My Review for GLADIATOR II...

So earlier today, I drove to the local AMC Theatres to watch director Ridley Scott's highly-anticipated sequel to 2000's Gladiator. Seeing as how the Best Picture winner starring Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix and Connie Nielsen was the first film I talked about when I started blogging over 24 years ago, it was only fitting that I would write a review for Gladiator II.

So what did I think of Gladiator II, you asked? It was bloody epic!

From the opening scene where Lucius Verus Aurelius (Paul Mescal, whose character goes by the alias 'Hanno' for much of the film) helps defend his colony at Numidia—a province that was the last stronghold in Africa to be conquered by the Roman Empire—from an incoming Roman naval invasion, to the final skirmish outside the gates of Rome itself, Gladiator II was an absolute titan of a movie.

SPOILERS AHEAD:

Just like Maximus Decimus Meridius (played by Crowe) in the first film, Lucius' journey towards becoming a gladiator started with him losing the love of his life, Arishat (Yuval Gonen), to the Roman invaders at Numidia. To make matters worse, Arishat was specifically killed under the order of General Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal)...who also happened to be the husband of Lucius' estranged mother, Lucilla (once again portrayed by Nielsen).

Lucius and the majority of male survivors from the Numidia attack are then transported to Rome so that they can be turned into gladiators. It is at the Roman port of Ostia where Lucius engages in his first gladiatorial fight (against a horde of baboons) and meets his owner, a flamboyant patrician named Macrinus (Denzel Washington).

It is after he meets Macrinus that Lucius begins embarking on the same path as Maximus, his real father; Lucius' experience as a soldier in Africa enabled him to make quick work of his opponents inside the Colosseum...and allowed him to earn the grace of eccentric twin emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger). But it is Lucius' rising in the ranks that would put him in a perilous situation where he needed to decide if he's truly going to follow in Maximus' footsteps to help end tyranny and make Rome a new republic once and for all.

SPOILERS ENDED.

I can talk about the rest of Gladiator II's plot here, but the review will just end up being extremely long because of how rich a tale that Ridley Scott crafted in this movie. Like the first Gladiator, this film is all about political intrigue—with lots of spectacular and bloody arena fights thrown into the fray.

And considering the $250 million (minus the budget for marketing) that was spent on bringing Gladiator II to life, one obviously has to talk about the technical aspects of this movie. The cinematography was awesome, and so were the production design, visual effects (done by none other than Industrial Light & Magic), editing and orchestral score.

Even though the music of Gladiator II wasn't done by Hans Zimmer this time around, Harry Gregson-Williams did a commendable job incorporating memorable Gladiator themes as "Now We Are Free" and "Strength and Honor" into his film score for the sequel. In fact, I'm listening to the Gladiator II score (as MP3s) on my laptop right now!

I expect Gladiator II to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards this January (but unfortunately not win it next March, unlike the first movie in early 2001.), but I do expect the sequel to take home a trophy or two for Best Production Design, Sound, Costume Design, Visual Effects, Film Editing, Original Score, Cinematography, Makeup and Hairstyling, or possibly Supporting Actor for Washington's memorable performance as Macrinus.

(I'll gladly apologize for the snubs if Ridley Scott gets nominated for Best Director, while Mescal gets recognized for Best Actor and Nielsen for Best Actress!)

So all-in-all, Gladiator II was as epic as I hoped it would be. Ridley Scott wants to make Gladiator III...which I hope he does assuming that the second installment performs well at the box office. Of course, considering how Gladiator II ended (I won't elaborate here), I'm wondering how Scott plans to continue the story of Lucius and his rise from a gladiator to the "prince of Rome."

We'll hopefully find out in the future!

"What we do in life, echoes in eternity."

GLADIATOR II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. ****

Quick Review: HYPNOTIC...

So I watched the Robert Rodriguez-directed action thriller Hypnotic—starring Ben Affleck, Alice Braga and William Fichtner—at AMC theaters earlier today, and I thought it was as entertaining as it was derivative.

