I never watched the original Planet of the Apes series of films (starring Charlton Heston back in the 1960s and 70s), but I am a fan of the recent trilogy of Apes films (2011-17) that told an origin story for what led the apes to take over the world from humans. (I also watched the…
Category: Movies
Oscar Schmoscar 2024 – Oppenheimer, Barbie, Past Lives, Elemental, Nimona, & The Creator
I started this semi-annual post to acknowledge that I’m not always interested in the movies that get nominated or win Oscars. This year is definitely no exception in that there were very few nominated films that I had already watched prior to the nominations (and in fact, relatively few movies have caught my eye over…
Dune Part 2 – Movie Review
The first part of Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic sci-fi novel Dune was amazing. Visually stunning, it delivered an engaging story that brought Herbert’s characters to life and made this incredible, fictional universe feel very real. This second part continues right where the first film left off: Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his…
Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire – Movie Review
It hasn’t been a great year for blockbuster movies, or for beloved action franchises, but along comes director Zack Snyder, with his big-budget space-opera based on a rejected Star Wars movie idea, and I didn’t really know what to expect. First off, I am an established fan of Snyder’s, having loved 300, liked Watchmen, Sucker…
Frightfully Catching Up With Jordan Peele’s Get Out, Us, and Nope
In honour of spooky season, I decided to do a little movie marathon of scary films by the recent horror-meister, Jordan Peele. Part of the comedy duo, Key & Peele, more recently Peele split his career down a very different path, becoming a celebrated writer-director of successful horror movies. When I heard positive reviews of…
Finally Catching Up With John Wick
I’m not sure why, but I have not watched any of the John Wick movies up until now. Since my TV viewing has slowed a bit, I’m making time to catch up on my movie watchlist (which is really too infinite to think about), and I just watched all four John Wick movies nearly back…
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One – Movie Review
I’m not sure what Tom Cruise’s secret is, but I enjoy every one of these Mission Impossible movies even though I barely recall what happens in them by the time I leave the theatre. Admittedly, it’s been a minute since this movie came out and the hype train seems to have moved on to “Barbenheimer”…
The Flash – Movie Review
The box office is a pretty tough place these days — even for a big-budget superhero action movie. Fans are told more about the machinations of the mega-studios in the background than the actual movies themselves. We hear about 10-year roadmaps, reboots, and the ever-elusive shared cinematic universes. All that static was no help to…
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – Movie Review
The 2018 movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was a fun, visually-stunning, refreshingly-creative success that left some very large shoes to fill. Not only did this sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, need to impress us with amazing animation, but also needed to continue the meaningful, heartfelt, humorous story that was begun in the first film. I’m…
Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture 