There are some movie plots that when you watched them once, and you're happy, and that if used twice, you will cry enough!!!!! Well, this film has that movie plot that will make you shout enough.
When we watched the very first one with Robin Williams in 1995, it was a great movie. Plot was simple somewhat and with William's acting, it pushed the movie to higher levels. Making it an enjoyable experience for us.
Then in 2005, hoping to cash in on the Jumanji success, they used the same plot in Zathura: A Space Adventure. Sadly, without Robin Williams, we didn't like the film. We remember the actors, some of them, but we can't remember the scenes.
Fast forward to 2018, we are now served with the same plot, with Dwayne "the rock" Johnson as its lead. We love The Rock however his career is on a downward spiral in our perception. He is charismatic on screen we get it, but if he keep on continuing to do the same roles, characters relying on his huge biceps, his on screen presence will go stale. His recent movies, Skyscraper and Rampage shows his manly features and this Jumanji outing is no exception. If we go back further, we see Baywatch, Central Intelligence, Hercules, Pain and Gain, Fast and Furious films, we had enough of the muscular machismo of Dwayne Johnson. If he could only be choosy with roles, we think he can still extend further his performance from being the muscle man that he is. We like his drama in the Gridiron Gang, his being the bad guy in Get Smart, the cuteness in The Game Plan, the toughness in Walking Tall (yes it still showed his muscles, but in a good and realistic way).
Now another actor, Kevin Hart goes the same way with how Johnson is when choosing his roles. I can't see him in a role that is not talking (more of bickering and whining). When you see him first time, its funny. See him in multitudes of the same role, you get my drift. We liked his trailer film of "the Upside", now he is the same here but with a purpose. Never knew he had it in him. We will surely watch that movie.
Jack Black is Jack Black. A great character actor in School of Rock, Nacho Libre, Tropic Thunder among many others. His portrayal of a zoologist here was okay. It would have been great but it wasn't his fault we believe. His character in real or non-jumanji movie life, is a female, so when you get sucked in Jumanji and plays a middle aged man, you will expect him to act gay (or shouldn't he?).
Lastly Karen Gillan of the Guardians of the Galaxy fame. Aside from the Marvel franchise, we have yet to watch a film other than this. She simply surfaced and now was cast in this film. With her looks, we know why she was cast in this role. Enough said. Her acting her, based on the material, was great. She didn't leaped on us with his character (another material at fault, not her) but nevertheless is was just enough for us to like her in the story.
Now story wise, a rehash of two films, doesn't mean this will make the critics go wow. As a cash cow, maybe with Johnson in it, it might bring in some big bucks. You may watch this film if there isn't any other good movie around and just enjoy the charisma of Johnson plus his talkative sidekick.
We knew Johnny Depp won't be coming out as a pirate anymore so it is a welcome news that he is the face of a new franchise. The Fantastic Beasts franchise by JK Rowling of the Harry Potter writer fame.
In the first installment, the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, we got a glimpse of Johnny Depp as the enigmatic and charismatic outlaw Grindelwald. His character here is so different from the pirate series that it took us a moment to finally identify him. Nevertheless his selection as the Grindelwald is a great one.
Another great actor in the film is Jude Law playing the young Albus Dumbledore. His acting here was impeccable and very credible as the soon to be head of Hogwarts. It's been a while since I've watched him in a film and it was nice to see him back in action.
These two were a great addition to the casts from the previous film. We see again Newt, Tina, Jacob and Queenie. And Credence is alive and well in the film.
There were other characters added to the mix most notably, Nagini and Leta Lestrange, as they were prominently given screen time in the film.
Casting were great however here lies the rub. Too many actors went in the movie that not enough material or screen time was given to establish their characters. The only character that was solid was of Dumbledore. His screen presence was spot on and he did his part very well in the film. If it wasn't for him, I would totally not recommend the movie.
Opening scene of Grindelwald escaping was a great one. Full of action, twists and it showed how intelligent and crafty Grindelwald was. Sadly, even with the acting of Johnny Depp, he could not expound further the character was we feel there wasn't much material. The title Crimes of Grindelwald, what crimes are we talking about here? I might have slept in some part of the movie that I missed them altogether. Even with his crimes (which I didn't know), why were there many followers of the great Grindelwald? Where did they go when they finished their meeting? Will the Ministry go after the followers as the former was there as well. I do wish they expound more of Grindelwald as I couldn't establish the character yet in this second installment of the Fantastic Beasts franchise. (We have a feeling it won't be expounded as Credence will be the main character in the next installment).
