Author: Adam

After approaching five antagonizing months since the strike began between the Writer’s Guild of America and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, both sides are finally looking to end it at long last. It was reported yesterday that both sides had reached an agreement with one another, which might finally put to rest the strike that has gone on for 146 days and counting. This deal still needs to be approved by the WGAW Board and WGAE Council before it becomes 100% official. However, since I highly doubt anyone from either side wants to keep this dragging for much longer, I would be surprised if it gets denied. Even if we manage to live in the timeline that this deal is disapproved by the very higher ups, it’s at least a good sign that both sides seem to be on the same page for once.

As we await to see the response from the Board and Council, the attention should now be turned to other matters with groups in entertainment that still needs to be resolved. While it’s great that this current strike with the writers might come to an end, it’s only the beginning.

Of course, there is also the strike that’s also still happening with SAG-AFTRA, (Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists). You also have the inevitable strikes that is likely to occur once the time comes with animators and the video game industry. And even if it doesn’t relate to anyone of these companies mentioning, we also need to direct our attention to VFX artists from Marvel and Disney that is looking to go on strike as well. All the end of the writer’s strike has indicated that it was just one battle won during a war that is far from over.

The next likely step is to end the strike with the SAG-AFTRA since that is still currently happening as we speak. And considering the holiday season is just around the corner with the last remaining big movies of the year such as The Marvels, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Wish, and Aquaman & the Lost Kingdom, it would be best to have the actors available to promote those films which would help greatly with the marketing campaign for these films. And of course, it would be nice to end this as soon as possible so the actors can actually be allowed to film their movies and television series and prevent any further delays on them, which is likely going to come no matter what. Even when that gets resolved, there will be still other things to focus on.

There is also the possibility of a strike with the video game industry, most notably with actors attached to gaming franchises that are a part of the SAG-AFTRA. The last strike with gaming companies occurred in 2016 to 2017, lasting 183 days! The guild’s national board had voted unanimously to send a strike authorization vote to members in preparation of its upcoming bargaining dates with 10 signatory video game companies. Voting started on September 5 and is suppose to end today on September 25. If it’s to be believed, then another strike will likely occur just seven years since the last one in the video game industry.

It should be worth mentioning that this will not affect ALL gaming companies out there but at least 10 major companies. These companies include Activision, Blindlight, Disney Character voices, EA, Epic Games, Formosa, Insomniac Games, Take 2, VoiceWorks, and WB Games. While not ever notable game company is listed, there is not doubt that video games will take a hit for a while just like films and tv shows will in the upcoming future if a strike is commenced.

You also got eyes that should be looked upon the animation industry. With their deal with the higher ups set to expire next year, don’t be surprised to start hearing whispers about animators going on strike. We’ve already had a discussion over the Across the Spider-Verse fiasco but that’s literally only one film that was REPORTED to have such dire circumstances for animators. I’m willing to be once a strike with the animation industry is likely to occur, you will be constant reports of other big animated films having very troubled productions to animators that were involved. Sure, there were certain animated films that was reported to have a smooth production like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem but not every film has a open-minded caring producer like Seth Rogen. If this happens, this could possibly be an even bigger strike than the one with Disney that occurred in 1941.

Lastly, it is worth bringing up the union strike that is going on with VFX artists between Disney and Marvel. This is not necessarily one that is under control from the likes of WGA, SAG-AFTRA, or AMPTP but it is one worth addressing. With the reports of crunch culture growing rapidly throughout the entertainment industry, there is likely not one group that has fallen victim of that than with VFX artists. I’ve already worth a piece on this last month so I won’t go too much in depth with this but I bring this up because it’s worth bringing up. It’s been reported that Marvel and Disney workers have unanimously voted to unionize with IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) in the hopes of creating a healthier work environment, fair pay, and a proper work-life balance. If this move is successful, let this be a learn to other studios out there to treat their VFX artists with respect and remember that they are all human beings who need time to themselves.

As you can probably see by now, there’s still plenty of problems that needs fixing in Hollywood. Even if they were able to have one matter solved, there’s still many more to be solved for the foreseeable future. With all the current movements that’s going on right now, this looks to be the turning point for filmmaking in Hollywood. A time where they will come to realize that the likes of A.I. are NOT the answer to everything and are only the answer to certain things. A time where they can no longer take the people who work on these successful films for granted. A time where they must change for the better or they will die worse as a result.

Nevertheless, the writer’s strike is likely over now and hopefully this is a sign of good things to come for entertainment as a whole!

Last week, on September 18th exactly, Adam Wainwright got his 200th career victory against the Milwaukee Brewers. Despite what has been an abysmal season for Waino and the Cardinals, he was able to pull the milestone that he had been struggling to get for the majority of the year, 200 career Ws on the back of his baseball card. He did that by having far in a way his best start of the year, pitching seven scoreless innings against the Brew Crew and only allowing four hits with two walks while striking out three. For what has been easily the worst possible swan song you could possible imagine, Adam Wainwright at least has the chance to literally end his career with one last great start before heading off into retirement.

It’s certainly no doubt that Adam Wainwright will go down as one of the best players and pitchers in Cardinals history. He ranks third of all time in wins as a Cardinal, he represents terrific class and leadership throughout his tenure, was part of easily the best pitcher-catcher combo ever with Yadier Molina, and was also responsible of leading St. Louis to a World Series title in 2006. With the exception of the deal with Lou Brock, the trade for Wainwright from his hometown in the Atlanta Braves would probably go down as perhaps the best trade in St. Louis Cardinals history. No doubt that the moment he become eligible, he will certainly being wearing that red jacket in Cooperstown in St. Louis. However, how about Cooperstown overall?

With the amount of pitchers that are discussed today to be almost certain Hall of Famers such as Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer, and Justin Verlander, how about Adam Wainwright? Plenty of folks would likely call blasphemy but there are actually a number of decent facts to support this argument. And these are also the kind of facts that we are likely not going to see for a very long time at least. With Adam Wainwright throwing perhaps his final game in his terrific career with the St. Louis Cardinals, now is the time to answer the question as to whether or not he deserves to be in the hall of fame? First, let’s take a trip down memory lane!

Back in 2000, Adam was picked by the Atlanta Braves and 29th overall in the first round of the MLB Draft. It was in December 2003 where Wainwright got traded to the Cardinals along with pitchers Jason Marquis and Ray King in exchange for veteran outfielder J.D. Drew and utility player Eli Marrero. It was then that Wainwright spent the next two years in the minor league with the Memphis Redbirds, attempted to build himself up as being a top starting pitcher in the Major Leagues for years to come. He’d make his major league debut in late 2005 and would work towards his first full season in 2006.

However, despite being a big pitching piece in 2006, Wainwright’s role wasn’t necessarily as a starter but as a reliever. Things got even more complicated and interesting for Wainwright when he found himself as a last minute closer at the tail end of 2006, with long-time Cardinal closer Jason Isringhausen undergoing season-ending hip surgery. With the Cardinals playoff hopes crumbling in the final week of September, on the verge of blowing an eight plus game lead in their division, Wainwright was able to save two crucial games on September 27th and 30th, which was able to hold off the second place Houston Astros and help the Cardinals secure the NL Central title for a second straight year and fifth of the last seven years. Despite having minimal experience in the closing role, Adam Wainwright was able to get the job done when it mattered the most in the playoffs. He would go on to get the final out in the NLDS against the Padres, the NLCS against the Mets (with the sickest curveball ever thrown), and the World Series against the Detroit Tigers to help the Cardinals land their 10th World Series championship in franchise history.

After 2006, it was then that Adam Wainwright moved from the bullpen to the starting rotation. His first ever career Major League start occurred on April 6th, 2007 against the Astros with Yadier Molina being the starting catcher. Wainwright would go seven innings and allow only run, enough to hand the Cardinals their first win of that season and the first win in Waino’s career as a starter. While 2007 would ultimately be a very down year for the Cardinals, with a poor 78-84 record, it help showcased that Adam Wainwright was an ace in the making for St. Louis.

Aside from 2011 where he would miss the whole season due to Tommy John Surgery (which the Cardinals would end up winning it all once again) along with missing the majority of 2015 and 2018 due to injuries, you’d be hard pressed to find a pitcher in St. Louis for the last two decades that was not named Chris Carpenter leave such a great lasting impact with the players and fans.

He had plenty of achievements throughout his career! 3x All-Star appearances, 2x Gold Gloves, 2x World Series champions, 2x NL Wins leader, finished in the top three CY Young votes four times, the Roberto Clemente Award and a Silver Slugger award! You can’t also forget being among the best in Cardinals history in wins, games, innings pitch, and strikeouts. With the exception of Lou Brock and possibly even Nolan Arenado, you would also be hard pressed to name a trade that has influenced the St. Louis Cardinals throughout their history this greatly.

Everything that I’ve mentioned thus far would at least be enough to consider a nomination to the Hall of Fame in the coming years but there are two main reasons why there could be a strong argument for Wainwright being a legit candidate in being a part of Cooperstown. These are two major accomplishments he achieved that may not be done for a long time and possibly ever. Those two being the most successful battery in major league history and possibly also being the last pitcher to ever achieve 200 wins!

