Spider-man: Far From Home – Movie Review

I’m not sure whether it was the European locales, or another fresh performance by Tom Holland as Spider-man, that had me most looking forward to this movie. Having the kids from Spider-man: Homecoming head to London, Venice, Prague, Berlin, etc. for their class trip may have seemed unrealistically extravagant, but how else do I get…

Mamoru Hosoda: A New Japanese Animation Master

One of the joys of the TV off-season is the opportunity to catch up on movies. Recently, I spent five evenings binge-watching the works of new Japanese master animator, Mamoru Hosoda. When it comes to Japanese animated films, most people think of Studio Ghibli, founded by master animator Hayao Miyazaki. Their kinds of movies are…

Avengers: Endgame – Movie Review

It’s no doubt a sign of the hype behind this film that I feel slow for watching it on the second weekend. Man, it has been tough to avoid spoilers! Everyone is very sensitive, asking first if you’ve seen the movie before blurting out plot details, and most internet posts contain the appropriate warnings. Nevertheless,…

Captain Marvel – Movie Review

As excited as I was to get more heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was more “Guardians of the Galaxy”-style cosmic adventures that I was really anticipating. Captain Marvel’s debut movie started out by dropping us into the middle of her day as a Starforce operative on the Kree homeworld of Hala (very far…

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World – Movie Review

After three movies and three TV series, the story of Hiccup, Toothless, and the rest of the clan finally comes to an end. While I would have thought that the last movie in the trilogy would have been a huge blow-out, with epic action and similarly epic storylines, The Hidden World is disappointingly ordinary. The…

Aquaman – Movie Review

It’s great to enjoy some superhero action during the holidays, and despite the uneven track record of DC Comics movies so far, Aquaman was enjoyable, light, adventure fare. Director James Wan (of Fast and Furious fame) smartly avoided the loud, dimly-lit, incoherent example of Zack Snyder’s Justice League movies, and skewed closer to Wonder Woman….

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – Movie Review

After having seen so many super-hero movies (especially Spider-Man movies) already, I did not expect to be impressed (never mind blown-away) by this movie. It not only needed to bring something fresh to the well-trodden Spider-Man story, but in order to be visually impressive, it also has to compete with Pixar’s animation benchmark and other…

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald – Movie Review

At first I thought the negative reviews for Crimes of Grindelwald might just have been critical, but now that I’ve seen it, I can understand how this movie has been hurt by its overabundance of story. Even the first Fantastic Beasts movie had a hard time deciding if it was about Newt Scamander and his…

Mission Impossible: Fallout – Movie Review

I know I’m late to the game, since most people have already seen Mission Impossible: Fallout and given their own great reviews of this movie. One of the best things about this movie is that it proves that a long-running action movie franchise can still impress in its sixth instalment. It’s not as if this…