The Reel World

"I, like you, have heard the tall tales told about the Marsh Girl. An abandoned child. A little girl surviving on the marsh on her own, reviled and shunned." 

Where The Crawdads Sing took a rather unlikely journey to the big screen. It was the first novel from Delia Owens, who spent most of her life as a scientist focusing on Africa and coming up with some rather controversial theories. She went to Africa with her husband in 1996 and before long was embroiled in a situation where a documentary was shot that depicted the murder of a poacher. They left Africa facing murder charges, and now in her 70's Delia has tried her hand as an author of fiction. It shouldn't be too surprising that her maiden novel focused on a woman who was believed to be a killer. There's no question that some of her own life bled into the story, but in her 70's Delia Owens had a bestseller on her hands which was given more attention when Reese Witherspoon made the novel one of her book club selections, something Oprah was also able to do for many titles in her day.

“This is my vow. Death to all Gods.”

With this film, Hemsworth solidifies himself as having the most solo films of all the original Avengers. With Thor Love and Thunder, I’d say that his legacy has been assured and this film servers as a proper conclusion for the character. Circumstances suggest that this will not be the end for the character, but I cannot imagine a better conclusion than this one, so any continuations I fear would likely be subject to the law of diminishing returns. In reference to the film, It does not reach the heights that the Thor Ragnorak reached in my opinion. Even so, I found the film to still possess a majority of the qualities that made the franchise and the character beloved. Which is why I firmly feel there is no point in another installment. Better to go out on a win.

To date, I have probably seen each Despicable Me and Minions movie anywhere from half a dozen to a dozen times.  I blame most of this on my wonderful seven-year-old son, who thanks to this instant delivery of entertainment age has re-watched these movies at countless opportunities.  Naturally, my eyes glaze over at Gru, the Minions, and other supporting characters in between researching Blu-ray and 4K disc release dates.  But the truth is that it is one of the few movie series where I have went out of my way to make sure I had every 4K disc.  So, when we heard about a new movie of the little yellow guys, we were thrilled to say the least.  Eagerly, which was rare for us, we even decided to go on a Thursday night to our favorite theater (thank you Star Cinema Grill).  Let's see how it turns out.

Joe Hill has done a good job of establishing himself as a horror writer, and when you consider his dad, Stephen King, has been the “master” of horror fiction for over four decades, you’d have to imagine the expectations on Hill are pretty high. I’m a fan of Hill’s work, and I’ve enjoyed seeing his work translate to the big screen and television (though I’m still hoping one day we’ll finally get an adaption of his book Heart Shaped Box).  I’ll admit my expectations for The Black Phone were a bit high, and to be fair, can you blame me? The Black Phone would be a return to horror after director Scott Derrickson’s work on the first Doctor Strange film and a reunion with actor Ethan Hawke and screenwriter C. Robert Cargill from the great 2012 film Sinister.  I don’t think enough praise is given to the film Sinister. It’s a film that just gets better with time and has a high rewatch value. Personally I feel it’s the masterpiece in Derrickson’s filmography. The Black Phone has all the ingredients to be another modern classic, but it pains me to say it just doesn’t quiet deliver despite how much promise this film had.

“To infinity….”

Well, if you have ever wondered what the basis of the Buzz Lightyear action figure that Andy gets in the first Toy Story movie was, the wait is finally over. While it was briefly mentioned in the original film that the action figure was based a movie that the Andy character had seen, outside that mention, the character’s background remained predominantly a mystery … until now. Now with Lightyear, we finally know Buzz’s backstory. However, before we get into that, I believe that it is important to address the elephant in the room: the replacement of Tim Allen with Chris Evans. As expected, removing Allen as the voice of a character that he has been synonymous with since its inception, a character that he has played for nearly 25 years and across four films, was a bitter pill to swallow. On the surface, it would seem that Allen’s appearance was a repeat of what happened with his popular Fox television series, which was cancelled and eventually revived.

"Bigger. Why do they always have to go bigger?"

