 When I went into this, I had only seen 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory' once before, a few years ago. However, I had the pleasure of sharing this with someone I know is a big fan of the original film, and I'm happy to say that we both left it satisfied. Right off the bat, one would think it has a few strikes against it, just between being an origin story and having someone new playing Wonka, as Gene Wilder is incredibly hard to top. But while perhaps not perfect, I still got pretty much what I expected from this, and that's a good thing.
I will say right from the get-go that this takes place in a fantasy world as a whole, as opposed to the original, which I found only fantastical while inside Wonka's factory. It's pretty easy to forgive because one has to question where the magic came from in the first place, right down to an entire race of dancing, singing creatures with orange skin and green hair. This tells us a lot of what we may have wanted to know about Willy Wonka, the man, complete with his childhood dreams of running the best chocolate factory in the world and the trouble he runs into along the way. Here, we meet Willy Wonka (Timothée Chalamet) as a magician and inventor who has a special skill with making chocolate by using the most fantastically rare ingredients from the darkest, most exotic parts of the world. He comes to Europe in an attempt to establish a chocolate shop at the Galeries Gourmet, set in a fictional town modeled after a combination of London, Paris and Prague. Upon is arrival, and a pretty solid musical number to introduce himself, Wonka finds himself suddenly broke and setting up camp on a nearby bench. Here, Wonka meets a gruff-looking stranger named Bleacher (Tom Davis) who offers him a place to stay at the boarding house of Mrs. Scrubitt (Olivia Colman). He signs a document, spends the night, and in the morning heads to town to try to sell his chocolate for the first time. Despite intrigue from citizens of the town, however, he is quickly shut down by a trio of chocolate company owners, Slugworth (Paterson Joseph), Prodnose (Matt Lucas) and Fickelgruber (Mathew Baynton) after which he returns to the boarding house to pay for his night with the little bit left for him. Upon trying to pay, however, Wonka is tricked into staying after failing to read the fine print under the document Scrubitt has him sign upon his arrival. He is then forced into the basement to work in laundry along with several others who failed to read the fine print, namely, a girl who goes only by "Noodle" (Calah Lane) whom he eventually befriends along with former accountant Abacus Crunch (Jim Carter), former telephone operator Lottie Bell (Rakhee Thakrar), former failed comedian Larry Chucklesworth (Rich Fulcher) and Piper Benz (Natasha Rothwell), whose former occupation I frankly don't recall. While Mrs. Scrubitt and Bleacher run things like some sort of sweat shop, Wonka and Noodle try to figure out a way to get his more than worthy chocolate to the outside world and hopefully get themselves free. But even if they manage, they'll have the other three professional choclateeers to deal with, trying to stop him every step of the way. And while this remains a prequel, and we basically know how it all works out in the end, it is nevertheless entertaining to get to see how it all went down, right down to our first meeting with an Oompa Loompa (Hugh Grant). Atmospherically, it's somewhere between 'Paddington' as far as its charm and whimsy and 'Fantastic Beasts' as far as the magical aspects of it. To put it very simply, this is a nice, family-friendly movie that's full of great and, I would say, clevely written music and just a fun time, all around. I can't deny that there were actually several laugh out loud moments for me here, and none of them are really low-brow. I can't promise the die-hards will enjoy this, but I have to argue that it does a very good job for what it is, and recommend checking it out if you're on the lookout for something that is bound to leave you with a smile. 4/5
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 I don't tend to consider myself that hardcore of a 'Godzilla' fan, but I've always appreciated the ideas and material that he has brought to the table. Without Godzilla, the giant nuclear monster who attacks a city for no good reason other than to be a jerk, may very well not have become a thing. It led to movies like 'Cloverfield,' which is still one of the best found-footage movies out there, in my opinion. Sure, it could be argued that Kong did it first, but remember that he was just a little giant monster before Godzilla fought him.
Anyway, 'Godzilla Minus One' covers almost everything you could want from a 'Godzilla' movie and more, including a heavy but well-done human element. I have to appreciate a movie that illustrates how certain things were left after World War II for people who weren't on the winning side. Japan's stories are among the most tragic and include things like 'Grave of the Fireflies,' almost guaranteed to bring on tears. This movie is similar in showing the devastation left behind in parts of Japan and how civilians dealt with these times. It's a little surprising how much drama came from this when I've only seen these as cheesy fun until now. Nearing the end of WWII, a Japanese airbase located on Odo Island is visited by kamikaze pilot Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) coming in to repair some technical issues with his plane. Upon studying the plane, it's soon found out that Kōichi is a disgraced pilot, fleeing from his mission. This was all very interesting to me, and it's a solid way to pull you into the film. It's seeing things from the other side, and while most of the pilots and mechanics there claim him to be a coward and a disgrace for not committing suicide and taking people with him, a select few are humane enough to understand why he fled. Then, thank the Gods because out of nowhere, Godzilla shows up on this island and shows us right away that he is not the tamed Americanized version of Godzilla we've been seeing over the past few years. This guy is back to being a total monster and back to being what he always should have been (another part of the checklist), a monster meant to be a cautionary tale of the dangers of nuclear radiation. The scene is awesome and tells us what we're in for with this version. No outstretched hands to try to pet the misunderstood monster in this one! Upon returning home to a now devastated Tokyo (due to America's air raids), he finds everyone he loves and more missing. He befriends a woman named Noriko (Minami Hamabe), who lost her parents, and a girl she rescued named Akiko (Sae Nagatani). As a result of his guilt, he soon takes up a minesweeper job to support them. As they begin to rebuild, Godzilla gets mutated and powers up because of the Americans testing nukes nearby, and several American ships are destroyed as a result. Soon enough, the news gets back to Kōichi, who assembles his minesweeping team, which includes the brilliant Kenji Noda (Hidetaka Yoshioka) and the lead mechanic meant to fix his plane, Sosaku Tachibana (Munetaka Aoki) as well as several others. Eventually, they devise a plan that could work to destroy Godzilla (as these movies go), and I have to give them credit for how creative the idea was. With all this, Kōichi hopes to redeem himself for his guilt and embarrassment of fleeing his mission. If he can just beat this monster, he can continue rebuilding a happy life with Noriko and Akiko. I really didn't expect it to get there, but I have to say that this is a last-minute entry for my favourite movies of 2023. Aside from the fact that it's authentically Japanese and not Americanized, this movie has a great human element that we care about, especially in knowing that there's a reality behind it all. On top of that, it's just awesome to see Godzilla be a horror movie monster and not the Americanized misunderstood creature - something both the 98 and new versions have done (although I still enjoy the new stuff for what it is). If you're looking for a well-done Kaiju flick, look no further! 5/5  I'll start this one off with the fact that history is far from my strong suit, and I know pretty much nothing about Napoleon Bonaparte and can, therefore, not point out any sort of accuracy or inaccuracy about the execution of this movie. What I can tell you, however, is that I have heard other reviewers mention how what's essentially covered here is "Napoleon's Greatest Hits," as far as battles go. It's not in a great or terrible spot on Rotten Tomatoes, with a current average of 58.5%, and in a word, the film could be described as "okay" at best.
