BE REEL

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes )  There continues to be a staple in the entertainment industry, where a piece of work (and/or the people involved in making it) tend to generate divisive responses from critics and audiences, respectively. While each side has its pros and cons, including either legitimate or passive arguments, it’s important to remember that individual opinions are subjective. As somebody who has read, studied, and analyzed both sides for many years (and I still do), I believe this is one of the reasons that criticism—constructive criticism, rather—is important. That certainly is the case with the recent biopic on the late music artist and entertainer, Michael Jackson.  A co-production between Lionsgate, Universal, and Optimum (the latter was behind many of Jackson’s famous short films, including the compilation feature Moonwalker ), and with the approval and support of Jackson’s estate and family, Michael highlights many signature moments from his childhood, his wor...

(Source: TeePee Drive-In )  WRITER’S NOTE: The following is based on notes I made between May and July of 2025, during each film’s initial release.  How to Train Your Dragon (2025)  It’s interesting that, in the early months of the summer of 2025, we got two live-action remakes of animated films from the last twenty-five years that were helmed by filmmaking duo Dean DeBlois & Chris Sanders. The former made his directorial debut in live-action with (what turned out to be) a shot-for-shot remake of DreamWorks’ 2010 animated take  on Cressida Cowell’s beloved children’s book, How to Train Your Dragon . It was also a first for a live-action version of a DreamWorks Animation entry (released by parent company Universal).  The same premise and story are present: Hiccup, a young outcast in a colony of Vikings, befriends a mysterious dragon and discovers that everything they’ve been taught about the beasts may not be all it seems. The main difference with this Drag...

(Source: IMDb )   I wasn’t aware until recently that  Super Mario Bros.  is celebrating 40 years this year . Growing up, it was the first video game I ever remember, the first that I ever played, and the one that spawned what may be the greatest video game ever made,  Mario Kart . Parent company Nintendo partners once again with animation studio Illumination for one of this year’s most anticipated releases in this cinematic universe.  If 2023’s  Super Mario Bros Movie  largely echoed the video game phenomenon of the late-20th Century, then this year’s  Super Mario Galaxy Movie  mirrors the numerous spin-offs that have been produced in the franchise throughout the early-21st Century. This 2026 follow-up takes our iconic cast of characters (and a few new ones) to some new places, presenting more of an episodic ensemble piece.  Mario Galaxy  alternates between mini-adventures of plumbing duo Mario and Luigi (Chris Pratt and Charlie Day...

(Source: IMP Awards )   Since his literary debut with The Martian  in 2011, author Andy Weir has written two additional novels, each of them combining science-fiction with science-fact (as well as plausibility amidst their more far-fetched concepts). Likewise, since 2009, filmmaking duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (who have dabbled in both live-action comedy and groundbreaking animation) have directed five feature-length movies, their latest being an ambitious adaptation of Weir’s 2021 novel Project Hail Mary .  Written for the screen by Drew Goddard (who also adapted The Martian for Ridley Scott in 2015), this latest release from Amazon MGM Studios stars Ryan Gosling as science teacher Ryland Grace, who reluctantly goes into space as an astronaut to save the planet Earth from a dying Sun, due to a mysterious line/connection between the latter and the planet Venus. Involving what appear to be organic alien life forms (and X-ray visions), the central space mission pr...