Hypnotic had some interesting twists and turns, but it was basically Inception meets The Matrix meets Star Wars (if Jedi Mind Tricks existed in the real world) meets every other film where a kid needs to be hidden from the government because of their special powers...like the 2016 sci-fi mystery flick Midnight Special, starring Adam Driver, Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst and Michael Shannon. Oh, and 2022's Firestarter—co-written by Stephen King and starring Zac Efron as the father of a girl who can psychically make anyone and anything go up in flames.

Back to Hypnotic, Robert Rodriguez set the movie up for a sequel if you stay for the end credits. Of course I'll watch the sequel...though it's one of those films where I'd probably have to go on IMDb years later to see when this flick came out, and who exactly was in the cast.

Just like what I did with Midnight Special and Firestarter above! Carry on.

Movie Review: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3...

Last Saturday, I went to Regal Cinemas to watch the James Gunn-directed Marvel film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3...and needless to say, who would've thought that the origin story of a talking space raccoon could be so sad?

The story of the third and final Guardians flick revolved around how Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldaña), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Drax (Dave Bautista) and company set out to save the life of Rocket the Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper)—after he was mortally injured in an attack by Adam Warlock (Will Poulter). Warlock was sent to the Guardians' headquarters on Knowhere (a spaceport located within the severed head of a long-dead Celestial) to apprehend Rocket...on behalf of The High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), who turned the raccoon into a highly-inquisitive creature that would later become an Avenger.

Throughout Guardians 3, we were shown flashbacks of how Rocket came to be...from a frightened baby raccoon who was taken from his cage for experimentation at the beginning of the film, to him befriending three other mutated animals who were also the test subjects of The High Evolutionary, to him escaping from the Evolutionary's lab on Counter-Earth upon finding out that Rocket was going to get his brain removed for further analysis the next day. But this (major spoilers ahead) was before the raccoon witnessed the tragic deaths of his best friends Lylla (voiced by Linda Cardellini), Teefs (voiced by Asim Chaudhry) and Floor (voiced by Mikaela Hoover) by the Evolutionary and his security guards.

Volume 3 brought closure to this group of Guardians, with Gamora returning to the Ravagers after helping Quill save his friend's life, Drax staying on Knowhere to help Nebula protect their home, and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) going her own separate way to discover herself. Peter, meanwhile, returned to Earth to unite with his real family after realizing that the Gamora he met in Avengers: Endgame was not going to fall in love with him like the Gamora who was thrown off a "magic cliff" by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War did.

Rocket, on the other hand, had a more upbeat ending to his story—with him becoming the new captain of the Guardians. I won't spoil who his new teammates were, except to point out that Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) was still by his side.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 definitely made up for the shortcomings of last February's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and made me think that The High Evolutionary was how Kang should've been portrayed in the flawed Ant-Man sequel. Oh well.

I still don't like how he revamped the DC Extended Universe, but well-done, James Gunn!

😢#GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol3 pic.twitter.com/ltaenSRvqM

— Richard Par (@RichTPar) May 9, 2023

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!

Movie Review - JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4...

So I watched John Wick: Chapter 4 at AMC theaters earlier today, and here are my notes:

As expected, the film had great action scenes, great cinematography and great set pieces (in locales ranging from New York City, the Middle East and Osaka, Japan, to Berlin and Paris)! This was a satisfactory end to this saga...which the previous Keanu Reeves-led franchise of The Matrix didn't have till The Matrix Resurrections in 2021.

Now here are my questions:

- Is Donnie Yen (who portrays Caine in Chapter 4) being typecast by American filmmakers as the blind anti-hero who somewhat saves the day at the end of the movie? Star Wars fans and other folks who saw 2016's Rogue One will know what I'm referring to.

