The surprise hit of the year that is nearly perfect.

Seeing the voice cast on this was the major selling point for me to add this to my watchlist. As the release date for Netflix drew near, the anticipation from fans made me even more curious to see this. Within the first five minutes or so, I had a feeling that this was going to be enjoyable at best, but I don’t think could have prepared me for how amazing the rest of the movie truly is.

This is the kind of movie that doesn’t get made anymore. It truly feels like a movies that had a tight-knit, awesome script and the people behind this made the best thing possible. The voice cast was even impressive as they embodied these characters with real emotion. The animation and the music that they choose to use with it made the movie extremely fun from start to finish.

The most interesting aspect of the film is how they handle the relationship between the two male knights. I was quite surprised by how real the relationship felt. If it was a Disney movie, I am sure people would have been in an uproar as per usual, but here, people seem to love it. I would agree with others that this is a great way to end pride month. If you don’t like it, then get over it. Love is love.

As for any negatives, the beginning can make it feel like any other movie. To me, it took some time to get used to everything that I truly understood the point of the movie and just how brilliant it all is. Also, there is a point towards the climax that results in the movie to be longer. Even without credits, this is a pretty short movie, but I think the event that initiated the climax already felt like an ending of its own. If they really wanted to make it longer, I wouldn’t have minded in them exploring this world and its characters a bit more in the beginning.

Overall, I was blown away by how much I enjoyed this. Please don’t miss the opportunity to see this. I very much look forward to seeing this again and again. I don’t know much about the source material either, but I’d be interested in learning more about it as I remain hopeful for a potential sequel.

VERDICT: 4.5/5 (Amazing)

The second back-to-back film that I have seen this weekend about letting go and accepting things for what it is.

It’s going to be very difficult for any movies to beat this for my top spot of 2023.

I had very high expectations from this based on what I saw of the reviews. People also seemed to add that it is a modern day version of the Before trilogy. That trilogy is amongst one of my favorite trilogy’s of all time, so needless to say, I was very much looking forward to seeing this. While I could see some being turned off by its slower moments or even its realism and how it decides to wrap itself up, I do believe there is something for everyone from the performances to the camera work to the timely themes that are relevant to the past, present, and future.

The way the film starts make the audience curious of what’s to come. It also manages to put the audience in the first-person perspective, which gave me the impression that I was singlehandedly witnessing this story through spying. At times, it felt like I wasn’t meant to see what I was seeing because of his personable it was, but I also didn’t want to stop seeing what I was witnessing. That’s how impressive this perspective was.

As the story unfolds over a period of 24 years, I am glad that the movie never tries to go back and forth between time. It’s a tool used sparingly, but it was used organically. I was afraid that if they did that, then it would have taken viewers out from being there in real time with these characters.

I am sure by the end of this year, director Celine Song and the lead actor & actress, Greta Lee & Teo Yoo will be mentioned much more. Perhaps what makes Song’s direction so strong is utilizing the camera to be a main character as well. She has a strong understanding of where to place the camera, as well as knowing what colors to use to best express the character’s emotions. Going off of that, she directs Lee & Yoo phenomenally. You get the sense that these characters are having real chemistry and organic dialogue. Throughout the film, they stay committed to their characters in a way that feels true to how their characters are written from the get go.

Overall, this is a beautiful film that I don’t think many viewers are going to be ready for. Rather than giving into expectations, the film gives an earnest and honest look at reality and how to accept that. Director Celine Song and talent, Greta Lee and Teo Yoo, have a very promising career ahead of them.

VERDICT: 5/5 (Perfect)

This will not be for everyone. Fortunately for me, I managed my expectations based on the reviews I saw, which made me enjoy this for what it was. It’s not Anderson’s best, but he is not here for that. He is here to deliver one of his most divisive movies yet. Plus, I am always in for a divisive movie.

Divisive movies, for me, are greatly appreciated. I tend to enjoy them more, because they give the opportunity for viewers to not only discuss it, but use word of mouth to help promote the movie. With Anderson’s signature style, I believe it was about time for him to switch it up. My best tip going into this? Go with the flow. This also happens to be the main theme of the movie.

While this film was in my most recent top 10 most anticipated movies of 2023, I was also able to go into this with minimal expectations, as mentioned. I love Anderson’s filmography, but it hasn’t always been perfect from my perspective. The best thing I have learned about Anderson’s work is that he is the one in control and we, the audience, are here to see what he has to unfold.

I have always found Anderson’s style and commitment to the production to be amazing rather I believe his film was good or not. Here, the production quality is a 10/10. The way the camera moves allows the eyes to witness the entirety of each shot. I found myself at times catching where my eyes were looking everywhere in certain shots and admiring the way that Anderson understands how to block his characters and utilize his crew to achieve the best possible shot.

In a nutshell, I’d say that this story is more so about the perspective of Wes Anderson and allows the audience to understand him better. It is a crisis of identity and where he goes from here. He is known to direct ensemble casts. In this, we get to see the chaotic mind of his as he manages multiple cast members.

Enough of Anderson though. The cast here, for the most part, is terrific. No one really outshines any other person. The standouts in particular have to be Tom Hanks, Maya Hawke, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Carrell, Jeffrey Wright, and Bryan Cranston. Not to throw shade to anyone else, but I did found the writing for these characters rather strong amongst the huge ensemble that this film has to offer.

As for any negatives, I found the minimal runtime dedicated certain characters rather pointless. Now, I know people may already see the plot to be pointless, but I’d argue against that. The plot is rather something seen through the eyes of the screenwriter. It was never meant to be cohesive. The point here is that we are just here for the ride. Excluding the runtime, the film does feel short and spends ample amount of time on characters that really could have been tossed out. Particularly, the plot with the teenagers seemed redundant and specific side characters in the play had nothing to do with anything.

Overall, I really enjoyed this. Once again, this will not be for everyone, but don’t get into this thinking that this is for you. To me, this is the kind of movie that I feel like I needed to make sense of things. The point is that we are not meant to have everything figured out. In the end, it’s best to be along with the journey and experience life as it is rather than not at all.

VERDICT: 4/5 (Really Good)

The animation style and messages carry the film from start to finish, even if the plot can be quite predictable from the beginning. Did it deserve to flop? Absolutely not.

I saw this after seeing The Flash last weekend. I was initially going to post a review on that first before posting this. I finally got a review on that which you can find on my website. Since posting that, I really want to highlight the better film here. Elemental continues to take a safe approach within its plot, yet manages to overcome it to make a worthy movie with amazing visuals and relevant themes. It may not make or break your experience, but seeing this in 3D not only made the movie experience worth it, but I was in awe throughout this film with its visuals. It is nothing like any other animation, or Pixar, movie I have ever seen. It continued to make each scene fun and exciting. The messages were quite surprising as it attempts to convey why it’s okay for people from different backgrounds and origination to be okay together. There are stereotypes set in place due to the anxiety and anger that people have experienced without getting the opportunity to ever understand the other perspective. I personally loved that and I believe this will be welcoming to all viewers.

The only thing I knew about this film prior was that it was being described as a romantic story. Better yet, it was being marketed as Pixar’s first romantic story. Based off that alone, I just knew what was going to happen in the overall story and how it was all going to be wrapped up in the end. The complex nature of these characters are challenging, yet the way it all gets resolved is perhaps a little too easy and relatable to films that did it better. There is really no curve-balls that surprise the audience; although, I will say that something towards the end did catch me off guard a little bit, but then I reminded myself that I was watching a Pixar movie. Low and behold, it was resolved easily and quickly. I don’t think there were enough challenges to make this story unique, but I think the messages alone make this movie worth watching.

Overall, I thought this was a pretty enjoyable movie. I had a good time with the visual style, the messages were extremely relevant, and it had a lot of light-heartedness to it. What really holds the movie back is that the end can be seen from a mile away. It is very predictable and it doesn’t stand out for a Pixar movie. If anything, I am starting to see a safe formula in terms of plot for Pixar, which is probably the reason why it hasn’t done well at the box office.

VERDICT: 3.5/5 (Pretty Good)

Instead of at least improving the CGI, WB clearly had extra money at least in their marketing budget to give to Tom Cruise to say that this was one of the best movies ever made.

