The Angry Birds Movie 2 Take a Wobbly Flight with Dignity

From Left to Right (Top): Leonard (Bill Hader), Mighty Eagle (Peter Dinklage) and Bomb (Danny McBride)
From Left to Right (Bottom): Courtney (Awkwafina), Chuck (Josh Gad), Silver (Rachel Bloom) and Red (Jason Sudeikis).  

Video Game movies don't have a good reputation; awful adaptions at worst, guilty pleasures at best. Out of this arcade cavalcade, The Angry Birds Movie is shockingly the best video-game based movie. It's by no means good, (I'd rank it at a C grade) but compared to its pixelated predecessors, it's a masterpiece. A passable plot, decent protagonist, funny antagonist, and best of all, carrying what made the app fun from its zippy and bright energy including the signature slingshot. What weighs it down are the annoying side characters and obnoxious humor; most of which I'm surprised they allowed in a children's movie.

Cinema Spotlight VI - Jon Favreau (Part 9): "The Jungle Book"

This isn't the first time Disney's tried to do a live-action re-interpretation of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. Back in 1994 Stephen Sommers did his take on the classic story of Mowgli in Disney's first live-action remake by making Mowgli a grown-man and the animals never talking. As a kid, it was a traumatic experience, re-watching years later its a film that would have fared better with a PG-13 rating instead of being advertised as fun for the whole family. If anything, it prepared Sommers to apply his action/adventure skills with The Mummy movies. As for Disney's animated version from 1967, its cute with a catchy soundtrack (who doesn't know The Bare Necessities), and plenty of memorable characters from Baloo, Bagherea, Kaa and Shere Khan.

Cinema Spotlight VI - Jon Favreau (Part 10): "The Lion King"

I re-watched the original Lion King the night before watching the live-action remake. (I know that technically it's not live-action since everything from the settings and characters are created with computer generated effects but for the sake of this review, I'm calling live-action). The Lion King was another childhood movie I grew up watching in Spanish. I'd seen the sequels, spin-offs, sing-alongs, and television shows in English but never the original until that night. The animation is gorgeous, the songs are unforgettable, and the characters are memorable. Is it any wonder why it rank's high as one of Disney's best?

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.