Throughout the entirety of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there have been two subseries that have been my absolute favorites, namely Black Panther and Guardians of the Galaxy. The two are vastly different in terms of tone, story, and character, but at their absolute core, they kept the same high points throughout. More than anything else, … Continue reading Rocket’s Man – Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3
Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely abhor violence in real life. I got goaded into a lot of fights as a kid, losing basically all of them, because it was nearly always me on my own being ganged up on by three or four others, if not more. Not only did I routinely … Continue reading Gold Slaughter – Sisu
Before I get started, I'd like to thank all of you for bearing with me over the last few weeks. My mother's death hit me harder than I expected it to, and the final arrangements were much more difficult to handle than I had anticipated. Still, spending time with my family helped, including making good … Continue reading Shut the Front Door! – Suzume
A programming note before I get started. The blog is going on a little bit of a hiatus for reasons that will become apparent very quickly. I'll be stepping aside for a couple of weeks, during which time I have no plans to see any new movies or post any content. It's my hope to … Continue reading The Ultimate Bonus Level – The Super Mario Bros. Movie
When I first saw the trailer for the latest adaptation of the Dungeons & Dragons game, my immediate reaction was one of terror. Not because anything in the teaser looked particularly scary, mind you, but because I still remember the god-awful 2000 film starring Jeremy Irons, and everything I saw indicated that this would be … Continue reading Charisma Check – Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
"You are now in the presence of the muthafuckin' KING!" proclaims Laurence Fishburne as the Bowery King in the opening moments of John Wick: Chapter 4. Presumably he's referring to himself, given his self-appointed title as leader of a network of homeless assassins and informants, but given that he prefaces this line with text from … Continue reading The Denouement – John Wick: Chapter 4
I really liked the first Shazam! movie from a few years ago. It was delightfully low stakes, Zachary Levi was tremendous as the titular original Captain Marvel, and honestly it was nice to see one of these superhero movies set in Philadelphia and largely not succumbing to cheap jokes and insults about the City of … Continue reading Family Feuds – Shazam! Fury of the Gods
Most of the time, when a film is pulled from a studio's release schedule, it's because the movie either isn't finished and won't be on time, or it's incredibly bad, necessitating a new date in order to let it quietly die alongside much stronger competition at the box office. Sometimes it's both. Over the last … Continue reading Hacking It – Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre
We're less than 72 hours away from this year's Academy Awards, and as happens every year, I didn't get to see everything before nominations were revealed. I did better than I've ever done before, coming up just five shy of pre-announcement totality, and in three of the five cases, the films weren't readily available, with … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – The Blitz Campaign
We're officially one week from the 95th Academy Awards, and in these final days, the task falls upon me to begin officially closing the book on 2022 cinema. I was able to clear the vast majority of the Oscar nominees before they were even announced, and in my pursuit of hopefuls and also-rans after the … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – Animation Nomination, Part 4
I Actually Paid To See This 