Dumbo

Sometimes the magic of incredible animation makes movies better.  That is absolutley true about Dumbo.  Disneys attempt to make tons of their animated classics "live action" movies is in full bloom.  Too bad this is a blossom that won't open.  This has been reworked, redone, and we are not the better for it.

Dumbo is not too long, problem is, it's not enough of anything to make it good.  There's a lot going on here, in fact too much. And even though most of us know how Dumbo plays out, there is no real payoff.  I'll say it.  Dumbo is a movie that needs the magic of the incredible 1941 animation to really work.  And although some who go see this will enjoy it, this lacks the magic, the zing, the sense of wonder it had some 70 years ago.

A big cast, big budget, and director, (Tim Burton), doens't make it better. Just newer.  Stream the original, it is more of everything.

Us

Tons of hype about Jordan Peele's new flick, Us.  Maybe too much.  This is not a bad movie, but this lacks the guts and originality of his mega surprise hit, Get Out, a year or two ago.  Granted, this is a different movie, year and premise, but if you're gonna lean on the reputation of Get Out as heavily as they have here, you've opened yourself up to the comparisons.

This is a bloodfest, with the premise being a new "generation" of people come up from a bunch of tunnels under the country, they are called "Shadows."  And for some reason they want to kill all of us up here, and oh yeah they look like those they are killing.  This is really not scary, or really compelling, and there are some entertaining moments, but not enough to carry the day.

In the end, this is just another movie. End of story.

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