Yesterday's Troubles Aren't So Faraway

Hamish Patel as Jack Malick in his movie debut. 

Aspiring musician Jack Malick (Hamish Patel) has the right idea to panic when the whole world suddenly forgets The Beatles. Imagine if your favorite artist or band were erased form history and you're the only person on the planet who remembers them at all. I tremble to think of a world without Weird Al Yankovic. I would do the same as Jack and write down the lyrics to their greatest hits. No help from the internet or albums since they never existed in the first place! Goes to show how well one knows a song.

Spider-Man Far From Home is Amazing if a Little Too Amazing

Tom Holland as Peter Parker

Watching Spider-Man: Far From Home, reminded me of Dark Phoenix. In my review I said cartoons do a better job on capturing the spirit and feel of comic-book characters than in the movies. There are exceptions like last year's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. While Far From Home doesn't come close to that movie, it's like Phoenix where the excitement of watching those cartoons is translated onscreen. 

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.