Movie Reviews

Moana 2 | Reelviews Movie Reviews

Published

1 year ago

November 28, 2024

Back in the 1990s, as Disney’s second golden age of animated
movies surged, the company entered the sequel business, churning out follow-ups
to their popular titles. For the most part, these represented inferior products
and Disney knew it, but the goal was to expand branding rather than create art.
Although featuring the original voice actors, even the best were characterized
by shallow stories, cut-rate animation, and lackluster songs. Instead of going
the theatrical distribution route, Disney opted for direct-to-video releases –
a decision that created a lucrative revenue stream for more than a decade. In
some ways, Moana 2 feels like a throwback to those ‘90s sequels – a movie
that was made more to capitalize on the popularity of a character than because
there was a compelling new story to tell. Moana 2 features top-notch
animation and songs that are better than passable but the plot feels like a regurgitation
of elements from the first movie combined with bits and pieces of other Disney
animated projects from across the years.

Moana 2 began life as a planned Disney+ series taking
the character on new adventures. Upon seeing footage from the series, Disney
CEO Bob Iger thought it was “too good” for direct-to-streaming and had the production
team rework the series into a movie. Although the result feels reasonably
self-contained, an unevenness in pacing and some narrative hiccups are evidence
of the late-innings metamorphosis. The result will likely please the legions of
Moana fans and is easily digestible for accompanying parents even if Moana
2 falls short of being the next Disney classic.

The story transpires three years after the original (even if
Moana’s little sister, Simea, seems only a little older). Moana, now a revered wayfinder,
has been taking long trips away from home in the company of her pet rooster,
Heihei, and pig, Pua, seeking to find other tribes of humans. She learns that
the storm god Nalo has cast a curse that prevents diverse groups of people from
contacting each other. In order to reverse the curse, she must find the mystical
island of Motufetu and raise it from the ocean depths. To this end, she builds
a bigger canoe and recruits a crew of three: warrior Moni (Hualalai Chung),
engineer and craftswoman Loto (Rose Matafeo), and grumpy farmer Keke (David
Fane). As she sets out, the demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson), who is separately on
his own quest to find Motufetu, is captured by one of Nalo’s allies, Matangi (Awhimai
Fraser), possibly to be used as bait to lure Moana.

Moana 2 features surprisingly little in the way of
conflict – the climax, which is sufficiently suspenseful, is more of a
human-versus-nature battle – and the main villain, Nalo, appears sparingly. It seems
that the filmmakers may have visions of making him a Thanos-style “Big Bad” who
remains in the background (at least for now). This ongoing-adventure approach
makes more sense for a TV series than in a movie, although a box office win for
Moana 2 would guarantee the greenlighting of more sequels. Visually, the
movie pops although there are no noticeable advances from the first film
(perhaps because this form of animation has reached full maturity). Although
the first half of the story is light on action, things ramp up during the final
45 minutes.

One of the biggest disappointments in Moana 2 is the
lack of direct interaction between Moana and Maui. Once they are co-located,
the camaraderie from the first film re-ignites but it takes nearly an hour
before the two share the screen. For kids wanting to see the characters resume
their banter, that’s an awfully long time to wait.

With Lin-Manuel Miranda having stepped away from songwriting
duties to work on Mufasa, Abigail Barlow & Emily Bear came on board
to collaborate with composers Mark Mancina and Opetaia Foa’i. Although the
movie’s songs are a step up from generic, they lack the dynamism evident in
Miranda’s contributions to Moana. Moana’s new anthem, “Beyond,” echoes “How
Far I’ll Go” without reaching the same emotional heights. Likewise, while Maui’s
“Can I Get a Chee Hoo?” is fun and energetic, it’s not “You’re Welcome.” An
argument can be made that the musical highlight of Moana 2 is “We Know
the Way” – a reprise of the Miranda-penned song from the first film.

Overall, Moana 2 does enough to fit the bill of solid
family entertainment. It accomplishes the most important thing for any sequel: reunite
the original characters with each other and the audience. Its high points lack
the amplitude of its predecessor’s pinnacles but it avoids craters. Rather than
taking any sort of bold step forward, Moana 2 is more of the same.
Although that can be seen as a positive, it feels a little disappointing that this
is the best Disney was able to craft after an eight-year wait.

