The Cinematic Review-verse

While less musical and humorous in comparison to its 1998 counterpart, the 2020 'Mulan' was worthy to watch. It gave a predominantly-Asian cast a chance to shine, paid more respect to the legend of warrior Hua Mulan, and had great scoring by Harry Gregson-Williams. Even though the story is mostly similar, Yifei Liu put up a good fight as the Chinese war hero. Yifei Liu as Hua Mulan, ready to fight Böri Khan and bring honor to her family. Photo courtesy of Disney. Set in Imperial China, Rouran warriors led by Böri Khan, played by Jason Scott Lee, plan an attack to kill the Emperor. When the Imperial Army sets out to conscript one man from each family to prepare for war, Hua Mulan takes her disabled war veteran father's, played by Tzi Ma, place. Despite the risks of dishonoring her family and country, Mulan will do everything in her power to bring down her malevolent foes and save the Emperor's life.  The few moments of humor came from Mulan chasing a chicken early on, ...

With all due respect to the cast and crew, "The New Mutants" was not the film to end the 20-year-old "X-Men" franchise. There were few moments of humor and teamwork, but it was too horrific and more of a drama or psychological thriller than an traditional superhero film. The film had potential, but "X-Men" should've stopped at "Days of Future Past". Charlie Heaton as Sam Guthrie, Anya Taylor-Joy as Illyana Rasputin, Blu Hunt as Danielle Moonstar, Henry Zaga as Roberto da Costa, and Maisie Williams as Rahne Sinclair in "The New Mutants". Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios.  In "The New Mutants", Danielle Moonstar (played by Blu Hunt) is brought to a hospital housing other mutants- Rahne Sinclair (played by Maisie Williams), Illyana Rasputin (played by Anya Taylor-Joy), Sam Guthrie (played by Charlie Heaton), and Roberto da Costa (played by Henry Zaga)- who, like her, have been victims of a tragedy while their po...

Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Karen Gillan can not cease to amaze me. While the plot of the film seems recycled, the cast of 'Jumanji: The Next Level' did a great job in continuing the story with nonstop action and humorous chemistry. I think director Jake Kasdan chose wisely in adding Danny DeVito, Danny Glover, and Awkwafina to the ensemble. The characters of the 'Jumanji' video game are ready to face danger. Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures. 'The Next Level' continues the story with the young heroes off to college. But Spencer, played by Alex Wolff, repairs the old Jumanji game in secret and gets sucked back into it, and his girlfriend and friends, played by Morgan Turner, Ser'Darius Blain, and Madison Iseman, along with his grandfather, Eddie, played by Danny DeVito, Eddie's former friend, Milo, played by Danny Glover, and former Jumanji captive Alex Vreeke, played by Colin Hanks have to rescue him. Adding to that mission is saving ...