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In this the eighth Spider-Man movie, it feels much like the franchise has finally taken a big leap forward. Tom Holland’s confidence as Peter Parker is felt in every one of the 129 minutes of the movie, he has literally grown up in front of our eyes and makes it an overall much more enjoyable superhero movie experience.

The plot sees Peter embarking on a class trip to Europe and he is very keen on his classmates not discovering his secret identity even when confronted by the ominous Elementals, destroying everything in their way.

Being this is actually a prequel happening in the eighties, it seemed like the perfect time to introduce a new superhero: Quentin Beck (played by Jake Gyllenhaal), an eagle-eyed evil-fighter with a fishbowl helmet filled with gas. Gyllenhaal is doing a fabulous job carrying a lot of the movie on his broad shoulders, being he is the mature actor here.

Now that we have eight movies in the franchise: three directed by Sam Raimi with Tobey Maguire, two directed by Marc Webb with Andrew Garfield, and two prequels directed by Jon Watts starring Tom Holland, we have enough movies to compare from and it is quite prevalent that the franchise is steering back to what was its original track of success.
Far From Home brings that kid-in-over-his-head hero urgency to it, which was missing from the flicks Andrew Garfield starred in. It is very fun to watch how with the current flick Spider-Man is slowly but surely getting worthy of being part of the glorious Marvel Universe and that’s something we haven’t felt in a while with the Spider-Man franchise.

Far from Home could almost be counted as the second-best Spider-Man movie, but only if it will usher in the next (new) chapter for Spidy. The movie has many references to previous Spider-Man flicks, which gives a sense of history the character was lacking in a long time. It feels fresh, cheeky, light, and very sweet, well deserving of a Thumbs Up.

It is understandable that when a franchise comes to its fourth installment, it makes fans a bit uncomfortable, as in will it continue to produce quality movies that the fans will still go to see… Thankfully we are here speaking about a Pixar Studios property, the studio who has yet to fail at anything.
Let’s not forget that this franchise has been with us for more than three decades and with every movie (1995, 1999, 2010 & 2019) like great aging wine, Toy Story has become just better with age. We did expect the saga of Woody and Buzz to conclude with a trilogy, yet the fourth installment is far from being disappointing.

Director, Joe Cooley, who took over from John Lasseter, who left Pixar/Disney, has the magic touch this franchise needed, to entice our kids that when one toy’s mission concludes, a new mission embarks. It’s the existential question of a toy that outlives its usefulness to one kid then becomes very useful to another kid.

One of the secrets of the success of the Toy Story movies is their consistency from its inception in Lasseter’s short, Tin Toy, almost a quarter of a century ago.
In many other animated movies, we see characters who want to transition into someone or something different than they are. In Toy Story, the toys never try to be something else than toys and are destined to stay that way forever.

The most astonishing part in the fourth installment is, without a doubt, how much technology has advanced in CG Animation since the first movie in 1995. The fact that this is the first Pixar flick created in widescreen makes it look a lot more cinematic looking especially when taking for example the opening and end scenes, the imaginary of rain, or the use lighting makes you almost forget this is not a live-action movie.

The movie tackles universal adult issues like morality, destiny and even finding your purpose in a multi-layered script, which both adults and children can understand and enjoy, each one in a completely different way.

No one can deny that Toy Story ushered in an era of CG features, which opened the door to so many amazing movies in the genre, and the fourth movie in the franchise wraps up the saga really beautifully… until Disney decides to make another one. I give it a Thumbs Up.

John Shaft Jr. (aka JJ, aka Shaft Jr.) is an FBI cybersecurity expert, but to uncover the truth behind his best friend’s untimely death, he needs an education that only one person can provide him with, his dad, that dad which he has not seen in 30-years. You got it, it’s a generational budding movie in an attempt to usher in a next-gen of the franchise, the question is it enough for a reboot?

Now that Junior has found his long lost dad, he has to suffer him berating him about everything from him not being man enough, being too white or too apologetic almost to the point you start to believe the movie has made a point to advocate the caveman mentality to the millennials.

Almost 50 years after the original Shaft and four movies later, the bad-ass image it created in the original flick feels like is almost impossible to recreate, even when casting the original Shaft, 76-years-old Richard Roundtree.

Many who have seen the new flick felt a bit bitter about what it stands for, as it proves a point many have tried to believe is not true anymore, how half of a millennium later it is as if no progress has been made in racial politics and how the African-American community looks at itself.

The 2019 Shaft has missed a golden opportunity to reflect how being a complicated man has actually evolved since it was first explored in the 1971 Shaft. Yet if what you have come to watch is Samuel L. Jackson in full Samuel L. Jackson mode you might actually find some solace in the movie, for me it was mostly just painful. This one gets a Thumbs Down, it really is not worth the price of your ticket.

In this reboot of the franchise, the Men in Black expand to cover the globe, but so have the villains. The original cast of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones is gone and has been replaced by the next generation of the franchise: Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson and Liam Neeson.

2019 has already been swept by long thought very dead franchises, MIB International emerges as yet another disappointing reboot that should have been left alone. The elaborate scenes on locations like London or Marrakesh, worthy of a James Bond movie, didn’t really take this movie beyond what the industry would consider a studio pitch gone very wrong. And if I may say as a side note, in times when immigration is all the time in the headlines that the writers of the movie decided to omit even the tiniest bit of social criticism in a movie about a government agency that handles the immigration of aliens is truly beyond me.

Director Gary F. Gray, unfortunately, is no Barry Sonnenfeld’s. His visual effects skills are lacking here too, which makes the whole thing seem awkward and a bit of a mess. Grey tried to add some modern tweaks to the premise, taking a risk in putting a greater emphasis on the chemistry of his leads rather than on the special effects and gadgetry. Yet can the magical chemistry of Smith and Jones really be recreated???

MIB International is set for people who know the premise of the franchise but weren’t actually old enough to have seen the movies when they were originally released, that by itself is an oxymoron.

It is sad to say but you won’t even need one of those neutralizers from the MIB to forget this movie. Lightning rarely strikes twice, let alone four times, it is totally OK to skip this one, a very deserving Thumbs Down from me.