You don't really need me to answer that one, do you? What started with Jurassic Park in 1993 and even earlier with the blockbuster book by the late, great Michael Crichton has actually been 65 million years in the making. When an idea has been percolating for that long, you have to go bigger, or the audience will go home. Expectations take a bite out of your options, and by a sixth film you really have to come up with a game-stopper, so what do you do? You reinvent the franchise after two sequels failed to capture the magic and awe that was Jurassic Park. You let the idea sit for a decade or so, and then you bring it back with enough of the new and enough of the old to bring folks back into the theaters. And that's just how they did it with the Jurassic World trilogy. The first two films gave us a new cast of characters with the likes of Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard.

It has been about 36 years since the release of the first Top Gun. This is one of my earliest memories as a kid, seeing the movie on the big screen with my parents at the old Main Street 6 Cinemas. I was a bit obsessed with this movie growing up. I had a copy of the film that I had recorded off of Showtime, and over the years I’d imagine I’ve seen Top Gun at least 100 times. I was obsessed with the movie and its soundtrack. Kenny Loggins and “Danger Zone” lived rent-free in my head throughout my childhood.  I know I’m not alone on this when saying just how much Top Gun is a movie I just love. It’s not perfect, but I just can’t find anything I dislike about it. Even in my forties, I look at this film as comfort food. It doesn’t matter the time or day, if it’s on, I can’t help but sit down and watch it. I’m putting this out there because, yeah, when I heard the talk of them first doing a sequel

"You cannot control everything, Strange. You opened a doorway between universes, and we don't know who or what will walk through it."

The last time that director Sam Raimi played in the Marvel sandbox it was on the third of his own Spider-Man trilogy featuring Tobey Maguire in the webslinger's role. Since then he's kind of gone back to his horror roots and even returned to the Evil Dead franchise with a television series that continued the exploits of Bruce Williams as Ash. It's only fitting that he would see both of these worlds collide in a perfect storm that allows him to once again recreate that old 4-color universe on the big screen with both a connection to Spider-Man and his horror roots. The result is the latest MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) that picks up right where Spider-Man: No Way Home left off. Of course, I'm talking about Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness. The story pretty much picks up where we left things in the recent Spidey adventure as well as picking up some threads dropped on the Disney + shows, most notably Wanda Vision. It's a twisted nightmarish corner of the MCU that we haven't truly explored to this extent before and the results might not come close to the wonderful ride we took recently with our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man but it's a nice detour from the typical that also sets the stage for quite a few other surprises that I really won't be able to tell you about... at least not yet.

When you look back on the impressive 40-year career of Nicolas Cage, it’s pretty hard to pick a favorite performance. I can’t even think of another actor who has such a diverse batch of performances. Sure, the man is known for being a bit over-the-top, but that’s part of the charm of a Nicolas Cage film. People can be quick to point out that in recent years his “movie star” appeal has been fading with the amount of direct-to-video films he’s put out in the past decade. It even seems like there just isn’t a movie he’ll say no to so long as the check clears. Most likely you’d be half right in thinking that the man’s been through some financial issues, BUT at the same time he’s been in some fun and wild movies in the past decade as well. Mandy (2018) has become a bit of a cult success. Color Out of Space is another film in recent years to gain a cult following; then there is the fun Willy’s Wonderland, the bonkers Prisoners of the Ghostland, and the critically acclaimed Pig, which has a near-career-best performance from Cage.

This was a bit of a letdown, if I’m being honest. It just didn’t deliver the epic conclusion that I was expecting. Honestly, it felt more like part 1 of a two-part conclusion. While it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that there is another upcoming installment in the franchise, at this moment I am unaware of any intentions to continue the series with this group of characters. Bearing that in mind, I must defer to my original statement: it was a bit of a letdown. In recent years, my fandom for the Wizarding World has been rekindled due my daughter’s discovery, and now obsession, for all things Harry Potter. I was especially glad when I learned that I would be able to bring her along for what I expected, at the time, to be an epic conclusion. And while the film got her stamp of approval, my approval is a little harder to receive.