In addition, the title is confusing for me. The first movie was Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them, was clear. There were beasts and it showed where and how to find them and take good care of them. This one, Fantastic Beast: Crimes of Grindelwald. I was waiting for the beasts again and I think it showed 2 beasts from the first film, and maybe 2 or 3 new ones that was simply placed in the movie with no meaning at all. Maybe to show the beasts again which we felt was not part in the story at all. With the heavy emphasis on Credence, it should have been titled, Fantastic Beasts: Who is Credence?
Now we mentioned the disappointment of Grindelwald, now we go to Albus Dumbledore. His character was nicely established here. The only eye opener for us was his blood compact with Grindelwald. Why did he do it? Not established in this film. With all the situations mentioned about this agreement between the two, does it insinuate that they were romantically involved? A bromance or something much deeper? Please guys tell me, the suspense is killing me. Maybe this one of their cliffhanger notes to be explained in the next movie.
Newt was and is still Newt. He loves his beasts and would love not to take sides. His acting here was a continuation from the first movie and it is a welcome treat. Tina was more confident in this film, so much so that his love (?) for Newt has waned (?) or she kept it hidden so much that we think she lost that love or infatuation she had with Newt in the first film. Then came Lestrange, she showed some jealousy in the film but we couldn't connect with her emotions. Her acting maybe, or there were not much of the material to go with? The magic between the two simply got lost somehow and we were disappointed with this notion.
Jacob who we thought his memories were erased, were NOT!!!! What the eff..... But his love for Queenie stood out in the film. His portrayal of a muggle or nomage falling in love with her was very should we say, true to form. Queenie however whom we thought had true love for Jacob, wanted to go bad so he could with Jacob. What the eff???? What a twist of fate here for poor Jacob. Let's see how they will spin the story between these two lovebirds in the next installment.
Credence is alive??? Why??? How???
To continue, there were a lot of characters here that overall, the story got mixed up in the process. There was no focus, no direction. Among all the Harry Potter movies, this is the most lame and boring of them all. With all the hype prior to the opening, we expected a lot from the movie. And we were not pleased when we watched it.
We can summarize what we liked. 1) opening scene 2) easter eggs 3) scenes with Jude Law 4) scenes with Newt and 3) the last scene with Credence (we won't divulge what but surely its a game changer).
If you are not a Harry Potter fan, not watched the first film, then spending Php300 for this will maybe be okay with you. It's a good stand alone film worthy of spending 2 hours and 20 minutes of your time doing nothing but sit back and enjoy the aircon in the theatre.
But if you are a die hard fan, then have lots of patience if you are to watch this one. This is not for you. This is just something to fill in the pockets of JK Rowling and the movie outfit. In a perfect world, this film would have been 3 movies already. With all the plot twists and a huge cast of characters, this movie is like 3 movies squashed into one so as they can have a trilogy. Why don't they follow what the Fast and the Furious franchise did?
As our last note, we could have went on and on with what we didn't like about but we would stop with the above. We don't know what JK Rowling had in mind when she did this, but I do hope they find a solution fast or else a lot of fans will shy away from this franchise.
After growing up with their songs playing background during my childhood years, Queen has been in my blood for ages. Their music has endured in me since then however I had little knowledge about the band who sang them. I can only remember the lead singer, Freddie Mercury and that he died of AIDS related complications.
It's seldom I watch biographical or true to life movies as sometimes they are different depending as to who was telling the story. In this case, its the remaining band members who are in control of story thus I assumed it would be factual as it ever be.
The whole film is a filled with music, their music as to how it came to be. From the very beginning of how Freddy came into the band and of how he transformed it into what we know as Queen. It was nice giving a back story to some of the chart topping hits they made.
Freddie is the focus in the movie as it shows his travails into marriage to a life changing realization that he was a bisexual and how he and the band accepted the fact that he had contracted AIDS.
If you are a music lover and loved their music, then this movie is for you. Their greatest hits are included herein and you won't be disappointed.
Rami Malek (who plays Freddy in the movie) had his best performance here to date. Never knew he could play a huge role like this and pull it off. Kudos to Rami for being here, giving justice to the role of Freddy. He was scarily similar to the late lead singer.
As Rami astounded us with his acting here, it was Gwilym Lee as the Brian May who stood out. His role of the Brian was truly topnotch and we were made to believe he is the real Brian May. His portrayal needs to be pointed out as you might only watch Rami's role in the film. I think it was Gwilym who really held the movie together.
The other band members were okay in their roles thus passable to be the band members of Queen. Disappointingly, Mike Myers failed miserably to portray Ray Foster. His prosthetics or makeup reminded me of Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder. His acting was questionable until I made a research on his character. Ray Foster was not existent. It was a fictional character (actually was roughly based on EMI executive Roy Featherstone) they created to highlight the executives who did not like the songs the band did. There goes the "true to life" part of the movie.
As we felt that there were some blanks in the Queen timeline, we tried searching for these online. The more we searched the more we found loopholes and "fiction" in the story. We became detached from the movie. A big disappointment if you compare it how we "liked" the movie when we watched it.
