LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales Review

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LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales is now streaming on Disney+.

Following on the heels of last year’s LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special, the same creative team is back with LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales. While there is no commensurate canon Star Wars holiday like Halloween, this brand-new animated special gets away with it by leaning into all things representing the dark side of the Force. Set after the events of The Rise of Skywalker, this story finds Poe Dameron (Jake Green) and BB-8 clearing the galaxy of First Order stragglers, when they take a hit and crash land on Darth Vader’s old stomping ground, Mustafar.

Looking to repair their ship, the heroes discover that Vader’s Castle is being renovated into a luxury getaway by Graballa the Hutt (Dana Snyder). Offering to have his mechanic, Dean (Raphael Alejandro), fix Dameron’s X-wing in exchange for an endorsement for his resort, Graballa and the gang soon discover inside the seemingly abandoned structure still resides Vader’s former servant, Vaneé (Tony Hale). The visitors inspire Vaneé to share three cautionary tales of dark Force users, one for each Star Wars trilogy.

Taking full advantage of Hale’s fabulous vocal talents, Vaneé is the perfect unctuous, unreliable narrator (with an on-point cackle) as he leads the group deeper into the castle with his engaging tales. The first is “The Lost Boy,” which is an expanded origin story of how Ben Solo became Kylo Ren. It borrows from the excellent comic book series The Fall of Kylo Ren, and mixes it with a hilarious parody of The Lost Boys to introduce Ren (Christian Slater), the leader of the Knights of Ren. Slater is essentially riffing on Kiefer Sutherland’s vampire baddie, David Powers, here as Ren woos Ben to the dark side in wake of the whole Jedi Temple debacle. The story works both as an effective fall from grace as well as spot-on movie parody including a sax solo.

For fans of the prequels, there’s “The Dueling Monstrosities,” which has Darth Maul (Sam Witwer) and General Grievous re-bricked into existence so they can search for the Saber of Scardont for Darth Sidious. The jokes about their rebirths are great, but director Ken Cunningham also takes the opportunity to block and choreograph one heck of an impressive battle between the two baddies.

And the last tale, “The Wookie’s Paw,” plays out as a Star Wars-style “What If...?,” envisioning what would happen if Luke Skywalker got off Tatooine via recruitment by the Empire. Working his way up the dark side’s power ladder via wishes made on a Wookie’s paw from Watto, Luke chooses to work with Vader and Palpatine, which leads to a similar yet very different Death Star run in A New Hope.

The whole special ingeniously mines the dark corners of the mythology for some very funny character pairings and clever twists on the familiar. There are plenty of callbacks and Easter eggs woven into the whole special, which rewards longtime fans too. And maybe because of the darker tone of this special, the signature LEGO humor is especially witty and has more bite, which helps keep the vibe spooky and surprising.

It’s easily the best-looking LEGO Star Wars animation. 

But there’s still plenty of hope, too, especially as embodied by the new character of Dean. He’s a relatable young hero trying to do right by his family even though he’s stuck working for a Hutt. As Dean bonds with Poe, there’s some great wisdom imparted about overcoming fear to find courage in case your little ones are not down with seasonal scares yet. Plus, there’s a lot of great action sequences giving heroes like BB-8 and Leia a chance to show the equal allure of the light side. All of it is held together with beautiful animation that uses the dark side color palette to great effect. It’s easily the best-looking LEGO Star Wars animation the series has ever produced.

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FIFA 22 Legacy Edition (Switch) Review

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Well here we are again. I could copy and paste my review like last year, but unlike some of the folks at EA I don’t take much satisfaction in reusing material.

For the THIRD year in a row, EA Sports has released a virtually unchanged edition of FIFA onto the Nintendo Switch.

As stated on the game’s official website, “FIFA 22 Legacy Edition will feature the same gameplay innovation from FIFA 21 without any new development or significant enhancements.”

As a reminder, here’s what was written there for last year’s game: “FIFA 21 Legacy Edition will feature the same gameplay innovation from FIFA 20 without any new development or significant enhancements.”

Oh, and the year before: “FIFA 20 Legacy Edition will feature the same gameplay innovation from FIFA 19 without any new development or significant enhancements.”

