Huh, didn't even realize it was a remake, although I probably should have.

Is this a case where the remake improves the original, like True Grit or 3:10 to Yuma? Or a case where they "cleanse" the original in the remake of whatever charm the original had?

 

Honestly, in that regard, I think Dumbo's second half might actually have an edge, since those two movies seem to be doing the exact same plot we've all seen before. At least Dumbo has the second half of the movie that is different, completely different from the original Dumbo film. So, yea in terms of plot, I'm betting Dumbo will actually be the better one.

I believe there are actually two remakes, if I recall correctly. There was the terrible made for TV remake in the 90's, and there was the even worse remake with Dwayne Johnson, which wasn't even really about the Witches, it was about Dwayne Johnson the cab driver, babysitting the kids. I tried watching that one, too, but it was so... dumb. lol I probably made it to the point where the kids are actually in it. So, like 20 minutes into the film. Before that it was just the military trying to find them, and Dwayne Johnson apparently owes the mob money or something. Oh, and there are witches. They're the subplot.

It's the case of both of them being garbage compared to the original.

 

That's what I'm saying. All these people over hyping this film when its gonna be undone in Endgame. Smh

 

Shazam! - Chuck Norris/10

 

In preparation for Avengers Endgame, I have started my umpteenth rewatch of all the MCU films.
So far I finished the whole Phase 1 in one week.

Iron Man - 9/10
A near masterpiece modern update of Iron Man's origin. Robert Downey Jr. is damn great as Tony Stark. I love how perfect it was able to update the Vietnam War backdrop to Operation Enduring Freedom (War in Afghanistan). Loved how the Mandarin is eluded to through the usage of a Middle Eastern terrorist organization calling themselves the Ten Rings; a stroke of genius to set up for the Mandarin showdown with Iron Man. If Raza didn't got off-ed, I would've totally been down for him to be the eventual Mandarin, he's got the charisma for it. I wasn't originally for Obadiah Stane being connected to Tony Stark, but it works really well here. Overall one of my top favorite MCU films that I enjoy rewatching.

The Incredible Hulk - 8/10
A solid restart to Hulk. I like how Hulk's origin is now tied to Captain America's Super Soldier project. The Brazil backdrop in the first half was a really nice touch. The ending with Bruce Hulking-out willingly and General Ross and Tony Stark's conversation in the bar suggest a more darker result of the Avengers being founded before it was retconned by the Marvel One-Shot. Sucks this is the last Hulk movie. I really wanted to see Bruce reunite with Betty and fight Samuel Sterns when he transforms into The Leader.

Iron Man 2 - 6/10
I like this film as a connective tissue to the MCU, but as an Iron Man movie it's a weak continuation. Whiplash didn't feel like much of a threat after his first appearance and he went down way too easily at the end. Justin Hammer was just a pointless counterpoint to Tony Stark. Black Widow has potential, but not much is done with her. I did like seeing how Tony and Rhodey's friendship became strained through Tony's careless lifestyle.

Thor - 7/10
I'm familiar with the comic Thor lore, but I always felt like this is the only Marvel character that would've been difficult to adapt as a live action film. I was pleasantly surprised that this movie actually made it pretty realistic with the family relationship dynamic between Thor, Loki, and Odin. My only nitpick is that I kinda wished they had stuck closer to the original comic origin of having Thor being stuck in the human Donald Blake to better teach him humility.

Captain America The First Avenger - 9/10
After growing up with the mediocre 1990 Captain America movie, we finally get the perfect origin movie for Cap! I loved every moment of this film from start to finish, and being a war movie fan too, this movie delivers on WWII nostalgia. How Cap's origin was integrated with the rest of the MCU was fantastic such as Howard Stark, the founding of S.H.I.E.L.D. Tesseract, etc., it worked all superbly. To be honest, when it first went into production I was worried Chris Evans wouldn't work as Captain America because I'm used to his Human Torch personality in the Fantastic Four movies, but I was pleasantly surprised he fits perfectly as Steve Rogers. Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter was equally excellent; the only female from the MCU that's truly the best IMO. Like Iron Man, my favorite MCU film that I enjoy rewatching.

Avengers - 8/10
After 5 movies of setting up for the Avengers, it delivers decently. I like how everybody is balanced in terms of screen time. Black Widow was definitely the breakout character I have been wanting to see more of after Iron Man 2; and her role in Avengers is much enjoyable. The Hulk re-cast was surprisingly good. My only nitpicks for this film was the Chitauri all dropping dead at the end, not having Antman and the Wasp as founding team members, and I felt the film's dialogue was too jokey. I like humor, but I felt it was to frequent in this film IMO. The best line in all of the MCU films through, would be "Puny God".
After hearing Hulk say "Puny Banner", "Puny man", etc. throughout the years, it was a refreshing funny take on his dissing line.  

On to Phase 2!

 

The night eats the world 7/10

Slightly different take on the zombie film and one of the better ones i have seen lately. It's fairly light on dialogue as the main character spends a lot of time alone, but it's very watchable all the same.

Definitely recommend if you like your zombie apocalypse films.