- What happened to Halle Berry's kick-ass character Sofia from John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum? Or the Adjudicator played by Asia Kate Dillon in that installment as well?

- Am I the only one who'll always think of Pennywise the Clown from the IT films whenever Bill Skarsgård (who portrays the Marquis Vincent de Gramont in Chapter 4) appears on screen?

- What is it with clubgoers and regular pedestrians in every John Wick movie being absolutely incapable—until the last minute—of noticing Wick fighting and killing bad guys right next to them? (The answer: Odd acting instructions giving to the background actors by assistant directors and production assistants on set.)

Considering that John Wick apparently flies around the world with ease, you would think that there would be a cool action sequence aboard an airliner where Wick (who has a $20 million bounty on his head at the start of the movie) takes on an assassin or two who are trying to neutralize him before he arrives in Osaka or something... Oh well.

And lastly:

Are John Wick's bones made out of adamantium (die-hard comic book nerds will get this X-Men reference), or is his kevlar suit that effective in protecting him after tumbling down multiple staircases, falling out of the window of a 3-story building and getting hit by several cars in Paris' Place de l'Etoile roundabout (the last two didn't take place in the same scene)? Obviously the latter.

If you see this awesome flick, don't forget to stay after the end credits!

Spoiler ahead: The fate of Lance Reddick's character Charon—the reliable Continental concierge who helped John Wick in the last two sequels—is even more poignant given that Reddick has departed in real life. May he rest in peace.

Movie Review: 65...

Earlier today, I watched the sci-fi flick 65 at AMC theaters.

The film has no real plot to speak of (other than to joke that it's Kylo Ren from the Star Wars sequel trilogy versus velociraptors and T-Rexes), so I'll just ask a few questions based on whatever story elements there were:

- So the metric system was invented on another planet over 65 million years ago? Mills (played by Adam Driver) had to travel '15 kilometers' to reach the second half of his spaceship after it broke into two as he crash-landed on prehistoric Earth.

- Are today's UFOs actually visitors from Adam Driver's home world? There should be a 65 spinoff flick where someone in the present day runs into a descendant of Mills inside a New York City café...or not.

- Does Driver's species now possess lightsabers, TIE Fighters and hyperspace if it's that old? 65 million years is enough time for his alien race to develop actual Star Wars-type technology.

And lastly:

- Did Driver do this movie just for the paycheck? I'm guessing that he also did this role for the physical challenges he would experience during filming...such as wading through a pool of mud and climbing up trees.

Driver used to be a former U.S. Marine, so I guess working on 65 brought back some pleasant memories from his training days! Or not.

Movie Review: SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS...

Earlier today, I watched Shazam! Fury of the Gods at AMC theaters.

The film was as funny as the original Shazam! movie in 2019, but it was also disappointing to know that Zachary Levi's superhero will never confront his arch-nemesis, the anti-hero played by Dwayne Johnson in last year's Black Adam, on the big screen. Heck, Dwayne Johnson even refused to appear in the end credits for Fury of the Gods—and forbade any of the Justice Society heroes in his movie to show up in the Shazam! sequel, either.

On the plus side, another major DC character showed up in Fury of the Gods...with Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman appearing at the end to prevent the movie from having a totally-dreary ending. Gadot's cameo was revealed in an official Facebook ad for Shazam! a few days ago, so you can't really blame me for spoiling this for ya!

Time for a question or two: Did Anthea (Rachel Zegler) actually move all of those skyscrapers around in that scene where Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer) confronts the two other Daughters of Atlas (Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu) on a rooftop—or was that all an illusion? If that was real, then I'm guessing a lot of Pittsburgh folks either lost their lives or at the very least got really dizzy from Anthea's shenanigans.

And why was Michelle Borth cut from Fury of the Gods? I had no idea that Grace Caroline Currey played Mary Bromfield and Superhero Mary until I went on IMDb to check the cast list after I left the theater.

