Category: Reviews

In an age where first responders and working-class heroes are the focal point in society, an animated first of popular four-legged hero hits the big screen.

PAW Patrol raised almost a whole generation of kids, since it first premiered in 2013 on Nickelodeon, in it our heroic puppies and their fearless 10-year-old leader have together gone on countless adventures to combat their nemeses to correct the evils in the perfect world those pooches live in.

The filmmakers behind this animated flick, created a beautiful tale of empathy, which retains the look and feel of the TV show. They also made sure none of the pups get president over each other in the spotlight, giving each one its own moment to shine.

This mostly Canadian crew of this production included writer/director, Cal Brunker, writer Bob Barlen, executive producer: Ronnen Harary and British creator, Keith Chapman, who brought those pooches to our lives in the original television series by. The voice actors are joined by a slew of celebrity voices including Dax Shepard, Jimmy Kimmel and Kim Kardashian West.

The PAW Patrol: The Movie is one of those new hybrid releases that bow in theaters at the same day as online on a streaming service, Paramount Plus. I liked this one a lot and give it a THUMBS UP!

Respect begins and ends with Aretha singing in church as it chronicles one of America’s greatest icons of all times from childhood until the end of her life at age of seventy-six in 2018.

The song Respect is one of the all-time greatest anthems ever sung, yet one of the facts we learn during the flick is that Franklin herself didn’t really always live by her own words. We get a glimpse of a very sensitive and unguarded woman, not so much the icon she appeared to be to the world.

Jennifer Hudson who was chosen by Franklin to portray her (and even managed to have some personal meetings with her before she passed). Hudson definitely has the voice to portray Franklin for the over two-and-a-half-hour running time. but is a lot less impressive when it comes to her portraying the character.

The pandemic pushed the release date of Respect by a over a year, which gave the NatGeo’s Cynthia Erivo-starrer, Aretha-focused season of Genius a chance to reach audiences first, despite objections from the Franklin family. Both projects essentially are committed in celebrating Aretha Franklin’s accomplishments but the movie, ironically, is the one which is a bit light on the drama side.

This MGM Picture is the directorial debut for Broadway vet, Liesl Tommy, with a stellar cast that includes Oscar winners Jennifer Hudson and Forest Whitaker, as well as, Marlon Wayans, Audra McDonald and Mary J. Blige. I give it a THUMBS UP nonetheless.

The Suicide Squad is the do-over of the 2016’s mega-hit, Suicide Squad. It is classic comic-book moviemaking, coming from the mind of, sometimes controversial, director, James Gunn, who is considered the blockbuster wonderkid king of Hollywood.

The Suicide Squad gets right into the grunge underworld D.C. Comics origin story and with Gunn, who wrote and directed the flick, creating a splatter of comedy sans sensationalism, with heads and bodies getting splattered all over the place. There are tons of dicey bullets, lots of rats, and super powered heroes that aren’t all that powerful. The story is about a desperate crew of criminals attempting to save the world, where life itself is fully disposable.

James Gunn knows how to deliver what the studios expect of him, even with this being a two-hours-and-ten-minutes long flick, and this is exactly why they keep rehiring him, and yes, Disney has already lined him up for the third installment of Guardians of the Galaxy.

Being successful it doesn’t hurt to be next to Executive producers, Zack & Deborah Snyder, by his side and a dream cast that together with Margot Robbie, in this sequel include a very talented group of actors: Idris Elba, John Cena, (the voice of) Sylvester Stallone, Viola Davis and Pete Davidson. I am a bit undecided about this one so give it a THUMBS IN THE MIDDLE!

The new Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt joyride, Jungle Cruise, is Disney‘s attempt to re-create the vibe of Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen or Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in Romancing the Stone. The studio is hoping to create a Pirates of the Caribbean-style franchise that has all the right elements to become the next big thing for Disney.

Jungle Cruise proves how used we have gotten to a movie based on a theme-park ride, which seem to us as natural as movie adapted from a novel,

The plot is about Dr. Lily Houghton who hires wisecracking skipper, Frank Wolff, to take her down the Amazon in his ramshackle boat. Together, they search for an ancient tree that holds the power to heal — a discovery that will change the future of medicine.

Jungle Cruise is a two-hours theme-park joyride with horror film Director, Jaume Collet-Serra, at the helm for what the studio hopes will bring many many many money-making sequels in theatres… and Disney Plus. This is a Thumbs Down!

You know that Oscar season is upon us when you start seeing more and more biopics hitting the big screen. Like every year we discover personal touching stories we might have never been exposed to if not for some Hollywood Studio decided to make it into a movie and immortalize it.

Ford v Ferrari is the true-life story of the visionary car designer, Carroll Shelby, and the fearless mechanic and driver bud, Ken Miles, who together decide to defy the laws of physics by taking a Ford Motors car and enhancing it to become a revolutionary race car that would for the first time threaten Enzo Ferrari’s dominance at the race tracks when they win the 24 Hour Le Mans race in 1966.

So you might ask, how does this story for devoted petrolheads or maybe car historians become a mainstream movie? The answer is very simple… its the magic of the performances of Academy Award winners, Matt Damon and Christian Bale, and director James Mangold, who takes the story out of its realm of a car racing genre and redefines it into a can’t miss flick that is entertaining for young and old alike.