Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

7/10

Starring

Robert Downey Jr.

Chris Evans

Mark Ruffalo

Chris Hemsworth

Scarlett Johansson

Directed by Anthony Russo and Joseph Russo

It has been over a decade since the release of the first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and we have been taken on a ride through twenty-one films leading to this twenty-second. The Infinity Saga has come to an end, and it was a grand journey.

Marvel decided to wrap this up in such grand style. The movie is three hours long, and you will not want to miss a minute of it. The jokes are packed, the drama is top class, and the action is the best I have seen in the MCU. The role of Captain Marvel in the film cannot be underplayed as she had a great effect.

This movie is just marvelous. Every idea or hope you may have had about how this movie was going to turn out—get ready to have them smashed. Avengers: Endgame does not play to the tune of any fan theory but charts its own course, and does it magnificently.

Our heroes were up against what seemed like an impossible task: to find Thanos and undo what he did in Avengers: Infinity War (2018). It seemed like a simple plot—if Thanos, with a snap of his fingers, could make half the universe’s population disappear, then another snap with the stones could bring them back.

Here is the challenge: Thanos was found, but he was powerless to face the remaining Avengers, as the snap with the stones took a whole lot out of him. He had further drained himself by destroying the stones. With that plan hitting a dead end, the team decided to keep the universe in order, as the disappearance of half its occupants was causing a lot of chaos.

Remember, many things were happening around the world when Thanos snapped his fingers. We get to see Scott Lang (Ant-Man) return from the quantum realm, and he is confused. It has been five years since Thanos snapped his fingers, and Scott, upon his return, could tell that something was wrong. He goes to the Avengers compound and is briefed on what has happened since he’s been gone. He tells them that time in the quantum realm is not the same as in the real world. He says the five years in the real world felt like five hours to him. He then suggests that they can use this knowledge to see if they can make a time machine.

Here is where this film changes everything we know about movies when it comes to time travel. We get schooled on why every movie we know, like Back to the Future, Terminator, and more, has lied to us. Because if you travel to the past, that past becomes your future, and your former present becomes the past, which can’t now be changed by your new future.

Amazing stuff, this movie. It is a critical and commercial success, breaking box office records everywhere. It is set to make over $2 billion, and we are left to guess where it will end.

The movie has no end scenes, and we are left to wonder what the next phase will be. With the exit of some characters, what’s next?

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

7/10

Starring

Robert Downey Jr.

Chris Hemsworth

Mark Ruffalo

Chris Evans

Scarlett Johansson

Benedict Cumberbatch

Don Cheadle

Tom Holland

Chadwick Boseman

 

 

Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo

There have been many mentions of the Infinity Stones and their powers. If you have seen Avengers: Age of Ultron, you will have come across Vision (a merge of J.A.R.V.I.S., Ultron, and the Mind Stone). Then, if you have seen Doctor Strange (2016), you definitely will have come across the power of the Time Stone. Then there is a Titan named Thanos who wants to harness the power of all the Infinity Stones and use it to save the universe. The problem with his method of trying to save the universe is his plan to use the power of the stones to wipe out, at random, half of the universe’s occupants. You know, if you look at it from another angle, Thanos is not much of a bad guy—just that his solution to the problem of limited resources is random genocide.

The stones were the first things to exist before the universe, and they have the power to make the same universe extinct. Avengers: Infinity War is the first of a two-part Avengers story to sum up the story of the Infinity Stones.

It continues the tale of our heroes from 2012’s The Avengers and 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, and it is the nineteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The movie has cool graphics with a very engaging storyline. Put together, this is one amazing movie to see. Now, the movie sets the path to the next Avengers movie but also introduces a new character, Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel, whose origin tale we get to see in Captain Marvel. Although we do not get to see her in this movie, the end scene shows a message being sent to her from Nick Fury.

Now the movie plot has been summarized above, with Thanos hunting the universe looking for the stones. He came to Asgard, which is now a flying ship, and, with his men, killed almost all the Asgardians to collect one of the stones. Then he sent his men to Earth to retrieve the Mind and Time Stones, while he went after the Soul Stone.

Thor and Hulk were able to escape the Thanos raid. They regrouped with as many heroes as they could find to take down Thanos and his men.