Anyways, I wish Zack Snyder's DC Extended Universe was still intact for Fury of the Gods to have any meaningful impact to it, but oh well. I'm still excited to see The Flash hit the big screen this June!

Movie Review - OPERATION FORTUNE: RUSE DE GUERRE...

Earlier today, I watched the action comedy Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre at AMC theaters.

Directed by Guy Ritchie (who helmed 2009's Sherlock Holmes and co-wrote the script for Disney's 2019 live-action remake of Aladdin), Operation Fortune was an entertaining film...and Ritchie's personal take on the Mission: Impossible, Charlie's Angels and 007 franchises.

Operation Fortune was your typical spy flick...with Orson Fortune (Jason Statham), Sarah Fidel (Aubrey Plaza), Nathan Jasmine (Cary Elwes) and J.J. Davies (Bugzy Malone) needing to infiltrate the hidden lair (or in this case, a fancy yacht and a Turkish villa) of a celebrity-obsessed arms dealer named Greg Simmonds (Hugh Grant). The reason: They needed to locate a MacGuffin (known as 'The Handle') that's worth a billion dollars and could cause worldwide financial collapse if placed in the wrong hands.

The 007 part arrived when Fortune and Co. enlisted the aid of an actor named Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett), whose celebrity status allowed him and the group to get close to Simmonds on his yacht and seek The Handle's whereabouts. While he has appeared in numerous projects throughout the years (most of them TV shows), the last time I've heard of a film that Hartnett starred in was 2006's The Black Dahlia.

(I believe that 2005's Sin City was the last movie featuring Hartnett that I actually saw at the theater!)

A lot of espionage and car chases took place throughout the rest of the film, with Operation Fortune concluding with a shootout between Orson's rival Mike (Peter Ferdinando) and armed goons working for Trent and Arnold...two bio-tech moguls in possession of The Handle. It didn't end well for these two groups, which was great news for Orson as he was able to secure the billion-dollar device.

Operation Fortune concluded on a feel-good note, with Orson and Co. going on vacation after a succesful mission (despite Nathan's attempt to enlist them on the next job), and Danny Francesco shooting a scene for a movie that was inspired by his interaction with Greg Simmonds.

Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre may not have been as well-polished as Sherlock Holmes, but it was still an enjoyable flick that was nicely directed by Ritchie. I look forward to his next project, a war drama known as The Covenant, which arrives in theaters nationwide on April 21.

Movie Review: SCREAM VI...

Earlier today, I watched Scream VI at AMC theaters.

Just like last year's Scream, this movie was extremely violent and twisted...which is why it completely lived up to my expectations! Ghostface is just so awesome.

Scream VI and the 2022 installment are the only films that I saw in the Scream franchise, so I don't know the earlier stories behind Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere) or the psychos who wrought havoc as the previous Ghostfaces. I just think it's cool that Panettiere played an FBI agent in this sequel.

While it was awesome to see Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera, who looked awesome donning the Ghostface mask and robe at one point) and her sister Tara (Jenna Ortega) kick Ghostface's ass once more, the fates of the other characters who bore the brunt of the masked killer's knife was a bit amusing.

Apparently, getting stabbed multiple times (and even having a knife jammed through your throat) in a Scream film is the franchise's equivalent of receiving a paper cut. You're out for a few minutes, but casually show up at the end of the movie.

This hilarity reminds me of a memorable moment from Monty Python and the Holy Grail...shown in the tweet below. Other than the goofy moments in this latest installment (I'm guessing they're common themes in all of the Scream flicks), I can't wait for the next film!

You know there's gonna be a Scream VII.

So I saw #ScreamVI earlier today. It was an entertaining film like the previous one, though characters surviving after literally being stabbed a dozen times in the gut and chest reminds me of this #MontyPython moment... pic.twitter.com/0NIDMG5Rh4

— Richard Par (@RichTPar) March 11, 2023

Quick Review: CREED III...

Earlier today, I watched Creed III at AMC theaters.

