On This Day in 2002: Remembering ATTACK OF THE CLONES...

20 years ago today, one of my college classmates and I went to the AMC theater near our alma mater, Cal State Long Beach, to watch Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones.

While Episode II was my least favorite film in the prequel trilogy (yes, even moreso than The Phantom Menace), it still had its moments: Boba Fett and his father Jango making an appearance, seeing a group of Jedi run into battle on the big screen for the first time, watching the clonetroopers make an appearance on the planet Geonosis to begin the Clone Wars, Samuel L. Jackson kicking arse as Mace Windu with his purple-bladed lightsaber, and cheering on Yoda as he engaged in a fierce lightsaber duel with Count Dooku.

Remembering Attack of the Clones also makes me nostalgic for early 2002...when I was on the verge of being accepted into the film production program at Cal State Long Beach during that summer, and the Los Angeles Lakers won their third straight championship after defeating the New Jersey Nets in the NBA Finals a few weeks after Clones made its theatrical release. (I'll talk more about the Lakers and the 20-year anniversary of their 3-peat in my main Blog next month.)

I'll end this entry by saying that members of the boy band *NSync almost made cameos in Episode II! It's a good thing this plan fail through... The news of these cameos caused quite a negative stir among Star Wars fans back in early 2002. Carry on.

The Teaser Poster and Trailer for AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER Are Here!

Almost 13 years after the first Avatar movie landed in theaters nationwide and broke box office records, the first of four sequels—Avatar: The Way of Water—will soon be upon us!

The teaser trailer for the December 16 flick premiered online today...after being shown exclusively in front of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on the big screen last weekend.

Just like the 2009 film, director James Cameron intends to release The Way of Water in both the 2D and 3D formats. I'll definitely view this movie in 3rd dimension...but we'll see if this plan holds since the coronavirus pandemic is still raging around the world. And COVID-19 cases will no doubt surge come Christmas time.

Health issues aside, I'm excited to see what amazing visuals Cameron has in store for us with The Way of Water! The story in the first Avatar film wasn't exactly mind-blowing, but Pandora is absolutely one of the most beautiful worlds to ever be created for cinema. We'll see if that's still the case about seven months from now.

Judging from the new trailer, it will be.

Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Giovanni Ribisi, Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang are reprising their roles from the first Avatar movie, while joining them in The Way of Water are Michelle Yeoh, Kate Winslet, Oona Chaplin, Jemaine Clement and Edie Falco, respectively. Happy Monday!

Movie Review: DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS...

Yesterday, I went to Harkins Theatres to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe's (MCU) latest Phase 4 movie, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Just like its 2016 predecessor Doctor Strange, this sequel was cerebral and action-packed...and loaded with tons of mind-blowing visual effects. After playing the Master of the Mystic Arts for six MCU movies now (including this one), Benedict Cumberbatch has clearly nailed this role down—which obviously doesn't come as a surprise considering that he's a 2-time Academy Award nominee.

In regards to the story, The Multiverse of Madness continues the events that transpired in last year's Spider-Man: No Way Home and the Disney+ streaming series, WandaVision. Doctor Strange has to deal with the repercussions of opening the multiverse in his attempt to help Peter Parker make the world forget that he's Spider-Man, while also dealing with the threat posed by Wanda Maximoff (superbly played by Elizabeth Olsen)...who'll destroy anything and anyone who gets in her way of reuniting with her two children from Westview.

It must've been intense for the people who watched WandaVision last year to see how her character turned out in The Multiverse of Madness. (I only viewed spoilers for this series online.) Wanda is the most powerful person to fight on the Avengers, and she became even more powerful—and extremely terrifying—as Scarlet Witch. Despite what transpired at the end of the movie, I'm darn sure that we'll see Wanda again in the future.

The rest of the cast was superb...with Rachel McAdams returning as Dr. Christine Palmer, Benedict Wong reprising his role as Wong, the Sorcerer Supreme, and Chiwetel Ejiofor playing Strange's arch-nemesis Baron Mordo once more. Xochitl Gomez was commendable in her role as the multiverse-crossing America Chavez, while the actors who made surprise cameos (I'll just list John Krasinski and Hayley Atwell here) were fantastic—pun intended—in their appearances as well.

Danny Elfman's music score for The Multiverse of Madness wasn't exactly as memorable as his work on director Sam Raimi's first two Spider-Man films and Tim Burton's two Batman movies, but that shouldn't come as a surprise since the MCU isn't really known for orchestral scores that you can play over and over on MP3.

It was refreshing to see Raimi helm another Marvel movie once more. Of course, it's not a true Raimi film without his good friend and Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell—who had a cameo in each installment of Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy—making a quick but hilarious appearance in The Multiverse of Madness as well!

I look forward to Doctor Strange's next adventure on the big screen. Happy Mother's Day!

On This Day in 2012: Remembering THE AVENGERS...

10 years ago today, I watched the Marvel mega-hit The Avengers at AMC theaters.

This particular film is meaningful to me...not only because it was an extremely exciting flick that definitely brought the Marvel Cinematic Universe to where it is in the comic book movie pantheon today, but also because viewing this film at the multiplex was the very first thing I did as I recovered from a debilitating illness that caused me to be home-ridden for nearly three months in early 2012.

(The only time I left my house was to see the doctor.)

