Black Panther

This movie was awesome! Black Panther was one of my favorite parts of "Captain America: Civil War," and this film shows why. This is "Batman" meets "James Bond." One review I read complained that the film didn't have enough action. I disagree. It had just the right amount. A film doesn't need action every scene to be good, it just needs a good story, and this film delivers. This film gives us the best MCU villain since Loki. He's one of the few villains that I can sympathize with. I'm not justifying his actions, but I get where he's coming from. The technology in this film is really cool. There's one scene in particular that I won't spoil but I thought it would make a great ride at EPCOT. The last 30 minutes alone were worth the price of admission. The final battle is so good and really drew me in! The dialogue is also very well written. This is one of the best films of the MCU. And it's not just a great superhero movie, it's just a great movie. Period.

Grade: A+   10/10  5/5 stars 

Batman Forever

Given that this is the same director of that absolute garbage "Batman and Robin", I went in to this with my expectations extremely low. This actually ended up being pretty decent. It's not amazing, but it was at least fun.  It actually managed to find a balance between silly and serious. The problem with "Batman and Robin" was that it was all silliness,and was just cringeworthy throughout. This showed restraint (for the most part). Some of the dialogue is corny, and some of the acting is over the top (Jim Carrey), but I enjoyed this film. Obviously, it did well enough that they gave Shumacker another Batman movie to direct, and that was the one that ended up being there downfall, but this was a pretty good attempt. Some of the plot didn't make sense (Why is Robin in his late 20s here, when in the comics he was 15?) and the effects aren't the best (but this was 1995, I'll give it a pass). This is like the Adam West "Batman" show mixed with the Tim Burton "Batman" films. I think the best part of this movie was Tommy Lee Jones. He managed to ham it up as Two-Face, but also managed to show restraint when it was needed. Unfortunately, Jim Carrey as the Riddler did not show restraint and was just annoying. Think Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor in "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" but about 10 times worse. I'd say this movie is at least worth a watch, but for goodness' sakes, stay far, far away from "Batman and Robin".

Grade: B     8/10      3.5/5

Peter Rabbit

This was delightful! It was a lot better than I expected. At most, I thought this was going to be mediocre, given that this film is from Sony, who thought “The Emoji Movie” would be a good idea. This was actually quite enjoyable. Is it as good as, say, a Pixar movie? No, but there was some effort put into this. The acting was great, the story was better than I thought it was going to be, given that it’s a 20 page children’s book turned into a 90-minute movie. The soundtrack felt a little out of place, which is my big critique. There isn’t very much score in the film. Instead, the scenes are accompanied  by top 40 pop songs. They felt so out of place. They really should have just scored the film instead. The film was cute. I enjoyed myself. Addressing this so-called “controversy.” The thing people are making a big stink about is how Peter uses Mr. McGregor’s allergy to blackberries against him. It’s 5 seconds of the whole movie and Peter later feels remorse and apologizes. If there were no consequences, that would be one thing, but there are consequences. I’m more concerned by the fact that Peter and his crew nearly kill McGregor several times, whether it be through electrocution, or other means. The violence level is really no different than “Home Alone”, which is basically what this is: “Home Alone” with animals. It’s a fun, cute movie and I recomend it. Hop on over to your local cinema as soon as you can.
Grade: A-    9/10.  4:5 stars