Steve Rogers/Captain America learned of this threat and was able to bring his team together with the people of Wakanda to stop the rage of the Titan. While all of this was going on, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Doctor Strange were also going up against Thanos to try and stop him.

But you have to see all the movie has to offer to understand what led to the second part.

The movie was both a critical and commercial success for Disney in a huge way. Because audiences were aware of the presence of Captain Marvel, they flocked to the theaters to see what she would bring to the last movie of this two-part saga, Avengers: Endgame (2019).

Bird on a Wire (1990)

Bird on a Wire (1990)

3/10

Starring

Mel Gibson

Goldie Hawn

Directed by John Badham

With Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn in the lead roles, this movie was a box office hit in 1990—and that’s all it was back then.
Bird on a Wire lacked the excitement needed to keep you glued from start to finish. The whole idea of a shady FBI office having the ability to do so much damage to a witness protection program was just too flimsy. I don’t know much about witness protection, but if someone’s life can be ruined because the lead office had dementia, what kind of system are they running at the FBI?
Add to that the chase scenes, where the bad guys always seem to have a heads-up on the location of our getaway pair, which was way too convenient to the point of being annoying.

The acting by the supporting cast seemed lackadaisical, and even the two leads appeared to handle the life-threatening situations a little too casually. The best person for a witness protection program is our lead, Rick (Mel Gibson). As we see throughout the movie, he’s a jack of all trades in the places he worked under the program. In fact, he was so good at his jobs that none of them wanted him to leave—he was the best they’d ever had. What a coincidence.

The movie is about a man who was set to be married fifteen years ago when he was sucked into the witness protection program, leaving his fiancée at the altar.
Now, she (Marianne – Goldie Hawn) has moved on with her life, believing he was dead, and has become a high-flying lawyer.
While handling a client in another city, she pulls into a gas station, and there he is—the man who left her at the altar. She confronts him, but he denies it, and with his slightly changed appearance, it seems easy for her to believe him. Although, the before-and-after pictures of himself are just different by a shave.

Around the same time, the man Rick testified against gets out on parole. He calls his contact in the FBI, who doesn’t know where Rick is, but by coincidence, Rick calls the FBI office at around the same time. After Marianne sees him, he calls to be relocated, and the corrupt agent happens to be the one who gets the call transfer. He tells Rick that the officer in charge at the Bureau has retired and that he’s now handling the case. He gets Rick’s current location and sends the bad guys after him.
They show up at the same time Marianne returns to confront Rick again, insisting she wasn’t lying and that he is who she thinks he is. Some guns go off, and now both of them are on the run together.

The amount of coincidence required for this movie to kick off the chase was way too much to just enjoy it. Skip this one.

Bulworth (1998)

Bulworth (1998)

6/10

Starring

Warren Beatty

Halle Berry

Don Cheadle

Directed by Warren Beatty

Here’s the irony: if you watch the 1980s TV show Yes, Minister, you get a glimpse of the political climate in Britain that mirrors the current Brexit nonsense. Then, if you watch the 1998 movie Bulworth, you get a glimpse of the political climate in the USA. The Democrats can’t seem to get their act together to handle Trump, and people love it when someone (like Trump) speaks their mind and goes off-script. It’s safe to say the comedy of the ’80s and ’90s predicted the chaos of today’s political climate. That aside, Bulworth is a movie that might rub many people the wrong way, but for the more discerning crowd who want to be entertained by some political comedy, it’s a cool movie to watch.

Warren Beatty’s acting as Bulworth is the most captivating part, as we see him go through a nervous breakdown, lose his mind, find peace, and then have it all come to an end.
The movie doesn’t waste time introducing the chaos ahead. It starts with Jay Bulworth alone and crying because he hates his life. He’s lost favor with voters, and his fake marital life—where both he and his wife see other people—doesn’t seem to matter anymore.
Feeling suicidal, he decides to do something about it—negatively. He negotiates a $10 million life insurance policy to be paid to his only child, his daughter. He secures this high claim by selling his vote on some legislation to insurance companies. Knowing suicide would nullify the insurance claim, he contacts someone who can help make the claim happen for his daughter.

He pays for his own assassination and sets the date for it. Unknown to him, his life is about to take another turn. Since he has nothing else to live for, he decides to live life to the fullest. Jay Bulworth starts enjoying his last days, going out and speaking the truth about how he feels. The problem? The truth-telling part. He exposes how the government works, how it cares less about the people and more about money, corporations, and lobbyists.