I was initially hesitant to share my thoughts on The Flash as I didn’t want diminish what the Creative Cinematic Collection is all about. The concept of this is to create healthy dialogue behind all outlooks of film. However, I believe this is a great example of what this is all about. While I can see where people enjoyed this, I found myself on the opposite end of that. While I do believe people need to be accountable of their actions, I went into this film with an open mind and void of the troubles of one particular actor outside of the film to enjoy it. My love for film stems from Michael Keaton’s Batman films. I used to carry the VHS tapes around with me instead of toys. So, seeing this was very important to me. I should have remembered that this is still called The Flash. That is not particularly a problem within itself, but it’s really how the film manages to juggle everything that isn’t the titular hero.

The film manages to start pretty unique from putting the audience into the hero’s perspective almost immediately to creative some unique fun. After Barry Allen starts to become The Flash in its opening sequence is where the film begins to lose me. There is a weird amount of focus in a sequence that involves falling babies. What could have resulted in some funny laughs resulted in a mess between the visuals, acting, and editing. I understand the director tried attempted to validate why the CGI was so bad, but I don’t believe that is actually the case. I believe he found a unique way to go about it in order to justify it. The opening sequence with these falling babies ends up as a mess as the editing tries its best to cover how bad the CGI really is and to establish the main character. Add a non-stop screaming nurse to the mix and you get what is one of the weirdest opening sequences for a superhero film I have ever seen. It also happens to really explain the nature of the rest of the film.

The set up for Barry Allen’s story is nice and relatable, but it never sticks the landing. To have his dad be accused of the murder didn’t make much sense to me and the story never explained who killed his mother in the first place and why it happened in the first place. This plotline helps Barry grow as a person. I can’t help but to think that I can understand the want of going back in time to fix things and I am sure others would agree. It’s when the present Barry meets the older Barry is where it loses me.

Not only does it begin to get messy here, but there is a lot of screentime dedicated to exposition that takes up a lot of the movie. It creates a weird dynamic between the two, even if the point is to show that the present Barry is growing. To me, this just takes up way too much of the film’s duration that I was just too eager for the film to get to its better moments.

The editing and bad CGI doesn’t just occur at the beginning, but gets even worse by the end. If I knew nothing about the DCEU, I would have easily been confused with the climax. The visuals continue to be lackluster, especially with its special cameos. The editing makes it all more confusing to make these cameos relevant. In the end, it’s clear that the film really shouldn’t have focused on the cameo’s so much.

The takes on Affleck’s & Keaton’s Batman’s are at the film’s best. It makes me confident that Any Muscheitti will do well with the upcoming Batman film. With the limited screentime he is given, Affleck gives it his all one last time. I enjoyed Keaton’s return; however, his introduction is quite strange and doesn’t quite feel like the much needed return for his character. Unfortunately, between his and Sasha Calle’s Supergirl, the film never knows how to properly handle them. By the film’s end, I questioned why they were needed in the first place and only concluded that they were there to attempt to make the movie better. Even the return of Michael Shannon’s character and bringing up the events of Man of Steel did absolutely nothing for the story.

Overall, this was a major disappointment. Michael Keaton & Sasha Calle are the film’s biggest highlights as Batman & Supergirl, but even then, the film doesn’t even know what to do with them and make them relevant to the film’s story in the end. Unfortunately, the film’s main plotline could have been good, but it felt like there were too many hands in the pot in order to make it better and did the complete opposite. There was a lot more potential to happen here and I genuinely felt the superhero fatigue settle in here. Even by the end, it never really feels like the movie knew what it was doing on a big picture and added way too many things to make the future of this franchise even more confusing.

VERDICT: 1.5/5 (Pretty Bad)

Better than it has any right to be. This was mostly enjoyable from start to finish with some surprises that truly got me excited. The Transformers franchise feels like it may finally be back on track.

I haven’t been much into this series. I loved the first film from 2007 when I was much younger, but the quality of the continued Bay films truly made me burned out by the fifth film that I truly despised. While 2018’s Bumblebee was an improvement, I still could care less about being excited about this franchise going forward. What actually got me excited about this entry was the fact that it took place in 1994 – the year that I was born. I truly got excited by the idea that this was going to take place in a time that would be considered a period piece. When I went to go see this in theaters, I still didn’t think I would enjoy this as the reclined seats that my friend and I sat in were broken and it felt like the AC broke in a theater that was nearly full. I am putting this into context as this movie was so entertaining that it made these mishaps almost worth it.