If you are here for the music, then watch on. If you want to find out how Freddy's life played out and how the band went through life, then don't take it in as a whole. Don't research about them after watching like what we did. Just enjoy the movie.
Yes we enjoyed the movie, we liked the songs, we liked how they ended the film with their show at the Live Aid in 1985. The recreation was superb but was short of 20 minutes, the time Bob Geldolf gives to those performing on stage. You may watch this in google as the performance will still blow you away even if this was from 1985. Click on the link herein.
Overall the movie rocks, never mind the fact checks we made about it and stomp your feet and sing along with the film.
Stan Lee was an American comic book writer, editor and publisher and many things at Marvel Comics. He revolutionized the comics industry since 1960s by co creating Spider-Man, the Hulk, Doctor Strange, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Daredevil, Thor, the X-men, and may other fictional comic characters.
His trademark when his creations get into movies or tv, he makes funny cameo appearances in them.
We love watching Marvel films hoping to see Stan Lee's cameo. Be it humorous or serious, nothing excites us more than waiting for his appearances. Sometimes his cameos are better the entire film altogether. LOL.
Thanks Stan Lee for your creations from the comics to animation to live action films. He was 95 years old.
Too see his cameos in live action films, as a tribute to the guy, we are linking this video of all his appearances in films.
Like we always do, we review films after they are finished playing in the theatres and are in their Blue Ray version release. Our primary goal is to give you a choice of movies for later scheduled marathons on long weekend vacations.
For this outing we have watched Solo: A Star Wars Story many times already. We have to continuously watch it as we have been pre-warned about the movie. Having a lot of bashers already, we thought we might hate the movie as well. Actually we didn't hate the movie, nor did we love it so much as like the original star wars (Episode 4-6).
It was a so-so film. The color grading was spot on Star Warsy in feeling except that it didn't have the story crawl in the beginning. Favorite characters were here like Chewy and Lando. Other cast members were new to us (we are not die hard SW fans) and we felt were necessary to tell an origin story.
Although the movie had a good pacing, somehow we feel there were still some scenes missing and some situations that were poorly written. Maybe a director's cut is in the offing soon? Time will tell of course if they did release such.
Anyway, lets star off with what we liked about the film.
We liked how it started, showing the love story between Han (not yet Solo) and Q'ira. It showed them in a difficult scene wherein they are like wanted fugitives. This scene is so quick that before we knew it, they got separated. We wish that more minutes would have great with them together, but the scene when Q'ira gets left behind is already a great one as it left us hanging and waiting till the time she comes back in the story and meet Han.
We liked also the acting of Woody Harrelson here as Beckett, the leader of a thieving gang, however I can't say this is his best performance to date. He is a good actor but somehow he just delivered a solid performance here but not enough to stand out among his other acting roles. I felt like watching his other film, "Friends with Benefits". His acting here is similar although he pulled each one nicely and separately different.
Another worthy performance was given by Donald Glover. Although he pulled off his character slightly different with that of the old Lando Calrissian, still we loved his character. Unlike in the old Lando, we get to see more of his back story here. He got a lot of screen time here that I almost would suggest the title Solo and Lando: A Star Wars Stories.
The action scenes were great like the train heist and the Kessel Run. That's it. Movie ends we go home happy. Oh wait there's more.
We liked also how the movie tackled the questions of 1) how did Han and Chewy met, or 2) what's with the golden dice, and 3) how did he get the Millenium Falcon. In as much as these were answered, it were also the things that we didn't like about the movie.
First of the dislikes is the fact that Han had no last name. There was no such explanation as to why this is so. Being a highly advanced race already, when he joins to be a storm trooper and he instantly was signed in with no checks whatsoever. The recruiter even gave him a surname Solo. What the F.... that simple? A saboteur can easily sneak in and wreck havoc on the entire ship. Now wonder they were defeated in Episode Six. A better question would be, how did the Empire stay on and live for till Episode Six? Is the rebellion that bad even with the ineptness of the Empire? Oh well. lets continue.
Han and Chewy met fine. Great scene, but it was so quick and sudden that I felt the scene could have had a longer feel to it. Everything was so sudden that we knew only until then that Han can speak Chewy's language. How??? Where in the story line did it say so. It was a twist that stunned me midway.
The golden dice was not explained, it was just shown. He had it already. There might be an explanation somewhere that I may have missed it. Please do send us an email what we did miss to submit.katooga@gmail.com
Hmmm what else we didn't like. Oh the first time they played cards. Spoiler Alert, Han Solo lost the bet. The thing we didn't like? He bluffed having a space ship to gamble and Lando simply ignored it after seeing Q'ira with Han. That's it? Wager forgiven? This alone should have given Lando leverage when haggling for his Millenium Falcon to be used in the heist. And he settled me a measly percentage of the take? This is not the Lando we know of in Episode Six.
