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

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    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-

    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

    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