B.A.D. Movie of the Week: Secret Headquarters

Secret Headquarters (2022)

Directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman

Story by Christopher L. Yost

Screenplay by Christopher L. Yost and Josh Koenigsberg & Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman

Stars: Walker Scobell, Keith L. Williams, Momona Tamada, Abby James Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Jesse Williams, Michael Peña, Dustin Ingram, Levy Tran, Michael Anthony, Charles Melton, and Jessie Mueller

Has anyone heard of this movie? I didn't know about it until I saw a story of Jesse William's Instagram talking about this movie coming out. Let's just say that poster is misleading. The movie as a whole is a mess.

The world is a safer place with The Guard, a mysterious superhero that travels across the globe doing heroic feats. A secret organization headed by Argon (Peña) wants to the find the source of The Guard's power. Charlie (Scobell) staying over at his dad, Jack's (Wilson) house with his friends discover a secret lair beneath. He discovers that his dad is The Guard, and the children have a target on their backs.

Going into this movie, I thought the movie was going to be like Sky High based on the poster. No, I wasn't. It's more like Iron Man, but but he barely in the movie. Seriously. The movie was focusing on these dumb teenagers who did dumb things. 

Let's have a movie that have teenagers play with alien guns. Cool. Let's a movie where these adults are willing to kill these kids. All right. Have the kids cheat in school with alien technology and suffer no consequences. Fine. Have one of the characters, Lizzie (Witherspoon) be completely crazy for "older boys." Nope.

The secret lair was the coolest thing about this movie. Other than that, it was a disaster.

Rating: 2/10

The Adam Project

The Adam Project (2022)

Directed by Shawn Levy

Screenplay by Jonathan Tropper and T.S. Nowlin & Jennifer Flackett & Mark Levin

Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Walker Scobell, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner, Zoe Saldaña, Catherine Keener and Alex Mallari Jr

I was entranced in the Oscar season that I wanted to see a regular movie. This came out recently and I wanted to check it out.

The basic premise of the film is that Big Adam (Reynolds) time travels from 2050 to 2022 which he stumbles upon his younger self (Scobell) as they try to figure out how to get back to his own timeline.

Reynold's sarcasm can be hit or miss in movies. If he is playing the merc with the mouth or playing a vampire killer with nice abs, good. If he is playing a fighter pilot with a green construct suit or playing a romantic lead, it falls flat. I enjoyed the humor in this movie.

This preteen boy is dealing with a lot with bullies in school, dealing with being the smallest sixth grader alive or having to live without his father.

The dynamic between Young and Big Adam is the anchor of the movie. Without that rapport with each other, this movie was have not worked as it did. The third act of this movie was a lot to take in. Some people would think it was mushy. I enjoyed it. Reminds me of Field of Dreams. 

The biggest strike against this film is the serious rotoscoping of one of the characters. Took me out.

Rating: 7/10