t like Dan Da Dan: Evil Eye but that’s somewhat unfair for me to say. I was never going to like this movie. I don’t care for anime/manga and this is specifically for fans of that genre.
I didn’t find this funny at all, yet a talking cat in the movie did make others in the theater laugh several times. It wasn’t suspenseful or compelling at all for me. But I could tell that others in the theater were entertained. This movie seemed to hit the people that appreciated it.
That’s why I feel bad giving this such a weak review. But at the end of the day, I did buy a ticket and this is my opinion. But if you appreciate anime, throw my review out. For general audiences, I can’t recommend this.
Dan Da Dan: Evil Eye: D
2025
1)Sinners
2)Presence
3)THE LIFE OF CHUCK
4)Black Bag
5)The Ballad Of Wallis Island
6)Warfare
7)Friendship
8)Mission Impossible 8
9)Novocaine
10)Final Destination 6
11)The Amateur
12)Drop
13)DANGEROUS ANIMALS
14)Death Of A Unicorn
15)The Accountant 2
16)The Damned
17)One Of Them Days
18)Lilo & Stitch
19)Paddington 3
20)Thunderbolts
21)Clown In A Cornfield
22)Bring Her Back
23)Hell Of A Summer
24)Karate Kid 6
25)Fight Or Flight
26)Valiant One
27)Rule Breakers
28)Heart Eyes
29)Mickey 17
30)The Surfer
31)Last Breath
32)Flight Risk
33)Minecraft
34)Den Of Thieves 2
35)Dogman
36)Companion
37)A Working Man
38)The Last Rodeo
39)Shadow Force
40)The Alto Knights
41)The Penguin Lessons
42)The Chosen Part 2
43)Looney Tunes
44)Opus
45)Becoming Led Zeppelin
46)Captain America: BNW
47)Until Dawn
48)The Chosen Part 1
49)Riff Raff
50)Inheritance
51)The Chosen Part 3
52)The Wedding Banquet
53)The Legend Of Ochi
54)Night Of The Zoopocalypse
55)THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME
56)Sneaks
57)Ash
58)The King Of Kings
59)The Friend
60)DAN DA DAN: EVIL EYE
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61)Snow White
62)The Unbreakable Boy
63)Brave The Dark
64)Wolf Man
65)Hurry Up Tomorrow
66)The Monkey
67)Love Hurts
68)The Last Supper
69)Woman In The Yard
70)Juliet & Romeo
71)In The Lost Lands