 

Captain Big Red Cheese of Thunder (SHAZAM):
Okay, where to start. Oh yeah, DC has been in a ball lately. Guess now with Marvel ending the current phase with many fans calling it quits after Endgame, I guess someone had to fill in the void somehow.

But that’s not the point. DC movies are really getting better. Wonder Woman was excellent, Justice League was… okay and I’m not calling it horrible, Aquaman was fantastic, and Captain Red Cyclone? Great! It’s the most fun I had with an extended universe movie. And it had to be. It’s the big red cheese of course. You can’t make Captain thunderpants this boring and brooding, right?

Now as an origin story, it can be a bit standard, but the charm of Captain Sparkles is being a kid in an adult body, and this movie nailed it. Zachary Levi was a big bag of fun as the captain and you can’t help but accept the cheesiness of the character. Out of all the DC movies, this is the most kid friendly… even with some super hero violence and references to strip clubs. And it’s kind of a sad thing to say, but if I had a kid and was going to choose between Man of Steel and Captain Lightning, I’d pick sparklypants over the man of tomorrow. Not to make another Man of Steel hate train, but Captain S is really the better super hero movie. All the fun, the cheesy lines, the heroic acts, I see all of it and all I could think of “I wish Man of Steel was more like this.” Not to hate on Man of Steel since I do like it and I’m not one of those who say it ruined Superman, but Superman really did need better representation and it kind of annoying how both Marvel and DC makes better superman movies when it’s not about Superman, if you know what I mean.

But I guess that’s just a statement on how far better this is.

But is it perfect? No, I still have some nitpicks. Like Billy’s personality was taking me some time to get used to. Billy Batson that I know is a good hearted super idealistic boy. As Linkara described him once, he was a bigger boy scout than Superman. But this Billy was kind of a douche for the most part and the movie spent its time addressing that with his family issues and getting drunk on his new powers to get fame and money. Maybe it was taking cues from the New 52, but I had some issues believing that this Billy was really “Pure of heart” as the Wizard Shazam said, with him using his powers to show off for money, getting booze and getting to a strip club. He’s still a good kid at heart, but far from “Pure of heart”. Unless the wizard was really running out of time and Billy was the best option available and couldn’t be picky about it.

The other nitpick I have with is the effects of the sins. I don’t know what it is with DC movies, but for some reason their CGI effects are still week in comparison to other movies. Not to use the Marvel card, but the CGI creatures in the MCU with the exception of the rhinos from Black Panther, all looked very great and almost life looking, but the CGI in DC movies are still a bit off from reaching that level. It’s still better looking than the CGI of Aquaman, so DC is getting better at that. Perhaps New Line Cinema’s production were just that better.

I don’t have major spoilers to say, because there’s nothing that major happening to warrant spoilers, except for that cameo. Best cameo ever.


Overall, I give Thunder Cheesecake 9 lightning bolts out of 10

If you want a cheesy yet fun DC movie for a change, go watch it, unless you want to save it for Christmas. Oh, did I say this is a Christmas movie? Well, now you know. Another Christmas movie to add next to Die Hard, Gremlins and Jurassic World.

 

Goodfellas 10/10

 

Warrior: 10/10

Can't remember getting as emotional at the end of a film as I did with this one.

This one...



NOT this one...

 

SHAZAM: ! / 10

 

Shazam
MARY WAS CUTE AND THATS ALL I WANTED

the rest of the movie being good too is a bonus. Hope we get a sequel that focuses more on Billy's family

 

Shazam 3/10

 

Pet Semetary 2019 (5/10)

 

Captain Marvel- 7/10

 

Another good boxing movie, sweet.

 

Bumblebee - 9/10

Still love this after a third viewing

 

Pet Sematary (2019)

This film is okay. The actors do good in their roles, the effects are decent. But, wow does this film really drag. Especially the first 40 so minutes. Which is about the time they get to the whole Pet Sematary thing. Which is when the movie picks up.

Spoiler

Which is when the little girl dies, and is resurrected by the sematary, then becomes evil, and kills everyone. In which, the actress does a really good job of doing that, for a 9 year old. Evil 9 year old murdering people, is easily the highlight of this film. She is easily the highlight of this film. In the second half, not so much in the first half. She's written/acting very much like Hollywood usually writes children, a few years younger than they really are. She's nine, but she acts more like my nephew did, like 6 years ago, and he's nine. So, first half, she was terrible. Second half, after her death, she was great.

But, overall, this movie isn't that great. IT, was a much better film. And, I didn't think that film was great either. The kids were interesting, but the clown was less scary in that one, but hilarious. As most of the time it was clear that it was a cartoon. (Not to mention, Tim Curry played the part in a way more memorable way.) The clown was easily the weakest part of that film.

For Pet Sematary, that's not the case. Never did I think they're being chased by a cartoon, or whatever.

I give it about an F grade. Mainly due to it dragging in the beginning. Made it a chore to watch.

Spoiler

Plus that ghost stuff with the dad, goes no where.

So, I give it a 4 out of 10. 40 percent grade for the second half of the film being entertaining, and enjoyable. While the first half was pretty much a bore.

