The Cinematic Review-verse

When I saw Mean Girls (2024) on Thursday night the 11th of January, I was enthralled by the musical numbers and the energy in the main teen cast. And though some of the original film's stuff got rehashed in a good way along with the music, it should've cut down on the old humor after a while and put in some new material. The plot's pretty much the same as the original film: After years of homeschooling in Africa, Cady Heron , played by Angourie Rice , who played Betty Brant in Marvel Studios' Spider-Man films,   transfers to North Shore High School  in America. But it's still a jungle adventure and misadventure when she must outwit the school's unscrupulous social hierarchy, dominated by  The Plastics trio clique, led by Regina George , played by Reneé Rapp, who is beautiful yet barbaric. She gets help and guidance in the form of Janis 'Imi'ike and Damian Hubbard , played by Auli'i Cravalho from Moana and Jaquel Spivey , respectively.   How to c...

Aquaman is ready to ride...the seahorse! Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. When I saw Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, it was similar to other adventure films, e.g. Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Avatar, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, you get the idea. But what really astounded me was how it helped the main man Arthur Curry become more than his usual reckless, happy hour-loving self, and brought out his true heroic nature. In The Lost Kingdom , Aquaman, played by Jason Momoa, is trying to be a responsible king of Atlantis and have a life on land. But his hands, or should I say "fins", are about to get fuller when Black Manta/David Kane, played by Yahya Abdul-Mateem II, seeks revenge and tries to destroy Atlantis and its multiple kingdoms. To save his loved ones and the sea, Aquaman has to turn to his least favorite person: his half-brother, Orm, played by Patrick Wilson. It started off with Aquaman telling a literal hard rock tale of his battling pirates with Steppenwolf in th...

  On Black Friday 2023, I saw   Trolls: Band Together! I could really dig it with the whole boy band primadonna drama between Branch and BroZone, and I have a lot of pop music to learn thanks to them. BroZone, from DreamWorks’  Trolls Band Together. Photo courtesy of DreamWorks In  Trolls Band Together , Branch (voiced by Justin Timberlake) is forced to confront his past when one of his long-lost brothers is in danger. It’ll take him, Poppy (voiced by Anna Kendrick), and the power of upbeat music to save the day. I appreciate how the film shifted from focusing on Poppy to helping Branch get out of his shell, especially with the wild hair and frosted tips. It was great to see that he wasn’t always a cynical survivalist and that the film exposed his human side. I also enjoyed Kenan Thompson’s character of Tiny Diamond stealing the show a couple times. Tiny Diamond, voiced by Kenan Thompson, in charge of the road trip; do not sass him. Photo courtesy of DreamWorks. Even...

  Theatrical poster of  The Creator , now in theaters. Courtesy of 20th Century Studios. So, on October 10, 2023, me and my friend saw The Creator . I detected a little Star Wars vibe in the trailer. With the final result, I saw vibes of Star Wars, and the likes of Blade Runner, Avatar, Elysium, even Armageddon. It was harrowing in the struggle for humanity to survive with and without artificial intelligence, heartbreaking towards the end, yet heartwarming with that chosen one kid trope. John David Washington leads The Creator as U.S. Army Sgt. Joshua Taylor, here to literally save the world from the worst of Artificial Intelligence. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. In The Creator , in 2065, John David Washington played a U.S. Army Sergeant trying to protect a girl with artificial intelligence capabilities from rogue Army forces as part of a bigger issue of keeping humanity from extinction. Between the battle against all odds and trying to keep a calm kid from living...

Gamora starts off as a lethal weapon. Photo courtesy of Reddit. Then Gamora fooled around and fell in love with Star-Lord. Photo courtesy of Fandom. I enjoy Volume 1 of the  Guardians of the Galaxy films. It's like Brooklyn Nine-Nine in the case of combining action on the job with comic and dramatic elements. Gamora is like Black Widow in that she seems to be a bewitching lethal weapon at first, but she has more human elements than meets the eye.  Nebula got tortured into becoming a cybernetic warrior. Photo courtesy of Comic Basics. By the end of GOTG Vol. 2, she got warrior skills, and a true sister. Photo courtesy of The Mary Sue. The same goes for her sister Nebula and her teammate Rocket Raccoon, in that they both just want to be loved and act all psychotic and macho because no one wants to give them that love, until Peter Quill dances in like Kevin Bacon to stop the bigots with polls up their butts. At first, Rocket Raccoon lived for how much this was gonna hurt. Photo c...

Photo courtesy of MGM. Last night, I saw  Bottoms . There were few enjoyable moments, emphasis on  few , but with all due respect, it just  reminded me of more tired high school drama that I don’t want people to see.  For starters, two high school lesbians, played by Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri, start a fight club just to  hook up with cheerleaders. Havana Rose Liu’s character of Isabel said to Ayo Edebiri’s character of Josie  that she didn’t have to go along with this just to start a relationship with her, and Liu was right. The  whole idea that just because parts of high school don’t think you’re popular and you have to lie and go  to extreme lengths to prove them wrong is not a good message to send to people today.  Mostly because I’m not a fan of hot-tempered vulgar language amongst kids today, fictional or  otherwise, I didn’t find it all very enjoyable. One part I did was when Hazel, played by Ruby Cruz, stuck it  to the m...

  DC's  Blue Beetle.  Photo courtesy of DC Comics.   In DC Comics’ latest cinematic venture, they’ve hit their own Beetlemania in the case of the lead superhero being Jaime Reyes in Blue Beetle . Xolo Maridueña was able to shed and share some of his Cobra Kai  skin playing Reyes in an adrenaline-filled, high-flying superhero escapade, with a doting, embarrassing family behind him. Blue Beetle tells their version of In the Heights with Reyes returning to Palmera City after college graduation. Family problems arise that Reyes is determined to take care of, even if he ends up in a collision course with an alien scarab and the ruthless Victoria Kord, played by Susan Sarandon, on his tail. But when all hope seems lost, Reyes takes up the mantle of Blue Beetle, armed with wings, gauntlets, and swords. As I said, Maridueña’s character of Jaime Reyes was similar to his role as Miguel Diaz in Cobra Kai . They are both undaunted at wanting to make a better life in thi...