Michael B. Jordan, who played Adonis—the son of Rocky Balboa's famous adversary and friend Apollo Creed—since 2015, did a great job helming Creed III. This was Jordan's first directorial assignment.

Spoilers ahead: With this being the final installment in the Creed series (presumably), it was expected that Jordan's titular boxer would emerge victorious at the end...this time against his long-time friend Damian Anderson, played with ferocity by Jonathan Majors.

It's unfortunate that Sylvester Stallone didn't make a cameo as Rocky (since he was against doing a third Creed film in the first place), but at least this movie ended on a happy note with Adonis, his wife Bianca (Tessa Thompson) and their daughter Amara (Mila Davis-Kent) spending quality time together inside a boxing ring at an empty Dodger Stadium—the venue where Creed once again showed the heart of a champion earlier that night.

Movie Review: COCAINE BEAR...

Earlier today, I watched the new Elizabeth Banks-directed dark comedy Cocaine Bear at AMC theaters.

This was actually my second time viewing this film...as I was lucky enough to attend a private test screening of Cocaine Bear back in November of last year.

So now that the comedy which is loosely based on the true story of an actual black bear that overdosed on a duffel bag full of cocaine in 1985 is finally out in theaters, all I can say is, Cocaine Bear was a hoot!

Unsurprisingly, there were no changes made to the movie since that test screening (apart from the final music score and the addition of end credits), and that's because Cocaine Bear was perfect the way it was. Who cares about the current 71% score on Rotten Tomatoes? I don't.

The cast was astounding—from the late Ray Liotta playing a drug kingpin named Sydney White to Keri Russell portraying Sari, a single mom in Georgia who's determined to find her daughter Dee Dee (Brooklynn Prince) after she played hooky from school to paint waterfalls in the forest.

Alden Ehrenreich went from being Han Solo (in Solo: A Star Wars Story five years ago) to playing Eddie...the level-headed son of Sydney White, while O'Shea Jackson Jr. portrayed Daveed—Eddie's unofficial best friend who's bent on finding the bags of cocaine in the forest while not messing up his spiffy new shoes and sports jersey as he did so.

Margo Martindale was great as Liz, a Georgia park ranger who had the hots for Peter (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), a wildlife expert who—as the movie's trailer showed—died a very horrific death at the paws of the coked-up bear.

Isiah Whitlock Jr. played Bob, a no-nonsense Tennessee detective whose two goals in life were to locate the cocaine while looking for the perfect dog to adopt and play with at the same time. Ayoola Smart, who somewhat resembled Jennifer Lawrence in this movie, portrayed Officer Reba...Bob's subordinate who was both loyal (by looking over Bob's adorable canine Rosette while he was gone searching for the coke) and not-so-loyal (I won't spoil that plot twist for ya) to the detective simultaneously.

Christian Convery played Henry, Dee Dee's best friend from grade school who would do anything to impress Sari's daughter...even taking a spoonful of cocaine to do so (of course he spat it out).

Scott Seiss—who did a great job promoting Cocaine Bear on his Twitter account up till the film's theatrical release yesterday—portrayed Tom, a paramedic who, along with his coworker Beth (Kahyun Kim), also had pretty gruesome fates after they came across the bear.

Aaron Holliday, J.B. Moore and Leo Hanna were hilarious as Kid, Vest and Ponytail...a trio of bandits who were a pain in the arse to Ranger Liz even after they got their butts kicked by Daveed inside a public restroom.

Kristofer Hivju and Hannah Hoekstra genially set the tone of the film as Olaf and Elsa, two tourists who were both lucky enough to see a black bear in person for the first time, and also unlucky enough to experience the fury of a black bear that was high on coke.

And not to be forgotten was Matthew Rhys as Andrew Thornton—the real-life drug smuggler in the 1985 incident who set things in motion by dumping all those bags of cocaine out of an airplane onto Georgia's Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest below.

