Review – X-Men: Apocalypse

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by Kevin Muller

You have to hand it to the “X-men” franchise.  Not only is it still going strong, 16 years after the first film, but it was the jumping point for many of the comic book blockbusters we all admire today.   Christopher Nolan, who directed ‘The Dark Knight Trilogy”, has stated that he was influenced by the way Bryan Singer, this film’s director, and the director of the 2000 original film, grounded everything from the look to the themes into reality.  Singer followed it up with the equally worthy “X2” before departing and giving the reigns to Brett Ratner.   The general consensus of Ratner’s film was that it was garbage so when Singer was announced to come back and helm 2014’s “X-men: Days of Future Past,” fans rejoiced.   That film was a triumph both with fans and financially.   The amazing thing that Singer achieved was erasing everything that happened in Ratner’s film and his own, to create a new time line through the element of time travel.  This now gives him the ability to recast the roles that were made famous by other actors without anyone batting an eye.   

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Review – Captain America: Civil War

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by Kevin Muller

Joss Whedon, the geek savior of television and movies, hit it big with 2012’s ‘The Avengers.”  It was a buildup of not only the super heroes, but the promise of what everyone was waiting for, a team movie that would fulfill so many dreams of the loyal fans of these characters.  Whedon hit it out of the park giving us great acting and snappy dialogue to make the movie a massive success both critically and financially.  We all anticipated the phase 2 Avengers movie that we had to wait three years to drop.   Fast forward three years and three solo films later, and you would’ve thought that Whedon created a cinematic abortion with “Avengers: Age of Ultron.”   

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Review #2 – Keanu

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by Kevin Muller

Back in the early 2000’s, Dave Chappelle reigned supreme on Comedy Central with his sketch comedy show “Chappelle’s Show.” It was witty, hilarious, and incredibly smart. When he walked away from it, and the millions of dollars that Comedy Central supposedly threw at him to stay, the network was quick to find a comedian that could fill that void. The question was, could Comedy Central ever find someone even with half the talent that Chappelle possessed?

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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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