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Review – The Suicide Squad (2021)

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by Old King Clancy 

Looking back on the first Suicide Squad, it’s clear that DC were looking to capture some of Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy hype by making their own gang of anti-hero misfits with a rocking 70s soundtrack. The difference being that Guardians Of The Galaxy was crafted to balance the ragtag humor with some well-earned emotional depth. While Suicide Squad was cobbled together by a committee that had heard Guardians and its soundtrack was really good, but didn’t actually see the movie to understand what made them work so well.

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Review – Cats (2019)

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by Kevin Muller

On July 18, 2019, an event happened that shook the cinematic world. The trailer for the big screen adaptation of the hit Broadway show Cats was released in all its nightmarish glory; with human/cat hybrids dancing and singing songs from the Tony Award winning show. How could Academy Award winning director Tom Hooper be behind this mess? To be fair, there have been plenty of bad trailers that marketed good or great movies. Film trailer creation is a difficult process, but that isn’t the focus of this review. Is the film a misunderstood charmer, with a lousy trailer, or a complete failure?

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Review – Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)

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by Old King Clancy

Despite not having revisited it since my initial viewing I have good memories of the first Pacific Rim, it managed to capture the awe-inspiring nature of watching giant robots fight giant monsters. The less than stellar reviews for the sequel had me disheartened, but enough goodwill had carried over and I was willing to give Uprising a shot.

Turns out I probably shouldn’t have.

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Review – Zootopia (2016)

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Looking Back at ZOOTOPIA

by Nile Fortner

Disney has 80 years of experience making animated films, so saying that Disney has made another family film is not anything noteworthy. It is what we have come to expect. While best known for their musicals, princesses, and prince charming, Disney animation has been on a roll as of late with animated movies with a message. For instance, the Academy Award-winning Big Hero 6 and Wreck-It Ralph. However, Zootopia is not simply another fun Disney animated movie, it is one of the greatest Disney animated movies I have seen in the last ten years.

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Review – The Dark Tower

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by Kevin Muller

“The Dark Tower” is an epic that can be best described as an unforgettable experience.   The themes, plot, characters, and scope of the story is unmatched.  It is something that should be sought out by anyone who wants to partake in something that will stand the test of time.   Well, that is what I have heard about the novel.   My admiration for Stephen King stands with “IT”, which will have its own movie out next month.   I walked into “The Dark Tower” only knowing the basic knowledge of the source material so I strictly judged it as a film.   Even then, I saw a movie is a broken, incomplete, and a lazy affair that definitely fails the source material.

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Review – Star Trek Beyond (2016)

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by Henry Hill

Stringer Bell from HBO’s The Wire vs. Captain Kirk, who wins? We all do. This is my spoiler-free review of Star Trek Beyond.

Since J.J. Abrams gave us the fantastic 2009 reboot of Star Trek, we’ve all been reminded just how fun it can be to beam up into space and enjoy creator Gene Roddenberry’s space adventures. The new cast with Chris Pine at the helm as Captain James Tiberius Kirk have a great chemistry on screen together and they make you willing to follow them wherever they choose to boldly go. The sequel, 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness, solidified the staying power of the new crew and gave the Federation a worthy adversary in the form of Benedict Cumberbatch’s John Harrison (Or was it something else, hmm…).

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Review – The Jungle Book (2016)

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by Kevin Muller

In these days, CGI, or computer generated imagery, is so common that we actually yearn and gravitate towards old school practical effects.   Spike Jonze adapted the famous children’s book “Where the Wild Things Are” using people in giant costumes to portray his monsters instead of fully rendering them with computer graphics and the original “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, definitely not “The Hobbit” movies, used as little CGI as possible.   Every so often, a movie comes along that pushes the bar further for what CGI is really capable of achieving.  Jon Favreau’s “The Jungle Book” is that very movie.  It is a visual masterpiece and a great retelling of the famous Disney cartoon.

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