Tinseltown Reviews

Samurai Jack first aired on Cartoon Network on August 10, 2001 and tells the story of a samurai prince named Jack who has been gifted a magic sword that has the power to defeat the evil demon Aku. During his fight with the demon however, Jack is flung through a time portal into a dystopian future where Aku rules over the world with an iron fist. The TV show follows Jack as he travels the world defeating Aku's minions and saving innocent people while trying to find a way back to his past. Sing it with me now, "Gotta get back, back to the past, Samurai Jack. Wshaa!" Across four seasons and three years, the show has garnered high critical acclaim, winning four Primetime Emmy Awards including Outstanding Animated Program, among several others. Unfortunately, despite an enormous fanbase and several accolades, the show was abruptly cancelled at the end of its fourth season without a conclusion to the series. In the years afterward, the idea of producing a film to giv...

Transformers: The Last Knight  is a 2017 science fiction action movie directed by Michael Bay, starring Mark Wahlberg, Anthony Hopkins, Josh Duhamel, and Laura Haddock. The fifth installment of the Transformers  franchise follows a group of people as they ally with the shape-shifting Transformers to prevent the destruction of Earth by searching through the secrets of the Transformers' past. My cousin told me he'll write my review for me as we left the movie theater today. "Four words," he said. "Don't go watch it." No truer words have been spoken. I'll be honest with you when I say it was a struggle to write that first paragraph because I really had to sit there and wonder to myself, "What actually happened in that movie?" I had to look up the synopsis for the movie for help, but to no surprise even that is extremely vague (look it up for yourself and see). In fact, as I write this it has been no more than three hours since I've le...

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2  is a 2017 superhero movie directed by James Gunn starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, and Bradley Cooper as everyone's favorite A-holes. This sequel follows the Guardians as they come into contact with a mysterious man claiming to be Peter Quill's (Pratt) father while also having to deal with their own personal struggles and inner conflicts. My first thought upon leaving the theater the first (as well as the second) time I watched it was, "Wow. This series is the modern-day Star Wars trilogy." The first movie of the Star Wars original trilogy and the Guardians  franchise both defied genre expectations by having a fun, exciting western or superhero movie set in the midst of space battles. Additionally, the sequel film for both franchises elects not to have a bigger and flashier follow-up, but rather a quieter and more introspective film that separates the cast and goes deeper into who they are as people. All ...

Wonder Woman is a 2017 superhero movie directed by Patty Jenkins and starring Gal Gadot and Chris Pine. The film follows Diana Prince (Gadot) as she trains to become a warrior before meeting Steve Trevor (Pine) and deciding to leave her home island of Themyscira to fight alongside him in World War I. It's no secret that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been something of a cultural phenomenon ever since the original Iron Man  released in 2008. It's also no secret that the DC Extended Universe has been doing everything it possibly can to catch up to the MCU's massive financial success, unfortunately with relatively little to show for it. The DCEU's previous three entries-- Man of Steel , Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice , and Suicide Squad --have been anything from moderately successful to abject commercial and critical failures. The DCEU is in desperate need of at least one successful film to ready audiences for Justice League , to be released November of this year...