Soon, he starts feeling better about himself—and here’s the problem: there’s a hitman trying to kill him.

The fun in the movie is how he keeps trying not to get killed while still going on TV and speaking his mind about what’s going on in the government.

Bulworth is a fun movie to watch for everything it brings to the table.

The Out-of-Towners (1999)

The Out-of-Towners (1999)

3/10

Starring

Steve Martin

Goldie Hawn

Directed by Sam Weisman

The screenplay is very similar to the 1970 original of the same name, except it starts slower and couldn’t keep pace with the original. The whole train ride from the original was removed, replaced by a car drive that meant nothing. The chemistry between Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn doesn’t compare to that of Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis. Sandy’s portrayal of a wife facing a difficult time was far more amusing to watch than Goldie Hawn’s depiction of the same character.

This 1999 version also relied on physical mishaps to drive home the comedy, but in the end, they fell flat. It’s hard to compare both movies because the first one was more focused on the dynamics between Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis, while here, the actors failed to replicate the same chemistry.

The movie has a different ending from the original, so get ready for a ride that wraps up differently. I wonder why they changed the original’s idea, where things kept getting worse until the very end.

Our couple, Henry (Martin) and Nancy Clark (Hawn), are heading to New York for a job interview for Henry. Henry has lost his job in Ohio, and since their two children are now adults, there’s nothing keeping him there. He doesn’t tell his family about his recent bad luck, thinking he can wing it. He tells them the interview in New York is for a job promotion and relocation.

Here’s how the couple gets to New York. Initially, only Henry was going. He had a plan, and going alone would make it easier to maintain his lie. Nancy, feeling bored with her life and current situation, decides to sneak onto the plane with him. Her idea is that a trip to New York will reignite something in their marriage.

The trip is a disaster. The plane gets rerouted to Boston, and upon landing, they realize their luggage is lost. They head to their hotel, but the delay in Boston causes them to lose their booking. They get mugged at gunpoint, get involved in a getaway robbery, and find out their daughter has maxed out their credit card.

Things don’t get better when Henry gets arrested and misses his meeting. To make matters worse, he has to reveal to Nancy that he lost his job in Ohio and that this New York interview is a do-or-die situation.

The movie was a commercial and critical failure, and I don’t see any reason for anyone to bother watching it.

The Out-of-Towners (1970)

The Out-of-Towners (1970)

7/10

Starring

Jack Lemmon

Sandy Dennis

Directed by Arthur Hiller

They don’t come any faster or crazier than The Out-of-Towners. This 1970 film follows a couple having an unbelievably bad day, which turns into a bad night and continues into the next day. Even when you think it’s over, their bad luck runs all the way to the very end of the movie.
This comedy was written by Neil Simon, the man behind The Odd Couple franchise, whose comic work isn’t just about making you laugh at the ridiculousness of what’s happening, but also at the characters themselves.

The movie starts with a bang. It seems plain and simple at first, but the moment things start going wrong, you’re left asking yourself, “Can things get any worse than this?” And they usually do. With George Kellerman (Jack Lemmon) wanting to sue everyone, and his wife Gwen (Sandy Dennis), who remains a bit of a mystery even by the end of the movie, the chaos is nonstop.

The plot begins with George and Gwen heading to the airport for their flight from Ohio to New York. George is being offered a job promotion there and is heading for the interview. His goal is to get the job and move his family to New York for a better life.
He’s always in a rush, pushing Gwen along and making it hard for her to eat or do anything she wants. He’s planned every detail and expects her to be ready for the lunch and dinner plans he’s made.

Things start to go wrong when the plane has trouble landing in New York. George begins losing his cool because his interview is at 9:00 a.m. the next day. Finally, they land—but not in New York. They’re in Boston. Now, George must find a way to get from Boston to New York by train, a feat that feels like a mountain for him and his wife to climb.

They arrive in New York only to discover their luggage has been lost by the airline, and their hotel room has been given away because they didn’t call to hold their reservation. But it doesn’t stop there for these two. With no accommodation, they wrestle a dog for food, are chased by an officer who suspects them of being pedophiles, and get mugged more than once.

The movie is fun, and I can safely say it’s aged well. Some of the occurrences in the film were in tune with the happenings in New York at the time. Take a dose of this movie—you’ll be glad you did.

Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves (1997)

Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves (1997)

4/10

Starring

Rick Moranis

Eve Gordon

Bug Hall

Robin Bartlett

Directed by Dean Cundey

Disney decided to round up the whole shrinking-and-making-bigger movie series with a final installment, making it a trilogy of the adventures of Wayne Szalinski’s (Rick Moranis) lab malfunctions. After Honey, I Shrunk the Kids in 1989 and Honey, I Blew Up the Kid in 1992, Disney decided to cut back on the huge expenses. They spent a lot of money making the second movie, hoping it would be a huge hit like the first, but it fell short. This last movie in the franchise cost way less than half of what it took to make the first one.

For me, this movie is also below par compared to the first, but it wasn’t as good as the second either. Disney went back to a smaller idea here, focusing on the now-shrunk adults trying to make it through the house.
A lot has changed in this final movie, with the new focus being on Adam and his cousins. Amy and Nick have moved out, and the story now centers on Wayne’s extended family. Rick Moranis is the only recurring cast member in this installment.

The plot starts with an introduction to the new characters: the new Adam, his cousins, aunt, and uncle. Wayne’s wife and sister-in-law are going on vacation, and the men are left to care for the kids while they’re gone.
Wayne is also told to get rid of a statue he bought, which he really likes. When the women leave for their trip, Wayne tricks the kids into going to the mall to buy toothpicks so he can shrink the statue. He figures that way, he can keep it without his wife noticing.

Of course, things don’t go as planned. Certain events lead to the women returning home, and they end up getting shrunk along with the men. Now, they have to find their way around the house to get their kids to notice them and help undo the shrinking.

In the end, the franchise spawned a TV series on the Disney Channel that ran for three seasons. The show was more focused on the first film and didn’t include Adam.
The scaled-down idea of this movie was Disney’s way of testing direct-to-video live-action films. This was their first attempt at a direct-to-video live-action movie, and it did well for them, even though the film was a critical bomb and, in my view, didn’t add much value to the franchise.

Honey, I Blew Up the Kid (1992)

Honey, I Blew Up the Kid (1992)

5/10

Starring

Rick Moranis

Marcia Strassman

Lloyd Bridges

Robert Oliveri

John Shea

Directed by Randal Kleiser

Here, Disney decided to throw out the single neighbor and go for a ton of people instead.
I assume the executives looked at the financial success of the first film and thought, “Bigger will be better.” My memory of this movie when I saw it in the 90s is a fun one, more fun than seeing it now.
They must have said, “Let’s get rid of a small family problem and make everything bigger.” Just like Rick Moranis’ character made his youngest son grow from a 3-foot-tall child to 7 feet, then 14 feet, and finally 50 feet, Disney did the same with the scale of the movie’s events.

The first movie cost 18 million; this one cost 40 million to produce. And you can see where all that money went—more cast, more special effects to cover all the places the giant child went, helicopters, news coverage, property destruction, and more. This movie was way too big for such a small story. The “bigger is better” idea didn’t work on screen either, as the movie was nowhere near as good as the first.

After the events of the first film, we see the family two years later, with mom and dad having a more stable relationship. The new issue on the horizon is Wayne’s work. He’s having problems with one of the managers, who seems more interested in making the new “make stuff big” project work without Wayne’s involvement.
They’re running into challenges at work, and Wayne, who now has a new baby in the picture—two-year-old Adam, who loves breaking things as he explores his surroundings—wants to figure out what’s going on.

Wayne breaks into his lab at work to see what’s causing the issues with the new “make big” ray the company is so invested in. While testing the machine on Adam’s favorite stuffed animal, things don’t go as planned. Adam, wanting his toy back, crawls/walks to where the bunny was placed. As his father is absent-mindedly focused on something else, Adam gets hit by the ray.

Things don’t take effect until Adam finds himself in front of something emitting electromagnetic flux, which makes him grow bigger than normal. The situation gets worse when they get home and have to deal with mom.

The movie wasn’t a critical or commercial success like the first film, making just over $70 million at the box office. This made Disney decide not to risk releasing the third movie in theaters, opting instead for a direct-to-video release.

