Revisiting RETURN OF THE JEDI...

Earlier today, I went to AMC theaters to watch the third film in the original Star Wars trilogy, Return of the Jedi.

Also known as Episode VI, Return of the Jedi was back on the big screen to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its original theatrical debut in 1983...even though the version that's now being shown at the multiplexes is the 1997 Special Edition (which I saw on the big screen when was a junior in high school at that time).

While it was a thrill to see Jedi at the theater—with such awesome action sequences as Luke Skywalker freeing his friends from Jabba the Hutt's sail barge near the Sarlacc Pit on Tatooine, the thrilling speeder bike chase between Luke, Princess Leia and the scout troopers through the Endor forest, the Battle of Endor between the Rebel Alliance and the Imperial fleet, and Luke's final showdown with Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine back on the big screen—revisiting this movie after multiple Star Wars films and TV shows were released since 1997 made me realize how flawed this flick really was!

Up until the much-maligned Star Wars prequels were released between 1999 and 2005 (and The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker premiered in 2017 and 2019, respectively), Jedi was considered the worst film in the Star Wars saga...and I can see why.

On the big screen, the scenes at Jabba's palace in the first act of the movie were boring as heck, even with the updated visual effects for the Rancor and new shots added of the Max Rebo Band and Boba Fett. Princess Leia was incapable of silently sneaking through the palace in the middle of the night as she sought to free Han Solo from carbonite, and the dialect she used when Leia was disguised as the bounty hunter Boushh was as laughable as the way Groot talked in the Guardians of the Galaxy films, and I don't mean that in a good way for Boushh.

The scene where Luke, Han, C-3PO, R2-D2 and Chewbacca were caught in that Ewok trap on Endor was edited in a haphazard way...with R2 taking less than 5 seconds to cut a hole wide enough for all five characters to fit through as they fell from the net. Basically, I couldn't wait till Luke finally told Leia that they were related (which makes one wonder what the heck were George Lucas and Irvin Kershner thinking when they had Leia give Luke a wet kiss at the Rebel base on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back), because it's after this that Luke departed from the Ewok village to confront Vader...and the best parts of Return of the Jedi were about to be shown on the silver screen!

Despite the flaws in Episode VI, this movie had some of the best Star Wars musical themes by legendary composer John Williams—ranging from Approaching the Death Star, Sail Barge Assault, the Luke and Leia theme, Into the Trap, The Ewok Battle and The Dark Side Beckons to The Emperor's Death. Oh, and I emphatically prefer the Victory Celebration track in the Special Edition over the Yub Nub song in the 1983 version!

Return of the Jedi isn't perfect, but it was still a classic way of ending a science-fantasy trilogy that revolutionized cinema. It's depressing that the happy ending that Luke, Han and Leia enjoyed at the end of Episode VI was spoiled three decades later by the events of The Force Awakens, but it's also awesome to see how the galaxy fared in the post-Palpatine era through Disney+ shows like The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett and this August's Ahsoka.

I'm wondering if all three movies in the original trilogy will simultaneously hit the big screen again like they did in 1997! Until then, I'll just watch them over and over on my DVD player.

May the Force be with you!

Movie Review: GUY RITCHIE'S THE COVENANT...

A few hours ago, I watched Guy Ritchie's The Covenant at AMC theaters.

Inspired by the U.S. military's full withdrawal from Afghanistan in August of 2021, the Guy Ritchie-directed war drama was a well-made flick that conveyed the bond which formed between American soldiers and their Afghan interpreters during a bloody conflict that spanned 20 years and four U.S. presidents.

The story of The Covenant was about Sergeant John Kinley (Jake Gyllenhaal), and how he was determined to bring his interpreter Ahmed (Dar Salim) and his family to America after Ahmed saved Kinley's life following an ambush by the Taliban during a mission to locate IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) around the Afghan countryside.

