After two majorly successful films that seemed to reinvigorate an overwhelmingly stale genre, John Wick returns to theaters guns blazing and as adrenaline fueled as ever. John wick 3 is quite unabashedly a nonstop murder festival of gunfights and brutal deaths. It’s basically John against the world as he fights for his life among a plethora of lethal, highly trained assassins. Everywhere he turns, there’s somebody there to kill him. The film humorously basks in its own extremities, mainly the overindulgence of violence and gore. John Wick uses repetition and awkward pauses in its fight scenes ..read more

Pokémon: Detective Pikachu is like a high-quality, made-for-TV movie that you watch as a kid on Cartoon Network. It had the perfect blend of adventure, nostalgia, and hokey acting to remind me a lot of the original Pokémon television series that I grew up watching. Just like the game series it’s based on, Detective Pikachu takes place in a world inhabited by Pokémon (if you didn’t know what a Pokémon is, you wouldn’t be reading this). Our main protagonist Tim Goodman (Justice Smith) is an awkward, teenage insurance agent who gave up his dream of Pokémon training long ago for a much m ..read more

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has come to dominate, and in some ways redefine, the action genre. Every major franchise has taken their shot at creating an in-depth universe full of engaging characters and interesting settings. Star Wars, DC Comics, the Universal Monster monster movies, none have been as successful at captivating audiences as Marvel. While I’ve shown disappointment with several of their productions in the past (like Captain Marvel and Black Panther), there have been few Marvel films I would consider to be flat out “bad” (Iron Man 2 anyone?). This is an achievement in itself, as ..read more

Does anybody, can anybody, get as much credit for molding the art style of motion picture animation as Mr. Walt Disney? What began as one man and his mouse has developed into a vast empire of animation. Consistently and boldly Walt Disney and his associates paved the way for the platform of animation to reach new creative heights and profitability. And yet, profitability wasn’t always the case. Only a couple years after their 1937 cultural phenomena Snow white and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney attempted to keep the ball rolling with Fantasia (as well as Pinocchio), all to no avail. The pu ..read more

I’ve decided to try something new and begin publishing some of my original short stories to my well-established film review blog. For this particular story, I took literary inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft, while mixing in elements from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and my very own personal experiences. Thanks a bunch and enjoy!   The Fiendish Encounter Wesley and I, Jacobson, are in the furniture business, you see? Under the small establishment of Smith and Son, we travel across the county in search of used furniture no longer desired by the owner. When a price is agreed upon, we purchase t ..read more

Laika has begun to establish themselves as the crowned kings of stop-motion animation, and for good reason. Their debut film Coraline has garnered a considerable fanbase over time, and the Tim Burton style visuals pair nicely with its complex and eerie story. Coraline was soon followed by numerous other hits like ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, and most recently Kubo and the Two Strings. Laika has successfully dabbled in a variety of genres, making them the jack of all trades when it comes to the art. It makes you wonder what kind of stories they won’t tell. What I love most abo ..read more

Who knew that one of DC’s most entertaining and thought-provoking movies would be Shazam!, the first in the series to not really take itself all that seriously. With their current track record, I certainly didn’t predict this outcome, so I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy my time watching the movie. Shazam! follows the story of 14-year-old Billy Batson (Asher Angel and Zachary Levi), an orphaned boy in and out of foster homes trying to locate his biological mother. After a run in with a powerful wizard, Billy obtains magical powers that turn him into Shazam, a full-grown adult superhero ..read more

I’ve been hesitant in past years getting my hopes up for films that are in some way a remake, reboot, or sequel. I guess I’m just tired of watching the same movie replayed in the same ways as before only with a lack of imagination. Enter Pet Sematary, a 1989 movie (adapted from a best-selling novel by Stephen King) that many people have fond memories of, myself not as much. It’s been over a decade since I watched it, but I vividly remember Pet Sematary being both corny and quirky. And maybe it wasn’t the greatest movie in the world, but was quite memorable for what it was. However, I thought t ..read more

Disney continues its streak of remaking their most beloved animated flicks into 2019, starting with everyone’s favorite pachyderm Dumbo. They decided to turn the sixty-minute, adorable childhood favorite into a two-hour long, dark, depressing mess by a “style over substance” director who hasn’t made a great film over a decade. How could anything go wrong? Well, not even I predicted that literally everything in this movie would be downright terrible. For starters, the film doesn’t center around the title character of Dumbo, the baby elephant with comically big ears and the ability to fly ..read more

Today I’ve decided to take a retrospective look at Disney’s 1985 redheaded stepchild The Black Cauldron. This fantasy flick was a box-office bomb that almost bankrupt the company, in part because of its record-breaking budget of 44 million. Nobody went to see this movie when it was released, and most who did were highly disappointed. The movie garnered Disney’s first PG rating, lacked any whimsical songs, and contained major differences from its literary source material. The Black Cauldron is now nicknamed “the film that almost killed Disney.” My question today is, does it show? The ..read more