Admittedly, I ended up seeing this for two major reasons: Ridley Scott and his fantastic job on previous films like 'Gladiator,' and Joaquin Phoenix, who I thought might have been able to pull Napoleon off, but after watching, I can't help but feel like he didn't quite nail it. But again, I'm no good with history, especially regarding things like this. I'm not sure we learned anything about the man in school. If we ever did, it didn't stand out, and my biggest impression of who Napoleon was is best portrayed in Looney Tunes. So, I am not the right guy to review this for accuracy. But even with that, I still have my own takeaways. The film opens with an almost glorified execution of Marie Antoinette (Catherine Walker) as Napoleon Bonaparte (Phoenix) watches the guillotine do its thing from the sidelines. I suppose this scene was mostly to tie another big name of the era into things to kick it off because things pick up later that year when Napoleon is approached by Paul Barras (Tahar Rahim), a Revolutionary leader who asks Napoleon to manage the Siege of Toulon. And this is when the viewer quickly realizes that animal lovers need not attend this movie - especially regarding horses because things get graphic! And while things get very gory here, and I hate seeing animals get it (even if they weren't harmed), I still have to give Scott credit for not holding back on some of the bloodier realism of these battle scenes. They keep you on the edge of your seat, you feel their brutality, and they serve as not-so-friendly reminders that war is an ugly thing. But with that said, that's the only real reason to check this movie out, in my opinion. It almost feels like a new setting of the bar for war violence to me, making the opening of 'Saving Private Ryan' look tame. The other side of the story concerns his "romantic" life with aristocratic widow Joséphine de Beauharnais (Vanessa Kirby). This is mostly centred on their sex life and, despite it being quite vigorous, the inability to bear children and, therefore, give Napoleon an heir. Of course, it also covers Napoleon's abusive tendencies and temper here, which can get uncomfortable. But it can get funny when taking his temper to his military tactics. At one point, he even acts like a kid, telling a British diplomat, "You think you're so great because you've got boats!" But while there are a couple of solid laughs through this, intentional or not, and the bloody war action is top-notch (if that's what you're here for, but keep in mind the horses), I'm not entirely sure I got what I wanted from it, especially from Phoenix's acting. The man is great, don't get me wrong, but I think this role was one of his weaker performances, and I'm not alone on this based on word of mouth and various other articles on the subject. I had to browse because I wondered if it was just me. Ultimately, he just felt miscast. I was ultimately looking forward to this potentially reaching the top of my list of movies this year based on certain things, mostly on seeing Ridley Scott return to this type of historical stuff. And while I thought many aspects of the film were good, some others just dragged, and it ends with what might as well be a random fade to black. So don't be on the lookout for an epic, unforgettable end to this. At the end of the day, my opinion on this as a whole is pretty much where everyone else is. It's good some of the time, lame some of the time, and averages out to be "decent," but it's nothing compared to Scott's earlier work on 'Gladiator.' 3/5  While perhaps not entirely original, as it remains the classic cautionary tale of what happens once AI gets too big for its britches, it is nice to see a movie take a somewhat different spin. It does so by making the movie a conglomeration of a few different concepts and blending them together, complete with the aforementioned AI, a look at mankind being the potential real monster, loss and learning to trust/love again and, as one can easily pick up from the trailers, this one consists of another "escort mission" of sorts.
The film opens with an old-time-style (even though this is the future) ad about the advancements of Artificial Intelligence and, ultimately, how we've gotten them to the stage of being almost indecipherable from humans. We get the AI out of hand instantly when they detonate a nuclear warhead over Los Angeles, CA, in the year 2055. This ultimately leads Americans (referring to humans of the Western world) to struggle and fight for survival. Still, the AI also has friends with "New Asia" (Japan, Taiwan, Bhutan, Nepal, Southeast Asia and some of India) who continue to see them as something of an equal. Now that the environment is set, we turn our attention to undercover operative Joshua Taylor (John David Washington), who has unwittingly married his target, Maya Fey (Gemma Chan), whom the American government believes to be the daughter of their ultimate target known as "Nirmata," who is supposed to be the "Creator," responsible for the AI advancements that have seemingly taken things over. Long story short, Josh and Maya get themselves separated under devastating circumstances, but throughout the film, Josh continues his search for her under the belief that she is still alive. Five years later, Josh is approached by General Andrews and Colonel Howell to seek out and destroy a sort of ultimate weapon, supposedly capable of taking out their ultimate defence system - a giant ship known as NOMAD (North American Orbital Mobile Aerospace Defense). He reluctantly agrees when he realizes this mission could lead to reuniting with Maya, but then ends up over his head when he realizes that the "weapon" known as "Alpha-O" is just a kid he nicknames "Alphie" (Madeleine Yuna Voyles) who, despite her great abilities to manipulate machinery, just wants robots to be able to live in peace, thus giving Josh his internal struggle unable to complete his mission, but for all the right moral reasons. This one comes to us from writer/director Gareth Edwards, who feels about as upper-middle ground as possible in directing fantasy/sci-fi movies. He was also responsible for 2014's 'Godzilla' (a breath of fresh air after 1998's version) and 'Star Wars: Rogue One' (probably the ultimate stand-out movie of anything that came out after the prequel trilogy). But as much as I enjoyed those movies for myself, they certainly were not without their share of critics, and though they may never be solid gold, they're generally pretty damn good and never actually what I'd call "bad." This is no exception, and it is well worth the price of admission. Strangely, this movie didn't perform better for an audience who constantly gets sick and tired of the same old superhero blockbusters. This may not have stuck out as ultimately brilliant, in as much as it takes from other concepts. But it was nonetheless entertaining with likeable characters, a flare for the dramatic (even with robots), and visuals that remind us that the sci-fi genre isn't entirely tapped out yet. If I were to ultimately compare it to anything in the way it feels, I'd probably go with 'District 9' in that the film drops us into this world of the future that seems like it could be real one day, based on the ignorance of us asshole humans. Unlike 'District 9', however, I don't entirely see this one being up for a whole lot of Oscars (other than maybe some technical ones), even though I do enjoy the idea here. This isn't one of those big-time go-to sci-fi classics we'll be returning to, but I recommend checking it out to see what it's all about. If nothing else, it provides a relatively intense sci-fi adventure for those seeking something like that, though I may not label it as "fun" like I usually would. This is one to throw on when you've got two hours of nothing to do and just wanna relax with a decent story. There may not be much of a "Wow" factor here, but it's still pretty good. 3/5  I can still remember a time when the idea of gathering a dream team of action heroes from films from my generation's childhood and our parent's adulthood was an amazing concept. And I have to say, the first couple of them back in 2010 and 2012, respectively, are still a hell of a lot of fun. By the third, I wondered if perhaps it was getting out of hand, but in fairness, it was the third of a box office money-making franchise of epic proportions, and it was still released in 2014. At that point, things really should have probably just stopped.
Here we are, almost ten years after 'Expendables 3' for a fourth chapter that, as far as I can tell, not many people were asking for. Now, I'll be the first guy to admit that I enjoy a fun action romp of epic proportions, even if a lot of it is "bad" in its own way. This could have fallen into that category if only I didn't have that very concept and drive it into the ground when it already worked fine for the first three films. When it's all said and done, this is a simple revenge movie with a twist ending that will make you want to rage-throw your popcorn at the screen. No spoilers, just a fair warning. The Expendables team is sent to Libya to intercept a nuclear weapons thief named Suarto Rahmat (Iko Uwais), who is stealing some warheads for a terrorist known only as Ocelot - a name any 'Metal Gear: Solid' fan might cringe at as it feels so very stolen. The mission brings back old favourites Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone), Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Toll Road (Randy Couture) and Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lundgren). It also introduces us to the noobies Easy Day (50 Cent) and Galan (Jacob Scipio). So, thank God, at least a few of them have made a return. Everything's business as usual, but in the firefight, Rahmat shoots down the Expendables' plane, only to leave one of the team members dead (without throwing too many early spoilers at you). The CIA reveals that the Expendables will go after Rahmat to finish what they started and get revenge without Christmas, as he apparently jeopardized the mission. Insult to injury is added when Christmas is replaced by Gina (Megan Fox), his former lover, who, herself, brings in Lash (Levy Tran), another talented female operative. As the Expendables tackle the mission, Christmas tracks them, knowing he'll be needed more than they think. I really wanted to have more fun than I did with this. It carries a feeling of "too little, too late" with it (especially with the first three being a solid 2 years apart from each other), and the casting kind of throws away what made these movies so good to begin with and I'm afraid this is where I have to get into a bit of controversial territory. But the fact of the matter is, the original 'Expendables' concept was that it was a testosterone-loaded action flick that starred all of our favourite action heroes, and its main target was definitely dudes. This is absolutely not to say that women can't or shouldn't enjoy these or be a part of them. But when Megan Fox takes the lead AND brings on another woman, which feels a bit forced, things get a little too "woke" when they don't need to be for a film that was always initially catered towards men. I'm all for an all-female action movie with a stellar cast that shows the strength of women without forcing things to be perfectly clear. It just felt very out of place here, especially with someone like Megan Fox, who I've never considered an action star. Even if I were to accept all of that and take it with a grain of salt, it wouldn't change the overall poor execution of things. At best, I can say that if you just feel like some high-octane action, it still delivers on that level fairly well. But the writing and dialogue are pretty rough, and, again, it ends on such a "middle finger" note that leaves you sitting there wondering, "Wait, that's it?" For my money, the first two of these are still a great time, and the third is okay, just for fun. But this felt altogether completely unnecessary. 2/5  I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I predict the Video Game genre to be the next big thing after the Superhero genre starts to fizzle out. And here, again, we have further evidence of such a concept. This time, the filmmakers decided to look at an intriguing story surrounding video games instead of just trying to adapt a game to the big screen. In this case, the story surrounds (arguably) the most popular racing simulator of all time - 'Gran Turismo'. All in all, a game I tried once, sucked at, and never really picked up again.