The first point is most likely to never be replicated. It’s no secret that a key component to the success that Adam Wainwright has had in his career was his perfect chemistry with likely future hall of fame catcher Yadier Molina. Those who shared a dynamic duo that we will likely never see in baseball again. And that duo came into full fruition in 2022. On May 15th, the two made history by claiming their 203rd win together, becoming the most successful battery in MLB history. Later that season on September 14th, they set the ultimate MLB record by starting alongside one another for the 325th game, surpassing Mickey Lolich and Bill Freehan of the Tigers for the most starts by a battery in MLB history. With the way baseball is more scripted, analytic driven, and contract crazy, there’s no chance we will see a pairing like Waino and Yadi anytime soon.

The second point is that there could be a good chance that Adam Wainwright could potentially be the final pitcher to ever gain 200 wins in his big league career. Once again, we live in an age where analytics, numbers, and statistics are the main driving force in baseball. Because of that, pitchers are throwing harder than ever and don’t go deep into games as much anymore due to circumstances such as throwing too many pitches by the fifth inning or refusing to go third time through the lineup. Wainwright remains among the last remains of big game pitchers. The kind of pitcher that will gladly take the ball and goes as deep as they can without worrying about pitch count or innings limit. The kind of pitcher that’s basically the anti-Logan Gilbert. You have to search hard to find them nowadays, especially with young guys, but Adam Wainwright easily remained among the last few. And because of that, who knows the next person that will come along with 200 wins. Perhaps Gerrit Cole will have it within him for the next five years along with another name or two but even then, Adam Wainwright remains among the last of his kind in baseball. The kind of bulldog work horses that will commit to giving you as much innings as you need with no complaints whatsoever.

Of course, there are plenty of reasons to not include Wainwright in the Hall of Fame. He was never able to win a Cy Young Award, was far from the greatest K machine in the world, and had too many uneven years for the second half of his career to put him up there as the top-tier modern day pitchers in his prime, on par with the likes of Kershaw, Scherzer, and Verlander. Because of those reasons and more, there’s no chance Wainwright will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer and will take a longtime before he even becomes a consider candidate.

I don’t know how to answer the question of Adam Wainwright being deserving to be in Cooperstown that doesn’t come from a bias perspective. I’ve been a Cardinal fan almost my whole life and I’ve been watching Waino pitch since I was nine years old. I remember him coming up clutch to close out crucial games in the 2006 postseason to secure the team’s first World Series title in 24 years! I also remember him fitting comfortably into the starting rotation from day one and developing to being a terrific leader and dominant ace for many years to come! He’s been a face of the franchise for so long remains the last remaining member of the championship winning clubs of the 21st century for the Cardinals!

All of that and more will no doubt give Adam Wainwright the induction to the Cardinals Hall of Fame! When it comes to the actual Hall of Fame, that remains to be seen but I still think there should be some consideration when that time comes. Because, who knows when we will ever see history broken the way this man did throughout his career? Who knows when we will ever see another Adam Wainwright in baseball?

Regardless, thank you so much Waino for everything you have done in St. Louis for the past 18 years! I hope you have a wonderful retirement! You will always be a Cardinal and a hall of famer in my eyes!

It’s strange how much I talked down upon this movie despite never reviewing it. It was more of me going on about the amount of money that was spent on the picture even though there has been plenty of other recent animated films such as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, and TMNT: Mutant Mayhem that had less budgets but more creative and impressive animation with having a cast of much more recognizable celebrities. There was also the notion of Disney not putting as much effort on marketing their animated films as much as they used to since Bob Chapek too over, current strikes and Bob Iger stalling it not withstanding. However, all of that was mostly after the film was able to comeback with strong legs at the box office, so much to the point where it was able to make it’s money back completely according to Pixar themselves. Even so, I never did talk about the actual quality of the motion picture.

Although I did claim I didn’t think Elemental was among Pixar’s very best and would put it in the middle-of-the-pack of their filmography, I never thought it was bad. However, after watching it again on Disney Plus this week, I now find myself having to slightly reevaluate with as this film is much better than I originally gave it credit for. While I still don’t think Elemental is one of the very best Pixar films, it still is a damn good Pixar film and worthy of praise.

Premise: Set in a world inhabited by anthropomorphic elements of nature, the story follows a tough, quick-witted fire element Ember Lumen (Leah Lewis), that also happens to have temper issues. She meets a sappy water element Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie), after he is summoned by a plumbing accident at a convenience store owned by Ember’s father, Bernie (Del Carmen). As the two spend more time together, Ember comes to vision a life not just with Wade but outside of working at a convenience store. It’s then that she must choose between being with Wade and taking the first steps towards an uncharted but promising future as an intern or fulfill her father’s legacy by taking over the shop.

On the surface, Elemental seems to be the Pixar-equivalent of Zootopia. In the sense that it’s a film that covers important themes of race, migration, and inclusivity while taking a place in a world full of anthrophonic figures and not being afraid to deliver some of the most on-the-nose puns you would expect with it’s kind of premise. While I definitely got that impression with from an aesthetic, thematic, and world building standpoint, the story that Elemental sets to tell is one that feels more grounded and personal than that of Zootopia. Not only in the sense that it’s a love story that feels oddly refreshing or finding your place in the world, but it’s also about the amount of pressure of living up to someone’s expectations versus living up to your own expectations.

First off, I love the way the film portrays life as being a retail worker. It’s not always an easy job as many people claim it is. While it’s certainly good work experience that teaches great knowledge in accomplishing certain tasks and providing good costumer service, there will always be at least one incident that takes you out of it entirely. Regardless of how many people you service well, just dealing with one person that isn’t served well will have a dire impact on you. All it takes is dealing with one grouchy consumer or being overwhelmed with many different costumers at the same time that your temper takes over and gets the better of you. As someone that has previously worked at a similar retail job and even about to work at another one until further notice, I certainly find that aspect very relatable.

By working at the store, Ember is trying very hard to set herself up as taking over her father’s mantle with the shop but is doing so at the expense of her own happiness. No matter how hard she tries, she can just never let go of the fact that she has other desires for her life than simply working at her parent’s store her whole life. She doesn’t want anyone else to say that out loud and for her to hear but it’s deep down how she truly feels. Even if that doesn’t make her the perfect daughter, it makes Ember her perfect self.

Of course, the other main focus of the film involves around Ember’s relationship with Wade. Once again, Wade is someone that Ember deep downs believes she shouldn’t fall in love with but it’s just how she feels. Even if it feels like an unwritten rule for a fire and water element to be together in ways that makes as much logical sense as the world of Cars, it’s an attraction that feels genuine to both elements, which is the most important thing of all. It brings together the true meaning of love in a way that both elements discover about themselves throughout the course of the film. They don’t just have much in common but they have something elemental. While this sure isn’t a premise that will set the world on fire (Pun definitely intended!), but it’s able to hold water greatly (Again, pun certainly intended!) because of how earnest the relationship between Ember and Wade feels and Leah Lewis and Mamoudou Athie sharing great chemistry with one another.

As much as I’ve been ragging about the cost of the animation of this film, I can’t deny it looks as absolutely stunning as one could imagine from a Disney Pixar film in 2023. The world themselves are filled with bright colors and visuals that offer it’s own sense of uniqueness to it and capture the mood of each scene perfectly. There are plenty of gorgeous shots throughout the entire film that will make anyone want to pause the film to admire it’s beauty whether you’re watching on a 4K TV or even a laptop. And while the worlds themselves aren’t as fully explored as say the ones in Zootopia, they are still very fun to explore with enough creative set pieces and visually imagery to keep you interested in every moment you spend in Elemental City.

Arguably the biggest appreciation for Elemental would have to go to it’s overall sound. The voice work by Leah Lewis as Ember and Mamoudou Athie as Wade is very well done, as previously stated, along with the rest of the cast of actors that is fairly new to me. The biggest standout however is that of the original score from Thomas Newton. It’s incredibly soothing, relaxing, and is an absolute treat to the ears. Not only does it perfectly reflect what the tone is from each scene but also how the characters and audience are suppose to feel throughout the entire picture. From the very opening scene, you just get the scene that the score will stick with you the whole way through and it certainly did just that for me.

What stops Elemental from being top-tier Pixar mostly had to do with it’s timing. Not necessarily because the relevant and timely themes the film presents but more of because it’s the kind of themes that Disney and Pixar have tackled plenty for at least the past two decades. Themes such as finding your place in the worlds, your destiny not being set in stone, and welcoming other race and parties to your group have been done to death at this point and basically becoming an absolute blueprint at this point. While it’s all still done well here, it basically feels like a case of the same things but with a different code of paint. While Elemental can definitely be consider groundbreaking for it’s animation, it’s far from groundbreaking when it comes to themes and storytelling.

Perhaps it’s because things have slowly changed for me in my life than it was when I saw this film back in June but I definitely believe Elemental will stand the test of time as being an absolute gem of Pixar’s library. Maybe not the very best but definitely one that plenty will find to be another worthy addition to their library. It’s looks gorgeous, it’s very charming, the characters are engaging, the music is beautiful, and even the similar themes it tackles are done very well and might even stand out greater than other Disney and Pixar films that have done it to some people. I’m sure glad this film was able to stand strong at the box office as this might be an encouraging sign for Pixar’s future in movie theaters. I might have not enjoyed The Good Dinosaur but director Peter Sohn was able to win me over in Round Two with Elemental. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I highly recommend it.

