Happy 4th Anniversary to the day I started this blog. (although technically it was yesterday. Thanks for reminding me, Facebook Memories) Since I started it, I have had 8,351 pageviews. Holy. Cow! I did NOT think I would even make it past the 1,000 mark at this point. It started out as just this little hobby for myself. A place for me to express my personal thoughts on films I'd recently seen. I started more for me, and a few immediate friends and family. I didn't think anyone other then them would actually read the darn thing. The fact that in 4 years it has grown from a cute little blog that only my friends and family read, to where it is now at the point where complete strangers are now reading it. (Even people from outside the US. Holy smokes.) According to the traffic stats, the biggest source that most of you have accessed the link is from  Facebook, which makes sense, since that's where most of my interaction is by posting the non-review content such as trailers, posters, and my thoughts on various bits of film news.

 But let's take a look at the stats of the pageviews by country:
US: 84
Ireland: 4
UK: 3
Russia: 2
Austraila: 1
Canada: 1
Germany: 1

I now have people viewing this from around the globe! Wow! i didn't even think it would make it outside the US! This is truly a great honor for me, and I feel so overwhelmed.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Ignore the critics! This movie is absoultely phenomenal! There are very few movies where I leave the theater thinking "I want to go see this a couple more times." When this hits the discount theater I'm going to see it again! This is a sci-fi movie with a classic "Flash Gordan" kind of feel. It's a fast-paced, super fiun thrill ride. And the visuals are spectacular! It's the most visually impressive movie since "Avatar!" The two main characters were very reminiscent of Han Solo and Leia, especially with their flirtatious love-hate relationship. It also had fast-paced witty dialogue. If you're a fan of Star Wars or even Star Trek, this is definetly worth  a watch. It's a shame this isn't doing so well at the box office. Hopefully it makes its money back, because I want a sequel to this, darn it! (Which, again, "I want a sequel" is something I very rarely say after movies. They have to be really good for me to say that.) The only thing that could have improved this movie is there were a couple of parts that were unneccessary from a plot standpoint and were just there to pad the runtime. I guess those parts are the movie equivalant of commericals so that you can go to the restroom and get concession refills without missing anything important. Even though this isn't doing so well, I'm hoping it finds a cult following on Bluray.
Grade: A-    9/10    4/5 stars

War for the Planet of the Apes

A good prequel trilogy! Take that, Star Wars!  Looking at this through the context of the original from 1968, it's hard to know who to root for. The humans in this are horrible to the apes, but you think "Well, they kind of deserve this, because they do the same thing to us in the original." And yet you still sympathize with them. We're rooting for the bad guys and yet...we're not. The motion capture on the apes is amazing! Not since "Avatar" has there been such impressive effects. (Although I may redact that statement after I see "Valerian", but we'll see...) The detail on each ape is exquisite. If it weren't for the apes riding horseback and wielding guns, you would think this was a nature documentary. Woody Harrelson does a great job, although at some points it does feel like a repeat of his character from "The Hunger Games." As far as who to root for, it's hard to decide. Neither side is definitively good or evil. Some of the humans are horrible, but some just want to leave the apes alone, and have the war come to them. Some of the apes are even on the human side. The action sequences in this were way over the top (in a good way.) I honestly don't know how this film could be improved. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Most times I say "I really enjoyed the movie except for this, this and this," but that didn't happen here. The emotion was so well conveyed. It makes you hate your own species and cry over a bunch of CGI Apes. Kind of ridiculous out loud, but it's so well written and acted, I wouldn't be suprised if this gets nominated for a few Oscars when awards season comes around.

Grade: A+    10/10     5/5 stars 

Wish Upon

Ok. This movie isn't great but it doesn't deserve the 19% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I quite enjoyed it, but it definetely could have been better. Mostly because a lot of the characters were charicatures. You could make a checklist and check each box as the film goes on. "Mean girl" Check. "Bullied main character." Check. "Guy that likes her but she doesn't like." Check. "Guy that doesn't like her but she does like." Check/ "At least one of the main character's parents is dead" Check.  It goes on.  But as far as the actual story goes, it was kind of exciting. It wasn't a "scary" movie, but it was definetly suspenseful. The ways the wishes got twisted to be bad were kind of clever. But this suffers from what almost every horror film suffers from these days: A lazy ending. The ending is just completely random and out of nowhere, to the point where it's kind of laughable. I thought of an ending that would have been much better, and "Twilight Zone" esque. (But I'm not giving spoilers. If you want the spoiler review go to my Youtube channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6cFUtvDg3VYAEWgxtdxYUQ
Overall, I think the movie this reminded me most of was "Drag Me to Hell." Definetly had the same kind of style/story. This had a lot of potential, and while a lot of it was pretty good, it certainly could have been better thought out.
Grade: C   7/10   3/5 stars

