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Reviews
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)
The most fun I have ever had; the direction is intelligent, the voice talent is versatile, and the energy is consistently rollicking.
Ever since I was six, I was a big fan of Mario and I played seven Mario games growing up. I was anxious about how this movie will turn out. To my surprise, I had a blast from beginning to end. It never insults our intelligence, and It's entertainment value hits all at the right spots.
Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, the movie consistently delivers rollicking energy nonstop. The direction is incredible with slick surprises, excellent timing, and superb slow-motion. Not to mention that the direction is so unpredictable, that we will never know what's coming. In that way, it has the urgency to make failure seem possible for our heroes. Of course there is going to be some references to the games, and they pay off really well. The hilarious humor is what makes this animated diversion the funniest movie of the year so far with sharp sight gags, while the action offers frantic excitement with energetic momentum. As for the story, I already know what the story is going to be as a Mario fan. Kids who were born several years ago will enjoy this simple good-vs-evil story that offers messages about friendship and compassion with good-natured precision. Also, when you notice Mario experiencing and trying new things like mushrooms and meeting new friends, you start to realize that it is a story about how Mario became the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom, before all of the games where Mario rescues Peach were made. The animation is pleasing overall; the colors are vibrant and vivid. When the film pans to heroes, the colors are wonderfully upbeat, but when it pans to the villains, it is a menacing marvel to behold. The animation has a lot of sprightly energy to it with entertaining results. The score by Brian Tyler is richly vigorous and it smartly tweaks the iconic theme songs from the games. The eighties rock songs were a classy choice for each element.
I found myself invested in the characters; they are fun, fleshed-out with exposition, and the portrayals of some of the characters are quite different. Chris Pratt does a fine job as Mario; matching his characterization, he sounds confident, cocky, and insecure. Luigi is the victim of the film, and Charlie Day brilliantly voiced him, sounding all frantic as we expected for a clever reference to Luigi's Mansion. The relationship between Mario and Luigi is endearing; they are like best brothers who have fun together and will never let anything happen to them. Keegan Michael Key is amusing as Toad, yet his voice has an emotionally wide range. Princess Peach is portrayed as a no-nonsense female warrior, and instead of a love interest for our heroes, she is more of a compassionate mentor for Mario, as they team up to fight Bowser. Anna Taylor Joy makes Peach sound like a mildly zany yet seriously mature heroine. Seth Rogen's voice strikes an effective fusion of humor and rage as Donkey Kong. I was both intimidated and amused by Bowser with his campy performance. Jack Black was astonishing as Bowser; his voice sounds deep, and he makes Bowser sound ferocious. Highly Recommended (suitable for kids seven and up)!
Peter Rabbit (2018)
The Story and the 2 characters don't work. Also, Comedy ruined the source material.
The Positive: The CGI animals are some of the best CGI special effects ever. Some of the dialogue is well-written. The Cast is fantastic. The direction is very good. The Acting and voice-acting is top-notch. The music score by Dominic Lewis is big, strong, energetic, cartoony, charming, & Playful (one of the best original film scores i have ever heard). & The 2D animated flasback.
The OK: The story barely makes sense. And there are a few positive messages but have been pushed by the negative.
The Negative: The idea of making this film a comedy ruins the source material. Most of the dialogue is very stupid, there are a lot of moments of dialogue that are considered to be plot-holes, there are moments of dialogue where some of the characters break the 4th wall in a naughty and questionable. As a comedy, Most of the comedy bits are unfunny. It's just the same old illogical gags and pranks over and over and over again. The Jokes are unfunny too. The story of the film does not stay true to the book & the plotline/story does not come together in the third act of the film, it's because of the dialogue, the screenplay, & the characterizations. The characterizations of the 2 characters (peter rabbit & thomas mcgregor) failed and does not work, because, it's difficult to know which character to care about/worry about & who to root for. Peter Rabbit is the main character of the film, but he is not a positive role model, he tells lies, he's bossy, he can be arrogant at times, he steals, And he's immature throughout the entire film. The narrator said a lie: "Peter is the hero of the tale." He is not a hero! Sure he does causes mischeif, but again: it does not work. Thomas McGregor is a man who has a hatred for wildlife, especially rabbits. When provoked, he has a bad-tempered and vicious attitude. He said "I am not a bad guy! I am a nice person!" THAT'S NOT TRUE! But again, the movie does not show us which character to care for. He tells lies to his neighbor "Bea", He is not a positive role model either, in fact, Nobody is a positive role model, well...exept Bea. The score is very limited by pop songs. The kids will think that this movie shows what a hero is, but it's not true. Kids will mimic what they saw from the rabbits in the movie. The movies barely even tries hard to be cute. This movie is immature, not very smart, not very funny, not likable, and it's not recommended to anyone. It's not recommended to kids either. Kids deserve smarter, & better than this! There are better family-friendly films out there! Read the beatrix potter book and watch the animated television series and skip this film! 4.5 out of 10
Return to the Lost World (2017)
Return to the lost world 3D
The movie's source material is an entertaining family-friendly saturday-morning jurassic park gem.
The animation is spectacular. Beautiful 3D animation & adds facial expressions for dinosaurs. The musical score is orchestral but it's not flashy, but there are moments of big brass sounds that sound a bit like the "inception" horns. This movie grab's emotions like shock, awe, has thrills, & it's even funny and cute.
This movie wasn't going for realism/non-fiction. It's just pure sci-fi/fantasy entertainment. & it was entertaining.
The movie has a vibe of a Y7 cartoon which makes it enjoyable, however, the main character's scared melodramatic behavior seems "larger than life."
Flaws: the main character does not say the names of the dinosaurs. & tells the baby dino to chew with his mouth closed, dinos are not people! Tell that to rude humans! Sometimes the movie can be stupid if you watch it.