The existence of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is quite bizarre when you think about it. Not just because this joins alongside 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife in the genre of “movies made to apologize for a bad modern sequel”, but that you still have Harrison Ford putting on the fedora once again as he is pushing his 80s. Even if that basically defeats the whole wish fulfillment mindset of Indiana Jones in his prime (something which Dial of Destiny greatly excels at), that has to be quite commendable because it’s so unlike anything among actors in Hollywood. Like when is the last time you’ve seen someone in their 80s that is still continuing to do action roles? I guess you’ll just have to get back to me in 2043 when Tom Cruise is about to do Mission Impossible 17! It’s just a shame that this movie doesn’t do anything good enough to justify having Ford come back for what will likely be his last time as Indy himself!

To put out all of my cards on the table, Dial of Destiny is the weakest of all the Indiana Jones movies by a country mile. It lacks the energy and passion that Spielberg provided with the previous four movies (Yes, even Kingdom of the Crystal Skull!), it doesn’t justify any of the baffling decisions that it makes for the Indiana Jones character, and the whole thing just has a “going through the motions” feel to it that I imagine the people behind this movie were just as bored making it as I was watching it. It might succeed in the sense of making a more bleak and depressing Indiana Jones movie for those that actually want that along with good final contributions from it’s cast and John Williams respectively, but as a whole, Dial of Destiny is underwhelming and quite frankly forgettable.

Plot Synopsis: We start off in 1944, where Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) teams up with an Oxford archeologist named Basil Shaw (Toby Jones) to retrieve a legendary dial from the Nazi lead by Jurgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) that can change the course of history. This is know as the Archimedes’ Dial, which has the power to allow possible time travel. The pair are able to obtain a dial piece and escapes the Germany army before they are able to get the full artifact entirely.

We then fast forward to 1969, 12 years after the events of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, we see Indy in a worse place than he has every been in. He is on the verge of divorce with his wife, Marion (Karen Allen) after their son, Mutt was killed in the Vietnam War. As he is about to retire as a college professor from Hunter College, Indiana is visited by his goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), who just got her degree in archeology and has interest in researching the Archimedes’ dial herself. Despite warnings from Indy that the dial drove her father so insane to the point that he wanted Indy to destroy it (which he didn’t for some reason), Helena is persistent and wants the dial for herself for her own personal gains and needs.

Circumstances become even more complicated when Indy and Helena are pursued by the Nazi to retrieve the full dial, as Voller has his own plans of going back in time to correct Hitler’s mistakes and make it to wear Germany is victorious in World War II. The chase is on as Indy must put on the hat and fedora once last time before the Nazi are able to accomplish their goals and change the course of history forever.

It’s no secret that this is the first Indiana Jones film to not be helmed by Steven Spielberg. This time around it’s been handled by no other than James Mangold, a director who has had a recent run of success with films such as Logan and Ford v Ferrari. On paper, Mangold does seem like the best possible replacement for Spielberg as he has proven to make films as crowd pleasers and intriguing character-driven pieces. Unfortunately, the results of Dial of Destiny doesn’t do him any favors whatsoever. Whether it’s 100% because of Mangold or interference with the studio, this new Indiana Jones film is clearly missing the spark of the first four Indy flicks and the very best in Mangold’s filmography. If Lucasfilm was hoping that Mangold would at least do a good job of acting as a poor man’s version of Spielberg, then they really seem to miss the mark.

There’s a lot that has been said with the way Dial of Destiny decides to portray Indiana Jones as a figure that is more dour and depressed than ever before. While Mangold was able to showcase that incredibly well with Wolverine in Logan, he misses the mark entirely with Indiana Jones. Taking away the fact that the main reason that the bleak portrayal worked so well in Logan was because Wolverine is at his heart a tragic character, it doesn’t really benefit Indy at all throughout the course of the film. Aside from one entertaining scene towards the beginning where grandpa Indy has his “get off my lawn” moment and one great monologue he has in the middle of the second act, this depressed version of Indiana Jones feels more like a footnote than anything else.

There’s no attempt at exploring this darker side of Indy other than an occasional reference to bad things that happened in his past or since Crystal Skull and some back-and-forth banter between Ford and Bridge. The decisions that’s made with characters such as having Indy and Marion being split (again) and killing off Mutt don’t really matter as much to the narrative as the film thinks it does. If you basically had it to where Indy and Marion are just taking “time off” (think the way Tony and Pepper took “time off” between Civil War and Homecoming) and Mutt is just living his own life with a slight grudge against his father, the film would basically play out the exact same way. All you really had to do was rewrite that one scene of Indy giving that emotional monologue to Helena (which Ford is so good in that one scene that it almost makes up for everything) and you would basically have the same film.

And speaking of the same film, despite claims that this film would correct the problems with Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, when you get right down to it, Dial of Destiny is really not that much different than Crystal Skull. Once again, we have an Indy that’s older, bitter, has lost everything and is forced to come to terms with his own age and morality. He also happens to have a relative that’s close to him and forces him on one last possible adventure. An adventure where Indy learns that even as an elder and past his prime, he can still gain new things such as new friends, family, knowledge, and a new purpose. Although whereas Crystal Skull, albeit flawed, was able to tell that story while having Indy finding a new sense of happiness that he never knew he wanted, Dial of Destiny rips that away from him entirely, only for him to learn the exact same lesson all over again towards the tail end of the film.

Another big addition to the film is that of Indy’s granddaughter herself, Helena, played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. While there’s an interesting idea towards her character acting as a mirror to Indy in Temple of Doom, in it all for the fortune and glory instead of knowledge, it comes across as rather half baked as the film basically doesn’t really know what to do with her. Her motives comes off as very vague as it’s unclear if she’s doing all of this for personal gain or to stick it to her angry fiancé (which the film mentions once or twice but is then handwaved) or her new kid sidekick (who is certainly no Ke Huy Quan) or something else entirely. Phoebe Waller-Bridge does what she can and helps provides charm and energy in a film that severely lacks any of that but the character of Helena feels like an idea that is barely explored.

And that is basically Dial of Destiny in a nutshell, ideas that sound good on paper but never explored. There are subplots that are set up but go nowhere like Indy being on the run from the government, side characters that feel pointless such as Short Round 2.0 and whoever Antonio Banderas is playing, action scenes, save for the prologue, that aren’t memorable, a lengthy runtime that feels unwarranted, and an ending, while bittersweet, is about as clean cut as once could imagine in the most contrived way possible. There’s just too much of a going-through-the-motions feel to the whole picture that it only feels like it exists because Disney now owns the rights to Indiana Jones and they had to release something with it eventually. Even by the time we get to it’s bonkers third act (which likely had George Lucas smirking throughout), it still feels like business as usual with the film pulling back it’s punches.

If there’s a main saving grace to the picture is that the cast has equipped themselves admirably, even with the bare minimum material they are given to work with. Harrison Ford is still great as Indiana Jones as he always has been, selling this bitter version of Indy so well that it almost justifies the decision made. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is hugely charismatic and seems to be having the most fun out of anyone in the film, even if I don’t buy her whatsoever taking the mantle in the future. Mads Mikkelsen is always a blast to watch as the main bad guy, even if I won’t remember what his character’s name is by next Monday. John Rhys-Davies is underutilized as Sallah but still as charming as ever. Everyone else is fine but play such little of a role that they honestly aren’t worth mentioning by name.

In terms of other positives, John Williams brings his A game once again, putting together a score that feels appropriately Indiana Jones, making one realize how much the world will miss him once the inevitable happens to him. The prologue, despite too much of de-aging Harrison Ford that’s not buyable whatsoever, is fun stuff and contains the classic Indiana Jones magic that the rest of the film lacks. And in spite of the film’s abrupt way of wrapping up, it does end on a nice callback to the original Raiders film that will certainly get one in the feels.

Perhaps I’m being too harsh on this film since I have a big fondness for the original trilogy and even have a soft spot for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in spite of it’s flaws, but Dial of Destiny is just yet another in a sea of franchise installments that have come out throughout the summer of 2023 that seems to exists for the sake of existing. It’s not that it’s an exceptionally terrible film but it’s one that just left no impact on me whatsoever. I expect this film to go down the way of the last few Home Alone sequels, just buried and forgotten about with only a few mentions from folks in the future to go like “Oh, yeah! That movie did exist!” And considering this whole franchise is about a character that would love nothing more than to go down in history, that’s about the worst crime you could possibly commit.

For those who were not fond of Crystal Skull and perhaps want a more “mature” take on the Indiana Jones character, you might get some enjoyment in this. For everyone else, you will likely find this as tiring as Indy himself does throughout the entire movie. In that case, at least Dial of Destiny is truthful to itself, even if it’s in the worse ways.