Having admitted to that, the game aside, this is an intriguing true story altogether, and I'm curious to know how it went over my head. But, as usual, it's still important to note that when a film says "Based on a True Story", that usually means the movie has some loose odds and ends for dramatic effect, and it's a term to be taken very lightly. 'Gran Turismo' is no exception to this rule, though, and I'd encourage people to look at the real true stories behind Jann Mardenborough and the GT Academy, which are perhaps less dramatic, but are still interesting! Anyway, that's what this movie is all about, starting right from the beginning with the game's development, created by Kazunori Yamauchi (Takehiro Hira), who wanted to make a racing game that could efficiently mimic real racing. We take this concept and fast-forward to (presumably) 2006, where marketing executive Darren Cox (or here, Danny Moore - Orlando Bloom) pitches a contest for the best 'Gran Turismo' racers in the world to compete for a chance to race on a real race track. Training them all in the ways of real racing is one Jack Salter (David Harbour) who, I believe, is pretty much the only fictional character here. Meanwhile, we are introduced to 'Gran Turismo' mega fan Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe) and his family, father, Steve (Djimon Hounsou), mother, Leslie (Geri Horner, formerly known as Ginger Spice of the Spice Girls) and brother, Coby (Daniel Puig). Jann lives his life playing 'GT' while his parents, namely his father, wish for him to think about college or university and establish some sort of life path - which 'GT' will not help with. That is, of course, until he notices that he qualifies for the aforementioned contest with his excellent racing skills and high score. The rest of the movie follows the "Cinderella Story" formula of an underdog of sorts, proving himself on the track and climbing through the ranks to become one of the greats. Of course, it doesn't come without a detail or two that causes us to question the "true story" portion of it all. But I had a lot of fun with this movie! If you can go in with the understanding that some dramatic effect is added to the plot, it's really a good time, and I have to admit that I was impressed and happy to see that the video game genre is continuing to improve, slowly but surely. Opinions will certainly differ, but I'm sticking to my guns. One might wonder where the actual video game aspect comes into things, if at all. Well, I'm happy to say it's there and used just enough to remind us of the game - excuse me - racing simulator this is all about. And I'm further happy to say that the CG used in this movie is exactly where it needs to be - used for sponsorship tags, recreating famous tracks, and, coolest of all, often making things look like the game only by tagging the racer's rank in the race or showing us some kind of "achievement." The racing and the cars being used further bring the realism that 'Gran Turismo' was all about to the big screen. Although I must admit that the story comes with predictability and some dramatic effect added to the true story, I don't have a hard time forgiving that. This is something that managed to bridge the gap between being a video game movie and being a dramatic racing story that just so happens to involve 'Gran Turismo'. Director Neil Blomkamp does a great job with this (along with everyone involved, including the real Jann Mardenborough doing his own stunt driving) and I feel like this movie should be the beginning of a whole new concept involving things like the video game contest... perhaps 'Swordquest'? 5/5  It's hard for me to gauge exactly how this one made me feel. If you know me well, you'll know that I'm an animal lover, and when it comes to the pets that I've had over the years, they were never pets so much as family members in themselves. Over time with our pets, however, we get to wondering what they might be thinking, and this is a movie that shows all of that in a much less family-friendly fun way, and in a much more adult and probably more realistic way. However, the cleverness of that also gets to be the film's downfall.
Fart jokes and toilet humour, to me, tend to be very low-brow and cheap - the comedy equivalent of a jump scare in a horror movie. These things can be done well, and done cleverly, or be done just for the sake of throwing it in there, and I feel like this had a lot of that "throwing" when it came to the toilet humour as well as the raunchy humour. The problem fighting me on this, however, is that for as much humping, pooping and boasting penis size as there is in this movie... these are dogs. It almost feels like dogs were used as a tool to unleash the writer's humour in a way that made perfect sense. The story involves a Border Terrier named Reggie (Will Farrell) who lives with his horrible owner, Doug (Will Forte), a character any dog lover will despise immediately, who only has Reggie to lord him over his ex. Otherwise, he resents Reggie and tries to get abandon him at every turn. Reggie, being the loyal but gullible little guy he is, keeps coming back home though, so one day, Doug takes him somewhere he feels sure to get rid of him. Now abandoned, he finds himself roaming the town with a new group of furry friends. A Boston Terrier named Bug (Jamie Foxx) takes Reggie under his wing and shows him the ways of living the stray life with an Australian Shepherd named Maggie (Isla Fisher) and a Great Dane named Hunter (Randall Park). The other dogs eventually manage to convince Reggie of the truth, being that Doug abandoned him. This leads Reggie to come up with the ultimate revenge on his previous owner by heading back home and biting off his... well... you get the picture. Essentially what we have here ends up being a raunchy road trip movie involving man's best friend and how they would face the various situations they get into. As the film goes on, the typical things we see in these movies go down. There's an awkward love interest going on between two of the main characters, there's a big drug tripping scene when the dogs find some magic mushrooms, a fight or two happens, and all of the humour is punctuated with raunchiness. I sort of hoped that this was going to be the big-deal raunchy/adult comedy of the year for me, but it just didn't impress me all that much. Perhaps that's a matter of over-hyping myself for it though. In many ways, it felt almost too low-brow during the majority of it. With all that said, however, I do believe that there's some redeeming quality to this if you are a dog lover. For as low-brow raunchy as the film gets, I feel like anyone who has ever had a dog can understand exactly where they were going with this movie, and there's a certain amount of unfiltered honesty going on here. And that unfiltered honesty comes with the fact that dogs, despite how awesome they are, can be quite nasty. Hell, they can be eating, pooping, slobbering, farting, drooling machines, and this movie gets all of that across while still making way for them to be likeable characters. The rest of that unfiltered honesty is actually kind of heartbreaking in that it shows a dog's loyalty to its fault with Reggie. When he does get abandoned, it's a heartbreaking scene, and it gives us that chance to like Reggie and want to see Doug get that "item" of his bitten off. While I can't say I loved this movie, I still had a fun time with it, and I feel like a true dog lover will as well. It's cute, fun, and even has a bit of heart to it. But if you're looking for real quality comedy, I'm not sure this is the right place to look. It's pretty much all poopies and genitalia here. 3/5  There's something I love about going to a movie, not knowing a damn thing about its original source material. This makes way for me to enjoy what the movie has to offer without my brain analyzing it for what they did "wrong" or what they've "changed". It payed off with Marvel for 'Guardians' and 'Ant-Man' (primarily the first one), and DC managed it with 'Shazam!' (again, primarily the first one). 'Blue Beetle' serves as further evidence that sometimes it's the unknowns that make us fall in love with the superhero genre all over again.