Moana 2 (United States, 2024)

Director: David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, Dana Ledoux Miller

Cast:
Auli’I Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Hualalai Chung, Rose Matafeo, David Fane, Awhimai Fraser, Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda, Temeura Morrison, Nicole Scherzinger

Screenplay: Jared Bush, Dana Ledoux Miller

Cinematography:

Music: Mark Mancina, Opetaia Foa’i

U.S. Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures

Run Time: 1:40
U.S. Release Date: 2024-11-27
MPAA Rating: “PG”

Genre: Animated

Subtitles: none
Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 2.00:1

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Movie Reviews

1986 Movie Reviews – Dangerously Close, Fire with Fire, Last Resort, and Short Circuit | The Nerdy

Published

3 hours ago

May 9, 2026

Press Room

1986 Movie Reviews – Dangerously Close, Fire with Fire, Last Resort, and Short Circuit | The Nerdy

by Sean P. Aune | May 9, 2026

Welcome to an exciting year-long project here at The Nerdy. 1986 was an exciting year for films giving us a lot of films that would go on to be beloved favorites and cult classics. It was also the start to a major shift in cultural and societal norms, and some of those still reverberate to this day.

We’re going to pick and choose which movies we hit, but right now the list stands at nearly four dozen.

Yes, we’re insane, but 1986 was that great of a year for film.

The articles will come out – in most cases – on the same day the films hit theaters in 1986 so that it is their true 40th anniversary. All films are also watched again for the purposes of these reviews and are not being done from memory. In some cases, it truly will be the first time we’ve seen them.

This time around, it’s May 9, 1986, and we’re off to see Dangerously Close, Fire with Fire, Last Resort, and Short Circuit.

Dangerously Close

I would love to tell you what the point of this film was, but I’m not sure it knew.

An elite school has turned into a magnet school, attracting some “undesirables,” so a group of students known as The Sentinels take up policing their school, but will they go too far?

The basic plot of the film is simple enough, but there is an oddball “twist” toward the end tht served no real purpose and somehow turns the whole thing into a murder-mystery. Mysteries only work when you know you’re supposed to be solving them, and not when you’re alerted to one existing with 15 minutes left.

Decent 80s music, some stylistic shots, absolutely no substance.

Fire with Fire

Oh wait… I may want to go back and watch Dangerously Close again over this one.

Joe Fisk (Craig Sheffer) is being held at a juvenile delinquent facility close a high-end all-girls Catholic school. One day while running through the forest as part of an exercise he spots Catholic schoolgirl Lisa Taylor (Virginia Madsen) and the two fall immediately in love because… reasons.

This film is just so incredibly lazy. The ‘love story’ really can just be chalked up to ‘hormones.’

Last Resort

Once again I am baffled how Charles Grodin kept getting work so much through out the 1980s.

George Lollar (Grodin) is a salesman in Chicago in need of a vacation. He loads up the family and takes them to Club Sand, which turns out to be a swingers resort as well as surrounded by barbed wire to keep rebels out.

There are a lot of talented people in this movie such as Phil Hartman and Megan Mullally, but the film lets them down at every turn with half-baked ideas of jokes. Supposedly, Grodin rewrote nearly the entire script and I think that explains a lot about how this film feels like unfinished ideas. It’s a Frankenstein monster of a script with half-complete ideas that feel like they are from completely different movies.

Short Circuit

Lets just get this out of the way: What in the world was Fisher Stevens doing?

NOVA Laboratory has come up with a new series of military robots called S.A.I.N.T. (Strategic Artificially Intelligent Nuclear Transport). Following a successful demonstration for the military, Five is struck by an electrical surge and finds itself needing ‘input.’ After inadvertently escaping the lab, it wands into the life of Stephanie Speck (Ally Sheedy), who cares for animals and takes Five in. Dr. Newton Crosby (Steve Guttenberg) is trying to get five back, while the security team wants to destroy it.

