The Cinematic Review-verse

Official Poster of "Bumblebee" starring Haille Steinfeld and John Cena. Photo Courtesy of imdb.com While I have liked seeing the Autobots overcome the Decepticons, it recently hit me that the story had lost some of its spark. But, the "Transformers" franchise made a fresh restart in the form of "Bumblebee". With its numerous 1980s-era pop culture references, an emotional and invigorating performance by Hailee Steinfeld, and packs of action, "Bumblebee" may be the inventiveness to bring the Transformers films back to light. Taking place in 1987, Autobot B-127 (voiced by Dylan O'Brien) crash lands on planet Earth after a war with the Decepticons consumes his home planet, Cybertron. Once he loses his memory and vocal processor, he befriends rebellious teenager Charlie Watson played by Hailee Steinfeld. But the friendship between human and machine is threatened by a paranoid government agent, Jack Burns, played by John Cena, and two Dece...

“Ralph Breaks the Internet” movie poster. Photo courtesy of movies.disney.com I was filled with laughter and admiration when I saw “Ralph Breaks the Internet”. The film was abundant in laughter, great reprisals from the original film mixed with new ones, and a vivacious score by Henry Jackman. While the main character may have broken the Internet, he has built up my enthusiasm. Throughout the film, I really appreciated the chemistry between John C. Reilly and Sarah Silverman’s characters of Wreck-It Ralph and Vanellope von Schweetz, respectively. To me, their friendship challenges make them stronger than any fancy Internet excitement viewers can find. Following their victory against the Cy-Bug invasion, Ralph (voiced by Reilly) and Vanellope (voiced by Silverman) are troubled with how to live in and out of the game world, their days becoming plain and less exciting. That all changes when Mr. Litwak (voiced by Ed O’Neill) plugs in a Wi-Fi router at their arc...

Photo of Sylvester Stallone and Michael B. Jordan as Rocky Balboa and Adonis Creed, respectively. Courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn Mayer Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures "Creed II" brings back familiar elements from the previous "Rocky" films. While it is more predictable than original, it allowed the main character, Adonis Creed, to mature and bring back the eye of the tiger that hasn't been seen in a long time. With a surprising story and the right cast to tell it, "Creed II" went the distance of entertainment and succeeded. After battling and earning the respect of "Pretty" Ricky Conlan, Adonis Creed (played by Michael B. Jordan) has risen to the world heavyweight championship. But it's time for him to preserve his title, in and out of the ring, against Viktor Drago (played by Florian Munteanu), son of Ivan Drago (played by Dolph Lungdren), the man who beat his father to death in 1985. Through his trainer, Rocky Balboa (played...

Twentieth Century Fox’s Bohemian Rhapsody was both entertaining and confusing at the same time. It was entertaining when displaying the chemistry of the members of Queen and their smash hits, but confusing over what the main story was about.  All hail the talented Rami Malek for his performance as lead vocalist Freddie Mercury. What director Bryan Singer could have done better was give equal focus on the rest of the band, talk more about Mercury’s drug abuse, and, though I have no idea what it could be, a different title of the biography. However, the performances of the cast, costumes, and music made Bohemian Rhapsody sensational. Bohemian Rhapsody chronicles Queen’s beginnings as Mercury (played by Malek) meets guitarist Brian May (played by Gwilym Lee), drummer Roger Taylor (played by Ben Hardy), and bass guitarist John Deacon (played by Joseph Mazzello). Mercury defies distrustful businessmen and personal life struggles to lead this band to rock stardom in England and the ...

Poster of ‘A Star is Born’, taken by William Beavers. Copyright 2018, Warner Bros. Pictures. From  The Hangover to Avengers: Infinity War,  the majority of Bradley Cooper's performances I’ve seen have been humorous. But his directorial debut proved he knows how to sing and direct while demonstrating the hardships of a musician's personal life. A Star Is Born is a starstruck drama with an impassioned chemistry between Cooper and Grammy Award-winning Lady Gaga. The duo were as dynamic in romance and music as Johnny and June Carter Cash in Walk the Line . Another remake of the 1937 classic, alcoholic and crowd-pleasing country singer Jackson Maine (Cooper) and gifted yet underappreciated Ally (Gaga) form a romantic bond as the two begin touring across the United States. The hindrances between them are Maine's addictions and Ally's singing drawing the attention of major record companies. Despite this, the two stay together and prove how special they truly are, not to...

