Displaying items by tag: Charlie Day

THE SUPER MARIO GALAXY MOVIE

US/France/Japan, 2026, 98 minutes, Colour.

Voices of: Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Donald Glover, Brie Larson, Benny Safdie, Kevin Michael Richardson, Keegan-Michael Key, AnyaTaylor-Joy, Jack Black, Luis Guzman, Issa Rae, Glen Powell.

Directed by Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic, Pierre Leduc.

For 40 years the Super Mario Bros and entertained generations all around the world. They are identified with Nintendo and computer and video games. There was a live-action feature in the 1990s, not well received or reviewed, starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo.

However, the games and the programs developed, with special appeal to younger players and audiences, and, as the years pass, happy memories of now adults and parents. 2023 saw the first feature length animated version of Super Mario action.

The present film serves as something of a movie icon worldwide with its immediate success on release, breaking records, audiences flocking to see it, millions of dollars.

One might say that the production is hyper-spectacular, the range of animation figures, humans, creatures, spacecraft, castles and builders, action in space.

While the two brothers, plumbers in their overalls, are ordinary characters, Mario forceful, Luigi of less effective, they are presented as ordinary heroes in extraordinary galaxy adventures and rescues. But, there is a strong female presence, especially in Princess Peach, definitely coming to the rescue. The three are voiced by Chris Pratt, Charlie Day and Anya Taylor-Joy. And, for so many of the multi-varied characters, a wonderful array of voices which adult audiences will be enjoying, Glenn Powell, Jack Black, Brie Larson…

And, while there are heroics, there is also the money, and ambitions for not only world power but Galaxy power. Ambitious Bowser at one stage says to his son, in Jack Black’s voice, “I want to stand on the ashes of the world…” (And, at the time of its release in early 2026, Donald Trump was offering similar sentiments about Iran.)

So, excitement for the younger audiences, experiencing it in the cinema, experiencing the big wide screen and heightened sound, an invitation to come to the cinema more often. Extraordinary the way that animation films have developed over recent decades.

But, adults accompanying the children might find that this one is more than enough for them, Super Mario comedy and drama all over the galaxies.

HONEY, DON'T

US, 2025, 89 minutes, Colour.

Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans, Charlie Day.

Directed by Ethan Coen.

Back in the day, as they say, Hollywood used to churn out brief, B-budget, action melodramas, often as supports to the main feature. One of the words used to describe these shows was “hard-boiled”.

Which comes to mind as we watch Honey, Don’t. It has been co-written by director, Ethan Coen, with his wife, Trisha Cooke. It is a follow-up to their similar hard boiler, Drive Away Dolls – and a third film in this trilogy has been planned. Ethan Coen, with his brother Joel, The Coen Brothers, built up an enormous reputation over 30 years with a great variety of entertaining films. Directing separately now, Joel went on to make his version of Macbeth with Denzel Washington and his wife, Frances McDormand. Ethan, on the other hand, has gone in the direction that was foreshadowed by their very entertaining, Fargo.

Honey of the title is Margaret Qualley (who starred in the previous film). She is a private eye out in the California desert area of Bakersfield. She is tough. She is single-minded. She is tall. She walks with a very self-confident and stylish sashay. She meets her clients, very direct in discussions, investigates. In her private life, she has lesbian relationships, especially with a policewoman played by Aubrey Plaza.

The film opens with a mysterious death, a car accident – not! Of course – a mysterious woman stealing a ring from the body of a dead woman… The dead woman had the day before contacted Honey for an appointment. Honey is now investigating.

There are a lot of eccentric supporting characters around Bakersfield, in the bar, the shops, and Charlie Day at the police headquarters forever trying to chat Honey up and make a date, seemingly oblivious of her reality.

But, some of the leads point to an evangelical church in the town and its pastor, played by Chris Evans. Over the years and with some revelations, some of the pastors have been exposed as double or triple standards in their behaviour, rousing up their congregations with vigorous holy exhortations, making their congregations dependent on them, and, privately, sexual predators. And Chris Evans, formerly Captain America, makes the Rev Drew Devlin, one of the sleaziest of all pastors, with his sermons on the importance of submission and then exercising overmastering with fragile members of the community.

Ethan Coen and Trisha Cooke have written what seems often a slapdash screenplay, and that seems to be something that they intended, memories of the past, small budget, eccentric characters, strange episodes, leaving the impact to the audience the supply some of the connections. For once, the screenplay and the film could have actually been longer – especially for a comeuppance of the Rev Drew Devlin.

Idiosyncratic as we watch, and Margaret Qualley commands the screen.

I WANT YOU BACK

US, 2022, 116 minutes, Colour.

Charlie Day, Jenny Slate, Scott Eastwood, Gina Rodriguez, Manny Jacinto, Clark Backo, Pete Davidson, Jamie Gertz.

Directed by Jason Orley.

This twist on romantic comedies is more enjoyable than it might sound. The characters are well developed, especially the central characters of Peter and Emma, played by Charlie dealing with his continual patter style, Emma by Jenny Slate, seemingly ditzy but having more depth.

The film opens with two breakups and the consequences for those abandoned. Peter and Emma work in the same building, and weeping in the same stairwell, share their stories, make the plan that each will breakup the new relationship with their former partners.

Emma, this is going to a theatrical group, working with children, putting on a musical, her helping, singing a song, getting the attention of the director – and, her ultimate tactic, suggesting a threesome which he is enthusiastic about but which Peter’s former partner disapproves of. She decides to take Peter back.

On the other hand, Peter befriends Noah, Scott Eastwood, going to the gym, developing a friendship, a kind of romance, meeting the owner of the pie shop, Clark back oh, and failing to break up this romance when Noah proposes and is accepted.

How to bring this all 20 and? Both are invited to Noah’s wedding, the awkwardness, the interactions, Emma upset, Peter awkward, but the finale, nicely on a plane home, a situation I have discussed about true love and who helps a fellow passenger to oxygen, helping themselves first or helping the one-day Love first. And this is the nice ending for Peter and Emma.

1. Romantic comedy with a difference, romances, breaking up romances?
2. The title? Peter and Emma? The scenes of the breakup, Peter at the party, the children, clowning, and and her declaration, six years, wanting to be an actress, the separation? Emma, chatting and eating, no way and his breaking with her, her reaction?
3. The two working in the same building, Emma and the orthodontist, weeping? Peter, the board, care for the elderly, saving money and conditions, his reaction, the two in the stairwell, meeting, sharing, the meeting, the decision to undermine the new partnerships?
4. Emma, her going to the theatre, the encounter with Logan, meeting And, Little of horrors, her helping, singing the song for Audrey? Logan and the attraction? The young boy, surly, his work, clashing with Emma, her talking, being straight with him, the good interaction, her further helping him, the future? The episode of the invitation for the threesome, Emma, bold, Logan wanting it, And and her reaction, walking out?
5. Peter, going to the gym, the help from Noah, their friendship, and the gym, sharing? No meeting Jenny and her work with the pies? Buildup of the bromance? Going to the party, the underage girls, the dancing, the pool, Peter leaping into the pool, the father coming home, there are escape?
6. Peter and Emma and their meeting, comparing notes? Emma and her achievement, Peter and his haste, going to And, the seeming reconciliation?
7. Peter invited to the wedding, Noah inviting Emma, on the boat, the tensions, the eventual revelation of the truth, Noah and his punching out Peter? Emma and her upset? The breaking of their friendship?
8. The return flight, sitting marriage other, the previous conversation about helping with the oxygen, helping someone loved before oneself, and this happening on the flight home? The happy ending?