“Men in Black International” should have worked. On paper it’s a great idea for a reboot, one that doesn’t bring with it the marquee name of Will Smith and the class of Tommy Lee Jones. I respect Sony for wanting to revive the “Men in Black” franchise after so many years, and I respect them even more for side stepping the whole “21 Jump Street meets Men in Black” movie they were planning. But in the end, this new attempts to jump start “Men in Black” for a new audience is a swing and a colossal miss. Worse, it’s absolutely boring.
Tag Archives: Science Fiction
Captain Marvel (2019) [Blu-Ray/Digital]
“Captain Marvel” is one of the most popular contemporary Marvel superheroes and Marvel has taken advantage of the popularity of Carol Danvers, using her to pivot us in to the new generation of Marvel Cinematic Offerings. Captain Marvel is being tailored as the new leader that one that helps Marvel’s superheroes charge in to battle. Much in the vein of “Captain America: The First Avenger,” Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s origin film will prove to appreciate in cinematic value, especially with Brie Larson at the helm as a powerful, and engaging cosmic heroine.
Batman and Robin (1997) [4K UHD/Blu-Ray/Digital]
No matter what you feel about “Batman and Robin,” you can’t deny that it almost killed the comic book movie as a sub-genre. It also about killed the careers of Alicia Silverstone, Chris O’Donnell, and Uma Thurman, all of whom took years to recover. Even today with so much nostalgia and looking back on classically bad movies, “Batman and Robin” is still just bad. I understand Warner wanted kid friendly, and Joel Schumacher delivered on kid friendly, but in the process he also delivered a nigh unwatchable sequel that also killed Batman on film for years until Christopher Nolan swooped in to reboot the whole kit and caboodle.
The Universal Horror Collection: Volume 1 [Blu-Ray]
When “The Universal Horror Collection” was originally announced, it was titled the “Boris Karloff/Bela Lugosi Collection” by Shout Factory. One can only assume that they’ve managed to retain the rights to many Universal movies obscure and classic, thus changing their new series to “The Universal Horror Collection.” With that broad a title, the sky is apparently the limit for Shout Factory and what they can do with these volumes. Since this was originally a Karloff/Lugosi four movie set, the whole of the films included star the pair of horror icons. With Volume 1 of “The Universal Horror Collection,” fans will be elated to see that they’re starting us off on the right foot.
Shorts Round Up of the Week – Cannes Contenders
This week we have seven stellar short films from around the world including Asia, Hungary, and The Ukraine, as well as one from prolific indie filmmaker Patricia Chica. Some of the shorts featured have competed in Cannes this year, and all deal with some kind of interesting and very widely discussed social theme including LGBTQ Pride Month. Look for these excellent films when you can. If you’d like to submit your short film for review consideration, submissions are always opened to filmmakers and producers
Five Things Fox’s “X-Men” Series Did Well, and Five Things It Destroyed
The FOX “X-Men” movie era is officially over marked as the end with “The Dark Phoenix.” Now that Disney has absorbed FOX’s properties, there’s a strong chance we will be seeing the “X-Men” again on film and or television very soon, just not in the way FOX Studios imagined it in 2000. As an “X-Men” fanatic, I can’t say that the series delivered very much but it did offer some small nuggets that are worth appreciating. What did you think of FOX’s “X-Men” series overall?
Dark Phoenix (2019)
With Disney’s acquisition of Fox Studios and many more of their Marvel properties, the Fox Studios “X-Men” franchise is done. It’s over. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about it. With “Dark Phoenix,” Simon Kinberg tries to exercise the feeling of finality for an era that began in 2000. The problem with “Dark Phoenix” is that while the pieces are all there for a slam bang exciting finale, it’s a sequel that basically takes “The Last Stand” and tries to remake it in to something decent. And it fails, for the most part.