CAPTAIN MARVEL (2019) – My rating: 8.7/10

Captain Marvel is a superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Carol Danvers. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the twenty-first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film is written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, with Geneva Robertson-Dworet also contributing to the screenplay. I was dying to see Captain Marvel but wasn’t sure I’d like Brie Larson in the lead role.  Good thing I saw the movie, she’s fantastic.

In 1995, on the Kree Empire’s capital planet of Hala, Starforce member Vers/Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) suffers from recurring nightmares involving an older woman, The Supreme Intelligence /Mar-Vell / Dr. Wendy Lawson (Annette Bening). Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), her mentor and commander, trains her to control her abilities while The Supreme Intelligence, an artificial intelligence and the ruler of the Kree, urges her to keep her emotions in check.

****  SPOILERS BELOW  ****

During a mission to rescue an undercover operative who is infiltrating a group of Skrulls, (alien shapeshifters with whom the Kree are at war) Vers is captured by Skrull commander Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) then taken aboard their Earth-bound vessel and subjected to a memory probe. Vers manages to escape in one of the Skrull mini vessels but crash lands in Los Angeles. Her odd attire attracts S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), whose interrogation is interrupted by a Skrull attack. In the ensuing chase, Vers recovers a crystal containing her extracted memories, while Fury kills a Skrull who is impersonating Agent Coulson, who is fairly new to S.H.I.E.L.D.  Talos, disguised as S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Keller, orders Fury to work with Vers on the condition he does it alone in the event of other Skrull imposters.  Fury takes Vers to a US Air Force base and discovers she was a pilot presumed to have died in 1989 while testing an experimental engine designed by a Dr. Wendy Lawson, whom Vers recognizes as the woman from her nightmares. A S.H.I.E.L.D. team led by Talos tries to capture Vers and Agent Fury but they manage to escape in a cargo jet, with Lawson’s cat Goose.  Based on Vers’ recovered memories, they fly to Louisiana to meet Vers’ best friend and former pilot, Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch), the last person to see Vers and Lawson alive.  Talos arrives at Maria Rambeau’s house just as Vers discovers her real name is Carol Danvers. He reveals the Skrulls are refugees searching for a new home and Dr. Lawson was a renegade Kree scientist helping them. He then plays the recovered black box from Dr. Lawson’s crashed plane, prompting Carol Danvers to remember the 1989 plane crash.  Carol also remembers that Dr. Lawson died at the hands of Yon-Rogg before she could destroy the engine’s energy-core, forcing Danvers to do so at the cost of absorbing the energy from the ensuing explosion and losing her memories.

This is a good point to stop because I wouldn’t want to give away everything.  Captain Marvel goes into deeper accounts of how Carol Danvers becomes Captain Marvel.  I found the movie exciting, fun and quite interesting.  Considering the above information, one will have to determine if Talos is telling the truth or setting up the entire team.  I learned that Brie Larson worked out for nine months preparing for this movie. She took Judo, boxing, wrestling and sharpened her knowledge by visiting Nellis AFB and meeting with active airmen before taking on the role of Captain Marvel. This is a remake of the character as Captain Marvel was introduced in 1940 by Fawcett Comics.  His (Captain Marvel was originally a male) reign lasted through 1953 until a 1951 copyright infringement suit appeared from DC Comics and Fawcett’s trademark ostensibly lapsed. Marvel debuted its new Captain Marvel character in 1967 but it didn’t take off as expected. After many tries and undergoing many changes, it looks like a female Captain Marvel is here to stay. The movie has already taken in $215.9M. Captain Marvel is being cleverly reintroduced before the next sequel of “Avengers: Endgame” which is scheduled to be released on April 26, 2019. We now know the call that went out for help on Fury’s beacon in “Avengers: Infinity War” was to Captain Marvel. If you go to see Captain Marvel, stay beyond the credits. As I always say, Check It Out!

FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD (2018) – My rating: 8/10

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is a fantasy film directed by David Yates and written by J. K. Rowling. A joint British and American production, it is the sequel to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016). It is the second installment in the Fantastic Beasts film series, and the tenth overall in the Wizarding World franchise, which began with the Harry Potter film series.  The plot follows Newt Scamander and a young Albus Dumbledore as they attempt to take down the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald, while facing new threats in a more divided wizarding world. If you’re a Harry Potter fan, you’ll love this sequel.

