The whole “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” phenomenon edges on two of the three co-directors, Aaron Horvath and Michel Jelenic, who were behind “Teen Titans Go! to the Movies” in 2018. I think that’s why Universal Pictures gave them the green light for this new project.
The voices for “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” include well-known performers Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Jack Black and Anya Taylor-Joy. They compliment a fun and enjoyable screen adaptation that despite all the success kind of falls flat.
Ricky Miller, Entertainment Editor
| March 21, 2023
Phase 4 of the Marvel Universe begins with the latest entry, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.” This one features support actor Jonathan Majors as Kang The Conqueror, who is also at the top of the box office with his role in the third entry in the “Creed” saga with “Creed III.”
Ricky Miller, Entertainment Editor
| March 7, 2023
“Cocaine Bear,” directed by Elizabeth Banks, features one of the last turns from Ray Liotta, one of my all-time favorite actors. He was stellar in “Goodfellas,” director Martin Scorsese’s Oscar winner. In fact, this movie is dedicated to Liotta. As I have stated in the past, I am not a fan of horror movies, but when it comes to the horror comedies, I am in like Flint.
This movie is just sheer silliness. In any movie dealing with death, you’re supposed to feel empathy for the characters. But when it comes to the knuckleheads in “Cocaine Bear,” who cares? This is loosely based on a true story and loosely based on cinematic stupidity. Still, it was a lot of fun and it made me laugh.
The film “The English Patient”(1996), is based on the novel of the same title by Michael Ondaatje, who was co-winner of the 1992 Booker Prize, a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. It also won the Golden Man Booker Prize in 2023, a special award established to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the prestigious British literary prize. The late Anthony Minghella wrote the screenplay and directed the film, which was produced by Saul Zaentz.
Between the critical and financial success of “The Godfather” (1972) and “The God- father Part II” (1974), Francis Ford Coppola, their director, producer and co-screenwriter with Mario Puzo, author of the novel with the same title, was able to secure the money ($1.6 million) to produce and direct his screenplay for “The Conversation” (1974), that he wrote in the mid-1960s.
A highly regarded surveillance industry ex- pert, Harry Caul (Gene Hackman), and his assistant Stan (the late John Cazale) are hired by a director of a large corporation (uncredited cameo appearance by Robert Duvall) to eavesdrop on the private conversations of a young couple. The movie’s opening scene is filmed from above a crowded Union Square in San Francisco with people playing, singing, sleeping, talking and walking across the square, including Caul wearing his plastic gray raincoat, Caul’s surveillance crew is on the ground and above the square with their surveillance micro- phones and tape recorders. The young couple Caul was hired to photograph, electronically spy on, eavesdrop and tape record Ann (Cindy Williams) and Mark (Frederic Forrest).
“American Graffiti “was filmed in Petaluma, California in 1973, takes place in 1962 in Modesto, California and is characterized as a classic coming-of-age movie. A few examples of outstanding films in the coming-of-age genre include “Rebel Without a Cause” (1955), “The Graduate” (1967), “Breaking Away” (1979), “Stand by Me” (1986) and “Say Anything …” (1989).
In “American Graffiti,” Friday nights are spent cruising the town in a car, listening to music on the car’s radio, meeting people and if you were lucky, getting a date for Saturday night. Four friends are trying to decide what to do with the rest of their lives after graduating from high school.
Over the break, while many people were consuming a Thanksgiving feast, I indulged in the release of the movie “Bones and All” starring Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell.
We see in the movie that love knows no bounds in the face of adversity. As the two main characters share a similar palate, and nomadically roam in fulfillment for the taste of human flesh.
This is a coming-of-age story that isn’t for the faint of heart. Maren Yearly, played by Russell, is seeking to find answers as to why she cannot live without her cannibalistic tendencies. Her boyfriend Lee, portrayed by Chalamet, simply wants to ignore the reasons why, and give into his primal urges.
“Jaws” (1975) -- The first official summer blockbuster was this, the adventure- thriller tale of a great white shark haunting the beach shores of Amity. Directed by Steven Spielberg with Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw. Grade:A+
“Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981) -- Harrison Ford is Indiana Jones, a college pro- fessor and archaeologist who gets the task of finding the Ark of the Covenant. Also with Karen Allen, John Rhys- Davies and Paul Freeman. Grade:A+
In 1952 during the Korean War, American, Russian and Chinese Communists conspire to nominate and elect a candidate for president of the United States. The Russian Army captures a U.S. Army squad of about 10 soldiers and flies them by helicopter to a Chinese Communist indoctrination center in Manchuria. The entire group is conditioned or “brainwashed” to follow orders. The brainwashing apparently works when they have one member of the squad kill the person he likes best. However, the conspirators realize that over time their chosen instrument or agent must be periodically tested to determine whether their selected instrument will again follow orders and kill on command their selected victims.
What would you do for love? Would you sell everything you have? Would you steal for it? How about taking another person’s life?
These decisions are what plagues the mind of Seo-rae, played by Chinese actress Tang Wei, as the focus of the movie “Decision to Leave.” But she isn’t the main character. The main protagonist is detective Jang Hae-joon (Park Hea-il), a married man who investi- gates the killing of Seo-rae’s husband.
Ricky Miller, Entertainment Editor
| November 23, 2022
“Fantastic Mr. Fox” (2009) -- Wes Anderson directed this fun animated adventure- comedy based on the Roald Dahl book that finds Oscar- winner George Clooney pro- viding the voice of Mr. Fox, who takes care of his kin. That includes his wife, Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep) and the rest of his family. Grade: A-
“Home For the Holidays” (1995) -- A pre “Iron Man” Robert Downey Jr., Oscar- winner Holly Hunter, Anne Bancroft, Charles Durn- ing, Dylan McDermott and Steve Guttenberg gather for Turkey Day festivities in this dysfunctional family comic- drama directed by Oscar- winner Jodie Foster. Grade: B
From the first scene, “Halloween Ends” is a disjointed mess of ridiculous ideas and antics. The setting is the fictional town of Haddonfield, Illinois, four years after the events that occurred in “Halloween Kills” (2021).
With this sequel and official end to the franchise, the end of the gravy train ends with this tale. I even stuck around to make sure there was no stinger at the end of this misguided mess.
