While Renée Zellweger's performance of the famed actress Judy Garland in her twilight is rightly praised, the film starts slow, ends slow, and doesn't pick up much steam in the middle.

Everyone loves The Wizard of Oz. At least I assume they do. While there are plenty of faults with the film, it's hard to argue the way it made use of color to help tell the story, at a time when color film was a new technology. That is not the story of this film however.

In Judy, we get to see the starlet at the end of her life and career as she struggles with the alcohol and substance abuse that plagued much of her life. I was impressed to see the filmmakers depict the dark underbelly of Hollywood when Garland was a child actor so we can understand the source of those addictions as well as the psychological abuse that pushed her to work longer and harder than any child ever should. It's hard to see MGM boss Louis B. Mayer ordering a young Garland around on the Oz set and without having to say anything, we understand that the film we love had plenty of hardship going on behind the scenes.

Much has been made about Zellweger's portrayal of Garland in this film, and I think she justly deserved the Oscar she received, along with the myriad other awards thrown her way by various critics and other organizations in the last year. Within the first five minutes of the film, I had already forgotten it was Zellweger on the screen, having completely bought into the fact that I was watching "Judy." I've never been one to dote on Garland, but went back and watched some footage of her around the time period covered in the film, and the portrayal is spot on, from the hair and clothing, to the mannerisms. I also took the opportunity to look away from the screen during one of the musical numbers (which Zellweger sang) and could hear the Garland in her voice. No on will ever match the original, but Zellweger did a passable imitation for the film.

Unfortunately, beyond Zellweger's performance, these is not a lot to praise i this film. The supporting roles of concert minder Rosalyn Wilder (Jessie Buckley), Garland's fifth husband Mickey Deans (Finn Wittrock), third husband Sidney Luft (Rufus Sewell), and concert promoter Bernard Delfont (Michael Gambon) are all rather forgettable. Beyond that, the idea that Garland was performing again in London in order to bring in money so she could care for her young kids is lost once the action shifts to those concerts.

All in all, this film could have been 20-30 minutes shorter, and had more impact in the story it tried to tell. If you are a die-hard fan of Garland's, or the class mid-century movie business, I would recommend this film, but can recommend skipping it for the less die-hard among you.

5 out of 10​

If you're looking for more of what made the first film enjoyable ten years ago, you'll get exactly what you're looking for in this sequel. If, on the other hand, you're looking for great plot and character development, you'll be sorely disappointed.

I've made it abundantly clear on this site that I am no real fan of horror films in general. My recent exceptions to this include Get Out and the original Zombieland. (There may be more, but that's the list I can think of right now.) Of course, upon further reflection, I don't really think of Zombieland as a horror film. It's a comedy set in a post-apocalyptic zombie-ridden world where a few people manage to survive, despite sometimes doing really stupid things to attract zombies.

In this sequel, Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) are all back, having taken up residence in the biggest house they can find...the White House. When Little Rock and Wichita take off, leaving the boys alone at 1600 Pennsylvania avenue, they must set off to find them and save their friends.

Along the way, we are introduced to a new cast of zombie survivors including the dim-witted Madison (Zoey Deutch), pot-head Berkeley (Avan Jogia), and bad-ass hotel owner Nevada (Rosario Dawson). We also learn more about the zombies themselves and the different categories they fall into from the bumbling Homer (as in Simpson) to the new breed of super zombies dubbed the T-800s after Arnold Schwarzenegger's original Terminator. One thing that is never fully explained is how the zombies are evolving after all these years, and beyond that, how do they continue to multiply as the world population dwindles through death or becoming zombies themselves.

Again, the film isn't big on plot, it IS a zombie movie in the end. The returning gags are funny, and the way the characters play against one another, often coming dangerously close to breaking the 4th wall, is fun and I found myself laughing out loud in several places. I wouldn't be sad to see one of these films released every ten years so we can check in on how the team is surviving in the zombie world.

6 out of 10

Disney manages to make this story fresh and new, while paying homage to the memory of Robin Williams that made the original an instant classic.

I was initially very skeptical of this reboot, but i think it's one of my favorites that Disney has done in the last decade. The traditional songs and set pieces are still there, even down to the story being framed around the freed Genie (Will Smith) telling the tale of Aladdin (Mena Massoud). As expected, there is plenty of spectacle, from Smith's version of "Friend Like Me" to Aladdin's entrance into Agrabah to the pomp and circumstance of "Prince Ali."

As with many of these Disney live action remakes, there isn't a whole lot new here. Many of the changes are minor. Princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott) remains a strong female figure in the story, but beyond not wanting to marry the bumbling idiots paraded before her as suitors, she actually yearns to be sultan when her father's time is done. She has a fellow female character in her handmaid Dalia (Nasim Pedrad) who seems more like her friend than servant.

There has been some criticism of the changes the film made, but I generally approved. This is not the cartoon version of the story from 30 years ago. Smith's Genie is uniquely his own, paying homage to the original character, but diverging onto his own path and ultimately imbuing the character with a bit more humanity, even though the desire for freedom remains.

Overall, this is a good remake. I'm glad it wasn't a shot for shot remake like The Lion King nearly was and allowed development of several characters beyond their arcs in the original.

8 out of 10