**** SOME SPOILERS BELOW ****

Fantastic Beast: The Crimes of Grindelwald is set in 1927 with the Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA) transferring the powerful dark wizard, Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) from their maximum security prison to London to be tried for his crimes in Europe. While departing New York City, Grindelwald is freed by his follower and MACUSA employee, Abernathy (Kevin Guthrie). Grindelwald kills the guards and escapes.

Three months after Grindelwald’s escape, Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) appeals to the British Ministry of Magic to restore his international travel rights, lost during his visit to New York City. While at the Ministry, he meets with Leta Lestrange (Zo Kravitz), an old Hogwarts friend who is now engaged to his Auror [a position equivalent to a cop against magic] brother, Theseus Scamander (Callum Turner). The Ministry of Magic offers to restore Newt’s travel rights if he agrees to work for them, alongside Theseus, in locating the Obscurial Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller), who has resurfaced in Paris. Many suspect that Credence is Leta’s long-lost brother, Corvus Lestrange, the last of a long pure-blood line of wizards. Grindelwald believes Credence is the only person who can kill his living equal, Hogwarts Professor Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law). When Newt declines, not wanting to choose a side, the Auror Grimmson (Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson) is dispatched in his place. After leaving the Ministry, Newt is summoned by Dumbledore, who also asks Newt to locate Credence in Paris.

When Newt returns home, his American friends, Queenie Goldstein (Alison Sudol) and Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) have unexpectedly arrived. Jacob has retained most of his memories from the 1926 events in New York City because MACUSA’s city-wide Obliviating order only erased memories from people who had bad ones.  Jacob’s memories stayed in tact since his were mostly good.  Queenie tells Newt that her sister, Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston), is in Paris searching for Credence and she and Jacob have followed her to Europe. Queenie also reveals that Tina believes Newt is betrothed to Leta Lestrange after reading a newspaper article announcing their engagement.  Newt explains that the paper confused him with Theseus. After Jacob and Queenie quarrel about the marriage ban between wizards and Muggles, Queenie, upset, leaves to find Tina. Hoping to reconcile with the women, Newt and Jacob follow them to Paris.

While the plot is fairly simple, Crimes of Grindelwald gets pretty involved with complicated subplots.  From the search for Credence in Paris to accidentally freeing animals and Credence’s birth mother search, it’s hard to keep up.  Many characters, join the film making it slightly more complicated.  There are strange animals and ruthless murderers also adding to the twists and turns of this movie. You really have to be a fan in order to fully enjoy Crimes of Grindelwald.  While I thought I was a fan, I was unable to make complete sense of all that was happening.  I did enjoy the cinematography and the fashions and most of the plot, despite the abundance of cast and over the top story twists.  The action was plentiful as was the special effects.  The acting was brilliant and many of the characters were British.  If you’re taking your youngster(s) to see Crimes of Grindelwald, you may have some explaining to do, or they may be explaining the movie to you — Overall, I think Crimes of Grindelwald is a pretty good flick, –Check it out!

 

KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD (2017) – My rating: 8/10

I was pleasantly surprised when King Arthur: Legend of the Sword turned out to be a pretty descent movie.  Lots of noise and lots of fuss over a legendary fictional sword that been planted permanently into the ground for decades.  The story is a legend we’ve heard before but is always fun to revisit.  While this was not the best remake I’ve seen, it was one of the better movies being featured at this time.

Mordred, (Rob Knighton) who is a warlock has an army that he plans to use in order to defeat Camelot, thereby ruling over all of mankind while wielding his magic and power with an iron fist.  His plans were foiled only by his beheading thanks to Uther Pendragon, (Eric Bana) thus saving Camelot.  But wait, Uther has a ruthless, evil brother, Vortigern (Jude Law) who continues Mordred’s plan of a take over of Camelot, killing Uther and his wife.  However, in all the killing and excitement, he overlooks Uther’s baby son who is saved because he was hidden in a small boat and drifted down stream where he was found and raised by prostitutes in Londinium and renamed Arthur.