Even though Kinley wasn't very cordial to Ahmed when they first met at Bagram Air Base, this didn't stop Ahmed from pushing a wagon carrying the wounded sergeant across 50 kilometers (or was that 100 kilometers? I forgot) of hostile territory to the U.S.-controlled military installation. That alone made it an obligation for Kinley—upon return to his home in Santa Clarita, California after recovering from his combat injuries—to save his Afghan comrade's life as well.

Since the story between Kinley and Ahmed themselves wasn't based on actual people, The Covenant concluded in a predictable but upbeat manner in that (spoilers ahead) the sergeant and his interpreter were saved from their Taliban pursuers after U.S. military contractors—aided by an AH-64 Apache helicoper and the "Angel of Death" (a.k.a. an AC-130 Spectre gunship used by American Special Forces)—came to the rescue at the last minute.

Unlike in Guy Ritchie's The Covenant (which I enjoyed more than Ritchie's previous film, Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre), thousands of Afghan interpreters, in real life, were not so lucky in having American forces come to their aid and rescue them after the Taliban took complete control of Afghanistan in September of 2021.

To this day, interpreters around the Central Asian country are in hiding as they fear for their lives since the Taliban will not cease its hunt for all of the Afghan individuals who aided the so-called 'infidels' during a 20-year occupation of their nation. Guy Ritchie's The Covenant is obviously Hollywood's way of granting a happy ending for one of these interpreters who risked their lives to help America and its allies free the Afghan people from militant oppression that plagued Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001...and now 2021 to the unforeseeable future.

That is all.

PS: On a slightly lighter note, Dar Salim looks like he could portray Boba Fett in future Star Wars projects if Temuera Morrison ever left that role...as well as a badass Jack Bauer-type character if FOX TV ever decides to do another spinoff of the hit series, 24! Also, The Covenant was Guy Ritchie's way of letting a U.S. soldier played by Jake Gyllenhaal see combat—after Gyllenhaal portrayed a Marine who never fired his gun at the enemy during the 1991 Gulf War in 2005's Jarhead.

Movie Review: RENFIELD...

Earlier today, I went to the local AMC theater to watch the horror action-comedy Renfield...which I previously saw at a private movie screening last October!

Unsurprisingly, nothing changed in Renfield from what was shown at the test screening six months ago, as this was a satisfying flick where Nicolas Cage played one of the wackiest Draculas you'll ever see on the big screen!

Dracula's apprentice-turned-superhero Renfield was aptly portrayed by Nicholas Hoult, who seemed to have an affinity for playing classic horror creatures in modernized scary flicks. He previously portrayed a zombie who was a hopeless romantic with an existential crisis in the 2013 film, Warm Bodies.

As in 2021's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Awkwafina played a comedic action role as Rebecca...a police officer who's more interested in bringing down a crime syndicate (which killed her father) than working mundane DUI checkpoints at busy city streets in the middle of the night.

Ben Schwartz went from voicing TAY-0 in Star Wars: The Bad Batch and Sonic in the last two live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movies to portraying Tedward Lobo—the arrogant son of a crime boss (Bellafrancesca Lobo, played by Shohreh Aghdashloo) bent on finding the guy who's been neutralizing the goons in their syndicate around the city. That, of course, would be Renfield.

Renfield had a lot of great comedic moments as well as crazy (and predictably gory) action scenes that you would almost see in a Tarantino film. From literally punching a guy's head off to effortlessly ripping the arms off a Lobo henchman, Renfield wasn't someone to trifle with—after he ate a bug or two to gain superhuman strength, that is.

But not to be outshone in Renfield was Nicolas Cage as Dracula! Cage clearly relished the idea of bringing his wacky acting style to this classic horror villain.

And having Renfield, with the help of Rebecca, clash with Dracula in the film's climax was obviously the most entertaining aspect of this movie. The fight that ensued at the end of this flick was what you get when Dracula didn't get a "handful of nuns or a busload of cheerleaders" to feed on by his jaded apprentice—who wanted to "get out of a toxic relationship."

