The Cinematic Review-verse

After over 10 years of the magical Robin Hood act, it was good to laugh at a third appearance of the Four Horsemen with ' Now You See Me: Now You Don't .' With humorous companionship between original and new castmates, excellent magic scenes, and great heist music scoring by Brian Tyler , ' Now You See Me 3' was the best in the series. Over 10 years after outsmarting Walter Mably and Arthur Tressler from their last bout, the Horsemen, played by Jesse Eisenberg , Woody Harrelson , Dave Franco , and Isla Fisher , team up with younger aspiring magicians, played by Dominic Sessa , Justice Smith , and Ariana Greenblatt , to expose Veronika Vanderberg , played by Rosamund Pike , a diamond mining mogul who plans to launder money for war criminals with a diamond known as the Heart. Even if the Horsemen used a bunch of technology and trickery, Dave Franco's character Jack Wilder was right when he said that with the trouble with the COVID pandemic and AI and such, ...

Poster for 'Roofman.' Courtesy of Paramount Pictures and Miramax. Channing Tatum played Jeffrey Manchester, an ex-Army Reserve soldier and divorced dad who had a penchant for details and thieving. He was known as "The Roofman" for breaking into his targets by drilling into their roofs. It was like Tatum channeled Sam Dawson and Scott Lang into one as his character managed to find a way to sneak out of prison underneath a truck with skills from prison shop, then make a home in a corner in a 2004 Toys 'R Us.  It was pretty funny and amusing how Jeffrey sort of took control of the store after closing. How he snacked on M and M's, skated around on Heely-like shoes, he acted like a grown man with a kid's bedroom with inflatables and Spider-Man merchandise, and he kept security with baby monitors. It was also kind of funny how he made money out of stealing and pawning a bunch of video games. While trying to get out of the country after fleeing to the store, Jeff...

One of the posters for  The Bikeriders. Photo courtesy of William Beavers. Austin Butler  and Tom Hardy  did a great job acting in Focus Features'  The Bikeriders . There was occasional Johnny Cash and June Carter Walk the Line- esque chemistry between Jodie Comer and Butler's characters, enjoyable humor watching Butler act like Patrick Swayze and Hardy act like Robert De Niro, and amazing blues and rock and roll music depicted in the film. The Bikeriders  was also a great combination of tragedy and togetherness when it told the tales of humanity and inhumanity in members of a biker gang in the 1960s American Midwest. Based on a book by real-life photographer Danny Lyon, played by Mike Faist from Challengers,   The Bikeriders  tells the story of the Chicago chapter of the Vandals motorcycle club , led by Johnny, played by Hardy. One of his members and closest friends, Benny, played by Butler, is caught between enjoying the life of a dangerous bi...

  French release poster of Drive-Away Dolls . Courtesy of Universal Pictures. Hey, everybody. Media Mastermind, a.k.a. William Beavers, at your service. This Monday, a coworker friend and I saw Ethan Coen ’s Drive-Away Dolls , starring Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan . Qualley and Viswanathan played lesbian friends who took a road trip to Tallahassee, Florida for a New Year’s Eve hookup, and accidentally got mixed in with some gangsters and went toe-to-toe with them and eventually, a crooked politician played by Matt Damon . It was a decent movie. While I’m no complete fan of vulgar or graphic language, there were a few laughs with the buddy moments between Qualley and Viswanathan. And though I said Drive-Away Dolls was "weird", I felt the film was good-hearted in showing that the lead girls, despite their clashing personalities, with Qualley’s free-spirited outlook and Viswanathan’s bookish and uptight mannerisms, just wanted somebody to love and connect wit...