Once we got past all of the set up is where the film becomes its strongest. The set up for Anthony Ramos’ character goes on longer than it should. At times, I had to remind myself that I was still watching a Transformers film. After this set up is when it gets really exciting. The action was very exciting. The car chase scenes actually looked better than some of the previous Fast & Furious entries, which says something. The humor from Pete Davidson was also some of the funniest that I have seen from this franchise. While the action is entertaining, the climax and ending brought the goods. The climax had so many crowd-pleasing moments that brought accepting applauses from the theater. The fact that they actually pull it off made me so happy to be there and experience it with a crowd full of strangers. And that ending? It actually genuinely surprised me.

Initially, I was going to go with a 4/5. The film’s climax and ending is really something else. I was willing to bring the score up for this; however, as time went on, I still felt like the film’s flaws bring this down to a 3.5/5. The film’s beginning with the transformers can be seen as confusing. It didn’t bother me, but it more so made me question why I should care in the first place. The human story isn’t bad here. I especially feel like the make the human story warranted this time around. It’s how they choose to utilize the humans into the story can be questionable at times, especially within Dominique Fishback’s character who’s sole purpose was to explain all of the complicated stuff to the audience. While Anthony’s Ramos’ writing stuck the landing, I couldn’t help but to think why these films haven’t just focused on the Transformers themselves excluding any humans at this point.

Also, for what the title and trailer suggests, the film really doesn’t focus much on the newer set of characters. Don’t get me wrong – it was nice to see Optimus Prime in a bigger role again and appear to be more vulnerable. I do believe the focus on the newer Transformers was underutilized. The effects in these scenes weren’t nearly as strong as the other effects either, making it certainly more noticeable.

Overall, I believe this will go down as one of 2023’s surprising hits. Not only was I entertained between the humor and action, but this actually made me excited for the future of this franchise, which is something that I haven’t felt since the first film. Even with the film’s flaws, I prefer this sort of direction for the franchise. As long as they continue to have fresh & new voices to tell these stories, I believe they will continue to be good again.

VERDICT: 3.5/5 (Pretty Good)

The next greatest sequel is here, and it will be talked about for a long time. It is warranted.

Spider-Man has always been a beloved character for me. I grew up with the Tobey Maguire films and it become a staple of my childhood, but it was until 2018’s animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse did I feel like I had seen a perfect Spider-Man movie. It worked beyond just being an animated movie. It reached an audience made for kids and adults with the most impressive animated technology ever seen. While it may be too soon for me to say its sequel is better, you can certainly tell that the first film is no fluke.

Going into this, I’d say I did a good job of avoiding any spoilers, which added much more to the overall experience. The way the film sets itself up is very unexpected and ensures that this is going to be a different film than the last. Instead of focusing on Mile Morales, the attention focuses even more on Gwen Stacy this time around. This expands the themes explored, which I believe will relate to many others. The animation is great, and what I’d say stood out to me even more with this one is how they used style to reflect the emotion of certain scenes.

If I had to really be nit-picky about anything, I would say expectations compared to the first are quite different. This one does slow down and takes its time to develop its characters. I can see where people may argue about the long runtime due to this, but I think it actually takes care of its characters to make them feel more real beyond the animated medium.

Overall, this currently sits at the top of 2023 at the moment for me. These movies really shouldn’t work, and I don’t think I ever expected this series to be as successful as it is so far. I won’t get into much more to avoid any spoilers. I’m glad that the movie stuck the landing with its amazing cliffhanger and I am even more glad that we only have to wait until next year to see the finale.

VERDICT: 5/5 (Perfect)

More outrageous than it has any right to be. I came to support Mark Hamill, but I came out with a little bit more.

Bert Kreischer’s newest film “The Machine,” is based on the iconic & viral comedic skit of him talking about the time he visited Russia and they make it into a full-length feature! I am not much into stand-up comedy, but seeing the addition like Mark Hamill definitely peaked my interest as him joining indicated that he joined for good reason, and he certainly did.