For those who were like me going into this, completely clueless, 'Blue Beetle' seems to manage to take everything so stereotypical of superhero movies and manage to twist it in a way that reflects the best of everything. Take Spider-Man's personality and quips, then put a Symbiote on him that comes equipped with Stark-Tech... then make it a DC property, and give it the multiculturalism of giving us, not only a Mexican superhero, but make much of the story surround his family, giving the hero something to fight for, and us something to route for and ultimately care about. It all begins when Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon) and other members of Kord Industries find an alien artifact known as The Scarab in remote Antarctica. Her intentions, much to her niece, Jenny's (Bruna Marquezine) dismay, is to ultimately use the Scarab's symbiotic alien tech as a weapon, creating an army. So like, the premise of 'Ant-Man', but using Symbiotes. While attempting to stealthily steal the Scarab and sneak it out of the wrong hands, Jenny hands it off to the unassuming Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) for safe keeping while she hides in plain sight. Jaime just got back to his loving family from graduating from Gotham Law University; among them, father, Alberto (Damián Alcázar), mother, Rocio (Elpidia Carrillo) sister, Milagro (Belissa Escobedo), uncle Rudy (George Lopez), and Nana (Adriana Barraza). Before the aforementioned hand-off happens, Jamie is offered a potential job from Jenny upon meeting her, which is how he was in the right place at the right time when the hand-off occurred; there initially for a job interview. Anyway, the family pressures Jamie to open the secret box he was given despite strict instructions not to, one thing leads to another, and the Scarab chooses Jaime to bond with, thus making him the new Blue Beetle. The family seeks help from Jenny, who supposedly knows what this thing is and how it works, and therefore presumably knows how to get rid of it. This leads the family to work together with Jenny in order to find these answers, but in the meantime, Jaime has some bigger fish to fry with Victoria trying to reclaim the Scarab which is now part of Jaime, no matter what the cost. Tagging along with her is her brute guinea pig, Carapax (Raoul Max Trujillo) who has a few tricks up his own sleeve, as he's an in-development "weapon". When I first saw ads for this, it really did strike me as more of the same, and I suppose in many ways, it really is. But even for as much as I've mentioned things we've seen before and ideas that have been executed before - hell, the guy even looks like a Stark Tech suit, there was something about this one that managed to rope me in. I think it was the family dynamic within. We're so used to seeing superheroes work outside of their family. In this, it's almost more like 'The Incredibles' in which the family's involvement is half the charm. We want to see the Reyes family succeed in everything they do. They're super charming and lovable, especially Nana! This is one of the better superhero films I've seen in a long time. Although it clearly takes from a lot of different things, somehow it blends it into something unique, allowing the superhero genre to keep hanging on by that thread it's slowly slipping down. In my pinion, this is what the genre needs to keep doing. Deliver us unfamiliarity instead of rehashing the same heroes over and over again. Box office success is one thing, but a good movie that floats under the radar is another. Not everything has to end up like 'The Eternals', or countless other failed names in the 90s. Honestly, give this one a shot if you're looking for some superhero rejuvenation. 5/5  I'm not entirely sure where it all started, but when it comes to the whole "bad shark movie" trend (shark-related movies that are made purposefully to be "so bad they're good"), I never really fell into it, with a couple of exceptions here and there. We all have some trend, or several, that we don't fall into along with everyone else. Sharks were always one that applied to me. So when a movie comes along like this, it can be difficult to review, as it's fine for those who are into this kind of stuff. But for me, it's mildly fun at best.
Just to briefly recap the first film, we first met Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham), a pro rescue diver who is hired by Zhang (Winston Chao) and Mac (Cliff Curtis), a couple of oceanographers, studying the deeper levels of the Marianas Trench, to perform a rescue mission for a submersible that was attacked by a giant shark known more as a Megoladon, and the only part anyone really cares about is the fun concept of Jason Statham fighting a massive shark. But one thing was very disappointing about it for yours truly, and that was the surprising lack of shark imagery within the film. It was "okay" at best, and I've gotta say, this one's no different. Picking things up here five years later, Jonas is now helping the underwater research facility that is "Mana One," exploring the Mariana Trench even further and being the muscle behind fighting various environmental crimes. He also takes on the responsibility of looking after Meiying (Shuya Sophia Cai), the daughter of one of the previous film's casualties. Meanwhile Meiying's uncle, Jiuming Zhang (Jing Wu), who has since acquired his father's company, studies a female Meg named Haiqi, whom he found and trained as a pup, and this is where we get the idea that maybe it's "misunderstood" and there's a sort of "Free Willy"-like connection there. To no one's surprise, Jonas feels pretty damn iffy about this supposed "connection," unable to trust the Megoladon for obvious reasons, especially when she starts acting erratically. Jonas and Jiuming take a submersible (with Meiying stowing away) into the trench to see what may be bothering Haiqi, and it's not long before they find themselves trapped down below due to not only Haiqi escaping, but a couple of other Megs, the film then takes a massive turn and the plot switches things up to an environmental policing movie when Jonas and the team find an illegal underwater mining operation being led by one of Jonas' old perpetrators (who he imprisoned earlier), a mercenary named Montes (Sergio Peris-Mencheta) who is there to mine rare underwater minerals to make a fortune. Now, to be fair, while this really does turn into a man vs man story as opposed to the man vs nature story we kind of wanted (speaking for myself, at least), there is plenty of material here that will fulfill the needs of those looking for a cheesy, corny adventure under the sea. This includes not only giant sharks but also never-before-seen critters known as "Snappers" and, eventually, a giant octopus, which is actually kind of hilariously fun once it shows up. That is the kind of fun that is trying to look very serious, but one just can't possibly take it seriously. For those wondering about who else may have returned from the previous film, there's a basic tag team here made up of survivors Mac and DJ (Page Kennedy), who I feel bad for here, as he's meant to be the comedy relief but just about all of his lines feel awkward or forced. He's a touch more annoying than funny. But God bless him. He had what he had to work with, so full blame goes on the writers for trying to make a fast-talking, shall we say, stereotype. Maybe that's an overthought on my part, but that's just how I took it. I suppose that if you're looking for an awful movie this year that you can still enjoy somewhat ironically, 'Meg 2' isn't exactly a bad place to look. I fully understand that this is something made for people looking for that cheese factor in their lives, and I can't really discredit it for delivering that on some level. It really is mildly entertaining in all the wrong ways, especially when it comes to the creatures. But as I said at the top of this review, the shark thing was never really my bag. So while it has a fun factor to it that I can understand for others, this one wasn't necessarily for yours truly and at the end of the day, it's kinda just bad. 2/5 NOTE: The following review will eventually be moved to a special 'Mission: Impossible' page.  Here we have the seventh instalment of the long-running 'Mission: Impossible' series, but the first film that ends up being a two-parter. It's unclear at the time of this review whether or not the next chapter will, in fact, be the final chapter of this series that has been running reasonably solidly since 1996. However, it would appear that overall box office performance for this and a dwindling sense of interest from fans make me wonder if maybe it is time for the now 61-year-old stunt fanatic of an adrenaline junkie, Tom Cruise, to hang it up? At least for this series.