To tell you all the truth, out of all the summer movies I missed out on reviewing at the time they came out, this is the only one I didn’t want to review whatsoever. I always try my best to be as fair to each movie I’m reviewing as possible and judge it on it’s own terms regardless of the behind the scenes drama or offscreen behavior of certain actors that might have occurred. In the case of The Flash, this has to do with lead actor for Barry Allen themselves, Ezra Miller, who can’t seem to get out of trouble as they have been charged with multiple charges and allegations for the past few years, regarding abuse, assault, harassment, manipulation, and burglary. To quote Tony Stark from Iron Man 2, “Can you please NOT do anything awful for five seconds?!” I won’t go too deep into all of that as I already did a piece on that last year, which I will leave a link to at the end of the article, but Ezra has been causing an absolute s*itshow for everyone involved with The Flash.

I just didn’t think there was a way I can do a fair review for The Flash without recognizing the giant rain cloud behind the entire production of this film! However, after wrapping my head around my thoughts on this movie since June and rewatching it recently on Max, I now feel like I am able to give a complete and honest review for The Flash without the outside baggage from Ezra Miller influencing my opinion. That’s not to say I won’t mention it once or twice for the remainder of the review but I promise you this will in fact be a review of the movie and not what’s going on outside of that.

So, anyway, The Flash is a movie that has been in development hell for about as long as your parents have been alive and that’s NOT an exaggeration. The development for a Flash movie began all the way back in the late 1980s with multiple writers and directors attached to the project through 2014. Of course, when Warner Bros decided they were gonna make their own cinematic universe with their own superheroes, they knew that human Sonic the Hedgehog would have to play a role in it. However, there had been many, and I do mean MANY delays since this film was announced as part of the DC Extended Universe. With constant director changes, the Covid-19 pandemic, post-production setbacks, and controversies surrounding Ezra Miller, the fact this film was able to be released in an actual finished form is somewhat of a miracle.

After the mixed to negative response that the DCEU has received since it started in 2013 along with James Gunn and Peter Safran taking over to push forward to a new DC Universe, The Flash had been confirmed to be using the famous Flashpoint storyline to reset the DC timeline and set a clear path for future DC film installments. While it is quite risky to announce ahead of time that a film’s main purpose for existence is to wipe the slate clean as it would just give the sense of obvious obligation that folks can skip entirely, it can make for some good visual storytelling with plenty of fun action and fan service to get folks hyped for the future. While there have been films released that was able to do just that, The Flash is unfortunately not of those films.

Yes, Michael Keaton is back as Batman and is awesome to see once again! Yes, Sasha Calle is perfect as Supergirl and should definitely reprise this role for Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. Yes, there are a few of action beats and a fun cameo at the very end that work well here. However, none of those elements are able to save the picture. We still have a Barry Allen that’s not interesting, compelling, and is just annoying, there is still pointless fan service and cameos throughout that don’t amount to anything, some of which are quite frankly insulting, and it can just never outrun the whole feeling of obligation that the film is desperately trying to avoid. While The Flash might accomplish exactly what it sets out to do, it doesn’t accomplish it well whatsoever and makes for a middling at best experience.

Premise: Worlds collide when the Flash (Ezra Miller) uses his superpowers to travel back in time to change the events of the past. However, when his attempt to save his family inadvertently alters the future, he becomes trapped in a reality in which General Zod (Michael Shannon) has returned, threatening annihilation. With no other superheroes to turn to, the Flash looks to coax a very different Batman (Michael Keaton) out of retirement and rescue an imprisoned Kryptonian (Sasha Calle) — albeit not the one he’s looking for.

To be sure, The Flash‘s overall purpose of existence is not the main cause for it’s failure whatsoever. There are plenty of ways to tell interesting stories involving multiverse concepts, time travel mechanics, and just even for the sake of course correction. You have Into the Spider-Verse and Across the Spider-Verse that was able to use the multiverse concept to perfection to craft genuine, multilayered stories about what it means to be a superhero with fan service that actually meant something. You have No Way Home that used it’s multiverse concept to act as both a logical progression for the MCU’s Peter Parker and bringing back the other two live-action Spider-Men that acted as a culmination of the past two decades of Spider-Man films. Heck, there was even X-Men: Days of Future Past, a movie which solely existed to erase the X-Men movies that no one liked, who used it’s time traveling mechanic and obvious course correction template to craft a film about our heroes fixing their mistakes of the past to push for a better, more uplifting future. Even Multiverse of Madness used it’s set pieces and effective imagery to flirt with and mock the kind of fandom that care more about filmmakers making their bizarre fan theories coming to live instead of making a genuine work of art. And do I need to say anything about the impressive cinematic achievement that was Avengers: Endgame. Unfortunately, The Flash lacks the cleverness, inventive nature, or memorability of any of those films mentioned.

While the film sets up the idea of Barry Allen messing with time to so he can go back and save his mother from death, that ends up getting pushed to the way side once the characters shows up in another timeline. It’s once we arrived at an alternate 2013, it’s all about stopping Zod from Man of Steel and basically The Flash doing Superman’s job for him with the help of an alternate version of Batman and an alternate version of Supergirl. It’s honestly about half way through the movie where I already forgot that the main purpose of Barry traveling back in time was to rescue his mother because that got lost in the sea of everything else on display.

It also doesn’t help that Barry Allen as a character is just not endearing or a main protagonist to follow. There’s no reason as to why we should care about this version of Barry other than his mom died and his father is in jail now. He’s just some annoying young adult who has the awkward behavior of a nerdy kid from grade school without any of the traits that have made prior superheroes that fit under that sort of criteria likeable or interesting in their own rights. Not to mention, there are TWO Barry Allens we have to follow throughout the majority of the movie and man, are they both insufferable whenever they are on screen together and both are just not funny whatsoever. There’s only so much Ezra Miller one can take. All of that and more is what makes the first hour of this movie an absolute slog, aside from some fun cameos with Batfleck and Wonder Woman. And that’s not even mentioning the opening action scene with The Flash where he literally puts a baby in a microwave to protect it! A BABY IN A MICROWAVE! I got nothing else on that!

Once Michael Keaton’s Batman and Sasha Calle’s Supergirl gets thrown into the mix, the film does become much better as those two do some serious heavy lifting to make the middle act of this picture more bearable to sit through. Keaton is just as much fun here as Batman as he was back in the Tim Burton’s duology. The action scenes with him are awesome, especially the break-in scene, being back in his Batcave is cool, and it’s always a delight to hear Danny Elfman’s Batman music. Sasha Calle is fantastic as Supergirl and looks stunning in her suit, perfectly displaying the range and emotion for Kara. While she has a bit less screentime than Keaton, she’s steal every scene she is in and probably kicks more ass in this movie that Batman and Flash does combined. Please Mr. Gunn, let Calle come back as Supergirl for future movies!

Even so, it’s a huge problem when the only characters you like in a movie are strictly the main supporting players. They should be added bonuses and not the only saving graces of your picture. If anything, it just makes me wish I was watching a Batman Beyond movie with Michael Keaton (which was suppose to happen but got scraped) or Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow with Sasha Calle (which should happen). I’m willing to bet those would be more interesting films than The Flash and probably even make a better profit.

Another controversial element of this film has to do with some of the bizarre cameos within the film. While there a handful that fine and dandy such as Batfleck and Wonder Woman in the first act and the one at the very end, about every other one is distracting, pointless, and insulting on multiple levels. These aren’t even like “blink-and-you-miss-it” cameos either, they are right on screen with absolutely TERRIBLE CGI and each one takes you out of the film completely. I don’t care if they got approved by family members or the actors themselves, those cameos felt so dirty to watch that I needed to take a shower after watching the movie. At least the extended cameos in the Star Wars Disney Plus series such as The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett knew who they were aiming for and which fans would love that. I couldn’t tell you what these cameos were aimed for but I assure it’s not for the fans that DC thinks they are.

And speaking of CGI, it is absolutely ABSYMAL at every turn. They do not look even remotely convincing whatsoever and reek of obvious green screen and post-production problems. The cameos that have heavy CGI attached to them look like they came across from an early PlayStation 3 game rather than an actual movie with even Injustice 2 released on the PlayStation 4 looking more convincing than that. The Flashpoint itself looks more like a main menu screen in a video game than an actual scene from a 200 plus million dollar film. Even the CGI in the MCU have never been this bad and that’s saying a lot. I can’t imagine how hard the VFX artists were cringing when they were all trying to make these special effects look even half salvageable. I didn’t think it could possibly get worse than the obvious CGI-removal of a mustache and the messy final battle with Steppenwolf in Josstice League but I was dead wrong.

When it comes to The Flash, as a whole, even if you are able to separate the artist from the art in regards to Ezra Miller, it’s still not a very good movie at all. It’s got some fun moments with the action and a few cameos that aren’t ugly or insulting to look at along with the presence of Michael Keaton and Sasha Calle. That still doesn’t take away how terrible the CGI is, how the fan service scattered throughout don’t amount to anything, how it can’t escape the whole feeling of obligation, how this version of Barry Allen is still an incredibly annoying and unengaging character, and even the entire message of how cheating in time to correct your mistakes is wrong is one that basically contradicts itself by the end in ways I don’t think was intentional by the filmmakers. It might accomplish it’s goals it sets out do but doesn’t do in a way that’s particularly good either.

