Peter Pan & Wendy (2023)

Peter Pan & Wendy (2023)

 

7/10

Starring

Jude Law

Alexander Molony

Ever Anderson

Yara Shahidi

 

Directed by David Lowery

 

This movie adaption is some nice work by Disney. The movie does not have the amazing magic of the 1953 animated version to which it was adapted but carved its own path and brought out its own magical tributes to the tales of Peter Pan. The ending is also well crafted, and it does its best to answer some questions about where did Hook come from? Why do these two hate each other? And more.

I would not have thought Disney would go ahead with this much tweaking in the story which did not make Peter Pan the all-round good guy. That alone is what made this movie very captivating the moral dilemma shown and the way the characters decided to handle their situation made both Pan and Hook the victim of each other’s decision and a perpetrator.

The movie starts like the animation, with the introduction to the Darling and their children Wendy (the eldest), John and Michael. They are play fighting in their room causing havoc and their father was stern asking Wendy to grow up and act her age. This made Wendy wish to never grow up and that brought Peter Pan to her window.

I will skip many of the things that happened here as they are like the animation, but the flight to Neverland differs from the animation. Of cause to set flight, you need the fairy dust and happy thoughts, but when they got there. Hook shot at them and even captured the brothers.

Wendy crashes into the beach and is surrounded by the lost boys, led by Princess Tiger Lily. From here the movie ventures on a path of its own. Pan comes to the rescue in the end reunites the lost boys with Wendy and her brothers, but their home was attacked by Hook and his crew. The whole gang was captured except Pan. On the ship Wendy had to sit up and take responsibility for the lost boys and her brothers, as she sacrificed herself for their safety. Then we get to that funny part of the animation, where Hook and his crew are awaiting a splash.

How Peter saved the day, and how the matter ended, is left for you to see when you take the time to go see this Disney movie, on their Disney+ channel.

Is it worth it? Yes, this movie is worth the time I gave to see it and I will make time again in the future to see it once more. It stars, Ever Anderson the daughter of Milla Jovovich and Jude Law plays Captain Hook.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

 

7/10

 Starring

Chris Pine

Michelle Rodriguez

Regé-Jean Page

Justice Smith

Sophia Lillis

Hugh Grant

 

Directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley

 

This movie is cool, and I can understand why it is a hit both for audience and critics. The movie has a nice blend of fantasy, adventure, and comedy. This family friendly movie had me in the end with its emotions and it also did well in not making me guess how the stone, which is the center of the journey, will be used. It was easy to guess when the avenue to use it presented itself, but somehow the movie distracted me so much by the many things happening that at times I forgot about the center of the whole journey. These distractions are piled on in the lack of good plans, how what seems to be amazing plans get messed up in the end. And when you think you have seen it all and our heroes are on their way to a happy ending, then you remember that the bad guys are not just bad, they are evil.

The movie is said to be true to the material, since I am not a fan of the material, nor have I read any or played any of its games (video or board), I guess I will have to take the words of the audience on this. This alone is one of the biggest selling points of this movie, the way it handled its magic system and introduced someone like me who has no idea of the world of Dungeons and Dragons, into its world. I got swept up in the love of this movie and look forward to a sequel.

The movie plot is about Edgin (Chris Pine) who formed a crew with Holga (a barbarian and adopted mother to Edgin’s daughter Kira, Simon (an amateur sorcerer) and Forge (a con man). The crew are involved in stealing and making enough to care for themselves. One day, a mysterious lady called Sofina approached the group to perform a job for her and she will be coming along. Edgin was not interested, but Forge was able to convince him that this journey will help to reunite him and his late wife.

Things did not go as planned and Edgin and Holga get captured and imprisoned for two years. Forge had to start caring for Kira and Simon fled. When Edgin and Holga get out they found Forge who was now a leader of a town with Sofina by his side. Kira was now close to Forge and saw him as her adopted father. The reunion did not go as planned and now Egdin and Holga are on the run. They must form their crew back to steal the treasures they lost in the heist when they got arrested and Forge is also not ready to let go of Kira and Edgin must be ready to prove himself to be able to win her heart back.