Photo Courtesy of imdb.com Disney's Christopher Robin is a heartwarming film that brings out the best of A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepherd's beloved children's book series. While blending live-action with CGI, both sides contributed to making a color, imaginative, wondrous tale for friends and family to view with pleasure. After being forced to mature rapidly and leave his imagination behind, a grown-up Christopher Robin (Ewan McGregor) is neglectful to his family (Hayley Atwell, Bronte Carmichael) and social life, in favor of his work. But, one day, a chance encounter with his old friends, chief among them being the honey-loving Winnie the Pooh (voiced by Jim Cummings) allows Christopher Robin to escape the troubles of reality and go back to his happier place. With the festivity of the creatures in the Hundred Acre Wood (voices of Cummings, Brad Garrett, Toby Jones, Peter Capaldi, Sophie Okonedo, Nick Mohammed, and Sara Sheen) there to guide him, Christopher Robin will...

Photo Courtesy of imdb.com After two years of preparing a third role, Paul Rudd made a valorous comeback in Peyton Reed's new MCU film, Ant-Man the Wasp . What his character lacks in size, Rudd makes up for in heroism. As for the rest of the film, it has nonstop playful banter, touching moments of keeping families together, robust fighting sequences, and coruscating visual effects that make it another hit for Marvel. Rudd and Evangeline Lilly should be commended for their roles as Ant-Man and Wasp, respectively. After the disaster from helping Captain America, Scott Lang (Rudd) is given a chance to help Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter, Hope van Dyne (Lilly) bring back her long-lost mother, Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) from a quantum realm. While trying to accomplish this task and reconcile his own familial issues, Lang is forced to ferret out a federal agent on his tail (Randall Park), a black market dealer (Walton Goggins), a ghost (Hannah John-Ka...

Sony and Genndy Tartakovsky made a very jocular third film when they created Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation . With nonstop moments for laughter and a great ensemble cast with new voices, it truly does make a great vacation movie. After years of being busy with the hotel business, Mavis (voiced by Selena Gomez) thinks it's time her father, Count Dracula (voiced by Adam Sandler) join her, her husband, Johnny (voiced by Andy Samberg), and the rest of their friends on a monster cruise. Drac begins falling in love with the ship's captain, Ericka (voiced by Kathryn Hahn). Unfortunately for and unbeknownst to him, Ericka is continuing the legacy of killing monsters for her great-grandfather, old enemy Abraham Van Helsing (voiced by Jim Gaffigan). It's going to take all of the Drac Pack to save the famed vampire hotelier, before he ends up dying for love, literally. Overall, I liked the film. What Sandler and his frequent collaborators lack in live-action, they make up f...

Courtesy of William Edward Beavers, V After a long gap in contriving the right cast, concept, music, and elements, Brad Bird successfully directed Incredibles 2 . By recruiting the former cast members and the right new ones, bringing back Michael Giacchino's poised, jazzy scoring, designing vivid animation, and creating an overall hilarious and heroic story, Bird and Disney/Pixar made a welcoming comeback for the 2004 Academy Award-winning film. After trying to defeat the Underminer (voiced by John Ratzenberger), where the first film left off, Elastigirl (voiced by Holly Hunter) is tasked with campaigning for superheroes to be legalized again, while her husband, Mr. Incredible (voiced by Craig T. Nelson) is left to care for their children Violet, Dash, and Jack-Jack (voiced by Sarah Vowell, Huck Milner, and Eli Fucile, respectively). But when a new antagonist dubbed "Screenslaver" threatens to thwart Elastigirl's mission, it will take all of the Incredibles, Fr...

Photo of Solo: A Star Wars Story poster taken at AMC Garden State Plaza. Courtesy of William Edward Beavers, V  Ron Howard's direction of Solo: A S tar Wars Story was filled with raw power and adventure at every turn. Combining top-notch acting performances with the media franchise's usual gleaming visual effects, a well-arranged score by John Powell and theme music from John Williams, and moving components to the story, Solo really is something exciting for Star Wars fans (or non- Star Wars fans) to see. Set before he met Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, young Han Solo (played by Alden Ehrenreich) encounters criminal syndicate organizations who put his home world in competitions for necessities such as hyperfuel. By joining forces with his lover Qi'ra (Emilia Clarke, mentor Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson), original Millennium Falcon owner Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover/ "Childish Gambino:), and his long-term sidekick Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), Solo gets the...

