I could listen to Billy Crystal vamp for 30 minutes about anything. His voice acting is incredible. He is almost up there with Robin Williams.
I have a whole new level of respect for Natalie Portman after finally watching this movie for the first time. Mathilda had a fucked up childhood then had her whole family killed, and little kid Portman absolutely sold me on it.
It's also a joy to hear Eric Serra's music in another 90s film. Though in Leon the signature sounds and overall tone feels much more subdued than it is in Goldeneye or The Fifth Element.
This feels like it's connected to the Macross universe, somehow.
The most fun and fancy free Marvel movie since the original Guardians of the Galaxy. I was worried, but the only reason you won't like this movie is if you think the MCU has to be dark and surrius all the time or are intimidated by leads that are not white and/or male.
Also, we got old (good) Fury back. They need to add "What If..." to the title of Secret Invasion and never discuss it again.
If I had known this movie was basically Dreamworks' Dragons but under water, featuring Nathan Drake forced into being a dad, I would have watched it sooner.
What a pleasant surprise this movie was! It came out of left field and charmed the pants off of me. Single father Bruce Wayne forces Gotham to toe the line on law & order just to make sure nothing happens to baby Damian. This is a very light-hearted (and very meta) take on Batman ala Lego Batman. So go into this expecting to chuckle. Even so, there are some serious moments and a very somber underlying plotline about the relationship between a father and son. I'm glad I took a chance on this one.
(I thought I recognized Luke Wilson, but I am ashamed I didn't pick up James Cromwell or Brian George.)
Captain Pete, the "bad guy", just wants Mickey to do his job. Meanwhile Minnie is a stowaway, and Mickey abuses every animal on the ship. And I think he might have killed that bird! Different times!
We lose more Alphas that way...
There is a lot of charm and fun in this movie, it's good to see everybody again (which few they could sign on). A lot of attention was given to recreating the original vibe of the 1993 series. The camera angles, the music, the corny one-liners. ...so many corny one-liners...
And that's where the goodness comes to an end.
This movie is short, less than an hour long. It is painfully obvious that David Yost and Walter Jones were the only two original Rangers they could get. The others are in full costume and say nothing outside of grunting noises (except for a single word from Thui that is probably lifted from an old episode), then are taken off the board very early in the film. Replacing them is a hodgepodge of whichever Rangers from subsequent series they could get - Walter Jones being the only person who doesn't look and sound past his prime.
The evil plot has a lot of potential, especially when you think about how it could open the door for so many different cameos and so much more nostalgia... and then it get's clipped and the finale turns into a bog standard monster fight. There are a number of fun cameos and callbacks, but not as many as you would think. All of that said, the final battle is satisfying. The classic locations and vehicles, which are just as much characters themselves, also get their chance to shine one more time.
This is more of a special extended episode to cap off the original series. Viewed that way, it's nice enough. But the more you think about it, the more missed opportunity you start to notice and lament about. It's obvious that they wanted this to be a send off for Thui Trang more than a cast reunion. I understand her real-life daughter was the best choice to honor Thui as a person, but she was not the best choice to make for the character of Trini's in-universe daughter. In a universe of intentionally-campy acting and stilted writing, she still made certain scenes difficult to watch.
The final bit at the end did make me misty eyed. As much for Thui Trang as for Jason David Frank (who doesn't factor into the plot AT ALL) ...and for seeing all the other missing Rangers who are still alive but couldn't be arsed to be there for whatever reason.
If you grew up watching the American Power Rangers, this is an adequate coda that could have... should have been more. Otherwise, you are probably going to be extremely turned off (or possibly even offended) by all the hokeyness that people like me forgive with the tremendous power of nostalgia.
After weeks of the internet screaming into my face about how I MUST declare this movie the beginning of the end for Marvel... It was pretty good. Fun and silly as an Ant-Man movie should be. Perhaps a little desperate in places, but overall enjoying to watch.
Despite all attempts by the movie, Paul Rudd takes a back seat to no one. He continues to be best part of the Ant-Man family. The first movie without him and his devilish charm will be the first bad Ant-Man movie. Though this movie would have been a lot better with Scott's circle of misdemeanor friends.
Thankfully, the end credit scenes make me very excited for the future of Kang as a Thanos-tier villain ...and the return of a certain mischief-maker.
If you think this is not for you because you don't play video games or never got into Tetris, just give this movie a chance. It is an exceptional piece of storytelling with very little cruft. It is witty, it is funny, and it just a wonderful ride from beginning to end. It has a lot of worn-out tropes, but it never dwells on any of them long enough to complain about them.
And the soundtrack must've broken the bank. Not just a who's who list of 1980s hits, but covers in Russian and in Japanese rarely heard outside of their respective countries. And to top it all off, a custom remix of Opportunities by The Pet Shop Boys intermixed with the Tetris theme. This might end up being my favorite soundtrack of 2023.