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)

6/10

Starring

Rick Moranis

Matt Frewer

Marcia Strassman

Kristine Sutherland

Directed by Joe Johnston

In 1989, Disney pulled off a lucky sleeper hit called Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. The movie starred Rick Moranis, and while it wasn’t anything spectacular, it was different and cool. The concept and idea weren’t something I was too familiar with, and I remember how much it was worth seeing years later on VHS.
The movie’s main advantage was the build-up to the main event. It wasn’t packed with twists and turns or dark suspense, but it was straightforward and easy to follow. The moment the kids got shrunk, we went from watching a couple trying to solve their marital problems to seeing them desperately search for their tiny children.
The way the movie was done, when the children were in the yard, we started seeing things from the perspective of being the size of an ant (or even smaller).

Everything—from the way the actors reacted to their situation to how the director (on his debut) crafted and guided us through an unexpected journey—can only be described as something you’ll appreciate if you see it, even in the present day.

The movie’s plot starts with the introduction of a scientist/inventor, Wayne (played by Rick Moranis), who has turned his house and living area into his personal experimental lab. His obsession with work and results has led to marital problems with his wife.
They have two children: an older teenage daughter and a much younger, geeky son. Their neighbor has two sons who are around the same age as their kids.

While the kids are at home, the neighbor breaks a window while playing baseball. His older brother drags him over to apologize, which leads them to their father’s workspace. There, Wayne is working on a shrink ray. The baseball hits the machine, turning it on and shrinking everything in front of it. When the four kids enter the room, they get shrunk too.

Wayne comes home, frustrated that he can’t get the machine to work as he wants, and starts destroying it. He sweeps up the mess—and the shrunk kids—into a waste bag (unknowingly) and puts it outside in the yard.
The kids manage to get out and now must find a way to get back home and alert their father to reverse the shrink ray.

At the time of its release, it was Disney’s highest-grossing live-action film for several years. It grossed over 220 million on an 18 million budget and was a critical success. Disney couldn’t let this success go untapped and made two sequels, neither of which was as good or original as the first.

Captain Marvel (2019)

Captain Marvel (2019)

7/10

Starring

Brie Larson

Samuel L. Jackson

Ben Mendelsohn

Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck

I took my time to watch this because I wanted to see it alongside Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and then Avengers: Endgame (2019). I couldn’t be bothered to wait forever to watch everything in order and see how it all ties together. That said, I read a lot of reviews calling this movie average, but after seeing it, I have to say—average my ass! This movie was pure fun.

The graphical work done on Nick Fury is incredible—Samuel L. Jackson looked so young. Add to that Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, and you’ve got an amazing cast.

Marvel has something D.C. just hasn’t figured out yet: casting the perfect people for roles and getting the most out of them. The financial investment Disney made in building the Marvel Cinematic Universe (this is the twenty-first MCU movie) is clearly paying off, while D.C. is still playing catch-up.

The movie had just the right amount of adventure, action, and mystery to keep you hooked from start to finish. By the end, you’ll feel like watching it again just to make sure you didn’t miss anything.

Set in 1995, the movie focuses on Carol Danvers as she uncovers her past and grows into Captain Marvel while Earth gets caught in the middle of a galactic war between two alien civilizations, the Kree and the Skrulls.

The plot jumps back and forth a bit, but here’s the gist of it: Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel/Vers (Brie Larson) is part of the Kree force trying to keep the Skrulls in check. The Skrulls are shape-shifting aliens capable of mimicking any organism down to its DNA.

During a mission against the Skrulls, Vers is captured, and they probe her memories to find a woman named Lawson. During this probe, Vers sees flashes of a life she once had on Earth as Carol Danvers.

She escapes and follows the Skrulls to Earth, where she meets S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Phil Coulson—though one of them turns out to be a Skrull in disguise.

From there, things escalate. The Skrulls infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D., and as Fury and Danvers search for Lawson, more truths about Danvers' past come to light. These revelations also uncover hidden layers of the Kree-Skrull war, leaving you questioning what’s really going on.

It’s a great movie that promises a good time. Be ready for some amazing acting and jaw-dropping visuals. The movie is set to make room for further sequels, so let us hope future sequels live up to the fun of this movie.

Dumbo (2019)

Dumbo (2019)

5/10

Starring

Colin Farrell

Michael Keaton

Danny DeVito

Directed by Tim Burton

What Dumbo lacks in this live-action remake of Disney’s 1941 animated film is holding power. The film feels crowded with too many characters, and with the uneven flow of the movie itself, it just doesn’t capture the magic of the original Dumbo animation.