Photo Courtesy of Forbes In over two hours, it was astounding to see everyone back after two years. Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War was a phenomenal combination of visual effects and animation, humor, music, and heroic journeys. Directed by the Russo Brothers ( Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War ), the overall ensemble was well put together for this major box-office success. Thanos (Josh Brolin) threatens to wreak havoc on Earth and the rest of the Galaxy as he acquires the Infinity Stones. After years of strained relationships and a hiatus, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans) will have to put aside their egos and come together to save the universe, before Thanos acquires the power to rule the “suffering” world we call home. And it’s not just the Avengers; it will take them, the Mystics, the Wakandans, and the Guardians of the Galaxy to either preserve the planet or avenge it, to fight battl...

Photo Courtesy of William Edward Beavers, V Steven Spielberg's directed adaptation of Ernest Cline's Ready Player One was a compelling battle of old-school video games combined with futuristic technologies. Through the right cast members, remarkable use of virtual reality, and a rousing musical score by one of Spielberg's frequent collaborators, Alan Silvestri, Ready Player One was a robust film for adults and children to see for their viewing pleasure. Set in 2045, young outsider Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan, Scott Summers from  X-Men: Apocalypse ), escapes from the dismal real-world situation by using the virtual-reality software known as OASIS, created by video game tycoons James Halliday (Mark Rylance) and Ogden Morrow (Simon Pegg). Known as Parzival, Wade races against time to find a mystical Easter egg left behind by Halliday in the OASIS, before a diabolical corporate businessman (Ben Mendelsohn) gets the egg to take control of the OASIS. Through help from the c...

Ava DuVernay directed the right cast and crew for the adaptation of the 20th century novel by Madeline L'Engle. With stylized visual effects, well-designed costumes, uplifting original songs and scoring, and bringing the light to the dark moments, A Wrinkle in Time was an overall fantastic production to view. Meg Murray (Storm Reid) hasn't been the same since her astrophysicist father, Dr. Alex Murray (Chris Pine) disappeared years prior. But she gets an unexpected chance to reconcile with Murray when three astral travelers (Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling) inform her that he is a prisoner on a distant planet. Joining forces with her younger brother Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe) and classmate Calvin O'Keefe (Levi Miller), Meg must liberate from her isolated state and save her father before an evil entity known as the It (David Oyelowo) comes to destroy the universe. By the time the film ends, audiences may notice that Meg has become acknowledged as a hero...

Wakanda Forever Marvel Studios went with a predominantly African-American cast, invigorating visual effects, and moving musical score and soundtrack in their newest film, Black Panther. Ryan Coogler  ( Creed ) poured his heart out and delivered an exceptional direction in this superhero movie. The ensemble cast arranges from Chadwick Boseman who has a knack for playing historic and iconic figures of African American descent ( 42, Marshall ) to Andy Serkis, who is gifted in roles with motion-capture ( Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Star Wars: The Last Jedi ). Taking place after the events of Captain America: Civil War, T'Challa is given the mantle as king of the African nation, Wakanda. But threats to overthrow the throne and control the nation's supply of vibranium force T'Challa to fight for his people, and eventually, the world, as Black Panther. The actors' performances should be commended, for in the story, many people had different boundaries to face and d...

Photo Courtesy of William Edward Beavers, V Over 5 years ago, there were a group of actresses who teamed up to put on the best female acapella performance film has ever seen. Well, the cast and crew of Pitch Perfect 3 poured their hearts out for the trilogy to finish its run in a grand way. After most of the group graduated from college, Beca (Anna Kendrick), Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson), and the rest of the Barden Bellas decide to come together for one last performance, contending with other musical groups, at a USO (United States Organizations) tour. I think this is one for the records for Universal Studios. It was a bit dejecting to see that the franchise had to go soon. But, it was more uplifting when I witnessed the ladies finish what they started the best way how: together. With great new cast additions, whimsical moments of jokes and/or insults towards competition, and well-rehearsed covering of classic songs, Britney Spears' "Toxic", for example, it was an overa...

Photo Courtesy of imdb.com By employing an ensemble cast of reprisals and new additions, well-executed musical score by John Williams, sparkling visual effects, and breathtaking story elements, Star Wars: The Last Jedi was an admirable second course to the sequel trilogy of the Star Wars saga. The cast and crew have put in many long hours to make this one of the best films of the epic space franchise, and so they have. The primary plot of the film is Rey (Daisy Ridley) asking Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) to train her to become a Jedi. Luke is reluctant, as he believes it is time for the Jedi to end. Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is concerned with how mighty Rey is becoming with the Force, and seeks to bring her to the First Order and join him in the Dark Side. It will take Rey, Luke, and the Resistance-led by now-General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), and assisted by Poe (Oscar Isaac), Finn (John Boyega), Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran), and various others- to try to restore balance to ...