Arthur, Charlie Hunnam grew up as a commoner of the streets, well known and well liked.  He is also quite skilled as a fighter as has 2 best friends, Sir Tristan “Wet Stick” (Kingsley Ben-Adir) and Backlack (Neil Maskell), as well as a mentor who is also a highly skilled fighter, Sir George, (Tom Wu).  Of course Arthur has no knowledge of his true lineage and when forced along with other men of his age to try and pull the magic sword from its current resting place, he protested despite successfully retrieving the sword.  To help Arthur, who is now in grave danger, is The Mage, (Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey) a woman identified as an acolyte who works for Merlin and supports Arthur as well the resistance, which is lead by Sir Bedivere, (Djimon Hounsou) a former knight of Uther’s.

If you’re familiar with the story, you know that the sword holds special powers and ensures that the owner will rule the land but first he must be able to pull the sword from it’s resting place, which no one, until now, has been able to do since the only one who can, is the true royal heir to the throne.

I found this version, directed by Guy Ritchie, to have been exiting and well acted.  I was thoroughly entertained and especially loved watching Djimon Hounsou who I’ve always thought of as “eye candy” run around fighting and flexing his muscles.  Also, the special effects were spectacular, especially the sea witches who were a mass of several women.  If you’re looking for a descent movie, check out King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.

 

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SPY (2015) – My rating: 8.5/10

Being a Melissa McCarthy fan, I must say, she didn’t let me down, Spy was great. I laughed all the way through the movie. Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) is a trained spy, but works in the basement of the CIA HQ where there are bats in the ceiling and mice running all over the place. She is the trained eyes for her teammate Bradley Fine, (Jude Law) when he is in the field. She is secretly smitten with him and pines her life away hoping someday he will give her more than the time of day. She gets no respect from the higher ups and no prospect of ever getting out of her current work situation. Without giving away spoilers, the situation changes and Susan goes out into the field where she becomes a super spy. While there’s a lot of unbelievable stunts, Susan’s role takes on a new meaning, giving entertainment a life of it’s own. McCarthy brings her own brand of comedy to the film and has you routing for her every step of the way. It was truly fun to see straight actors like Jason Statham, who played Rick Ford and Richard Brake, who played Solsa Dudaev in a comedy of this caliber. Rose Byrne’s role as Rayna Boyanov was played to perfection, as the ruthless daughter of an arms dealer who’s father was killed earlier in the film. After meeting Rayna, McCarthy was transformed from an uninteresting, grandmother looking type to a sexy fighting machine who had it all together. Spy was more than I expected — it was just a fun, fun, fun movie. There were a couple of twist and a couple of surprises. I highly recommend seeing Spy. It’s not slap stick or stupid and has a fantastic cast.

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (2014) – My rating: 7.5/10

Critics Gave The Grand Budapest Hotel a “Must See” rating.  Choosing to see Budapest was a risk taking adventure for me as I don’t like slapstick comedy. Obviously, I saw it anyway.  Hoping that it was going to beat out the competition, I let the other movies fall my the wayside in favor of The Grand Budapest Hotel, which was not exactly slapstick.  I can’t say I made the wrong decision but I can say it was not a “Must See” movie. There was an unprecedented amount of stars in this movie starting with Jude Law who played an interviewer/writer and guest at the hotel.  This is the story of  Gustave H, played by Ralph Fiennes,  a legendary concierge at a  famous European hotel between the wars, and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy, played by F. Murray Abraham as an adult and Tony Revolon as a young boy, who becomes his most trusted friend.  This legendary concierge was a ladies’ man who had an infinity for blond, old, rich women.  When one of them dies, he gets blamed for her death.  This is when the movie takes form and any and everything goes.  From Bob Balaban playing M. Martin to Adrien Brody who plays the dead woman’s son Dmitri to Willem Dafoe who plays a depraved killer named Jopling, I was intrigued.  Stars like Harvy Keitel, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson and Edward Norton graces this film bringing it to a level of craziness I truly enjoyed.  I was happy to see one of my most beloved actors, Jeff Goldblum who played deputy Kovacs as part of this wacky cast doing what he does best.  If you like this sort of shenanigans, you will surely like The Grand Budapest Hotel.  I was entertained and I thought it was funny.  You might just want to wait for the DVD, as there were no special effects or any other reason to spend money for the price of a movie ticket.

[THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL is nominated for Best Picture, Directing, Cinematography, Costume Design, Film Editing, Makeup & Hair Styling, Music: Original Score, Production Design and Original Screenplay (writing)]