The whole thing just comes across as a movie that DC felt they were forced to make just so they can then get to the movies they might actually want to do. The Flash is far from the worst film that has been associated with the DC Extended Universe (if we’re going by recent ones, I did like it more than Black Adam), but I don’t think there has been one where it felt like a movie that the filmmakers were forced to make rather than one they actually wanted to make. If I were you, I just look up all the Batman and Supergirl scenes on YouTube. And now that the movie is out on digitally and Max, I imagine that’s what everyone else is doing. And it’s all for the better! I certainly hope that the future for the DC Universe is not as phoned-in as this movie was.

Part of me wants to give it a 1.5 stars but the fun parts were fun enough to where it’s get 2 stars!

2018’s Bumblebee was a refreshing change of pace for the Transformers series. This was coming after a slew of overblown and bloated installments from the Bayverse itself, most notably with the nearly unwatchable Age of Extinction and The Last Knight. It got to the point where even the most hardcore fans of Bayformers would admit that iteration of the autobots had officially warned out it’s welcome. Travis Knight was able to deliver the new shot in the arm that the series needed with Bumblebee and here we have Steven Caple Jr. trying to deliver another one with Rise of the Beasts. As much praise that Bumblebee got for strictly not being Michael Bay’s Transformers, from being more small-scaled to action that was comprehensible to the transformers feeling more like their series counterparts to a more human and fleshed out story, it really wasn’t as far removed from Bay’s Transformers as one might think.

I’m not just talking about the fact that it wasn’t made perfectly clear at the time it came out whether or not it was suppose to act as a prequel to Bay’s universe or just a complete reboot entirely (It’s been confirmed that it is in fact a reboot!). It’s more because Bumblebee basically hit many of the same beats of as the 2007 film did! Once again, you have a shy teenager that wants a car and happens to stumble upon one that turns out to be a Transformer, that Transformer being Bumblebee. It’s also got it’s fair share of wacky comedy sidekicks, the U.S. government playing a big role in it, evil robots that also happened to be aligned with dopes in the U.S. government, and there’s a bunch of badass military men with killer guns. While there were certainly elements that were changed or tweaked such as the main human character being a girl, having female characters that aren’t just eye candy, action without red bull shaky cam, a nice coming-of-age story, and a more family friendly tone, it would be easy to mistake Bumblebee as being a modern retelling of the original Transformers, even if it probably did it better.

Which is honestly why it should come as no surprise that Rise of the Beasts follows the same plot beats as 2009’s Revenge of the Fallen. You have Unicorn playing the role of the Fallen, Scourge playing the role of Megatron, the shocking death of Optimus Prime with the shocking death of *spoiler*, an interdimensional key, a moral that the main human character must learn about responsibility and leadership, and certain transformers that seem to only exist for comic relief. Again, that’s not to say Rise of the Beasts doesn’t do these plot beats better but you can definitely feel the Michael Bay influence still present within this franchise. While Travis Knight was able to measure up the material with inspiring results with Bumblebee, director Stephen Caple Jr. is only able to measure the material to results that feel as auto pilot as the autobots themselves with Rise of the Beasts. It’s a serviceable Transformers film overall but not one that serves as the next right step for this series, and that’s even with it’s obvious tease for the future (?) at the end.

Premise: Optimus Prime (Anthony Ramos) and the Autobots take on their biggest challenge yet. When a new threat capable of destroying the entire planet emerges, they must team up with a powerful faction of Transformers known as the Maximals to save Earth.

The main selling point for Rise of the Beasts is the fact that it would be an adaption of the well-known Beasts Wars, perhaps the most popular sub-franchise in the series. The most well-known Transformers in that series include a group known as the Maximals, with characters such as Optimus Primal, Cheetor, Rhinox, Arcee, Airzaor, Mirage, etc.. That in of itself could make for the most engaging material in a Transformers film to date and finally get an installment that they feel more of the main characters of their own movie. Unfortunately, this element is no where near as well utilized as it could have been.

That’s not to say the Maximals don’t have their moments, most notable Pete Davidson’s Mirage who has some of the best and funniest moments in the movie. However, they mostly feel like an afterthought here, with only about two members of the Maximals getting anything of significant to do in the story. It feels as if they were thrown in there at the last second just for the sake of having more Transformers in action. While the action beats with them are cool, there is so much potential with them that the movie doesn’t even bother to explore. Instead, it choses to focus on characters that mainstream audiences are more familiar with such as Optimus Prime (who is surprisingly almost as much of a jerk as he was in the last two Bayformers movies) and Bumblebee along with the personal human drama.

Anthony Ramo is likable in the lead role as the new main human lead of Noah Diaz and has a fun sibling relationship with his brother Kris, played by Dean Scott Vazquez. I especially love the way they both refer to each other as Sonic and Tails (which of course is referenced to Paramount owning the rights to the Sonic movies). However, that mostly gets pushed to the wayside in favor of giving him a female love interest named Elena Wallace, played by Dominque Fishback, whose presence also feels tacked on. Fishback is fine in the role but she isn’t giving much to work with other than playing love interest #101 and lacks property chemistry with Ramo. While it’s far from the worse human drama in this series, it’s lacks the spark of that was present between Bumblebee and Hailee Steinfeld and even Shia Labeouf to an extent.

However, for those that come to these movies for the robo fights, this should definitely do you proud. The action is quite top-notch, able to build perfectly from the prologue of Bumblebee and able to translate that scale and chorography wonderfully into Rise of the Beasts. While it’s certainly not as explosive heavy as Bay’s movies, it certainly avoids the trappings of obnoxious shaky cams and awkward cuts, being able to see clearly what’s going on and feeling the tension throughout every single action scene that is present. Even if the Maximals don’t make as much impressions as characters, they do make for some entertaining spectacle.

Despite the paper-thin characterization and plotting, the cast does a fine job overall, from the voice celebrity actors for the Transformers themselves to the human cast. Peter Cullen is still the G.O.A.T. as Optimus Prime. Rob Perlman, Peter Dinklage, and Michelle Yeoh does good work as Optimus Primal, Scourage, and Airazor respectively. Pete Davidson probably makes the biggest impressions among the new Transformers as Mirage, certainly making for one of the better comic relief characters in this franchise. Although, the two lack on-screen chemistry or characters with depth, Anthony Romos and Dominque Fishback have enough personality and charm to carry the material they are given to work with.

There’s not much you can say about Rise of the Beasts other than what you come to expect from a Transformers movie at this point. Some might think I’m demanding to much from the kind of movies that solely exists to be fun popcorn flicks that don’t require much to turn your brain off too. However, with the kind of material is was adapting and is present onscreen, it could have made for one of the better Transformers movies rather than one that is middle-of-the-pack at best. Despite sharing similar faults as Bumblebee with following familiar beats and tropes, it lacks the energy and heart that film provided, leaving this one feeling more disposable than anything else. It delivers the action, visuals, and spectacle you can come to expect from these movies and does them well to make for a fine watch but it doesn’t do enough to justify the Beasts Wars brand or even the brand that it has follow through for over a decade now. Even with the tease at the end of a potential cross-over in the future, Rise of the Beasts feels too surface value and run-of-the-mill. And if the lackluster box office numbers have been any indication, I’m certainly not alone in thinking that.

Who in the world would’ve thought that the Fast & Furious series would have eleven installments up to this point? This is a franchise that has come a long way from it’s traditional street racing days and now acts as some of the biggest and dumbest actions films ever made. Everyone has their own opinion of which days of Vin Diesel and crew that they prefer. As I mentioned in my review for Fast X, if it wasn’t the original The Fast and the Furious that got you into the series, then it was likely Fast Five that did just that. Because of that, opinions on the series’ quality and decline certainly differs from one generational fan to another. That’s why there’s a good chance my ranking won’t match with yours. Regardless, let’s rank these crazy films from worst to best!

11.) F9

This is the installment that basically redefining jumping the shark by having a sequence where it had it’s characters literally jump out in OUTER SPACE WHILE IN A CAR! F9 is the movie that took every known component that F&F was known up to this point and cranked it up to 11! The result was a mindless and proudly stupid film that constantly reminds you how mindless and proudly stupid it is. You have action sequences that have no tender to reality, characters that are brought back but giving nothing to do, and the whole family dynamic that has been the driving force of the series is abandoned, with Dom having a brother this whole time that he literally threw out of his life and pretended never existed. There’s jumping the shark and there’s whatever the hell F9 is! If this wasn’t a sign that the franchise had lost it’s heart and soul, then I really don’t want to know what is.

10.) 2 Fast 2 Furious

The one entry that put the full spotlight on Paul Walker’s Brian O’Conner and Tyrese Gibson’s Roman Pearce is unfortunately one of the weakest in the franchise. Most of the fun and personality that carried the best F&F movies and even some of the worst ones is just not present here. The racing sequences fall flat and don’t hold a candle to the original, the villain is a complete joke, the plot is silly beyond words, and the film’s overreliance on weird Dutch angels gets distracting the longer it goes on. While it’s no longer the worst in the franchise since it at least doesn’t get so ridiculous that it’s insulting to the human brain, 2 Fast 2 Furious is best left ignored.

