Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

7/10

Starring

Tom Holland

Michael Keaton

Jon Favreau

Directed by Jon Watts

The best description for this movie is fun. Tom Holland plays a much younger Spiderman than the previous two incarnations of the character. His portrayal is the most fun and the closest to the character of Spiderman than the previous two.

Here is the third reboot of this franchise and this will be one of the best comic reboots I have seen. Much of the drama of the first version and the thriller element of the second reboot were removed and in their place, was fun and adventure. Spiderman: Homecoming is a fitting welcome into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

There is no time you will not be rooting for Peter especially when he is taking on the villain and his goons. You will find yourself sucked in when he is using his web-skills, talking to himself and boyish ways of attending to things – will keep you grinning all the way through the movie as this is the Spiderman we know and love.

The plot starts with Peter Parker (Tom Holland) getting his welcome introduction to the happenings of Captain America: Civil War (2016). We see him capture the whole incidence on tape from when he was called to help, until when he took Captain America’s shield. Things became a bore for him as months after that incident, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) never called him in for another mission.

Peter decided to wait and the waiting led him to encounter a group of men who are using alien technology to design weapons and sell it on the black market.

These men were led by Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) who lost a contract to dispose of this alien tech to Tony Stark. Adrian decided to keep some of the tech for himself and explored using them to design weapons for sale and for his Vulture suit.

Peter informed Stark of this new development going on in his neighborhood and when he didn’t see any form of movement from Stark or the government he decided to handle it by himself.

The presence of Keaton as Vulture will have you at the edge of your sit. If you are familiar with the Spiderman animation where Vulture was introduced as a youth sucking villain, you will be surprised. The Vulture in the movie played close to the original Adrian Toomes, where the youth sucking was an aspect of the characters criminal biography and not a main theme.

Michael Keaton as usual out did himself, giving us a performance that will be for long remembered. He has proven overtime to be worth casting from his young days until now.

The movie feel and the overall outlook will have you plan a second viewing, as this is one great movie to see any time and with the family.

Baby’s Day Out (1994)

Baby’s Day Out (1994)

7/10

Starring

Adam Robert Worton and Jacob Joseph Worton

Joe Mantegna

Brian Haley

Joe Pantoliano

Directed by Patrick Read Johnson

This was the good old 90s, when we were not expecting to be blown away by explosions and too much CGI scenes to get us to laugh. The characters were real and relatable, but the adventures were unbelievable.

That was the style of the late John Hughes and through the 80s and 90s he gave us numerous films (Home Alone is one of them) that will forever be memorable in our hearts.

Baby’s Day Out was one of Hughes best movies, hone to his style. I watched it enough times growing up and I didn’t believe watching it again twenty-three years after its release I will still be laughing my head off at the unrealistic and unbelievable adventure the baby took us on.

Our adventure in this movie starts with a mother craving the attention other babies get from having their pictures in the local newspaper. She decided to hire a popular and expensive picture taking crew with the hope that their portfolio of getting pictures in the local paper will work for her baby.

A crew of bandits decided to use the same opportunity to kidnap a wealthy baby and our mother and her husband are more than wealthy plus popular to wet their appetite.

They first hijacked the picture taking crew then went to the rich home and using the mother’s obsession for perfection to distract her and her helps, they kidnapped baby Bink.

Now they have the baby, but here was a three men crew where only one was intelligent enough to plot and the other two were not that bright.

The baby managed to crawl away from them while one who was supposed to read to the baby to fall asleep, fell asleep instead and now the crew are chasing a crawling baby as he gets into malls, bus, taxi, zoo and other places.

What I love about the bandits was their character, they were not so bright that it was unbelievable that they manage to survive this long. They were the right amount of dull and smart that you can swear you have met someone like them either in your work place or in your group of friends.

The events and the adventure were set in such a way that you must put away the old-think-tank and just enjoy.

Don’t bother yourself on how the baby found the old people’s home or how the lady from the bus didn’t notice the weight change in her bag or the adults that allow a baby crawl away from them in a filming and cared not. Just watch the movie and be entertained.

Upon its release, it was a critical and commercial failure for the late John Hughes who had been behind great movies like Home Alone, Miracle on 34^th Street, Curly Sue, 101 Dalmatians, Flubber, Maid in Manhattan to mention but a few.

The movie however was a hit in Asia and as the late Robert Egret commented it was even more popular than Star Wars in Asia during its release. The movie had numerous remakes in different Asian countries.

In Nigeria where I’m from, the movie is seen among my pairs as a great comedy. It made us laugh and we all had our turn watching the movie over again, just to make sure we did not miss a scene of laughter.

Despicable Me 3 (2017)

Despicable Me 3 (2017)

6/10

Starring the voice of

Steve Carell

Kristen Wiig

Trey Parker

Miranda Cosgrove

Steve Coogan

Directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Baida

Never thought I will get to a point where the Minions will start to become annoying… and I have not gotten there yet, meaning I will gladly sit through another Despicable Me movie.

Illumination Entertainment have created a forever enjoyable cast of characters that have grown to become part of the expected fun you get when you take your family to go see a movie.

The family of Gru is a perfect cup of coffee: Gru is the dark brew, his daughters the sugar in the mix and the minions are the cream on top.

From the last Despicable Me, we were introduced to a new character Lucy. Lucy’s part in the second movie was instrumental to the fun in the movie and the Minions kind of took second wheel to the kids. Here in this movie her presence is more of a distraction and not adding to the movie’s enjoyable tune.

She and Dru (Gru’s twin brother) were to this movie, a triangle instrument in an already completed orchestra. Their cling whether in or out of tune is forgettable when everyone else is playing their part so well. To add to that we have a villain who loves the 80s music scene, along with him is a nice musical score that has nodding every time I see him.

I found myself looking forward to seeing this villain than I did Lucy and Dru and to my pleasure the movie starts on his turf. We see our “bad guy” steal the biggest diamond in the world and he didn’t just go about to steal the diamond, no sir! He did it in style.

Dancing, chewing gum and a hairstyle that was all 80s this dude was off the hook in this steal.

On his tail was Gru and Lucy who are members of the anti-villain league and our “bad guy” Balthazar Bratt to my delight got away with the diamond.

So as not to let everything out of the bag let me skip forward a bit, Gru gets a visit from a lawyer telling him that he has a twin brother Dru, who wants to meet him.

After drilling his mother to discover the truth of his brother’s existence he packs the family to go see his brother. The Minions by this time have left Gru as they miss the good old days when they were the bad guys not the ones chasing down the bad guys.

Upon meeting his brother Gru discovers that his brother was his opposite in character and their father was a world class criminal. Dru is a disappointment to their now late father as he wants to be a villain, but he is too scared to get it done.

Gru and Dru’s father left behind a huge estate in the care of Dru and Gru decided to use this new access to seek revenge on Bratt and steal back the diamond.

The animation is colorful and there are enough silly scenes in the movie to get you laughing. This 3D animation is the forth in the Despicable Me film franchise and Illumination Entertainment eight animation.

it will be followed in 2020 by Minions 2 and expect to see a Despicable Me 4 because this movie is doing very well in the box office.