The Reel World

“Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” 

It is hard to ignore the hype around the film Oppenheimer. Any time a Christopher Nolan film has come out, it has become a pretty big deal for cinema fans, whether it was for his The Dark Knight trilogy, Interstellar, Inception, or Tenet, his films carry the same kind of respect alongside the names of Stanley Kubrick and James Cameron, and his films can be just as divisive. But the anticipation for the release of Oppenheimer feels like a different beast entirely. The release coming out the same day as Barbie has created such a stir on the internet that the term Barbenheimer has become a part of the zeitgeist of modern day. Then another aspect is how the film was literally shot on 70mm film, which is unheard of in today’s digital-hungry climate, and the film is being released in certain theaters on 70mm prints that reportedly weigh around 600lbs. And now with critics finally getting to see the film, I can’t scroll through my news feed without seeing headlines that tout the film as not just being the most important film of the century, but the best film of the century as well. So what’s my take on all this hype, and is it worth it? Is Oppenheimer the film that will save cinema?

"It's called the Impossible Mission Force for a reason."

I imagine this is how it happened. It's January of 2019, and Tom Cruise has just popped into the bathroom to shave. He opens up that can of Barbasol just to make sure there isn't any dinosaur DNA left in the can, but as he takes off the cap, an authoritative voice begins to speak: “Good morning, Mr. Cruise. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to make a two part film of the Mission Impossible franchise. It won't be easy. That's why only the IMF team can be counted on to complete this task. There are agents out to stop you before you even get started. In China there is a virus code-name: Wuhan, and this virus will spread to pandemic levels just as you're starting to get your production crew together. Elements within our own government will take measures to shut you down.  Delays will cost an extra $100 million and necessitate crucial cast changes. They'll be serious injuries, and your release date will be July of 2021 ... I mean November of 2021 ... Would you believe May of 2022? ... Let's shoot for July 14, 2023. You will have to deal with nefarious crew members who will attempt to sabotage the project by standing closer than two meters apart. You may use over-the-top rants in an attempt to intimidate these factions into compliance. Beware that said rants don't end up released by the press to the world. Somehow through all of these challenges you must create a Mission Impossible film that will be bigger and better than anything that came before. And remember, Tom, if your film fails to bring in a billion or more dollars, the studio will disavow your team, and your movie will go straight to streaming ... or worse, get shelved as a tax write-off. Good luck, Tom. This message will self-destruct in 10 seconds.” There's a swoosh of fog, and Tom Cruise is sitting in his bathroom with no shaving cream to complete his original task. I figure that's how it must have gone.

"I miss the desert. I miss the sea. I miss waking up every morning wondering what wonderful adventure the new day will bring to us."

Who said Nazis aren't a lot of fun? Hogan's Heroes turned them into comic foils. When it comes to Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, it seems there's no one we like seeing him beat more than Nazis. Think about it. Raiders Of The Lost Ark: Nazis: Great movie. Temple Of Doom: No Nazis: Not so much a great film. Last Crusade: Nazis: Again great film. Crystal Skull: No Nazis: Total disaster. Can you see a pattern beginning to develop here? Somebody finally took notice and Indiana Jones is back in Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny (terrible title, by the way), and he's back to fighting Nazis. What could go wrong? Best we don't tempt fate with questions like that. It took decades, but we're finally sitting down in our theatres to see Indiana Jones once again. We sat through a really bad sequel and COVID, and we waited. The wait is finally over, and the first ... and last Indiana Jones film to be released under the Disney/Lucasfilm banner is finally here.

“Miles, being Spider-Man is a sacrifice. You have a choice between saving one person and saving every world.”