With that said, however, I will say that speaking personally, I still give Tom full credit for doing these stunts of his. It's all very entertaining. And believe me, I am into the idea of seeing him do these stunts until the day he dies. But it is getting to a point where I'm starting to wonder how much fuel he still has in his tank at 61. Despite all that, however, we also get the consistent returns of our favourite side characters, a good adventure punctuated with intrigue, bits of comedy scattered throughout, and an overall good big-screen experience just about every time. And this one is no exception. The film's namesake comes from a new, advanced AI whose navigation system uses "dead reckoning," which, according to Wiki, is "the process of calculating the current position of a moving object by using a previously determined position, or fix, and incorporating estimates of speed, heading (or direction or course), and elapsed time." A next-gen Russian sub employs this technology, and the AI manages to trick them into firing a torpedo which the AI then turns back on the sub, sinking it and killing all on board. We learn through a meeting of U.S. Intelligence Community leaders, including CIA Director Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny) and the Director of National Intelligence Denlinger (Cary Elwes), that the AI has gone rogue and achieved sentience. As a result, primary defence, intelligence and financial networks worldwide have begun to be infiltrated. World powers soon seek to obtain both halves of a "cruciform key" to "control" the AI, which they have dubbed "The Entity," and protect their national security. This eventually leads IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) to accept his mission for this movie; intercept both halves of a "cruciform key." With the help of his teammates, Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Isla Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), he can use the power of this cruciform key to destroy the entity, as it poses far too great of a threat to humanity. While obtaining the first half of the key is relatively easygoing, pursuing the second half makes the movie take off. This has Ethan meet the expert thief, Grace (Hayley Atwell), as they seem to unknowingly be after the same thing. The difference is that Grace is on the job, working for a mystery buyer, providing a true-neutral character to the movie. Much like with any movie like this, there is more to it, but I don't wanna just type out the story as plot points unfold. All you really need to take away from that is that Ethan needs to intercept an important key that world powers could use to control an AI to their advantage. The AI has run amock, making this a bit more of a sci-fi version of 'Mission: Impossible' than we're used to. However, fans, rest assured that everything we've come to expect from a 'Mission: Impossible' movie is here; running, stunt work, more running, espionage, and even a bit of running! I think this is just another film that runs with the rest of its predecessors, ie, if you enjoy 'Mission: Impossible' movies, there's really no reason you won't enjoy this one as well. Some people say it's the best they've done yet, but I don't know that I'd agree. It was really just "another 'Mission: Impossible' movie" for me, but I will say that that's not necessarily a bad thing either. These have gotten to a point of theatrical thrills I enjoy returning to time and time again just for fun, and although they aren't top of the list for me, they are always a good time one should check out on a big screen if given the chance. Again, this one's no exception. 4/5  Let me open this one with the fact that when it comes to DC Comics, I am generally clueless about things. I am, and always have been a Marvel guy, who enjoyed his Spider-Man and X-Men. The only real exception for DC I made was for Batman, who I've enjoyed since the Adam West show was on in syndication in the 80s. And as for the 1989 movie? Well, let's just say I remember the hype. I was there for it, and it was huge. Ever since then, Keaton always has been my favourite as far as someone who can fill both Batman and Bruce Wayne's shoes, equally.
Of course, "Who is the best Batman?" is an argument as old as the 80s themselves, and the correct answer is, of course, Kevin Conroy... But as far as the live-action movies go, let's face it, it's a very split audience. So, I should admit that I have a total bias toward Michael Keaton playing Bruce/Batman going into this, and may be guilty of eating up the fan service he delivered here. I wish the trailers didn't show so much of him, but how else were they gonna get butts in seats?... Which they still actually failed to do, probably thanks to Ezra Miller being kinda frowned upon these days. This actually makes this review a tad awkward, as I try to be one who separates the art from the artist. More on this in a bit. Getting to the plot of this whole thing, we hit the ground running with a quick action sequence involving several members of the now-established Justice League; namely, Bruce Wayne/Batman (Ben Affleck), Barry Allen/The Flash (Ezra Miller) and Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), with assistance from Alfred (Jeremy Irons) back at Wayne Manor. IF I'm being honest, this has very little to do with anything else, but I can't deny that the sequence is pretty exhilarating. It's meant to show us that this is not just a 'Flash' movie, but indeed, a 'Justice League' movie. I might suggest it's DC's answer to 'Captain America: Civil War'. Anyway, in the aftermath, Barry revisits his childhood home, with memories of his parents and a happy life before his Mother, Norah (Maribel Verdú) passed away, and Father, Henry (Ron Livingston) got accused of murdering her. In his frustration, he goes full Sonic the Hedgehog and runs super fast. Unlike Sonic, however, he realizes that he can potentially time travel, and wants to use it as a reason to save his mother's life. Bruce is there to warn us all about what we already know - it's a terrible idea. But of course, we wouldn't have a movie if Barry didn't decide to do it anyway. He succeeds, but on his way back to what could be a happy present, he gets knocked out of the "Speed Force" by someone else with speed abilities. Landing in an alternate 2013, he finds his mother is alive, but he also runs into himself right before he obtained his powers. The pair work to recreate the accident to ensure Present-Barry will still have his powers, but during the process, Present-Barry has his powers zapped from him while Past-Barry gains them. Meanwhile, they happen to be in the time when General Zod (Michael Shannon) comes to invade Earth. The two Barry's then work on assembling the rest of the Justice League, first successfully starting with this universe's Batman (Michael Keaton) and this universe's Supergirl (Sasha Calle). The general story does turn into "Stop Zod" with a side of "Get My Powers Back", and I do have to admit that, as expected, Michael Keaton kind of stole the show. But that brings me back to what I mentioned before about Ezra Miller as well. The truth is, he's really good in this! There's a younger Barry who's the smart-ass, fun and careless one we sort of remember from 'Justice League', while the older Barry has been through some stuff, and realizes that there's a more serious side to this superhero business. I'm not big on Ezra Miller the person, but I can't deny that Ezra Miller the actor can hold his own, either. When it's all over, one does realize that the "Batman Returns Again" and "Zod Invading" plots take things over. However, speaking for myself, I was able to manage to push the importance of these more fan-driven plot points to the background. Batman was there for fan service, Supergirl was there to show more differences in universes. But the depth of the movie is in Barry's story (as it should be), and I'm not ashamed to say that by the end, it did manage to tug on my heartstrings quite a bit. If one can push one's feelings to the side, I might just say that this is one of the better DC movies of the DCEU. 4/5  Whether you like or dislike whatever it is Sony is doing with the rest of the Spider-Verse, one thing remains certain - they nailed it when it came to Miles Morales. I still think Sony should just make him their Spider-Man instead of all of these Peter Parker complications, but that's honestly a whole other article, and if I'm honest, I just wanna talk about this movie without all of the crazy Spider-Politics. The first thing to tackle? Is this really what the TV Spots are saying, right now? Is this, quote, "The best animated movie of all time"?
I mean, seriously? Can any new animated film come along and sincerely claim that title, given a massive track record of fantastic animated stories out there? It's a lot to claim such a thing. But I will say this for it - it probably does make for an easy consideration for that title. Especially if I'm screwing up the context and it's supposed to be the "best-animated movie of all time". That little hyphen there makes all the difference because the animation styles in this (yes, styles, plural) make for a pretty mind-blowing concoction. This film takes everything we loved about 'Into the Spider-Verse' and cranks it up to eleven. We open things on Earth-65, where we get a bit more Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) background involving her Peter Parker, her father, and her rocky relationship with law enforcement - her father being a police captain, unaware of her identity under the "Spider-Woman" mask (fans will probably know the costume better as Ghost-Spider or Spider-Gwen). One day, she gets caught up in a fight at the Guggenheim Museum with a Renaissance-themed vulture, whose animation is done with pencil sketches on what looks like old parchment - so cool! This is that moment where we get a taste of what we're really in for. To try and wrap this up without spoiling too much *deep breath* Gwen is eventually greeted by Miguel O'Hara aka Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac), and Jessica Drew, aka other Spider-Woman (Issa Rae) who have arrived using portal-generating tech (as seen at the end of the previous film). Eventually, she's granted membership into the "Spider-Society" - a massive team of Spider-Men (and women) from different dimensions who work together, monitoring the multiverse for anomalies, and making sure "canon events" aren't disrupted. A "canon event" is something that, while the universes all play out differently, remains the same. Here, the biggest specific is the death of a police captain close to the respective Spider-Man. Meanwhile, on Earth 1610, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) has been adapting to being the city's hero, but in the meantime, misses Gwen and struggles to meet the expectations of his parents. One day, he has a run-in with an incredibly strange villain who calls himself The Spot (Jason Schwartzman) and claims that he's Mile's arch-nemesis without Miles understanding who he is. After the confrontation, Gwen comes through a portal to reunite with Miles, while secretly tracking The Spot, who, himself, is an anomaly, as he can travel to other dimensions, which, long story short, brings Miles and Gwen to confront him in Mumbattan, India, where we meet a couple of more Spider-People for this chapter - Pavitr Prabhakar, aka Spider-Man India (Karan Soni) and Hobie Brown, aka Spider-Punk (Daniel Kaluuya). Anyway, during that whole bit, we get Miles disrupting a canon event, which leads him to realize this same canon event is supposed to happen in his own universe, but the other Spider-People need him not to disrupt the timeline of what's supposed to happen, making for one hell of a personal inner struggle for Miles. And dear God, there's so much more to it, but I'm just gonna be unfolding the whole movie if I keep going. It's kinda hard to keep everything short and sweet about this one, plot-wise, but rating-wise is a whole other story. I can say with all confidence that if you enjoyed the first one, you're definitely going to enjoy this one. The stylistic choices in a lot of the animation here are something to be admired, and it seems to cover the spectrum. Beyond that, just like the first, there's also a killer soundtrack here, and I really enjoyed the introduction of some new Spider-People as opposed to just bringing back the old crew for familiarity. There's even a genuine surprise or two here when it comes to the different universe. This was a movie that took a few risks, but those risks definitely paid off, and it was so good to see the movie just go for it with everything it did. I can't really praise this movie enough as a near-perfect mishmash of a work of art, an interesting concept for a Spider-Man story, and a touch of every emotion coming through. I cannot wait for the next chapter! 5/5  Another live-action Disney remake has come along from the Disney Renaissance era of the 90s to cash in on things, and this time it's all about exploring under the sea with 'The Little Mermaid'. I have a tricky time with these remakes at the best of times, but when we're talking about a remake of something from the short time I was laser-focused on Disney animation as a kid, I'm bound to have my problems here and there. But I also get that there's an idea of bringing these stories to a new generation.
