BE REEL

(Source: Logopedia )     Iron Man (2008)  Last year, when revisiting each existing film and documentary I could/did on The Fantastic Four , I commented on how different studios had owned the previous rights to certain characters from Marvel Comics, including (but not limited to) the X-Men at 20th Century Fox and Spider-Man at Sony. It wasn’t until the mid-2000s (during which time Christopher Nolan revitalized the Batman saga) that Marvel decided to produce and finance their first movie independently—with distribution from Paramount Pictures—under the banner of “ Marvel Studios .” Led by producers Avi Arad and Kevin Feige, their choice of character and story came from an obscure series that most of the general public wasn’t familiar with, but most diehard comic book fans were : a tech billionaire who leads a double life as a hero in a mechanized suit of armor.  Not since Johnny Depp was initially cast as Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean has a major studio ...

(Source: IMDb )  The yellow, pill-shaped henchmen of supervillain-turned-super-spy dad Gru from Illumination’s ever-popular Despicable Me series have arguably become more iconic than their costars from that same series. So much so, that they’ve not only been the mascots of Chris Meladandri’s CGI company (based in France). They’ve had three standalone movies up to this point. Their solo debut in 2015 traced their origins from the dawn of time to the 1960s, while their 2022 follow-up chronicled their early days with a much-younger Gru, when the latter wanted to be part of a league of supervillains.  With this year’s Minions & Monsters , the setting takes place in 1920s Hollywood, as the little guys not only keep looking for a dastardly master to serve (a carry-over from their first flick), but also (quite accidentally) break out into the film industry, including the transition between silent pictures and talkies, and black-and-white to color. It sort of retcons their backsto...

(Source: IMDb ) The current slate of DC Studios movies continues with what is officially their second theatrical release. Following a brief cameo in last summer's entertaining Superman , Clark Kent's cousin Kara Zor-El gets her own standalone entry. The main differences in Supergirl  (courtesy director Craig Gillespie and writer Ana Nogueira) are a rougher, more desolate aesthetic and a subversive character portrayal than seen with previous actresses Helen Slater, Melissa Benoit, and Sasha Calle, respectively.  House of the Dragon actress Milly Alcock dons the cap/trench coat and sunglasses as Kara, a young woman still traumatized by the destruction of her home planet and her people—save for her lone dog, Krypto. As something of an anti-heroic take on the character, Kara is a young woman who has become disillusioned and hopeless, would rather drink her problems away, and who has no issue knocking her opponents into oblivion. Her cousin Clark (David Corenswet, once again) keep...

(Source: IMDb ) As far as critics and cinephiles are concerned, very few movie trilogies pack as much of a cinematic and emotional punch as the first three Toy Story 's. In fact, many would say that the Pixar animated film series could’ve stopped there in 2010. Alas, here we are, sixteen years after that acclaimed and beloved third entry, following three theatrical shorts, two made-for-T.V. specials, an unexpected fourth movie, a series of mini-shorts for streaming, and now a fifth movie. It's a question of: Is this really necessary, or just the studio milking its most famous franchise for the sake of it, even though we've said goodbye to these characters twice already? Or will it surprise us like the previous movie did? (To be fair, a second trailer  had me convinced that it may not be as bad as we think it might be.)  First and foremost, I will agree with fans who believe that 2019’s Toy Story 4 doesn’t rank up there with its predecessors. But it’s still a terrific entry...