So, I’m not sure how I feel about this whole breaking films into two-parters phenomenon that seems to be sweeping Hollywood. Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning is expecting to do it, while the Fast and Furious franchise has essentially made a three-part finale with the first installment out now. Now we have Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse joining the party. Personally, I blame the Harry Potter and Twilight franchises for this; they opened the door for this type of scheme. Pardon my saltiness; it could have something to do with the fact that I wasn’t aware that I was only going to be watching part one of two-parter prior to showing up at the theater. Had I known, I would have mentally prepared myself. All of this is not to take away from how great the film was. I would categorize it as one of best sequels that I’ve ever seen, as well as one of the best films of 2023 thus far in my opinion. Across the Spider-verse takes the successful recipe of lighthearted humor and character development and builds on it with a compelling story with quite a few shocking reveals. In all honesty, the only bad thing about it is it left me with a hunger for more and unfortunately, I’ll have to wait until March 2024 to satisfy it.

"You can't live in that world unless you become a human yourself." 

That's what Disney thinks, anyway. In 1989 Walt Disney Studios was suffering a bit. The box office had been loaded with several disappointments, and it seemed that the storied studio might have to give up its crown for the dominant provider of family entertainment. It was the release of The Little Mermaid as a animated feature film that brought families back to the movies in droves. But it wasn't only that particular film that would save things for Disney. The Little Mermaid set the template for what would become one of the best decades in Disney animation history. With animated features like The Lion King and Beauty And The Beast, it was like a new golden age of hand-drawn animation. It was an unprecedented run, to be sure. Now we're in a new millennium, and Disney has once again suffered some box office miscues, and in the middle of that is this trend to create live-action, or as near as can be attained, versions of these classic animated features from all of the phases of the studio's library. Some have been quite impressive, like The Jungle Book. Others not so much, like Dumbo. Where does The Little Mermaid fall? Someplace in between, I'd say.

“Never accept death when suffering is owed.”

So I think it safe to say that when it comes to the Fast and Furious franchise, it is no longer about cars or street racing anymore. In the beginning it felt like we were getting a window into a secret underground world that spanned multiple continents. However, I would say that is no longer the case. Dom and his family have gone legit. Not only have they gone legit, but they now unofficially work for the government in some capacity. No, it is no longer about the cars and street racing anymore. In fact, I would go as far as to say that we aren’t tuning in to see them use their skills on the behalf of the government either. There is one thing that keeps us coming back for more. We want to see what over-the-top, outrageous, death-defying, impossible stuff they are going to do next. At least that is what got me in the seat. In the last couple years, we’ve watched Dom and his family do things that may be theoretically possible, but that we know to be ridiculous. I mean, we watched them go to space in a Pontiac Fiero just a movie ago. Needless to say, this franchise has pushed the boundaries of what we know to be possible, and they’ve done it in a fashion that keeps us coming back for more.

It’s a little hard to believe that it has been nearly a decade since the first Guardians of the Galaxy made its debut on the big screen. I fell in love with the motley crew of heroes after that first screening, and they have been my favorite thing to come out of the MCU after all these years. Now with the third film releasing and with James Gunn bidding his farewell to the MCU and heading over to the DC universe to helm their cinematic universe, that means it is sadly time to see the Guardians, at least how we’ve come to know them, set out on their final adventure. It has been a bumpy road to get to this point; after all, there was the point where James Gunn had been fired from the project and he dipped his toes into the DC universe by writing and directing The Suicide Squad (2021), a film that just didn’t deliver at the box office but I felt was a heck of a lot of fun. Then it seemed the powers that be saw the error of their ways, also fearing that the cast would not return to the film if James Gunn was not brought back on as director, and the announcement was made that Gunn would be brought back and that production would begin on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3. So after six years since the previous Guardians of the Galaxy film was released, was it worth the wait?

As a side note before I delve into this review, while it isn’t required viewing to enjoy this film, I highly recommend checking out The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special on Disney Plus. This isn’t an endorsement, but the holiday special does offer some more fun from the Guardians team and sets up some things for the third film.

" Some call me the Dark One. Others, the Lord of Death. To most, I am... Dracula!"