'The Little Mermaid' was a particular old favourite of mine, and a lot of that had to do with my love of the character Sebastian the Crab. Heck, I even had an album full of him doing Caribbean song covers, that honestly wouldn't make for a bad summertime fun album using all of the original songs like "Three Little Birds", "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)" and "Hot, Hot, Hot". ANYWAY, this was definitely one I went into with low expectations. Like so many of these, I was pretty sure I'd leave thinking the same things I usually do, being a combination of "meh" and "I prefer the original". But having said that, again, I suppose this is aimed a little more towards the new generation. Just to recap for the three people out there who haven't seen the original, Ariel (Halle Bailey) is a mermaid and the youngest daughter of King Triton (Javier Bardem), the ruler of the mermaid city of Atlantica. She is fascinated with the unseen world above, despite Triton's objections towards the human race for once killing her mother.A little more adventurous than her several sisters, with the help of a fish named Flounder (Jacob Tremblay) and a seabird named Scuttle (Awkwafina), she collects objects and trinkets that have sunken to the ocean floor, such as Dinglehoppers, thingamabobs and other whosits and whatsits galore. One day, she comes too close to the humans when she discovers a sailing ship with a handsome young prince named Eric (Jonah Hauer-King) on board. A storm shows up, crashing the ship into some rocks, knocking Eric overboard, and Ariel rescues him. A foggy Eric doesn't quite see Ariel's face but takes her soothing siren song to heart, and soon becomes haunted by the mysterious woman who saved his life. But while Eric is just mystified, it's love at first sight for Ariel, and she wants to be part of his world. Triton, of course, doesn't take this well, and the father and daughter have a bit of a falling out. This leads her to a sea witch named Ursula (Melissa McCarthy) who gives her a deal: She can turn Ariel into a human for three days in exchange for her mermaid abilities - most importantly, her siren song. She must then receive "true love's kiss" in order to become human permanently. If she doesn't, she changes back into a mermaid to be a slave for Ursula. Ariel reluctantly takes the deal and before long meets up with Eric, who seemingly falls for her back. However, Eric is still haunted by the mysterious girl who rescued him, who he doesn't realize is Ariel. It then becomes a race against time for Ariel, aided by Flounder, Scuttle and my dude, Sebastian the Crab (Daveed Diggs)... but will they succeed? One of the things that I wondered about going into this was the musical numbers, and how they would all play out. I experienced the exact same thing here as I did in 'The Lion King' with "I Just Can't Wait to be King". This rendition of "Under the Sea" sounds good, but the overall sequence isn't as fun as the original. Though not without its charm, I still say the only one of these to do the (what I like to call) "Fun Song" well, was 'Beauty and the Beast' with "Be Our Guest", making it a grand visual spectacle. Maybe it's just me, but I simply didn't get the same kick I did from the original here. There are a few new songs here too, so if you don't like musicals, I dunno if this one's for you. But I did enjoy the "Scuttlebutt" song. Performance-wise, everyone did well. The stand-out to me, of all people, was Melissa McCarthy's performance as Ursula. This was definitely a role she had a lot of fun doing, and it shows. Ariel, however, is a bit of a mixed bag. I thought she came across as kind of deadpan in this whereas the original Ariel was more whimsical... but I've gotta give it to her, she has a beautiful singing voice, actually sounding very similar to the original Jodi Benson. Altogether, the film is pretty well-balanced, and it does take away some things that don't exactly stand these days (like the whole French chef song), but much like anything else Disney live-action remakes, I'll probably just stick to the original. 3/5 NOTE: The following review will eventually be moved to a special 'Fast Franchise' page.  Y'know, these movies have been going on now for a solid 20+ years with their shares of ups, downs and altogether WTFs. The 'Fast' franchise has gone through and provided us with what is, in my humble opinion, the mindless action series Hollywood has needed for a long time. I like to think of these movies in a light that shines almost as bright as the Schwarzenegger films of the 80s. NOT everyone is gonna agree with that idea, but I do think people should at least consider it instead of just being harsh with criticisms about how "stupid" it all is.
Back in the day, yes, we had our fair share of critics like Siskel and Ebert who would turn their noses up at certain things. But for the most part, going to the movies was about escapism and having fun. So if we got an action-packed Schwarzenegger movie, we all knew we weren't going to those for good plots (excluding some titles of course). We wanted to see witty one-liners, balls-to-the-wall action, and of course, the defiance of physics itself. The 'Fast' franchise offers up all of this, and has reached the point of complete self-awareness, as clearly shown in 'F9'. But really... when do things start to wear thin? In case you couldn't tell, speaking for myself, I'm typically entertained by these movies, but I definitely see some titles as "lesser" than others. This is unfortunately one of those, but I might put it at the higher end of things for reasons I'll get to shortly. To open things up in the meantime, however, the film starts with a flashback to the events of 'Fast 5' in which 'Furious' leads Dom Torretto Vin Diesel and Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) hijack a safe from the corrupt politician and drug lord, Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida). Spoiler alert; Reyes is KIA, and happens to be the father of a ruthless man of vengeance named Dante (Jason Momoa) who is out for blood. Meanwhile, we are reintroduced to Dom and his "Family" in the present day, living a happy life of peace with their family still growing. However, Dom, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and their son, Brian "Little B" (Leo Abelo Perry) have a literal rude awakening one night from their arch nemesis, a seemingly fatally wounded Cipher (Charlize Theron) who warns them that the "Devil" is on his way and that they share a common enemy in this Dante guy. The rest of the team, including Han (Sung Kang), Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Tej (Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges) Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel), meanwhile, has been sent on a mission to Rome. To no one's real surprise, the mission turns out to be a setup, so Dom and Letty leave to intercept, leaving "Little B" with Mia (Jordana Brewster). In Rome, the basic plot grows to be Dante attempting to make Dom suffer as much as possible by carelessly tearing apart everything around him - both mentally and physically. To that end, I will give the movie credit for keeping things intense, despite the fact that we all know how well these guys can all defy physics. So much of what helped with that, at least from my perspective, was the way Momoa played this role - one might say "Joker"-like, perhaps bordering on a ripoff, BUT, he still stole the show, in my opinion. Maybe that's just my bias toward chaotic characters though. But while Momoa's addition added a little spice to things, I have to admit that some other characters started to get stale. Speifically, I'm starting to get a bit annoyed with the dynamic of Roman and Tej. They've essentially become a bickering married couple at this point, and it's just not that funny anymore. Our lead, Dom, seems to sort of balance things out here though, if only because he's become his own stereotype. I mean if you think of Dom from the 'Fast' franchise, just about anything he's known to do, from mentioning the importance of family to making constipated-looking mean faces (as seen above), it's all there, and nowadays, that's just a part of the fun of it all. Along the way, we see some old faces and new faces alike, as though the film is a sort of "Greatest Hits" as far as the cast goes, so there's a good amount of fan service going on here - including a dangerous street race, which is the whole reason we started loving these movies in the first place. Altogether, this was still a fun movie, but this brings me back to its self-awareness, and how much is too much? It took all the charm out of how 'F9' did it, and just straight up tells the audience from Brie Larson's (one of the additions) mouth how these movies tend to work. This might be a problem if it weren't for one thing the edning of the film left me with - this is just the beginning of the end! (By the way, if you hate cliffhangers... maybe skip this one, because... damn!) 3/5  I, like so many others, was introduced to video games through Mario sometime in the mid-late 80s. Soon enough, my brother and I got our own NES for Christmas one year in the early 90s along with our own copy of 'Mario 3', and it was about as hard to put down as one might imagine. This got me really into the Mario franchise enough to start collecting Mario merchandise, dress up as him for Halloween, and develop a bit of an addiction to the games on NES with the 'Bros' series, Gameboy with the 'Land' series and SNES with the 'World' and 'RPG' games.