Power Rangers

To be honest, I got pretty much what I expected with this movie. I thought at best it would be average, and at worst it would be a dumpster fire, like "Fant4stic". And yeah, it was perfectly average. A lot could have been improved, changed, and taken out, but at the end of the day, I was entertained. I wasn't checking how much runtime was left, or praying for the sweet release of the end credits,  but I wouldn't exactly recommend this film to anybody either. It's entertaining, but not exactly a film I'm clamoring to watch again. The film did suffer from a lot of problems. The chemistry between the 4 leads was awful. The runtime is 2 hours and 15 min, and for a movie called "Power Rangers" and it takes almost 2 hours of that for them to actually become the Power Rangers. Instead, they fill up the time with teen angst and drama. It felt like I was watching a Disney Channel movie or something on Freeform. There was one part where a character supposedly died, but I honestly didn't care because not enough time was spent on their character development. I was indifferent to what happened to these characters. Also, they hired Bryan Cranston, but just like in 2014's "Godzilla," he's barely in it, and his talent is wasted. Bill Hader got more screentime. Bill Hader! I like Bill Hader, but in small incriments. He was in this wasy too much. By far, the best part of the movie was Elizabeth Banks' performance as the villain. She went over-the-top without overdoing it. Just a classic Saturday morning cartoon style villain who enjoys being evil for the sake of being evil. The first half of the movie did give me a sense of deja vu, as it felt a little too much like someone was trying to do a remake of "Chronicle." There are very few times where I praise the score of a movie, but I have to here. I loved the score. It sounded like the soundtrack to "Tron: Legacy." I'm glad I didn't pay to see this in theaters, but it was worth a rent. If you're at Redbox, and this is in stock, and there's nothing else you want to see, it's worth at least one watch.

Grade: C    7/10    3/5 stars

Despicable Me 3

Going in, I was expecting this to be pretty weak. I wasn't in the mindset that I was going to hate it, just that at best, it would be OK. It's the 3rd (4th if you count "Minions") entry in an animated film series. Most franchises by this point have thrown in the towel as far as effort is concerned and just said "Forget it. Put little to no effort into this. Just put something together to shut kids up for 90 minutes. They'll eat it up anyway." Happy to say, that was not the case with this one. Not only was there effort, but they've also learned from their mistakes. I said in my review of the second one that the film had too many scenes focusing on the Minions, which overshadowed the rest of the plot. They remembered this time that people like the Minions, we just like them in small increments that are few and far between. They were in it for maybe 15 minutes of the whole thing. I feel one way the film could have improved was to flesh out the villain a little better. I thought he was one of the best parts, and would have loved to see more. He's a former child star, mentally trapped in the 80s, and so there are a lot of 80s references and songs. This was a concept that I felt could have done more than what was done here. They had so many oppurtunities with this that they missed out on. I would have loved to see more 80s references. The plot was pretty paint-by-numbers, and I could tell for the most part where it was going to go, but some things still surprised me. Not my favorite in the franchise, but certainly not the weakest.

Grade: B    8/10     3.5/5 stars

Spider-Man: Homecoming

This was absolutely, without a  doubt, the best "Spider-Man" movie ever! It's everything I loved about Spider-Man in the comics, cartoons, and video games growing up. It has his signature wisecracks, the fun thrills, and struggles of being a teen that Spidey is famous for. Michael Keaton gives a wonderfully chilling performance as the villain. There is one scene in particular that I won't spoil where his threatening demeanor is enough the frighten even a grown man. Spidey's tech-savvy sidekick also provides some wonderful comic relief. My one complaint was the actress Zendaya. She was so monotone and bored, that I was really starting to regret Disney buying Marvel at some points. (She was a Disney Channel star.) If she had put more emotion into her lines, or had  been given better direction, she could have been a more interesting character, but she just came off as bland. I will probably have to watch this movie several times when it hits Bluray, because I spotted some fun little Easter Eggs and inside jokes, and I'm sure there were plenty more that I missed. As always, stay for the very end of the credits. I'm not going to spoil anything, but lets just say that Marvel is starting to become very meta....and that's all I'm going to say about that. It's too good and too funny to spoil.

Grade: A-   9/10    4/5 stars