Will we get a sequel to Renfield, you ask? Only its box office gross will tell... Carry on!

Movie Review: AIR...

Earlier today, I watched the Ben Affleck-directed sports biopic Air at AMC theaters.

Air conveyed the true story of how Nike—which was a struggling underdog trying to compete with fellow shoe makers Adidas and Converse at the time—landed a lucrative 1984 deal with an athlete who would become the greatest ever to play the game of basketball: Michael Jordan.

Air followed the story of Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon), a strong-minded recruiter who traveled around the country to look for talented basketball players that could potentially be endorsed by Nike. Working with him on these assignments were Howard White (Chris Tucker) and Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman)...two executives who gave Vaccaro beef for his unrelenting quest to sign Jordan while helping him at the same time.

Chris Messina played David Falk, Michael Jordan's agent who constantly butt heads with Vaccaro (at least on the phone), while Viola Davis portrayed Deloris Jordan—the business-savvy and insightful mom of the future NBA champion. Julius Tennon played James Jordan, the level-headed and very supportive dad of MJ who, in real life, tragically died due to gun violence in 1993.

(MJ briefly left the NBA to play minor league baseball following the death of his father, before returning to basketball in 1995 and winning his fourth of six NBA titles with the Chicago Bulls the following year.)

Matthew Maher played Peter Moore...the skateboard-riding designer who was responsible for fabricating the Air Jordan shoes, and even came up with the idea to replace the 'Swoosh' with the 'Jumpman' logo featuring Michael Jordan's flying silhouette on this specific Nike brand. Marlon Wayans portrayed George Raveling...a good friend of Sonny Vaccaro who was once offered $3 million for his copy of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

And continuing his simultaneous directing-and-acting tradition that started with 2007's Gone Baby Gone, 2010's The Town and 2012's Argo, Ben Affleck both helmed Air and portrayed Phil Knight—the purple Porsche-driving, buddhist-minded CEO of Nike. Sonny's deal with Jordan almost fell through after his mother was adamant about her son receiving a percentage of the profits that would be earned with each Air Jordan sold, but it was Knight who went against normal business practices in the footwear industry and agreed to the Jordans' request, achieving this much-needed victory for Nike.

My review doesn't seem to give this indication, but Air is probably one of the most inspirational films I've recently seen on the big screen. The journey to land Michael Jordan at Nike was just as inspirational as Jordan himself...with Vaccaro, Strasser and Co. literally risking everything at their company to have a young NBA rookie sign a shoe deal with them.

According to the final montage before the end credits, MJ is earning $400 million in annual passive income from his Air Jordan brand—while Nike itself earns up to $3 billion a year selling the NBA Hall of Famer's shoes. Sonny Vaccaro was shown at the beginning of the movie to be a basketball savant who could tell which young rookie was star material and who wasn't in the big league, and him being the one to sign the athlete who would be emulated by future NBA All-Stars like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James years later only solidified that.

Air is a cinematic triumph in regards to how inspirational it was, and how the underdogs sometime win. Though according to this movie, did the Nike tagline "Just do it" really originate from a convict who was about to be executed?

And the founder of Adidas was a former Nazi? Wow.


John Swart / AP / REX / Shutterstock.com

Review: THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE...

Earlier today, I watched the animated comedy The Super Mario Bros. Movie at AMC theaters.

As expected, I walked out of this film feeling the nostalgia... Not only did it remind me of the time I played Super Mario World on Super Nintendo back in elementary school 30+ years ago, but it also brought back pleasant memories of me and my friends playing Mario Kart and Mario Party on GameCube (or was it Nintendo 64?) when we were in college 20+ years ago!

The Super Mario Bros. Movie went all out in adapting the Nintendo and Super Nintendo games. One scene will show Mario (voiced by Chris Pratt...who only did the classic Italian accent from the games in the film's opening scene) duking it out with Donkey Kong (or DK, voiced by Seth Rogen), and later scenes will show Mario, Toad (Keegan-Michael Key), Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) and DK driving go-karts from Mario Kart in a heated race with Bowser's (Jack Black) minions!

