Cinema Spotlight VI - Jon Favreau (Part 4): "Zathura"

You can't discuss Zathura without discussing Chris Vans Allsburg. Writer and illustrator for many children books such as The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, Ben’s Dream and The Widow's Broom. His most popular work are Jumanji and The Polar Express, both having been adapted into feature films. In 2002, Allsburg published Zathura, serving as the long-awaited sequel to Jumanji, published back in 1981; this time, the game takes the players into outer space.  

Toy Story 4: Superfluous but Surprising.

Forky and Woody

Toy Story is the one that started it all for Pixar. It gave the company its identity, and revolutionized animation as the first movie to fully utilize computer generated imagery. Toy Story 2, being Pixar's third movie and first sequel while still in its infancy, exceeded expectations as being better than the original. At the peak of its prime, Toy Story 3 proved yet again that Pixar could do this franchise no wrong as it gave the story a beautiful resolution. Since then, Woody and the gang have appeared in various shorts and TV specials with no plans of returning for another feature film....or so we thought.

Cinema Spotlight VI - Jon Favreau (Part 3): "Elf"

Will Ferrell as Buddy.

Swingers gave Jon Favreau a taste of working behind-the-camera. With Made he had full control, and applied all he had learned from watching other directors. With one movie down, Favreau proved that he could direct and appeal to the adult audiences, but could he do the same with the younger crowd? That's why for his next film, Favreau wished to do a family-friendly project; a Christmas movie to be exact. It came down between two comedies: one was about an obnoxious millionaire who pays a family to spend Christmas with him or a human who is raised by elves in Santa's workshop who searches for his real family. You can guess the rest.

Cinema Spotlight VI - Jon Favreau (Part 2): "Made"

Bobby Ricigliano and Ricky Slade

Thanks to Swingers, Jon Favreau nabbed more acting jobs in mainly supporting roles in movies (The Replacements & Deep Impact) and especially television; guest-starring in such programs like Friends, Disney's Hercules, Dilbert, The Sopranos, and Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. While the acting gig was fairly well, Favreau loved watching the director at work and learning a few tips like filming certain shots and working with actors; from his early his days on Rudy with David Anspaugh, his breakout role in Swingers with Doug Liman, to more recent work like The Wolf of Wall Street with Martin Scorsese. At the dawn of the new century, Favreau began working on another script that was reminiscent of his first screenplay with him and his old pal Vince Vaughn once again in the lead roles.

Double Review: Men in Black:International & The Dead Don't Die

Two summer movies feature a ragtag team fighting foes not of this world while a strange occurrence appears in the night sky. Thor & Valkyrie take on the scum of the universe while Peter Venkman and Kylo Ren are left to deal with the undead. Despite the exciting premise, both films failed to connect with audiences. Are both deserving of such scrutiny? 

The Secret Life of Pets 2: Same Tricks No Bone

Rooster (Harrison Ford) staring down at Max (Patton Oswalt).

Like its predecessor, The Secret Life of Pets 2 functions more as a series of shorts stitched together and forced to pass off as a feature-length film. They also feel like inferior Pixar movies with the first film bearing Toy Story's plot. The two main leads fight over the attention of their human owner, get lost in the scuffle and have to find their way back home. The sequel resembles The Good Dinosaur with a small and frighted animal learning to face his fears in the wild. But where the first Pets movie at least had a concise story connecting the characters from beginning to end, I can't say the same for Pets 2. 

The X-Men are Forced into a Final Stand in Dark Phoenix

Sophie Turner as Jean Gray/Phoenix. 

Set in 1992, nine years after the events of X-Men: Apocalypse, its another usual day for the X-Men; going on missions and saving the day. This time, going to outer space and saving astronauts from a solar flare tempest. Telekinetic Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) absorbs the flare and emerges unharmed, much to her team's surprise. "Did you hear what the kids are calling you? Phoenix." says her boyfriend Scott Summers/Cyclops (Tye Sheridan) in her moment of glory. The moment is quickly over when Jean starts to experience a psychic spasm that she can't control and runs away.

Godzilla vs Ghidorah: Dawn of Monsters

The Kings Face-off

The 1998 film from Roland Emmerich and the 2014 film from Gareth Edwards are the closest to having watched kaiju cinema. The former being a silly 90's action blockbuster while the latter goes The Dark Knight route on being a more gritty and serious. While the 2014 iteration is superior on a technical and critical level, I have a soft spot for the 98 version; admittedly for nostalgic reasons. While it found life again as an animated series, fans of the original were still non too pleased with Emmerich's vision and welcomed the second reboot from Edwards with open arms. It's success lead to Kong: Skull Island, taking place in the same universe but back in the seventies whereas Godzilla (2014) took place in present time. Thus the MonsterVerse was born.