If you've read my previous movie reviews, you'll notice that I didn't really go into detail about all of the characters for those films like I did with the folks in Cocaine Bear...and that's because I waited three months after seeing this flick to express my pleasure in watching this extremely gory but very funny thriller!

From 2015's Pitch Perfect 2 to Cocaine Bear, Elizabeth Banks showed that she is adept at creating satisfying cinematic comedies. (She directed the 2019 action comedy Charlie's Angels as well.) With Cocaine Bear, Banks has demonstrated that she can make a movie that's almost as bloody as what you would see in a film by Quentin Tarantino or Eli Roth...and that's saying a lot!

So two enthusiastic thumbs up for Cocaine Bear! It may be a B-movie, but it provided grade-A entertainment for me at the multiplex.

And not to spoil the ending, but Cocaine Bear lent itself to a sequel. Happy Saturday!

Movie Review - ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA...

So I watched Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania at Regal Cinemas yesterday, and needless to say, Marvel Studios is really starting to prove Martin Scorsese right!

Scorsese once pointed out that superhero films, particularly those by Marvel, were more like amusement park rides instead of proper cinematic experiences, and the third Ant-Man movie proved that.

Quantumania was an entertaining flick—with Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer once again commendable in their established roles, along with newcomers Kathryn Newton and Jonathan Majors (as the villainous Kang the Conqueror)—but it stopped right there as the film was somewhat deliberate in its attempt to be a typical CGI-ridden superhero movie...filled with banality and playing it safe with its plot.

While it's understandable that computer-generated imagery was needed to bring the Quantum Realm to life in Ant-Man 3 (just like in the two previous installments and 2019's Avengers: Endgame), the visual effects in this movie felt even more artificial than what you saw in last year's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder. I really wanted to like Quantumania, but I couldn't help but yawn and become bored in the first act of the film before Kang finally stepped onto the scene.

As for Kang, Majors' portrayal of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's (MCU) next Thanos-level antagonist was well-done. (Spoilers ahead) I just wished that Kang killed one of the major characters (he only vanquished a bunch of movie extras running away from him) and escaped through that portal in the climax. Of course, the mid-credits scene at the end shows that there will be more than enough Kangs to be a threat to the Avengers once these bad guys arrive on the scene in future MCU movies!

So yea— Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania could've been better. I would say that I'm looking forward to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 this May, but I'm annoyed by what Guardians director James Gunn has done to the DC Extended Universe during his new tenure at Warner Bros. studios.

Henry Cavill is no longer Superman? The Batman Beyond live-action film was cancelled? We'll never see Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam show up in a Shazam! movie? How dare you, Gunn!

Movie Review: INFINITY POOL...

Earlier today, I watched the Brandon Cronenberg-directed horror crime mystery Infinity Pool at AMC theaters.

This is quite a twisted film...with Alexander Skarsgård playing James Foster, a struggling author who travels to an unnamed country (which is Croatia and Hungary in real life) that punishes international travelers who commit crimes on its soil by forcing these visitors to be cloned, and then making these tourists sit and watch as their doppelgängers are viciously executed by local government officials.

Mia Goth contributes a wonderfully psychotic performance to Infinity Pool—playing Gabi Bauer, a fellow tourist who Foster befriends (that's an understatement) at the resort he's staying at. I never watched Goth's recent movies X and Pearl, but if Goth's portrayal of Gabi in Pool is anything similar to her performances in those horror flicks, then I'm totally missing out on seeing what an amazing young talent Goth is!

Overlooking Goth's presence and Infinity Pool's inventive premise, the movie was a bit much to sit through...even for its 117-minute running time. If you want to see a movie that has lots of gratuitous nudity and a scene filled with so many flashing lights that you're afraid you just might suffer a seizure inside the theater auditorium, then Infinity Pool is definitely the film for you!

I'll give Infinity Pool 7 out of 10 stars.