Overall, the film is thin, but harmless. The 80s did seem to love a ‘technology being used for the wrong reasons’ theme, and this falls into that camp. What is mind-blowing, however, is Stevens as Ben Jabituya, Crosby’s assistant. Not only is he wearing brown face, but he’s doing a horrible Indian accent and later reveals he was born and raised in the U.S.

His whole character is mystifying.

Honestly, a couple of decades ago I may have recommended this movie, but it’s a definite pass now just for being offensive.

1986 Movie Reviews will continue on May 16, 2026, with Sweet Liberty and Top Gun.

Movie Reviews

Movie Review: AFFECTION – Assignment X

Published

15 hours ago

May 9, 2026

Press Room

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: May 8th, 2026 / 08:34 PM

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Jessica Rothe, Joseph Cross, Julianna Layne
Writer: BT Meza
Director: BT Meza
Distributor: Brainstorm Media
Release Date: May 8, 2026

AFFECTION is an odd title for this tale. While it is about a number of topics and emotions, fondness isn’t one of them. Obsession, definitely. Love, possibly. The kind of general warm fellow feelings associated with “affection”? No.

There have been a lot of movies lately in which characters – mostly women – are grappling with false identities and/or false memories imposed upon them, mostly by men.

Let us stipulate that the protagonist (Jessica Rothe) in AFFECTION is not an android or in an artificial reality. However, we can tell something is way off from the opening sequence. A car is stalled on a tree-bordered highway. Rothe’s character is lying face down on the asphalt beside it, possibly dead.

But then the young woman rises, dragging a broken ankle. She experiences a full-body seizure. Fighting to recover, she sees oncoming headlights and tries to run, only to be hit by a car.

The woman wakes up in a bed she doesn’t recognize, next to a man (Joseph Cross) she likewise is sure she’s never seen before. One big confrontation later, the man says his name is Bruce – and that the woman is his wife, Ellie.

Ellie insists that her name is Sarah Thompson, and she is married to someone else, with a son. When she sees her reflection in a mirror, she doesn’t relate to the face looking back at her.

Bruce counters that Ellie has a rare neurological condition that causes her to block out her waking life and believe her dreams are real. This is why they agreed, together, to move to this isolated house, without the kinds of interruptions that can hinder Ellie’s recovery.

The set-up is presented in a way where we share Ellie’s skepticism. But Ellie and Bruce’s little daughter Alice (Julianna Layne) immediately identifies Ellie as “Mommy!” Alice appears to be too young to be in on any kind of deception, so what is going on here?

AFFECTION eventually explains this via a helpful videotape, though it’s so convoluted that viewers watching on streaming may want to replay the sequence to make sure they understand the exposition.

Writer/director BT Meza musters a sense of menace and lurking weirdness, as well as making great use of his location.

We still have a lot of questions, many of which are still unanswered by the film’s end. It may not matter to the points AFFECTION is trying to make, but a better sense of exactly how all this started might help our investment.

As it is, despite a heroically versatile performance by Rothe, a credible and anguished turn by Cross and appealing work from Layne, we’re so busy trying to piece together what’s important and what’s not and how we’re supposed to feel about all of it that it can be hard to keep track of the action as it unfolds.

Agree or not, Meza’s arguments are lucid and illustrated clearly by AFFECTION’s events. However, the movie is structured in a way that becomes more frustrating as it goes. We comprehend it intellectually but can’t engage viscerally.

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Movie Reviews

8News Reel Talk: ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ movie review

Published

1 day ago

May 8, 2026

Press Room

8News Reel Talk: ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ movie review

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — In this episode of 8News Reel Talk, digital producer Julia Broberg is joined by anchor Deanna Allbrittin and reporter Allison Williams to talk about “The Devil Wears Prada 2.”

The hosts gave their reviews and assigned the following star ratings:

Deanna: ★★★★.5

Allison: ★★★.25

Julia: ★★

To watch more livestreams and digital video content, head to the WRIC+ Originals page. You can also watch full on-demand videos on your smart TV using the WRIC+ app.