Aladdin

  • Title: Aladdin (1992)
  • IMDb: link

Released to critical and box office acclaim, although not without controversy for its depiction of Arab characters and culture, it’s easy to forget the success Disney’s Aladdin had given it would be soon eclipsed by The Lion King just two years later. While not the title character, it’s impossible not to begin with Robin Williams as the voice of the Genie. Despite the negative experience with working with Disney, Robin’s stream-of-consciousness comic style translated terrifically to an animated character (even if I could do without some of the more obvious Disney pop-culture references).

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Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere

  • Title: Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
  • IMDb: link

Biopics usually attempt to cover either the generation of an artist, an attempt at capturing their greatest hits, or a pivotal moment in their career. At the time Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere begins, Bruce Springsteen (Jeremy Allen White) is already riding high fresh off a tour and his first #1 single. Returning home, while from time to time giving us glimpses of his childhood, the film focuses on Springsteen working on the songs which would make up his next two albums while dealing with ghosts from his past and beginning a burgeoning romance he’s not ready for.

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Frankenstein

  • Title: Frankenstein
  • IMDb: link

At twice the length of 1931’s Frankenstein, Guillermo del Toro‘s new adaptation of Mary Shelley’s tale of a mad scientist the fruit of his labors is an elaborate look into the life of Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) and the madness which spawned his creation (Jacob Elordi). I have a limited tolerance for melodrama, especially one without the wit or snark to undercut the tedium that all-too-often is the byproduct of the genre. Rarely have I seen a film that so earnestly, and so seriously, leaned into its melodramatic overtones.

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NCIS: Origins – Who by Fire

  • Title: NCIS: Origins – Who by Fire
  • wiki: link

After the season premiere brought the team back together, “Who by Fire” offers a common theme about members of the team taking chances perhaps the shouldn’t. The second episode takes a longer look at the aftereffects of Lala‘s (Mariel Molino) car accident on both her and others while providing a case for a dead surfer on the Naval beach. Along with unexpectedly bringing back Flaco Navarro (Scotty Tovar) who has a dangerous deal for Lala, the episode is also built around Gibbs‘ (Austin Stowell) towards Franks (Kyle Schmid) for not allowing him to conduct an interrogation and eventually deciding to take matters into his own hands.

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Frankenstein

  • Title: Frankenstein (1931)
  • IMDb: link

Mary Shelley’s novel has been adapted several times over the years on both stage and screen, but no version is more notable nor done more to bring the story to a wider audience than the 1931 Frankenstein. The Universal Studios’ film set the look of the classic Frankenstein Monster (Boris Karloff) which, despite being diffent than described in Shelley’s work, is still immediately recognizable today and synonymous with the name.

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