Overall: this is a thrilling, fun, entertaining, 3D dino short that's recommended. Only Appropriate for kids age 7 and up.
Dead by Dawn (2019)
Dead By Dawn. Amazing, Wonderful, educational, entertaining.
I'm gonna be honest, i don't criticize TV shows. I only criticize movies (a film critic).
But i have to talk about this surprising nature series.
The camera HD quality
The lighting
The color palette
The direction
The narration
The source material
The music score
The editing
The photography/cinematography
ALL Top-Notch!
But the minor issue that i had is that the script writing said in one scene in one episode that "Humans are the most dangerous animals/predators. Even though humans are living things (living breathing organisms) Humans are not animals! Fact! Period!
BUT, overall this is a must-see, don't miss show!
4.5 out of 5
Mowgli (2018)
Mowgli: Legend Of The Jungle
Mowgli has a huge powerful thought provoking premise. So the story/plot is going to be BIG, and it is.
This movie tells us the definition of dark and serious, and it works! The film is so serious, it grabs you with all of it's might & will never let go!
Suprisingly enough, the story/plot is easy to follow, & yet, it can also be unpredictable, & the film stay's true to kipling's classic books.
Since it is an Andy Serkis film, it has a hybrid motion capture animation & realistic CGI, & the character models are just great, the cgi is Andy's version of jungle book characters. Everything about the entire cast is flawless. Christian Bale is perfect for Bagheera: gentle, beautiful, & strong. The cast for the wolves are perfect. Cate Blanchett's voice is pitch-perfect for a female python. Benedict Cumberbatch's voice is pitch-perfect for a tiger, & somtimes has a vicious thundering growling vibe to his voice for shere khan & it works. Andy Serkis himself did a splendid job playing Baloo, & has a booming powerful bear-like voice for the role. And of course: Rohan Chand played Mowgli & did a top-notch job!
The voice-acting from the creature characters & the acting from the human characters are brilliantly directed & feel real.
The dialogue/script is deep, and was written with brains and brawn. It also a lot of scenes where it has the best direction, editing, and screenplay.
It has great camera work (great sweeping cinematography, the direction of the camera focus with the foreground and the background, & sometimes into the characters eyes). Nitin Sawhney's music is super serious, has emotion, & has a lot of gravity during the action sequences. The music also fits perfectly for the film.
The villians of the film (Shere Khan & the Man) causes terror and hatred. Everytime shere khan is on screen, he makes the viewer nervous and will frighten you, the hunter/man/poacher is somthing in this world that should never ever exist on earth & causes fear & hatred not only towards the animals, but also the the humans. The final fight scene feels like war, & the way it started with the confrontation of mowgli and shere khan is just "BOOM!" It's on!
The ending of the movie is powerful, satisfying, & heart warming.
Overall: this film has to be the best "jungle book" film that it could be. This movie earns my Highest Recommendation for everyone! (ages 13 and up)
Leo the Lion (2005)
The Worst Animated Film Ever Made!
Everything about this film is a big old piece of trash! However there are some parts that are decent/mediocre at best: Daniel Armestrong's voice is great for a very friendly lion. Matthew Merecer may not be the best choice for an African bull elephant, but it's decent for a very large & very powerful beast. The music score is decent (it may be repetative but it's not annoying). The characters movements are mediocre. & the voice acting & the voice cast is decent enough.
The animation quality is pretty bad & ugly (not much depth, almost no texture or detail at all, character models went from bad to decent). The voice acting is poorly directed at times. This plot/story is totally ripping off the lion king & the land before time (The story is lazy & pointless). The lips are not in sync with the dialogue & does not match. The dialogue is weak, lazy, annoying, & a little too much rhyming. The songs went from mediocre to dreadful (the lyrics went from decent to weak & stupid. The singing is more like "talk-singing"). There are moments where the scenes are stretched out, & it's annoying. Lions are NOT vegitarians! They are carnivores/predators, But that does not mean that they are bad guys! People should never hate carnivores. As carnivores, their digestive system is inefficent. This movie has no depth, no point, no layers, & no emotion. Just because that it's emotionless, that does'nt mean that the characters show facial expressions or act in a variety of feelings. They do. But again: the characters/animation/faces are ugly looking & garbage. Here are 5 words to describe this film:
Mindless, lazy, weak, emotionless, pointless.
Ribbit (2014)
Ribbit. A solid/fine animated film that deserves a solid recomendation to families.
This is a cute charming emotional animated film with positive messages about friendship, heroism, saving the endangerd species, and being different is the best (if you should them what you are made of). The friendship between ribbit and sandy is handled very well just like real life friends, very authentic, & feels realistic, so you can relate to those main characters. The voice cast is absolutley wonderful & so is the voice acting, but some of the accents are not a perfect fit for the location (the Amazon Rainforest), Australian,german,indian,& French. There are moments where the characters say words that are not real words, 2 moments of the dialogue said from sandy does not make sense & needs to be fixed. Also the bat is a somwhat unlikable character because he is a slow thinker & he makes characters fools of themselves to believe him, & Terrance the toucan voiced by Tim Curry has a laugh that might be poorly directed. The animation went from very nice to top-notch. The music score reflects the mood & narration, & focuses on the mood & narration perfectly. The music score also has full of life. Somtimes a movie with 2 heros & 2 villains heighten's up the good vs evil scale, & it works well. Ribbit the poison dart frog & Sandy the flying squirrel. The Witch Doctor & Kai the Caiman. The story/plot of the movie is good at best because it is very simple to follow (all you have to do is know what the movie is about), & also the story brings in a message about...well, you already know. So the plot of the film makes sense, & it works. Overall: a family film recomended for families and animal lovers.
This film is suitable/appropriate/O.K for kids 6 and up.