I was so into 'Super Mario Bros.' that I somewhat shamefully admit to really enjoying the 1993 movie just because of the title. It was one of those "something feels off, but this is the best they'll ever do" situations. Eventually, I did put those games down for a while, skipping everything from 'N64' forward, to the point that the next Nintendo system I'd get would be the Switch - and after grabbing '3D All-Stars', 'Odyssey' and '3D World', it's plain to see that my love of these games never went away, it just lied dormant. So of course when I saw the trailer for a 'Mario' movie that actually looked like it might be Mario-related instead of whatever the hell '93 gave us, I was pretty damn excited from the get-go. Two Brooklyn-based brothers, Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) have recently started their own business; The Super Mario Bros. Plumbing Service, complete with its own commercial that utilizes the old theme from the 'Super Mario Bros. Super Show' (which is pure, nostalgic cheese at its finest). People kind of poke fun at them and put down their silly *ahem* "pipedream", until a significant manhole leak on the news makes Mario spring into action to prove himself, dragging Luigi with him. While down in the sewers and trying to shut off a valve, the two brothers stumble into a hidden, mysterious room where they find a mysterious pipe that sucks them both in. This "warp pipe" ends up ultimately separating the two brothers, plopping Mario in the Mushroom Kingdom, and Luigi in the Dark Lands. In the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario befriends a feisty mushroom man named Toad (Keegan-Michael Key). Upon asking Toad to help him find Luigi, Toad takes Mario to the castle of Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) who they, thank God, made a badass character for this movie. She is very well-known for being one of the most helpless damsels in distress in, not even gaming history, just history in general. So this was a very welcome change from the source material. In the meantime, Luigi is captured and imprisoned by Bowser, King of the Koopas (Jack Black). Bowser seeks to marry Princess Peach and rule the kingdoms of their world side-by-side, using a Super Star for power. However, he does learn of Mario's existence, and sees him as a threat, and if Peach says "no" to his proposal, Bowser will lay the Mushroom Kingdom to waste. Now, it's up to Mario, Peach, Toad, and a handful of helpers to save the Mushroom Kingdom as well as Mario's brother. Key characters who join the quest are the Kongs, who mainly include Donkey (Seth Rogan) and Cranky (Fred Armisen). Although I was a touch let-down by the lack of various characters I wanted to see, it's important for me to note that this universe is huge, and a lot of omissions were probably for the best. Otherwise, it's actually hard for me not to give this movie a lot of praise for further prooving my theory about video game movies getting their due. I absolutely loved that the story was so simple and almost childish, just because that's basically what Mario games were. Princess gets kidnapped by Bowser, and Mario and Luigi go on an epic quest to rescue her. That's all there was to them. So this is definitely where that kind of thing works. Otherwise, for any real Mario fan, there are Easter Eggs all over this movie. Enough to make me want to watch it a second time. Some of the music, for example, is lifted from a variety of games in the 'Mario' and 'DK Country' libraries. I really enjoyed some of the subtle changes, like making Luigi the one they have to rescue and making Peach more of a hero. With games like 'Luigi's Mansion', it makes sense. This is a movie that adopts aspects of a bunch of games including 'Smash Bros' and 'Mario Kart' among what I've mentioned, and it all comes together to make one great, harmless fun movie that makes me want to see more. I may be a bit biased here, but for the big Mario fans out there, I have to say, this is a real treat! 4/5  I think it's probably safe to say that my friends who I have played 'D&D' with would classify me as a sort of "perpetual noob" to the whole game. I enjoy playing it when I do, but often need to be taken by the hand and guided with a lot of it. Therefore, I do kind of feel like I'm the perfect audience for a movie like this. I'm a bit of a newcomer to it all, but have enough of a familiarity with it to recognize a thing or two throughout the film.
However, I do have to admit to one thing right off the bat... I'm not entirely sure why it's so highly acclaimed, and despite really enjoying it, I don't know that it deserves both of its "Tomatometer" ratings in the 90s. Of course, the "Tomatomer" is not the end-all be-all of whether or not you "should" enjoy something. I'm just saying, I'm rather surprised. 'D&D' was always one of those things I thought shouldn't be attempted for a movie because everything is just too broad. You could make almost any movie with a medieval theme and decide to call it 'Dungeons & Dragons' because it will put butts in seats for you. Hell, they DID that back in 2000, and guess what one of the overall "bad" movies was that year. Over the last few years, 'D&D' has actually been making a bit of a comeback with shows like 'Stranger Things', basing the majority of its creatures from the 'D&D' universe, and even covering the "Satanic Panic" aspect of the game in Season 4. Beyond that, we also currently have 'The Legend of Vox Machina', which, I'm just gonna say now, IS the better source of 'D&D' entertainment over this movie. That's just my opinion, but if you have Crave, tune in and check it out. Hell, try it out even if you aren't into 'D&D'. My glowing opinion of that show may be why I didn't think this was all that special. But again, still quite enjoyable. We are first introduced to bard, Edgin Darvis (Chris Pine) and barbarian, Holga Kilgore (Michelle Rodriguez); two friends who have been imprisoned for attempting to steal a "Tablet of Reawakening", which Edgin would use to resurrect his now deceased wife (killed by a Red Wizard), and make his family whole again, along with his daughter, Kira (Chloe Coleman). The friends are aided by a rogue named Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant), his mysterious friend, Sofina (Daisy Head), and amateur sorcerer, Simon Aumar (Justice Smith). With the two of them facing an extention on their sentence, they manage to make their escape after two years of imprisonment, and head back to Neverwinter. There, they find their old acquaintance, Forge, has become Lord, and Sofina is still loyal by his side. During the theft of the "Tablet of Reawakening", there was a bit of a kerfuffle involving a time stopping spell gone wrong. Edgin, unable to avoid it, passes the tablet to Forge, and entrusts him to take care of his Kira while he's gone, knowing his capture is imminent. Now here to get the tablet and his daughter back, Edgin (and Holga for that matter) are double-crossed, and learn that Forge has been feeding his daughter lies about him this whole time. Then, after another narrow escape, Edgin and Holga devise plans to rob Forge's vault, and retrieve not only the "Tablet of Reawakening", but more importantly, his daughter. Needing help for this mission, Edgin and Holga seek out their old friend Simon, and are introduced to a tiefling druid named Doric (Sophia Lillis), whose forest home is getting destroyed by overlogging, so of course, she's down for a bit of revenge too. Together, they use their abilities of cunning, strength, magic and even shape-shifting to set everything right. I had to appreciate that even though they decided to do another thief story (like the last one), they did a good job of putting some variety into the character classes this time. That said, I have to say that it didn't do what it could have to show what a bard could actually do. I mean, we just get a dude playing a loot here. Anyway, despite a few little nitpicks here and there, I still got quite a few genuine laughs, and found some of the action sequences to be great (there's a really cool shape-shifting chase I liked a lot). It was nice to see them use creatures and races from the game, and I feel like if you don't know anything about 'D&D', it can still be a fun watch. I think for my own taste, I'd still highly recommend 'Vox Machina' over this, BUT, there's certainly nothing wrong with this either. If nothing else, this is a fun time that'll have you sharing your favourite characters and why by the end. Nothing perfect, a cool nod to 80s fantasy, but I think I may be still to much of a perpetual 'D&D' noob to really see what everyone else seems to be seeing. 3/5  If I'm being perfectly honest, I've always personally been a Marvel-over-DC guy when it comes to recent superhero movies. But that does not mean DC hasn't given me anything I've really enjoyed, either, and the original 'Shazam!' is one of those titles. Here we finally had something that took place in the DC universe that wasn't so dark, didn't feel rushed, and above all else, knew how to have fun with what it had to work with. It was a pleasant surprise from DC for me and made me think it was the 'Ant-Man' of the DCU.