Story line is predictable in most scenes and the most prominent was the last gambling scene between Lando and Han. We knew already that Han took the card from the sleeve of Lando and we knew he will win the Millenium Falcon. Bummer.
Other wonderful actors here could have been given longer screen time to give more push for the story but were cut off and some died abruptly. Thandie Newton playing Val had a strong presence in the film and was dead after a few minutes. Erin Kellyman although a newcomer for me here, offered a solid performance but was simply shown as a woman in the end.
Leads were a disappointment as we thought Alden Ehrenreich was a great choice to play Han Solo. Him being physically resembling Harrison Ford, he lacked the charm of THE Harrison Ford. We did not get to see that smile in Alden. If you want a surprised and unwitting look for Han Solo, then he is the guy. But if you are looking for the arrogant and assuming Han Solo of Harrison Ford, then don't look for it here.
Emilia Clark as Qi'ra was not a come on either. Yes she is good with GOT but somehow we did not see her shine here in Solo. We can't surely place her during their romantic scenes nor we can't feel here turn to be a bad girl in the end. We can't feel her performance, we assumed that she was so.
In the end, we somehow got the idea that Star Wars Stories ending should somehow be tied up to a Skywalker Star Wars story but we couldn't place it within its timeline. When Woody Harrelson died, how was it vital to Han Solo's character in the SW episodes? With the turn of Qi'ra, how would she fit in that timeline? Are we to see another Solo movie, a sequel perhaps?
The movie itself is a huge FAQ about Han Solo and Chewbacca. That every answers were given fast and quick and like clock work. No more lengthy discussions, everything was there given to you in a silver platter whether you like it or not, as if they didn't care. No wonder SW fans hated this movie.
As for this writer who loved (not adored the SW franchise) the film is a good watch if you are not picking this film in detail. If you do have time to kill, then this movie is for you. It got some nice story line albeit quirky and fast, enough to entertain you till the end. Please watch it as it is, and don't try to make sense of it and compare, connect it other SW films you have watched before. This way, you will glad you watched it. Its just entertainment. Just don't hold this film in the level of Episodes 4-6. Maybe you can rank it along Episode 7.
Following in the genre of Jason Bourne and James Bond, spy stuff is something we cinema goers like to watch in an action film. Jason being the rough tough guy while James is the suave and sophisticated (what's with the J?) will Dylan O'Brien's Mitch can find itself in the middle?
To give you a background of the movie, [spoiler alert] Mitch is shown frolicking in the sun with her girlfriend then some radical terrorists opened fire killing her and wounding him in the process. Fast forward to the current, we see Mitch still wallowing in grief and vows to avenge his girlfriends death by being a bad boy and infiltrating the religious radicals for which he was rescued by the government and turns him into an asset or agent. Whew that was a long one.
Basically that's the gist of the first half of the movie. The second part is the mission itself. Tracking down a well known arms dealer who has a dooms day device component. Everything here then took different twists and turns as it turns out another agent turned rogue, Ghost wants to exact havoc on the institution that trained him and left him. Sounds simple the plot but again, lots of action herein.
Kudos to Dylan O'Brien for giving a great performance here and he truly deserves the praises here. His portrayal of the grief stricken boyfriend was spot on. His change from good guy to bad guy so as to infiltrate the radicals was not over the top. Although his emotions about his girlfriend flares up when her name was mentioned was okay at first, but doing it more so often loses its appeal somehow mid film.
A surprising performance was also done by Taylor Kitsch as the ghost. Although he only surfaced mid way, his role as the antagonist is a welcome compliment to our protagonist. As both sports a bearded outlook, I kinda thought that somehow they were related. I do wish they are related as that would be an interesting plot line similar to "The Accountant". Anyhow, the ghost and Mitch isn't related so there.
After a string of not so great movies by Michael Keaton, this film re introduces his great acting skills once again. The film shown in the year along with Spiderman Homecoming, both of which his acting performance was to a T. Both films solidifies that he is truly a drama actor to contend with and that he is again back to give us solid performances. We do hope this string of successes will continue as we see him as a truly great actor worthy of awards.
Basing on strong acting outputs from the three, this saves the film from being so serious and yes boring. Plot line is simple yet story line twists and turns leading to seriousness tends to steer you to the boring side.
The film I believe is a great back story to start off a series. Not that this film has memorable action or drama scenes, but if this is a start of sequels, it has done its job not great but fairly well. We do hope that the producers who gave a so so film with lots of great potentials improves on this if they do make another sequel. If this was made as a pilot episode for a TV series, then this one will surely blow me away.