After nearly 90 years, the Universal horror cycle stands as one of the most enduring collection of horror movies today. Their influence on modern horror is unmistakable. There have been literally thousands of incarnations of Dracula, The Wolf Man, and Frankenstein's monster, but the first image that comes to your mind will always be the nightmare creations of those Universal films. Studio head Carl Laemmle, Jr. was trying to break away from his father's control and create a studio culture of his own. The results would start in 1931 when an unknown Hungarian actor named Bela Lugosi jumped from the stage to the screen in Dracula, directed by Tod Browning. Laemmle's niece, Carla Laemmle, is the girl in the coach headed for Borgo Pass as the film opens to the musical strains from Swan Lake. She is reading a travel brochure about vampires and thus speaks the very first lines ever spoken in a horror film in the era of sound. Lugosi was mesmerizing, and the film was a hit. There was a depression on, but that didn't stop crowds from lining up around theater blocks to be hypnotized by Lugosi's Dracula. The cycle of horror films that followed literally saved the studio from bankruptcy by the time it had all come to an end and the horror baton was passed along to England's House Of Hammer. Since then Universal hasn't really known exactly what to do with these prize IP's.

You don’t have to be a sports name to know the name Michael Jordan, and there is a good chance you’ve even heard of the Air Jordan even if you are not a sneakerhead. What is a little surprising is that someone out there believed that the story about how a shoe could change the sports industry and go on to make the Nike company a multi-billion dollar industry could be a movie that people would actually want to go see. Well, that person was screenwriter Alex Convery, who wrote a screenplay that would make it onto the Hollywood Black List (For those that don’t know, The Black List is a list that comes out every year that ranks the top 10 unproduced screenplays.  It’s an elite list to be on, and typically these eventually get turned into films that gain critical acclaim). As it would turn out, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon would get a shot at the script, and after a polish it would become the new film Ben Affleck would direct since the last film he helmed, Live By Night back in 2016. Though Affleck has had a few duds in his career in front of the screen, when it comes to his directing career I feel he’s got a strong record, Gone Baby Gone, The Town, and Argo I feel are each great films. Live By Night was a bit of a misstep, but every director has one miss eventually, so when I saw he was going to be directing Air, though I wasn’t quite excited about the story, I was excited to see that he’d be directing again.  What I didn’t see coming was just how good this film would be, and it is no surprise why Amazon Studios elected to give this film a theatrical run rather than dump it onto its Prime streaming service.

The opening credits of the film do a fantastic job of setting the tone of the film and hitting us with a montage of pop culture events that were taking place in 1984. Then we get to meet Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon). He’s an executive with Nike who is pretty much a talent scout for the company. At this point Nike is a bit of a joke in the sports world, with Converse and Adidas leading in shoe sales with big names like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird as the face to their product. The basketball line of shoes is about to be shut down if Nike can’t manage to score big, and it’s up to Sonny to find the perfect athlete to promote their line of shoes and keep them in the shoe game.  In other words, this film is pretty much an underdog story. All the companies are looking to secure this new rookie for the Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan. Nike just can’t compete with the big names, but Sonny is desperate and feels they can attain greatness if they can somehow manage to court Jordan to sign with them.  Literally that is the plot of this film, and we all know how it is going to end, so what’s the point in watching? It’s really as simple as seeing the men behind the scenes and just how much of a risk they took to make it all happen. Then there is the solid cast, the fantastic script, and the attention to detail that Affleck and his team brought together to create this film.

"You think I know every human being with a mustache wearing an identical outfit with a hat with the letter of his first name on it? Because I don't!" 

That's the big caveat for this review of The Super Mario Bros. Movie. You might be asking yourself a simple question. If I don't know anything about the Nintendo or Super Mario Bros. games and world, will I be able to enjoy this film? The answer is that you will still be able to enjoy it, but you'll walk away feeling like you've been left out of the joke. That's how I felt after the press screening for the film. I got to hear many of my fellow critics talking with great excitement about all of these wonderful Easter eggs and subtle homage moments, and I didn't get a single one. Check that. I did get one of them, and I'll explain that next.