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, ...

I'd say that Vin Diesel sure had his share of thrills bringing Xander Cage back after 15 years in this movie. After years of hiding out, Cage (Diesel) was finally found and recruited by the government to help stop a device that controls satellites to crash-land in any part of the planet. He does this with the most extreme team ever. All that action, stunts, and lovely women by his side, it was great to spend my 19th birthday watching this one. This'll be one great movie to bring up to him on his 50th birthday this year!

Rogue One was an excellent movie to add to the ever-growing Star Wars saga. Set before Episode IV: A New Hope, Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) leads a group of rebels to prevent construction of the Death Star, and ends up going on a collision course with diabolical Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn).  While it is a little frustrating to keep up with the timelines and cast sometimes, it is a thrill to see all that science fiction, action, and definition of fate jammed into over two hours of cinematic excellence! Michael Giacchino also did another great scoring when he conducted the music for Rogue One.  Keep up the acclaimed work, Disney. It was astonishing to see Jyn go through so much drama when she was a child, but it was relishing to see her overcome her past to attempt to preserve a better future for her and the galaxy. And Carrie Fisher shall rest in peace knowing she was loved as Princess Leia. And I don't consider her a "Princess" Princess; she has never received an army o...