Death by Disney?

COCO

ANIMATED

PLOT:    A young Mexican boy learns to appreciate family from the land of the dead.

                Miguel loves his hero Ernesto del la Cruz a singer but his family has banned him from playing music.  On the holiday Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) he is accidentally goes to the land of the dead and finds out the truth about his family and how he wants to go back to them.  It sounds like a horror movie but they have beautiful songs and visuals and the important lesson never forget your family.  It is well done and doesn’t seem like the movie is for children but it is for everyone.  If you can WATCH IT!

STAR WARS VIII: THE LAST JEDI

FANTASY/ACTION

  

PLOT:    Rey goes to see Luke Skywalker for she is founding out she has new powers and the rebels have a new menace:  The First Order.

                Good and evil are being blurred in this movie.  You don’t know who to trust.   The best parts are the action and special effects.  Both are very well done.  The bad guy Snoke is great but not in there very long.  Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) Snoke’s apprentice is moving even closer to the “dark side” of the force.  The late and fantastic 

Carrie Fisher as General Lei Organa is still strong still leading the rebels and Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) is torn between living alone on his island or to help Rey.  He has funny moments and equally sad moments as well.  If you are a fan of Star Wars, the ones director George Lucas made you may not like it, for writer director Rian Johnson is “Disney-fying” the franchise.  Diehard fans will go; others (like me) liked the movie as  epic entertainment.

Holiday Epic Funtime

JUSTICE LEAGUE

ACTION/ADVENTURE

PLOT:    The origin of the team of the Justice League.

                Superman is dead and Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) decides to collect of people with superpowers to stop the herald of Darkside, Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds) from retrieving the three Mother Boxes to destroy the world.   The superheroes are: Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), The Flash, (Ezra Miller) Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and Aquaman (Jason Momoa).  For those who think this is the Dark Knight, it isn’t!!  It is a lighter tone.  The movie was much longer but the studio; Warner Brothers edited it to two hours.  It may feel rushed by it just may have been cut for time.  The team has great chemistry but the villain not so much.  Fans know who Steppenwolf is but many people do not.  The Flash and Aquaman are the highlights of the film.  They are heroic and humorous.  If you see this movie DO NOT rush out when the credits start rolling!  There are two post-credit scenes  you want to see.  Marvel films does this post-credits scenes all the time, but now DC is doing it . 

THE STAR

ANIMATED

PLOT:  The telling of first Christmas with animals.

              There have been many films of the first Christmas from the animal’s point of view but this is well-made and heartfelt.   Many celebrities used their voices to this film but what makes it good is that it is funny and the animals are cute.  It is for children as well as adults.  I believe it will be a classic years to come.  If you can, please watch it!!!

MARSHALL

BIOGRAPHY/DRAMA

PLOT:   A young and only lawyer of NAACP and one of his famous cases.

               Chadwick Boseman loves bio films.  He was baseball great Jackie Robinson and the Godfather of Soul James Brown now he plays Thurgood Marshall.  He is a young lawyer who helps black people trying to get a fair trial.  In one case a blonde upper class beauty Kate Hudson is attacked by a black man Sterling K. Brown.  Marshall and his assistant Sam Friedman (Josh Gad) who is his lawyers.  You figure out the outcome before the movie is over but the acting is excellent from all the leads.  Hudson and Gad known for comedy are fantastic.  The movie did not do very well in theaters but I hope in video for it is outstanding.  Actor Boseman will be in the highly anticipated movie Black Panther.

MURDER OF THE ORIENT EXPRESS

MYSTERY

PLOT:  Remake of 1974 film of the same name.

                Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) is a retired detective boards a train and Samuel Ratchett (Johnny Depp) is murdered.  He solves it but it is a somber conclusion.  Branagh isn’t just an actor but a director and he is very good at it!  It is well made and beautiful to look at.    The cast is not just A-list in popularity but talent as well.   Judi Dench (M from the James Bond films), Willem Dafoe (Spiderman, John Wick), Derek Jacobi (I Claudius, Gladiator) and Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: The Force Awakens). The trailer seemed it would be lightweight-it wasn’t.  It is always welcome to see a good who dunnit in the midst of action packed superheroes.