While 2015's Age of Ulton was probably the worst film in The Avengers franchise, director Joss Whedon knocked it out of the park with the 2012 movie. I highly doubt that Whedon will work on another Marvel flick considering the controversy involving his behavior during the filming of the theatrical version of 2017's Justice League (Google it), but The Avengers will always be one of the movies that Whedon receives high marks for. Check out my review for the film.

Happy Wednesday!

On This Day in 2002: Remembering SPIDER-MAN...

20 years ago today, I went to my local AMC theater to watch Spider-Man. While I was a bit annoyed at this film since it stole the thunder away from Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (which would be released less than 2 weeks later)—the one movie that I was definitely looking forward to in 2002—I was nevertheless thrilled to view this comic book flick as two of my old high school friends and I were extras in it!

As shown in the images above and below, we got to run back and forth on a fake set of New York's Time Square (built on a vacant parking lot at the city of Downey in California) while Spider-Man and the Green Goblin duked it out for the first time. A stuntman was dressed as the Webslinger while Willem Dafoe himself donned the green suit and performed the fight himself!

This scene was filmed back in March of 2001.

It was awesome to see Tobey Maguire back on the big screen as Spidey in last year's Spider-Man: No Way Home, while I can't wait to see what director Sam Raimi brings to the Marvel Cinematic Universe with next weekend's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness! Happy Tuesday.

Quick Review: AMBULANCE...

I saw the action crime drama Ambulance at AMC theaters earlier today. Just like with Transformers, Armageddon and The Rock, Ambulance had Michael Bay's usual rapid-fire editing and abrupt comedic moments in-between intense action sequences. And the film utilized some really cool drone camera work as well.

And the cast—featuring Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Eiza González and Garret Dillahunt—was pretty awesome too.

Quick Review: THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT...

I saw The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent at AMC theaters earlier today. It's about Nicolas Cage playing Nick Cage—with all of his actual financial problems—as he gets caught up in a kidnapping plot by a crime syndicate run by none other than The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal, whose name in this flick is Javi Gutierrez)...who wants nothing more than to write a screenplay in this "movie within a movie" action drama. I dig that. Unsurprisingly, it's the legendary actor from The Rock, Con Air, Face/Off, Gone in Sixty Seconds and Kick-Ass that Javi wants to star in his film.

The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent is an interesting flick. I had to go on Google to see if Cage does have an ex-wife named Olivia and a daughter named Addy. He does not.

One thing I like about The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent that isn't actually in the movie itself is the use of the song Kill This Love by female K-pop band Blackpink. Check out its music video and the film's trailer below!

THE BROKEN TABLE Will Be Screened at the END OF DAYS FILM FESTIVAL!

Very happy to announce that The Broken Table is an Official Selection at the End of Days Film Festival!

This is the very first event that the film was submitted to when it began its festival run last fall (on December 4), so it is absolutely a great honor to have been chosen!

This awesomely apocalyptic showcase will take place on May 14. For more info, visit the festival's website below!

http://endofdaysfilmfestival.com/

Movie Review: EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE...

I watched the sci-fi/adventure flick Everything Everywhere All at Once at AMC theaters several hours ago, and needless to say, it deserves to be hugely recognized by the Academy Awards next year...like Parasite was in 2020!

Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis were absolutely fantastic in this film—with them sharing the funniest moments in this movie. Three words: Hot dog hands!

And you know that Everything Everywhere All at Once is a very special flick when director/writers Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert featured a very insightful scene where Michelle Yeoh (as Evelyn Wang) and Stephanie Hsu (as Evelyn's daughter Joy) have a deep conversation about existentialism and the universe...while literally being two rocks sitting on a cliff in a desert. You need to watch this flick to see how great this scene is.

Everything Everywhere All at Once also had very cool action sequences that you would expect in a Michelle Yeoh movie. It's The Matrix, a Marvel film (with all the recent multiverse stuff) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon all rolled into one.

As mentioned earlier, Everything Everywhere All at Once should receive some nominations at the Oscars next year—at least for Best Editing and maybe Best Original Screenplay.

And welcome back to the acting world, Ke Huy Quan! You may remember him as Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, as well as Data in The Goonies. Carry on.

Movie Review: SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2...

I saw the video game flick Sonic the Hedgehog 2 at AMC theaters earlier today, and it was just as enjoyable as the 2020 original. Though the sequel somewhat goes off on a tangent in the second act during a scene in Hawaii that features Shemar Moore (from the CBS TV series S.W.A.T.) and Natasha Rothwell (of the HBO show Insecure) as an engaged couple that came close to tying the knot had a blue alien hedgehog not make a sudden appearance and ruin the ceremony.

Jim Carrey was even more maniacal as Dr. Robotnik in Sonic 2, while it was great to see James Marsden and Tika Sumpter return as the surrogate parents of Sonic (once again voiced by Ben Schwartz) in this film. Idris Elba does the voice of Knuckles, while Colleen O'Shaughnessey voiced Sonic's newest sidekick, Tails, respectively.

I never played Sonic the Hedgehog video games when I was young (though I really wanted a Sega Genesis console when I was in 6th grade), but I'll assume that—SPOILERS AHEAD—Sonic using the Infinity Stones to become a Super Saiyan as a way to save the day actually occurred in one of games.

Yep, I made an Avengers and Dragon Ball Z reference above. That is all.