9.) The Fate of the Furious

The first post-Furious 7 flick that showcased the lack of creativity that this franchise has remaining and the amount of staying power it no longer contains. These movies were slowly starting to flirt with the amount of ridiculousness contained within itself that was clearly not going to carry over well with future entries. What makes it stick out more like a sore thumb here is the needlessly self-serious tone along with putting too much emphasis on constant timeline retcons, bizarre character reveals, and predictable outcomes. You also have Jason Statham feeling like a completely different character from the last movie, Charlize Theron (A.K.A Furious herself) cast in a F&F movie but doesn’t even get to drive a car, and the tone-deaf name reveal of Dom’s son named Brian. While not without some enjoyable moments, The Fate of the Furious was the sign of this series had been stuck in neutral.

8.) Fast X

Fast X is not the worst entry in this franchise but it definitely feels like the most tired one. It’s pretty much a statement that this series has lost the pride and heart that it once have and has literally become the parody that it was previously avoiding or poking fun at. Jason Momoa carries the whole thing with his charismatic performance as the new evil baddie in the series and there’s a few fine characters moments and action beats here and there but there is just no reason to care about anything that’s going on in this series anymore because whatever happens where, it will likely be retconned by the next film. For those who are still on board and don’t care about effective stakes and consequences in these movies, you will likely get your money’s worth and still be entertained. For everyone else, just get out of the car while you still can. It’s better than 8 and 9 but that’s not really much of a race to win.

7.) Fast & Furious

The bizarrely titled Fast & Furious (which I actually thought was suppose to be the first one based on the title when I first binged these movies) is the one that basically resembled the end of one road and the beginning of another. Acting as a bridge between the street racing flicks of the original three movies and setting the groundwork for Fast Five and onwards, this was one of the last movies in the series where we see the Fast Family acting more like mortal human beings who have to deal with the consequences of their past. Just a shame of outside of those elements along with the supposed death of Letty (which would get retcon two movies later), there’s nothing much that stands out as being particularly memorable about Fast & Furious. It’s harmless enough but not one you will find yourself going back to outside of potential future binging.

6.) Hobbs & Shaw

This is probably the only one chapter of the post-Paul Walker era that I found enjoyment in. Yes, it’s just as crazy and over-the-top as those recent films and I still don’t buy Jason Statham being portrayed as a suppose “good guy” now but that’s forgivable because of how well done the action scenes are and the Rock and Statham just have perfect chemistry whenever they are on screen together. Idris Elba makes for one entertaining bad guy as basically “Black Superman” and Vanessa Kirby blends in very well with the rest of the rose gallery of badass women in the series (even if Eiza Gonzalez could have been given more to do). It may not be necessary but Hobbs & Shaw is able to deliver what it says on the box quite well without trying to convince you it’s something else entirely.

5.) The Fast and the Furious

The one that started it all is the most unapologetic Point Break knock-off out there and somehow managed to be a better Point Break remake than the actual turd remake that somehow made it’s way to theaters in 2015. While this franchise has certainly come a long way in the best and worst ways, it’s odd to look back when these films were about street racers boosting DVD players as it made things more focused with clear cut goals to deliver straight forward racing flicks with a limited budget and runtime. Similar to the very first X-Men and Harry Potter, while it’s reputation is higher than it’s actual quality along with playing more like a “proof of concept” than an actual film, The Fast and the Furious works well as a one-and-done racing/crime melodrama that requires no homework whatsoever to understand and enjoy.

4.) Fast & Furious 6

Coming off the series’ high of Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6 was always gonna have tough shoes to fill. Even if it doesn’t quite measure up, it’s still a lot of fun to watch Justin Lin try to top himself with even more action-heavy stunts this time around and a stronger focus on being a heist thriller. Despite coming off an entry where it felt like everything paid off big time for the whole crew, this is still able to give each member of the Fast Family something to do and their own moment to shine. While this did introduces tropes that would later come back to prior future sequels with resurrecting dead characters and defying internal logic, it still holds together well because there’s still legit stakes throughout and the family dynamics still feel real. This is probably the one F&F movie I always put on whenever I need a good fun time without thinking too much about it.

3.) Furious 7

Acting as the beginning of the end of the F&F franchise as we know it, Furious 7 existing at all feels like a miracle. What makes it even more of a miracle is that it works all despite having everything going against them with the tragic passing of Paul Walker. This acts well as being the final chapter of the successful self-parody era of this franchise along with delivering an ending that’s such an all-timer and perfect send-off for Brian O’Connor that it should have been the end to this franchise. It’s a shame that The Rock gets pushed to the wayside this time around and this was when the series was starting to get so ridiculous that people were beginning to get very annoyed by it. Warts and all, James Wan is still able to deliver the great stunts and action where it counts the most while giving the Fast Family a nice send off that would have worked well as a satisfying conclusion to this franchise. It might be an easy movie to nitpick to death but considering all the circumstances surrounding the production, Furious 7 is a marvelous achievement that deserves all the credit in the world.

2.) The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

There are two kinds of people in the world: those that get Tokyo Drift and those that do not. Considering that this is #2 on the list, you probably know which group I fall in. Acting as a brief departure from the main series by not including 99% of the Fast crew, this was easily the best of the pre-Fast Five films because it’s makes the best use of street racing element that played the biggest key factor in the series. Setting a F&F film in Japan was such as genius choice that I’m surprised it wasn’t done from the get-go as it makes for the perfect location to provide some genuinely intense and fist-bumping racing sequences. Lucas Black may not be the best actor in the world but his character fits perfectly in the F&F universe as yet another anti-hero that’s trying to take the law into his own hands for his personal greed. Of course, this also introduced fan-favorite Hans who was so likeable they had to make the next few films actual prequels to this so they can keep him as part of the gang for a limit period of time. If there’s anyone that wants to know the appeal of this series during it’s early era, look no further than The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. When even Christopher Nolan himself is a big fan of the film, you know you’ve done something right.

1.) Fast Five

Of course, there has been no installment in this entire franchise that been able to top his one. Not only is Fast Five hands down the best F&F movie to date, it’s arguably one of the best action films of the 21st century. Every action scene, from the car chases to the hand-to-hand combat to the heist missions, is spectacularly done, the stunt work from every member of the team is so good that they all deserved an Oscar, the supporting cast is at their absolute best and most well utilized here, the family drama and tension has never been more personal, and introduces the most charismatic actor of the series that acted as the perfect “shot in the arm” with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. This was the one where it felt like the whole thing came full circle, paying off four movies of ill-conceived plots and delivering a spectacular climax in the heist mission that is easily the most stand out sequence in the entire franchise. This has the right mix of everything and was able to avoid most of the series’ problems before hand and especially after. Because of all of this and more, Fast Five is the best that the Fast and Furious franchise has got and is just as good as blockbuster films can possibly get in general.

Fast and Furious has to be one of the most severely complicated movie franchises out there. It’s a series of films that have basically coasted on two different identities for itself. You had the first three movies that act as simple street racing flicks while four and onwards act as crazy, over-the-top action thrill rides with some espionage and heist elements thrown into the mix. They say that if it wasn’t the original The Fast and the Furious that got you into the series, then it was Fast Five that did just that. Regardless of what subgenre for this series that you prefer, I think most will agree that Furious 7 should have been the main stopping point for the series. Not only because of the passing of Paul Walker and the seventh installment basically acting as one fine tribute to him but it seemed like everything had come full circle for the characters and their journeys throughout the series that there wasn’t anywhere left to go. However, the movies didn’t stop there and the series have basically become even more of a parody of itself then it already was as a result.

The Fate of the Furious was a completely dour and self-serious pile of mediocrity filled with confusing twists, odd character motivations, and screw-ups of the timeline, showcasing the lack of ideas this series has left. F9 redefined jumping the shark by literally having it’s characters jump out into orbit along with action scenes, character motivations, and logic that was borderline nonsensical, even for F&F standards, making it easily the worst the franchise has got. While the spin-off Hobbs & Shaw was enjoyable enough in it’s own right, there has been nothing about these post-Furious 7 entries that have justified this series continuing on aside from box office results. Now, we have Fast X. Although it’s an improvement over the last two main installments, it still continues that trend of a series that desperately needs to put it’s engine to rest.

Premise: Over many missions and against impossible odds, Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his family have outsmarted and outdriven every foe in their path. Now, they must confront the most lethal opponent they’ve ever faced. Fueled by revenge, a terrifying threat known as Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa) emerges from the shadows of the past to shatter Dom’s world and destroy everything — and everyone — he loves. Toretto must bring his back together once again to protect his family and the one he loves from this new menace.

There are basically three main selling points when it comes to Fast & Furious nowadays: ridiculous stunts, over-the-top action, and some social commentary on the power of family. That is something that everyone has to be aware of when they go to one of these movies. While the better entries in this franchise were able to make the best use of that, most notably Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6, and Furious 7, these last few entries continue to make the absolute worst use of that. Not only because they defy logic with characters feeling more like overpowered superheroes than real human begins, they also defy tension and actual stakes. It’s not that turning your brain off for a dumb action film is inherently a bad thing but it’s now done so much to the point there’s no reason to care about anything going on in these movies anymore.