And let me remind you that FIFA 19 on Switch wasn’t exactly great in the first place…

FIFA 19 Legacy Edition Verdict

FIFA 19 is a threadbare experience on the Switch. The inclusion of the Champions League and a significant graphical upgrade goes some way to approaching the levels of presentation found on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC version, but on the pitch it’s a mile away from being a premium football simulation and fails to build on last year’s game. I can see myself having some fun playing the new House Rules modes locally with friends, but in most single-player modes there is no doubt that it is a repetitive and unfulfilling experience.

So that’s three years in a row where all that has been added each time are squad updates, new kits, broadcast packages and menu screens. No genuine attempt has been made to deliver an improved product, in any tangible way whatsoever, and FIFA on Switch really is just plain insulting at this point (if it wasn’t already, which it definitely was).

There is some good news, if you can call it that. You’ll only be getting ripped off for £34.99/$39.99 this year compared to the £44.99/$49.99 previously. Honestly, if you want a less than mediocre football game for your Switch and haven’t bought FIFA in the past four years then maybe you’ll find something to enjoy here. I, though, happen to find the whole affair to be sad, joyless, and a shining example of capitalism at its worst. What could surely at this point be a low-cost downloadable update is instead presented as an expensive, cynical money grab.

EA, please stop this.

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Silent Night Review

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Silent Night was reviewed out of Fantastic Fest, and will debut in theaters and on AMC+ on Dec. 3.

Camille Griffin’s Silent Night depicts an upbeat Christmas get-together before carefully pulling back the curtain on its bleak underlying premise. The ensemble, led by Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, and Jojo Rabbit star Roman Griffin Davis — the real-life son of the film’s writer-director — each deliver tremendously enjoyable comedic performances that soon give way to something more rigorous. While it may not have much to say about the state of the world (despite constant references and parallels to global events), its tonal balancing act goes a long way towards capturing conflicting emotional responses to large-scale tragedies, and to widespread changes that feel inescapable.

At their lush country home in England, the seemingly put-together Nell (Knightley) and Simon (Goode) play host to a group of longtime friends, including the high-strung Sandra (Annabelle Wallis), her dull husband Tony (Rufus Jones), the charmer James (Ṣọpẹ Dìrísù), and the wry and towering Bella (Lucy Punch). They’re old schoolmates who are lively as a large group, and whose smaller dynamics prove to be uniquely entertaining when they break off into gossipy pairs and trios. Rounding out the group of adults is James’ young, opinionated American girlfriend, Sophie (Lily-Rose Depp), and Bella’s curiously contentious girlfriend, Alex (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), outsiders who occasionally bristle and bump shoulders against the group, but whose disconnect from the happy reunion is slowly revealed to have more melancholy layers.

Also in tow are Nell and Simon’s children, the amusingly foul-mouthed Art (Roman Griffin Davis) and his older twin brothers, Thomas and Hardy (Gilby Griffin Davis and Hardy Griffin Davis, also the director’s kids), as well as Sandra and Tony’s spoiled daughter, Kitty (Davida McKenzie), who the boys don’t care for, and at whom even the adults roll their eyes. The film’s initial mile-a-minute humor stems not only from the adults’ sharp witticisms, but from the ways Kitty and Art are framed in relation to them. The grownups aren’t afraid to make it known how obnoxious they find Kitty, while on the other hand, Art isn’t afraid to challenge them and get into arguments over what he perceives as political apathy. The kids are, absurdly and intriguingly, placed on the same conversational level as the adults, which leads to plenty of surprising barbs. Eventually, though, the strange reasons for this disconnected (and some might say, disconcerting) adult-child dynamic slowly become clear, starting with a hilariously dour bit of gift wrapping: a recent newspaper that hints at oncoming danger, both vast and quickly approaching.

The details are best discovered while watching the film, from the nature of the threat to the various responses at both government and individual levels. However, none of this comes as a surprise to the adult characters, each of whom appear to have arrived at various stages of acceptance of something they will likely be unable to prevent. Before long, their dry, sarcastic armor begins to crack, allowing insecurities and long-festering interpersonal tensions to seep through. But despite the adults’ desolate resignation, Art approaches the situation with white-hot rage, which makes for a fascinating contrast to the adults, and affords Roman Griffin Davis some truly challenging physical and emotional work.

While the ensemble is undoubtedly funny, the question of how to approach vast, overpowering and potentially defeating forces — the film draws several comparisons to climate change and the COVID pandemic — is ultimately what paints the finer details of each character. The more the premise comes to light, the more their hilarious idiosyncrasies start to seem despondent. They make plenty of references to world leaders, famous activists, and social inequities; these are all in the context of the looming threat, but they’re ultimately conversational window-dressing, despite the film’s attempts to offer a wider perspective from its narrow, isolated vantage point in the middle of nowhere.

