Tinseltown Reviews

Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi is a 2017 space epic film written and directed by Rian Johnson and starring Daisy Ridley, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Carrie Fisher, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Kelly Marie Tran, and a whole lot of Porgs. The movie takes place where 2015's The Force Awakens left off, with Rey seeking training from the legendary Luke Skywalker while General Leia Organa and her Resistance fighters try to escape the clutches of the First Order. Throughout the film, we see both Rey and Kylo Ren struggle with the light and dark sides as they deal with their pasts and relationships with their masters. This film is an interesting one--come out as the most divisive Star Wars movie yet (yes, even more so than the prequels)--with at the time of this review a 93% critic score and 55% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes . You either think it's the best since Empire Strikes Back or you think Rian Johnson murdered your childhood and is an even worse abomination tha

Lady Bird is a 2017 comedy-drama film directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts, Beanie Feldstein, Lucas Hedges, and  Timothée Chalamet, following the life of a girl named Christine who prefers to be called "Lady Bird" in her last year of high school. There are loads of YA coming-of-age movies nowadays where the main character is a teenager who is inherently different in some way and learns important life lessons after falling in love with someone who is their equal or opposite. In essence, cheesy love story between two teens that helps them grow and of which four out of every five leads to at least one of them dying (think The Fault in Our Stars , If I Stay , The Space Between Us , pretty much every John Green book). Lady Bird is a refreshing new take on the genre in which the love story that the main character grows from isn't a romantic one (in fact, she's tried and failed at doing just that), but rather a materna

Coco is a Pixar fantasy adventure film directed by Lee Unkrich and starring Anthony Gonzalez, Gael García Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Renée Victor, and Alanna Ubach. The movie follows 12-year-old Miguel Rivera, an aspiring musician who accidentally stumbles into the land of the dead during Dia de los Muertos, and embarks on a journey to find the legendary musician Ernesto de la Cruz. I think it was about 15 minutes into the movie that I thought to myself, "Yeah. This movie's going to make me cry." Coco is a suckerpunch of beauty and emotion that really comes out of nowhere, with near-Studio Ghibli levels of visual beauty and a surprisingly emotional story rivaling that of Up 's opening sequence, easily making this Pixar's finest work since at least Toy Story 3 . Coco is one of Pixar's three movies featuring an actual human cast (following The Incredibles and Brave ) and really surprised me with how unmarketable they are. The characters really a

The Punisher is a Marvel-Netflix series created by Steve Lightfoot and starring Jon Bernthal, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Amber Rose Revah, Ben Barnes, and Deborah Ann Woll. The season follows Frank Castle, an ex-military vigilante who uses lethal methods to kill his targets as "The Punisher", as he goes to find and kill the people responsible for killing his family. The Punisher is the sixth series in the Marvel-Netflix franchise, coming right off the heels of the sadly average The Defenders , and comes up as the most anti-superhero project Marvel has ever done yet. In fact, there was absolutely zero mention of anything related to superpowers or any of the events that occurred in other Marvel titles, movies or otherwise, and The Punisher thrives because of this. While not perfect, this series does an excellent job with its tone, its story, and most of all, its characters. The Story Frank Castle and his family were on a lovely picnic to the park one day when all of

Justice League is a 2017 superhero movie directed by Zack Snyder with some contributions from Joss Whedon (director of both Avengers movies), starring Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher, Henry Cavill, and Ciarán Hinds. The film is a sequel to the highly controversial Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice , and sees Batman and Wonder Woman gather a team of superhumans including the Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg in order to prevent an alien invasion led by Steppenwolf. If there was one movie I really wanted to be good, this was the one. The DC movie franchise has been incredibly rocky, with its first truly good movie being this year's Wonder Woman . This movie had to be the one to really shape the future of the DCEU. Whether or not the movie succeeded in this, however, is up to you, and it ends up not being terrible, not being good, and not being mixed, but just... there. It's incredibly safe, incredibly formulaic, and has no sense of real identity.

Thor: Ragnarok  is a 2017 superhero movie directed by Taika Kwan  Waititi and starring Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Tessa Thompson, Mark Ruffalo, and Jeff Goldblum. The movie is a sequel to two pretty bad Thor  movies that we can safely ignore and follows the god of thunder on his journey to break out of a gladiatorial world and save Asgard from its legendary fabled destruction--the Ragnarok. It's a pretty commonly accepted fact that Captain America wasn't cool until Winter Soldier  really showed him as the badass soldier he really was. This movie was much the same way for Thor. For the past six years, he was pretty consistently the least cool Avenger (maybe besides Hawkeye), and had no real personality besides "lightning guy with magic hammer". This is the movie where we finally get to see the badass God of Thunder we've always wanted. Because of this one movie alone, Thor has risen up to probably the #3 position on my personal list o

Kingsman: The Golden Circle  is a 2017 action spy comedy directed by Matthew Vaughn and starring Taron Egerton, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Edward Holcroft, Halle Berry, Pedro Pascal, Hanna Alstrom, and Julianne Moore. The sequel to the 2014 smash hit Kingsman: The Secret Service  follows Eggsy and the Kingsmen teaming up with the Statesmen (essentially their American counterparts) in order to stop the Golden Circle organization. The Story When Kingsman: The Secret Service came out in 2014, it could best be described as "that one movie that nobody knew about but blew everyone's minds." Literally nobody knew what Kingsman  was other than a couple of people who saw the trailer and thought it was some cool spy movie; I hadn't even heard of it at all until a group of friends invited me to see it. And of course, nobody knew that it was going to be the phenomenon it was--grabbing the world's attention with its fantastically gratuitous violence, commentary on curr

It (also known as It: Chapter One ) is a supernatural horror movie directed by Andy Muschietti based on the 1986 Stephen King novel of the same name. The movie stars Bill Skarsgård, Jaeden Lieberher, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer, and Jackson Robert Scott and follows seven kids dubbed "The Losers Club" who find themselves haunted by a mysterious being called Pennywise the Dancing Clown. The Characters My biggest concern during this movie was that there would be too many characters. With seven different characters comprising the main cast (especially seven child actors), there were definite red flags in the movie. And while the movie doesn't pull it off 100%, it did do an overall excellent job with it. Not all the characters were given adequate screen time and a few felt unnecessary--mostly Mike (the black kid) and Stan (the Jewish kid). Of course, I understand that you really do need all the kids f

Death Note is a fantasy horror thriller Netflix movie directed by Adam Wingard based on the critically acclaimed Japanese manga and anime series of the same name. The movie stars Nat Wolff, Margaret Qualley, Lakeith Stanfield, Shea Whigham, and Willem Dafoe and tells the story of Light Turner, a typical high schooler who is granted the Death Note--a mysterious notebook that allows its user to kill anyone in any matter they wish by simply writing down their name. While initially using this power for good under the persona of Kira, Light slowly becomes corrupted, leading world-famous detective L to hunt him down. Ever since this was first announced, I've had very mixed feelings about this movie. On one hand, Death Note  is a truly amazing and highly memorable anime that everyone should watch. On the other hand, Hollywood has had a certain... history... with adapting anime, anime-inspired cartoons, and video games into live action (see Dragonball Evolution, Ghost in the Sh