The only standout aspect of this movie is Tim Burton’s visual style. You’ll love the visuals, but you’ll wish the story was more engaging and the characters had more depth. Even the animals’ tale lacks the depth needed to draw you in. The child actors seem burdened with the role of adding drama to the movie.
Disney’s live-action remakes of their classics have finally hit a miss, and I hope the others expected this year won’t fall into the same hole.

The plot has been modified to feel more realistic, which, to me, was overplaying its hand since the movie is about a flying elephant. This fantasy film strays enough from the original animation’s plot but stays true to Disney’s happy ending.

In a failing travelling circus led by Max (Danny DeVito), a World War I amputee returns home to his family, only to find his wife has died and his children (a boy and a girl) are being cared for by the circus. Our soldier, Holt (Colin Farrell), was a performer with his wife in the circus, and now that he’s back, he’s unsure of his role. Max has just bought a pregnant Asian elephant and needs someone to care for it, planning a new show around the expected baby elephant.

The birth of Dumbo, with his big ears, is a spectacle Max isn’t ready for. He knows what will happen if the animal is seen and tries to cover up Dumbo’s ears. After a disastrous and tragic opening, Max sells Dumbo’s mother to recover some losses. Holt’s children take Dumbo under their wing, and while caring for him, they notice that his big ears allow him to fly when he plays with a feather. This discovery leads to a whole new adventure for the circus and Dumbo himself.

A reunion of Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, and Tim Burton is another thing Dumbo has going for it. This time, the roles are switched for our actors compared to Batman Returns (1992). While both are supporting cast members to Colin Farrell and his onscreen children, DeVito plays the good guy, and Keaton is the villain.

Dumbo has the Disney ending kids will love, but the movie lacks the Disney magic of fun and good storytelling.

Hellboy (2019)

Hellboy (2019)

4/10

Starring

David Harbour

Milla Jovovich

Ian McShane

Directed by Niel Marshall

This new Hellboy movie is missing a lot of what would make it fun to watch and worth recommending. This supernatural horror film tries hard to walk the line between staying close to the comics and distancing itself from Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy.
It crams too many monsters into one film, creating unnecessary subplots and changing the narrative when it wasn’t needed. The pacing is all over the place, and when it fails to tie everything together, the movie just ends, hoping viewers will like it enough to want a sequel.

The movie is filled with so many daddy issues that it becomes annoying and distracting. The ending is incredibly lame, and after watching it, I really wanted to go back and watch del Toro’s Hellboy instead.

The movie’s plot introduces us to the lead anti-hero, Hellboy. Unlike del Toro’s version, this Hellboy’s origin story is split into two parts. We see how he came to Earth at one point and how he was born at another.

For those who don’t know, Hellboy is a half-demon character with a tail, two horns, one hand bigger than the other, and red skin. He was created with a destiny to bring about the apocalypse.
He works with the B.P.R.D. (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense) and is one of their lead investigators tasked with taking down monsters.

One monster, in particular, is brewing and becomes a hot target for Hellboy: Nimue, the Blood Queen. She was defeated (but not killed) during King Arthur’s time and has been awaiting resurrection. Thanks to the many enemies Hellboy has made over the years, a few of them team up to bring Nimue back to deal with him. What they don’t know is that Nimue and Hellboy’s destinies are meant to collide, and they’re not exactly on the same page.

Filled with annoying CGI and a wasted cast, this movie had no chance. Even I can’t help but compare it to del Toro’s two Hellboy films, and it doesn’t hold up.

The last Hellboy movie was eleven years ago, directed by Guillermo del Toro. The first and second films starred Ron Perlman as Hellboy. This time, we have a new director, Neil Marshall, and David Harbour in the lead role. For me, Harbour picked the wrong movie to be a hero in.
I feel the production studio should have let del Toro and Perlman finish their Hellboy trilogy. This reboot, which has already received bad reviews and had a low turnout at the box office, is a complete waste of time.

Shazam! (2019)

Shazam! (2019)

7/10

Starring

Zachary Levi

Mark Strong

Asher Angel

Jack Dylan Grazer

Directed by David F. Sandberg

Unless you’re biased because this movie was supposed to be the Ant-Man of DC movies, you have to admit this is the most fun you can have watching any DC film. The plot and comedy are so well-crafted that you forget about the silliness of the movie.