Speaking of Bowser, some of the best moments of The Super Mario Bros. Movie featured Mario's fire-breathing arch-nemesis singing intense love ballads about Peach—who Bowser wanted to marry even if it meant destroying the entire Mushroom Kingdom in the process. Bowser's songs about the princess were so emotional that you kind of empathized with this evil reptile and wanted him and Peach to live happily ever after!

At the end though, Mario, his brother Luigi (Charlie Day) and the gang obviously prevailed...with (spoiler ahead) the end credits scene showing that Universal Pictures unsurprisingly has a sequel in mind. Who was missing from this movie that die-hard Super Mario fans will want to see in the next installment, you ask?

I'll give you a hint: It's a certain green dinosaur that, in the video games, Mario and Luigi can ride on and spit out fireballs or fly—depending on which colored Koopa shell (generally red, green or blue) the dinosaur had in its mouth at the moment. Of course I'm talking about Yoshi!

And lastly, kudos to composers Brian Tyler and Koji Kondo for bringing back almost every memorable music theme from the Super Mario video games. Thumbs-up for The Super Mario Bros. Movie!

Movie Review - DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES...

Earlier today, I watched the action-adventure fantasy Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves at AMC theaters.

I never played the Hasbro game that this film is based on, but I will say that Honor Among Thieves itself is both a fun and funny film!

The story is about a pickpocket named Edgin Darvis (Chris Pine), who set out to take back his daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman) and the 'tablet of awakening' from Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant) after Edgin entrusted them to his friend after a heist went awry two years before.

Edgin wasn't alone in his journey...as he had Holga Kilgore (Michelle Rodriguez), Simon Aumar (Justice Smith), Doric (Sophia Lillis) and—albeit briefly—Xenk Yandar (Regé-Jean Page) to help him carry out his plan.

The reason why Edgin needed to reclaim the tablet of awakening was to resurrect his wife Zia (Georgia Landers), who was killed by the blade of a Red Wizard before Darvis eventually met Holga, Simon and company. It didn't help that Forge was now in cahoots with Sofina (Daisy Head)...another Red Wizard who was responsible for getting Edgin and Holga sent to a dungeon after the ill-fated heist.

I won't spoil the rest of the story for you (except to say that the climax paid a hilarious homage to Hulk thrashing Loki at the end of 2012's The Avengers), but I will point out that this is personally the best Chris Pine movie I've seen since he first played Captain Kirk in 2009's Star Trek! His on-screen chemistry with Michelle Rodriguez worked in Honor Among Thieves (no, nothing romantic happened between them during the movie... Only great comedic timing in their scenes), and you believed the camaraderie that Edgin and Holga formed with Simon, Doric and Xenk during their adventure.

And just like his role in the recent Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, Hugh Grant played the wealthy smooth-talking criminal in Dungeons & Dragons...though unlike in Operation Fortune, Hugh Grant's character eventually had to atone for his mistakes in Honor Among Thieves.

Daisy Head was great as Sofina—a villain who would feel right at home in a Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and even Star Wars film. Speaking of Lord of the Rings, Honor Among Thieves took place in some beautiful locales as well...but in areas shot in Iceland and Northern Ireland, not in New Zealand.

I would have to say that Paramount Pictures did a great job turning Dungeons & Dragons into such a hilarious and fun-filled flick! Hasbro should be proud.

Though ironically, the 2012 movie Battleship—which was also based on a Hasbro board game of the same name—wasn't as well-received by critics over a decade ago. That's a shame considering that Battleship was a decent sci-fi action film; it would've gotten a different response had Universal Pictures not associated the movie with an old kid's game.

Going back to Honor Among Thieves, Bradley Cooper had a hilarious cameo in this film. Go see it in theaters now to find out who he played in the movie...

Two thumbs up for Dungeons & Dragons!