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Bumblebee

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Bumblebee
  • IMDb: link

Bumblebee movie reviewLook at that, a Transformers movie that doesn’t completely suck. While throwing caution to the wind and creating plenty of continuity errors with the current Transformers movie franchise, Bumblebee is a mix of old school Transformers and the suckage known as the Michael Bay films that forces a human story into the center of each film. Easily the best of the franchise, that’s still not saying all that much. Still, for what it is, Bumblebee provides some fun.

Opening on Cybertron, the story shoehorns in several fan-favorite cameos, while explaining Bumblebee‘s arrival on Earth and the loss of his voice. Taking place before the events of the first Bay Transformers movie, Bumblebee is centered around a tomboy named Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld) who discovers her clunker of a VW Bug is actually a robot from space. Sent to Earth to prepare it for the Autobots arrival (something he actually doesn’t do), Bumblebee is followed by Decepticons searching for Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) and the rest of the Autobots. The film also throws in John Cena as a soldier in a secret government organization conned by the Decepticons into locating their prey.

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Hellboy

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Hellboy (2019)
  • IMDb: link

Hellboy movie reviewGuillermo del Toro‘s Hellboy was a flawed film whose biggest asset was the casting of Ron Perlman as the gruff Hell-spawn destined to end the world, but in the meantime work to fight off monsters and things that go bump in the night for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, originally created by comic writer-artist Mike Mignola. Fixing some of the mistakes from his original film, the director went back the drawing board delivering the superior Hellboy II: The Golden Army four years later, but for more than a decade the character has been confined to the comic page (and some straight-to-DVD animated releases).

Director Neil Marshall‘s reboot is a joyless exercise, despite some impressive (and almost always gory) visuals. David Harbour, now cast as the hard-drinking big red hero out to save the world, lacks Perlman’s charm that helped cut through the character’s dickish behavior. What’s so sad about the finished project is that there was obvious understanding and love for the character and universe Mignola created as screenwriter Andrew Cosby squeezes several well-known characters into the story including Nimue (Milla Jovovich), Baba Yaga (Troy James), and Benjamin Daimio (Daniel Dae Kim), among others.

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Aquaman

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Aquaman
  • IMDb: link

Aquaman Blu-ray reviewJason Momoa stars as the title character in this origin tale about how the son of a human father (Temuera Morrison) and an Atlatean mother (Nicole Kidman) would grow up to become the hero needed to unite the two realms. While at first feigning no interest in Atlantis, Aquaman is convinced to help by Mera (Amber Heard) and the actions of his half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) who is preparing for a war against the surface world.

The script by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Will Beall is burdened by an abundance of narrative that doesn’t fit all that neatly into a single film. Along with the origin and hero’s journey, the movie also features a love story, an adventure to the inner Earth, politics and war among the various Atlantean tribes, brotherly jealousy over the crown, and an odd sequence where the film becomes National Treasure for about 20 minutes. Oh, and there’s Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) who is included for some reason.

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With One Magic Word… SHAZAM!

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: SHAZAM!
  • IMDb: link

SHAZAM! movie reviewOne thing people forget about DC’s Captain Marvel is just how big of a super-hero he was in the Golden Age of comics (arguably more popular than Superman for a time). Fast-forward several decades and the character’s name has changed, although I give credit to Henry Gayden‘s screenplay in purposely obscuring what he should be called in clever way to get around using a name the character can never utter aloud to introduce himself, but the core of the character remains the same (even if he’s a little rougher around the edges on-screen).

Our main character is orphaned teen Billy Batson (Asher Angel) who has been moved to a new foster home after running away yet again in a failed attempt to find his long-lost mother. The good-natured couple (Cooper Andrews and Marta Milans) who take him in already have a cast of kids under their care including Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer) who will become Billy’s closest friend and help him in exploring the powers gifted to Billy by the wizard Shazam (Djimon Hounsou).

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Supergirl – All About Eve

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Supergirl – All About Eve
  • wiki: link

Supergirl - All About Eve television review

Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer) may not appear in “All About Eve,” but the episode deals primarily with the fallout from his escape. Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) enlists the help of Alex (Chyler Leigh) and Lena (Katie McGrath) in a hunt for Eve (Andrea Brooks) who they believe can lead them to Lex. The trouble for Supergirl is Lex has already thought of that and uses Eve as bait to lure Supergirl to the time and place of his choosing to enact the next part of his plan. Despite the discovery of Lena’s secret experiments, the episode doesn’t further the rift between Lena and the Maid of Might as the two find common ground (which is a good thing because Supergirl is going to need all the help she can get). Has Lena’s villainous turn been shelved for good this time? Hopefully.

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