The film starts off quite rocky. The script is perhaps the film’s weakest point. The beginning, which involves a birthday party, felt like the very first scene they shot. Characters felt awkward, having no motive other than to fulfill what the script said. It was rather difficult to really get into this story with characters that didn’t feel committed. I was even ready to check out at this point.

Once things locate over to Russia is where the film really does get better, in my opinion. Things become outrageous and deliver some of the film’s biggest and best laughs. There is enough shock value in these scenes that kept me entertained for the most part. The choreography of the action is also done quite well, which brings out some of the better elements of the film: the editing & cinematography.

From a technical perspective, I was quite impressed with what I saw. The editing is some of the best that I have seen from a comedy in a while. The cinematography coincides with the editing to deliver seamless cuts as the narrative cuts in and out of time, which brings me to one of the more negative aspects of this film: the runtime.

At 113 minutes, this film is quite frankly way too long. We get needless scenes that offer no development, such as the plane ride to Russia or even the wife & kids not worrying why they haven’t seen or heard from their dad in a few days. Instead we get needless exposition going back in time to further explain the events, even though it is clearly understood. It makes the movie much longer than needed and a good 20 minutes could have been cut.

Overall, this was a good surprise that I think I might even bump up in the future. More of these type of concepts please.

VERDICT: 3/5 (Good)

Between seeing Ric Roman Waugh’s 2020 feature, Greenland, and Gerard Butler’s improvement in involved projects, I was intrigued in seeing this. What is the greatest phenomenon is that it acts like Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant 2.0 without delivering on much other than its action – an aspect I am beginning to see it Waugh’s greatest strength as a director.

At 2 hours, the latter half of this movie works better than the first half. The first half throws you into a weird point where you have to catch up with knowing who is who. A good handful of them do absolutely nothing to push this film forward. Luckily, I was the only person sitting in the backrow of the theater so I could look at the synopsis on my phone again, because I was not understanding where this film was going. The exposition is confusing & goes by way too fast to even care enough with these characters.

As mentioned, the latter half is better to a certain extent, but it still has its issues. I was pleasantly surprised when things picked up. The pacing felt more in line with the type of story it wanted to tell. There was even an unique point using night-vision goggles. The problem here continues to be pointless, little moments to add to the drama. The main villain blows up cars for no reason, we get countless scenes of the villain riding his bike in the desert (because its cool), and while there are some cool shots here and there, I know they have been ripped off from other movies who have done it better.

And where I will leave the rest of my issues with this film is how it does not, any way, understand how to balance its characters. Characters come and go and are never introduced again, but the end has to remind us of what happened to give some sort of clarity. It also cuts back to shots of scenes we literally just saw. There is even one good moments where it attempts to develop the interpreter, but it is resolved almost instantaneously.

Overall, I think it is worth watching for the action alone, but just know, you are going to have to commit to an hour of exposition that feels like is going nowhere.

VERDICT: 2.5/5 (Okay)

Disney’s newest live-action remake, The Little Mermaid, is better than it has any right to be. The film still has issues, but its pros certainly outweigh its cons.

Going into this, I had very low expectations, because quite frankly, this really didn’t seem like my kind of movie. Mix that with director Rob Marshall’s filmography, I wasn’t really looking forward to seeing it. Marshall’s filmography has been hit or miss, but it appears his stronger abilities fall into musicals, which is a genre that I am the most critical on. Honestly, I even forgot that this was a musical. To my surprise, the film worked as a musical. Even though it is not entirely a musical, it still works for the most part from beginning to end.

From the film’s opening shot, the cinematography appeared to be extraordinary, and it never stopped there. Every moment that the opportunity strikes, the cinematography is gorgeous and unlike any other Disney live-action remake I have seen. From POV shots to breathtaking exterior shots, I was blown away at how well this aspect was.

Moving on, the film’s other biggest standouts are with Halle Baily as Ariel, Daveed Diggs as Sebastian, and Javier Bardem as King Triton. Bailey was truly wonderful in this role as Ariel. Not once did I ever feel cringed by her performance. Even when she has to act without talking while also serving as the main character has to be one of the most impressive feats that this film accomplished. Baily truly embodied and became Ariel. Diggs has to be my favorite in the film though, which is another impressive feat. To have an actor become a favorite through voice work alone is something that will help carry this film. Finally, Bardem stood out to me due to the detail of realism of him playing as a caring father. There is also a nice sentiment moment towards the end with him that honestly even got me a little emotional.