Fun movie, many fun paths and I am avoiding saying much not to give anything away. Worth taking your time to go see.

 

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

 

5/10

 

Starring the voices of

Chris Pratt

Anya Taylor-Joy

Charlie Day

Jack Black

 

Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic

 

This movie is not engaging, the story is bland, the emotion is missing, and I applaud myself on my ability to stay awake while watching this movie. This new animation has critics not giving it high ratings and I support their view on this.

The standard of cinema is so low that the audience rating for movies like this is high. I am seeing this movie get ratings as good as The Incredibles and The Incredibles 2, making me doubt what the hell these people find interesting. This animation is very colorful, but it is not Toy Story. I am so disappointed; it was like I kept expecting more to happen and then each time I look at the time I get more and more disappointed because knowing the runtime and seeing time tick away and nothing worth noting is even happening. This movie is bound and arranged to be a box office hit and even that is a sad achievement. The Mario games by Nintendo from the 80s has been a franchise beacon of how gaming worlds should be built. The games are one of the most recognizable and profitable things you can find. Then the world itself with Donkey Kong and Yoshi has just made every journey into this world worth it. This animation along with the live action movie from the 90s I am afraid are not worth it at all. The presence of the world of Donkey Kong did nothing to save this movie from what it was created to be, a start to more Mario movies and the writers/makers not caring to make it a memorable one. If you have not played or scene any Mario gameplay you will be lost in this movie and plot below.

The movie plot is about the brothers Mario and Luigi who quit their work to start their own plumbing business. Things were not going well and when Mario saw a sewage problem in the city, he decided to go investigate with Luigi hoping that resolving this would give them the boost they need.

While investigating, they get sucked into the Mushroom World. They get separated with Luigi ending up in Bowser’s home world and castle and Mario in the Princess Peach home world and castle. Bowser is bent on conquering the world and he stole the Star Power-up and plans on using it to achieve this. He only has one demand to stop this, and Princess Peach must meet that demand if he is to stop. Mario on the other hand gets to meet Toad and Peach and is shown how this new world works and he has to work together with Peach to save her world and in turn save his brother.

In the end, we are made to suffer through this so that they can create a landing spot for future franchise movies.

Murder Mystery 2 (2023)

Murder Mystery 2 (2023)

 

6/10

Starring

Adam Sandler

Jennifer Aniston

 

Directed by Jeremy Garelick

 

If you saw Murder Mystery one and thought your life is missing a part two of the remaining alive characters. And what happened to those two unprofessional humans who happened to be married and were forced to be detectives. Well, Netflix got you. It may have been four years in the making, but Netflix got you. There made a part 2 and I enjoyed it just as much as I did the first one. The first one had its haters with many accepting that the pair of Sandler and Aniston (who played Nick and Audrey Spitz) were not powerful enough to make this movie worth anything, but I did disagree then and still do now.

This movie is just as good as the first one and would have been better if they had turned down the dumbness of the couple who has now decided to become real life private detectives. And they suck at it when they are being paid to do it, than when the situation they were in just dropped it on their laps.

So here we are Nick and Audrey are down in the dust with their agency when they get an invite to a wedding from their friend Vik, who is with Colonel Ulenga from the first film. The Colonel is now missing a left arm which happened when he saved Vik from an assassination attempt.

So in the preparation for the wedding Vik gets kidnapped and while everyone was all up in the commotion when a murdered man was in his place. Nick suspected that the real culprit was using this as a means to get away with Vik. He goes outside to witness Vik being taken away in a boat.

The couple want to have everyone present as they plan to make this investigation the one that shines a good light on their failing detective agency. They never got to see the light shine when Vik’s company hired an outsider, a known hostage negotiator who runs a team of skilled detectives to handle the case.

Things could have been easy from then on, but the kidnappers wanted the couple to handle the money exchange. This went badly and soon the couple were being wanted for a killing and the kidnapping.

How the two of them were able to wiggle their way out of this chaos is fun to watch and the movie has a lot more intense and silly scenes than the first film. I did not get to laugh out loud like the first film, but I was captivated to see how the whole chaos that has started was going to get sorted out.

It is out now on Netflix.