Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019)

I grew up watching Pokémon and I’m one of those people who has been playing PokémonGO for the past three years, so when news came out of Pokémon Detective Pikachu, saying that I was excited about the film is an understatement.

Set in a world filled with hundreds of unique creatures — Pokémon —, the story follows Tim Goodman (Justice Smith), a 21-year-old blue collar insurance worker, as he teams up with a talking Pikachu (voiced by Ryan Reynolds) to investigate the death/disappearance of his father, Kanto police detective Harry Goodman.

The biggest problem with Pokémon Detective Pikachu is the plot. It is extremely simple and predictable, so much so that anyone over the age of eleven will be able to figure it out almost immediately, but it’s actually at its worst when it tries to be more complex as it feels out of place and had me waiting, kinda bored, for the next cool Pokémon thing to happen. Despite this, it still manages to deliver a surprising twist at the end and, although it’s quite silly, the story is throughout engaging and interesting to follow.

The characters are just as thin as the story. Actually, they are even worse as they are non-existent — they barely have personalities and don’t have anything resembling development. Also, the villain is tremendously bland, generic.

Thankfully, Justice Smith gives a performance that is likeable enough to make you care about Tim. Also, he delivers both laughs and some genuine emotions. It’s Ryan Reynolds, however, who completely steals the show as he yet again delivers great comedy in the role of the adorable, fluffy Pikachu. Bill Nighy is also very enjoyable. The rest of the cast, I don’t even want to talk about them. That’s how bad they are.

Warner Bros. Pictures

It’s not only Reynolds’s Pikachu who steals the scene though, as every single Pokémon making an appearance in the film stands out, from Cubone to Ditto to Mr. Mime who delivers the film’s most hilarious moments — everyone in the audience was laughing during his scenes, kids and adults alike.

Ultimately, Pokémon Detective Pikachu is not a great film — it’s not like I was expecting it to be though — but it’s overall an enjoyable and funny film, especially if you are a Pokémon fan.

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Ben Is Back (2018)

They played the trailer to Ben Is Back all the time here. It was on TV and in cinemas before any movie started and yet when the release date came, screenings of it were nowhere to be found and so I had to wait for the home release to have a chance to watch it. 

The story follows Ben Burns (Lucas Hedges), a young drug addict who suddenly returns home from his treatment facility on Christmas Eve. While Ben's step-father, Neal (Courtney B. Vance), and his sister, Ivy (Kathryn Newton), start worrying about the chaos that Ben's arrival will eventually bring, his mother, Holly (Julia Roberts), is filled with joy. Things complicate real quick when Ben's old gang discovers he's back in town.

Like with most movies I see nowadays —I guess I have to pick my movies more carefully—, the biggest issue with Ben Is Back is the story which doesn't really bring anything new to the drug addiction/substance abuse genre. A story that starts out quite strongly but unfortunately, as it develops, turns into a dragged sequence of ridiculous scenarios, and plot holes the side of a lunar crater. And quite frankly, it's all over the place —at first, it's a story about drug addiction, then it's your average crime drama, and then it goes back at being about drugs. Overall, the story is just not compelling, and it's definitely not the reason you keep watching the film until the end.

The characters aren't particularly striking either as Ben is the typical drug addict and Holly is the typical lion-like mother who tries to protect her son at all costs. Furthermore, while Peter Hedges tries to turn the film into some sort of thriller, the focus on the dynamics between the character is completely lost.

The performances, on the other hand, are incredibly compelling, arguably too good for a mediocre film like Ben Is Back. Lucas Hedges gives an intense, astonishing, believable performance as Ben; Julia Roberts is a force to be reckoned with her sensitive, heartbreaking performance filled with the anguish, pain and anger of having a drug-addicted son. It's them that gives the mother-and-son relationship some dimension and tension.

LD Entertainment, Roadside Attractions, Lionsgate

Ultimately, Ben Is Back feels like a wasted opportunity. The film is unfocused —or focused on the wrong things if you prefer—, the relationship between Ben and his mother lacks complexity —I was never really invested in it and if it wasn't for Hedges and Roberts, I wouldn't have given a damn— and the underlying theme that although an addict cannot be saved, his/her family and loved ones will do everything in their power to help him/her, to get him/her out of the hole, feels somewhat forced.