Fast X certainly doesn’t contain anywhere near amount of logic breaking action sequences on par with F9, almost as if the filmmakers felt pressured to pump the breaks after the criticism for that movie. However, there are still plenty of moments throughout that it will require you to not think whatsoever for you to buy it one single bet. The main one involves a sequence where Dom Toretto is able to run his car head on into a crane, is able to spin it around with enough force, and the car is able to land perfectly without a ton of damage or Dom having so much as a scratch on him. And don’t get started when he is also able to life a car up with just one hand and even driving perfectly through the damn while he and his son are ON FIRE! It’s almost as if scenes like this exist just so Vin Diesel can stroke his own ego and prove himself to be the “hero” of cinema! Goodness gracious!

What also takes away the tension of these recent installments is constantly bringing back characters that were previously dead. You can definitely make the argument that bringing back Letty in Fast & Furious 6 was pushing it but just about every character that has come back since then have just felt redundant. What’s the point of caring about anything happening anymore if you have characters constantly coming back when they’ve been previously killed off? Without getting much into spoilers, there is a sequence towards the end of the climax where one major character commits a heroic sacrifice but I’m willing to bet it won’t mean crap in the next film because he will likely just be brought back anyway. And that’s not even mentioning how after said character dies, we discover later on that ANOTHER character that was thought to be dead is still alive. Even if I can admittedly buy that one person surviving over the other characters brought back to life, it still doesn’t take away from the fact that the series just has no stakes or tension of any kind anymore.

To make matters even worse is that the film itself throws brand new characters into the mix without even knowing what to do with the ones that they brought back to life. Brie Larson and Alan Ritchson join the expanded cast of characters but they are mostly pushed to the wayside for the majority of the film as it has to make room for a bunch of other characters and subplots that it also doesn’t even know what to do with. What was the point of bringing Han back from the dead if you weren’t gonna give him anything to do? Why is Shaw constantly being dragged into dire situations with Dom’s crew? When exactly did Scott Eastwood becoming a main player of the series again? How in the world did you get *spoiler* back into this mess? If you offer such little spectacle that is fun to watch and ask yourself questions like I just did, then you basically failed your job at what you are trying to do.

It should be worth mentioning that Fast X is tended to be Part One of the supposed final story in this franchise, with Part Two coming out in 2025 with a possible Part Three in the works. If you didn’t know that ahead of time, then you CERTAINLY will with the way this film wraps up in the most abrupted way possible. There’s a good chance that most of my questions will be answered next time around but they’re not necessarily questions you should need another movie to answer for or ones that you really want to see being answered next time around. And considering this is a franchise that no longer cares about continuity whatsoever, I trust them to resolve all these loose ends about as far as I can throw Vin Diesel himself (except when he’s a little talking tree of course).

That’s not to say there’s no redeemable valuables whatsoever. The one newcomer that absolutely makes the whole movie his own is the villain Dante Reyes, played by Jason Momoa. The character himself is probably the best villain this series has had in quite some time and Momoa himself is clearly enjoying every scene that he is in. You can tell the actor is 100% aware of what kind of movie he is in and absolutely makes the most of it. He’s funny, manipulative, and makes for a perfect foe to Dom and his family. While the way the character is inserted into the timeline is about as contrived as it usually is with this series, Momoa is so entertaining in the role that it’s impossible to care.

There’s also John Cena’s return as Dom’s brother Jakob (I still can’t believe this is a real thing!) who works much better this time around compare to Fast X and has really nice chemistry with his nephew Brian, played by Leo Abelo Perry. The main players from the past F&F movies still do have nice chemistry with one another, even if they have all pretty much provided everything they’ve possibly can add to the series. And while the action has become so in-your-face that it’s become numb to this point, there are handful of hand-to-hand combat fights that work quite well, most notably the long awaited fight between Charlize Theron and Michelle Rodriguez.

Fast X is not the worst entry in this franchise but it definitely feels like the most tired one. It’s pretty much a statement that this series has lost the pride and heart that it once have and has literally become the parody that it was previously avoiding to do. Jason Moama carries the whole thing with his charismatic performance and there’s a few fine characters moments and action beats here and there but there is just no reason to care about any of it anymore. For those who are still on board and don’t care about effective stakes or consequences in these movies, you will likely get your money’s worth and be entertained. For everyone else, just get out of the car while you still can. It’s better than 8 and 9 but that’s not really much of a race to win.

It was just announced today that Charles Martinet, the man behind the voice of Mario since he started speaking, will be retiring after over three decades of voicing the iconic character. He had also done the voice for other notable characters in the Mario franchise such as Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, and their baby equivalents. It’s unknown yet who will be taking over the role but whoever it is will make their debut voicing Mario in the upcoming game Super Mario Wonder, set to release on October 20th. While Martinet will still remain at Nintendo as a special ambassador, his time as the Italian plumber and a few others have come to an end. His last notable roles in the Mario franchise came from last year’s releases of Mario Strikers: Battle League and Mario + Rabbids Spark of Hope along with The Super Mario Bros. Movie where he did some cameo roles and voiced Mario and Luigi’s father.

To say that whoever will replace him will have big shoes to fill would be an understatement. You are replacing a legend who had helped bring so much life and energy to what was originally a very muted character. Sure, there were a handful of notable actors that voiced the character in other entertainment mediums such as the 90s show, 90s live-action movie, and of course, the animated movie from this year but it’s never really happen in the form of medium that the character is most well known for, the video games. Whether you like it or not, things are about to change for the better or worse.

Admittedly, Mario as a character isn’t well known for his award-winning voice acting. In the games themselves, he never really talks in long or coherent sentences to give Martinet an “Oscar” moment and only speaks ups every once in a while to utter the same phrase that the player is thinking about at that very moment. However, it’s that voice alone that brings the life and energy to that character that has helped defined him over the past 30+ years. It’s the voice that exists to give you a glimpse at what that character would sound like in real life and have anyone imagine how it would sound if the character was more talkative. It may not be a whole lot but it’s definitely enough. Just hearing Charles Martinet say “Yahoo!” as Mario sounds right every single time!

That’s not to say having a different voice actor for Mario will make those iconic lines sound wrong but it won’t sound right the way it used to be. No matter how good of a job the next person up might end up doing, he will be compared unfairly to Charles Martinet. Whether he will try hard to sound exactly like Martinet’s Mario or do his own spin on it, he will never be Charles Martinet and there is no denying that. Just ask Chris Pratt!

In the best case scenario, this will be the equivalent of when Troy Baker took over the role as Joker from Mark Hamill or when Tara Strong took over the role as Harley Quinn from Arleen Sorkin. While they do resemble their previous voice actors to an extent and can never fully captured the spark they provided, they are still worth successors in their own right. That’s because they are able to provide enough of their own take on the characters they are voicing that makes their version stand out greatly in their own rights and pays respects to the characters they are voicing along with the actors they are succeeding. If this is a similar case scenario for Mario, then I think this will work out just fine and the next person up should have nothing much to worry about.

While Nintendo hasn’t announced yet who will be the voice of Mario in Super Mario Wonder and beyond, there have been some voiced clips released with the gameplay that has been shown so far of the game. If what we have heard so far is any indication, then I think we are in good hands. I certainly am curious though if the new voice actor for Mario will also be voicing multiple characters as well, most notably the ones that Martinet voiced such as Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi. Even so, I’ve liked what we’ve heard of Mario’s new voice so far. If you want to be your own judge, here’s a link to the gameplay footage shown thus far and form your own opinion.

While Charles Martinet no longer voicing Mario is certainly a shock, it is something that was gonna have to be done at some point. As the good old saying goes, all goods things must come to an end. Regardless, no matter how Mario sounds from hear on out, Charles Martinet will always be known as the main voice behind the famous Italian Plumber for generations. While he will certainly be missed as the voice of Mario, he will certainly never be forgotten.

Thanks for everything, Charles Martinet! And whoever had the balls to follow in his footsteps, I wish you the best of luck!

Super Mario Bros. Wonder will be released on October 20th!

Does anyone remember that one episode of Spongebob Squarepants titled, “Fear of a Krabby Patty”? What happened in that episode is that Mr. Krabs decides to open the Krusty Krab for 24 hours after his arch rival Plankton threatened to open his restaurant, the Chum Bucket, for 23 hours! Because of that along with Plankton secretly ordering 10,000 Krabby Patties, Spongebob and Squidward are overworked to hell and their minds start cracking like an egg from exhaustion! Because of this, Spongebob suffers from cases of insomnia, hallucinations, and so-called “Krabby Patty phobia”, which leads to him needing to see a psychiatrist. The most famous moment of that episode was the montage where Mr. Krabs is keeping track of how many days it’s been since the Krusty Krab is opening while Spongebob is slowly starting to lose his mind and be exhausted from constantly doing his jobs for several weeks with no breaks whatsoever.

That episode managed to be quite ahead of it’s time and honestly overlooked. Not only because it was the first episode to come out of Spongebob Squarepants after the very first movie came out (A.K.A. the start of the so-called “bad” era of Spongebob), but the morals of that episodes are ones that still range true to this day. The morals being that bosses needlessly overworking their employees is wrong and quality should come first over quantity. And if the reported awful experiences that VFX artists have had at Marvel Studios along with the animators behind Across the Spider-Verse is any indication, it looks as though the folks involved in either of those teams have suffered from their own Krabby Patty phobia. Overworked to exhaustion so much that they never want to even take a glance at a digital effect or piece of animation ever again!