With that said, it's my opinion that a movie like 'Shazam!' should be taken mostly with a grain of salt. This is your fun superhero who relates to a kid's desire to become a superhero, and personally speaking, it should be said that I had a similar attitude toward the sequel here. However, instead of having as much fun as I had with the last one, I felt a touch let down by this. The big problem here is that it's sort of loaded with superhero clichés. So while it remains a fun title in some aspects, there's too much predictability here for those of us who have, perhaps, seen a few too many movies of the superhero genre. First, a quick recap of 'Shazam!' While adjusting to a new foster family, 14-year-old Billy Batson (Asher Angel) is one day "chosen" by an ancient wizard named Shazam (Djimon Hounsou) to be his new "champion". This allows Billy to say the word "Shazam!" and turn into a grown-up superhero (Zachary Levi) while being able to maintain his identity as a kid underneath it all. Together, with his best friend Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer), they train Billy up and test his powers in order to take on the evil Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong) and, strange though it may sound the Seven Deadly Sins. 'Fury of the Gods' picks things up a few years after the first film's events. It should be noted here that (spoiler alert) at the end of 'Shazam!', several members of Billy's foster family also gained Shazam-like powers. Aside from Freddy (Superhero Freddy played by Adam Brody), we also now have the closeted gay Pedro Peña (Jovan Armand/D.J. Cotrona); bookworm and altogether eldest, Mary Bromfield (both versions played by Grace Caroline Currey); techie, Eugene Choi (Ian Chen/Ross Butler) and the adorably sweet Darla Dudley (Faithe Herman/Meagan Good). Together, we see them all working on the balance between their superhero lives and their foster lives, all while hiding it from their foster parents, Victor and Rosa Vasquez (Cooper Andrews and Marta Milans, respectively). In the meantime, two daughters of the Titan Atlas show up, Hespera (Helen Mirren) and Kalypso (Lucy Liu), breaking into the Acropolis Museum in Athens, and stealing the Wizard's now broken staff (which Billy broke in the first film, but that's a long story). They then take it to the now-imprisoned Wizard (who once killed their father) and force him to repair it. The sisters then plot revenge by finding a golden apple the seed to the Tree of Life. Hespera wants to plant it in the God Realm, so it can flourish, and revenge can be bringing life back to their world. However, Kalypso would rather use it as all-out revenge on humankind by planting it on Earth. I skipped over her, but I should mention that there's a third sister as well, Anthea (Rachel Zegler) who becomes Freddy's love interest in this and is the best of the sisters. She's your typical would-be villain who sees the good in humankind. But even going beyond that, I could sit here and write about a bunch of stuff I saw here that I've recently seen elsewhere. The worst part of it was how it ended, which I won't spoil here, but it becomes highly predictable as the story unfolds. But, even if this is jumbled with a lot of those clichés, I'd still probably be able to recommend this on the almost guilty pleasure level. It still has its moments, and many of them are quite funny. Much like with the first 'Shazam!', for the most part, this wasn't really something to be taken seriously. Although at times, it does get a little confusing about that, as it does have a few genuinely emotional moments. But even having said that those moments are still cliché, and it was hard for me to feel altogether sympathetic when I knew what would happen. And I don't tend to be that guy who "knew it all along" either. At the same time, this is definitely not something I'd say is "bad". If you can take it for the fun time it provides and have a good laugh with it, it's a decent flick. But I think all in all, its predecessor is still something much better. 3/5  Throughout film history, there have been numerous "waiting periods" for things we knew were bound to eventually happen. 'Freddy vs Jason' was a huge kerfuffle in the making, 'Ghostbusters 3' took forever to get going. Of course, 'Avatar' was planning a slew of sequels to its original story. I won't go into boring details about what happened, but as we all know, the wait has been since the original 'Avatar,' 2009. Much of this had to do with the technology, which I'll get to later, but the big question is, was it worth the wait?
My first admittance is that the film does a decent recap from the 2009 film, but one might want to watch it first to connect it and get more out of it. Like marathoning all of the 'Spider-Man films before 'No Way Home,' or the way one will listen to a band's albums just before seeing them in concert, it just amps you up more for what you're about to see. Of course, there were probably a few details here and there that I didn't remember that lent themselves to this. But I digress. Taking place fourteen years after the original film, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) has since become chief of the Omaticaya Clan and has a family with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), our love interest from the last film. Among them, sons Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) and Lo'ak (Britain Dalton), daughter Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss) and adopted daughter Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), who was born from Grace Augustine's (also Weaver) immobile Avatar. Together, they live as one big happy family until the humans drive them out of their home once again (quicker than three hours, this time). The children also hang out with a human boy named Spider (Jack Champion), who happens to be the Pandora-born son of Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang). Spoiler Alert! The film works around his death through Na'vi Avatars, which contain the memories of deceased human soldiers, allowing them to live on as Avatars. Quaritch leads the rest of the RDA back to Pandora to begin colonization and once again becomes the film's big baddie - but with a bit of an upgrade. And with the tech given in the 'Avatar' movies, it all feels pretty plausible if you can buy into the fantasy world in these movies. LONG story short, Jake and his family head for safety, retreating to the Metkayina - a race not unlike themselves, but have adapted to the water. Here, the family must learn the "Way of Water" to live among their people. In the meantime, Lo'ak develops a quick love interest in Tsireya (Bailey Bass), the daughter of Chief Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and his wife, Ronal (Kate Winslet). But more importantly, we see Kiri (remembering she has human DNA) mastering everything she's taught. In contrast, everyone else has trouble. A lot is happening here, but Quaritch eventually begins the hunt for Jake Sully and goes to some extremes to find him. The first 'Avatar' was a good film when it came out, but even I couldn't deny that story-wise, that film had been done many times before. It was much more about the experience at the time. And I have to give this sequel some kudos for new tech that hasn't been used until now - blending actual underwater filming with performance capture. To the film's credit, the underwater scenes DO look rather impressive. I also enjoyed the overall story here more than last time. This felt a little less familiar. But Cameron pulls from his previous works like 'Titanic' and 'The Abyss.' It's hard to criticize it being "late," as I understand that Cameron wanted the right technology for filming it. And, visually speaking, the film was probably worth the wait. But there's that part of me that, even without this fancy new tech, thinks there would have been a much more positive response if Cameron had given us something else sooner. At the same time, though, I can't deny that that's what's so good about Cameron - he's like a king of using new filming technology, and it's worked out for him so far. It's a well-filmed movie, and I really enjoyed it despite the wait, which ultimately happened with the first 'Avatar' as well. 4/5 |
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