Movie Review: A MAN CALLED OTTO...

Earlier today, I watched the Marc Forster-directed dramedy A Man Called Otto at AMC theaters.

Based on the 2012 Fredrik Backman novel A Man Called Ove, A Man Called Otto is about a Pittsburgh widower who vents his grumpiness on everyone and everything he stumbles across...from the cashier at a local hardware store and morning joggers who ignore his disgruntled persona on the street as they greet him anyway, to the stray cat loitering on his front porch.

While A Man Called Otto was lighthearted and sweet, it still had a darkness about it as Otto Anderson—played by Tom Hanks—tried to find different ways to commit suicide due to his ever-growing loneliness after his wife Sonya (genially portrayed by Rachel Keller in flashbacks) passed away from cancer a few years earlier.

Otto thought that he could get away with treating everyone he met like garbage, until he's introduced to Marisol (cheerily played by Mariana Treviño), his new neighbor across the street.

While Marisol had a sweet cluelessness about her (Marisol couldn't drive even though she's in her 30s, and she's married to an imbecile who's as carefree as her), she didn't tolerate how Otto tried to dismiss her at the beginning...using her foot to prevent Otto from completely shutting his front door on her after they first met.

As expected with movies about grumpy old men who want to be left alone for the remainder of their lives, A Man Called Otto eventually found Anderson growing closer to Marisol and everyone else he knew. This didn't come as a surprise—seeing as how Otto did nice things to help other people at the same time he called them "idiots" and tried to blow them off.

Saving someone who fell onto a train track from the boarding platform after he suffered a cardiac issue, helping prevent long-time neighbors from being evicted from their home by a heartless real estate company, and taking a stray cat as your pet after finding it freezing in the snow outside your house one morning will do that to ya...

At the end of the movie, Anderson achieves his goal of reuniting with his wife (I won't spoil how, but it fortunately wasn't suicide), while leaving behind a legacy that will be continued by Marisol and other people who never gave up on Otto even as he tried to exclude them from his life.

A Man Called Otto is a film that's both entertaining and heartfelt... It's definitely a must-watch.

Movie Review: MISSING...

A few hours ago, I watched the dramatic thriller Missing at AMC theaters.

An unofficial sequel to the 2018 film Searching (which starred John Cho and Debra Messing), Missing is about an 18-year-old girl named June (Storm Reid) who uses every online tool at her disposal to find her mother Grace (Nia Long)...who suddenly disappeared when she was supposed to be on vacation in Colombia.

Missing was both very clever and pretty suspenseful—with the clever part due to June's ability to figure out the passwords to the Gmail accounts of both Grace and her boyfriend Kevin (Ken Leung)...and to do other things like pinpointing (from June's home in Southern California) the locations of surveillance cameras at the Colombian hotel where Grace was staying at. With the exception of actual apps and websites like WhatsApp, Taskrabbit and Gmail, I'm wondering how many of the other sites that June used to locate her mom really existed.

Either way, June was so brilliant at using social media and other online sites to find private information about various people that there should be another sequel, or spinoff flick, where she grew up to become a computer hacker working for the CIA! No seriously.

(Well okay, maybe not the CIA... That's such an overused trope in Hollywood movies.)

The suspenseful part of Missing came from all of the amazing plot twists that dot the film. I'm not going to spoil things here, but just when you thought that June finally discovered where her mom was, Missing threw the audience for a loop.

Missing had some amazing twists... Not as amazing as the twist at the end of the movie The Usual Suspects, but still great nonetheless.

The only downer in Missing was the climax itself; not that it wasn't good, but because it's here where the film switches from being an intriguing, 111-minute take on social media and other forms of Web technology to being a serious statement about spousal abuse and domestic violence. Such a bummer.

Overlooking the climax, ironically, Missing was still a great ride that showed the audience what can be found if you sleuthed through the Internet hard enough. Whether or not that's a good thing is up to the moviegoers to decide.