I know this movie heavily embellishes a lot of fact for the sake of drama. But if there is any truth to the claim that Howard Lincoln not only went to Soviet Russia just to secure the rights to Tetris but also escaped by the skin of his teeth, then my already high amount of respect for the man just went through the roof.
Modifying the game code to create custom visuals for a documentary about said game sets this one shoulders above most others.
Even though the man is a walking pile of garbage, this will probably always be one of the best stand-up routines I ever see.
Get Austin Butler into a Grease remake right now!
Hell, Olivia DeJonge would actually be a great Sandy Olsson.
This was one of the first movies I saw in the theater as a kid. I remember being bored out of my MIND!
It's a good thing this movie got released when it did. Any later, and it might not have been released at all. To carbon date this movie, you could IM the "real" Gabriel Shear on AOL Instant Messenger for personal responses and links to extra material on the web.
Go into it expecting 1990s action cheese and come out impressed by how good the cheese is.
I really like the unique character they're injecting into the more recent episodes.
"2023"
Whenever this actually gets released, this is the longest hiatus between Star Trek films since The Motion Picture was released in 1979.
"That's a lot of fish!"
You don't watch this movie to watch a good Godzilla movie. You watch this movie to have a fun night out with Matthew Broderick and Jean Reno.
I was wondering why this had to be its own "movie", then I watched it.
No, they went the extra mile with this full-length feature episode. I hope they never stop making these.
This movie is good, but not as good as it should have been. Not because of the casting, not because of all the political checkboxes, and certainly not because a bunch adult babies got scarred over a plot-relevant and completely believable relationship.
This movie is not as good because it's the first time Pixar has spent the time and resources making a complete cash grab instead of bringing an original idea to life. Even against the endless Toy Story sequels, which are at least continuing to tell a story that means something to the original movie, Lightyear feels uninspired.
The visuals are outstanding, the humor reminded me of the slapstick from WALL-E, Chris Evens did a very believable job as Buzz Lightyear and I might not have known it wasn't Tim Allen if I hadn't already found out. But there's so much everymovie genericness to Lightyear that it makes The Good Dinosaur feel more original and Pixar-like. As disregarded as THAT movie is, at least it has the honor of being one of the original ideas invented when Pixar was founded.
Instead, with Lightyear, we're watching a movie about a movie within the universe of another movie (that is the official claim made at the start of the film). Maybe if they had made something that resembled what would have actually been released when Andy was a child (a mid 1990s American action movie set in space), it would have passed on account of its period charm.
The animated Buzz Lightyear of Star Command movie and TV series that Disney made ages ago are much better stories about a real Buzz Lightyear. Those works are already classics as far as many people are concerned. This movie will probably just be in every completionist's library for completion's sake.
shamelessly puts Lightyear in his complete library of everything Pixar has ever released
This re-release was a mistake of the highest order. All they did was redo some of the scenes in CG, re-foley stuff throughout the movie (different sound effects), and re-sequence the score. And almost all of it was for the worse!
The 1995 movie uses fledgling CG technology in the most modest ways to compliment the cel animation and make certain elements pop out and be more than they could have been with ink and paper. This is just a thought exercise for super fans who are morbidly curious about how some of the traditional cel animation would look if fully done in CG - Spoiler: It looks pretty bad, and loses all of the heart & soul found in the original animated frames.
Just watch the remastered version of the original film. Almost 30 years later, the look and sound of everything, including the English dub, is still superior to most modern movies of any category.
This movie literally saved the Pirates franchise.
Make sure you watch the one specifically titled "The Thief and the Cobbler", and not "The Princess and the Cobbler" or "Arabian Nights" or any of the other censored and localized abortions created from the original masterpiece.
The story of the making of this movie is almost more interesting than the movie itself. I recommend watching the Channel Awesome/Nostalgia Critic review of it on YouTube.
The story is much more cohesive and doesn't waste nearly as much time as it does in the series of the same name. But it's still just an okay story.
I feel like this movie can't decide if it wants to be a Kingsman movie or a serious war movie. In the end, it falls just short of being either. I enjoyed the references and the connecting fibers that make it part of the Kingsman universe, I enjoyed the more mature tones and the story arc surrounding Arthur's son, it is beautiful and willing to let colors show through (even in the gloomy trenches of a battlefield), but it was wrong to hype up Rasputin, a man infamous for being un-killable, only to kill him off long before the end of the film.
An impossibly-beautiful and heatbreakingly-emotional follow up to what is already one of the most beautiful and emotional Anime series ever made. While the Violet Evergarden series focused on Violet's exploration and uncovering of her clients' deepest feelings, this time it's Violet's turn to have a therapy session.
No matter how much you help others be true to theirselves, don't forget to be true to your own self.
