Welcome to The Morning After, where I share with you what movies I’ve seen over the past week. Below, you will find short reviews of those movies along with a star rating. Full length reviews may come at a later date.

So, here is what I watched this past week:

Top Gun: Maverick

Any child of the ’80s has a connect to Top Gun whether it be the film itself or the music that came out of it. That ’80s nostalgia still plays well at the box office, so it was no surprise that a sequel eventually made it to the big screen. Tom Cruise, the star of the original film, was back while Val Kilmer came back in a cameo. Director Joseph Kosinski, who previously directed Cruise in Oblivion makes himself an obvious choice for every potential blockbuster for some time thanks to his deft handling of a storyline that could have been as ham-fisted and obvious as the original.

Set decades after the original, Cruise’s Maverick has been called up to help plan a crucial mission to blow up a uranium enrichment facility before it gets operational. While he’s told he won’t be flying, he must instead teach the best candidates from the Top Gun ranks how to carry out the mission whether they come out on the other side afterwards or not. (spoilers for the original from here on out) Carrying the wounds of the death of his friend and co-pilot during the original film, Maverick must come to grips with his culpability while facing the consequences his actions related to his late friend’s son, now among the candidates to take on the task.

Cruise has always been an affable presence on film and that megawatt smile works wonders here. While he does try to convey a different sense of world-weariness, it doesn’t always come off as believable. Jennifer Connelly is much better as his bartender and ex-girlfriend whose given far too little to do. The young pilots aren’t entirely interchangeable, but none of them stand out in any measurable capacity with Glen Powell coming off the best as a something of a smug asshole, but one we don’t entirely hate. The film’s creative elements are all tremendous and while the script has its weaknesses, there’s no doubt that the film is a popcorn flick in the best sense of the word. As for those anti-diversity warriors who claim this is film is anti-woke, they clearly don’t understand the increased diversity of the cast over the near all-white original or the fact that the film never specifies which hostile power is building the base, but I’m sure they don’t care about the details.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

It took over a decade for DreamWorks Animation to return to the franchise that built it. Shrek flamed out after four films, but its the spin-off Puss in Boots that spawned this latest incarnation. Bringing back stars Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek as the titular Puss in Boots and Kitty Softpaws respectively, we learn that Puss has squandered his nine lives by living recklessly and only now that he’s on his last life does it begin to sink in just how risky his life and attitude have been. After seeking refuge with a cat lady and meeting the overly sweet therapy dog Perrito (Harvey Guillén), he learns of a fabled fallen star who will grant one last wish to the person who gets their first.

He’s not alone in his quest as Goldi (Florence Pugh) and the three bears (Olivia Colman, Ray Winstone, Samson Kayo), Kitty, and Big Jack Horner (John Mulaney) are also after the star. All deliver strong vocal performances, creating a rich aural tapestry against which the mostly strong animation can stand out. The narrative is densely packed, but easy to follow and filled with the kind of laughs that once made Shrek, Shrek 2, and Puss in Boots such highlights in their years of release. Guillén is the standout in this cast.

The film’s biggest issues come down to the choice of animation techniques for fight sequences, which makes the events feel a little choppy and overly stylized, like we’ve shifted from a traditional computer animated film to a 2D Japanese animation-style picture. Those sequences are brief and the amazing animation that surrounds it off-sets a lot of those concerns. It’s surprising that a character that has been shelved for so long (in spite of the Netflix series) could still prove to be so delightful after all this time and in a sea of imitators and the fading of luminaries Disney and Pixar, it’s nice to see some studios still trying to reach for the stars.

Werewolf by Night

Clocking in at a little less than an hour, the Marvel Cinematic Universe treated Disney+ viewers to a comic adaptation unlike any other previously seen. Taking on the visuals of an old Hollywood monster movie, Werewolf by Night stars Gael García Bernal, Laura Donnelly, and Harriet Sansom Harris.

The premise is simple, a group of the five most prominent monster hunters arrive at the foreboding estate of the late Ulysses Bloodstone, the possessor of an ancient red gem called the Bloodstone. Its powers aren’t fully explained in the film, but they don’t need to be, for it is a simple plot device. Ulysses’ widow Verussa (Harris) has called the hunters together for a competition to see who can kill the monster at the center of an elaborate maze and become their new leader. Ulysses’ estranged daughter Elsa arrives to crash the hunt and become one of the contestants against an array of talented hunters, including García Bernal who plays Jack Russell who has a different secret.

Largely employing practical effects, longtime Disney composer Michael Giacchino takes up the mantle of director and presents a film that is a tribute to those old Universal monster movies the likes of which have rarely been seen in decades. García Bernal is always wonderful to watch and he does solid work here as does Donnelly while Harris is given plenty of latitude to make her archetypal villain drip with hostility and venom. While the film is engaging and evokes the spirit of those old horror masterpieces, there’s something emotionally missing in the short film, which prevents it from being an unparalleled effort. Still, it’s nice to see Disney letting their creative juices flow rather than hewing so close to their box office-winning formula that they forget the purpose of film is not just to entertain, but to engage.

Minions: The Rise of Gru

While the minions themselves have always been brilliant punchlines, they’ve never been the kinds of characters that deserve their own film. The original Minions was a downgrade from the Despicable Me films and highlighted how quickly the simplemindedness of the creatures could wear thin quickly. Yet, a second film was ordered because of the huge success of the bind numbingly-banal prior version and there’s no hint that they’ve managed to learn a lesson with this movie.

Minions: The Rise of Gru moves the story forward to 1976 where a precocious villain-in-the-making gets the opportunity to pledge his services to the notorious Vicious 6, a supervillain group who double-crossed its previous leader and is in need of a new member. Gru (Steve Carell) wants desperately to be part of the group he’s long looked up to, but his age and timidity earn him ridicule from the group, but his inventiveness enables to steal from them the artifact they plan to unleash on the Chinese New Year. The ineptitude of his minions and the reemergence of the fallen leader conspire to bring the multiple forces to bear against one another in a chaotic melee to end the film.

Individual bits in the film work, most notably the minions stealing an flying a plane to San Francisco, but they are parts of a flawed whole that struggles to maintain momentum, shifting from one segment of lunacy to another with the thinnest of plot threads to bring them together. That Michelle Yeoh got pulled into this mess and was given the role of a platitude-spouting accupuncturist who is also a former Kung Fu master is a disappointment for her fans and it ultimately adds almost nothing to the film itself.