However, the characters’ blinders are also what allows the central theme to ultimately shine through: the façade of normalcy in the face of doom and gloom. Camille Griffin and cinematographer Sam Renton’s visual approach is fine-tuned to suit this idea. It begins unassumingly, with purely functional, sitcom-esque blocking, lighting, and visual composition, which have little to say at first; the film’s relative flatness, however, allows the snappy dialogue to do all the talking. Once the sun sets and tensions fly, the warm light of Nell and Simon’s home helps better shape the close ups during thoughtful moments, as a tug of war emerges between intimate character beats and enormous wide shots of the approaching threat.

Silent Night rarely ceases to be enjoyable, even in its bleakest moments.

The adult cast — Knightley and Goode especially — are tasked with a similarly delicate balance. As the midnight hour approaches, they wrestle with how soon to let their fears show in front of their children. The result is a movie that finds glimmers of innocent, perhaps even naïve defiance, by centering the ways in which different generations are forced to shoulder the weight of hopelessness, an idea made all the more potent by the fact that Camille Griffin chooses her own children as subjects for her morose exploration. And yet, despite its lofty themes and occasionally muddled political scope, Silent Night rarely ceases to be enjoyable, even in its bleakest moments.

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The Addams Family 2 Review

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The Addams Family 2 opens in theaters on Friday, Oct 1.

The animated adventures of The Addams Family are back with a sequel that creates a confounding amount of noise, unleashes a plot that doesn't make sense within the realm of the Addams, and fails to make the iconic kooky family feel notably different from their surrounding world.

Let's face it, when Cousin Itt (Snoop Dogg, reprising his 2019 role) is a jet-setting playboy performer who can be a headlining act at any music festival in the country, the Addams family are no longer outliers. They are the machine.

There's nothing inherently wrong with transitioning The Addams Family into animation. An argument can be made that the two big movie adaptations (of the famous '60s TV series) from the '90s -- The Addams Family and (the truly great) Addams Family Values -- were crafted by director Barry Sonnenfeld to be live-action cartoons in a way. The action was heightened and absurd, but also clever. And though the "normal" world that the Addams lived in was elevated to satirical levels, especially the cheeriness of the sequel's Camp Chippewa, the Addams clan still felt giddily ghoulish and awesomely "other."

But The Addams Family 2 makes the central characters feel bland by having them exist in a swirl of over-the-top animated action where they just feel like another spoke in the wheel. When everyone dances to the same pop music (tracks by Snoop Dogg, Megan Thee Stallion, Christina Aguilera, etc.) and gets swept up in the same kinetic craziness, it creates a sameness throughout. In the end, the spare straight-arrow citizens feel like the plagued outcasts in a world that's been usurped by the Addams' bonkers vibes.

The top-shelf voice cast from the first film -- Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloë Grace Moretz, and Nick Kroll -- is back, with the only notable change being Euphoria's Javon Walton replacing Stranger Things' Finn Wolfhard as Pugsley. They're still all very fun, particularly Kroll who goes full-tilt frantic as Fester, but the story itself just doesn't work.

It's a very cut-and-paste animated sequel plot, as franchise follow-ups very often rely on one of the major characters feeling like they don't fit in (see: Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Shrek 2, Kung Fu Panda 2, etc.). But in the case of The Addams Family, it just doesn't gel to have one of characters -- in this case, Wednesday -- feel like they don't belong in the Addams family.

Ultimately, Wednesday, feeling embarrassed by her family (which is, again, just weird), makes Gomez go all Clark Griswold and demand a family cross-country bonding trip -- a sight-seeing tour of America's spookiest locales (Salem, Sleepy Hollow, Death Valley, you get the point). At the same time, a wealthy scientist, voiced by Bill Hader, sees his opportunity to sow discord within the Addams' ranks so that he can tap Wednesday's genius for his own gain. Hader is good here, but it's very much a role that doesn't benefit one way or the other from him doing the voice.

There are sentimental parts of The Addams Family 2 that occasionally work, but mostly if you pull them out and place them in an all-together different animated film. Some of the gags are fine too, as The Addams Family, as a franchise, never met a low-hanging pun or joke it didn't like, but nothing here is clever enough to justify the overall effort. It very much feels like an uninspired excuse to distract kids with a press release-ready soundtrack and fast-moving, physics-bending antics.

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