BE REEL

(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...

(Source: Audiovisual Identity Database )  How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World  (2019)  Following the release of  How to Train Your Dragon  in 2010, co-writer/-director Dean DeBlois stepped up to continue the CG franchise, but on the condition that it be nothing more than three films. As Matt Reeves did with  the rebooted  Planet of the Apes  sequels , DeBlois and the artists at DreamWorks really took their time and capped off their ever-popular (and exceptional) series with what is arguably the best third entry in an animated trilogy since Pixar’s  Toy Story 3 .  The Hidden World  marks the first DreamWorks Animation release under the company’s new partnership with Universal (and their first since  Madagascar  to be affiliated with the studio while in their early years as an independent company). It was also the debut of an updated (painterly) company logo .  Set one year after the events of the 2014 sequel , t...

Paul Thomas Anderson (left) and Ryan Coogler (right), now official Oscar-winners, for One Battle After Another and Sinners , respectively. (Source: Facebook )  The 98th Academy Awards ceremony had a collective evening with a lot of diverse films and projects from 2025 collecting at least one Oscar statue. Veteran actress Amy Madigan picked up the first win of the night (a big surprise) for her chilling supporting role in Zack Cregger’s horror hit Weapons (a rare thing for the genre). The Norwegian drama Sentimental Value was recognized as the year’s Best International Feature, with director Joachim Trier inviting the cast present that night on stage (including nominees Renate Reinsve, Elle Fanning, and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas). Blockbuster releases like F1 and Avatar: Fire and Ash won for their sound and visual effects, respectively, while Guillermo del Toro's version of Frankenstein picked up technical awards for its makeup and hairstyling, production design, and costume desi...