Well-directed by David F. Sandberg, this is the seventh installment in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). The actors seemed to be having as much fun as we, the viewers, were. That said, the weakest part of the movie is when the whole family becomes “Shazams.” I hated the acting at that point—it was just too many people being childish at the same time.

Aside from that, this is the best DC movie I’ve seen so far. A lot of that is thanks to Zachary Levi, who plays Shazam, and Jack Dylan Grazer, who plays Freddy. Freddy is Billy’s foster brother and best friend.

Here’s the plot: Shazam, a wizard who’s growing old, needs to pass his power to a new bearer. He summons a young boy named Thaddeus (played by Mark Strong as the older version, who becomes the movie’s villain). When Thaddeus is about to receive the power, he’s tempted by the Seven Deadly Sins, and his heart is no longer pure. The wizard rejects him.

Our soon-to-be hero, Billy (played by Asher Angel), is a young foster child who struggles to stay put. He keeps running away from foster families, searching for his mother. His new foster home includes a boy named Freddy, who’s obsessed with superheroes.

When Billy is summoned by the wizard and found to be pure of heart, he’s given the power to become the new Shazam. The first person he turns to for guidance is Freddy. Things get rocky between them at first, but when the villain shows up, Billy has to step up from being an overgrown child to the hero he’s meant to be.

DC has created a universe for their heroes, but so far, they’ve struggled to keep it running smoothly. We’ve had recasts, reboots, and it doesn’t look like they’re ending anytime soon.
We still don’t know who the new Batman and Superman will be. Suicide Squad is facing a reboot, and it’s just not going the way Disney/Marvel has managed their universe. Now that Disney has the rights to the X-Men back, Marvel is only going to get stronger.

To be fair, DC has delivered with Wonder Woman (2017) and Aquaman (2018), but I can confidently say this movie is the most fun I’ve had watching any DC film.

Go see it—you’ll love it too.

Universal Soldier (1992)

Universal Soldier (1992)

6/10

Starring

Jean-Claude Van Damme

Dolph Lundgren

All Walker

Directed by Roland Emmerich

The coolest thing about the ’90s was the action movies. They seemed to be produced at a never-ending rate, and we had so many action heroes to choose from. Universal Soldier falls under one of those ’90s movies that was meant to be seen with that mindset.

If you watch the movie now, you might get annoyed with the science and how the plot skips over things to jump straight into the action.
Thanks to the level of intelligence and insight we all have today, this movie couldn’t be made now. Add to that some acting and dialogue that could be called below par by any standard, and it’s easy to see why it might not hold up. That said, the non-stop action is what keeps it as one of those ’90s movies you’ve got to see—especially if you’re watching it through a ’90s lens.

The movie’s plot starts with our two leads, Luc (Jean-Claude Van Damme) and Scott (Dolph Lundgren), as U.S. soldiers in the Vietnam War. Luc is on his last tour and looking forward to going home, but his sergeant, Scott, has lost it mentally. Scott is killing everyone, including members of his own platoon, calling them traitors.
When Luc confronts him, trying to calm Scott down, Scott orders him to kill innocent Vietnamese villagers, which Luc refuses. Scott kills them anyway, and he and Luc end up fighting, leading to both of their deaths.

In the present day, we see both of them as part of an elite force called the Universal Soldiers. This force consists of dead MIA soldiers brought back to life through some weird science and programmed to follow orders. They’re deployed on impossible missions that living soldiers can’t handle, and they always succeed.
During one mission, Luc starts having memory flashes, causing him to disobey orders. He looks back at Scott, remembering what happened more than two decades ago.

The Army is proud of their Universal Soldiers, but when a reporter (Veronica, played by Ally Walker) decides to dig deeper, she gets caught. The Army sends Luc, Scott, and other soldiers to apprehend her. Soon, Scott starts replaying the events before his death—he shoots the cameraman. Luc, too, begins reliving his past and attacks Scott, then runs away with Veronica.

Before long, the entire Universal Soldier program is in chaos, with Scott going rogue and Luc trying to get home while also saving Veronica.

Well, that’s the plot. It’s not the best, but the action and pacing are what make this movie memorable and fun.
Many useless sequels were made after this, and I stand by my opinion that they were pointless.