The action is quite impressive, and was not one that I would have taken away from seeing it. It’s exciting and fresh. The last action scene, without spoilers, felt like a nice throwback to the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. What’s even more impressive is the fact that Marshall was able to recreate this better than his work on the franchise’s fourth entry, one that I did not care for.

The other half of the supporting characters were not really my favorite though. It felt like the humans on land did not have enough attention to direction, resulting in cringey performances. The performances of Eric & his mother were the most unconvincing compared to the relationship between Ariel & King Triton. Even Sir Grimsby felt unrealistic, annoying, and his character changed way too often throughout the movie (take a shot every time he says sire). Melissa McCarty was fun to certain extent, but she didn’t really standout to me as much as the other characters.

The one issue that I can agree with what other people are saying is the fact that this film is way too long. Even at an hour in, I felt like the movie was finally getting the plot going. I appreciate the fact that the film was trying to be different compared to the original, but I can see where kids would start to zone out & become bored from time to time.

Finally, the CGI was noticeably bad at times. It’s not something that I believe was a weak point, but there were moments where I could notice it. It’s probably at its worst when humans are interacting with underwater creatures like the fish such as Flounder. Even more, the underwater scenes are not always great. It is clear that Bailey is interacting on a green screen, which did take me of the experience at times.

Overall, while the film is impressive and better than expected, it’s not something that I think is close to perfect. If you are looking to be transported to a fantasy world, I really do think the film really did a good job of doing that. The underwater scenes are at its best in terms of acting & action, while the land scenes are its best in terms of cinematography, so take that as you will. The people in my audience clapped, which might be a good indicator that it will please people.

VERDICT: 3.5/5 (Pretty Good)

A strong story. A compelling antagonist. A return to form.

For the most part.

I technically went to two theaters to go see this today. The first, to see in 4DX. Due to certain circumstances and feeling nauseous after 10 minutes of my seat shaking, I went to the AMC near me that is essentially my second home. And I think that was the best way to see this.

Unapologetically, I am a big F&F fan. The way the series intertwines its stories with character being it strongest element is what keeps me coming back time and time again. After 10 entries, of course they are retconning a previous favorite entry. It’s smart on paper to continue to get people in the theater. What’s better is that they actually pull it off! This gives Jason Momoa the opportunity to have a legit reason to be upset. Better yet, the way he portrays this as a sadistic villain is ultimately the highlight of this film. It is true when people compare him to the Joker and has become the best villain of this franchise. I didn’t ever think that anyone would be able to beat Owen Shaw from Fast & Furious 6.

The best way to explain the movie is that it is a greatest hits of all of the previous entries. This can make the overall movie quite enjoyable between callbacks and reusing some prior plot points, but remixing it to fit a different narrative, which honestly was something I was worried about. No spoilers, but the movie’s trailers definitely felt like it was going to reuse the same plots of 7 & 8. While they do, it does feel like a newer entry rather than a rehash of what came before, and I give credit to franchise director newcomer Louis Leterrier. He came in and give the franchise the new life it needed. While I think F9 was pretty good at best, Leterrier succeeded in making this entry feel more grounded. Between the way everything is shot & edited, and how certain characters have good character arcs, I feel confident with Leterrier bringing this franchise to the finish line.

Where the movie begins to feel like the gas is getting empty is within certain plot points. Things can feel very jumpy at times, especially when it cuts back to characters off doing something else. There were moments where I had to spend the time to remember how they got to where they are, which can make catching up with the overall movie a bit of a challenge. Too many characters are introduced to the point where I feel like were not necessary, and could have helped bring that production budget down. Finally, some character developments in the movie appear odd when looking back at it and I don’t think it will age well going forward.

Overall, this is a great addition to this franchise. The movie could have had wrapped its ending a bit better and there are certainly a little too many characters to follow, including new ones. In the end, I think fans will feel satisfied. I know I am going to be at the drawing board for the next 2 years until the next entry comes out trying to figure out how it will wrap up based on how this one ends.

VERDICT: 4/5 (Great)