Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Cameos, assemble! The eyeroll quotient is extremely high here, and a lot of the interest-generation in this outing comes from seeing who shows up where. For all the wizard flash in the title and feature scenes, this flick is at least as much Elizabeth Olsen's movie, which is a good thing, especially as her appearances in the Scarlet Witch outfit (both the official uniform and the Halloween costume) were the best parts of WandaVision. As for the overall story here? The whole thing ultimately plays out like a grandiose extra, final episode of the aforementioned TV series, and barely anything more than that. More and more, I see the superhero genre approaching its end-of-shelf-life--especially if all of the upcoming works are going to hit us again and again with the same characters, struggling for the same stakes, and leaving the viewer with the same sense that we’ve been here before. At least, if you’re a subscriber, you can say you didn’t directly pay for this one. Certainly, only a fool would buy a ticket for this franchise at this point. Let’s see the Mouse wizard its way out of that scenario.

Oz the Great and Powerful

The crux of the matter here lies with the source material. To wit: are we seeing a faithful representation of Baum’s work, or is this a Disneyfied version of the extended world of Oz? Having only read one of the Oz works--that one--I can’t say for sure; maybe the weaknesses are Baum’s and not those of the Disney people or director Sam Raimi. Even with a certain obviousness to the story--it’s a tale that practically wallows in stereotypes--you can still get a good, old-fashioned movie-viewing experience out of this film. It all depends on how high your critical threshold is; demanding types, stay away, but those more open will probably have a decent time.

Evil Dead 2

As a straightforward horror flick, this would just be another bad movie. But the genius stroke of remaking the original (a low key success in its own right, in its much more straightforward way) as a horror-comedy--with wry, almost perverse humor and a gleeful use of gore--elevates these proceedings considerably. No wonder these guys (a couple of them, at least) went on to bigger and better things.

Spider-man 2

Yes, I think it is better than the first. A world of credit goes to the cast for an entire collection of wonderful performances, all deep and emotionally resonant. And it helps that the script is more interested in questions about personal identity and responsibility than in blowing things up. I'd go along with a third in the series, if they're willing to keep up the quality.

The Gift

A run-of-the-mill mystery thriller, with a little horror thrown in. Not as good as A Simple Plan, the other Sam Raimi-Billy Bob Thornton collaboration (in this case, B.B. merely wrote the thing). It does reaffirm my position that I will never move to the "deep" South.

Spider-man

Great fun. A spectacular yet emotionally true summer movie, one that (at time of release) in many ways revived the then-moribund superhero genre. The effects never overwhelm the story; some movie-makers could learn a few things from that fact.

A Simple Plan

Excellent cautionary tale about the dangers of getting too involved with dumbass rednecks.

Darkman

Lots of fun. An early taste of the Sam Raimi/Rob Tapert collaboration's potential (before they went on to Hercules and Xena glory). And, as an added bonus, this one stars Liam Neeson before he became a big shot, in another case of an early taste of what was to come. Ditto Frances McDormand. A pretty strong legacy for a little-movie-that-could type flick.