The Cinematic Review-verse

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...