 

Shazam! - 10/10

 

I too did not care too much for the new IT. to me Pennywise came off more child molester than scary. Every scare was shakey run at the camera garbage. Several of the kids were great. Finn Wolfhard and Dylan G were memorable. I've seen them in other things so i liked them already. Everyone keeps fawning over this version. I prefer Curry. He was creepy in a good way. To me Pennywise should be able to lure and charm a child in. 2019 version is repellant. No way a kid would want to go to him. Curry was funny and i can see why a child might go with him.


Anyway in the words of Gomer Pyle the last film i saw was:
Shazam! - 9.5/10
Just had a great time and lots of laughs. Good mix of horror too.

 

I finished the MCU Phase 2 in a week! I already watched Captain America CIvil War, and I actually feel it should've been the ending to Phase 2 instead of Ant-Man. It would feel more climatic in putting an end to Phase 2 and setting up Phase 3.


Iron Man 3 - 2/10
This was a really disappointing ending to the Iron Man series and IMO still the worse MCU film to this date after 21 films now. The story starts of super promising and then starts going down hill after the Mandarin reveal. The Mandarin is the biggest disappointment in this whole movie after setting him up in the first film, then wasting him off with Trevor and Killian. Doesn't help that all of Tony's armors are all treated as a joke, and easily destroyed by enemies or even himself self-destructing them when he thinks he doesn't need them anymore; which is even more pointless as he rebuilds them all before Avengers Age of Ultron. Same with Rhodey, not much for him to do but just be a running joke for the whole film. Also didn't care for the subplot with the boy Tony hangs out with. If I could have Thanos snap away a MCU movie, this would be it.

Thor The Dark World - 5/10
After a very solid first movie, this one is pretty mediocre. Malekith is a pretty boring villain and the whole movie feels pretty episodic. Its watchable but nothing major happens other then finding an Infinity Stone. This film feels like a wasted shot in exploring more of the Thor mythos and introducing more characters such as the Enchantress, Valkyrie, Eric Masterson (Thunderstrike), or even Beta Ray Bill.

Captain America The Winter Soldier - 9/10
After being burned out by the sequels for Iron Man and Thor; The Winter Soldier delivers in the best follow up sequel ever. This movie is dang near perfect in bringing Captain America back to the present day and creating a really good story about today's freedom and security issues. The S.H.I.E.L.D. twist really had me completely caught off guard and had me second guessing everything and everybody. TBH I'm not a fan of bringing back characters that have been dead for a long time, like with Bucky, but it works very well in creating a truly emotional conflict for Cap. I also liked Cap being paired up with Black Widow throughout the story. Their interactions and fights together were the best parts. I'm surprised they didn't developed romantic feelings for each other after all this, considering how Natasha has been trying to constantly hook Steve up with a girl throughout the film. You did think that by the end of the film they realize they were looking for each other. Overall, my top favorite MCU film that I enjoy rewatching frequently.

Guardians of the Galaxy - 9/10
Like everyone else, I never really followed the GOTG comic but I know some of the characters through other works. I thought this would be a tough movie to watch being set conpletely in space and a totally odd cast, but it had me completely drawn in with the death of Peter's mom as I can totally emphasize with his loss. The rest of the film is just brilliantly made, from the characters to the soundtrack. This is one of my top favorite MCU film I enjoy rewatching too.

Avengers Age of Ultron - 6/10
This movie is a bit divisive for me as I liked some parts of it but hated the other.
The Avengers fight against Hydra in the beginning was great and so was the after party with every Avenger trying to lift Thor's hammer.
The Hulkbuster Iron Man Vs. Hulk was a fight I have been wanting to see for a long time in live action. The fight doesn't disappoint and had an interesting take that Bruce designed it himself but it ended way too fast and easy. I also didn't like that the Hulkbuster got called as Veronica instead.
Tony and Bruce being the creators of Ultron is a major change but it kinda works considering Tony's mental state after fighting the Chitauri. Ultron himself through, acted way to comical for my taste. I also don't like Ultron's "face" design; I prefer his drone face which looked more comic accurate.
The new Vision origin was an interesting take and made him more interesting in that he is a living Infinity Stone, but overall I still prefer Hank Pym creating Ultron and Vision.
Hawkeye's family was an interesting touch but I prefer his original comic relationship with Mockingbird.
I did not like the Black Widow and Hulk romance plot, it feels so awkward and unnecessary. Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver were good additions but it also really sucked seeing Quicksilver die, he was so cool throughout the film I wish he survived. In the end, it's a some what decent movie but not really something I like with all the changes from the comic that was done.

Ant-Man - 8/10
TBH I wasn't really happy this movie would be skipping Hank Pym, the original Ant-Man, and along with Janet/Wasp too. I get they want to skip their controversial relationship, but I feel that part can be easily omitted or tackled differently. Either way, picking Scott Lang's story was surprisingly good and it all works out. Scott's own story of his criminal history/skill and his love for his daughter made him endearing enough. I like that we do get to see Janet (somewhat) to set her eventual appearance. Ant-Man is a fun ride from beginning to end and look forward to seeing more of Hank and Janet.