If you have been following the Marvel Cinematic Universe in recent years, you would know that Marvel has had a HUGE CGI and VFX problem for a long time now! It got to the point where somehow the works from their previous films from the very beginning have better and more polished effects than the later films despite the increased budgets over time and more advanced technology. While most people will point that problem to many of the Phase Four installments and onwards with infamously awful CGI/VFX work in the likes of Black Widow, Thor: Love and Thunder, She-Hulk, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania this has been a problem going on for almost a full decade now!

My first notice of the iffy at best special effects work came at the beginning of Avengers: Age of Ultron, where the Avengers are fighting alongside each other in a sequence that looks so cartoony, over-the-top, and unrealistic that it COMPLETELY took me out of the movie along with others when I first saw it. While the effects did get better throughout that film, the results of some of the effects there were just baffling, especially with so much money being spent on that movie. Unfortuantely, it didn’t stop there!

There were plenty of other instances that I noticed that for the rest of Phase Two and Three of said poor VFX work. There was the airport fight scene in Captain America: Civil War where the CGI was painfully obvious, especially with Spider-Man, the big blue blob sequence that took place at the climax in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and of course, the INCREDIBLY poor special effect work in Black Panther! It’s so bizarre how the more this series got popular and the more money spent on it, the worse the special effects actually got!

Whenever the effects in anything looks bad, people always like to point their fingers to CGI being the main problem or even throwing shades at the people who worked on it. However, it’s very clear at this point that neither one of those are to blame for it! The VFX artists are clearly trying their heart out to make it work and make the effects look as convincing as possible! The problems mostly ranges from the studios releasing as many projects as they can with not as much time as before, having very little patience with their workers, annihilating those that won’t put up with their crap, and as a result, the VFX teams become smaller and more overworked the longer the production goes on. If you don’t believe me, just ask the people that worked on WandaVision!

I will leave a link at the end of this piece of the interview with the VFX artists themselves so you can read more into it but needlessly to say, the experience of working on WandaVision was absolute hell for those that worked on it that were a part of the VFX team! From working constant 18-hours shifts to not having any days offs until the show was near completion to being unable to see their families due to work conditions to not even getting any bonuses or raises for working overtime, it had to been an absolutely MISERABLE experience to anyone who had to work on that show!

Just imagine being a part of that team during the making of WandaVision! Can you honestly really blame the VFX artists for any bad effects that might have been on the show? At some point, when working so much and having very little rest during that, you have to stop giving a crap and likely just want to finish it as fast as you can so it can all be over, getting a chance to have a full eight hour long sleep for once! I understand it’s a big show that MILLIONS of people around the world are gonna watch which always results in long work shifts but being overworked to that extend is just not acceptable!

You can also say the same thing for just about every show or movie that Marvel Studios has released in the past two years! Regardless of what you think about the overall quality of them, I think everyone will agree that releasing over 20 products in the span of just two years is quite absurd! Compare that to when the studios were just releasing a couple of films a year. That led to more time being spend on polishing the scripts, effects, and productions so it can make for better, quality pictures. You know the term, less is more! Less is more is certainly what can NOT be said about Marvel for the past two years!

While that likely has to do with Disney demanding so much Marvel content at once for Disney Plus and theaters, especially during Bob Chapek’s brief time as CEO, at some point, the pressure is going to get to the people working on these things eventually. At some point, they are simply gonna stop caring about the quality of it and just focus on getting it done as fast as possible so they can see their families sooner rather than later. There’s only so much the human body can take before it has had enough and your brain completely goes into “I don’t give a F!” mode! To put it all simply, the treatment that VFX artists have been getting at Marvel Studios is quite frankly cruel!

Thankfully, the Marvel VFX workers seem to think the exact same thing! Earlier this week, it’s been reported that the VFX artists will indeed go on strike and set up a vote to create a new, national VFX union. A union that will likely create a better work environment for the team with plenty of fresh, young blood, flexible work scheduling, and plenty of rewards and bonuses for those that chose to work overtime!  If successful, this would be the first group to certify union participation amid a wider call for unionization in the VFX community. The election date for it is August 21st and will last until September 11th.

I don’t know how that will played out but something like that NEEDED to happen badly. Not just for the sake of the quality of the VFX for future Marvel projects but also for the sake of the well-beings that take so much time out of their day to do that work for all of us to watch in the comforts of our own homes. However, VFX artists are not the only ones that desperately need a strike to voice their displeasure with their working conditions, that should go to animators as well.

As much as we would all love to turn a blind side of any potential behind the scenes drama to any one of our favorites movies, they are always worth bringing up when they happen to make sure you know of the unstable working conditions that the people involve in these movies are going through for several months and possibly even years while they are making it. In this case, while Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is still one of my favorites films of 2023, I can’t deny the reports of the absolute hell that animators and artists went through when it came to making the film as masterful as it is. It hurts to admit but it’s just the truth, to paraphrase a very wise someone from the same said film!

Just like with the article involving the VFX artists, I will also provide one involving the making of Across the Spider-Verse that goes more in-depth to everything the animators of that film went through but once again, it was NOT a pleasant experience whatsoever. This interview that came out in June referred to four animators on Across the Spider-Verse that left the project due to it not being a pleasant experience and they were far from the only ones.

The working conditions for Across the Spider-Verse were very difficult for everyone involved, from numerous revisions to full 11-hour shifts, seven days a week, for over a year. This had to do with producer/co-writer, Phil Lord, constantly re-writing the script and overseeing production, forcing animators to constantly re-work certain scenes until he 100% approves of it. This led to hundreds of hours of hard work with the animation being thrown in the trash because it wasn’t what Lord wanted and hundreds of extra hours of work to make it the way he wanted. This stressful workload was so overwhelming to many animators and artists that over 100 of them left the project halfway through.

The four went on to say that there was no way that the next film, Beyond the Spider-Verse was gonna makes it’s March 2024 release date (which they were correct), as both movies were not made at the same time and they “barley crossed the finished line” when it came time for the second movie to premiere. While the highers ups from Sony such as Amy Pascal and Michelle Grady attempted to downplay on those work conditions that these four animators addressed, there is no denying that grueling hours and workload demands were a major factor on getting Across the Spider-Verse into shape before release. While this is far from the first instance where a genuinely great film was a complete nightmare to work on for the people involved, it is quite said to see animators get such harsh treatment like this.

What makes it worse is the reports of there being completely different versions of Across the Spider-Verse that were released in theaters and also through digital last week! While the versions aren’t so different that it affects the plot or viewing experience, certain changes and details that were removed have been noted from people that have watched the film multiple times! Could that have to do with the film “barely crossing the finished line” like the animators mentioned and not taking one last glance at the picture before releasing it everywhere worldwide? I can’t say exactly but the fact that the people involved didn’t bother making one more edit before publication before release and only did it after release says a lot!

There is hope that Beyond the Spider-Verse might not get the same story when it comes to the overworking hours for the animators. The film has been delayed from it’s initial March 2024 release date and even taken off the release schedule until further notice. While a large part of that has to do with the current strike that’s currently taking place with the writers and actors, that does at least mean that there will be more time for those involve to publish the film and help make it the best possible version of itself. And even producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller claimed that the film will only come out “when it’s ready”!

Even if I can take their word for it, that does not change the fact that the animators went through a lot when making Across the Spider-Verse and received very little reward for it in return. While there has been a strike in place for VFX artists in regards to Marvel Studios, animators and artists are more in their right to go on strike. Their contract with the SAG-AFTRA is set to expire sometime next year. When that happens, I would not be surprised to see them go on strike! Or if the studios want to avoid another situation like the one happening now with their writers and actors, they should leave by example like what Seth Rogen did to the animation crew of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.

Yes, you read that correctly! In a recent interview, it was confirmed by TMNT director Jeff Rowe that him along with producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg made sure the staff could work on the animated movie while continuing to maintain a good work-life balance. It was something that the three of them took to heart and made their top priority every day when working on the picture. Come on studios, if Seth Rogen of all people can take good care of his crew, then you can too! I’ll also leave a link for that interview as well but yeah!

Keep in mind, I’m not trying to get you to change your mind on what you think of the new Marvel stuff and Across the Spider-Verse! It’s perfectly okay to still enjoy them if you do. Even I will admit I still enjoy most of them! I don’t necessarily think folks who worked on these things are coming out to get you to hate the things they worked on but more to understand their perspective on what they’ve been going through when making these things as a result and hopes it will lead to more stress-free productions for the immediate future.

In conclusion, VFX artists and animators deserve to join alongside the writers and actors right now and take a stand to the toxic work environment they are forced to work with every day. While the VFX crew from Marvel Studios are doing that right now and the animators may have to wait another year to do so, they have fully earned the right to do that!

What’s going on with film and television production in Hollywood right now is unacceptable and it’s time for changes! Changes such has treating the people that make you who you are with some damn respect! First the writers and actors, now the VFX artist and animators! And I promise you, A.I. won’t bail you out of this one!

Links to Articles:

• https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/marvel-vfx-workers-move-toward-unionization-vote-1235567010/

• https://collider.com/spider-man-across-the-spider-verse-animators-working-conditions/

• https://decider.com/2023/08/07/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-mutant-mayhem-director-treating-animators-ethically-seth-rogen/