National Treasure: Book of Secrets suffers from the same problem that seems to plagues many sequels by offering more of the same. The film does manage to up the stakes and increase the action. This time, the legacy of the Gates family is on the line. But rather than keep it simple, the clues take Benjamin Gates (Nicholas Cage) and company overseas to Paris and London. The film’s prologue puts Thomas Gates on the scene…
"National Treasure: Book of Secrets ups the action"Category: Movie Reviews
National Treasure is still a fun adventure to be had some fifteen years after the adventure film was released in theaters in 2004. The film asks us to imagine a map being on the back of the Declaration of Independence. It is a fun idea no matter how preposterous that the idea sounds. But before we get to this point, a young Benjamin Franklin Gates must learn the Gates family history. It turns out that…
"National Treasure: A Fun Adventure 15 Years Later"
Backbeat is set in the early years of The Beatles’ performing career while mostly focusing on the time spent in Hamburg. Stuart Sutcliffe (Stephen Dorff) would need to leave the band in order for the Beatles to really become the greatest rock band in history. Sutcliffe would not be the last to leave the group. No, that honor belongs to Pete Best (Scot Williams). Best would leave by the end of 1960, having been replaced…
"Backbeat: Before The Beatles Got Big"
Spider-Man: Far From Home has the main responsibility of dealing with the after effects of Avengers: Endgame, including the Midtown High students. If you’ve seen trailers for the film, you have probably already shown a good part of what’s going on. Regardless of that, there’s a certainly lot of film not seen in the trailers. Let me warn you now: there’s a mid-credits scene and a post-credits scene. Also: if you read nothing else before…
"Spider-Man: Far From Home Starts A New Chapter"
Maiden tells the inspiring true story of skipper Tracy Edwards and the first female crew who made history by entering the Whitbread Round the World race. It comes as no surprise that the misogyny that Tracy Edwards and her crew dealt with in the late 1980s still exists today. While the male competitors were asked the “sensible sports questions,” no reporters dared to ask the Maiden crew these questions. Nobody gave them a chance. As soon…
"Maiden: An Inspiring True Story"
The Daisy Ridley-starring Ophelia is unfortunately a bit of a letdown in the most recent adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play. What the film does is tell the classic Hamlet story from Ophelia’s (Daisy Ridley) point of view in the Denmark-set film. It’s an admirable attempt but I feel like there’s something missing. In switching the point of view, the film falls quite short in that regard. This is unfortunate because the premise had the potential…
"Ophelia: Hamlet Fanfiction Is A Letdown"
The Other Story is grounded through a father-daughter relationship but also touches on the struggles between Ultra-Orthodox Judaism and secular lifestyles. There are two major plots going in The Other Story. One is the relationship between Anat Abadi (Joy Rieger) and Shachar Elkayam (Nathan Goshen). The other deals with patients of Dr. Shlomo Abadi (Sasson Gabai), Rami (Maayan Bloom) and Sari (Avigail Harari). While Shlomo brings in his son, Yonatan (Yuval Segal), to help these…
"The Other Story Focuses On Secular, Religious"
Cinderella is joining the Walt Disney Signature Collection with a new Blu-ray release in honor of the animated classic’s upcoming 70th anniversary in 2020. For the studio’s 12th animated feature film, Walt Disney and company turned to a fairy tale written by Charles Perrault. This story would prove to be a solid choice in adapting. I can point out the obvious with Cinderella fulfilling the Disney trope of a parent dying in the film. The…
"Cinderella joins Walt Disney Signature Collection"
Straight Up is an outright character study with regards to one person dealing with their internalized homophobia while finding their soulmate. The gist of the film is that Todd (James Sweeney) has found his soulmate in aspiring actress Rory (Katie Findlay). Once these two meet, they’re very quick to get along with each other. It’s mostly comfort for the sake of being intellectual. Even though Todd is seeing therapist Dr. Larson (Tracie Thoms), he seems…
"Frameline 2019: Straight Up"
Spaceballs, Mel Brooks’ celebrated classic spoof of Star Wars and similar sci-fi films, marks its 32nd anniversary this year. Planet Spaceball–led by the inept President Skroob (Mel Brooks)–is out of clean air so they’re heading to planet Druida to suck all the fresh air. As soon as the opening crawl finishes, the camera tracks Spaceball One from the start of the ship all the way to the rear. The ship is so huge to the…
"Spaceballs: Mel Brooks’ Star Wars Spoof Marks 32 Years"