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...