Alliance Lately: Issue No. 81

“Barbie” continued to dominate the box office over the last month but August still had plenty of other releases in cinemas.

The giant monster sequel “The Meg 2,” the comic book adaptation “Blue Beetle,” the vampire flick “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” and more all came out in theaters in the last several weeks. Members of the MNFCA were on hand to review those and many more.

Here’s what the Alliance has been up to lately.

Joe Botten

At his site, Botten reviewed new films “Til Death Do Us Part,” “The Passenger,” “Shortcomings,” “The Meg 2,” “Heart of Stone,” “Red, White & Royal Blue,” “Jules” and “King on Screen.”

Eli Brau

At A Cinephile’s Corner, Brau reviewed 2023 releases “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” “Talk to Me,” “Gran Turismo,” “The Covenant,” “They Cloned Tyrone,” “Earth Mama,” “Creed III,” “Rally Road Racers,” “Brooklyn 45” “Circus Maximum,” “Nimona” and “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.” He also wrote about 2009’s “Coraline” and 2020’s “Children of the Corn.” Plus, he ranked all of director Wes Anderson’s filmography and the seven “Transformers” films.

Brian Eggert

For Deep Focus Review, Eggert reviewed new films “The Meg 2,” “Passages,” “Command Z,” “The Last Voyage of the Demeter,” “Dark Windows,” “Bad Things,” “Landscape with Invisible Hand,” “They Cloned Tyrone,” “Strays” and “Golda.” He also wrote about 1960’s “The Virgin Spring,” 1977’s “Saturday Night Fever” and 2003’s “Oldboy.”

Hunter Friesen

At The Cinema Dispatch, Friesen reviewed new films “Passages,” “Landscape with Invisible Hand,” “Golda” and “Blue Beetle.” He also wrote a list covering films that have had surprising box office runs.

Jay Gabler

For the Duluth News Tribune, Gabler wrote about documentaries “The Cherry Man” and “Born in Chicago.” The latter explored the development of the blues while “Cherry Man” focuses on Minneapolis photographer Walter Griffin. He covered a trip filmmaker James Cameron made to Duluth.

Kyle Goethe

For his GOAT Film Reviews series, Goethe posted several video reviews on 2023 movies “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” “Evil Dead Rises,” “Fast X,” “Blackberry,” “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” “Shazam: Fury of the Gods,” “The Flash,” “Elemental,” “Mission: Impossible-Dead Reckoning,” “Oppenheimer” and “Talk to Me.”

Paul McGuire Grimes

For his series Paul’s Trip to the Movies, Grimes reviewed the 2022 documentary “King on Screen” about Stephen King adaptations, the Prime film “Red White & Royal Blue,” “Strays” and “Blue Beetle.”

Frank Lee

At the Brainerd Dispatch, Lee wrote about “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” and “Blue Beetle.”

Ruth Maramis

On FlixChatter, Maramis reviewed 2023 films “The Pod Generation,” “The Deepest Breath,” “Shortcomings,” “Heart of Stone” and the documentary “The Restless Hungarian.” She also wrote about 2013’s kaiju action film “The Pacific Rim.”

Mark McPherson

At his site, McPherson reviewed new films including the Ninja Turtles film “Mutant Mayhem,” “The Venture Bros.” movie, “Kill City Cup” and “Strays.”

Nicholas Palodichuk

For the series Kyle and Nick on Film, Palodichuk was joined by Kyle Goethe to discuss 1953’s “The Wild One,” 1968’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” 1988’s “The Blob,” 1993’s “Batman: Mask of the Phantasm” and 2004’s “Riding the Bullet.” He also spoke with fellow MNFCA member Brian Eggert on the St. Paul Filmcast.

Tyler Strandberg

At InSession Film, Strandberg reviewed the new film “Red, White & Royal Blue.”